is as follows 10th of June 1696. REceived then of Mr. Benjamin Albyn the four Bonds under-named viz. One Bond wherein Mr. Peele and Mr. Dixton stand bound to him the said Mr. Albyn in 50 l. for the payment of 25 l. One other Bond wherein the same Parties stand bound to him in the same Summ of 50 l. for payment of 25 l. One other Bond wherein Madam Gloxin and Others stand bound to him in 80 l. for payment of 41 l. 4 s. And also a Covenant from Capt. Cuttance to pay 20 l. Witness my Hand the Day and Year above-named Warner Dawes So I went my way thinking to had bin quiet but contrary to all Reason and Justice being an Attorney that can manage the Law to all his intents and purposes finds out a way in few days after to trouble my Bail and as I was told by them takes Execution out against them for the same Debt that I thought I had in some measure satisfied and since the 10th of June 1696 hath run up the debt which was then but 85 pounds with charges now on the 23d of March 1696 unto 160 l. and 40 l. more for Charges besides 20 in 30 l. more my Bail have spent of my money for their defence and now the said Dawes pretends to lay a Sequestration on some Lands and Houses I have a Right unto and keeps my Bonds before mentioned from me Now being in mine apprehension thus unjustly dealt with and used by the Attorneys I would gladly be informed whether it be reasonable and according to our Law for Attorneys to munkeyfie metamorphize and abuse Men after such a rate and if they shall be encouraged and suffered to go on in these their practices who shall live free from the plague of their devices Another experiment I have had of Lawyers and Gentlemen of the Long Robe and Quill is That having fee'd two of them with five Guineys to each for to plead my Cause the next day in the morning which being then called according to appointment and expectation and the one of them being then in waiting and expectation of a Cause to be called at the Exchequer Barr when my Cause was called and although I went and called him my self yet not being able to come back in time my Cause was put off to another day so according to their unconscionable practice and expectation I was forc'd to give them both their refreshing Fees and then upon hearing my Cause it appearing very fair for me 't was again put off for the Accommodation of mine Adversaries not being in all points ready for some days longer so was forc'd to Fee them again and by that time my Cause came on again to be heard mine Adversary did gain such an interest in my Counsel that the Elder of them laboured industriously to betray and deliver me up to mine Adversary had not the Minutes of his first Pleadings bin taken and then considered and to the Younger of them I gave at the Evening before two Guineys to make up his Fee fifteen Guineys he told me I was very slender in my Fees and I think did not speak one word more for me I confess if I had found or could at any time find my Moneys in the streets I might then had afforded to fill his Pocket with Guineys But in regard it is not so and what Fees I gave them were none other but out of such Moneys that as a Merchant by the sweat of my brows I did difficultly gain with much labour toil and hazard both of my Person and mine Estate and the Law hath appointed a Counsels Fee to be but Ten shillings Is it not great Impudence in a Lawyer to pretend himself not duely paid when according to the sett Rate in the Law he is Fee'd not only with Ten shillings but more than Ten times over so much Nay I have heard of one that being offered sixty Guineys for a Fee did refuse and say he would not take 90 and under 100 Guineys he would not appear Is it not a stupendious thing and a burning shame And if duely considered what must the end of these things be when a Lawyer that knows the Law shall contrary to Law exact extravigant Fees to falsifie all Causes they are not for but retained against How is it possible that Truth and Justice should abound whilst such vast Numbers are permitted and imployed to confound the Rights of the People I have bin told that according to the strict Rules of the Law less than Five pounds will pay all Expences for a Law Suit as for Counsel and Attorneys Fees for Writings and Briefs with all other Charges whatsoever of a Law Suit cannot cost above Five pounds and now 't is not Five hundred or Five thousand pounds can end some Law-Suits and doubtless 't is not Money that before God can make a Cause better or worse or that which is right to be wrong or that which is false to be true or that true which is false and whilst the People are thus oppressed by the Lawyers covetous and undue practices how is it possible for Peace and Happiness Truth and Justice Religion and Piety to be established amongst us according to the Prayers of our Church which must not and when it considers dares not seem to mock God in its Prayers But that I with most humble submission leave to the Consideration of the great Wisdom of the King and his great Council the Parliament whose business 't is for doubtless a Reformation is not only a great Duty but would be a great Blessing to this Nation In Turky in any Case if a Man go to the Muftee who though is the Head or Chief of their Church yet he is commonly so learned and well read in the Turkish Laws that when he gives his Fetfa that is a short Declaration in Writing under his Hand what is Law in the Case you go to him about 't is so true firm and sure that the Caddee or Judge cannot go against it when he gives his Judgment on the Case And if we had Lawyers that would study the Laws of this Land so as to be able to doe the like I doe think they would be highly worthy of great Honour and Esteem and great Rewards both from the King and People for then every Man might upon good ground plead his own Cause if he be in the right or if in the wrong then might desist and of himself fairly and honestly adjust and agree with his Adversary And this I do humbly conceive would be a very good means to prevent and save people from those long tedious expensive and vexatious Law-Suits that waste Estates and make Envy and Malice so much to abound in this Nation and on the contrary will cause Unity Peace and Concord to be much more esteemed and practiced amongst us FINIS
means of the Villainy of the Law-practicers that have done me so much wrong And now W. D. one of the said Law-practicers hath on the 30th of June last caused an Execution to be served upon my Goods breaking open my Counting-house Dore Trunk and Cabinet-Locks whiles I was Citing him before the Judge to shew Cause for said Execution he having received of me an Assignment of sundry Bonds above a Year since as a satisfaction to prevent the Charge of Execution as I told him and though he hath evaded going before the Judge and his Client be paid all Dues yet he keeps mine Assigned Bonds and lets not his Client acknowledge satisfaction upon Record at Westminster and hath taken out the said Execution without a Scire facias and told the Party that served him with the Summons to appear before the Judge he would soon blow off the Matter of fact with an Affidavit Also sundry other Abuses I have met with both from him and others the Lawyers and Attorneys I have truely set forth that so if a due consideration thereof be taken 't will be found that as mine Unparallell'd Grievances are unpresidented so if they shall be made Presidents for People so aggrieved as I am to be without Remedy at Law and by the corrupt Practices used therein the Peoples substance must be eaten up What must the Consequence be For when People are made desperate what is it that they will not adventure to doe and Patience provoked is not quickly retrieved or easily reconciled and when their Passion and Rage is up they 'l regard a Man worth a Million no more than a Man that hath but a Mite And therefore I doe think with humble submission to the candid Government 't will be no Imprudence to prevent Mischief by a timely Reformation of the manifold intollerable vile Practices now used by the Law-practicers which doe cause so many and great Ruins and Oppressions upon the People that they doe most lamentably complain of and groan under them in all Parts of England and by that means there may be a due and an impartial Administration of Justice in all Parts of the Land 'T is true I am but one Man but yet as a Man of honest Parentage and an honest English-man free-born that hath always lived in all Obedience quietly abroad under many Governments and paid all Dues to the King and his Government here at home And therefore as I need not fear so I doe without fear of any Man living upon Earth in the Name of God and the King demand my rightfull Due and just Protection and wherein I am wronged I may be righted according to the Laws of the Land and not be any longer banter'd out of my Right by the Impudence Treachery and Insolence of the insatiable Lawyers and Attorneys who are ashamed of nothing and when a Man is wronged care not but will laugh at him and tell him 't is the Practice of the Court I am the more bold thus to demand because Mr. Moyer's causeless Statute of Bankrupt hath bereft me of all my friends that otherwise would or should appear for me who am a hearty Well wisher to all Mankind but most heartily and especially to those of mine own Country the English Nation that it may be delivered from the Tyranny of Injustice and that the Law-practicers may reform and become just and good Men honestly to deal by their Clients without Covetousness From Mark-Lane in London 12th of April 1697. Kept to the 12th of July 1697. Benjamin Albyn A True NARRATIVE of the Unparallell'd Grievances c. HAving lived to near the top of the Mount of Man's Age in great trouble and sorrow I will now hope for a Year of Jubilee before I begin to step down on the other side of the Mount And therefore having brought mine Appeal to His most Gracious Majesty I do now set forth my Grievances in the Narrative following that so it being duly considered how much Evil Mr. Moyer's Malice hath brought upon me some Recompence may be made and I Relieved and Justice being done I may most heartily pray God to forgive him and all my Enemies and the King's Throne may be established to him and his Posterity throughout all Generations The Worshipfull John Jollife deceased having bin Partner in Trade and Merchandizing with my Father many years before I was born and so continued many years after I was sent by them abroad into Turky which was in the Year of Our Lord 1668 when my Father being much troubled with the Stone and Gravel in his Kidneys did very much desire to part their Stocks To which proposition although for a long time the said Mr. Jollife was very much averse yet my Father alledging that his Body was infirm and not likely to continue long and that I being grown up and gone abroad in the World 't would save much trouble and imbroil with Executors He was at last prevailed with to part and in April 1676 which was but the Month before he died my Father did write to me that he had then just finished and ballanced their Books and appropriated each Man's Right to his proper Accompt But all the while which was some-time near seven years in doing Mr. Jollife having married his eldest Daughter to Mr. Samuel Moyer was very peevish and contentious in his Correspondency with me insomuch that I often desired him to imploy and send his Business to some body else but could not prevail with him untill my Mother did importune him and then he did it with as much unkindness as possibly he could being after my Father's death most industriously incensed against me by the said Mr. Samuel Moyer who was very jealous and fearfull of his Father-in-Law's having too good an opinion of me and this I have the more reason to believe because before that his Marriage I am very confident I never had so much as one syllable of an unkind word from him or an unkind look in Twenty years that I was in a manner almost daily with him unless in the time of my Nurture and School-education before I went abroad but always very kind in his Expressions towards me But after my Father's decease Mr. Jollife being grown old and feeble and decrepid as I have been told Mr. Moyer made use of the opportunity to make him believe any thing and did accordingly perswade him that I had sent him home Grogoram-Yarn at four Dollars per Oke not so good as what himself had received from others at 2¾ Dollars per Oke although by my Letter of Advice and the Invoice thereof 't was charged at no more than two Dollars per Oke so that he protested against me for so doing in Publick Notary and would have charged it upon me at four Dollars per Oke as Mr. Jollife himself wrote me Also he perswaded Mr. Jollife that I had kept 13272 Dollars in mine hands from him which being the Ballance of an Accompt of the Nett proceed of all
amounted to far more than what could thereby be recovered although I think I never retained more Counsel or fee'd them with more or greater Fees than what my Sollicitor told me was necessary and have sometimes had the Attorneys Bills taxed according to Law as was pretended yet some after the taxing have told me that by the strict Rules of the Law one tenth part of what charged therein could not be due unto them and for what really laid out I generally deposited in their hands for the Practicers in the Law are generally so wise as not to trust their Clients nor to go to Law one with the other I do not remember that in near sixteen years time that I have bin harrassed and tormented at Law that I did ever see or hear of two Lawyers dispute their own Right at the Law neither is there any reason to expect to hear of such a thing for doubtless the Laws are plain and a Cause truely stated must needs appear by the Law at the very first time as well as at the thousandth time to be either in the right or in the wrong but the great-Virtue of a good and able Lawyer is to make a bad Cause good and a good Cause bad But is it not a marvellous thing to see how in other Countries without Lawyers people can live and enjoy their own peaceably and quietly without imbroils And here in England if a Man have any thing that then he must either undoe others or be undone himself by the Law And that the Laws designed for the good and welfare of the People should be so managed as to become their utter ruine and destruction Now whereas in the time of the Heathen Roman Empire St. Paul had so much Justice Favour and Reason used towards him as to be allowed the liberty of Speaking without hindrance so as to be heard in whatsoever he could say in making his own Defence for himself And now here in England the Lawyers have a method of understanding one another for favouring a Cause on the one side and baffling it on the other side by saying This is not to the Point and That is not to the Point and also by calling it the Practice of the Court to Fine a Man for setting forth the whole truth although it be never so much to the purpose of clearing the Case on both sides which cannot rightly be understood without And whereas a Bill in Chancery preferred by one Man against another is no less than one man's Accusation of another who being to answer upon Oath is therein to make his Defence I do most humbly pray that all such unreasonable and lawless Practices being without Statutes may be forborn And that in this my Case mine Answer filed in the Lord Mayor's Court the 23d of July 1696 may stand without a Fine and upon hearing of the Cause all parts thereof may be heard justly and duely weighed and considered And that Sir Richard Blackam and Mr. John Freeman may fully and truely answer upon their corporal Oaths every Word or at least each Paragraph in my Cross-bill preferred against them without Evasion or Equivocation by the help of Lawyers that so the truth of all matters depending betwixt me and them may be made manifest and the Right and Truth being fully understood Justice may be done accordingly For though by the Law I had undeniably a good Action for great Damages yet by the force of Mr. Moyer's Money the Law could not prevail So it seems the Law is so much to be managed and byassed by Money that it can by no means Right any Man that hath it not or at most but in proportion to the quantity he hath to bestow For I do remember the first time my Counsel moved the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal for a Supersedeas to set aside Mr. Moyer's Statute of Bankrupt most unjustly and unduely taken out against me Mr. Moyer's Counsel did alledge that Mr. Moyer was worth the best part of One hundred thousand pounds so they ordered the Statute to go on notwithstanding all the Allegations and the undeniable Arguments my Counsel could use whereupon my Counsel said at their peril let them go on upon which Caution I think they went on no farther although they would not grant a Supersedeas but continued the Statute many months after and by their means Mr. Moyer did most wrongfully continue the Statute upon me near twelve months Doubtless God Almighty in his Law hath directed other things contrary and in no case allows partiality and hath given every Man his own tongue to speak for himself though now the Lawyers here in England have brought the People to that pass that they by no means must be allowed to speak for themselves or can hardly say their Souls are their own nay I know some of them will not allow that any Man but a Lawyer can speak Reason or Sense unless he be very rich and then he is wise and every thing else So now since nothing can resist the forceable Power of Money but the Personal Authority and Word of the King 's most Excellent Majesty God's Vicegerent I have therefore thought it highly necessary and the only expedient left me to throw my self Life and mine All at His Majesty's Feet whose Just Power and Prerogative alone can and I doubt not but will do me Justice And therefore as I have presumed so far to assume the Right of a Loyal Subject herein to represent the Truth of mine Unparallell'd Grievances by no means to be Redressed by Law or by Parliaments though endeavoured for sundry years last past I do adventure to mention one Grievance more because I do look upon it encouraged and caused merely by the want of Redress in my former Grievances for as yet not being gotten out of the Grave of Infamy dug so deep by Sir Richard Blackam that cannot yet find its bottom One William Mann Esq the City of London's Sword-bearer doth think fit to keep that form me which God in his Providence by the Rules of the Law hath made to be mine for he knowing and finding that by the Law I can have no Right done for me without an expence of as much or perhaps double the value of the thing I should any time offer to Sue for refuseth to do only the common part of an honest Man which is only to deliver up unto me the Writings of a small Estate that he himself told me I was Heir unto by Law upon the Death of my Sister his fifth Wife who did also leave me a Legacy of 200 l. to be paid me within two years after her decease but he will part with neither because for peace and quietness sake and to avoid a Law-suit and to lay a foundation for Friendship with him if possibly I could I say for the said Considerations I did upon his importunity rather than have words of difference with him come to an agreement with him for the whole and
did desire to be carried before the Mayor they denied me saying He had nothing to doe with it So I paid down the uttermost penny they thought fit to demand and took the Clerk's Receipt A True Copy of which is as followeth For Drawing the Ejectments and Advice 3 s. 4 d. For Writing four Copies 10 s. For Service 3 s. 4 d. For Drawing the Affidavit King's Stamp and Swearing 2 s 6 d. For Action 1s For Arrest 2s 6d make 24th of March 1696. Received the Contents of the above for the Vse of my Master Richard Knight per me Jos Tapley Then being let go I walked to the Tolesey where I was informed the Young man's Master Richard Knight had bin seen just before so went to his House where finding him in his Office I told him what Usage I had received from his Young-man but all that I could have from him was That truely he was very sorry for the Action and it was done without his Knowledge and if I would he would beat his Clerk for it if that would doe me any good and he could doe no more for he said his Clerk had no Money and was not worth one farthing Afterwards I went to Mr. Mayor of Bristow and acquainted him with what had pass'd but he told me 't was not in his Power to help me and if he should go about to endeavour it he feared he should but only expose both himself and me and did therefore think it best to let it alone and withall did tell me with great lamentation of the great abuses and ill practices of the Attorneys in and about that City But in Matters that came before him he would not suffer any of them to speak so much as one word though they were generally so very forward that he had much to doe and 't was with a great deal of trouble he made them to forbear For said he I have always found that they make a good Cause bad and it is my business to doe Right and Justice to every Man that comes before me Now if an High-way-Man had taken so much from me I think 't would had bin much more tollerable and fair because I might then have had the liberty of fighting and defending my self But it seems the Attorneys that have an especial Protection in the Law from being called Knaves can make the Law to serve them to all intents and purposes whether it be down right Robbery or Cheating by extravagant Bills charging 10 or 20 times more than what is lawfully and justly due or by Arresting Men for Debt before ever it be demanded of them and taking out Execution first on the Principal and when satisfied there then on his Bail and in two or three Years time can run up a Debt from 45 l. 4 s. 6 d. and make it amount to 200 l. Doubtless these Men are choice and ought to be nourished and cherished as Procurers of the Nation 's happiness for they are in themselves most absolute having the Law at their command each Man is Judge Jury and Executioner and all within his own Will and Pleasure I thank God I have travell'd some part of the World and in it a good part of Turky and Christendom but I never met with or heard of the like usage and practices used here in England I do not remember to have seen or heard that the Locust or Catterpillers or any sort of Vermin have so very much increased in the time as that sort of Men called Attorneys have increased within these few years about Bristow I remember an ancient Inhabitant of that place told me in March last that of his certain knowledge about 30 years since there were belonging to Bristow no more than six Attorneys and the one half of them died in Goal for want of Business and the others could hardly live by their Imployment and now there are not less than Six score nay he believed they were more numerous than the Porters about that City and every one of them lives like a Gentleman of a great or plentifull Estate And now one of them that was but a poor Clerk about 26 years since keeps in his Stable 10 or 12 Horses constantly and when he comes up to London he commonly hath 6 or 8 Horsemen to attend him Now how comes this great Mystery to pass if it be true as have bin told that an Attorney cannot honestly get by his Practice above 40 pounds per Ann. I think it may well be supposed and there is no great doubt but they have the Art of sinking devouring and swallowing Estates as is too too apparent by multitudes of ruined Families Now if a Man of any other profession charges in his Account more than what is due he is accounted and called Knave and if a Coach-man Carr-man or Water-man demand more than his Fare for which there are sett Rates the Magistrate can and will punish him or them for such Extortion and make them be content with their just Dues Or if an High-way-Man or Pick-pocket shall take from a Man the value of Five shillings or less he must by the Laws of the Land be hanged for Theft But Lawyers and Attorneys do not only bereave Men of their Estates and Reputations whilst they live but even their Posterities must grieve and groan under their most monstrous evil Practices And although our Laws are undoubtedly the very best and wholsomest of any yet these Men by their evil practices doe render them the most grievous and the most burthensome in the whole World and I doe believe the whole World doth not afford the like Hell upon Earth for Men to be devoured by Fraud and Deceit under the colour and pretence of Law and Justice I have bin told that at Doctors-Commons there is now depending a Suit for the Value of Eighteen pence no more which cannot be yet ended although the Parties concern'd have spent at least Three hundred pounds on either side I cannot conceive how 't is possible for a Poor Man or a Man of a mean Estate to get his Right by Law of a Man that is vastly Rich who with his Money strikes a Cause through and through i. e. on both sides For though the Man of mean Estate may make shift to provide and give the due Fees according to Law yet if the Rich Man shall not only Fee his own Counsel much higher and by cunning ways doe the like to the mean Man's Counsel which is no new practice must not the mean Man needs lose his Cause and his Right in it without remedy For I have heard of a Story of one that very lately was the ancientest and ablest Lawyer and Counsel in England that in his time receiv'd a Present of Pippins with some Broad Pieces of Gold stuck in into every Pippin one but how many Hundred of them there was I have forgotten But however the adverse Party receiving intelligence thereof resolved to out doe him and accordingly sent him a
AN APPEAL TO GOD and the KING Together with A True NARRATIVE OF Unparallell'd Grievances c. Wherein may be seen as in a Mirrour or Looking-Glass the surpassing Miseries of the English Nation above other Nations for having the best and most wholsome Laws in the whole World yet being so excessively corrupted by Covetousness of Money in the Law-Practicers as now they are In the stead of being an Help and Safeguard are now become a meer Nusance and Oppression to the People and unless some Expedient be found out for a just and due Administration of Justice without Fee or Bribe 't is impossible for This Nation to be Happy but must remain the most Miserable Nation in the whole World Most humbly Presented by BENJAMIN ALBYN of London Merchant Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum LONDON Printed for the Author 1697. JEHOUAH O Lord God of my Father most Blessed and Glorious Trinity FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST Three Persons and One Almighty God in Unity whose Unity is in Trinity and whose Trinity is in Unity incomprehensible whose Essence is a Substance without Composition Immaterial and Spiritual whose Life is altogether entire perfect all at once One infinite Moment without Beginning or End Eternal Who is Reason and a perfect Understanding perfectly knowing and understanding Himself is immutable and necessarily in Himself whose Infiniteness makes all Wonderfull His Mercy Love Goodness and all his Excellencies infinite Whence ariseth his All-sufficiency that possesseth all Goodness desirable or possible Who is before all Time and above all Circumscription of Time from Everlasting to Everlasting who made Time and will dissolve it again He is called the Rock of Ages the Ancient of Days and Eternity itself Alpha and Omega the first and the last hath called Himself I AM Whose infinite Essence gives Being to the whole Creation and is All in All whose Attributes are more Excellent than to be discerned by so mean a thing as Sense His Wisdom Power Mercy and Justice Goodness and Truth also his Immensity Purity and Holiness is Incomprehensible and Eternal And having created the Heavens and the Earth and all that in them is within Six days and rested on the Seventh is therefore called the God of Sabbaths which we are commanded to keep Holy according to his own Example and Reason for Blessing and Hallowing that Day His Name is a strong Tower and being the Father of Lights King of Kings his Dominion is Supreme and being King of Righteousness from whom nothing is hid delighting in his Mercy and Justice beholdeth all the Dwellers upon Earth whose Vision is in his Attributes Providence and in the Face of Christ his Eternal Son who for us Men and our Salvation came down from Heaven and took upon Him the Nature of Man without Sin to suffer for the Sins of them that believe and to fulfill the Law became a Mediator betwixt God and Man in whose Name and Merits alone it is that I who am but a poor worthless Worm sinfull Dust and Ashes doe now most humbly present and prostrate my self before the Throne of his Majesty begging Mercy and Pardon for all my Sins and Iniquities and to blot out all my Transgressions O Lord God look down and have Mercy upon me lay no more upon me than thou wilt enable me to bear Counsel me in all my Difficulties sanctifie mine Affections create in me a clean Heart and renew a right Spirit within me Let not the World the Flesh or the Devil have any dominion over me Teach me how to fear Thee and Thee only and enable me to put mine whole Trust and Confidence in Thee and in Thee only and to hope in thy Mercy alone Sanctifie unto me all thy Dispensations towards me and in thine own good time send me Deliverance out of all my Troubles and Afflictions thou hast visited me with and in the mean time give me Patience to bear them Behold the Rage of mine Enemies abate their Pride asswage their Malice turn their Hearts and confound their Devices and plead my Cause with mine Adversaries and clear up mine Innocency from all their Aspersions and give them true Repentance for all their Sins and let them amend and reform their Misdoings Encline the King's Heart couragiously and continually to execute Judgment and Justice that so by Righteousness His Throne may be Established to Him and His Posterity throughout all Generations Enable Him to correct and purge out all the corrupt Practices now used in the Laws of this Land and grant that by the good Advice of His Parliament by Thee the only Wise God directed He may in His days live to see Judgment and Justice run down like a mighty Stream and Righteousness flow like a broad River that so He may be found worthy that at the last when His Life shall end here He may Reign with Christ to all Eternity in Life everlasting O Lord send a good Issue out of all mine Afflictions endue me with true Wisdom Knowledge and Understanding give me Sincerity and Integrity and shew me the Way wherein I should walk and grant in whatsoever I doe I may seek thine Honour and thy Glory Give me neither Poverty nor Riches but feed me with Food convenient for me and make me joyfully and truely thankfull unto Thee with mine whole Heart for all thy Providences towards me for the many Mercies and Necessaries of this life and of the life to come particularly for my Creation and Preservation but especially and above all for my Redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ for the means of Grace and the hope of Glory To whom with Thee and the Holy Ghost be all Honour Glory and possible Praise Might Majesty Thanks and Dominion henceforth and for ever-more Amen O Lord in Thee have I trusted let me never be confounded Benjamin Albyn To the August Imperial and most Excellent MAJESTY of WILLIAM the Third by the most Wonderfull Providence of the Almighty God made King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the True Christian Faith and in His Dominions over all Persons and in all Causes next under God Supreme Moderator and Governor The most humble Petition of Appeal together with a True Narrative of his Vnparallell'd Grievances c. is most humbly Offered and Presented by his most humble Petitioner BENJAMIN ALBIN of London Merchant GREAT SIR AS You are God's Vicegerent here upon Earth so You are most justly and duely to be accounted my Dread Soveraign and without just Cause I should not presume thus to make mine Approach to Your most Sacred MAJESTY Now as Life and an honest Reputation are to me of an equal Value and one Sir Richard Blackam hath blackened and whispered away my Reputation on the Grounds of a Causeless Statute of Bankrupt maliciously taken out against me by one Samuel Moyer after a long and wrongfull Prosecution of me in Your MAJESTY's High Court of Chancery where with most excessive Charge and Trouble I was for
him I do remember some years since one Mr. Fowles recovered from me at Common Law the Summ of Two hundred and fifty pounds on a Bill of Exchange payable forty days after sight to one William Butler or Order which I had accepted and delivered to Butler who gave it to one Job Haddersich a vile person that had bin convicted for Forgery and stood in the Pillory who discounting the time with his old acquaintance Mr. Fowles by virtue of Butler's Name being endorsed on the back-side of the Bill which Butler denied and swore he never wrote with his own hand Now the Common Law as I have bin told requires full and ample Proof by good Testimony and in regard they had no way to prove the Name wás written by Butler's own hand the Judge did cause him to write his Name in the Court so then comparing his Name then written with that on the back-side of the Bill and observing that the Names were not written straight but both inclining alike upwards the Judge directed the Jury to find it so the Jury without stirring from their place gave their Verdict against me 'T is an old Observation of some That 't is natural for a Man that sees but two persons together to have an inclination towards the one more than the other and the Affections of a Man are not always ruled by Reason and some Men that have bin but once concerned against a Man as Counsel in a Cause by way of Pleading against him will never be reconciled to him though his own Client were never so vile and made appear so As for Example The Judge that Tryed this Cause had bin many years before a Counsel for Farmer that had counterfeited my Stamp or Mark and changed my Cloth as hereafter is shew'd against me that prosecuted him and convicted him in a most manifest manner for which Fact as I suppose he hath looked upon me very severely ever since and upon all occasions hath shewed himself inclined against me as in this Case and the Case of the Statute when though he did own that all my Declaration was proved but the Malice which though one would think was sufficiently made manifest by the very Fact yet because I did not particularly prove it mine Adversary was cleared and I left to pay him Costs and for my Remedy at Law by his direction must Sue the Lord Keepers of the Great Seal whom he knew very well were Men above my reach although indeed the Statute was grounded upon only a Debt made by their own Decree and though almost every Week or Month I was at the charge of making several Motions for the Superseding the Statute yet they would not grant a Supersedeas for near 12 Months because they did hope some one or other might come in and joyn to make me a Bankrupt which I think was so cruel and maliciously inhumane in them that if the King should think fit undoubtedly they ought to be Fined what they are able to pay and made Exemplary to all Posterity by some shamefull Punishment besides for their partiality cruelty and malice in Justice when Judges sitting in the Seat of Justice Oh! to what an highth of Impiety is the World come to that under the pretence of being justified a Man must be utterly ruined by the Law meerly by wit and ingenuous contrivance Or perhaps all these things may be caused by the Infamy cast upon me by Sir Richard Blackam For indeed if I am so ill a Man as he represented me to the World by his private Whisperings I do think then that the Judges may very well suppose me to be a Man not worthy to live and consequently fit to be chastised on all occasions when ever any Cause of mine should come before them Now as I was informed at the time the Commissioners of the Statute of Bankrupts sitting to tear me in pieces a relation of Mr. Moyer's having ran about the Exchange to make a most diligent Enquiry amongst all people with whom I had had any manner of dealings to find out a Man to joyn with them in the Statute and finding none he did exceedingly importune Mr. now Sir Richard Blackam to joyn with them not knowing what Contracts were betwixt him and me did often when he met him shake his head hold up his fist and grin at him for not joyning with them for he knew very well he was musled by my Contract and Security given unto him and could by no means joyn with them though he might have ever so much mind to it But however finding the mischief of a Statute of Bankrupt lying upon me he became very fearfull and uneasie and studied all the ways he could to make himself safe although I had made him so before and without any regard to his Contract gave me much trouble with Arrests c. as may appear by the Sequel For he knowing very well that since my coming into England I had received an abundance of rubbs by Arbitrations and Cheats put upon me was very fearfull of me as I suppose lest the Statute of Bankrupt should tear me into pieces and rend the Security I had given him out of his hands and so he should become a loser by me as I do suppose For when I came first into England before I had bin many months in it one Mr. Cary came to me and demanded the Value of 1864½ Dollars to be paid him by the Order of his Father in the Country which being a Summ of Money remitted from Constantinople by the Honourable Dudley North for the joynt Account of Mr. Jollife and my Father unto his Son John Cary and myself Mr. Foxley being gone for England at my first Arrival in Smyrna in a Bill of Exchange for 3000 Dollars on a Jew Merchant in Smyrna of which 1235½ Dollars being for another's account he received the whole Summ of 3000 Dollars and I being Casheir or Keeper of the Cash he desired me to Enter the Money in my Cash-book for the said Account and he would pay it unto me which I did but he never paid me although I asked him so often for it that he was angry and asked me If I thought he would run away with it So not liking to be snarl'd at and for peace and quietness sake I asked no more for it but thinking he would pay it me at one time or other I quite forgot it for about seven years and then being by Orders from England to part and adjust all Accounts For being quite wearied out with his most unreasonable humour of receiving and concealing from me many Summs of Money from those people of the Country that were our Debtors for our Principal Goods sold them at time and in his way of living to turn the nights into days and the days into nights I thought when Mr. now Sir Philip Gell came over and had seen his ways which he also could not bear with 't was high time to acquaint my Father with the
pleased to say That here are two to be cheated and he had rather Albyn should be cheated than Fowles and another Baron that perus'd corrected and sign'd my Bill against them both in the Exchequer whereby to be relieved against the Fraud then said at the Hearing I had no Equity though when I gave him his Counsel-Fee at signing being above the rate the Law allows I had a great deal of Equity Now by no means can I obtain an Hearing of the Cause against Haddersich who did fraudulently get and still keeps my Right to the said 250 l. from me so it seems a Counsel whiles a Counsel to get a Fee will tell his Client he hath Equity in his Cause but when made a Baron the Equity ceaseth though his Client be injured never so apparently by a most notorious Cheat who confesseth to have the Money and yet goes free without being called to Judgment and though my Bill be still depending he is protected and I can by no means obtain Justice in so plain a case which is stupendious to think how in England a Court of Equity should protect such a notorious Cheat I do believe the like is not in any other part of the World which doubtless must be a great encouragement to Cheats and looks as if the Laws were made only for the Practisers therein to enrich and raise themselves in the World and not for Righting the People and that such Cheats were to be encouraged as persons that brought Grist to the Lawyer 's Mill. Now in Turky where any Difference doth happen betwixt Man and Man the Man aggrieved may immediately call and have him that offends before the Caddee or Judge and without any delay both Plaintiff and Defendant plead their Cause themselves and according to their Laws the Caddee passeth Sentence which is immediately executed and the Matter ended both parties become friends and no provocations make the Turks live in Malice as generally people do here in England who I do believe use it more than all the World besides partly because here are so many whose business is to set people at variance by telling them what advantage one may have of the other by the force of Law partly because generally the people do highly commend the envious and malicious Spirit and call it a great Spirit though if duely considered I think nothing is more base and less worthy of respect and is indeed the effect of Purse pride For what is more common than for people that have more Money than their Advesary to say as Mr. Moyer's Brother-in-Law did say after we had spent some years and much Moneys in his Suit against me in Chancery he being to receive his share of what they hoped to get from me said thus finding it a very chargeable Court If One thousand pounds would not do another thousand should and if that did not do another should and so on to I know not how many thousand pounds and he was resolved his Brother Moyer should carry the Cause whatsoever it cost so it seems he did not pretend to any Right there was in the Cause on their side but only to ruine me by the force of Money as I was told Mr. Moyer did threaten to do when I was in Turky if ever I should come into England which to effect I do think he hath omitted no means or endeavours but what reason he had for it I could never learn or find out for I never had to do with or did ever see the Man in mine whole life that I know of untill I did arrive from Turky back to England Sometimes I have thought that because my Father sometimes would laugh and jest with his Father and salute him by the Title of Mr. Chairman because that in the time of Sequestring as I suppose the Estates of the Nobility and Gentry of England much about King Charles the First 's time he was Chairman of that Committee as I have heard and have bin told but I do remember the Old Man did not much like it for he would look very grum and sowre upon it Now though such jesting might pass betwixt them what was that to me could I help it Now Mr. Moyer having as it may be supposed this innate principle of encroaching upon and taking away the Rights and Estates of other Men obtained an Order out of Chancery to have my Books laid open unto him and having before a Master perused and examined my Books in all things he could desire and not being able to find out any thing therein for his purpose or find any fault became so enraged at me that he said Mr. Albyn you are a cheating Knave and I le prove it Then said I Bear witness Gentlemen So the next day he came to me upon the Exchange and told me he was in a Passion and began to beg my Pardon but all that I said unto him was Pray do not let you and I talk for I indeed did then intend to bring mine Action against him for so notorious an Abuse But the Lawyers that were the Only Men then present being unwilling to bear Testimony made me to forbear so was forced to swallow that Injury likewise One instance more of Moneys being the Rich man's Justice and Confidence in his Cause be it never so bad black and foul is what Mr. now Sir Richard Blackam said to me in Serjeants-Inn after we came out of Judge Dolbin's Chamber when we had bin both before him upon his Summons to shew Cause of Action wherefore he had Arrested me and upon hearing the whole Matter the Judge had told him there was no Cause of Action and if he went on he would be Non-suited Sir Richard Blackam did then laugh at me and told me that he had yet Five hundred pounds to spend for all that for so much or near that Summ he would needs pretend to recover of me for I believe he knows pretty well that whatever a Man recovers at Law it must cost him as much at least Now whereas by the ingenuity of the Lawyers Sir Richard Blackam is hindred from confessing and plainly setting forth the truth and matter of fact set forth in my Bill if he were of himself only to make a full and true Answer the Truth would soon appear and Justice would take its due place without any delay trouble or expence But now there is no Remedy because by the force of Money he sets the Lawyers Wits on work to make it an endless Suit by evading some part and not in any measure answering the other near 19 20th parts only in general terms saith My Bill is full of falsities Which I do deny and he knows that if he should be put to answer particular by particular he must confess and not deny the particulars and by such means the truth being concealed I have no more remedy than as if I should knock mine head against the Wall Now though these and the like and many more instances