any Person to represent us in Parliament and also by filling up the Vacant places thereof and all to be admitted without any Oath or Engagement previous to their Entrance which being done We shall be ready to acquiesce and submit in all things to the Judgement and Authority of Parliament without which Authority the People of England cannot be obliged to pay any Taxes This Declaration subscribed by three hundred Gentlemen was delivered to the Honourable Will Lenthall Speaker of the Parliament on Saturday the 28. of Jan. 1659. By the Lord Richardson Sir John Hobart and Sir Horatio Tounsend Baronets A Declaration of the Gentry of the County of DEVON Met at the General Quarter Sessions at Exeter for a Free Parliament Together with a Letter From EXETER To the Right Honourable William Lenthall Speaker of the PARLIAMENT WE the Gentry of the County of Devon finding our selves without a Regular Government after your last interruption designed a publick Meeting to consult Remedies which we could not so conveniently effect till this Week at our General Quarter Sessions at Exon Where we finde divers of the inhabitants groaning under high Oppressions and a general defect of Trade to the utter ruine of many and fear of the like to others which is as visible in the whole County that occasioned such disorders that were no small trouble and disturbance to us which by Gods blessing upon our endeavours were soon supprest and quieted without Blood And though we finde since our first purposes an alteration in the state of Affairs by your Re-assembling at the Helm of Government yet conceive that we are but in part Redrest of our Grievances and that the chief Expedient for it will be the recalling of all those Members that were secluded in 1648. and sate before the first Force upon the Parliament And also by filling up the vacant places And all to be admitted without any Oath and Engagement previous to their Entrance For which things if you please to take a speedy course we shall defend you against all Opposers and future Interrupters with our Lives and Fortunes For the Accomplishment whereof we shall use all Lawful Means which we humbly conceive may best conduce to the Peace and Safety of this Nation Exon 14. of Jan. 1659. SIR THE Inclosed Copy of what this Grand Meeting to which the most Considerable of the Gentry have Subscribed Mr. Bampfield Recorder of Exon is gone this night Post to deliver it to the Speaker That the Cornish men have done more is no News This City in very great numbers Lordly exprest their desires for a Free Parliament The Apprentices and Young men of the City got the Keys of the Gates and keep them lockt without taking notice of the Magistrates and less of the Souldiers A Letter and Declaration of the Lords Knights Gentlemen and Ministers of the County of YORK And of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel of the Gity of YORK Presented to General Monck Feb. 17. 1659. at His Quarters at Drapers-hall London by Sir Thomas Wharton Knight Brother to the Lord Wharton John Dawney Thomas Harrison and John Legard Esquires As also a Letter with the said Declaration inclosed delivered by the said Gentlemen to the Lord Mayor directed to him and to the Common-Councel of the City of LONDON To His Excellency the Lord General MONCK My Lord WE finde our selves constrained by writing to supply the Omission of acquainting your Lordship with our thoughts and desires when you passed through our County which we had then done if upon so short notice we could have met for a mutual Vnderstanding Your Lordship will finde in the Inclosed Declaration the sum of our Apprehensions We thought it not necessary to multiply particulars but leave all other things to a duly constituted Parliament neither have we been sollicitous to multiply Subscriptions trusting more to the weight of the Proposals than to the number of Subscribers yet we may safely affirm this to be the sense of the Generality of the County and City as your Lordship sees it is of others We have onely to add our earnest desires to your Lordship that you would be pleased to further the Accomplishment of what we have represented with such seasonable speed as that the fear of Friends and the hopes of Enemies concerning a dangerous Confusion amongst us may be prevented Your Lordships very humble servants Thomas Fairfax Faulconberge Bar. Bouchier Vicecomes Christopher Topham Mayor c. The Declaration WE being deeply sensible of the grievous Pressures under which we lye and the extream dangers we are exposed to at this time through the violent alteration of our Government the Mutilation and Interruption of Parliaments And having no Representatives to express or remedy our grievances have thought it meet according to the example of other Counties to Declare and Desire That if the Parliament begun November 3. 1640. be yet continued The Members that were secluded in the year 1648. be forthwith restored to the Exercise of their Trust and all Vacancies filled up that right may be done to their Persons to Parliaments and the People that have chosen them If otherwise That a Parliament may be presently called without imposing of Oaths or Engagements the greatest prejudice to Civil or Christian Liberty or requiring any Quallifications save what by Law or Ordinance of Parliament before the Force in 1648. are already established And untill this or One of these be done We cannot hold our selves obliged to pay the Taxes that are or shall be imposed We not enjoying the Fundamental Right of this Nation to consent to our own Laws by equal Representatives Subscribed by Esquires Thomas Lord Fairfax Tho. Lord Viscount Fauconberge Barrington Bourchier Esq High Sheriff Christ Topham Mayor Sir Thomas Wharton Knight of the Bath Sir Christ Wivel Bar. Sir John Hotham Bar. Sir Tho Slingsby Bar. Sir Wil. Cholmly Bar. Sir Fran. Boynton Bar. Sir Roger Langly Bar. Sir Hen. Cholmly Kt. Sir Tho. Remington Kt. John Dawney Henry Fairfax Tho. Harrison John Legard William Fairfax William Gee William Osbalston Robert Wivel Thomas Hutton Gustavus Boynton Henry Bethel Metcalf Robinson Henry Stapleton George Marwood Robert Redman William Adams Col. Lancelot Parsons William Daulton James Moyser Robert Belt Henry Marwood John Vavasour John Gibson John Micklethwait Bryan Fairfax Bryan Layton Thomas Lovel Wil. Rooksby Capt. Nicholas Bethel John Jackson Thomas Yarborough Walter Bethel John Riccard John Adams Richard Levie Cregory Crake James Driffeild c. Ministers Mr. Edward Bowles Mr. Nath. Jackson Mr. Witton Mr. Waterhouse Mr. Bentley Mr. Nasebit c. The said Declaration was also subscribed by the Aldermen and Common-Councel of the City of York To the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Common-Councel of the City of London My Lord and Gentlemen HAving taken notice of some vigorous inclinations of your Lordship and the City towards the asserting your common Freedomes as English men too much of late violated and being now also our selves constrained from
a like sense to manifest our Resolutions to the same effect in a Declaration sent to General Monke whereof the Inclosed is a Copy We have thought good to give your Lordship an account of our intentions as that to which we are most firmly resolved to adhere wishing it may effect the end by our selves and as we are perswaded by your Lordship and all good people of that City intended We remain York Feb. 10. 1659. Your Lordship 's very humble Servants Thomas Fairfax Faulconberge Bar. Bouchier Vicecomes Christopher Topham Mayor c. Which Letter with the Declaration therein inclosed was also the same day delivered by Sir Thomas Wharton and the rest of the said Gentlemen to the Lord Mayor of London desiring it might be communicated to the Common-Councel according as by the Letter it was desired The same day also a particular letter was presented to the Lord General Monke from the Lord Fairfax dated Feb. 14. in confirmation of the said Declaration which was delivered by Mr. Bryan Fairfax who was sent up on purpose with the said Letter THE DECLARATION OF THE Gentry Ministers Free-holders of the County and City of LINCOLNE WE the Gentry Ministers and Free-holders of the County and City of Lincolne being truly sensible of our Miseries and Grievances namely the sad consequents of Intestine War the fear of Invasion from abroad at this time of our Distractions and Divisions both in Church and State the violent alteration of Government the heavy imposition of unheard of Taxes All which of late years hath ruined our Trade and impoverished the whole Nation and are all occasioned by reason of the many Violences and Breaches made upon our known established Laws and fundamental Liberties Do therefore humbly propose and declare having first met and consulted as other Countries have done that the onely remedy for our said Grievances will be for a Free Full Parliament speedily to be called and assembled to sit according to our said known established Laws wherein the Free Votes of all Free People of this Nation might be included since that such onely have a legal capacity to enact Laws and Statutes that may equally binde all the Free people of this Nation And therefore if any persons how ever impowred not having the Authority of such a Parliament shall take upon them to lay impositions upon the Free people of this Commonwealth or to prescribe or enjoyn any Limitations Restrictions or Quallifications whatsoever not formerly agreed upon in full Parliament We do declare our selves not obliged thereto as being destructive to the freedome and undoubted Priviledges of Parliament A DECLARATION Of all the WATERMEN In about the City of LONDON between GRAVESEND and STANES OR A Hue and Cry after Col. WHITTON and his Decoys WHereas it hath been seemingly by the insinuatious of some few of us cast on our whole Company that we would lay our shoulders and stretch out our helping hands for the upholding of something which to our selves is both unknown and uncertain and may likewise in probability be a cause of disturbance if not breaking the peace of the Nation We to manifest Our innocency in the one particular and vindicate our selves from the scandal thereof as also to shew our real and hearty concordance with all other Noblemen Gentlemen Citizens and others of the several Counties of England whose Declarations are exposed to the publick view doe cordially unanimously and freely declare That the List annexed of our names to a Petition pretended by our consent to be presented to the Members sitting at Westminster is not at all by us owned neither doe we know any other Authors or Abettors thereof than some few here under-mentioned our names in truth being gained by Colonol Whitton under the pretence to put down Hackny Coachmen but by him converted to another use and that so contrary to our thoughts and intentions that we would sooner have quitted our nearest relations than have consented to such ebulliences For the undeceiving therefore of the Gentry of this Nation to whom many yea most of us are obliged and consequently not unknown for the rectifying the judgments of such as know us not and for the satisfaction of the whole Free-born Subjects of England who with us claim a birth-right in Magna Charta and the Petition of Right we doe further with one Consent declare That we conceive it fitting for the redressing the grievous wants and pressures that lie upon all the good people of this Nation that according to Fundamental Right the People in Parliament may have their Representatives who may receive their grievances and present them in their behalf whereby to obtain a remedy And because Faction and Schism hath already too great a root that honest and prudential men may be Elected whose Estates as to Temporals and Religion as to Spirituals may oblige them sincerely to endeavour a Settlement both in Church and State The onely meanes for attaining of which ends we conceive by the blessing of God to be a full and free Parliament which as we know the Nation groans for so we cordially desire and we shall not acquiesce till we have regained that our undoubted Right hitherto unquestioned Priviledge and never to be denied Lawful Demand In the defence whereof we shall account nothing too dear to lose being ready to quit not onely our Employments but to lay aside our relations and lay our lives at stake This Representation is owned by Ten Thousand of us which if desired shall be acknowledged both with our hands and hearts against all the malicious underminings of Col. Whitton the Painter and his Decoys Who upon the tendring that forged Petition to the Watermens Hall being conscious that the rankness of the Trepan would be presently sented addrest themselves to Mr. Pryn to en their Protest against it their names are hereunto annexed Viz. Wil. Lemond Josias Smith Wil. Crop Wil. Goodale Thomas Slator Tho. Wasborn John Howard Wil. Bugby Robert Crop Tho. Vincent John Foster John Lee Wil. Sound Jacob Meade Wil. Clerk Martin Craul Roger Phillips Fran. Borrick Richard Thusee Wil. Butler The Remonstrance of the Noblemen Knights Gentlemen Clergy-men Free-holders Citizens Burgesses Commons of the late Eastern Southern Western Associations who desire to shew themselves Faithful and Constant to the Good Old Cause the Priviledges and Freedom of Parliament the Liberty and Property of the Subjects Laws of the Land and true Reformed Religion which they were formerly called forth and engaged to defend by Declarations of Parliament the Protestation and Solemn National League and Covenant WE the Noblemen Knights Gentlemen Clergy-men Freeholders Citizens Burgesses and Commons of the late Eastern Southern and Western Associations of England whose names are hereunto subscribed having for a long season with bleeding hearts perplexed spirits weeping eyes and over-much patience and silence beheld the miserable publick Distractions intollerable Oppressions various Revolutions great Tumults and destructive Confusions wherewith our former most glorious flourishing Churches
introduce Prosecution for Conscience into the Land again we do hereby in the presence of Almighty God protest and Declare against all Coercive power in matters of Religion and that to the utmost of our strength through Gods assistance we will endeavour to the hazzard of our Blood and Fortunes the Freedom and Protection of all vertuous and religious People by what Name soever differenced from us equal with our selves and that no forreign or other Authority save only the Civil be exercised in England That the Practise of the Law be reformed all corrupt Statutes repealed Annual Elections of all Officers and Magistrates with the constant Succession of Parliaments restored our fundamental Laws cleared and asserted and whatever is contrary there to be abolished That no Trials be admitted in England for Life Limb Liberty or Estate but by the good old way of Juries and that they be restored to their original power and purity That all Extrajudicial and Illegal proceedings by High-Courts of Justice or otherwise with all Illegal and Arbitrary Committees be strictly provided against that the Excise and all other Payments and Taxes such as our Ancestors never knew of together with all Monopolies and Patents destructive to Trade and the Common good of the Nation be also abolished And that our Parliaments and Magistrates be secured from all Force and Violence and utterly cleared from all boundlesse Prerogative and unlimited Priviledge That the Right of the Poor in the Commons of England all Donations for Charitable Uses and all Lands formerly belonging to the People be restor'd again And that Mercy and Justice be truly established amongst us And for these ends and what else may be of publick good to the Nation we do desire and indeed challenge as of English Right the speedy Election of a New Free Parliament And thus most Noble Citizens Brethren and fellow Freemen of England we have dealt truly and plainly with you and given you the real Grounds and Reasons of our taking up Arms looking upon you as the most concern'd in the Nation and therefore hold our selves the more obliged to give you this Early Advice of our Candid and just Intentions in this undertaking that you may not be deluded or frighted though falsly into any strange opinion of us either through your own mistake or by the pollicy of those men who will leave no means unattempted to render us as publick Enemies Rebels and Traitors Plunderers Tyrants and Persecutors or whatever is odious and monstrous to engage you in Blood Believe us right worthy Citizens and Free-born English Brethren we have no Design of Fire or Sword or of Evil toward you or your City or any part of the Nation or any Person in it We know there are thousands amongst you that are satisfied in us it may be indeed that many or most of the Gathered separate Churches may be fearfull and jealous of us and so may be induced to Arms against us but we do again and again protest before Almighty God and the whole World that we have no other purpose towards them but that they with us and we with them may be bound up as Friends and Brethren in the Common Cause of our Countrey that every English-man may have English Freedom and Right and we do not desire to wrong Man Woman or Childe the worth of a Shoo-latchet Therefore we hope you will first well advise before you proceed in a new War lest you bring not only your own but others blood on your heads for we are resolved to presecute this to the last drop of our blood The Case of England is laid before you our Laws and Liberties they are yours as well as ours and for which we have all engaged in the first War and not to be so slightly valued as to be set at stake against the private ends of some ambitious and corrupt persons Salus Populi Suprema Lex let the People live and their Enemies perish Therefore we beseech you we conjure you as English men to stand by your Native Countrey and your Countrey's Cause Our Voice is and it is no other than the Consent and Voice of the People A new free Parliament A new free Parliament it is the English man's main Birth-right which we are resolved to put the People in possession of or to perish with our Swords in our hands But if you will not joyn but degenerate we hope notwithstanding by Gods blessing to carry on this Work Yet to that just and glorious Work we may challenge your concurrence it being your duty as well as ours to endeavour the procurement thereof And therefore to you make it our Proposal to your Militia to the Army and the whole People for the prevention of a New War and the effusion of English blood that you would be instrumental with us for the speedy Election of a New Free Parliament for the ends aforesaid and in the interim all hostility to be forborn and that a day may be appointed and the People suffered to go to their free Elections and we shall quietly submit to their Authority heartily desiring that all revenge division rancor and animosity of spirit may be for ever buried in one General Act of Oblivion And that all Parties Sects and sorts now jarring and making up interests one against another may reconcile cement and concenter in the common Brotherhood of English Freedom and Right in and for which we are Sir George Booth to a Friend of his in London SIR MY last to you of the second instant I understand you have committed to open view the Publication whereof was of general Satisfaction to your Friends here and for which we all hold our selves obliged I have sent you here inclosed an Express from the Knights and Gentlemen engaged with me and beg this further addition to your former many Favours that you would please to take the care upon you to get the same Printed and published for the undeceiving of those amongst you and all other that are yet doubtfull or unsatisfied in us The Messenger will inform you of the present State and condition of Affairs with us to whom I refer you In haste I rest Sir Your most affectionate Friend and Servant George Booth Manchester Aug. 9. 1659. Alleyn Mayor At a Common-Council holden in the Guildhall LONDON On Tuesday the 20. of December 1659. THis Court having taken notice of divers Affronts put upon the Right Honorable Thomas Alleyn the present Lord Mayor of this City with many false and scandalous Aspersions cast upon his Lordship and the Committee appointed by this Court to confer with the Lord Fleetwood touching the Peace and Safety of this City as if they had deserted their Trust or betrayed the Rights and Liberties of this City And in particular that the said Committee seemed satisfied with the Limitations of Parliament called The Seven Principles or unalterable Fundamentals printed in a late scandalous Pamphlet stiled The Publick Intelligencer The said Committee here openly declaring
that they never heard the said Principles or had them any way communicated to them much lesse ever consented to the same or any of them This Court being deeply sensible of these great Indignities doth declare That the said Lord Mayor is so far from deserving any of the said Affronts or Aspersions that he hath highly merited the great Honour and Esteem of this Court and the whole City having in all things demeaned himself with much Prudence and faithfull Integrity to this City and Court which doth therefore return his Lordship their most hearty thanks And that the said Committee in all their Transactions touching the Peace and safety of this City have also discreetly and faithfully discharged their Trust to their own trouble and great satisfaction of this Court And whereas this Court and City hath been lately represented by some as having deserted their first Cause and Declarations in the use of all lawfull means for the maintenance of the true reformed Protestant Religion according to the Scriptures The support and maintenance of a settled lawfull Magistracy a learned pious Ministery and publick Universities with the ancient fundamental Laws of the Nation Just Rights Properties and Liberties of all Persons And for these ends will endeavour all they lawfully may the speedy convening of a Free Parliament to sit and Act without Interruption or Molestation by any persons whatsoever Sadler To the Right Honorable our worthy and grave Senators the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Comonalty of the City of London in Common Council assembled The humble Petition and Address of divers Young Men on the behalf of themselves and the APPRENTICES in and about this honorable City Most humbly sheweth IT hath pleased the good and only wise God for our and the Nations crying sins to manifest his displeasure for many years together against these our flourishing now sadly divided distracted and almost ruined Nations and yet blessed be God this honorable City hitherto hath been no proportionable sharer in the Calamities which our Brethren in other parts of these now miserable Nations have suffered which are now aggravated by our Divisions and such a general decay of trading as doth exceed the worst of former times all which we look upon as a most sad presage of some art and dismal judgement very near at hand if not our sudden ruine together with the destruction and utter dissolation both of Church and State which will inevitably ensue as a just reward upon our multiplied provocations under the most signal manifestations of Gods most gracious presence and the most engaging Mercies that ever People did enjoy unlesse it please our most gracious God whose Name hath been exceedingly dishonored by the violation of many sacred and solemn Oaths amongst us to work our deliverance out of this contexture of dangerous mischiefs into which we have already wound our selvs or which as the innundations of mighty Waters may suddenly break in upon us and being sadly sensible of the Calamities under which the three Nations groan for want of a well-ordered and established Government We being members in the same pollitical Body cannot but sympathize with the rest of our Brethren and forasmuch as our endeavours may contribute very much thereto and the well or ill management of your talents in the discharge of your Trusts may now make these Nations happy or else make them irrecoverably miserable We hold our selves obliged in conscience to God and our Countrey both by the Laws of God and the Land in the behalf of our selves and all good and peaceable People in the Land and the many thousands that know not their right hand from their left and in the behalf of the Children unborn who in time to come may have cause to blesse or curse the day of their birth for your sakes do make this humble Addresse to you as the only means under God now left us to redresse these growing mischiefs which make us and the three Nations in these times of our great trouble cry unto you as those of Macedonia did in the Apostles Vision Come and help us And we beseech you our most grave and worthy Senators as you tender the welfare of these bleeding Nations to stand in the wide gap of our breaches with your Prayers improving your Councils and every Talent which God hath reposed in you for the honour of God and the peace of his Church by a reall reformation and we question not but our most gracious God will then break through the thick Clouds of these black and dark providences and return unto us our Judges as at the first and our Counselors as at the beginning with the abundance of the blessings of peace that Judgement may run down our streets and Righteousness as a mighty stream And we humbly desire the two great Pillars of the Land Magistracy and Ministry may be asserted and encouraged in order unto which we humbly present unto your grave and serious consideracions First the Priviledges of the Gospel which we do enjoy at this day in the faithfull preaching and dispensing of Gods holy Word and Sacraments together with the labours of so many of his faithfull Servants in the Ministry and the liberty of these sacred Ordinances being the best and choicest of our National blessings in respect of which we may well say with holy David God hath not dealt so with any Nation which with thankfulnesse we desire to ackowledge as a great mercy to this Land And should the Lord remove this Candlestick out of its place as we have just cause to fear he will unlesse we do repent Then may we indeed complain with Phineas his Wife the glory is departed from our Israel and a dark and dismal night of black and gloomy Ignorance Error and Prophanenesse will envelope our Valley of Vision And to the end that this choice Blessing which we account more precious than our lives may be conveyed to Posterity we most humbly desire the Ministry may be Countenanced and encouraged the Universities upheld and maintained which have nursed many famous Preachers for Piety and Learning in this and former Ages and your Authority used for the terror of evil doers but the praise of them that do well Secondly we esteem and assert as our undoubted birth-right the Freedom and Priviledges of our Parliaments as being the great Charter of the people of England which we account equally dear with our lives in the enjoyment of which we yet hope under God to see a happy and lasting settlement both in Church and Scate Therefore we most humbly desire that a new Election may be made or else that those worthy Gentlemen chosen to serve as Members in the late free Parliament may be restored to their priviledges and sit without disturbance or force from the Army that they may consider in this evil time what England Scotland and Ireland ought to do which with submission to your grave judgements we humbly conceive to be the most probable means under God to
establish the true Protestant Religion reform the Laws secure our Liberties and preserve our lives and outward concernments to promote Learning end encourage Vertue whereby peace with our neighbour Nations may be renewed and established the Army satisfied their Arrears paid and Trading restored In all which most grave and worthy Senators your own concernments as well as ours are so deeply engaged that we perswade our selves you will be instumental to further our desires by all peaceable and lawfull means and we hope it will put an end to our Divisions which if God in mercy prevent not may soon break out into another civil War and render us as a prey to a forreign enemy For a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Now we leave it unto you our most grave and worthy Senators duly to consider if you part with these our great National Blessings whether you will not discover a palpable breach of trust and leave your names for a reproach to the generations following who will in the Ages to come rise up and call you blessed if you be carefull to preserve them now and convey them to Posterity And now we beseech the Lord to strengthen both your hearts and hands and give you wisdom from on high to direct you in all your Consultations as may be most for the honour of God the peace of his Church throughout the world and the settlement safety and happinesse of these poor Nations And by his assistance we resolve to stand by you and with you to the utmost hazzard of our lives and all that is deare unto us to promote the same Munday 5. December This day the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council being assembled the fore-recited Pitition was presented by several Young-men and Apprentices in behalfe of themselves and several thousands which have subscribed the same the which being received was ordered to be read and thereupon a Committee chosen to consider thereof and to give their speedy Report unto the next Court concerning the same At the same Court it was likewise Ordered that the Lord General Fleetwood should be desired to draw off the Soldiers unto their several Quarters it being then also Ordered that every Common Council man in his several Precinct should give notice to the House-keepers within the same that they should keep their Servants and Apprentices at home thereby to preserve the peace of the City To his Excellency the Lord General MONCK The Vnanimous Representation of the APPRENTICES and Young-men inhabiting in the City of LONDON Humbly sheweth THat the Glory of our Nation and the greatest Comfort of our Lives in our Civil Interests consists in the Priviledges and Liberties to which we were born and which are the undoubted Inheritance of all the free people of England among which the grand and essential Priviledges which discriminates Free-men from Slaves is the Interest which every man hath in the Legislative power of the Nation by their Representatives assembled in Parliament without which however we may flatter our selves or be flatter'd by others we are truly no better than Vassals govern'd by the will and pleasure of those who have no relation to us or our common Interest Now how much this dear Priviledge of the People hath been assaulted by the open violence of some and secret artifice of others and to what a deplorable condition we are brought at this present period when heavy Taxes are imposing upon mens Estates and new Laws upon our Persons without any consent of the People had in a free Parliament and how generally through the said distractions in Government Trading is decayed and how much we are likely to suffer thereby in our times and places we cannot but remonstrate to your Excellency constrain'd through the sense of our present sufferings and apprehensions of greater to implore your assistance most humbly beseeching your Excellency by that ancient love you have born to your Native Countrey zeal to our Liberties by that great Renown you have lately gain'd in opposing the cruel raging of the Sword by the common Cries of the People and by the hopes and cheerful expectation of all England now fix'd upon you and lastly by your own Personal Concern in the same common Cause as a free-born English man that you would be pleased to use those great advantages Divine Providence hath now put into your hands to the securing your Native Countrey from those dangerous usurpations and preserving us in those Liberties to which we were born That no Tax may be imposed nor new Law made nor old abolisht but with the consents of the People had by their Representatives in Parliament freely to be chosen without terror or limitations and freely to sit without any Oath or Engagement previous to their entrance without which special Liberties the Parliament cannot in any construction be esteemed the free Assembly of the People and by your Excellency's asserting of those our undoubted Rights in your present advantages you will certainly by the blessing of God and unanimous concurrence of the People accomplish our ends and will thereby gain the hearts and hands of the whole Nation and the City in particular and purchase to your self a Name that shall make every true English man call you blessed and Posterity shall hereafter delight to recount the famous Acts of their worthy Patriot This was delivered to his Excellency at S. Albans on Thursday Febr. 2. 1659. by persons elected for that purpose and had a very cheerfull Reception THE DECLARATION Of the Nobility Gentry Ministry and Commonalty of the County of KENT Together with the City and County of Canterbury the City of Rochester and the Ports within the said County HAving with sadnesse weighed the multiplied calamities wherein we are at present involved how friendlesse we are abroad and how divided at home the loud and heart-piercing cries of the poor and the disability of the better sort to relieve them the total decay and subversion of Trade together with the forfeiture and losse of the Honour and Reputation of the Nation what is more dear to us than all these the apparent hazzard of the Gospel through the prodigious growth of Blasphemies Heresies and Schism all which own their birth to the instability of our Governors and the unsettlement of our Government Lastly how in all these an universal ruine threatneth us and will if not timely prevented doubtlesse overwhelm us We thought it our bounden duties both as Christians out of tendernesse to our Religion as English men to our Countrey and as Friends to our selves and our Relations to represent and publish to the world our just griefs for and our lively resentments of this our deplorable condition and to seek all lawfull and probable means to remedy and redresse the same Wherefore having the leading Examples of the renowned Cities of London and Exeter together with the Counties of the West before our eyes and the clamors and out-cries of the People always in our ears whereof the one encourageth and
Griefs and Declaration of our Desires and Thoughts of the most probable means by Gods assistance to give some remedy to our present Sufferings and prevention of our yet greater Calamities which threaten our speedy ruine The cause of all proceeding as we conceive is from that unhappy Disorder in that great Wheel of Government And that after all our great Sufferings and Trials the vast expence of Treasure and Blood for our Rights Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament which we take to be the Good old Cause such persons in whom we have already lodged our Trusts and who have sufficiently manifested their endeavours to perform the same namely Nathaniel Stephens Esq Sir John Seymore Kt. Edward Steephens Esq John Steephens Esq and the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax have been since December 1648. and still are denied the freedom of sitting and voting in Parliament The Restauration of which Members we desire with all freedom to their former Capacities And Declare we shall not otherwise consent to pay Tax or other Impositions or hold our selves bound by any Law to be made without a Restitution of these our Representatives with a supply of all Vacancies by a free Election according to the Fundamental Laws and Constitutions of this Nation it being the undoubted birth-right of all the Free-born people of England that no Tax or other Imposition be exacted from them or any new Law imposed upon them but by their consents had by their Representatives in a full and free Parliament And we further declare our hearty desires for the burying all former Animosities and Differences by a full and general Act of Oblivion and Indempnity with satisfaction to be given to Purchasers under any Act of Sale as by Parliament shall be thought fit And that no Officer or Soldier that hath ventured his life for the freedom of his Countrey and shall continue faithfull to those Principles may hereby receive any Discouragement We also declare That we shall freely and willingly consent that all such shall receive their Arrears and be continued so long as the Parliament shall think fit in order to the safety and preservation of the Nation and that such liberty be allowed to tender Consciences as is not opposite to the Scriptures or the established Laws of this Nation We also Declare That in pursuance of these our just Desires we shall not be wanting to the uttermost of our powers to engage our selves by all lawful ways and means with our Fellow Brethren in the just Vindication of our Liberties and shall neither count our Lives or Fortunes too dear to hazard for the Redemption thereof and herein we shall not doubt the ready Concurrence of all those in the three Nations whose Peace Prosperity and Safety is equally concerned with ours This Declaration being subscribed by great numbers of considerable persons of that County was to have been presented to the Speaker by some of them but considering how Sir Robert Pye and Major Finchers handsome behaviour was unhandsomly rewarded with imprisonment for a particular of the same nature it was thought more proper to preserve the liberty of Personages of so much worth til a better opportunity and therefore it is thought fit thus to communicate this for the vindication of this County and satisfaction of the whole Nation THE REMONSTRANCE Of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of the County of GLOUCESTER WE do claim and avow it to be our undoubted Birth-right and Liberty That no new Laws much lesse any new Government can or ought to be imposed upon us nor any Taxes Contributions or Free-quarter taken of us without the consent of the People of this Nation in a Free-Parliament Assembled which Liberties have been often confirmed to us by the great Charter the Petition of Right and many other Statutes And Parliaments being the only Bulwarks and Defence of our Liberties as men and Christians ought to be freely elected and to sit and Vote without interruption or opposition by any persons whatsoever The Priviledges whereof we are all bound to maintain and defend and to assist and maintain each other in the defence thereof And therefore we resolve according to our bounden duty to joyn with the Lord Mayor and Common-Councel of the City of London and all other Counties in England in pursuance thereof And we do not doubt but all true hearted English men who love their own Liberties and are not willing to be made slaves or to enslave their Brethren will joyn with us herein A Letter agreed unto and subscribed by the Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders and Sea-men of the County of SUFFOLK Presented to the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councel of the City of London Assembled January 30. 1659. Right Honorable PLease you to accept this Paper as a testimony that we are highly and gratefully sensible of those breathings and Essayes towards peace which your renowned City hath lately declared to the World As we earnestly wish that our serious and unanimous concurrence may ripen them to a perfect Accomplishment We are willing to consider it as an Omen of Mercy when we observe the Nation in general lifting up its Vows to Heaven for a free and full Parliament 't is that alone in its genuine sense which our Laws prescribe and present to us as the great Patron and Guardian of our Persons Liberties and Properties and whatsoever else is justly precious to us And if God shall by your hand lead us to such an obtainment after-Ages shall blesse your memory 'T is superfluous to spread before you your Merchandise decay'd your Trade declin'd your Estates wither'd Are there not many within your Walls or near them that in your ears deplore such miseries as ehese Your Lordship may believe that our prayers and persons shall gladly promote all lawfull means for our Recovery And we entreat that this cheerful suffrage of ours may be annex'd as a Label to your Honorable intendments This Letter was delivered according to its Superscription by Robert Broke Philip Parker and Thomas Bacon Esquires THE Declaration of the Gentry of the County of NORFOLK And of the County and City of NORWICH WE the Gentry of the County of Norfolke and County and City of Norwich being deeply affected with the sense of our sad Distractions and Divisions both in Church and State and wearied with the miseries of an unnatural Civil War the too Frequent Interruptions of Government the Imposition of several heavy Taxes and the loud Out-cries of multitudes of undone and almost Famished people occasioned by the general decay of Trade which hath spread it self throughout the whole Nation and these Counties in particular and having met together and consulted what may best remedy and remove our and the Nations present Grievances and Distractions Do humbly conceive that the chief Expedient will be the recalling of those Members that were secluded in 1648 and sate before the Force put upon the Parliament We of the County of Norfolk being by such Seclusion deprived of