it worth fifteen shillings and twenty shillings an acre per ann and ten shillings an acre one with another throughout 2. That it did feed all manner of Cattel fat for the Butcher 3. That the very best ground was taken from the Commoners 4. That the Freeholders cannot keep half the cattel winter and summer Thomas Tailor Thomas Farr Isaac Chapman Thomas Todd Thomas Philips William Maw John Brown Robert Dyneley Esq John Clarke John Jervise and others levant and couchant upon their several tenements as they could before that pretended draining 5. That they are compelled to joyst their cattel out in foraign places and to turn their Meadow grounds into pasture 6. That divers of the Freeholders sold their estates in the Isle and provided themselves habitations elswhere in foraign places meerly because of oppressions in these particulars 7. That the Participants have taken away the very heart of the ground 8. That the South part of the Mannor of Epworth left to the inhabitants is as subject to be surrounded with waters since the pretended draining as it was before 9. That the ground before the draining was better in Summer for the overflowings of waters that had been in Winter 10. That the Participants at their first coming into those parts did but desire to cut through the Mannor of Epworth to drain Hatfield Chase and many other Mannors that lye on the West of the said Mannor Thomas Farr Timothy Ellis Clarke Thomas Todd and Thomas Tailor into the river of Trent that runneth on the East And that without cutting through the Mannor of Epworth Hatfield Chase and those other Mannors could not be drained 11. That when the projectors gained their possession divers of the Commoners were murdered and shot to death Timothy Ellis Clarke Iohn Tompson William Wells Thomas Farr John Francis and terrified and affrighted from their habitations by Serjeants at Armes and Pursuivants and inforced to lye in the fields under hedges and many wounded 12. That the Participants have been at no more charge in the Mannor of Epworth then cutting a drain of four miles Thomas Tailor Thomas Todd And that they have stopped up some ancient Sewers that were as useful in the Mannor And now grave Senators though the business be clear in law for the Freeholders and that there should be also all the equity that could be imagined for them in it yet if Master Say have been such a man to mince conceal omit and wrest the testimonies of the Freeholders witnesses in the depositions either as he was Chaireman in the first penning of them or in the returning of them in to the honorable Committee of the Councel of State and withholding any essential writings or denying any to be made out that ought and was offered by the Freeholders to have been made forth in this matter which the Freeholders doubt not but to prove having once copies of depositions as Master Gibbon long since had from Master Say I say in this case though the case was never so good and before never so righteous Judges yet being lodged in a report so partially and wickedly drawn up as this of Master Darley is and presented to your honors in no other shape and form then Master Say hath drest it I cannot but see how ruine and destruction should unavoidably fall upon those that before God and in the eye of the law are clear And therefore I beseech you blame me not though I have presumed thus to write for it concerns many thousands men women and children for whom I have been intrusted now almost eight yeers as Solicitor and it concerns also my self for this cause sake very neerly as your honors may perceive by that last plotted and contrived device of Master Gibbon and his participants when it was clear that neither law nor equity would relieve them in their petition to the late Parliament which followeth verbatim To the Supream Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England The humble Petition of the Participants in the Draining of the Level of Hatfield Chase in the Counties of York Lincoln and Nottingham whose names are hereunto subscribed on the behalf of themselves and others Sheweth THat the Petitioners and these under whom they did claim did about twenty four yeers since at the expence of neer two hundred thousand pounds drain and lay dry sixty thousand acres of ground in the said Level then drowned and of small value and made the same worth ten shillings twelve shillings and sixteen shillings the acre And as a recompence for their said charge hazard and travel in so publike a work the proportion of about twenty four thousand acres of the said lands whereof seven thousand four hundred acres of the wasts of the Mannor of Epworth was part was settled upon them by good * * Note that the Participants notwithstanding this durst not produce either their Patent or any other pretended assurance at the time of the examination neither were the Freeholders suffered to make forth their title done by it assurances in the law as will appear to your honours upon the examination thereof and are too long here to insert and according to the said assurances the Petitioners had quiet and peaceable possession of the lands and so injoyed the same for many yeers and divided improved and planted the same and in particular upon the seven thousand four hundred acres of Epworth built a Church ††This Church is yet unpaid for the man that built it was un and about one hundred and sixty habitations and have constantly paid the rent of 1228 l. per ann which was then reserved upon the said whole proportion and now payable to the State for ever That in the yeer 1642 in time of the war some of the inhabitants of the Mannor of Epworth by the instigation of one Daniel Noddel an Attourney at law did rise in tumults and laid wast about four thousand acres of the said seven thousand four hundred acres demolished the buildings and destroyed the crops of corn and Rapeseed growing thereupon for redress whereof and establishing their possession the petitioners exhibited * * This bill was exhibited for stay of the Freeholders suits at law in Trinity Term 1646. when the Freeholders had had possession above four yeers before their bill in the Court of Exchequer who granted several Injunctions and made several Orders to the Sheriffs for quieting the possession but the tumults growing too great to be supprest by the ordinary Courts of Justice the petitioners had recourse to the Parliament who were pleased to make several Orders ††They never had any order of Parliament but out of the House of Lords upon a supposed Ryot which being heard at the Lords Bar the parties complained on were dismist and are now for that very thing complained on therein for relieving the Petitioners which likewise were contemned and the petitioners by force still kept out of
TO THE PARLIAMENT OF THE Commonvvealth OF ENGLAND And every individual Member thereof THE DECLARATION OF DANIEL NODDEL Solicitor for the Freeholders and Commoners within the Mannor of Epworth in the Isle of Axholm in number about 1200 besides new erected Cottages on the behalf of himself and all the said Commoners discovering the plot and design of Master John Gibbon and his fellow-projectors to gain a possession of the said Freeholders ancient inheritance in their commonable grounds there contrary to law Printed at London and are to be sold at the seven stars in Pauls Church-yard neer the great North-door 1653. The Declaration of Daniel Noddel Solicitor for the Freeholders and Commoners within the Mannor of Epworth c. Right Honourable YOU are under God the supreme power of this Commonwealth of England and the grand Trustees thereof to preserve the lives liberties and estates of all the people therein according to law and therefore I come unto you and lay before you once more the cause concerning the livelihood of many thousand men women and children within the Mannor of Epworth in the Isle of Axholm for whom I have been intrusted now almost eight yeers as Sollicitor and as the case now stands am bound in conscience not to keep silence lest by that means destruction come upon them and me through ignorance I make no doubt but your honors have all heard of a pretended great Ryot some yeers past committed in the said Isle for that hath been cryed up into the late Act of Oblivion wherein there is an exemption from pardon touching the pretended Ryots in those parts but I am perswaded that you have not heard half so much of the proceedings that have been at law by the Freeholders there for the recovery of their ancient right to 7400 acres of commonable grounds being the ground in controversie between the Freeholders and certain Undertakers who now term themselves participants in the Level of Hatfield-chase but are no part of the said chase of which about twenty yeers since the Freeholders were dispossessed by force of Armes under colour onely of the late Kings illegal Patent by those great Ryoters the first Undertakers or rather projectors when divers of the Commoners were murdered and shot to death and many wounded who did but turn againe as worms trod upon will do in the just defence of their undoubted right of possession when they could have no proceedings at law Replevins being forbidden them by order of the Exchequer and the possession wrested and held from them by Star-chamber orders their persons many of them being imprisoned and many inforced by Pursuivants and Serjeants at Arms to lye from their habitations in the fields under hedges being usually termed rebels and threatned to be hanged at their doors and plagued with multitudes of Star-chamber proces some forced to flye out of the kingdom at that time having their goods illegally distrained and sold for issues out of the then Kings-bench others to sell and morgage their lands to purchase and unjust peace against the villanous and tyrannical forcible entries and intrusions arrests and imprisonments brought upon them by the said participants contrary to law No Right honorable The plot and design of the Undertakers especially that Machiavel Master John Gibbon who both is Solicitor for himself and his fellow-projectors is not to tell you of those things but to keep you hoodwink't I desire to use it with reverence to the intent you shall but onely see an ugly shape of a late pretended Ryot held forth before you in a most partial wicked and erroneous report of Master Say and Master Henry Darley two members of the Committee at the least of fifty of the late Parliament for the Isle of Axholm and Master Gibbons great coached and feasted friends for by that report of theirs your Honours shall never see the title of the Freeholders to the said lands nor the proceedings that have been had at law whereby they have recovered them No these must all lye whist and damped with the great noise of a Ryot and throwing down houses though built upon the Freeholders own ground and with their own wood which the projectors and their tenants got and digged out of the said grounds and were fitter for dog-kennels as my friend Master Spittlehouse hath set forth then to come in competition with those great Ryots committed by the projectors at their first entrance upon those grounds in the horrid massacres forcible entries intrusions imprisonments and oppressions aforesaid I say the said report will present onely to your eye the mention of a Ryot nothing at all of the title and proceedings at law for that Master Say and Master Darley would not suffer to be made forth when it was offered by the Freeholders neither durst Master Gibbon and the rest of his fellow-projectors produce any although they set forth and tell the late Parliament in their petition the lands are setled upon them by good assurances and that it will so appear upon the examination of the business and although the whole matter of the petition was referred to the Committee which was also the Committee for Sir Arthur Haselrige and Primate with some addition of late Members to it And therefore because Master Gibbon and his fellow projectors having now no remedy either in law or equity are got into a By-way a Ryot the only fig-leaf to cover their nakedness to gain possession in those grounds which they never yet legally had and by delusion if possible to draw in your honors extraordinary power to effect it insinuating as if the whole drainage in those parts containing 60000 acres lying in the Counties of York Lincoln and Nottingham will for want of a settlement be overthrown and so aime at an Act of Parliament and therein to hedge the ancient inheritance of the Freeholders in the said grounds through which the Undertakers did but at their first coming into those parts desire to cut a drain because else they could not drain Hatfield-chase and many other Mannors as is cleared by the proofs I do again humbly entreat leave to tender the Freeholders title and to clear up the same more fully to your honors against any information of Master Gibbon or his counsel whatsoever humbly beseeching you on the behalf of all the Freeholders and Commoners to secure the same and their possession unto them for no other end but as your honors shall direct by way of a just and equitable improvement for their own and the Commonwealths good against the violation of those that against law and equity endeavor to usurp a possession And next thereunto I shall humbly and truly inform your honors of the proceedings that have of late yeers been in your ordinary Courts of Justice concerning the grounds in question And lastly Shall set forth the Participants petition in the late Parliament verbatim whereby they hope now all their hopes are gone both in law and equity to gaine a possession meerly upon the
and Mercalfe 14. Car. Gibbon and Manwood 14. Car. Gibbon Io. and Gibbon Nic. 15. Car. Gibbon and Shering 16. Car. Gibbon Io. and Arthur Samuel for land in the Forest of Galtry and Gibbon and Sir Abraham Dawes for land there also 16. Car. Gibbon and Gale Robert 18. Car. Gibbon and Nokes 19. Car. Gibbon and Shering 19. Car. Gibbon and Lechmore 19. Car. Gibbon and Nokes 22. Car. So many indeed are the vast gross and small sums that this man hath received wasted and spent that I am confident it is not in the power of himself to enumerate muchless in me that can but only tell what those reports speak forth that are extant and truly had there not been a necessity laid upon me out of duty to the country for whom I Solicit and my self Master Gibbon himself giving the occasion I should have been sparing thus to have writ Upon consideration of all which I humbly submit it on the behalf of the Freeholders whether it be not a thing fit that some of those that pretend themselves Participants in the ground should not make their visible appearance and own the prosecution of this business aswel as Master Gibbon who standeth thus outlawed and in that respect ought not to have the benefit of the law in things just how much less in things vexatious and unjust and being a man of this condition from whom can the Freeholders expect reparation having no other visible prosecutor but Master Gibbon and the general name Participants and who they are it is not known but Master Gibbon it is well known stops his creditors mouths with the noise of his hopes of these lands and what will not they every one do but drive on their own designs thereby to make good their desperate debts as much as possible they may for can it be thought that if Master Cambell have a friend he will not ingage him asmuch as he can and that if Sir Iohn Litteot have a friend he will not do the like and so of all the rest of his creditors but thanks be to God I finde a change I believe no such friendship of that kinde will finde acceptance amongst your honors my desire is but to discover the truth and that too by matter of record wherein I may soon be found a lyer if I do not the Decree of Febr. 1650. proceedings at law and the Depositions if rightly taken by Master Say whereof I desire copies aswell as Master Gibbon hath had will decide the business as to the possession which he hungers after and by delusion hath made a stop unto and when I had discovered the truth and studyed how to bring it to you I could not tell possibly how to do it at present better to prevent danger as the case stands then this way and by lodging the Freeholders petition in the hands of the Lincolnshire Members which is humbly desired to be called for when the business is reported for what order the honorable Councel of State have made in it or how or when this business may come before your honors I cannot certainly tell although it is now above a moneth since something was done in it and the Freeholders have good hope that care is taken for them by the honorable Councel but all that I can learn at the Office is that Master Thurlâ— hath taken the care of drawing it to himself but I most humbly beseech you all as the safest refuge every Freeholder in England in this case hath to flye unto to take care of it for there is much of the Freedom of the laws and liberties of England in my judgement either to be preserved of lost in it And now I have thus written I am at quiet being as confident of Justice as ever I was in my life from any a comfort I wanted the last Parliament and truly if I should be asked the reason I am able to say no more then this That I verily perswade my self the fear of God is amongst you to distribute righteousness to all the people of this Commonwealth and in particular to this long oppressed people within the Mannor of Epworth that could never obtain a tryal at law this twenty yeers justice being formerly obstructed by orders of several Courts and now of late although within this right yeers they had two several dayes by special order first in the Common Pleas and then in the Exchequer set down for tryal and several Juries returned yet before Michaelmas Term 1651. being the third time they had a day set down and a Jury returned they could not obtain it and then also Master Gibbon endeavoured to make good his several sayings that the inhabitants should never have a tryal so long as they were quick as is proved for the Jury was then adjourned from day to day at the Exchequer Bar and staid in town neer a moneth before the tryal was permitted to go on yet in conclusion the Plaintiff being no ryoter was permitted to go on but Master Gibbon and his Councel departed the Court and being able to make no defence let the verdict go by default purposely that he might have this to say That the Participants made no defence And I have this to say more for them that although the cause should be tryed never so often they will never do otherwise and have this found by experience that a multitude shall never be righted so long as their remedy lyes by suites of this length and continuance if pretence of ryot by a few shall take away the possession of all for 't is not possible but some of the ruder sort will grow disorderly and indanger both themselves and those that deal for them upon which score the Star-chamber formerly took away their possession making the people ryoters whereas the projectors were indeed the ryoters both in the sight of God and the ey of the law and I hope may in time be so looked upon now the people themselves have testified their willingness under their subscribed hands to joyn with the present Lords of the Mannor in a legal improvement of the said grounds for their own and the Commonwealths good and are ready if there be any thing due either in law or equity to the Participants to yeeld it to them and as to matter of pretended ryot they hope in case your honors take cognizance of it you will be pleased to let every man complained against have his particular charge and then he that cannot nor defend himself having once a legal way prescribed to do it must suffer if there be no more pardon to be had then the Act of Oblivion of the late Parliament gives unto him I have thus far discharged my duty to God and my Country in the place I stand imployed the great God of heaven direct your honours that this cause may come before you with a right understanding of it which the report of Master Say and Master Darley can never bring and against which as partial wicked and most unjust many thousands of men women and children within the Isle of Axholm have as just cause of complaint as ever had people in any cause whatsoever All which I own under my hand and upon a reasonable time given shall be ready either to make good at least in the substance or suffer Daniel Noddell FINIS