Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	court_n	justice_n	writ_n	1,630	5	9.1550	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58148	The revolution in New England justified and the people there vindicated from the aspersions cast upon them by Mr. John Palmer in his pretended answer to the declaration published by the inhabitants of Boston and the country adjacent, on the day when they secured their late oppressors, who acted by an illegal and arbitrary commission from the late King James.	Rawson, Edward, 1615-1693.; Sewall, Samuel, 1652-1730.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing R376; ESTC W479499	38,176	56

by a Charter upon such conditions as were not performed and therefore all the Lands of New England have returned to the King and that the Attorney General then present could tell what was Law who spake divers things to the same purpose as Sir E. A. had done slighting what I had said and vilifying the Indian Title saying They were Brutes c. and if we had possessed and used the Land they said we were the Kings Subjects and what Lands the Kings Subjects have they are the Kings and one of them used such an Expression Where-ever an Englishman sets his foot all that he hath is the Kings and more to the same purpose I told them that so far as I understood we received only the right and power of Government from the Kings Charter within such limits and bounds but the right of the Land and Soil we had received from God according to his Grand Charter to the Sons of Adam and Noah and with the consent of the Native Inhabitants as I had expressed before They still insisted on the Kings right to the Land as before whereupon I told them I had heard it was a standing Principle in Law and Reason Nil dat qui non habet and from thence I propounded this Argument he that hath no right can give no right to another but the King had no right to the Lands of America before the English came hither therefore he could give no right to them I told them I knew not of any that could be pleaded but from a Popish Principle that Christians have a right to the Lands of Heathen upon which the Pope as the Head of the Christians had given the West Indies to the King of Spain but this was disowned by all Protestants Therefore I left it to them to affirm and prove the Kings Title They replied and insisted much upon that that the King had a right by his Subjects coming and taking possession of this Land And at last Sir E. A. said with indignation Either you are Subjects or you are Rebels intimating as I understood him according to the whole scope and tendency of his Speeches and Actions that if we would not yield all the Lands of N. E. to be the Kings so as to take Patents for Lands and to pay Rent for the same then we should not be accounted Subjects but Rebels and treated accordingly There were many other various replies and answers on both sides but this is the sum and substance of that discourse John Higginson aged seventy four years Stephen Seawall aged thirty two years John Higginson Minister in Salem personally appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Captain Stephen Seawall of Salem appeared before me Dec. 24. 1689. and made Oath to the truth of the abovesaid Evidence John Hathorne Assistant Joseph Lynde of Charles-towne in the County of Middlesex in N. E. being fifty three years of age testifieth and saith That in the year 1687. Sir Edmund Androsse then Governour of New-England did inquire of him the said Lynde what Title he had to his Lands who shewed him many Deeds for Land that he the said Lynde possessed and particularly for Land that the said Lynde was certainly informed would quickly be given away from him if he did not use means to obtain a Patent for it The Deed being considered by Sir E. A. he said it was worded well and recorded according to N. E. custom or words to the same purpose He further enquired how the Title was derived he the said Lynde told him That he that he bought it of had it of his Father-in-law in Marriage with his Wife and his said Father from Charles-towne and the said Town from the General Court grant of the Massachusetts Buy and also by purchase from the Natives and he said my Title were nothing worth if that were all At another time after shewing him an Indian Deed for Land he said that their hand was no more worth than a scratch with a Bears paw under-valuing all my Titles though every way legal under our former Charter Government I then petitioned for a Patent for my whole Estate but Mr. West Deputy Secretary told me I must have so many Patents as there were Counties that I had parcels of Land in if not Towns finding the thing so chargeable and difficult I delayed upon which I had a Writ of Intrusion served upon me in the beginning of the Summer 1688. the Copy whereof is in Charles-towne's Mens complaint and was at the same time with that of Mr. James Russel's Mr. Seawall's and Mr. Shrimpton's it being for the same Land in part that I shewed my Title unto Sir E. A. as above being my self and those I derived it from possessed inclosed and improved for about Fifty years at which time I gave Mr. Graham Attorney General three pounds in Money promising that if he would let the Action fall I would pay Court charges and give him Ten pound when I had a Patent compleated for that small parcel of Land that said Writ was served upon me for which I did because a Quaker that had the promise of it from the Governour as I was informed in the Governors presence should not have it from me the said Lynde having about seven Acres more in the same common Field or Pasture about a Mile from this forty nine Acres near unto the Land that the said Governour gave unto Mr. Charles Lidget of divers of my Neighbours which I concluded must go the same way that theirs went and therefore though desired to be patented by the said Lynde with the forty nine Acres he could not obtain a Grant for it About the same time Mr. Graham Attorney General asked the said Lynde what he would do about the rest of his Land telling him the said Lynde that he would meet with the like trouble about all the rest of his Lands that he possessed and were it not for the Governours going to New-York at this time there would be a Writ of Intrusion against every Man in the Colony of any considerable Estate or as many as a Cart could hold and for the poorer sort of people said Sir E. A. would take other measures or words to the same purpose The said Lynde further saith That after Judgments obtained for small wrongs done him tryable by their own Laws before a Justice of the Peace from whom they allowed no Appeals in small Causes he was forced out of his own County by Writs of false Judgment and although at the first superiour Court in Suffolk the thing was so far opposed by Judge Stoughton as illegal as that it was put by yet the next Term by Judge Dudley and Judge Palmer the said Lynde was forced to answer George Farewell Attorney aforesaid then saying in open Court in Charles-town that all Causes must be brought to Boston in Suffolk because there was not honest men enough in Middlesex to make a

Strangers the Prisoners pleading the priviledges of English men not to be taxed without their own consent they were told that the Laws of England would not follow them to the end of the Earth they meant the priviledges of the English Law for the penalties they resolved should follow them quo jure quàque injuriâ And why should they insist on and talk of the priviledges of English men when it had been declared in the Governours Council that the Kings Subjects in New England did not differ much from Slaves and that the only difference was that they were not bought and sold But to go on with the matter before us In as much as the Prisoners mentioned had asserted their English Liberties they were severely handled not only imprisoned for several weeks but fined and bound to their good behaviour Mr. John Wise was fined fifty pound besides costs of Court deprived of the means of his subsistance and gave a thousand pound bond for good behaviour And Mr. John Appleton was fined fifty pound and to give a thousand pound bond for good behaviour and moreover declared incapable to bear Office besides unreasonable Fees After the same manner did they proceed with several others belonging to Ipswich Likewise the Towns men of Rowley Salisbury Andover c. had the same measure And the Kings Subjects were not only oppressed thus in the Massachusetts Colony but in Plymouth For when Shadrach Wild-boar the Town Clerk of Taunton in N. E. did with the consent of the Town Sign a modest Paper signifying their not being free to raise money on the Inhabitants without their own consent by an assembly the honest man was for this committed close Prisoner and after that punished with a Fine of twenty Marks and three Months Imprisonment and bound to find sureties by Recognizance to appear the next Court and to be of the good behaviour As to the matter of fact the persons concerned in these Illegal and Arbitrary Judgments will not have the face to deny them if they do there are Affidavits now in London which will evince what hath been related whenever there shall be occasion for it It is a vanity in Mr. Palmer to think that he hath answered this by affirming but not proving that the Ipswich-men assembled themselves in a riotous manner for that saying of his is very false The World knows that New England is not the only place where honest men have in these late days been proceeded against as guilty of Riots when they never deserved such a censure any more than these accused by Mr. Palmer But the truth of what hath been thus far related is confirmed by the following Affidavits Complaints of great wrongs done under the Ill Government of Sir Edmund Androsse Governour in N. E. in the year 1687. We John Wise John Andrews senior Robert Kinsman William Goodhue junior all of Ipswich in New England in the County of Essex about the 22d day of August in the year above named were with several principal Inhabitants of the Town of Ipswich met at Mr. John Appletons and there discoursed and concluded that it was not the Towns Duty any way to assist that ill method of raising Money without a general Assembly which was apparently intended by abovesaid Sir Edmund and his Council as witness a late Act issued out by them for such a purpose The next day in a general Town-Meeting of the Inhabitants of Ipswich We the above named John Wise John Andrews Robert Kinsman William Goodhue with the rest of the Town then met none contradicting gave our assent to the vote then made The ground of our trouble our crime was the Copy transmitted to the Council viz. At a Legal Town meeting August 23. Assembled by vertue of an Order from John Vsher Esq Treasurer for choosing a Commissioner to join with the Select men to assess the Inhabitants according to an Act of his Excellency the Governour and Council for laying of rates the Town then considering that the said Act doth infringe their Liberty as free born English Subjects of His Majesty by interfering with the Statute Laws of the Land by which it was Enacted that no Taxes should be Levied upon the Subjects without consent of an Assembly chosen by the Freeholders for assessing of the same they do therefore vote that they are not willing to choose a Commissioner for such an end without said priviledge and moreover consent not that the Select men do proceed to lay any such rate until it be appointed by a general Assembly concurring with the Governour and Council We the complainants with Mr. John Appleton and Thomas French all of Ipswich were brought to answer for the said vote out of our own County thirty or forty Miles into Suffolk and in Boston kept in Goal only for contempt and high misdemeanours as our Mittimus specifies and upon demand denied the priviledge of an Habeas Corpus and from Prison over ruled to answer at a Court of Oyer and Terminer in Boston aforesaid Our Judges were Mr Joseph Dudley of Roxbury in Suffolk in New England Mr. Stoughton of Dorchester John Vsher of Boston Treasurer and Edward Randolph He that officiates as Clerk and Attorny in the case is George Farwel The Jurors only twelve men and most of them as is said Non-freeholders of any Land in the Colony some of them Strangers and Forreigners gathered up as we suppose to serve the present turn In our defence was pleaded the repeal of the Law of Assessment upon the place Also the Magna Charta of England and the Statute Laws that secure the Subjects Properties and Estates c. To which was replied by one of the Judges the rest by silence assenting that we must not think the Laws of England follow us to the ends of the Earth or whither we went And the same person John Wise abovesaid testifies declared in open Council upon examination of said Wise Mr. Wise you have no more priviledges left you than not to be sold for Slaves and no man in Council contradicted By such Laws our Trial and Trouble began and ended Mr. Dudley aforesaid Chief Judge to close up the debate and trial trims up a speech that pleased himself we suppose more than the people Among many other remarkable Passages to this purpose he bespeaks the Jury's obedience who we suppose were very well preinclined viz. I am glad says he there be so many worthy Gentlemen of the Jury so capable to do the King service and we expect a good Verdict from you seeing the matter hath been so sufficiently proved against the Criminals Note the evidence in the case as to the substance of it was that we too boldly endeavoured to perswade our selves we were English Men and under priviledges and that we were all six of us aforesaid at the Town meeting of Ipswich aforesaid and as the Witness supposed we assented to the foresaid Vote and also that John Wise made a Speech at the same time and said we

some for cutting their own Wood and so they were deprived of any means to use or enjoy their own Land And notwithstanding there was about twenty Acres of Pasture Land and Meadow taken from the said Russel and given to Mr. Lidget yet afterwards there was a Writ of Intrusion served upon a small Farm belonging unto the said Russel unto which the aforesaid Pasture Land did belong and had been long improved by Patrick Mark his Tenant and others good part thereof above fifty years so that to stop Prosecution the said Russell was forced to Petition for a Patent he having a Tenant who was feared would comply in any thing that might have been to his prejudice and so his Land would have been condemned under colour of Law and given away as well as his Pastorage was without Law Further the said Russel complains that he having an Island in Cascobay called Long-Island which his honoured Father long since bought of Mr. Walker and was confirmed to James Russell by the General Court and improved several years by Captain Davis by mowing as Tenant to the said Russell and the said Russell hearing it was like to be begged away caused his Writ to be entred in the Publick Records in Mr. West's Office which he paid for the Recording of notwithstanding Sir E. A. ordered Capt. Clements as he said to survey the same and he shewed me a Plat thereof and said If I had a Patent for it I must pay three pence per Acre it being 650 Acres He was further informed That if the said Russell would not take a Patent for for it Mr. Usher should have it Per James Russell Jan. 30. 1689 90. James Russell Esq personally appeared before me and made Oath to the truth of what is before written William Johnson Assistant Had not an happy Revolution happened in England and so in New-England in all probability those few ill men would have squeezed more out of the poorer sort of people there than half their Estates are worth by forcing them to take Patents Major Smith can tell them that an Estate not worth 200 l. had more than 50 l. demanded for a Patent for it And if their boldness and madness would carry them out to oppress the Rich after such a manner as hath been shewed what might the Poor look for Nevertheless their Tyranny was beyond any thing that hath been as yet expressed For if men were willing to bring their Titles to their Possessions to a Legal Tryal they were not only threatned but fined and persecuted and used with barbarous Cruelty When some Gentlemen in Boston resolved in a Legal way to defend their Title to an Island there Sir Edmund's Attorney threatned that it might cost them all that they are worth and something besides as appears by the following Affidavit The Deposition of Captain Daniel Turel and Lieutenant Edward Willis Sworn say That upon a Writ of Intrusion being served on Deer-Island belonging to the Town of Boston and let unto Colonel Samuel Shrimpton by the Select Men of the said Town the Rent whereof being of long time appropriated towards the maintenance of a Free School in the Town we the Deponents two of the select Men of the said Town do testifie That meeting with Mr. James Graham upon the Town-house and telling him that if Colonel Shrimpton did decline to personate the case of the said Island we the select Men would The said Graham said Are you the Men that will stand Suit against the King We the Deponents told him we would answer in behalf of the Town The said Graham replied There was no Town of Boston nor was there any Town in the Countrey we made answer we were a Town and owned so to be by Sir Edmund Androsse Governor in the Warrant sent us for the making a Rate then the said Graham told us We might stand the Tryal if we would but bid us have a care what we did saying it might cost us all we were worth and something else too for ought he knew and further these Deponents say not Jan. 30. 1689. Daniel Turel Edward Willis Captain Daniel Turel and Lieutenant Edward Willis appeared personally before me and made Oath to the truth of what is above written William Johnson Assistant One of Sir Edmund's Council and Creatures Petitioned for an Island belonging to the Town of Plymouth and because the Agents of the said Town obtained a voluntary Subscription from the Persons concerned to bear the charge of the Suit they were treated as Criminals and against all Law Illegally compelled to answer in another County and not that where the pretended Misdemeanours were committed And Mr. Wiswall the Minister of Duxbury having at the desire of some concerned transcribed a Writing which tended to clear the right they had to the Island in Controversie and also concerning the abovesaid voluntary Subscription both Transcribed in the Winter 1687. A Messenger was sent to bring him to Boston on the 21th June 1688. he was then lame in both Feet with the Gout fitter for a Bed than a Journey therefore wrote to the Governour praying that he might be excused until he should be able to Travel and engaged that then he would attend any Court but the next Week the cruel Officer by an Express Order from Sir E. A. forced him to Ride in that condition being shod with Clouts instead of Shoes and when he came before the Council he was there made to stand till the anguish of his Feet and Shoulders had almost overcome him after he was dismissed from the Council the Messenger came and told him he must go to Goal or enter into Bonds for his appearance at the next Superior Court held in Boston and pay down 4 l. 2 s. in Silver His Sickness forced him to decline a Prison and to pay the Money At the next Superior Court he appeared in the same Lame and Sick condition and the extremity of the Weather cast him into such a violent Fit of Sickness that he was in the judgment of others nigh unto death and he himself thought that he should soon be out of their Bonds and at liberty to lay his Information against his Oppressors before the Righteous Judge of the whole World After all this having been forced a third time out of his own County and Colony near Forty Miles he was delivered from the Hands and Humours of his Tyrannical Oppressors who had exposed him to great difficulties charges and to 228 Miles Travel in Journeying to and from Boston directly opposite to the place where he ought to have been tryed had he been guilty of any of the pretended Misdemeanours none of which his worst Enemies ever had the Face to read in open Court or openly to charge him with to this day Now shall such Men as these talk of Barbarous Vsage who have themselves been so Inhumane Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes 7. As for Sir E. A. his supplying the Indians with Ammunition in the