carriedst thy self after thy wonted manner of Rage and Envy and thou broughtest thither with thee Alderman Lock and Alderman Creswick who made up thy Court the Sheriffs were present also and even to the Widow Yeomans that Antient Grave Matron aforesaid whose age rather bespoke a Coffin then a Banishment thou took'st as thou could'st meet and wouldst have sent her to Newgate also with this croud of Prisoners had it not been for Alderman Creswick who it's like had little rest that night for that dayes service who caused it to be otherwise Yet thou didst commit her though thou released her presently and made that her being with the people of the Lord at meeting to wait upon him a step to her banishment her Gray hairs being thus honoured of the Lord to live to that day to bear a Testimony for him in the face of thy fury and of Banishment who is scarce able in body to reach to the place of Meeting And here we must bring in the sad Reckoning of Lidiah Tovy Wife of Rich. Tovy Brewer Alice the Wife of W. Peachy and Mary Knight servant to Nath. Milner Prisoners aforesaid vvhose lives and the Infant of one of them this dayes work of thine took away from the Earth whose blood cries cries for vengeance against thee and vvill lie upon thy head for ever except thou Repent Lidia Tovy vvas very big with child a little Woman and Young the only daughter living of her Mother who was a Widow and except one son all the children she had alive Thou saw'st in what condition she was when in the meeting as to her being with child thou knew'st her to be thy Neighbour thou didst nevertheless commit her yet thou wouldst seeine somewhat tender and said should be but till the morrow though that was a step in order to Banishment which she was the nearer to by how much her imprisonment vvas short So to prison she was brought and the very noisome sent of the old Goale at the door as she was brought to come in struck in upon her In the Prison she abode till the 7th day of that week notwithstanding that thou saidst before a multitude of witnesses that it should be but till the morrow There she aylded wanting breathing and room vvhich she usually in that condition needed much Her ilness grew on and Symptoms of a Miscarriage though so big and near her time was on her Her Husbands Brother Thomas Tovy who lives on the Bridge and is one of the Council went to thee on the 5th day of the week and her tender mother on the 7th day giving thee to understand how it vvas vvith her for by this time her danger vvas so manifest that she bled upwards thou wouldst not hear but bad her come to thee on Monday That 7th day at night the Keeper of Newgate being with thee about the liberty of some of the Prisoners of whose having been at Bridewell thou hadst heard and therefore sentest for him thereabouts he informing thee of her condition and danger thou began'st to be sensible not for her sake as we may judge but thy own and the out-cry that would be made against thee if she died So thou didst hast him to set her at liberty saying Turn her out turn her out so she came and that night sent her home Well Monday of which thou spakest to her sorrowful mother came but she vvas laid in her bed a most sad spectacle continuing very ill and neither hearing nor seeing her infant came dead from her that night and the next morning being the third day of the week she yielded up the Ghost laying down her life at the foot of thy cruelty vvho vvith her tender babe vvere laid in the earth together never to return thence more for thee to Banish though after her death thy Warrant came to detain her in prison till the 6th of the 7th moneth following the date of her commitment with the rest of them that thou then committedst vvith her vvhose blood shall never depart from Thee and thy house for ever if thou dost not Repent Alice the Wife of W. Peachy vvas a Young Woman also very big vvith child vvhich was her first she vvas at the meeting vvhen thou and thy Officers vvere there One of thy Officers hall'd her rudely towards thee bidding her come along another was behind puting her forwards which being beyond what she was able to do being very big as aforesaid it hurt her and in her face it vvas discovered presently and was so in the observation of some friends present who were about to call on thy Officers for halling her after that manner So she went home ill and was delivered the next day and never was well afterwards but continued ill till the 14th day of the 6th Moneth on which day she dyed her Husband being then prisoner in Bridewell committed with the rest the day aforesaid Mary Knight was also committed on the same day to Bridewel and the next day being very ill was had to her masters house by thy suffrance where she died about twelve daies after of a violent feavour her body being brought to Bridewel from thence to be buried because she was a prisoner there bled afresh at the Nose for about an houre together the certain observation of the invisible judgement that that place was the caue of her death Yet thou wast not satisfied that thou hadst her life but her body being brought to Bridewell to be buried there as aforesaid and the woman of the house desiring thee to give leave to some of the prisoners to carry her to burial thou wast very much offended at its being brought thither and with the woman for that purpo e pose and despight said that if they wanted Bearers the Beadles should do it Thus was the Blood of the innocent shed and of three and an infant as the issue of one of thy daies work yet wast not thou glutted therewith but although that thou hadst committed these as aforesaid and laid up in the prisons heaps upon heaps though the prison was so unholsome so unsavoury though there was such danger of infection yet thou thoughtst the Prisoners were not straitned enough but ever and anon thou hadst the Jailor by the ears rating him as thou pleasedst and threatning him what should be done with him at the Sessions and that all that he had was forfeit to the King if he were worth thousands so that the man was in a great strait how to walk between the pleasing of thee who thirsted after their destruction and the health of the Prison and the prisoners unto whom the Sheriffs had such regard as to order additional lodgings as aforesaid and were willing upon a sober letter of one of the prisoners that they should have a little breath which was all they ask't whilest they were amongst you which is the thing you would have your selves and to have granted them the garden of T Gouldney aforesaid to walk in
subjection and obedience required in this Scripture is onely in things relating to the outward man and not at all of the subjection of the inward man in the things relating to the worship of God So said Edward Pyot but as he had spoken these last words Captain Ollive being then at the Tolzey came and rudely took him by the shoulder and would not suffer him to speak any more but caused him to be had to Newgate to the offence of several sober men present and men of quality who some of them after Edward Pyot was gone spake to him about it as disliking the thing that men for their consciences should not be suffered to speak or that men should suffer for their Consciences which he and every man would willingly for himself enjoy but herein he shewed himself rather a man made up of formality and the authority of the times than of true wisdome and moderation so to deal with one that he knew was a man and his antient acquaintance and that had been a Captain in the City Then George Bishop and Lewis Rogers were committed for being at an unlawful meeting under pretence of divine worship and for refusing to dissolve being thereunto lawfully required and for not finding sureties for the good behaviour Dated the same day and signed by thy self and the rest that signed the warrant aforesaid though they were all taken up in the street near to and at the door of our meeting house where all were still and not one word spoken nor action done onely they with some others of their friends were there standing and then Captain Hicks spake to them to depart they refused not but presently went with the Officers in a manner as soon as Captain Hicks had faintly made the Proclamation for that purpose As for Thomas Goldney and the rest except Nathaniel Milner who being not in the List of the Prisoners kept at Bridewell was not there kept you required them to appear on the fourth day of that week upon the account of Burgesses of the City who appearing you bad to go home about their occasions so there was an end And why not Edward Pyot and George Bishop as well as they seeing they were Citizens and why not Lewis Rogers seeing he was the apprentice of a freeman and that his Masters family depended upon his labour in part for maintenance against whom thou hadst nothing to say whose name is Joseph Owen Was it not hard measure in thee to make the master suffer for the servant yea the master and not the servant for the servant was thereby kept from work and so would not suffer but they would suffer whose maintenance in part came in by his work as thou wast told And because thou wast so told in moderation and meekness by one of the Prisoners thou tookest the Statute book and demanded of him who so spake to thee whether he would take the Oath of Alegiance the usual manner of thy Predecessors in the dayes of Queen Mary who when they knew not what to say against a man or what was spoken presently it was demanded What say you to the Sacrament of the Altar as the book of Martyrs mentions He who spake to thee was George Bishop who demanded thereupon of thee whether what he had said was so offensive as that it deserved the tendring of him the Oath but thou wouldst not give over tendring it notwithstanding till he told you that you knew he could not swear vvho before he spake in this matter of tenderness and equity had not the Oath put to him And now let all that are sober judge whether what he spake was not reasonable and that which should have been taken well at your hands to wit to inform how the matter stood with the young man that so you might not do any wrong through mistakes or ignorance which though he did as aforesaid with all meekness and moderation yet with you it bore no other weight then to be so returned So you have the Oath of Alegiance upon all essayes as a weapon in your hand at this day to use to them that you know in Conscience cannot swear as they had in the Marian which you exercise at pleasure upon the innocent when you have nothing else to say or when what is said doth not like you as they did then who thus carried it against the inocent as it is by you at this day So ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them that put to death the Martyrs fill ye up then the measure of your fathers that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias who you slew between the Temple and the Altar and that hath been shed since may come upon you and verily it shall fall on this generation And why could not John Spoore have been sent home also he being a poor man and living in the Countrey near and having a family depending upon his liberty for his maintenance One would think thou mightest have left the strangers to their own Neighbour Justices to deal with them who knew them seeing the Law is general And why not all of them sent home as well as some for as much as all were at the same place and stayed as long or longer then they and did no other thing but what the others had done vvhom thou hadst sent to Newgate as aforesaid If thou sayest Edward Pyott lived not in the City though he was a Burgess it is answered his living is very near as aforesaid And 't is strange that a miles distance should set him altogether from being considered as a Burgess in this particular who removed there only for the aire when as in other things you will deal with him as a Burgess and with George Bishopp you dealt the same as to imprisonment vvho vvas a Burgess and lived in the City and vvas born in it who had done more for you and the City then is here intended to be related though in recompence and as a token of your love you made him the only inhabiting Citizen prisoner as Alderman Cale then observed to you If thou sayest they vvere taken up a week or two before and set at liberty and now were had in Custody again It is answered the rest vvere in the same places and at the same time present and yet neither imprisoned nor so dealt vvith If thou repliest it was to make them Examples being accounted as leading men and as heads as you call them Alas how are ye befooled vvhen as daily experience proves that those people have a head and leader in them whom none of these things thou hast devized and used take in this to the number hath deterred from but rather brought to meetings And herein you have honoured them though against your wills in accounting them by your proceedings Leaders and Heads of such a people who stand to and testifie the
the next day thou committedst to Newgate for being at an unlawful assewbly under pretence of Religious worship on Sunday the 12th of June in the time of divine service and for resisting the Officers who were to disperse them and refusing to give sureties for their appearance the next Sessions and in the mean time to be of the good behaviour Signed John Knight Mayor Hen. Creswick Nath. Cale dated 13th June 1664. And this was the Sabboth dayes work of thy officers whom thou sentest on this errand breaking the peace and confirmedst after they had done it who yet pretendedst to the keeping of the Sabbath and criest out upon us for breaking the Sabbath in meeting on that day to wait upon the Lord the work as your selves accounted it of the Sabbath and for coming to town on which day to save a womans life who was in travel thou causest a horse of a man-midwife to be detained till he had paid a fine for riding on that day for that purpose being sent for in hast Richard Blackborrow Brewer thy neighbour and yet thou couldst send a Capias on that day newly taken out of the Court for the wax was wet to detain Robert Steward that was brought to Newgate late the night before in a debt of thy brother in law Duckets of 200 l. who cryest out of the breach of the Sabbath thou Hypocrite who makest Sabbath and Law and all what thou pleasest who shewest of what Religion thou art towards God by these things as of Loyalty to the Law and thy Prince by the other but of this more hereafter And yet thou wast mistaken in thy warrant and shewed thy self thereby how wrong thou didst run even as a man headlong into any thing that seem'd to serve thy end talking of resisting and not dispersing when as the new law which enabled to such things was not then in force and there was no other as we know of that so enabled yet this is the usage that we and our peaceable meetings receive from the hands of thy officers and this is the Justice we receive at thy hands to have thy confirmation of what thy officers have done and all the remedy we have but we leave it to the Lord who will render unto you according to your deeds Now drew on the 1. of the 5. month called July famous for the date of the new Act on which it took place and became in force which thou hadst so much longed for and for the accomplishing of which thou hadst so much trudged for which thou shalt have thy reward from the hand of the Lord and now the day being come having before hand caused the Constables to be warned and the meeting being on the first day of the week and the third of that month thou sentest thy Officers first to bid them to depart to take nams who took away John Moon to Bridewel as he was then declaring in the words of soberness and truth and between the first and second houre in the afternoon thou camest thy self attended with Alder. Lock and Alder. Lawford the other Aldermen it seems being out of the way or not caring to be about such work as this and at the door of our meeting house in the street being set down with them and the Sheriffs thou didst cause an O Yes to be made in the form of a Court one which day no Courts are used to be kept in England who talkest so much of the Sabbath and chargest us with profaning the day because we meet thereon to wait upon the Lord the work of the day as you use to say upon the day and madest the manmidwife pay the fine for coming that day to town as aforesaid the effect of a murderous spirit shewn under the pretence of Religion and conscience to the observation of the Law as did the Pharisees who put him to death who was the end of the Law who healed on that day whom he convinced of the contrary in the example of David in the shew-bread and their own in taking an oxe or an asse out of a pit and sent'st the Capias in thy brother Ducket's behalf on that day as hath been said and to adde no more didst constrain Christopher Woodward to bring upon the foot of a Mortgage payable on that day of the week his mony to the Tolzey whether he was on that day necessitated to bring it least thou shouldst take advantage of the forfeiture of the Mortgage who otherwise wouldst not give him encouragement to accept it when he spake with thee thereabouts and is not this Hypocrisie and that which is like thee in all thy actions pretend conscience and do the contrary In which we shall farther trace thee ere this relation be over Well the Court being set as aforesaid in the nature of a Piepowder one thou sent'st the Constables and Officers up into the Meeting who brought down the men first whom thou didst Maunder at as thou pleasedst and then demanding of some of them mony for of several thou didst not and yet sentest them to prison contrary to Law 10 s. 2 s. 6 d. and of some 6 d. ye 2 d. which they not answering thou sentest some to Newgate some to Bridewel Then the Women were brought down whom thou servedst after the same manner many of them not being fined then nor so much as asked Whether they would pay any Mony though the Law places Imprisonment in default of payment of the fine and not otherwise vvhich practice thou didst use many times after but have them away have them away vvas thy cry and to Bridewel and to Newgate vvere many of them also carried though it is contrary to Law also to make a man suffer twice for one offence vvhich thou madest them to do in committing them for being at a Meeting one day and the next day fining them as by and by shall be related for doing of the same so making the Law a nose of wax bowing and bending it as thou pleasest and yet pretending as to vvhat thou didst to us Conscience to the Law About four hours time thou tookest up in this thy New found vvay of Justice sending Men and Women in heaps to both prisons on this account some Husbands one vvhere their Wives another some Servants vvhere their Masters and Mistrisses vvere not some old some young some under-age by the Law some Women with Child and so big that they knew not of an hour to go and this to Bridewel and yet others vvho were of age thou vvouldst not account so but placest them under having a mind to excuse them and yet thou pretendest Conscience and thou say'st Thou must not be partial and thou must execute the Law and thou must keep thy Oath and though others fail of their duty yet thou must not Thus like the Pharisees making thy Philacteries broad but the Exposition of the Law narrow or none at all as thou pleasest yet thou could'st not accomplish thine end