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law_n	john_n	richard_n	sir_n	15,060	5	7.8423	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86169	The oppressed man's out-cry; Or, an epistle writ by John Hedworth of Harraton in the county of Durham, Esq. the 13 Sept. 1651. unto the Honourable, Sir Henry Vane, the elder, a Member of the Honorable Parliament of the Common-wealth of England, William Vane his son, Lieut. Col. Paul Hobson, and John Middleton, Esq. members of the com. of the militia of the county of Durham by authority of Parliament.	Hedworth, John.	1651 (1651)	Wing H1353A; ESTC R230321	13,902	16

I have sent to London for Process for every one of them that are tardy as well Keel men as others and doubts not of a sufficient remedy at law against them all without interruption from the Committee of Indempnity where yet I should not be sorry to be brought into being apt to think I shall not get my complaints heard against Sir Arthur till he or some of his Agents be forced by me to turn complaints But Process being in my own understanding too short weapons to reach Soldiers withall In the Sixth place upon the fourth of this present September I went to Gateshead accompanied with my Father in Law M. George Grey Richard Lilburn Esq Lieu. Col. John Lilburn his son and my brother M. Ralph Grey on purpose to speak with Sir Arthur about all these things but he being busie with the Commissioners of the Ministry and so not to be spoken with we all saving Lieu. Col. John Lilburn went to Major Tolhurst and acquainted him with the substance of all passages at Harraton and demanded of him the said reserved rent of forty shillings per week which he refused to pay and acknowledged that by a verbal command of his own which is not worth a button nor can be no security to the soldiers he had sent the said soldiers to keep the possession of the said Colliery adding he was betrusted by Col. Hacker Lieutenant Col. Mayers and the rest of the Gentlemen that had taken it to keep it and he would keep it so receiving no satisfaction at New Castle and clearly finding Major Tolhurst durst not give unto the soldiers a written Warrant or Order to be their secuirty rule and guide In the Seventh place I desired my Father Grey and som other friends to hasten to Sunderland to disperse my said Letters there and again to warn all the Keel men at their perils to fetch none of my Coles nor none of the ship masters to buy any of them and my self with Lieu. Col. John Lilburn rode away to M. Timothy Whittingham being a Justice of Peace and read him the said Letter and fully acquainted him that a company of Rogues who called themselves soldiers were come upon my ground but could produce no Commission from any body that sent them nor the Commissioners at Durham nor Major Tolhurst would not under their hands own them and they like bloudy Rogues beat and had almost killed some of the people whom they forced to load away my Coles to the water side and some of the said soldiers with their own hands loaded my Coles into Keels and caried or sent them away and thereby feloniously robbed and stole from me my real and proper goods for which as he was a Justice of Peace forthwith vve desired his Warrant as Felons to bring them before him vvhich vve very much prest upon him as his duty by his Oath and the Law of England to grant but he refused and desired time to consider of it and speak vvith Sir Arthur about it upon which Lieu. Col. Lilburn desired him to tell Sir Arthur from him if he and those under him were affraid and ashamed to give the soldiers at Harraton under their hands a written Commission or Order to act by and that M. Whitingham refused to grant his Warrant to bring them before him upon our complaint vve vvould not be affraid nor ashamed to do the best we could to expel force vvith a stronger force and if any of the pretended soldiers were knockt on the head in the scuffle for any thing we know from the Law of England they had their mends in their own hands but if he vvould send his written Order for the soldiers Warrant and let us copy it out vve vvould not at all trouble or molest the soldiers any more and so we vvere content that he should take till Munday at night to talk vvith Sir Arthur about it and vve being both at Durham upon Tuesday last being the ninth of this present September M. Whitinghams man brought to our Inn a sealed Letter the Copy of which thus followeth For his very good Friend Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburn these Kind Sir UPon my more serious thoughts and strict perusal of the Printed Letter you left with me upon Friday last I plainly see a matter of title and a meum and tuum in controversie betwixt the state now in possession and M. John Hedworth of which thing you well know the Law is the proper Iudge and can and must decide it and the Civil Magistrate no way concerned in the businesse yet Sir I am so tender and careful of your safety and my own duty that if either your self or M. Hedworth be affraid of life or know any man lie in wait to rob you or either of you or if any Felony bee committed or Robbery done upon your person or persons upon legal Information I shall be very ready to serve you and grant my Warrant also if there be any force either by Entry or Detainer I shall not in the least be wanting unto you and the Publick to join with another in Commission with my self to view and remove as occasion shall offer In brief this is all but that I am Sir your most affectionate friend to serve you Timothy Whitingham Holmside the 9 Sept. 1651. Now most honoured Gentlemen I pray seriously observe M. Whitinghams Letter who if he had been a man according to that which God in Scripture requires every Magistrate to be viz a man of Courage I am apt to believe he would scarce have written this answer to our Legal demand but I desire to be as sparing of him as the nature of my business will permit me but yet I beseech you to take notice that I think the Civil Magistrate is the proper Judge of the Law and not the soldiers in the least much less those that only pretend themselves soldiers And I beseech you observe that in the eye of the Law Felony and Robbery may be as well committed upon my goods taken out of my house or ground as from my immediat proper person and so much we positively we laid unto the charge of those sturdy rogues that pretend themselves soldiers upon my ground who have no Formal nor Legal Commission to authorize them in the least to do as they do and upon our so serious laying Felony to their charge and offering by the Law to make it good he ought by the Law without any more dispute to have granted us his Warrant at least to have brought them before him to have examined them by means of which I should either have known some that Judicially and Formally would have owned them or have had some evident demonstration that these are the men Major Tolhurst by word of mouth sent or else have clapt them in that place that vvould have kept them safe till they were fully fit for the Gallows their deserved portion But most noble Gentlemen by all the fore-recided dealing with me you

pretence of my being either Papist or Delinquent laid unto my charge and although I have fully proved by Authentick witnesses viz. M. John Clifton of Gateshead and M. Thomas Petty of Durham recorded in the said Epistle pag. 28. that I was in quiet and peaceable possession of the said Lands at the time when they were sequestred yet will not Sir Arthur suffer the Commissioners of sequestrations of Durham to obey the said Order or do me any manner of Justice or Right but instead thereof hath commanded one of them viz. Col. Francis Wren to go to the Judges of Assises and command them from him to suffer me to have no benefit nor priviledge of the Law of England my grand and undoubted inheritance and birth-right 3. Sir Arthur Hesilrig and his said under Commissioners who are solely at his beck and Command and dare do nothing against his will and directions have most illegally arbitrarily and tyrannically robbed and taken from me almost sixty head of my Cattle some of which were well worth seven or eight pound a piece I having been bid for ten Oxen then of that number seven pound a piece ready mony and six more of them were Stots for some of which I was bid five pound a piece and these they took from me being my own proper goods and no manselse in the world neither directly nor indirectly And my absolute propriety in them all I have fully proved by legal testimony Copies of whose Depositions are recorded in the foresaid Epistle pag. 33 34 35. the height of whose injustice to me in the two last particulars of my Land and Cattle I cannot to your Honours better set forth then is already done in my printed petition delivered to the Parliament upon Iuly 23. 1651. and recorded in the foresaid Epistle pag. 31 32 33. to which I humbly refer you all which Cattle I valued at three hundred pounds It s true they pretended they were my Father Greys which if they were as in the least they were not at that time nor any one of them for almost twelve months before yet he is neither Papist or Delinquent but is and hath been a zealous active well affected Parliamenteer and a Committee man for divers years together unspotted and unblemished as is very well known to you all four but farther they say my Father Grey ought one John Jackson a Delinquent mony who had not paid his Composition what 's that to me But fullier to answer that I say my Father Grey avers he owes him never a penny nor never bought nor sold with him in his life for two pence nor never took no land of him nor Cole Pits nor no such like things but its true he confesseth he took Land of his brother William Jackson who had a legal right to let it for the paiment of his portion and his sisters who had a Decree in Chancery in 1639 to authorise him so to doe and also had the Order of the Committee of the County of Durham to inable him so to do which Order was procured and obtained by the special desire and petition of the wife of the said Iohn Iackson when his Land was under sequestration and yet for all this hath the said Sir Arthur Hesilrigg and his obedient creatures by his will and pleasure taken the said Land from the said William Iackson who was neither Papist nor Delinquent and his sisters and conferred it upon the said Delinquent Iohn Iackson who had no present right to it by means of which those of them that are yet alive are ready to famish and starve through poverty and want But may it please your Honours admit the said Cattle that I averr was mine had been my Father Greys and admit the said Iohn Iackson the Delinquent had pretended my Father had owed him mony yet upon what ground of Reason or Law had the Commissioners at Durham to believe the said Iackson a Delinquents bare averment before my Father in Laws who is no Delinquent but every way an honest man But I farther answer Iohn Iackson the Delinquent had compounded and actually got off his sequestration about a year before the taking away my cattle and in that regard was in a sense in statu quo and if any man owed him mony his just and regular way was to go to Law for it and there recover it as other English people do and not for Sir Arthur and his Commissioners to be their own Carvers to make that a pretence to ruine and destroy those who they had a desire so to do unto under pretence they owed a Compounding Delinquent mony which if they did yet had Sir Arthur and his Commissioners neither by Law nor Ordinance any power at all to drive their goods half starve them and then sell them at most for half the price of their first worth and do with the mony what they pleased as with me in my present case they did nay although the said Iohn Iackson had not paid in all his Composition yet neither by Law nor Ordinance they had no power to seize and sell the goods of those that really owed him mony much less of those that he only pretended owed him mony much less could they seize and sell the goods of those that he never pretended owed him a penny which is my case for their regular and legal course in case of his wilful or negligent non-paiment of his fine had been to have re-sequestred his Lands again but this high piece of injustice as well to my Father Grey as my self he assures me he will particularly and fully anatomize in print and therefore to him I now leave this and all the other and many oppressions and wrongs by Sir Arthur Hesilrig which I believe the world will shortly see in print by him in their colours 4. I beseech you observe here is to me out of my Colliery lost 40 s. a week and 10 l. at Christmas and 10 l. at Easter for two years amounts to 248 l. besides lost out of my Land at 300 l per annum or thereabouts for 1¾ of a year comes to 575 l. lost by my said Cattle 300 l. all three of which put together comes to 1123 l besides in several postings and other Journies to London charges staying there fees to Lawyers and Solicitors with Clerks fees for Orders c. charges for witnesses several times to London and Durham and many other incident charges depending upon my almost two years troubles above 300 l. for I am sure of it one Journey to London and charges there cost me above three score pounds besides the loss of my time for the said almost two years and improvement of my stock and land with the denial of me the benefit of the Law and thereby with other ingredients the loss unto me of many opportunities I have had to re-gain and possess several large parcels of mine inheritance at Sunderland and several other places and making me poor and low and forcing me

THE OPPRESSED MAN'S OUT-CRY OR An Epistle writ by John Hedworth of Harraton in the County of Durham Esq the 13 Sept. 1651. unto the Honourable Sir Henry Vane the elder a Member of the Honorable Parliament of the Common-wealth of England William Vane his son Lieut. Col. Paul Hobson and John Middleton Esq Members of the Com. of the Militia of the County of Durham by Authority of Parliament Honourable worthy Gentlemen THE great Lord Jehovah the Creator of the world In Scripture is styled a God of Compassion and of Truth and Justice and a hearer of the sighs and groans of the afflicted and oppressed who in scripture hath fully declared himself to be an angry and severe Judge and punisher of tyrants and oppressors yea and of those that shut their ears and harden their hearts against the mournful pitiful and just complaints of the afflicted and distressed And he by his special Providence hath put power authority magistracy into your hands being Members of that Committee that have the chiefest command of this County under the Parliament the supream at your beck And therefore by him in Scripture are styled gods upon earth and in that regard yee ought to be like him not onely in tender Compassion and mercy but also in truth and Justice and hearers of the sighs groans and mournfull Lamentations of the afflicted and oppressed In the serious Consideration of which give me leave to cry out unto you and acquaint you that I am the son and heir of a deceased Knight Sir John Hedworth who was Lord Owner or Proprietor of the Lands of Harraton in the County of Durham and all the Cole Mines thereof or thereunto belonging and left them unto me by an ancient and unblemished Intail as strong as the Laws of England my undoubted birth-right could make any as his eldest son and heir And being by his decease left yong in years and destitute of the support of powerful friends and allies and therefore fit to become a prey to every devouring wolf or greedy great man that should have a covetous eye to that inheritance that my forefathers strongly and Legally intailed upon my father and my self And it was my unhappy fate to live in the age wherein Sir Arthur Hesilrig became Governor of New Castle a man of a high and covetous spirit the whole County of Durham being as by his constant actions he declares too little in Revenue to satisfie or content his greedy appetite And a man that will admit of no rule to walk by but his own perverse will and sword who casting more then an Ahabs eye upon my poor Vineyard at Harraton abhorred to be so righteous unto me as wicked Ahab desired and proffered to be to poor Naboth who proffered him for his Vineyard the worth of it in mony or a better for it But Sir Arthur Hesilrig finding my land and Cole mines at Harraton were profitable and pleasant and lay commodious for him to add to his newly com'd by great Estate yet though he were inferiour in power to Ahab a King would be more unrighteous in practice to me then he was to poor Naboth and therefore would take from me my Colyeries and Land yea and my Cattle too and that without so much as ever proffering me as good for them in exchange or the worth of them in mony or so much as one penny for them in consideration yea or that so much as ever setting up legally producing the least shadow or pretence of title against me more then his wil pleasure and sword yea and to aggravate his covetousness and tyranny exercised to the height against me he would not only take my inheritance goods cattle from me for nothing by his will but he would do it in such a way as that I should be left destitute for ever hereafter of all hopes of friends to recover it therefore he would totally destroy and crush to pieces not onely in estate but also in good name which to an honest man ought to be more precious then much sweet ointment my Father in Law M. George Grey and my old friend M. George Lilburn thereby for ever hoping to deter any man of power or interest in the least to meddle with me to help to ease or redress me and all this done unto me at such a time when the righteous and just God is abroad in the world in Power and Majesty to destroy Kings and Princes and the greatest of their Followers for tyranny injustice and oppression yea and at such a time when the Parliament of England his Masters have raised and maintained a bloudy and costly war declaredly to defend the liberties and properties of the people yea and at such a time when they themselves execute severe justice for secret transgressions done in holes and corners upon their own members witness my Lord Howards Bribery And that Sir Arthur hath oppressed me and taken from me and my tenants my estate is evident 1. As to my Cole mines the profits of which he and his under Commissioners in their Certificate printed in Lieutenant Colonel John Lilburns Letter to four of the Commissioners at Haberdashers Hall dated the 30 of July 1651. pag. 11. line 3 4 hath valued it at fifteen pounds a day in clear profit which by the year at that rate reckoning 365 days to the year amounts to full 5475 l. per an the high injustice and tyranny in his taking away of which and still with a high and strong hand as unjustly detaining of it is so fully set out proved in authentick Records in the forementioned printed Epistle especially in my tenant M. Josiah Primates petition to the Parliament delivered at their door in print to their members upon the 22 of July 1651. and recorded there pag. 16 17 18 19 20. that I need now say no more of it but refer you to the said Epistle one of which I make bold herewith humbly to present unto you all for your serious and careful perusal 2. He and his under Commissioners hath as arbitrarily and tyrannically taken away from me almost three hundred pounds per annum of my Land of Inheritance at Harraton and have let both Collieery and Land to Colonel Hacker Lieutenant Colonel Mayers major Tolhurst or other of his officers and soldiers of which Land I was being neither Papist nor Delinquent in legall and quiet possession for about three years together before they pretended to sequester it from me and although I had an Order dated the 12 of July 1650. recorded in the 29 page of the foresaid Epistle that requires that in case I were in actual possession at the time of the sequestring my said Land and were no Papist nor Delinquent that then I should be restored by the Commissioners of Durham to the possession taken from me giving security to be responsible for the profits of the estate in case it should not prove mine and although there was never any

to run into debt with disgracing my reputation and credit yea and add to all this by his burying me alive as it were if I had not by Gods goodness found unexpected extraordinary choice cordial and faithful friends by which means I am really damnified I am confident of it at least 5000 l. besides the foresaid 1123 l. or thereabouts that I have lost by Sir Arthurs matchless and unparelleled cruelty and tyranny Over and above which if my Colliery be worth that rate of fifteen pound per diem what Sir Arthur and his Commissioners in their foresaid Certificate values it at my tenants M. Primate M. George Lilburn and my brother M. George Grey Junior are damnified by their almost two years loss of it about ten thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds of all which cruelty and injustice exercised towards me and upon me Colonel Francis Hacker now a Colonel of Horse in the Army under his Excellency the victorious Lord General Cromwel hath been no small Instrument and principal Agent to execute upon me arbitrarily and illegally sending his Soldiers or Troupers with severe commands to handle me rufly without pity or compassion when by their wils and swords they took my own from me threatning them that if they did not execute his tyrannical and unjust commands effectually upon me he would cashier them out of his Troup and Regiment as some of themselves have confessed and all this hee did as is evident to make himself rich and great with my Colliery and Lands of which Sir Arthurs darling the said Col. Francis Hacker must needs become the chiefest Farmor which in the conclusion it may be may have in som sense as sharp sauce following it as Naboths Vineyard had to or for Ahab which if it have I hope Sir Arthurs Lieutenant Col. Mayers and his busie and late upstart Major Tolhurst with his pedling Lieutenant Bruine the insolentest fellow of all the rest will not go scot-free Thus most noble Gentlemen have I most truly though briefly laid open my wounds unto you for which as yet in this our English Gilead I can finde no balm although I have left no just and ordinary means unassayed that it is possible for the wit of man to attempt as First at the beginning I and my relations at the Committee of Durham did what in us lay to preserve our rights but Sir Arthurs will long sword threats and bended fist was too hard there for all our Law Right and Reason and then when by will and power my right was caried from me there I Secondly appealed to the chief Commissioners above at London and there I freely spent my mony amongst the Lawyers and Solicitors to gain the best advice I could thereby but my business going on very heavily I at last found out two faithful Councellors viz. Lieu. Col. Iohn Lilburn and Major Iohn Wildman upon whose faithfulness understanding and valour I cast all my said affairs and they plaid the parts of honest faithful men for me and had many a sharp and bitter tug with Sir Arthur and the Commissioners above as you may partly and truly read in the foresaid Epistle of Lieutenant Col. Iohn Lilburns which yet is far short of what I my self heard expressed there and when I was wearied tired and almost spent with charges and delays and could get no manner of justice from their hands I Thirdly followed the advice of one of them especially viz. Lieutenant Col. Iohn Lilburn and Petitioned the Parliament and had his personal and zealous countenance in it but they being full of weighty business for so at most I must but say had no time to read my Petition although I staid at 〈◊〉 long till I was fain to ride post to come down to the expected Assises at Durham and at my departure I principally left the care of my business with my said faithful friend Lieu. Col John Lilburn who it seems being in some despair of getting my Petition at present read and he as to me appears judging long delays to be my ruine In the Fourth place he hazarded himself amongst other things he had occasion to publish to print my oppressions and cruel sufferings in that forementioned Epistle of his to four of the Commissioners at Haberdashers Hall to which he sets his hand three times and although Sir Arthur Hesilrig at Durham the other day as the Lieutenant Col. informs me would have had some people to believe he durst not or would not own it and therefore desired his brother Gore to deliver a message from him to the Lieutenant Col. which was that if he were a Gentleman he desired him to own the late book called his to send him one which being delivered to the Lieutenant Col. by his brother Gore he desired him to tell Sir Arthur that if he were a Gentleman hee intreated him to be an instrument that they both might appear face to face at the Bar of the Parliament and he would ingage himself to him to own so much of it as he was confident should make his very heart to ake for as the Lieutenant Col. saith to me the Book or Epistle contains in it a matter of a high charge against Sir Arthur Hesilrig and by the Law of England and the practice of the Parliament it self in the Earl of Straffords case he saith it is at his own choice which piece of it he will begin with to make good against Sir Arthur first and not to be prescribed by him or any else for him to begin with what in it they pleased and I my self am sure of it the main and principal part of it he hath there sufficiently proved by authentick Records which to my great cost and expences I my self know to be true but besides Sir Arthur needs not in the least to be affraid of the Lieutenant Col. not owning the Book for I my self with many more have heard him often do it and he hath told me that as I remember the very day he came out of London he went to the Honourable the Speaker of the Parliament for his Post Warrant and told him to this effect that he had a Book at the Press which would be finished and printed within a few hours against Sir Arthur Hesilrig for his oppressions to his Uncle M. George Lilburn my self and several others of his relations and therefore intreated his Honour in case that in his absence that Book by reason of the high language in it came to be questioned in the Parliament that he would be pleased to oblige him so far to him as to acquaint the House that it was his and he would justifie it with his life and therefore humbly besought him to intreat the House to punish no body for writing printing or dispersing of it but to lay the whole load of it upon himself and if he pleased in case the House were angry at the Lieutenant Col. for it he intreated the Speaker to send him but two lines by