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A63556
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A true narrative concerning Sir Arthur Haslerigs possessing of Lieutenant-Colonel John Lilburnes estate in the county of Durham
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Eden, Gascoyne.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing T2767; ESTC R219387
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6,320
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13
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A True NARRATIVE Concerning Sir Arthur Haslerigs Possessing of Lieutenant-Colonel JOHN LILBURNES ESTATE In the County of DURHAM Imprinted at LONDON 1653. To the Members of Parliament and all others that have bowels of pitty towards cruelly oppressed Tenants c. YOu must not expect high Language from us who are low-borne Tennants We shall speake plain Truthes And first we are bold to tell you That our Fore-Elders were Antient Tennants to the Dean and Chapter of Durham who thought they had left unto us that large Birth-right which could not legally have been taken from us but we finde it otherwise for we are now become unless God help us miserable slaves to Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne for the Parliament having given unto the said Mr. Lilburne three thousand pounds and afterwards committed him to the Tower for high Treason and being acquitted by his Jury at Guild-Hall he presently affirmed that there was remaining and not paid fifteen hundred pounds of the said 3000 l. gift The Lord Generall then coming out of Ireland moved the Parliament to give Mr. Lilburne the said fifteen hundred pounds so owing unto him out of Deanes and Chapters Lands Which the Parliament immediately granted and therein begun our miseries for we being poor People farre remote and distant from London and all or most of us ignorant of our own business wanting friends to advise or help us within the small time of pre-emption the Act allowed us the said Lieutenant Collonell John Lilburne stept in before us and made choyce of severall Farmes and Cottages which we held lying in the County of Durham being the whole livelihood and subsistence of fourteene Families And before the Act passed the said Mr. Lilburne made large promises of kinde usage to us the Tenants saying in the presence of severall witnesses That we should have our Lands again paying him the Rates of his purchase namely the money he paid but since we have so farre tasted his kindness as now we have cause to say The Lord deliver us from such a Landlord There are of us fourteene Families and when the Act passed but two of our Farmes were out of Lease William Huntington had the one and George Clifton a poor Prisoner in the Goale had the other I the said William Huntington Married a Widdow that was Tennant to the Deane and Chapter she had a House Farme Goods and Houshold-stufie two Cows and four Children I the said William Huntington after marriage with her was forced to borrow moneys to Plow and Sow the said Farme and God gave me a Childe by her that made our number five so soon as our Houses and Lands were setled by Authority of Parliament in the said Mr. Lilburne he immediately came into the County of Durham and stripped me the said William Huntington of House Farme Cropp Houshold-stuffe Goods Hay and Straw and two Cowes he tooke from me Goods to the value of one hundred and thirty pounds at the least he thrust us all out of doors my Wife with her five small Children leaves us not one Cow I may truely say scarcely one bit of bread and for my selfe I could expect no other but to lye and rot in Prison for the Debt which I borowed as aforesaid Next he fell upon me George Clifton a poor Prisoner in the Goale of Durham for debt he likewise cast my poor Children out of my House and Farme exposing them to perish in the streets tooke from me House and Farme Houshold-stuff and all that I had and my Children being put by him upon the Parish he was so farre from allowing them subsistance out of my owne Estate that he refused to contribute with the Parish towards their maintenance And thus he dealt with the two Tennants of the two Farmes out of Lease And the said Mr. Lilburne also threatned me Gascoyne Eden because I would not deliver up my Estate to him then having seven yeers in Lease He writ a Letter to me wherein he tells me That he was the Deane and Chapters Successor and did therein command me to send in a Man and Horse according to my Lease in compleat Armes to serve under his Brother Collonell Robert Lilburne in Scotland and further said in his said Letter That if I did not give up my Lease to him having seven years then in being he would extend all the severall Forfeitures and Breaches of my Lease against me to make it void whereby he might weary me out of my Right and Due of yeers therein Next after he fell upon me Robert Christ ofer another of the poor Tennants who was alwayes constant and faithfull to the Parliament and voluntarily set forth Horses and Armes in the Parliament Service farre beyond my Estate I never offended him in all my life but in a most humble manner tendering my Rent to him about a week after the day he refused to receive it and told me My Lease was forfeited by my failing the just day of payment and he would take advantage of it accordingly Yea after many humble addresses made unto the said Mr. Lilburne by the poor Cottagers and Leasers divers of them following him to London and there craving pity and compassion from him upon their poor Wives and Children offering him his money with advantage for the said Lands he in a great passion denied bid them goe home again like as Fools they came saying He would out them every man as their Leases expired Need then made me poor William Huntington to runne from Justice to Justice complaining of the wrong done unto me by Lieutenant Collonell John Lilburne I went to the publique Sessions at Durham where Sir Arthur Haslerigge was upon the Bench after the Reading of my Petition there he told me It was not in the power of the Sessions to help me I then not knowing what else to do went immediately to London upon my naked Feet to the Parliament and Printed my sad case and condition and delivered it to the Members as they came into the House at which Lieutenant Collonell Lilburne was a little moved and then said the business should be referred to my Lord Generall Sir Arthur Haslerigge and Collonell Martin which made me exceedingly to rejoyce and in pursuance thereof I attended Collonell Martin from place to place according to his appointment so long that weariness and poverty drove me back again into the Country having nothing to relieve me but the Charity of such as pittied my condition I then being not able to abide in the Country for feare of Imprisonment came againe to London on foot begging my Bread by the way it being about two hundred Miles And having no better success at the Parliament doore after a long attendance and many being wearied of me and my selfe almost of my life I returned againe to hide my selfe a while in the Country hoping God might help at the last Then when I heard that Lieutenant Collonell John Lilburne was banished and that there was a Fine to be payd to
Sir Arthur Haslerigge I forthwith tooke me to my Feet and againe to London I went and told Sir Arthur that it was now in his power to do both my self Wife and Children good and that we would pray for him all our dayes if he would but help us as God had put it into his hands Sir Arthur was pleased to speak to Collonell Martin and a time was appointed at Sir Arthurs Chamber at White-Hall where Collonell Martin Mrs. Lilburne Mr. Richardson Mr. Williams and some others of Mrs. Lilburnes Friends met I had onely my selfe to lay open my miserable case which when the aforesaid Gentlemen heard they lifted up their hands wondring that Lieutenant Collonell John Lilburne should deale so cruelly with a poore miserable man his Wife and five small Children Sir Arthur moved that whereas the Rent of that Farme had for a long time been but three pounds per Annum And that the Parliament had sold it to Lieutenant Collonell Lilburne upon improvement at eighteen pounds that therefore I should give eighteen pounds per Annum to Mrs. Lilburne which was the racke Rent valued to her Husband Mrs. Lilburnes Friends that came with her pittyed my case so much that they thought it fit I should have also the one hundred and thirty pound Goods restored which Mr. Lilburne had taken from me Mrs. Lilburne then replied that she had no money but I might have one of my Cowes againe some of her Friends then said It was fit I should have satisfaction out of the Rent And Sir Arthur said Care must be taken that the poore man have a livelihood from his hard labour so that he may preserve his Wife and Children from starving And also to help Mrs. Lilburn and her children And further said That he was sensible that John Lilburn ought not to have taken those Goods from me for if any Arrears were due they belonged to the State and not to the Purchaser But said that now Mrs. Lilburn and her children being in as sad a condition as my self and mine that therefore I should pay unto her for her self and children the full improvement which was Eighteen pounds a yeer and that if I did not carefully pay my Rent Mrs. Lilburn should enter upon the Farm This though heavie on my side to lose all my Goods and to be raised up to so high a Rent as from Three pounds to Eighteen pound per annum the Agreement being figned by Mrs. Lilburn Colonel Martin and Sir Arthur Haslerigge I joyfully took it resolving to labour hard and to pay my Rent honestly and made haste into the Country and shewed the Agreement under the aforesaid hands to Mr. Richard Lilburn Mr. John Lilburn's father and desired him to deliver me Possession accordingly which he absolutely refused Then some Women my wives Neighbours desirous to see her in her house again thrust out the said Mr. Richard Lilburn from amongst them which no sooner being done but the said Mr. Richard Lilburn by his great importunity with the Sheriff of the County and by colour of an old Warrant as I understand procured the said Sheriff to come to my house and thrust us out of possession and gave it to Mr. Richard Lilburn Then I forthwith went again to London to Sir Arthur Haslerigge and told him how little Mr. Richard Lilburn valued the Agreement made in his Chamber He told me he could do no more but get it under Mrs. Lilburn's hand and Colonel Martin's and that he knew not what to do or say to Mr. Richard Lilburn But I pressed him most earnestly and said I never durst return into the Country if I had not help from him and that it was in his power And really I had rotted in Prison and my Wife and her children had gone a Begging all their days who was descended of honest Parents such as had lived in good credit amongst their Neighbours had I not found pity and compassion in Sir Arthur's brest necessity inciting me strongly to importune him daily for his assistance for when he would have put me off I told him I must continue to trouble him And in truth my condition was so miserable and desperate having gone upon my bare feet two thousand miles back and again or thereabouts in seeking releife that I thought to hang upon his doore would bring me rest Sir Arthur then acquainted Collonell Martin what Master Richard Lilburne had done and desired him to speak to Mrs. Lilburne that order might be taken for the performance of the said Agreement which she and her Friends had made and signed he promised a speedy accompt and the next day he told Sir Arthur that she had received Letters from her Husband wherein he commanded that nothing should be done by her and thereupon Sir Arthur desired Collonell Martin to tell her from him That if she would not perform her Agreement which he apprehended to be just and reasonable and for her advantage he thought he was bound in Conscience to preserve the poor man his Wife and Children by laying his extent upon the Lands Collonell Martin immediately replyed That he would do very well in so doing and if it was his case he would do the like Collonell Martin then acquainted Mrs. Lilburne with Sir Arthurs resolution and returned this answer That she was John Lilburnes Wife and that he could not prevail in the least with her and therefore bad Sir Arthur not to expect further Then we the rest of the Tennants hoping there was an opportunity for us and ours made choyce of one Captain Farrer to be our Solicitor and sent him to London to Sir Arthur Haslerigge to entreat That according to Lieutenant Collonell John Lilburnes Promise before he bought our Lands that we might yet have it as he payd Thereupon the said Captain Farrer applied himselfe to Sir Arthur Haslerigge at White-Hall acquainting him with the Tennants humble and earnest desires and as it hapned upon some complaints that Mrs. Lilburne had made to Collonell Joyce against Sir Arthur Haslerigge there was a meeting appointed at Mr. Peters Chamber in White-Hall and thither came Mrs. Lilburne and her own Father and there were present Mr. Peters and Collonell Joyce and Sir Arthur Haslerigge tooke the said Captain Farrer along with him Then did Sir Arthur Declare in the presence of all before mentioned That he never had a thought of getting one penny out of John Lilburnes Estate and that Mrs. Lilburne had compelled him to lay his extent upon the Land because she would not perform the Agreement under her own hand whereby Huntington his Wife and Children might live He then declared the great complaints of the Tennants And this offer was made by Sir Arthur to Mrs. Lilburne That the Tennants should pay the summe of money for which the Parliament gave him that Land being nine hundred and forty pounds with consideration from the time of passing the Act she deducting what Rents they had received Afterward Sir Arthur told her the