Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_n	letter_n	london_n	833	5	7.4937	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88237	A preparative to an hue and cry after Sir Arthur Haslerig, (a late Member of the forcibly dissolved House of Commons, and now the present wicked, bloody, and tyrannicall governor of Newcastle upon Tine) for his severall ways attempting to murder, and by base plots, conspiracies and false witnesse to take away the life of Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburn now prisoner in the Tower of London: as also for his felonious robbing the said Lieut Col. John Lilburn of betwixt 24 and 2500 l. by the meer power of his own will, ... In which action alone, he the said Haslerig hath outstript the Earl of Strafford, in traiterously subverting the fundamentall liberties of England, ... and better and more justly deserves to die therefore, then ever the Earl of Strafford did ... by which tyrannicall actions the said Haslerig is become a polecat, a fox, and a wolf, ... and may and ought to be knockt on the head therefore, ... / All which the said Lieutenant Col. John Lilburn hath cleerly and evidently evinced in his following epistle of the 18 of August 1649, to his uncle George Lilburn Esquire of Sunderland, in the county of Durham.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2162; Thomason E573_16; ESTC R12119	55,497	45

almost confident of gaining it Then shall we be in a condition to furnish our selves with Armes and have a place of retreat upon any occasion And untill such a thing be done it will not be wisdome in any publickly to appear You will conclude the like or any rationall man therefore my request to you is that you would seriously weigh and take into your consideration this my Letter and returne me your absolute answer by my Porter But if I should be so foolish as accidentally to speak a word or so he is so honest that it passeth no further the experience I have had of him assureth me as much Moreover if you should require a longer time in returning me an answer of what I desire my lodging is in Aldersgate street in Trinity Court at one Master Edward Pearse his house hard by Aldersgate therefore whom you are pleased to send to me may there finde me But in these dangerous times we cannot be too cautious in our Company therefore unlesse I am well a assured that they that shall treat with mee in your behalfe come really from you I shall be very sparing in unfolding my minde therefore I pray send me a token in writing by my Porter that he which shall come to me as from you may deliver me the same token then shall I not be sparing to let him know my resolution I dare not come to the Tower least there should be notice taken (*) (*) And yet at the same time had Bradshaws and Frosts Commission to write this Letter O pure Rogue of me Thus have I in part made a discovery of my mind unto you though to you not very well known I am the more sorry for it For seriously all the acquaintance that ever I had with you was in the Tower where I had the happinesse three or foure times to bee in your company in my honored friend Sir Iohn Maynard his Chamber I know not whether you may call me to mind or no but really you wil finde a most trusty secret and a most obliging friend and servant of May thee 8th 1648. THO. VERNEY I beseech you deale as freely with me as I have with you But returning a considering answer to this judging the Author at the first view a Knave I enquired of a Presbiterian friend of Sir Iohn Maynards whether he knew the man or no who told me that a quondam fellow prisoner of mine had lately sent word out of the Low-Countries that this man was empl●yed by those of Darby-House to lay a Trap to ship the Prince and send him over unto them to England to destroy him but the next day being made a kinde of a close prisoner by the restraint of my friends and inhabitants of the Tower upon my stayers stopt the originall of these following lines in my hand For my esteemed good friend Colonel John Lilburne these present Sir MY Porter was at the Tower this morning thinking to have admittance in but they would not suffer him which hath much troubled me but being well acquainted with this Gentleman one of the Coyners in the Tower I have prevailed with him to deliver you this Note beseeching you to returne an answer of the former in writing (*) (*) The answering of which in any kind had apparently hazarded my life sealed up and this my friend will see that it first 〈◊〉 safe to my hand I pray use meanes to burn my Letter as I shall cruel yours for feare of the worst and you shall extreamly oblige a most faithfull Servitor of May 9th 1649. THO. VERNEY Much newes abroad but I dare not commit to Paper Upon receeipt of this I was more confirm'd in my own mind he was a Cheat but having not absolute proofs of my thoughts I judg'd it the most safe way for me to sit still and return no written answer nor yet much reveal him So within two dayes after he sent me a third Letter the Copy of which thus followeth SIr by a Monyers meanes I gate leave to come in thinking to have had the good fortune to have had an hours discourse with you but I found I could not obtaine my desire with safety either for you or my selfe upon that I departed and leaving you this note by the which you may the better know of my willingnes to engage with you assuring you that my friendship shall be advantageous My desire is to receive a full answer of my first Letter which I sent by my Porter Ric. Vaughan whose name you have taken If then inke and paper be kept from you I am confident as yet your speech is not nor I hope will not therfore you may desire a friend whom you have a good confidence of to treat with me in your behalfe and I doubt not but to give him satisfaction to your and the Common-wealths good content But as I told you in my first letter so I do in this which is that unlesse I can receive a certaine token from you that you really send him I shall be very sparing in my discourse Yesterday morning I received a Letter from one Master William Parkins whom I do not all know and in that he advertized me that he was desired by your self to signifie unto me that it was your desire to have me speedily to r●pair into Buckingham-shire to engage my friends in your behalfe and how that he was going thither himselfe If that be true I pray use a speedy meanes add let me know asmuch and let me but receive a Letter from you to any one of quality in that County that is of your party that we may advise together and you will finde that you have a most faithfull Servant of 11 of May 1649. THO. VERNEY This M. Parkins specified in his Letter that I should finde him at the George at Ailsbury where your friends and my self should meet and advise about ingaging the Country IF I AM BETRAYD I pray let me know the truth from you Upon the receipt of which third Letter I was absolutely of opinion he was a perfect Knave and Cheat and especially by reason of the afore mentioned Parkins who to my knowledge is a Man I never saw nor heard of before But with the Letter I received a Message That at such a ho●s● in the Tower there was a Gentleman must needs speak with me about earnest businesse which I presently judged to be the fore-mentioned Thomas Verney and as I was going to him I met accidentally a Gentleman formerly of the Kings party and enquired of him if he knew one M. Tho. Verney a Knights Son or no And he told me that a Knight of the Kings party had lately told him that Sir Edward Verney the Kings Standard-bearer had a son lately come from the Hague which was looked upon to be a very odd strange light kinde of fellow but yet to the Cavaliers pretended to be some kind of Agent from the Prince Whereupon I told the Gentleman the

grounds and reasons wherefore I asked him But this Reply increased more jealousie in me that this VERNEY was a perfect Rogue indeed and so to VERNEY himself I went who upon discourse told me he had formerly five yeers agoe been of the Kings party and that his Father was slain at Edg-hill being the Kings Standard-bearer So I told him I had read three Letters from him which he confessed he had sent to me But I also told him having Mr. Walwyn and Mr. Overton with me I wondred how he durst write such lines to me as he did But he asked wherefore I told him Because he was a meer stranger unto me and there were such lines as if were he not one of DERBY-HOUSE Agents might cost him his life But he said he kn●w me to be so honest I durst do him no mischief And for being one of DERBY-HOUSE Agents he as much abhorred them as I did and I wonder said he I having been in Arms for the King how you should imagine they would be so silly to trust me with any of their secrets which they must do if I were their Agent Sir said I It is no wonder that wicked men make use of any instruments to accomplish their base ends and you having been for the King are the more likely to deceive other men and the more unsuspected to work their ends and money we all know is so tempting a thing that it will make men of b●se spirits change their principles yet though it be to the destruction of their Fathers and nighest Relations and why you may not be such a one I have too plain demonstrations to beleeve And for that part of the irrationability of their trusting you having been a Cavalier Why may they not as well trust and imploy you as their Agent as Parson KEM who now is their active and hired Agent as from very good hand I fully know although its notorious he was an active man last yeer in the rebellion of Kent and a notable Agent in the revolt of the Ships But Sir to be plain with you I tell you You are a jaggling Knave and I could finde in my heart to lay hold on you for a knave and carry you pre●ently before the Lieutenant of the Tower with your own Letters And that you are a Knave I have these informations to beleeve You were lately at the Hague at the Princes Court which he confessed and there you were imployed by some belonging to the Committee of DERBY-HOUSE to lay a designe to get the PRINCE a ship-board and send him for England to lose his head And this was sent over by some exiled Presbyter Gentleman to his friends in London A Citizen of London and a Colonel told me this the other day and a Gentlemen Cavalier bid me beware of you for a Knave At which the Gentleman with the impudentest face and undaunted countenance that I have seen denyed all but confessed he knew Parson KEM and did beleeve him to be a Derby House Agent and meeting with him the other day in Westminster Hall he did confesse that KEM told him Men reported asmuch of him as I now told him to his face But with his much reasoning with my self Mr. Walwyn and Mr. Overton who went on purpose with me to him as fearing he came either to stab or poyson me in a cup of wine or the like he justified his integritie hoping I would not so violate the Rules of societie and man-hood as to betray him and so undo him and his friends especially my friend Sir JOHN MAYNARD who he often pretended was bound in grea● bonds for him before he could get his liberty and to this day so continued So telling him his own to the purpose I left him for a Knave although Mr. Walwyn especially pressed hard to have him laid hold of But being desirous yet to trace him a little further for many reasons I can give I let him alone But yet for my own safety the next day before all my three fellow-Prisoners I fully informed the Lieutenant of the Tower of the businesse before an Officer of the Army then Captain of the Guard and desired him to acquaint the Committee of State with that for I had the Letters and told him I would produce and avouch them and another time the Lieutenant of the Tower since I was close being in my Chamber I told him again of it and proffered him the Originall Letters which he seemed not willing to meddle with so I have ●ested since till the 29 of June last upon which day I wrote a Letter to Master Hunt of Whitehall and sent him an exact Copie of Verneys foregoing Letters and my foregoing Observations upon them which Letter of Mr. Hunts I intreat you seriously to read in p. 8. of my Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwell c. And not many daies after Captain Den●y Serjeant at Armes to the thing called the Councel of State came with a pretended Warrant to search my Chamber by whose hands for a token I sent an Exact Copie of all I had sent to Master Hunt of Verney● to his Master Mr. John Bradshaw c. which although I have long since as before you see again and again acquainted Bradshaw and other of Haslerig Associates with VERNEYS Letters c. Yet the said VERNEY continues as great with Bradshaw and others at the thing called the COUNCIL OF STATE to this very day as if he were their ALPHA and OMEGA which is a clear proof of their designingly setting him at worke whom they a little before sent out by expresse Commission in a Man of War to 〈◊〉 where at his coming to the Hague he had presently as groundedly it is sa●● got something like a Commission from the Prince but being at his Court discovered for a Traytor to him he in haste took his leave there and at his departure shook hands with an a●quaintance of his and ●id him farewell he was in haste for he was betrayd So coming into England Hasleri● c. having tempted by offered bribes the foresaid honest M Blank to swear fasly against me he and Bradshaw or other of then brethren in evill commissionated the said villanous Thomas Verney to write Letters to me the which if under my hand I had answered or sent a friend as he desired to treat with him then might they easily have searched his chamber and there found some kind of Commission from the Prince to the said Verney to authorise him to be his Agent in England for which Verney might have been in some seeming danger and pretendingly to save himself might have produced my Letter and also swore according to the largeness of his conscience what he had pleased against me which might have been look'd upon by Haslerig and Bradshaw c. as crime enough to have hanged me up without any more adoe for corresponding with their declared Traytor the PRINCE seeing they could not as they earnestly desired murder me

my zealous and forward Judges and when Warned James Ingram came to the B●● of the Court of Wards and brought Master Herne ●●h C●uncellor to plead for the Lords and in excuse of himself● who st●sly insisted in a high manner upon the orders and decrees of Star-Chamber upon which I very well remember Sir Arthur with a great deale of indignation said unto Herne I value not a Decree of the Lords in Star-Chamber a rush if it be not expresly according to the tenor of their commission the Law and I further tell you it is a ridiculous thing Sir to summon Parliaments to meet together to make Laws if the Lords decrees in Star-Chamber against law should be bind●ng and therefore although you have proved for your Clyant Master Ingram that the Lords in open Court the Court sitting commanded him on the Pillory to gagg Master Lilburn● yet for speaking against them I tell you by law that order ought to have been in writing according to the custom of the Court which you confesse it was not and therefore Master Ingram must smart for his executing of orders on M. Lilburne made illegally and fan hearing and examining of all my foresaid sufferings and complaints troubles and the warres came on and being in my own conscience folly satisfied of the justness● of the Parliaments then cause in the height of zeale accompanied with judgment and conscience upon the principles I have largely laid down in the 26. 27. 75. 76 pages of my book of the 8th of June 1649. intituled Englands legal fundamentall c. I took up Armes for them and fought heartily and faithfully in their quarrel for maintaining of which I had like to have been hanged at Oxford while during my in prisonnment there I lost 5 or 600 l. out of my estate at London till the p●esent Earle of Manchester had like to have hanged me for being a little to quick in taking in Tikell Castle which spoyled a souldier of me ever since after which in the year 1648. I followed the House of Commons close to transmit my foresaid votes to the Lords which with much difficulty occasioned chiefly by Mr William Prinne and other his zealous Presbyterian frien●s I got by peice-meales transmitted where by reason of Manchesters interest I might have expected long delay yet I found quick dispatch and upon the 1 of December 1645 by specially decree they took off the fine set upon me by the Starchamber and afterwards I got the whole vote transmitted who at their open Barre Judicially upon the 13 of February 1645. appointed me a solemn hearing de novo of the whole matter and assigned Mr. John Bradshaw and Mr. John Cook for my counsell who with abundance of witnesses accordingly appeared where Mr. Bradshaw did most notably open the Starchamber injustice towards me but especially their (*) Whose very words all are recorded by M. John Cook in his printed Relation of that dayes proceedings before the Lords who in the 3 page thereof upon the reading of the Star-chamber sentence against me most truly recites Mr. Bradshaws observations in these very words viz. that the said sentence was felo de se guilty of its own death the ground whereof being because Mr Lilburne refused to take an oath to answer to all such questions as should be demanded of him It being so contrary to the Lawes of God Nature and the Kingdom for any man to be his own accuser and yet the same Mr. Bradshaw after he hath most illegally taken away the Kings life and drenched his hands in his blood commits me then to prison for suspition of Treason meerely for refusing to answer to a question that he himself demanded of me as fully appears in the 2 edition of my picture of the Councell of state pag 10. 11. 16. ex officio or interogatogatory proceedings with me and produced my witnesses upon oath punctually to prove every head of his argument Upon which full hearing the Lords made a notable decree and adjudged and declared tho said proceedings of the said Star chamber against the said John Lilburn to be illegall and most unjust and against the Liberty of the Subject and Law of the Land and Magna Charta and unfit to continue upon record But not assigning me any reparations in that Decree the doing of which the House of Commons left unto them and the Lords according to former custome looked upon to be their right in law to do whereupon I got Mr. John Cook to draw me up that dayes work with most pregnant and notable aggravations which I printed and presented a few dayes after to every one of the Lords praying their assigning me particular reparations according to Law and Justice out of the Estates of my unjust Judges that had done me so much wrong upon which new addresse to them they did upon the fifth of March 1645. order and decree and assigned to be paid unto the said John Lilburne the summe of ten thousand pounds for his Reparations which for many reasons as there being ayding in the warres to the King c. they fixed upon the Estates reall and personall of Francis Lord Cottington Sir Francis Windebank and James Ingram late Deputy Warden of the Fleet and afterwards by an other Decree for the present levying thereof out of their lands at eight yeers purchase as they were before the Warres with the allowance of Interest at 8 l per centum per annum in case of obstruction for all or any part of it and to this purchase caused an Ordinance to be drawn up which fully passed their House the 15 20 and 27. of Aprill 1646. and afterwards transmitted it to the House of Commons where by reason of my bloody adversary old Sir Henry Vains Interests and of my imprisonment by Manchesters means in the Tower of London it lay asleep till the 1. of August 1648 at which time 7. or 8000. of my true friends in London signed and caused to be delivered a Petition to the House of Commons for my Liberty and the passing of the said Ordinance which Petition is since printed with the Speech of my true Friend Sir John Maynard upon it And in reference to which Ordinance the House made this Order Die Martis 1 August 1648. Sir JOHN MAYNARD Sir PETER WENTVVORTH Lord CARRE Col. BOSVVEL Col. LUDLOVV Mr HOLLAND Mr COPLEY IT is referred to this Committee or any five of them to consider how Colonel John Lilburn may have such satisfaction and allowance for his sufferings and losses as was formerly intended him by this House Henry Elsynge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com. Upon which Order I got the Committee to meet and preferred a Petition to them the true copy of which followeth in my addresse to every individuall Member daied 4 of September 1648. Upon which Petition at my discourse with them the Parliament having disposed of all that part of the Lord COTTINGTONS estate that I should have had unto the Lord SEY and also compounded with

Jones And after the barbarous execution of this Sentence being April 18. 1638. the said Lord Coventry Arch bishop of Canterbury Bishop of London Earl of Manchester Earl of Arundel Earl of Salisbury Lord Conington Lord Newburgh Secretary Cook and Windebank passed another Sentence in effect for the Starving of your Petitioner and for the tormenting of him with irons upon both hands and legs both night and day and by keeping him close in the comm●n Gacle of the Fleet from the speech of any of his friends all which was executed with the greatest cruelty that could be for the space of almost three yeers together to the apparant hazard of his life both by starving him which was with all art and industry severall wayes attempted and also by severall assaults made upon him by the said Wardens men instigated thereunto by the said Deputy Warden to the maiming and wounding him whereby to this day he is totally deprived of the use of two of his fingers All which with much more too tedious to be here inserted was fully proved by sufficient witnesses before a Committee of your House whereof M. Francis Rous had the Chair upon whose report made May 4. 1641 your House voted That the Sentence in the Star-chamber given against the said John Lilburn and all the proceedings thereupon was illegall and against the liberty of the Subject and also bloody wicked cruell barbarous and tyrannicall and that he ought to have good Repa●ations therefore Which Votes by reason of multiplicity of businesse in your House cost your Petitioner some yeers of importunate and chargeable attendance to get them transmitted to the Lords which was obtained in February 1645. the 13 day of which month your Petitioners whole cause was effectually opened at the Lords Bar by his learned Councel M. John Bradshaw and M. John Cook and there every particular again proved upon Oath by testimony of people of very good quality whereupon they concurred in all things with the House of Commons saving in the matter of Reparation But upon the delivery of a true narrative the Copy whereof is hereunto annexed which your Petitioner with his own hands in the same month delivered unto every individuall Lord they made a further Decree that your Petitioner should have 2000 l. reparations out of the estates of the said Lord Cottington Sir Francis Windebank and James Ingram for the reasons alledged in an Ordina●ce which they passed in April 1646 and transmitted to your House where it hath lain dormant ever since and is now referred to the consideration of this Honorable Committee Now forasmuch as by the judicial Laws of God which are the pure laws of right reason he that wilfully harteth his neighbour is bound to the performance of these five things First If it be a blemish or wound Like for like or to redeem it with money thereby to satisfie him for his wound Secondly For his pain and torment Thirdly For the healing Fourthly For his losse of time in his calling Fifthly For the shame and disgrace all which are to be considered according to the quality of the person damnified which reparations are to be paid out of the best of the goods of him that damnified him and that without delay And as the Law of God so the Laws of this Nation doth abhorre and hath severely punished above all persons Judges many times with the losse of their ‖ ‖ ‖ See notably to this purpose those pregnant instances in my Epistle to my nick named Levelling friends usually meeting at the Whalebone in Lothbury behind the Exchange dated From my close imprisonment in the Tower of London the 17 of July and recorded in my Impeachment of high-Treason against Oliver Cromwel c. pag. 6. 7. 8. lives and estates who under colour of Law have violated their Oaths and destroyed the lives liberties and properties of the People whom by law they should have preserved as may be instanced by the 44 Judges and Justices hanged in one yeer by King Alfred divers of them for lesse crimes then hath been done in this case of your Petitioner as may be read in the Law-book called The Mirrour of Justice pag. 239. 240. 241. translated and re-printed this very Parliament and by Justice Thorp in Edw the third his time who was condemned to death for the violation of his Oath for taking small summs of money in Causes depending before him as appears in the 3 part of Cooks Institute fol. 155.156 And by the Lord chief Justice Tresilian c. who in full Parliament in Rich. the seconds time was attached as a Traitor in the forenoon and had his throat cut at Tyburn in the afternoon because he had given it under his hand that the King might create unto himself as his pleasure another rule to walk by then the Law of the Land prescribes him as appears by the Parliament Records in the Tower by many of your own Declarations and also by the Chronicles of England Now forasmuch as your Petitioners sufferings hath been unparalel'd and his prejudice sustained thereby altogether unrepatrable having lost his limbe c. And forasmuch as by the Law of God Nature and Nations reparations for hurts and damages received ought to be satisfied as far as may be in all persons though done by a●cident and not intentionally and though through ignorance much more when the Persons offending did it knowingly and on purpose in the face nay in the spight of the fundamentall Laws of the Land which they were swoon to preserve And for that the reparations in the said Ordinance assigned doth scarce amount to what your Petitioner spent in his three yeers sad captivity and his now almost eight yeers chargeable attendance ●n suing for it besides the losse of a rich and profitable trade for eleven yeers together and his wounds torments smart and disgrace sustained by his said Tyannicall sentences He therefore humbly prayeth the favour and Justice of this honorable Committee for some considerable augmentation of his said Reparations and the rather because his fellow sufferer Doctor B●stwick had 4000 l. reparations alotted him whose sufferings he submissively conceiveth was nothing nigh so great in torment pain and shame as your Petitioners And forasmuch as the now Lord Coventry son and heir to the foresaid Lord Coventry hath walked in his Father Steps in enmity to the Laws Liberties and freedom of the Nation by being in arms at the beginning of the Wars against the Parliament and made his peace with the Earl of Essex for a small matter hath since disened the Kingdom living in France privately receiving the profits of a vast estate which his Father left him And forasmuch as his said Father the late Lord Coventry was the activest man in infringing the Laws and liberties of the Nation although a Lawyer and Judge sitting on the supream seat of justice and a person as is groundedly conceived who got a great estate by corruption and particularly a man

this Committee you were pleased to write to the Committee of Sequestrations of the County of Durham to make Certificates to this Committee of the estates of new Delinquents in their County who by their Letter and Certificates of the 12. of October present certifie of the clear delinquency of Sir Henry Gibb Knight Sir Henry Bellingham Knight and Baronet and Thomas Bows Esquire all of whom have reall estates in the said County of Durham the obtaining of which Certificate cost your Petitioner a tedious and chargeable journey into those parts That your Petitioner for divers weighty reasons in his own thoughts fixed principally upon the estate of Sir Henry Gibb but having been with divers and severall Counsellours learned in the Law of England he clearly finds that in Law strictly his nor no other Delinquents Lands can immediately be made over absolutely to your Petitioner and his heirs for ever without such clauses of reservation as may totally indanger your Petitioner within a few moneths to lose the fruit of his almo●t eight yeares extraordinary chargeable attendance for justice in the premises in your House the termes of the conveyance in law being so ticklish that your Petitioner would not willingly give one yeares purchase for land so conveyed Wherefore and in regard your Petitioner cannot believe that your House intends him a●fiction without a● substance for his already twice voted 3000. l. reparation he 〈…〉 humbly prayeth that he may receive your honourable assistance for the immediate 〈◊〉 of an Ordinance for your Petitioner to receive 8. l. per centum per annum for 〈◊〉 forbearance of his money from the hands of the Committee of Sequestrations of the County of Durham arising out of the estates sequestred in the said County of the said S● Henry Gibb Sir Henry Bellingham and Thomas Bows Esquire beginning at the 25. of March ●●st past and that the residue of the profits of the lands woods or other goods of the forsaid persons lying in the said County may as they arise go to the paiment of your Petitioner his said 3000. l. till it be fully paid with an assurance unto 〈◊〉 P●●●t●●ner that in case any or all of them compound with the Parliament for their delinquency that so much of your petitioner reparations as thou shall remaine may be sat●●●●ed and paid out of their compositions And your Petitioner shall pray c. John Lilburne W●ich Petition of mine the Committee granted and caused an Ordinance accordingly to be drawn up very fully on●ly my back friend John Blaxston and my unkle M George Lilburne being sorely falled out the man indeavoured to revenge himselfe of me and busled so hard against me in the House as that he got all consideration for the fu●u●e forbearance of my money dasht out which I was fain to beare with patience at the present being not able to help my self and as I remember it was read and past the second time but the streame of the House running after the personall Treaty with the supposition or jealousie of divers of my acquaintance and former friends amongst those men that I had too deep a hand in the late London Petition of 11. September 1648. which seemed to them to be a choak peare to the Treaty and they conceiving that I still pursued the same ends made the chariot wheels of the finishing of my Ordinance to got heavier then they used to do so that for my blood I totally could not get fit to passe the House of Commons in October 1648. and other businesse of the Army coming on I left looking after my Ordinance and visibly and totally devoted my self to an industrious indeavour to see if I with any other nicknamed levelling friends could prevent another cheat by the Army who promised faire in their large Remonstrance from S. Albans of 16. Novemb. 1648. pag. 66 67 68. but especially in their most remarkable Declaration shewing the reasons of their last advance to London the true narrative of my proceedings with them and their friends you may read in the 2. edition of my book of the 8. of June 1649. intituled The legall fundamentall Liberties of the People of England received asserted and vindicated pag. 33 34 35 36 37 38. which pages I intreat you seriously to read and with them I continued very diligently and closely following them to see if it were possible to get them consent to the setling of the Kingdome upon the bases and foundations of the principles of true freedom and justice by an * The speedy doing of which they both publikely and privately as solemnly promised and ingaged to perform as almost it was possible for men to doe as clearly you may fully read in their two last forementioned Declarations but especially that of the reasons of their last advance to London which being but short I have herewith sent you and intreat you most seriously to peruse as a cleare and everlasting testimony against their present wretched and apostatized basenesse Agreement of the People that had not fought against their Freedoms the onely and alone just cure of all Englands maladies not onely in my thoughts then but still at this present day but when I apparently and visibly saw their jugling and cheating of which I with out feare told them as you may read in pag. 39 40. of my last named books I say at the perceiving of their basenesse I judged it Impossible for me ever to get my Ordinance fully passe unlesse I would be their slave and vassall which Harrison Sir William Constable and Sir Hardresse Wader at their first coming to Whitehall laboured to get me to be and to ingage my pen for them but my positive answer to them all three face to face in their chamber was That I would as soon ingage for the Turk as for them unlesse they would come to a righteous center where they would fixedly acquiesce before they so much as attempted the medling with those great things they intended as the breaking the House and taking off the Kings hea● I say perceiving they were resolved to be knaves in the highest and to go through with their intended resolutions what ever it cost I thought it best for me to stir before all their fears and troubles were over to get my Ordinance fully to passe before they fully got up into the throne being confident if I staid till they had got their 〈◊〉 businesse about the King over I should never get it passe then but upon implicit ingagements to be their slave which I us much abhorred as I did the cutting of my own 〈◊〉 and therefore I put pen to paper and write a netling Letter to the Speaker about it being resolved to lay my bones at their door in the pursuit of it and its effect it had for as I remember the next day my Ordinance was transmitted to the Lords the copy of which Letter thus followeth M. Speaker THough I cannot challenge much interest in you yet being a suffering

my life as is truly noted and declared before pag. 7. 8. 9. 10. ' O brave Arthur whom for his base and villanous wicked dealings with me c. I hope not onely to scare but also really to scourge and thereby put him into a greater fright then he was in when the Earle of Stamford a lesser man then himself tamed him as he was going to his house nigh Islington although he had his sword by his side of which a few days after like a poor cowardly School boy with little better then his finger in his eye he complained of to his Masters or Associates in the House of Commons And as for your desire in your letter for me a few dayes to come downe to look after my owne businesse my selfe I cannot but return you this answer First If I would I cannot for I am not absolutely at liberty as you suppose onely I have liberty upon the day time to go see my distressed wife and family which I procured not upon a petition to the house ' as their Friday Newes-monger Henry Walker that lying and base fellow with other falshoods about me hath lately printed but upon a letter the Copy of which thus followeth For my honoured and noble friends the Lord Grey of Groby Colonel Henry Martin Col. Francis Russell Capt. Fry or any of them these present My Lord and Gentlemen A Greater triall then ever I had upon me in my life forces and compells me to bee troublesome unto you or else I should not have presumed to have put you upon so unwelcome an imployment as to make a publike Motion for a man so despicable and obnoxious to the eyes of the great men in present power as I am but necessity hath no Law and therefore I must acquaint you that the over-ruling disposing hand of him that without whose over-ruling providence the meanest hair of my head shall not fall to the ground hath so pleased to lay his visiting hand upon my eldest son by a violent sicknes for this 3. weeks and my selfe being very dear to the poor boy continually in his sicknes to the exceeding spending of his spirits CRYED OUT TO SEE HIS FATHER OR BEE CARRIED TO PRISON TO HIM and upon Saturday was sevennight my child being very ill all night crying scores and some hundreds of times for his Father to come to him the knowledge of which in the morning very much pierced the bowels of his tender mother and supposing that if I could be got to come and see him it might much refresh his spirits and so ease the child of some of his extremitie of pain Upon Lords day after in the morning in little better then half a distempered condition she posted away to Mr. Holland to Sommerset house and with teares begged him to get me two or three daies liberty upon my Paroll to come and see him knowing he had if he pleased power enough to get it done and have since again and again sent to him but all in vain Truly Gentlemen I have often mused upon that saying of the Spirit of God Prov. 12.10 That the tender mercies of the wicked are cruelty but that the tender mercies of men professing God godlinesse and a publike Reformation of tyranny and cruelty should be so full of Barbarisme as to TORMENT THE POOR CHILD FOR THEIR INDIGNATION AGAINST ME HIS FATHER is that that 〈◊〉 m●● and amazeth me and makes death more desirable to me fully knowing in whom I do● beleeve then to live under such mens Government Sure I am the B●SHOPS in the days of the highest of Lands Tyranny had more bowels of compassion in ●●em to men in my case as I could instance and all my torments suffered by then I can never equall to this But how-ever I must be patient although my poor B●be ●●●●lain in the height of torment till this afternoon with HIS ABSENT FATHER CONTINUALLY IN HIS MOUTH so long as he had strength to speak of me 〈◊〉 whose sorrows and miseries with both my other childrens falling sick upon Sunday ●●st of the small Pocks the youngest of which sucks its mothers brests hath so overwhelmed her spirits that yester-night it brought her close to deaths doo● Of which when I understood to day I posted away to you four to BEG AND BESEECH YOU or any one of you at this great strait to make a Motion openly in your House 〈◊〉 little liberty for me to go see my distressed Wife and Children I CONFESSE I SHOULD NOT HAVE PUT YOU TO SUCH A TROUBLE FOR THE SAVING OF MY OVVN PARTICULAR LIFE But your House being risen the messenger brings me tidings of the death of my poor babe and the exceeding i●lnesse of my Wife and her exceeding desire to see me in her great distresse Therefore I earnestly beseech you as bowels of men dwell within you to make an effectuall and speedy Motion in your open House for a few dayes liberty for me to go see my distressed Wife giving satisfactory Security to the Lieutenant of the Tower for my faithfull return at the hour appointed Make your own terms as strict as you please FOR THOUGH I LIE IN A DUNGEON IN FETTERS OF IRON AT MY COMING BACK I care not so I may but see her So with my reall Service presented to you all four craving your pardon for my troubling of you for a Motion in your House which I know cannot be pleasing to you I take leave to rest From my close Imprisonment in the Tower of London this 17 of July 1649. SIRS Your affectionate and hearty Friend and Servant JOHN LILBURN Upon the delivery of which said Letter to Col. Henry Martin the other three which it was directed to being out of Town he procured this following Order Die Mercurii 18. July 1649. ORdered by the Commons assembled in Parliament that the Lieutenant of the Tower of London permit Lieut. Col. JOHN LILBURN to go out of the Tower to visit his Wife and Children being sick upon such security as the Lieutenant of the Tower shall think fit to render himself again to the prison of the Tower HENRY SCOBEL Cler. Parliament Secondly Being as I am although my not coming down would lose me six times as much as Haslerig hath a ready seised upon yet could I not be free in my own spirit against the dictates of which I will not go for all the world to addresse my self to those men for liberty to come down no nor so much as give my consent that any other shall do it for me But thirdly If I were absolutely at liberty I should scarce judge it either wisdom or discretion to come immediately under the armed power of a man that hath so thirsted after my blood and dealt so illegally and barbarously with me as Haslerig hath done in the face of the throng of my friends and without all question he that at London where I have more friends then Haslerig himself will not stick to run the hazards of going so many indirect wayes to work to take away my innocent life will make no bones himself to knock my brains out could he catch me in the remote clutches of his armed mercenary power at New-castle far off from the throng of my friends So with my true and obliged love and respect presented to your self and my Ant your second self I heartily commit you to God and rest From my Imprisonment in the Tower of London this 18 of Aug. 1649. Your faithfull and affectionate loving Nephew JOHN LILBURN FINIS