Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	county_n	parish_n	town_n	9,891	5	9.5452	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80352	The case of Madam Mary Carleton, lately stiled the German Princess, truely stated with an historical relation of her birth, education, and fortunes; in an appeal to his illustrious Highness Prince Rupert. By the said Mary Carleton.	Carleton, Mary, 1642?-1673.	1663 (1663)	Wing C586A; ESTC R229508	39,449	320

men of honesty judgment and integrity and did me so much justice I can do no less then take occasion here to return them my humble thanks that they would regard the oppressed condition of a helpless prisoner and not give credit to the wicked asseverations of a wretch who onely swore to the purpose against me and to let the world know my particular gratitude I will transcribe into this my Case as one of the happiest and fairest remarks therein the names of those upright Jurors viz. William Rutland Arthur Vigers Arthur Capel Tho. Smith Fran. Chaplin Robert Harvey Simon Driver Robert Kerkham Hugh Masson Tho. Westley Richard Clutterbuck and Randolph Tooke The Indictment was in haec verba That she the said Mary Moders late of London Spinster otherwise Mary Stedman the wife of Tho. Stedman late of the City of Canterbury in the County of Kent Shooe-maker 12 May in the Reign of his now Majesty the sixth at the Parish of St. Mildreds in the City of Cant. in the County aforesaid did take to husband the aforesaid Tho. Stedman and him the said Thomas Stedman then and there had to husband And that she the said Mary Moders alias Stedman 21 April in the 15 year of his said Majesties Reign at London in the Parish of Great S. Bartholomews in the Ward of Farringdon without feloniously did take to husband one John Carleton and to him was married the said Tho. Stedman her former husband then being alive and in full life against the form of the Statute in that case provided and against the Peace of our said Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity c. After which being set to the Bar in order to my Trial I prayed time till the morrow my witnesses not being ready which was granted and all persons concerned were ordered to attend at nine of the Clock in the Fore-noon Being returned to my lodging where some Gentlemen gave me a visit to counsell and advise me my Husband Mr. Carleton came thither to take his leave of me as I understood afterwards by his complement but my Keeper knowing of him thought him not fit company for me who was one of the causers of my injurious usage but notice at last being given me of it I gave order for his admittance and treated him with that respect which became my Relation to him though he to add trouble to me fell into more impertinent discourses concerning the shortness of my dayes and speedy preparation of Repentance for another world and that he would pray for me and the like to the which I replied Pray my lord let none of those things trouble you I thank God I am as well as ever in my life and do of all things least fear hanging and as for your prayers are you righteous or no if not they will so little availe me that they will not profit your self Hereupon a Gentleman to break off this discourse drank to him in a glass of Canary which my Lord unhandsomely declining to accept I could not forbear to tell him I was sorry to see his Lordship's slender breeding could not suffer him to be civill Thus the world may see how these mine Adversaries had already swallowed my life and my credit and devoted them to the Gibbet without redemption the onely security of all their past injustices towards me Per scelera sceleribus est iter they must end as they have begun Thus the Devill and his imps were here frustrated For on Thursday June the fourth I proceeded to Trial according to appointment but my fathers bandogs being not ready my husband came into the Court very spruce and trim in one of his wedding-suits and prayed the Court that in respect his father and his witnesses were not yet come together or rather had not concinnated their lies to be found in one tale that the Trial might be deferred for halfe an hour I could not but smile to see my deare husband labour so to make sure of my death and with so little regard to pass by his dear Princess without so much as vouchsafing a look to her as if he were angry at his eyes for having beheld so much already But to abrupt these thoughts and to continue the discourse the Court growing impatient of these uncivil civil delayes and telling my father-in-law that they were not bound to wait on him or his witnesses they were now produced before them and sworn and with old Carleton himself were six in number namely James Knot one that will almost cleave a hair William Clark and George Carleton her brother-in-law Mr. Smith the Parson and one Sarah Williams which for fuller information of the world I will give with a review of the whole Triall according to the exactest copy of it which was taken in short-hand at my desire James Knot My Lord and Gentlemen of the Jury I gave this woman in Marriage to one Thomas Stedman which is now alive in Dover and I saw him last week Court Where was she married Knot In Canterbury Court Where there Knot In St. Mildreds by one Parson Man who is now dead Court How long since were they married Knot About nine years ago Court Did they live together afterwards Knot Yes about four years and had two children Court You gave her in marriage but did the Minister give her to her husband then Knot Yes and they lived together Jury Friend did you give this very Woman Knot Yes Court What company was there Knot There was the married Couple her sister my self the Parson and the Sexton Court Where is that Sexton Knot I know not my Lord. Court You are sure they were married in the Church and this is the woman Knot Yes I am sure of it Court How long ago Knot About nine years ago Court Did you know this woman before the Marriage and how long Knot Yes I knew her a long time I was an Apprentice seven years near her Mothers house in Canterbury Court Then she 's no forreign Princess Of what Parentage was she Knot I did not know her own father and in that he might be believed but her father-in-law was a Musitian there Court You see her married what words were used at her marriage and in what manner Knot They were married according to the order of the Land a little before the Act came forth touching Marriages by Justices of the Peace Court Was it by the Form of Common-Prayer any thing read of that Form Knot I did not take notice of that I was but a young man and was desired to go along with them William Clark being sworn said My Lord I was last week in Dover in company with this James Knot and Thomas Stedman and he the said Stedman did own that he did marry one Mary Moders a daughter of one in Canterbury and that Knot gave her and that he had two children by her and declared his willingness to come up to give evidence against her but wanted money for his journey

their Bristol-stones or such-like trumpery for not long after my tryal they were offered in Cheap-side to the view of a Goldsmith and he demanded what they might be worth who having steadily and considerately lookt them all over said they were worth 1500 l. At which the Trustee or Fiduciary in whose hands they were askt the Gold-smith if he was mad or knew what he said Yes that I do replied he and will presently lay you down so much money for them if you have power to sell them whereupon my Gentleman put up his counterfeit ware with a more counterfeit face saying he came only to try his skill and departed And now let all the world judge of the Cheat I have put upon this worshipfull family of the Carletons I have of theirs not a thred nor piece of any thing to be a token or remembrance of my beloved Lord which I might preserve and lay up as a sacred relique of a person dear to me I think indeed the dearest that ever woman had But it may be they intend to furnish my Lord with this portable and honourable furniture to the second part of this Gusman-story against he shall knight-errant it abroad and having found the way marry some other great forreign Lady and in stead of Boys whooping and hallowing at him here be revered and adored by subjects as his great spirit alwayes divined and suggested to him he should be some-body though to little purpose but I hope to prevent that designe and to have speedy redress against all this fraud and violence that hath been acted against me And now I have concluded the Narrative and I hope to the satisfaction of the world and if there be any thing not so elegantly and clearly expressed as mycause requires let it be known it is my fathers not my fault which hath in some places disturbed and muddied my fancy and in others reserved a hiding place and obscurity for my pursued honour I hope the ingenuous will pardon and admit of this defence considering the nature of it No man is bound by any law to set forth more then what he is directly interrogated and questioned to and there I have for my innocence sake exceeded And for the ignorant and malicious let them wonder and slander on and when they shall give me worthy occasion which is not in the capacity of their shallow brains or in their dishonest intentions to a further vindication that is when my relations shall have returned me what they took from me and leave me in statu quo by any handsome expedient I shall not faile of making this discourse most evident demonstration and descend to such undeniable proofe of every particular here that shall make their impudence and rash folly one of the leudest stories of the Age. The world usually and frequently judges as it likes and affects and is altogether swayed by interest and humour and even by that amidst all those industrious calumnies I dare stand or fall Let my quality and condition alone and he is not weighed in the common scales yet the fair conduct and the harmless example deserves no censure Let both alone my sex is to be pittied and respected and my person not to be hated But I will not prostitute my fame to them to his Highness I have appealed and to him I shall go Not doubting but what the strictness and nicety of the Law doth at present withhold him we shall by his gracious protection of innocence be freed from such incumbrances and some easier solution found for those intricacies then my Lawyers can at present expedite I am advised howsoever to prosecute my adversaries in the same manner and at the same Bar where they arraigned me for a suspition of a real suit of Felony for that riot against the publick peace committed upon my person which I am resolved to do in case I receive not better satisfaction from them before the Sessions nor shall my husbands dilating intreaties and perswasions befool me any longer Either love me or leave me And do not deceive me The fashions and customs here are much different from those of our Country where the wife shares an equal portion with her husband in all things of weal and woe and can liber intentare begin and commence and finish a suit in her own name they buy and sell and keep accounts manage the affairs of houshold and the Trade and do all things relating to their severall stations and degrees I have heard and did believe the Proverb That England was a Heaven for women but I never saw that Heaven described in its proper termes for as to as much as I see of it 't is a very long prospect and almost disappears to view It is to be enjoyed but at second hand and all by the husbands title quite contrary to the custome of the Russians where it is a piece of their Divinity that because it 's said that the Bishop must be the husband of one wife they put out of orders and from all Ecclesiastical function such Clergy men who by the Canon being bound to be married are by death deprived of their wives so that their tenure to their Livings and Preferments clearly depends upon the welfare and long life of their yoake-fellows in whose choice as of such moment to their well-being they are very curious as they are afterwards in their care and preservation of them I could instance in many other customes of nearer Nations in respect to female right and propriety in their own Dowers as well as in their husbands estates but cum fueris Romae Romano vivite more I will not quarrel the English Laws which I question not are calculated and well accommodated to the genius and temper of the people While I mention these customes I cannot forbear to complain of a very great rudeness and incivility to which the mass and generality of the English vulgar are most pronely inclined that is to hoot and hallow and pursue strangers with their multitudes through the streets pressing upon them even to the danger of their lives and when once a cry or some scandalous humour is bruited among them they become Brutes indeed A Barbarity I thought could not possibly be in this Nation whom I heard famed for so much civility and urbanity This I experimented the other day in Fanchurch-street as I was passing through it upon some occasion which being noised and scattered among the Prentices I was forced to bethink of some shift and stratagem to avoid them which was by putting my Maid into a Coach that by good hap was at hand and stepping into an adjoyning Tavern which the Herd mistaking my Maid for me and following the Coach as supposing me there for the convenience thereof gave me the opportunity of escaping from them A Regulation of this kind of uproar by some severe penalties would much conduce not onely to the honour of the Government of the City but the whole Nation in general

having heard the French very much complain of the like injuries and affronts but those to me I may justly place to my husbands account who hath exposed me to the undeserved wonder and to be a May-game to the Town And to his debility and meanness of spirit I am likewise beholding for some other scandalous Libels and Pasquils divulged upon this occasion of our marriage chiefly for the Ribaldry of some pitiful Poetry entituled A Westminster-wedding which equally reflects as much upon himself as me This tameness of his doth hugely incense me and I swear were it not for the modesty of my sex the bonds of which I will not be provoked to transgress I would get satisfaction my self of those pitiful Fellows who by this impudent and saucie scribling do almost every day bespatter my honour At least I wonder my husband doth not vindicate himself and assert his own individual Reputation having threatned so much in print against a civil person that formerly first of all endeavoured to clear and justifie mine But when I consider how apt his kindred are to return to their vomit of slandering me and reckoning the nine days wonder of their great cheat discovered is over are like those that have eat shame and drank after it I did the less wonder at his stupidity and senslessness of those indignities done him and commonly those that have no regard to anothers honour have as little respect for their own as he is Master of another mans life that is a Contemner of his own I shall therefore omit all the subsequent sneaking Lyes raised by the same kindred when they saw their more mighty and potent Accusations helped forward with such prejudices noise and ostentation were at once disappointed and blown to nothing such are those Chimaera's of their framing and fancying that I was seen in mans apparel with a Sword and Feather in designe to do mischief to some body and that I have used to do so and so punctual are they in this Lye as to name both the time and place that I resolved to set up a Coffee-house and at last to turn Player or Actor with an hundred other flams to sully my Name and of a multitude of the like to make one or other of those Calumnies and Reproaches to stick upon me Whereas on the contrary I do resolve as soon as my cause is heard and justice done me by the supreme-power if I cannot otherwise attain it to retire and return back though not immediately to my own home yet to make such approaches at necessary distance for the present that I might be in a readiness and view of all transactions there as soon as this bluster shall be so laid here that I shall not fear the tayl of this Hurricane pursuing me yet shall I always have my heart and my Arms open to Mr. Carleton as a person whom for his Person and Naturals I do and shall ever affect as his wife and my husband maugre all those practices as for my part of rendring us mutually hateful and suspect to each other And while I thus open the way to a composure of this unhappy business and am willing to put up so many private injuries and publick contumelies and disparagements in tendencie to and in consideration of the relative state of marriage which my conscience commands me to prefer before any advantage respect or honour of mine own individual particular and have not refused but rather by all fair means and too mean condescentions have courted an Accommodation and Agreement what Injustice is it upon Injustice Oppression upon Cruelty refined Malice like Salt upon Salt to pierce and exasperate that bosome which is full of so much indulgence to and dallyance with their worst of injuries in expectation that time would give them to see their mischievous errour But neither Time nor Truth it self will reclaim them without Angels appear to confirm them in it And I do in some part not blame them for it for the excess and lofty structure of their hopes hath so dazled their looks downwards that they can see nothing aright nor in any true proportion or colour Their dejection and fall from the pinacle of their ambition hath quite stunned them that they will hardly recover the dizzie mistake that lies between a Princess and a Prentice They are angry their golden Mountains have travelled and been in labour with a Mouse and that they cannot finger any of my Estate and very importunate they are for me to declare it and this they say is the onely argument to prove me no Cheat and I say and believe it is the onely argument to prove me a fool and with that of all other their slanders and durtiness they shall never abuse me But may not I with a great deal more reason enquire for and demand my Joynture and Dowry and those Mannors Leases Parks Houses and the like Rhapsodies and Fictions of an Estate meer castles in the Air and as one merrily since told me he believed they were Birds Nests It is sure a greater imputation and shame to them to be found such Cheats and Lyars then it can be the least blur to me who never avowed any such thing nor boasted of my Quality and Fortune As to the Letters they intercepted of mine from my Steward I wonder they do not produce them but they are ashamed of their most ridiculous simplicity therein I knew very well the uncertainty of my condition here and therefore the Letters were meerly Cyphers and under those terms of Moneys c. an account was given me of another affair at home the distaste whereof made me comply with and so soon yeild to those importunate and love-sick sollicitations of my Lord. But what will they be the better for a Rent-roll or particulars of an estate in Germany the Tenure and Customes of whose propriety and nature of claime if they did know yet could they not tell how to make their Title to it I could easily name places and discover my own Hereditaments perhaps without danger and they never the wiser nor will the impartial Reader be better satisfied But if my sister King or any of my kinsfolk long for some Baccharach grapes I 'll send to my Steward for them and he will convey them from mine own vineyard as soon as they are ripe and I can furnish her husband with Westphalia Hams which run in my woods gratis All those fine things I have store of and when Mr. Carlton pleases to make it a surer match and be married the third time all things shall be done in ample manner I will make a resignation of my whole estate and have nothing setled in lieu of it but a necessitous despised condition of life and be taught to sing Fortune my foe to the pleasant new tune or eccho of a Cheat. But I trust Providence will better govern me and put me upon no necessity of abandoning good and just resolutions I have made to my self whether in case of separation or re-union which I shall not over-fondly press or urge from them who love not me but mine and require signes and wonders and love to be no less then Principalities FINIS