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land_n	henry_n	king_n	year_n	7,248	5	5.2669	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48472	The picture of the Councell of State, held forth to the free people of England by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, M. Thomas Prince, and M. Richard Overton, now prisoners in the Tower of London for bearing testimony to the liberties of England against the present tyrants at White-Hall, and their associates, or, a full narrative of the late extrajudiciall and military proceedings against them ; together with the substance of their severall examinations, answers, and deportments before them at Darby-house, upon March 28 last.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prince, Thomas.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2155; ESTC R10562	40,210	29

unto me before my sufferings some of which through all difficulties and reproaches from my Keeper have brought me food And though the poor have not by the Wardens means the tenth part of their due yet to lessen that small means which the poor hitherto hath had some of which have nothing else in the world to live upon he hath of late added unto them so many more some of which are men of able estates which he hath put upon the charity contrary to their Orders purposely to starve the poor indeed yea he hath by force put upon the charity Henry the Hangman who is under-Turn-key and hath forty pound land a yeer as he himself confesseth and whose vailes besides as I have heard the prisoners say are some times better worth then three shillings a day and this the warden hath done for him because he is so officious and ready in beating and abusing the poor distressed prisoners that cry out of the wardons cruelty and not only the poor prisoners but also some of those that come to visit and relievethem some of which he hath beat and threatned to kick others I have heard the prisoners affirm that the revenues of the Fleet hath been cast ●p to be above threescore thousand pounds a yeer oh therefore the height of cruelty not to be paralell'd I think amongst the savage and barbarous Heathens and Pagans and which mightily crys unto your Honer now in our Soveraigns absence for the wellfare of the City betimes to be looked unto and with the assistance of the Noble Lord Protector to examine out the truth of things that poor oppressed men may have speedy redress of their wrongs the greatest part of which ariseth by reason of the wardens greatnesse with the Bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Keeper so that they dare not for fear as I have heard some of them say complain of him Besides my Lord it is notoriously known that John Morry my upper keeper hath been arraigned at Newgate for murthering a prisoner here in former times and I think here are other fresh things against him if poor prisoners might be heard and have justice which would bear another inditement and at least manifest him to be too too bloudy a man to have the keeping of poor innocent men For some in this prison as it is here reported have been secretly poysoned and lost their lives upon it and others with eating garlike and like antidotes have expelled it and are yet living here to justifie the same and my dogged under keeper hath been a hangman whereupon the prisoners at their fallings out with him do say this verse to his face vix Morry the Irish pedler and Harry the hangman of Cambridge-Shiere and by these two bloody men from both of which I have received unsufferable wrongs my Adversaries intend I shall be killed in a corner Because of my untainted innocency they dare not bring me to a legall publike tryal to the view of the Kingdom wherefore I am forced by reason of intolerable cruely injustice and wrong to cry out unto your Honour as I have often done at my grate murther murther murther therefore hear O Heavens and give care O Earth and all ye that hear or read this my just complaint and lamentation bear witnesse to future generations that I cry out of violence wrong injustice cruelty and inhumanity that I suffer from the trayterous Bishop and the unjust Lord Keeper old Sir Henry Vaine and their bloody Jaylours which do and will execute their commands be they never so unjust and unlawfull And how that for my zeal and courage for my God and his truth and glory and for my ardent love to my Prince and Country and for my strong de●ire and indeavour for the prosperity and flourishing estate of this renowned City the Metropolis of England I am like to lose my life and blood by murthering cruelty in close Imprisonment Therefore oh all ye brave and worthy Citizens save help and rescue me a poor distressed and greatly oppressed young man from the devouring pawes of devouring Lionish men Now my Honorable Lord I come to make my humble supplication unto your self which is this that you would be pleased to take my most deplorable condition into your grave and serious consideration and after your consultation about it with your worshipfull brethren the Aldermen of this City acquaint the honourable Lord protector that noble and courteous Earl of Northumberland with it who in part knows it already but alas alas I am long since deserted of my kindred and friends so that I have none that dare follow my businesse for me wherefore I am like shortly to perish in my great distress unless your Lorships be pleased in this particular to do something for me I desire from your Honours neitheir silver nor gold for alas at present it would do me no pleasure for had I all treasure in the world to buy me victuals and want a stomack when I should have them they would nothing avail me and yet so lamentable is my condition by reason of my longe closeness and painfull sickness so that all the favour I desire is but the one of these two things First that îf I be thought to be an offender that then I may be forthwith brought to a publick tryal and suffered with freedom to pleade my own just cause again the Bishops and the Lord Keeper and old Sir Henry Vaine's illegall and unjust censure of me which was onely upon this ground because I refused to take an illegall and unlawfull inquisition oath which he the Lord Keeper tendred to me which as I told him to his face in the Star-chamber is against the Statute Lawes of this land yea against the petttion of right enacted in the 3 yeer of our Soveraign King Charles yea I told him and proved it to be against the Lawes of God and man and contrary to the practise of the Heathens and Pagans as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles yet this was the onely ground wherefore he and old Sir Henry Vane c. censured me to pay 500 pound and to be whipt for there was no witness brought against me face to face onely there was read two false oaths made by one Edmond Chillington now a Lieut. in Col. Whalyes Regiment and one of the principal men that lately caused the Souldier to be shot to death at Pauls whom the Bishop hired by giving him his liberty out of New-gate prison for swearing those two false oaths and doing them other wicked service of the like nature My Lord for my own part I desire no mercy nor favour nor compassion from the greatest of my enemies but onely the benefit of my Soveraignes Lawes which as I am a faithfull and loyal subject to my Prince and Contry I do according to my priviledge earnestly crave and begg not fearing by reason of my unspotted Innocency the rigour of Justice for my innocency is such that I fear neither

Harrison the Generall being but their stalking Hors and a Cipher and there trayterous faction ** For the greatest Traytors they are that ever were in this Nation as upon the losse of my head l Ioh. Lilburn will by law under take to prove and make good before the next free and just Parliament to whom I hereby appeal having by their wills and Swords got all the Swords of England under their command and the disposing of all the great places in England by sea and land andalso the pretended law executing power by making among themselves contrary to the Lawes and Liberberies of *** For the people being in reason justice and truth as well as by the Parliaments late votes the true fountain and original of all just power they ought not only in Reason Right and Justice chuse their own law makers but all and every of their law executors and to obey none what soever but of their own choice and it is not only their right by reason and justice but Sir Ed. Cooke in his second part Institut published for good Law by this present house of Commons declares and proves Fol. 174. 175. 558. 559. that by law it was and is the peoples right to chuse their Coroner Justices or conservators of the Peace as also their high Sheriff and Verderors of Forest and saith he there expresly for the time of War there were likewise Leaders of the Countreys Souldiers of Ancient time chosen by the Free-holders of the county but it 's true the chiefest of these things were expresly taken from the people and invested in the King by the Statute of the 27. Hen. 3 chap. 24. and therefore Kingly government being abolished the right is returned into the people the king or fountain of power and cannot be exercised as a new devise by the Parliament although they were never so legally and Justly chosen by them without a conference with them thereupon a power deputed to them for that end as Sir Edward Cooke declares in the 4 part of his Institutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. therefore I do hereby declare all the present Parliaments Justices Sherifs c. to be no Justices Sherifs c. either in law or reason but meer tyrants invadors and usurpers of their power and authority and may very well in time come to be hanged for executing their pretended offices England all Judges Justices of Peace Sheriffs Bailiffes Committee-men c. to execute their wils and tyranny walking by no limits or bounds but their own wils and pleasures And trayterously assume unto themselves a power to levie upon the people what money they please and dispose of it as they please yea even to buy knives to cut the peoples throats that pay the money to them and to give no account for it till Dooms-day in the afternoone they having already in their wills and power to dispose of Kings Queen Princes Dukes and the rest of the Childrens Revenues Deans and Chapter lands Bishops lands sequestered Deliquents lands sequestred Papists lands Compositions of all sorts amounting to millions of money besides Excise and Customs yet this is not enough although if rightly husbanded it would constantly pay above one hundred thousand men and ●urnish an answerrable Navy thereunto But the people must now after their trades are lost and their estates spent to procure their liberties freedoms be sessed about 100000. pound a month that **** But saith there own Oracle Sir Ed. Cook in the 4 part of his instutes chap. High Court of Parliament Fol. 14. 34. It is also the Law and custome of Parliament that when any new device is moved on the Kings behalf in Parliament for his aid or the like the Commons may answer that they tend●ed the Kings estate and are ready to aide the same only in this new device they dare not agree without conference with their countries whereby it appeareth saith he that such conferences is warrantable by the law and custome of Parliament and this was do●e in the Parliament of the 9. Ed. 3. nu●b 5 but the present Parliament assume unto themselves the regall office in the height and therefore ought not to be their own carvers in reference to the peoples purses but ought to demand and obtain their consents especially in time of peace before they levie either 90000 pounds per month or any such like new device what ever and therefore I know neither law equity or reason to compel the people to pay a penny of it unlesse they have a desire to bring themselves into the same condition in reference to the present Parliament that the Egyptians were to Pharoah when Joseph was so hard hearted as to make the Egyptians to pay so dear for b●ead-corn that it cost them all their money and all their cattle yea all their lands and also themselves for his slaves Gen. 47. 14. 15. 16. c. for which tyranny God plagued him and his posterity by making them slaves to the Egyptians afterwards so they may be able like so many cheaters and and State theeves to give 6. 8. 10. 12. 14. 16000. pounds apeice over again to one another as they have done already to divers of themselves to buy the Common-wealths lands one of another contrary to the duty of Trustees who by law nor equity can neither given or sell to one another or two or three yeers purchase the true and valuable rate considered as they have already done and to give 4 or 5000l per annum over again to King Crumwell with ten or twenty thousand pounds worth of wood uponit as they have done already out of the Earl of Worcesters estate c. Besides about four or five pounds a day he hath by his places of Lieut. Generall and Colonel of Horse in the Army besides the extraordinary advancement of many of his kindred that so they might stick close to him in his tyranny although he were at the beginning of this Parliament but a poor man yea little better then a begger to what he is now as well as other of his neighbours But to return those Gentlemen that would have had us bailed lost the day by one vote as we understood for all their wicked oath of secrecy and then about 12. at night they broke up a fit hour for such works of wickednesse John 3. 19. 20. 21. and we went into their pretended Secretary and found our commitments made in these words our names changed viz. These are to will and require you to receive herewith into your custody the Person of Lieu. Col. John Lilburn and him safely to keep in your Prison of the Tower of London untill you receive further order he being committed to upon suspition of high Treason of which you are not to fail and for which this shall be your sufficient Warrant given at the Councel of State at Derby-house 28. day of March 1649. To the Lieu. of the Tower of London Signed in the name

Wills and pleasures and would have no bounds or limits but their lusts and so sought to set up a perfect tyranny which we absolutely did and still do charge upon the great men in the Army viz. Cromwel Ireton Haselrig Harrison c. and are ready before indifferent Judges to make it good And as for seeking our selves we need no other witnesses but some of our present adversaries in the House whose great proffered places and courtship by themselves and their Agents some of us have from time to time slighted s●●rned and contemned till they would conclude to come to a declared and resolved center by a just Agreement of the People there being no other way now in the world to make this Nation free happy or safe but that alone And as for Cromwels blood although he had dealt basely enough with some of us in times by-past by thirsting after ours without cause of whom if revenge had been our desire we could have had it the last yeer to the purpose especially when his quondam Darling Maj. Huntington Maj. to his own Regiment impeached him of Treafon to both Houses yet so deer was the good of our Native Country to us to whom we judged him then a serviceable Instrument to ballance the Scots that we laid all revenge aside hoping his often dissembled Repentance was real indeed and Mr. Holland himself now his favorite if his 1000. or 1500. l. per annum of the Kings Lands that now he injoys did not make him forget himself can sufficiently testifie and witness our unwearied and hazardous Activity for Cromwels particular preservation the last yeer when his great friends in the House durst not publickly speak for him And whereas it is said we will Center nowhere we have too just cause to charge that upon them the whole stream of all our Actions as we told Richardson being a continued Declaration of our earnest desires to come to a determinate and fixed center one of us making sufficient propositions to that purpose to the Councel of State at our last being there and all our many and late proffers as to that perticular they have hitherto rejected as no ways consistent with their tyrannical and selvish ends and designes and given us no other answer in effect but the sending our bodies prisoners to the Tower and therefore we judged it infinitely below us as we told him and that glorious cause the Peoples Liberties and Freedoms that we are now in bonds for and for which we suffer to send any message but a defiance by him or any other to them Yet to let him know as one we judged honest and our friend we were men of reason moderation and justice and sought nothing particularly for our selves more then our common share in the common freedom tranquillity and peace of the land of our Nativity We would let him know we had a two fold Center and if he pleased of and from himself to let our Adversaries know we were willing our adversaries should have their choise to which of the two they would hold us to And therefore said we in the first place The Officers of the Army have already compiled and published to the view of the Nation an Agreement of the people which they have presented to the present Parliament against which we make some exceptions which exceptions are contained in our Addresses Now let them but mend their Agreement according to exceptions and so far as all our interest extends in the whole Nation we will acquiesce and rest there and be at peace with them and live and dye with them in the pursuance of those ends and be content for Cromwel and Iretons security c. for the blood of war shed in time of peace at Ware or any thing else and to free our selves that we thirst after none of their blood but onely our just Liberties without which we can never sit down in peace That there shall be a clause to bury all things in oblivion as to life and liberty excepting onely estate that so the Common-wealth may have an account of their monies in Treasurers hands c. Or secondly if they judge our exceptions against their Agreement or any one of them irrational let them chuse any 4 men in England let Crumwel Ireton be 2 of them take the other 2 where they please in the whole Nation we 4 now in prison wil argue the case in reason with them and if we can agree there is an end as to us all our interest but in case we cannot let them said we all chuse any 2 membes of the House of Commons we will chuse 2. more viz. Col. Alex. Rigby Col. Henry Martin to be final umpires betwixt us what they or the major part of them determine as to us in relation to an Agreement and all our interest in the whole land we will acquiesce in be content with and stand to without wavering and this we conceive to be as rational just and fair as can be offered by any men upon earth and I for my part say and protest before the Almighty I will yet stand to this and if this will content them I have done if not fall back fall edge let them do their worst I for my part bid defiance to them assuredly knowing they can do no more to me then the Devil did to Job for resolved by Gods assistance I am to spend my heart bloud against them if they will not condesend to a just Agreement that may be good for the whole Nation that so we may have a speedy new and as equall a Representative as may be chosen by those that have not fought against their freedoms although I am as desirous the Cavaliers should enjoy the benefit of the Law for the protection of their persons and estates as well as my self I know they have an Army at command but if every hair on the head of that Officer or Souldier they have at their command were a legion of men I would fear them no more then so many straws for the Lord Jehovah is my rock and defence under the assured shelter of whose wings I am safe and secure and therefore will sing and be merry and do hereby sound an eternal trumpet of defiance to all the men and devils in the earth and hell but onely those men who have the image of God in them and demonstrate it among men by their just honest merciful and righteous actions And as for all those vild aspertions their saint-like Agents have fixed upon me of late I know before God none is righteous no not one but only he that is clothed with the glorious righteousnesse of Jesus Christ which I assuredly know my soul hath been and now is clothed with in the strength of which I have walked for above 12 years together and through the strength of which I have been able at any time in all that time to lay down my life in a quarter