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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	john_n	sir_n	thomas_n	5,454	5	9.8573	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88180	England's birth-right justified against all arbitrary usurpation, whether regall or parliamentary, or under what vizor soever. With divers queries, observations and grievances of the people, declaring this Parliaments present proceedings to be directly contrary to those fundamentall principles, whereby their actions at first were justifyable against the King, in their present illegall dealings with those that have been their best friends, advancers and preservers: and in other things of high concernment to the freedom of all the free-born people of England; by a well-wisher to the just cause for which Lieutenant Col. John Lilburne is unjustly in-prisoned in New-gate.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1645 (1645)	Wing L2102; Thomason E304_17; ESTC R200315	41,349	51

choose and principally intrust should be made uselesse at their pleasure And themselves estated with such a power that no Authority in the City can call them to an account in cases of mis-government is so pernitiously obstructive and intollerable as is not to be pleaded but to the enslaving of the People Whereas of Right the People of the City are a free People and are not to be bound or concluded but by their own consents or by the major part of those they yeerly choose to give their consents in common and free Councell who are Commonners chosen from amongst themselves with reference to their Consciences and good affections In whom the concluding law-making power of the City justly is It being destructive and improper that it should be estated in two distinct jurisdictions And therefore since wee have none to open our griefes unto but unto you And that it is thought convenient that wee should apply our selves to this Court in whatsoever we desire to present unto the Parliament Wee most earnestly intreat you to shake off all pretences of Prerogatives by which and the like the Citie and Common-wealth have been most grossely inslaved and that you will reduce your selves into so proper and just a method of proceeding as may stand with the condition of a free people and conduce to the remedying of all grievances and removall of all our afflictions Unto which end we humbly propose to your grave consideration as followeth I. That you will be pleased to Order a Court of Common Councell once every week to meet without warning upon a certaine day and expresse houre and to publish the same that all the Inhabitants of the City may be informed thereof II. That you will also publish your readinesse to receive all Informations and Petitions from any of the Inhabitants there having been many most necessary and usefull things stiffled for want of incouragement in this kind III. That you will resolve within your selves to maintaine the Essence and freedome of your Court As namely To take into your Considerations and freely to debate whatsoever the present or greater part shall thinke meet and necessary To Vote and conclude whatsoever to the major part shall seem good To continue the present Session or Court as the present occasions shall require To adjourne to what day and time shall by the greater part be thought convenient over and besides the set weekly Court without which and the due Observations of all reasonable Orders as by your wisedome shall be provided you will appeare to every juditious understanding but as a meer shadow of Power and no wayes helpfull And therefore IV. That you will be pleased to make a perpetuall standing Order or Law that whatsoever Person or Persons shall from henceforth by secret or open meanes endeauour to deprive the Court of Common-Councell of the foresaid Rights Freedoms or Priviledges in the vindicating whereof some members of this Court then Commoners exprest much zeale against that obstinate Lord Major Gurney and his perverse Associates shall be instantly disfranchised and otherwise punished as shall seem good to the Justice of this Court These wee most earnestly intreate may be speedily established as being the only meanes to incourage your Petitioners and all other well-affected People to study and present you with such materialls as may happily tend to give a speedy end to all our miseries And wee shall ever pray c. This Petition was delivered the 15. of April 1645. to the Common-Councell of London sitting at Guild-hall 6. Sir John Lenthall having acted and done many things of extraordinary prejudice against the State one Captaine Cob a sea-Captaine and then Prisoner in the hands of Sir John Lenthall out of duty and affection to the well-fare of the Publique informed by a Letter the Speaker of the House of Commons of it and sent his Letter by the hands of one Mrs Jencts who faithfully delivered it to him and by her importunity to some that belonged to the said Speaker for an Answer to it the said Captaine Cob was brought out of Prison to the House of Commons door as he thought to justifie the said Letter who had brought along with him three or foure Witnesses to prove all the particulars mentioned in the said Letter But the Speaker contrary to his duty never caused him to be called in but only sent him out word that he should goe home againe and he would shortly come over to his brother Sir Johns House and speak with him there who accordingly did but would admit none to be present to heare what passed amongst them there yet Cob as soone as he came into the Prison amongst his fellows gave unto them a true Relation upon his Reputation of what passed amongst them which as they averre was to this effect as soon as he came up saith the Speaker Sir doe you know me yes sir saith Cob I know you to be Speaker of the House of Commons which was the reason I writ to you judging you the fittest man to bring to light so great a businesse of importance as I have to make known to you for the good of the State and Kingdome then the Speaker shewed him his Letter and asked him if he would justifie it and he told him yes and a great deale more if he would doe his duty in making it truly knowne to the Honourable House of Comm●ns The Speaker turning himself to his Brother said Sir John if this be true heare is enough to hang you well Sir saith Sir John whereas he chargeth me of letting Violet goe twise to Oxford during the time that hee and Sir Bassell Brooke were contriving their Plot against the City you know I never let him goe but once and then I had your warrant for it well well said the Speaker Captaine Cob I see you are an honest man and much wronged by your adversaries but shake hands and be friends with Sir John and I will get you your Liberty so they parted But Captaine Cob perceiving the Speaker did nothing in it but indeavoured to smother it sent a true Copy of his Letters that he had sent to the Speaker to Mr. William Fendry of London with Ellen Thomas her information about the threescore thousand pounds of Sir Bassel Brookes that then was in Sir Johns hands which Letter and Information the said Pendry communicated to two Knights that are members of the Committee of both Kingdomes who took no more care then the Speaker to have it brought to light nor the 60000 l. attached and now it is upon the stage before the Committee of Examination the Chaireman of which Justice Whittiker with Mr. Knightly and Sir Robert Pye who is desired to remember a Letter that was going to Don Cottington c. have not dealt fairely in the businesse as both the Informers and some of the 6. Citizens that were permitted into the Committe to see to the managing of the businesse doe declare And therefore assuredly if so

County-Committees and other Magistrates in this Kingdom would compound with all those honest and Free-men that they have at their own Wills unjustly committed to Prison contrary to the true meaning of this Law before by the sentence of the Law they be forced to pay 500 l. to every man they have so unjustly Imprisoned From the equity and letter of which Lawes It is desired that our learned Lawyers would Answer these insuing QUERIES 1. Whether the Letter and equity of this Law doe not binde the very Parliament themselves during the time of their sitting in the like cases here expressed to the same Rules here laid downe Which if it should be denied Then 2. Whether the Parliament it self when it is sitting be not bound to the observation of the Letter and equity of this Law when they have to doe with Free-men that in all their actions and expressions have declared faithfulnesse to the Common-wealth And if this be denied Then 3. Whether ever God made any man law-lesse Or whether ever the Common-wealth when they choose the Parliament gave them a lawlesse unlimmitted Power and at their pleasure to walke contrary to their own Laws and Ordinances before they have repealed them 4. Whether it be according to Law Justice or Equity for the Parliament to Imprison or punish a man for d●ing what they command him and by Oath injoyne him 5. Whether it be legall just or equall that when Free-men doe endeavour according to their duty Oath and Protestation to give in Information to the Parliament of Treason acted and done by Sir John Lenthall against the State and Kingdome and long since communicated to several Members of the House of Common● but by them concealed and smothered and now by Gods Providence brought upon the stage againe and during the time that Inquisition is made of it before the Committee of Examination before any legall charge be fixed upon Sir John Lenthall or be required to make any Answer or Defence that he shall be present to out-face discourage and abuse the Informers and Witnesses in the face of the Committee without any check or controll from them And sometimes while they are sitting about the Examination of his Treason that he shall sit down beside them with his hat on as if he were one of them and that he shall injoy from the Committee ten times more favour and respect then the just honest and legall Informers against him who by some of the Committees themselves while they are sitting are threatned jeared nick-named and otherwayes most shamefully abused Yea and the friends of the Informers for the State are kept without doores and the friends of the accused admitted to come in alwayes without controll and during the Examination of the Information that the Committee shall refuse to remove the Informers out of Sir John Lenthalls custody of Kings-bench to another Prison although they have been truly informed that he hath set Instruments on work to murther them and also importuned to remove them 6. Whether it be nor most agreeable to Law Justice and Equity that seeing Sir John Lenthall having so many friends in the House concerned in the businese that he should not rather be tried by the same Councell of Warre in London where Sir John Hotham and his Sonne were then at the Parliament his principall crime being against the Law Marshall as theirs was 7. Whether to answer to an Indictment when a man is demanded Guilty or not Guilty be not a criminall Interrogatory concerning a mans selfe and so a man not by law bound to Answer to it especially seeing to a Consciencious man who dare not lie it is a great snare who if he be indicted of a thing he hath done or spoken dare not plead Not Guilty for feare of lying and if he plead guilty he shall become a self-destroyer contrary to the law of Nature which teacheth a man to preserve but not destroy himself in declaring that which peradventure all his Adversaries would never be able to prove against him And Whether it be not more suitable and agreeable to the true intent of Magna Carta expressed in the 28. Chap. thereof where it is said No Bailiffe from henceforth shall put any man to his open Law nor to an Oath upon his owne bare saying without faithfull Witnesses brought in for the same and to the true intent and meaning of the Petition of Right and the Act made this present Parliament for the abolishing the Star-Chamber c. For a free-man to have a charge laid against him and his Adversaries brought face to face to prove it and then the Accused to have liberty to make the best defence for himself he can which was the practise amongst the very Heathen Romans who had no light but the light of Nature to guide them Act. 25.16 Yea Christ himself when his enemies endeavoured to catch him by Interrogatories he puts them off without an Answer Luke 22.67 68.70 Chap. 23.3 Yea when the High Priest asked him about his Disciples and his Doctrine He answers Hee ever taught openly and therefore saith he Why aske ye mee aske them that heard me for they know what I said John 18.20 21. Hence justly it is conceived that the Parliament may not condemne that man for contemning their Authoritie who refuseth to answer to Interrogatories before them the supreame Court who answereth to Interrogatories in the like case before an inferiour Court but you will say it is the usuall practise of the COMMON-LAW the Question is whether that practise be just or no or whether any Law in practise in the KINGDOME of England doth binde the Free-men thereof but what is made and declared by Common Consent in Parliament and whether or no is there or ought there not to be a plaine platforme agreed on and laid down by the Parliament concerning things of so high consequence to all the Commons of England and seeing the Parliament hath taken care that the Bible shall be in English that so Lay-men as they call them may read it as well as the Clergy ought they not also to be as carefull that all the binding Lawes in England be in English likewise that so every Free-man may reade it as well as Lawyers seeing they have Lives Liberties and Estates as well as the other and peaceably enjoy them no longer then they continue in the observation of the Laws of this Kingdom whereof they are Members and seeing the Lawyers are so full of broyles and contentions and grow so rich and great thereby have not the people cause to beleeve they drive on an Interest of their owne distructrive to the Peoples well-fare yea juggle and put false glosses upon the Law meerly for their own ends Seeing so great a part of it is in an unknown tongue which the Commons call Pedlers-french or Heathen-Greeke even as our State Clergy did in the daies of old before the Scripture was tollerated to be in English in which dayes they could easily make the

foule and hainous a businesse as this is be smothered up againe I am very confidently perswaded some one or other will publish all the particulars of it ere long in print to the view of all the Commons of England that so they may see and judge how they are jugled with by some of those they have reposed their greatest trust in although Sir Jo. Lenthall and the Speaker have as it may justly be supposed set Dr. Bastwick at worke to publish to the view of the world the innocency of the parties accused saying in the 8. page of his late book against Mr. Lilburne that there is nothing made good against them so much as with a seeming probabilitie much lesse proved and so busy and earnest is the said Bastwick to defend their rotten Reputations and their wicked and unjust dealings towards the State and Kingdome that he thinks with his lies and base and sordid language to salve up their credits and to baffle and justle the just and honest prosecuters out of their just wayes and pathes they tread in to doe the Kingdome faithfull service in bringing treason to light Yea so bold and impudent is hee being back'd by their Authoritie and Interest that rather then truth shall come to light and their wickednesse be discovered he will lay such a blot upon the Parliament that will render them ridiculous to all that seriously read his Book and consider that the Parliaments owne Authority hath licenced him to call them Ninneys and Grols For saith he in the last page of his Book For as there is no family though never so honest that hath not a Whore or a Knave of their kindred so it is impossible in such a great Counsell as the Parliament is but they should have some Ninnyes and Groles and men that have no more wit then will reach from their nose to their mouth It were well Dr. Bastwick would doe the Common wealth that service as to name those men that so some men may begge them for fooles to take upon them so high a calling as to be Law-makers to so great and knowing a People as England is and to have so little wit in them Surely this Parliament will be contempteous not onely to their foes but also to their freinds and will never shake off this blot while they sit unlesse they call him to an account and make him name whom he meanes and punish that Licencer that durst be so bould to let such a book be published cum privilegio to the dishonour of the very Parliament it selfe surely Sir John and his Brother the Speaker have feed Bastwick well and are not very sound that they put him their pack-horse upon such desperate courses to salve up their credit and he hath as little wit or honesty in him to be so earnest for Sir John Lenthall in particular who is notoriously knowne and reputed so grand a Knave and Tyrant by thousands that know him as England hath not his fellow being at this present Outlawed and hath so continued 3. yeers and of whom for murder Cruelty Bribe●y and Arbitrary Government and what not there hath so many complaints been made to this present Parliament though little effect they have taken by reason of the Speakers Power and Interest whose common practise it is to walke in a constant contempt and violation of the knowne Laws of the Kingdom and to the making of them null and of none effect as much as in him lies to the ruine and destruction of thousands of the free Denizons of England For though the Law provide that if a man in Execution escape or walke abroad out of Prison the Jaylor is lyable to pay his debt yet for his own gaine he doth constantly doe both and the undone and wronged Creditor can have no satisfaction of him neither Law nor Justice against him by reason of the Speaker his great faction in the House supporting of him Sir John Lenthal besides his Outlawries hath dozens of executions upon him and yet walkes abroad and continues keeper of Kings-Bench Prison and Justice of Peace and as it is reported is Chairman of a Committee by means of which he is invested into a Power to crush and destroy every honest man that but opens his mouth to speake of his basenesse and injustice the height of his injustice and of his Arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government scarcely in Strafford to be parralell'd which is so insupportable to the poor oppressed Prisoners in Kings Bench that they have got a proverbe amongst them in these words The Lawyers rule Committees the Speaker rules the Lawyers Sir John Lenthall rules the Speaker Thomas Dutson rules Sir John Lenthall and the Devill rules Dutson But for all Bastwicks brags of Sir John Lenthalls innocency if he please to doe the State so much service as to prevaile with his good friend the Speaker to procure the same Court Marshall in London that sate upon the Hothams as soon as the Ordinance is past hee shall have the names of some of reputation in the Kingdome that will before that Counsell accuse Sir John Lenthall of High Treason and hazard the losse of their lives upon the proof of it In the last place the Parliament men swear to be at enmitie with indifferencie or newtrallity which newtrallitie in the Covenant is branded as detestable by them and yet notwithstanding divers of them cannot indure them that would have an end of these warres speedily but hate and abhorre all those who with all their might indeavour the end of them and though such men walke by better principles then taking the Covenant even by Principles ingraven upon their soules by God himself yet unlesse they will take this impossible to be kept Covenant the framers and makers of which have runne into wilfull perjury themselves they must be turned out of Committees and their Regiments disbanded as in Hartfordshire c. and Newters put in their places that are neither hot nor cold nor have any other principle whereby to walke but base pecuniary principles and self-Interrests and by this meanes the Kingdome is in danger to be utterly destroyed even by such covetous newtrall indifferent Committie-men and men of excellent publique principles disfranchised and undenized contrary to the fundamentall Constitutions of the Kingdome which doe allow none to be so dealt with but only for an act done or committed against the welfare of the Publique And though many conscientious men have laid out their witts their time their paines their purses their blood yea and all that in this world is most precious to them for the preservation of the Publique yet they must not sit in Parliament though never so fit and able unlesse they will take this make-bate persecuting soul-destroying Englands-dividing and undoing Covenant I shall therefore desire all the Commons of England and the Parliament themselves seriously to read over some part of their owne words in their Exhortation to the taking of the Covenant the words thus follow

And as for those Clergy men who pretend that they above all others cannot Covenant to extirpate that Government because they have as they say taken a solemne Oath to obey the Bishops in licitis honestis they can tell if they please that they that have sworne obedience to the Laws of the Land are not thereby prohibited from endeavouring by all lawfull means the abolition of those lawes when they prove inconvenient or mischievous And if there should any Oath be found unto which any Ministers or others have entered not warranted by the Laws of God and the Land in this case they must teach themselves and others that such Oathes call for Repentance and not obstinacie in them O that the Parliament would mind these their owne words and give free leave to some of their honest fellow Commoners to remonstrate the inconveniency and mischievousnesse of this Covenant and I am confident it would easily and cleerly be made appeare to themselves so vild that they would never inforce it any more but rather recall it again Judg. 11.30 Est 3.10 Dan. 3.3 c. Mark 6.23 12. Whether it be not most agreeable to Law Justice equitie and conscience and the nature of a Parliament mans place that during the time of his being a member hee should lay aside all places of profit in the Common-wealth and tend only upon that function for which he was chosen or if he be poor or have lost his Estate whether he ought not at present to be content with his masters wages that is to say with so much a day as the Common-Wealth by the Law of the Land is to pay him for his dayes labour which is expressed in 33. H. 8. 11. to be 4 s. per diem to every Knight and to every Citizen and Burgesse 2 s. a day or more as heretofore hath been accustomed c. or with some reasonable Competency being the Commonwealth is grown so poor that it is not able to pay her common Souldiers their 8 d. a day though they constantly adventer their lives to preserve her which the Parliament men seldome doe and not to thirst after great and rich Places farre lesse to possesse or enjoy them Seeing by woefull experience it is found that the possessing of them breeds nothing but factions and base cowadlinesse yea and sowing up of mens lips that they dare not speak freely for the Common-wealth nor displease such and such a faction for feare of being Voted and thrust out of their unfit to be enjoyed Offices the Common wealth hath just cause to fear they wil set up an interest of their owne destructive to that common Interest and Freedome whereof the poorest free man in England ought to be possessor and so make this present Parliament an everlasting Parliement and the Warre a never ending Warre seeing it tends so much to the inriching of Parliament men and their Officers who have already wisely as they thinke fenced themselves with an Ordinance made the 26. of June 1645. That they shall not be called to account for their Masters the Common-wealths money nor Plate that once commeth into their fingers Object But would you have those Parliament men that had their Places before the Parliament sate turned out of theirs Yes I would have Sir Henry Mildmer Sir Henry Vane the younger Soliciter Saint-John Mr. Holland c. turned out of their Places at present though I conceive it just they should be secured of the injoyment of them againe so soon as the Parliament is ended for their present injoying thereof sowes but up their lippes and makes them they dare neither speake nor doe that they should and without them is hoped they would and for avoiding the jealousie of partiallity I thinke there is as much Justice to turne them out during the Parliaments continuing as to turne out Mr. Greene Sir Robert Harlow Sir Walter Earle Mr. Reynolds the Speaker Mr. Prideaux c. and all the Chancery Judges for to me it is one of the most unjust things in the world that the Law-makers should be the Law executors seeing by that meanes if they doe never so much injustice and oppression a man may spend both long time and all he hath besides before ever he can get any Justice against them yea and it may be hazard the losse of his life too And therefore it were a great deal better for the Common-wealth that all the executors of the Law should be such persons as doe not in the least belong to the Parliament that so they may not be able to make any fictions to save their Lives and Estates when they doe injustice and I am confident there is never an honest-hearted Parliament man that meanes well to the Common-Wealth but he will upon the debating of this needfull point be of my minde though it be never so contrary to his owne particular Interest and profit But you will say This will fetch that gallant man Cromwell from the Army which will be a mighty losse to the Kingdome seeing he is so able and active a Souldier and so extraordinarily beloved of the Officers and Souldiers in the Army yea and such a stay to that unparralleld Generall Sir THOMAS FAIREFAX I answer it is very true that the Kingdome will have a mighty losse of him indeed if he should be taken out of the Army and be made unserviceable to them any where else but if he come into the House of Commons that proper seat whereunto hee was chosen and doe them ten times more service there then he doth or can doe in the Army what losse hath the Common-Wealth then Consider seriously the grand service he did the last Winter when hee was in the House and see whether any action that ever he did in his life can be parralleld to it and I beleeve it will be found good to have him at home for he is sound at the heart and not rotten cored hates particular and selfe-Interests and dares freely speake his minde Therefore home with him as well as the rest of Parliament-men according to their owne Ordinance and let him perfect what he began and either lay Manchester flat upon his back or himself for the best service can be done the Kingdome is to pull out home-bred Traytors and to helpe to keep and preserve the Great Counsell aright for if there be Twenty Armies abroad and your Counsells be not absolutely safe sound and Unanimous at home you are not safe but still in danger besides I have heard it reported that hee was about a designe of getting a Committee set apart and an Order made and published to the whole Kingdome that if any man were unjustly oppressed by any Member of Parliament Committe-man or any other Officers or Ministers let him bring his complaint and hee shall have a just and a faire hearing and Justice done not in words but in actions upon the Transgressour O for selfe-denying Cromwell home againe to set this on foot which would be a

roade way of destruction had not the Noble Generall by GODS Providence exceedingly strengthned his party and after that hee is posted from place to place and never suffered to come to the Parliament since whereby Manchesters treason lies as it were hid although it be more fully proved as some of that House have since confessed then ever Strdffords was and yet he is suffered to act in all the great designes of the Kingdome unto this present 2. Master Mussenden and Mr. Wolley and divers others Gentlemen of quallity of the Committee of Lincolne in August 1644. exibited Articles of High-Treason and other hainous misdemeanors against Colonell Edward King to the House of Commons which Articles they have since Printed and published to the view of the World yet can they not to this day get any hearing of them that so they may prove against him what they accuse him of howbeit although in their Fourth and Twelfth Article they accuse him of plaine High-Treason their owne words are as followeth As Article 4. When hee the said Colonell King was before Newarke he sent for a Captaine who kept Crowland who obeyed his command yet sent word to him of the danger that Towne was in and therefore desired his second pleasure which was That he should march who accordingly did the Gentlemen of the Country fearing the enemy procured Major Ireton to send a 100. Musketiers to keep Crowland which hee hearing of took ill that without Order from him any should come into his liberties and commanded them to be gone who accordingly departed the enemy presently surprised the Towne and those few that he had left in it by which meanes he betrayed the Towne unto the enemy which was not regained without much charge hazard and losse of many mens lives Article the 12. That when the Enemy took Grantham they being beaten from one part of the Town wheeled about to fall upon the other side at a place called Spittle-gate which Major Savill being then Major of the Towne perceiving commanded Colonell King being then Captaine of a Company there to march with his Company to defend that place Colonell King answered That he scorned to be commanded by him and rather then he would be commanded by him he would take his company and let the enemy into the Towne and he delayed so long before hee would goe that the enemy was entred at the said Part before hee came thither by which means be betrayed that Towne Also 3. John Musgrave Gentleman hath complained to the Commons in this present Parliament against Richard Barwis Esq Burgesse for Carlile and a Member now sitting in the House of Commons and lately one of the Commissioners of Parliament for both Kingdomes that at his being at Edenborough he held correspondency with the Commissioners of Array both for Westmerland and Cumberland and in his Twentieth Article against him he saith That when the said Richard Barwis was at Sunderland hee had Intercourse by Letters with the chief Delinquents in Cumberland which were especially Baronet Graham Baronet Musgrave Baronet Curwen and Sir Willfrede Lawson and that the said Mr. Barwis Estate was protected by means of some of the foresaid Knights during the time the King had the Command of the North and that Mr. Barwis was an Instrument in getting men nominated to be Committee-men for the Parliament while they were in actuall Rebellion against the Parliament and Kingdome and hath been an instrument in getting the Command of both the foresaid Counties into the hands of those that actually have been in Armes and committed treason against the Common-wealth who abuse the honest well-affcted to the Parliament there as much as ever they were while the King had the Command of them and though complaint hath been made of all this to many of the House of Commons and much more by Mr. Musgrave and his partner who are sent up to the Parliament from the Country as Commissioners for that purpose yet they cannot be heard or finde any Justice against Mr. Barwis and the other Delinquents by means whereof both the Counties are in danger shortly to be lost and destroyed 4. Some Gentlemen of the Bishopricke of Durham long since complained to divers Parliament men of old Sir Henry Vanes wilfull loosing and betraying their Country being there Lord Lieutenant but by reason of his greatnesse could never be heard but in regard the substance of his charge is come into my hands from the hands of a Gentlemen of that Country now in London I have inserted here that you may read it as followeth only with this caution that seeing in the Copy I took it out of there were some interlynings at the latter end thereof that if a word should be displaced you would not therefore throw aside all the rest of it for I dare pawne my life the substance of it will be proved The Militia of the County of Durham was intrusted with Sir Henry Vane the elder to whom some Gentlemen of the Country repaired and desired his care therein which he omitting the Earl of Newcastle in August 1642. taking advantage thereof came into the County of Durham and to the Towne of Newcastle upon Tyne with divers Captaines Commanders not exceeding the number of 100. men to raise forces against the Parliament and by Michaelmas after he increased to 500. or 600. men at the most and Sir Henry Vane having Armes of his owne in his House at Rahy Castle sufficient to arme 100. men those Armes were carried by his two principall servants William Conyers a Popish Recusant and Henry Dingly his soliciter in his Law affaires to the Towne of Newcastle where they were delivered to one appointed by the Earle of Newcastle to receive them and Conyers and Dingley received a note for the receit of those armes All which being publikely known in the Country the people were much disheartned and for that the party intrusted with the Militia had furnished the enemie as aforesaid many were forced to take up Armes under the command of the Earle of Newcastle divers for feare fled out of the Country and others of them who staid longer were taken and imprisoned and shortly after the Earles Army increased to the number of 5000. and upwards as it was commonly reputed there being 39. Colours of foot and 25 Troops of Horse or neere thereabouts and the affected plundered in their Estates to their utter impoverishment Our humble desire is That no man that hath taken up Armes and served or been active in this unnaturall Warre against the Parliament or are Delinquents or willingly contributed thereunto be put into Commission or imployment or Administration of Justice untill the well-affected of the Country be heard concerning their offences and misdemeanours and the same be determined of in the Parliament c. This Information was presented to the Right Honourable the Earle of Essex in February 1643. by Richard Lilburne and his brother George Lilburne in the presence of Edward Wright Nicholas Heath John