Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A64051
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Two presentments of the grand jury in Bristol at the general quarter-sessions of the peace, holden there in October, 1681.
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England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Bristol). Grand Jury.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing T3529; ESTC R29039
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6,107
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8
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TWO PRESENTMENTS OF THE GRAND JURY IN BRISTOL AT THE General Quarter-Sessions OF THE PEACE Holden there in October 1681. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXXI To the Right Worshipful Thomas Earle Esq MAJOR and to the Worshipful Court of Aldermen His Majesties Justices of the Peace for this Ctiy of Bristol and County of the same City now Assembled in the General Quarter-Sessions of the Peace begun the 4th day of October in the three and thirtieth year of His Majesties Reign An. Dom. 1681. and by Adjournments continued to this present 19th day of the same The Humble Presentment of the Grand Inquest WE the Grand Jurors for the Body of this City and County of the same City being by the Sacred Obligation of an Oath Administred to us at our first entrance into this Service and Trust and also by that Suitable and most Excellent Charge given Us pursuant thereunto Engaged to Enquire for Our Soveraign Lord the King for the Body of the said County in Discharge of the said Obligation do Present as followeth The Excellency and Necessity of Laws and Government are more then insinuated unto Us by the Early Provision made for them even in the Infancy of the World and first Original of things and also by the special Care and Constant Endeavours that have been ever since used for keeping the same Sacred and Inviolable and for delivering of it so down to Posterity through all Generations unto these days The unspeakable Miseries Mischiefs and Dangers which inevitably follow on the want hereof we need not have recourse to former times to relate the Present Age having felt effectually the smart thereof and many of our selves cannot but remember On the other hand the great Benefit Satisfaction and Comfort which are restored when the Government is returned to its Antient Constitution as it was by the miraculous Restoration of his Sacred Majesty to his Throne and Dignity and the Blessed Effects thereof which we have enjoyed for above twenty years last past cannot be of less weight than to perswade all whom their own Wills and Interests have not hardned into Obstinacy to the Highest and best Esteem of our present Governments and to exert their utmost endeavour towards the Countenance and Support thereof It is heartily to be wished that all men would be of such Good Principles and Ingenuous Dispositions as to live contentedly and Obediently under the best Government of the best of Princes and in the enjoyment of the best of Priviledges the Protestant Religion Liberty Property and Peace can afford us But Experience teaches us that thô it may be desired yet it can never be expected whilst Interest leads men the contrary way whilst Disobedience is so interwoven with some mens Creeds and whilst Rebellion doth pass for a Profitable Sin This Year hath been a Year wherein the face of Publick Affairs have appeared in great variety it hath been a year of Great Expectation of Great Discoveries Great Endeavours and Great Disappointments Providence hath seemed to be involved in a Cloud and to discover it self only by its Chequer Workings notwithstanding all which being now Happily arrived at the End thereof and having this Opportunity put into our hands we cannot but with all Humility and Thankfulness of Heart acknowledge the Infinite Goodness and Mercy of Almighty God exercised towards us in the manifold mercies we still enjoy in the Gracious Continuation of Health in our Dwellings and Peace within our borders when most part of our Neighbour Nations are imbroiled in Wars and the dismal consequences thereof For preserving the Kings Majesty in his happy Reign over us notwithstanding all the wicked Machinations of the sons of Violence whereby they have Diligently sought to Murder or Depose him and those whether our Open and Declared Enemies of the Religion of the Church of Rome or other Seditious and Ungrateful men who under pretence of Zeal Religion and Loyalty put themselves in a Better Condition to perpetrate their Wicked Designs who thô from Differing Interests and unto Differing Ends yet concur with the former in this Third thing The Ruin of Monarchy and the Subversion of the Government But the hand of Justice hath Begun to find them out and hath Distrbuted to some of them the Just Reward of their Treasonable and Wicked Enterprizes So that there is Good Hopes that Vengeance will not suffer such Murderers to escape and that such Blood-thirsty and Deceitful men shall not live out half their Days Also we return our True and Unfeigned Thanks to our Soveraign Lord the King for all those Unspeakable Benefits which from the Throne of his Majesty are Freely dispensed for the Advantage of his People for his great Wisdom in Foreseeing approaching Dangers and taking timely care to Prevent them from falling on his Subjects And for all those frequent instances of his Grace and Goodness towards this City and more especially for his Gracious Condescention in his last most Gracious Declaration to give the meanest of his Subjects an account of some of the Greatest of his Actions wherein amongst many other things of his Royal Bounty promised he is pleased to insert his Special Care of the Protestant Religion as by Law established his Intentions of Governing by Frequent Parliaments and his Resolutions that he will never suffer his People to be Ruin'd by Arbitrary Power either of Himself or their Fellow-Subjects In the next place we Present our Hearty Thanks to the Worshipful Sir Richard Hart late Mayor of this City for the Several and Singular instances of his Extraordinary Readiness and Care in Serving this City in those Emergent Occasions which happened in the year of his Majoralty In the beginning whereof things appeared with a Sad and Dismal Aspect for that the Factious Party in this City being grown to a Head knew no Bounds to their own Mischievous Designs First they Branded the Magistrates and Ministers and other his Majesties best Subjects with the Odious Name of Papists then they procured several Aldermen to be Seized on and Imprisoned The the◠late Sheriffs to be taken into Custody our Ministers to be several of them severely Threatned and one with whom they began to be severely Handled to be under a long Confinement and exposed to their Malitious Slanders by Libellers and Pamphleteers even of their own Procuring and all this at great Distance from their Own Homes to the vast Expence of their Estates and manifest Hazard of their Lives For Accomplifhing whereof they got themselves admitted Members of such Clubs in London as made them fitter for Acting this and what they had farther Projected And then they proceeded publickly to Threaten utter Ruin to several other Aldermen many Members of Common-Council and other substantial Inhabitants of this City to the number of several Scores at once under the Notion of Pulling down the Artillery and no less then utter Undoing to a whole Grand Jury for Declaring their Opinion in the matter of Petitioning They go on by their
Grand-Jury AT ANOTHER ADJOURNMENT OF THE COURT Viz. The Twenty fourth day of October 1681. To the Right Worshipful Thomas Earle Esq Mayor of this City c. The Humble Presemment of the Grand Inquest WE The Grand Jurors for the Body of this City and County c. Having drawn up our former Presentment with intention to have given it into the Court on a former Adjournment since which time some New Matter being come to our Knowledge which we cannot without apparent Violation of our Trust neglect to bring before your Worships do make bold farther to Present And we do therefore Present That the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Goal-delivery held for this City and County being Lawfully called upon the eighteenth day of this instant October The Wilful Departure of Sir Robert Atkins our Recorder from the said Court and thereby annihilating the same his Presence being essential to the Constitution thereof after the Grand Jury were Sworn the Justices on the Bench the appearance of Prosecutors and Witnesses in several Notorious Murders and Felonies attending and the Bills of Indictment against some of them viz. One against Nicholas Butler for Felony and Burglary another against Francis Warden for Felony and Burglary and another against Elizabeth Windgett for Murdering her Bastard Child being by the said Grand-Jury found and ready to be delivered into Court The Sheriffs ready attending with their Goal and the Prisoners at the Bar waiting their Deliverance is a most Unpresidented denyal of Justice and a most Unwarrantable and Arbitrary Proceeding In comparison whereof the so much complained of Discharge of a Grand-Jury in Middlesex some time since before their usual time of being Discharged there being only a possibility the Bills might be preferred to them And the Court continued still to be a Court and to do Justice without them is not so much as to be mentioned or thought of This necessarily tending to the Impunity of Notorious Offenders besides other Mischiefs as the Prosecutors and Witnesses being Discharged of their Recognizances by the Discontinuance of the Court The Offenders continued in Gaol without Prosecution His Majesties Gracious Charter to this City by which the said Court is Granted beyond expression Affronted The Mayor and Aldermen his Majesties Justices of the Peace openly Contemned The Honour and Justice of this City greatly Disparaged and his own Unfaithful Execution of his Office as Notoriously Betrayed and made Publick And it is our Opinion that his endeavouring to avoid the Swearing of Sir Richard Hart an Alderman is not only an Aggravation of this Offence but another denyal of discharging his Duty For he the said Sir Richard Hart being by the said Sir Robert Atkins himself together with the Mayor and Court of Aldermen Nemine Contradicente Legally and Duly Elected the Swearing of him became a Duty Executive iâ— the Mayor and Recorder the Arbitrary part of it being determined by the Election For should it be in the Power of the Mayor or Recorder or both to refuse Swearing as Alderman duly Elected the very Constitution of Aldermen on which the Justice of this City doth principally depend as it is prescribed in our Charter would necessarily be Destroyed and the whole Power of making Aldermen be virtually devolved into the Mayor and Recorder alone Wherefore we make it our humble Request that either by Complaint to the Kings most Sacred Majesty or by Displacing the said Sir Robert Atins or by such other Methods of Proceedings as to your Worships shall seem most Fitting and Effectual we may be Redressed for this present Grievance and be secured for the Future against such Failure of Justice and Arbitrary Proceedings within this City God Save the King James Millerd John Hollister Nicholas Standfast Joseph Bullock Samuel Rogers Jasper Caus. Francis Fisher Scarborow Chapman John Mathew William Jones Thomas Davidg Francis Ballard John Bachellor John Estwick John England FINIS