to hinder their bayl but to give you light upon what accompt we proceeded against them as we have done The next day after our mittimus was made M. Shute and my self acquainted Judge Nicholas with what we had done who justified our proceeding and in whose judgement they were not baylable Sir Your cordiall friend and servant E. S. M. Swantons reply to M. Stokes Sir AMongst all affronts and abuses I ever received I never a more scandalous as by so false and foul an information made to you as appears by the first line of your Letter that I should take offence from you and the rest of my fellow Justices that Webb and Mistress White should be sent to Goal and not bayled so base and unworthy a relation delivered you as before I intend either to reade over the Examinations or to consider what to do in the businesse I must give you an account of the daily continued labours and endeavours of the delinquents to be bailed which hath been prosecuted with all the eagernesse that can be thought of and on Wednesday last by their mediation I was sent for to Lieutenant Generall Ludlow to have bailed them at which time I gave him such full satisfaction perusing the mittimus and informing him of the foulnesse of the fact and the regard we ought to have one of another in these cases of baylment that I satisfied him untill I could get a copy of the Examinations I could not be able to give any resolution towards bayling them the mittimus being so full as proof and oath of being taken in the act of adultery which I perceive to be made good by the Examination Sir I pray conceive that I am not so slight as that false relator should make me for its not a straw difference to me whether M. Webb or Mistress White be at liberty or in the Goal and therefore I shall desire you that I may know the relator for I professe I shall question him And now I have given you a full answer of your Letter I shall let you know and my other good friends M. Ivy and M. Shute that I conceive you have proceeded according to the Law but yet if you please to be at the Sessions and the Court may conceive them baylable I shall joyn with them but Sir be assured no man shall have a more tender respect unto you and all others of your place then Your most assured Friend Fra. Swanton Sarum 29. Dec. 1650. Together with this Letter more Letters came from Webb and his Agents to M. Stokes intimating that his Letter hindered their bayl and earnestly intreating a word from him to M. Swanton whereupon M. Stokes wrote these insuing lines Honoured Sir I have received yours to which I shall give you a more satisfactory answer when I see you then I can at present having only time to acquaint you that the prisoners suppose that my last to you is the only hinderance they are not bayled for so they write to me and exceedingly presse me to write to you to take their bayl Sir I am confident if they were baylable in your esteem you would not defer it but I thought good to tell you that now they impute their imprisonment till the Sessions to proceed from my Letter the truth of which is known to you but notwithstanding all abuses which they have heaped upon me I have not yet sought the least satisfaction much lesse revenge neither would I by any means hinder their bayl if any Justices are free to take it Your faithfull friend to serve you E. S. Decemb. 30. 1650. The reason why these Letters are inserted is to shew that there was no plot nor contrivance between the Justices and that M. Stokes did nothing maliciously against the fellow creatures or hinder their bayl as the Parson hath given out who having lost a Parsonage hath made lies his refuge as if he intended to be a Chaplain to the father of lies for which he is learned enough But yet notwithstanding they are not bayled no not at the next generall quarter Sessions where M. Stokes appeared not and therefore could be no obstruction yet the Gentlewoman might have inlargement but like a good and loving soul to her dearest friend refused it unless he might partake of the same priviledge as M. B. confessed But Webb now perceiving how things went intends to act another part of repentance having made himself weary of his Ranting party as the letters and message hereafter immediatly following demonstrate Honoured Sir AS to the will of our wise God which is fulfilled in my present condition I must indeed I am made to acknowledge it and therefore for that I have blamed and passionately wronged you I am heartily sorry and humbly implore your goodnesse for to have me excused for it I shall now learn to submit to a divine will who is just in what it doth and will justifie all those whom it makes use of for its accomplishment c. Your humble servant Tho. Webbe Dear and Honoured Sir WHat the decree is that is gone forth from the presence of our good and wise God I do not know nor indeed am I able to spel it out the characters almost passe my Intelligence for providence acts so darkly to me and in so many paths of contrariety that indeed I am almost amazed and were it not that former experiences were renued in me and that I do draw something of sweetnesse from many sweet promises I should look upon my self as an undone lost man I say wisdom acts beyond my genius and apprehensions very much ingaged should I be in this my straight you would by your own enjoyment help me to learn and understand I hope God will yet make me to know and do his pleasure and this confidence I have that out of this wildernesse he will deliver me Oh that my patience would carry me forth to the end and not suffer me to murmer against him no nor against any he is pleased to inflict upon me Many thanks and returns of love to your dear Lady and your self for your love and care towards me which I must and shall for ever acknowledge to be altogether undeserved by me and though my desires for my liberty and your well wishes take not effect yet I do heartily thank you and truly I professe it from my heart it will for ever oblige me not only to subscribe but to be dear Sir Your cordiall friend and humble servant Tho. Webbe January 17. 1650. Honoured Sir THat which at first moved me to write to you and to expresse my self in so bold and rude language truly was my love to you for I could have chused to have writ to others but indeed I ever loved you and was perswaded my lines would have been received without exception but understanding my lines were not to be born withall I most humbly desire you to have me excused for them and to impute them to passion not to any
spy out his wickednesse This young Stripling having formerly made himself a Preacher forsaking his lawfull Calling becomes a Parish Priest or Parson and being setled to his content and obtaining a Gleab worth 70lb per annum he cunningly to increase his fame refused the Tithes protesting against them as an unjust Tax by which means he obtains the good will of divers of the most ignorant parishioners and others lookt upon him as a consciencious man not knowing what he had been nor what he was Not long after his settlement he buries his second wife at Langley aforesaid who had not lain many daies in the grave but he the said Thomas Webbe became so far in love with a certain Gentlewoman notwithstanding her husband was then and there living insomuch that he engageth himself to be a faithfull friend and servant unto her not to marry with or make use of any other woman besides her self and thereupon he had as he saith divers times carnal knowledge of and fellowship with her But as he said conscience fled in his face and would not suffer him to continue this vile course But it s rather thought one woman was not sufficient to satisfie his brutish lust And therefore in a short time he marries a modest sober young woman without the consent and to the great grief of her friends whereupon a great difference grows between the two former lustfull lovers the Parson is charged with perfidiousnesse and breach of promise but he being grown a cunning Parish Priest hath a salve ready to cure this sore gives satisfaction by a new Engagement which made good that saying of his That there 's no Heaven but women nor no hell save Marriage So that this late Marriage prevents not the rage of lust in either But notwithstanding that so many times a week are set apart for the satisfying of the flesh And now any reasonable creature would think that the former Marriage and the late agreement would have contented both parties But the union in wickednesse is not yet near enough And therefore about March 1650. two houses being too many and at too great a distance for such choice lovers Both families are united in one and Thomas Webbe removes the former distance being almost a slight shot was too farre to strike whilest the iron is hot neither could wickednesse be acted so covertly nor kept so closely in many meetings and it was not yet time to professe their principles publiquely to the world Here modesty commands the Author in silence to pass over many particulars of uncleannesse confessed by the said Thomas Webbe in the time of his pretended Repentance and Reformation Well now the famous families are united and the uniters wonderfully well pleased and none displeased The Patron and the Parsons wife rejoice being in hopes to enjoy each others love more constantly then formerly But the devout Parson and his co-partner in wickednesse having brought their Swine to so fair a market resolve to eat no such flesh nor to be so prophane or silly as to delight themselves with lawfull things leaving that to those that know not their liberty and to nice and weak-sighted Pharisees as they term those that dare not will not cannot run with them into the same excesse of Riot And let those deluded souls feed their fancies with vain hopes or empty husks as long as they please all 's one to these endeared lovers who have attained to the height of humane society and Christian alias diabolicall liberty and to so much perfection as to know their fellow-creatures from other cattell 'T is not for servants to pry into their Masters nor Mistrisses secrets nor to meddle with their meat Mixt Governours of a mixt family having the highest knowledge and deepest understanding are fittest to bear Rule and to rule the rest Wherefore no pitty nor praise shall attend the forlorn hope of the P. and Parsons wife who are ordained to stand as Ciphers or at best as servants to stand still or wait whilst those who are more spiritually wicked give up themselves to chambring and wantonness Well Thomas Webbe being a Parson of the last Edition and having undertaken a great charge laies about him how to manage all his affairs as becomes a man of so excellent parts and calling and hold out to the end which that he may be able to do and come off with credit the sweet draughts of an Independent heat the most coroborating cordials the fattest morsels and the most delicate fare is provided for his sweet tooth which never goes alone and good reason for hereby he is made able to give content to his fellow Creature and to answer all scruples that might arise against him from or by means of any pretended relation or formall union such as Ranters term marriage to be For you are to understand that ere a long time is past over even before this pious or rather impious Parish Priest had taken his fill of lust although the Gentlewomans husband remains contented yet the Parsons wife being more sensible begins to grumble and grows passionate and manifests much trouble fearing least her husband Thomas Webbe notwithstanding his seeming sanctity would prove an unclean Parson Hereupon the slipshood Priest is put to his trumps yet he having taken so many degrees in wickednesse resolves to answer and silence this case of conscience also and therefore summons all his wits together and when he findes them all too shallow he cals to his councell his fellow-creature who being of better understanding and of riper wit then himself two heads being better then one they make up and contrive a silencing argument to satisfie and content this complaining Spirit of the poor woman Hereupon a cunning and devillish plot is contrived for they apprehend action to be more prevalent then argument to make her understand her liberty and the Ranters true doctrine And therefore in the first place the Parsons wife is instructed in the lawfulnesse of making use of any other man setting relation aside whom she could most affect And further she is taught that God hath not tied up mankinde from those injoyments which are left free to the beasts of the field c. From this doctrine arise many uses but the use which is insisted upon is an use of examination the Parsons wife is strictly examined by Webbs fellow Creature Whom she loved best or whom she could love most besides her husband The woman being prest exceedingly upon this point and being as is supposed ignorant of the depths of Satan and not knowing that there was a hook under the Bait confesseth that next to her husband she could most affect such a man naming a lusty young man who lived not far from Langley and one who made often resort thither and was in great esteem with the fellow-Creatures and therefore as right as a gun and as pat to the purpose as might be to accomplish the design in hand which was to cure
and frizling of his hair and other inticements to lust and wantonnesse his former every daies garb is now wholly laid by and in all things he now appears as at the first Poor Tho. Webb and not like the proud and insolent Parson of Langley and it 's remarkable how at the first meeting of the Justices he smote himself upon the breast and threw himself upon the ground before many witnesses seeming exceedingly to lament his unclean life 2. His Confessions were wonderfull both to Mr Stokes and divers others to whom he confessed that he had frequently committed folly and uncleannesse even ever since the death of his second wife and that he had committed the detestable sin of uncleanness so often in one day that he was glad when he could take the Air And further before many witnesses confessed that the child which the Gentlewoman was then great withall was of his own begetting naming the time when and the place where it was by him so begotten and that he never forc't her neither needed he to do so but that alwaies she tempted him to commit the sin of uncleannesse with her And further the said Webb alledged that Mistress W. would have hid him for some time in a private place in her husbands house as her own closet and then make the Parsons wife and the world believe that Webbe was gone beyond sea whilst in the mean time a stock of money is providing for such a journey that they might go both together with a world of other things of a vile nature which for brevities sake I passe over 3. The Letters under his own hand writing follow which are upon record and in the custody of Mr Stokes and so not to be denied or forsworn by the Parson or any others of the Ranting Knights of the Post To the Worshipfull Edw. Stokes Esq and Justice of the Peace for this County Present Dear Sir PRay give me leave to expresse my whole self unto you which by these in brief I shall do in the name of a true Christian one who sincerely loves the Lord Jesus Christ It 's well known to our loving and wise God that evil that hath been committed by me which I cannot chuse but confesse and acknowledge for my sin is alwaies before me and for the same I heartily wish my self accursed for the pretious Gospels sake which is blasphemed by it and truly amongst all my trouble that is the only thing that troubles me for the rest I am innocent and God himself knows they never entered into my thoughts But for that O my sinne which I have committed against my Lord and mercifull God and all good men I am guilty I have made the members of Christ the members of an harlot and God hath suffered the strange and adulterous woman to lead my poor simple spirit captive though she stand like a bold and impudent woman in the justification of her self O look for a most sad and fearfull coming of the Lords just judgement and vengeance upon her Dear Sir I professe to you my heart is smitten within me for my sin is great and lies very heavy and sore upon me and nothing troubles me but that as for the present proceedings against me since I knew my self free and that it 's because God hath called me home from the waies of an adulterous woman though they should touch my life yet I blesse God that I am made able to slight them and to be very carelesse of them only I shall do what in me lies to defend my self from them And in order thereunto whilst I am at London I shall advise with some friend about it and so if our wise God so order it I shall return and appear before you at the time appointed which is this day fortnight as I understand humbly thanking you that you would grant a longer time and withall I humbly intreat you to stand my friend as to let nothing be acted against me in my absence I know the way of an unsatiable woman is to ruine and to have the life of one whom they cannot mold to their Lusts And for my part if she doth ruine me as that is her intentions I shall glory in for greater would my misery have been if I should have continued in the waies of her uncleannesse O dear Sir it 's impossible almost to believe the many temptations she hath followed me withall and the many devises she hath used ever since the difference to bring me over to her self again But O let me be accursed and O that the earth might swallow me up alive rather then I should hearken to her again Dear Sir Your neighbour Uncles doth me much wrong and I am forced to write in an unusual manner to him I beseech you to desire him to desist and forbear giving out such scandalous and false things against me as he doth I know he cannot but see into the malicious proceedings that are against me as by his own words to me he did acknowledge yet with them he takes parties and he and his son in law Crook doth very much wrong and abuse me whereas if they loved the Gospel which they would professe they would be silent Therefore I beseech you though not for my sake yet for the Gospels sake desire him to forbear and truly in equity though my foot hath slipped and I have sinned against God yet none ought to devide me and speak reproachfully of me especially such who would be thought professors of the Gospel and so much the more that God hath touched my heart and made it very sensible of its sin Thus dear Sir in faithfulnesse and truth I have made you acquainted with my present condition the truth of which I hope God will make good by my life and conversation which is the prayers of him who is Sept 2d 1650. Your true friend and servant Tho. Webbe For the Worshipfull Edw. Stokes and William Shute Esquires and Justices of Peace for this County Present Gent. UNderstanding by my neighbour Brumham that the meeting was put off till Munday come fortnight I took the liberty this day to go towards London for that my father lieth very sick and weak and to see him will be great satisfaction to me As touching the businesse depending before your Worships when you and others have had a full and clear hearing of it and that the tales of both are heard it will appear to proceed from the height of malice and that it s but the fruit of an unsatiable womans malice For the question is thus to be stated and the businesse is thus to be considered viz. There hath been a great familiarity and friendship between Mistress White and I till it was within this three or four moneths in which time we have both committed a great evil of which it pleased God to make me sensible whereupon I began to forsake and my spirit grew much troubled and estranged my self from Mistress White