Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	beseech_v	good_a	please_v	23,628	5	8.8360	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88156	An anatomy of the Lords tyranny and iniustice exercised upon Lieu. Col. Iohn Lilburne, now a prisoner in the Tower of London. Delivered in a speech by him, Novem. 6. 1646. before the honorable Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to consider of the priviledges of the commons of England: the originall copy of which, he in obedience to the order and command of the said Committee, delivered in writing to the hands of Col. Henry Martin, chairm-man of the said Committee: Nov. 9. 1646 and now published to the view of all the commons of England, for their information, & knowledge of their liberties and priviledges.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.	1646 (1646)	Wing L2080; Thomason E362_6; ESTC R201211	18,985	23

obey their unjust and tyrannicall commands And therefore tell them I will whether they will or no talk with any man that will talk with me till they out-strip the Bishops who gagged me for speaking in cruelty by cutting out my tongue or sowing up my lips And by and by I was called into their House and being by them commanded to kneele at their Barre I absolutely refused to doe it unlesse they would by force compell me thereunto which if they did I told them it would bee no act of mine And I shall with your favour give you one reason which with some others that made me I did not kneele and it was this I knew by Law the Lords had no jurisdiction over me and accordingly I had performed my duty to my selfe c. in protesting against them and had appealed to your House as the absolute legall supreame power of the Kingdome and so farre and by many degrees above the Lords Now if I should have done any action that should have declared any subjection unto the power and judicature of the Lords which my kneeling would have done I had not onely turned traytor there by to the Lawes and Liberties of England but I had also undone all that before I had done and deprived my selfe both of the benefit of my Protest and Appeale and should also by my own act have laid my selfe open justly to be sentenced and punished by the Lords And upon refusall to kneele they commanded me to withdraw and made this Order Die Martis 23. Junii 1646. ORdered by the Lords assembled in Parliament that Iohn Lilburne shall stand committed close Prisoner in the Prison of Newgate and that he be not permitted to have pen inke or paper and none shall have accesse unto him in any kinde but onely his Keeper untill this Court doth take further order To the Keeper of Newgate his Deputy or Deputies Iohn Brown Cler Parliamentorum Exam. per. Rad Briscoe Cleric de Newgate Now I shall humbly desire this Honourable Committee in the first place to observe that the Lords Warrant of the 22. June 1646. expresseth no cause at all wherefore I should dance attendance at their Barre and therefore illegall 2. I also intreate this Honourable Committee to observe that the Lords Commitment of me 23. June close Prisoner is altogether illegall and against the Petition of Right which is confirmed with every clause in it by the act that abolisheth the tax of Ship-money made this present Parliament and as Sir Edward Cooke that learned Lawyer doth well and truly observe in the 2. part of his institutes folio 52. there are 4. things that are required to make 1. That he or they which do commit have lawfull authority a Commitment lawfull viz. 2. That their warrant or mittimus be lawfull and that saith he must be in writing under hand and Seal 3. The cause must be contained in the warrant as for treason fellony c. or for suspition of treasou felony c. 4. The warrant or mittimus containing a lawfull cause ought to have a lawfull conclusion viz. and him safely to keepe untill he be delivered by law c. and not untill the party committing doth further order All which 4. are wanting in this warreat and therefore altogether illegall and unjust Now may it please this Committee I was very free in my discourse with Mr. Wollaston c. the Keeper of Newgate about the illegallity of this warrant which it may be came to the Lords eares and therefore within 4. or 5. dayes after they sent a more formall warrant containing the cause of my commitment and as Mr. Brisco could me tooke the aforesaid warrant away the originall copyes of all which orders are in your hands Mr. Martin and were delivered to you upon the first examination of this businesse about 4. moneths agoe to which I humbly referr you Now may it Please you to give me leave to go on with the true relation of the barbarous and tyrannicall execution of this unjust order by vertue of which for about 3. weeks together I was debarred of pen inke or paper and my Chamber by Mr. Brisco for that end strictly searched and my wife councellers and friends kept from me my wife c. after I was first locked up not being permitted to set her foote within my Chamber doore nor permitted to come into the Prison yard to speake with me out of my window nor I suffered to receive from the hands of my wife servant or friends either meat drinke money or any other necessaries and yet their Lordships nor none by their order allowing me all that time the valew of one penny loaf to live upon and though my wife obtained so much favour from a neighbour to speake with me out of their windowes at the distance of about 40. or 50 yards it being impossible for us to say any thing but what the Jaylors if they had a minde might heare yet such was their inhuman cruelty that they often threatned to stop up the poore mans windowes if he would not cease to permit my wife to look out of them and also threatned me to boord up mine or else if I would not forbeare at that distance to speake with my wife to lay me in Newgate Prison where as they could me I should neither have a possibility to speake with her or any other which I bid them do if they durst telling them that would be the onely way to get me my liberty for I had some friends abrode that would then I did believe to the purpose bestir themselves to preserve my life which they would easily judge was then intended in good earnest to be taken away by them and therefore if any mischiefe followed they might thanke themselves upon which they forbore executing their bitter menacies and 〈◊〉 any further upon me But I beseech you further be pleased to observe the Lords guilty consciences and their brave justice who the most part of this time while they keepe me thus close that it was absolutely impossible for me to know what they intended to do with me they had as I am informed 4. Lawyers at worke to frame a charge against me viz. Mr. Serjeant Finch Mr. Haile Mr. Hearne and Mr. Glover and upon the 10. of July 1646. and not before Mr. Serjeant Nathaniel Finch brought in certaine Articles by way of charge into the House of Peers against me which you Mr. Martin have in your hand and therefore I humbly desire they may be read which was done Now Sir before you read the sentence I humbly intreat this Honourable Committee to give me leave to make some observation upon the charge the first of which that I intreate you to take notice of is that betwixt the day of my being first summoned to answer a charge at the Lords barre and the day that it was first brought in or filed upon record there against me is above 29. dayes I being summoned the 10. of

his country to the utmost of my endeavours to defend and maintain his Rights and Liberties which is as justifiable by the Law of this Kingdome and in the eyes of all understanding men as for a true and just man to draw his sword and to cut a Theefe or Rogue that sets upon him upon the high-way on purpose to rob him of his life and goods And if after such a hearing before your honourable house it shall appear to their judgments and understandings that I have wronged the Lords in generall or the Earl of Manchester or Col. King in particular which two are the principall causes of all my present trouble and against whom are two Grand charges in your house as I judge them of no lesse then high treason commitmitted against the Kingdom which as I humbly conceive the justice of the Kingdom requires should come to a finall determination I shall with all willingnesse and cheerfulnesse submit to what punishment shall be just for them to inflict upon me and I hope that by this faire offer you will be provoked with the strength of resolution to deal impartially betwixt the Lords and me without fear punish those where the just fault is especially considering that you in your most excellent Declaration of the 17. April 1646 published by you to the view of the whole kingdome have solemnly declared That you will preserve the Rights and Liberties of the people and abolish the exercise of arbitrary power and so provide for the safety and weal of the people which is as you say the end of the primitive institution of all government And therefore in the behalf of my self and all the Commons of England I most humbly beseech and entreat his thonourable Committee to improve all the interest you have in the house of Commons to make good unto us this their own just and honest Declaration I beseech you heare me but one word more which I intreat you well to observe that the Lords have joyned with you in severall Declarations in which the Kings Oath is printed which I read in the Book Decl. pag. 268.713.714 where you and they declare positively and back it with many strong arguments That the King by his Coronation-Oath is bound to passe such lawes as his people shall chuse and if so then he hath no power in him to give a law unto the people or impose a law upon them much lesse can hee give a power to the Lords his meer creatures made by his will pleasure for them to oppose or give a Law unto the people and I am sure if they have a legislative power in them to do what they please and so by the authority of that presumed to do with mee as they did I am sure by the established Law of the Kingdom they have no power at all not in the least to do with me as they have done And therefore I humbly entreat you to presse home unto your House the Lords usurpations and incroachments upon our common rights that so they may effectually curbe them as in Justice they ought For Sir that which addes sorrow to all my sorrowes is this that I suffer all these inhumanities and illegall usages during the time of the sitting of a free Parliament and yet can have no effectuall redresse in five moneths time though earnestly sought for Alas Sir the Parliament is the English-mans legall last refuge and if that faile us to speak as men we are undone unlesse God set his power at work to work miracles and raise up meanes for our preservation And Sir if the Lords dare thus tyrannize over the free Commons of England in time of Parliament that used to be the fear and dread of Offendors what is it that they will not do unto us out of a Parliament Therefore again I most earnestly beseech this honourable Committee to remember them and improve all your interest to punish or at least effectually to curbe them for which as well as for your present patience in hearing me so largely I shall both now as well as formerly remain oblieged to improve my best and utmost ability for the preservation of the just supreame interest power and authority of your honourable House Esa 48.10 Behold I have refined thee but not with silver I have chosen thee in the fulnesse of affliction Job 23.10 When he hath tryed me I shall come forth as gold Novemb. the 9. 1646. JOHN LILBURN Reader thou art requested to take notice of two faults committed in the printing of this Booke the first in page 2. line 1. left out and also what passed betwixt my L. Wharton and my self the 2. in p. 5. l. 26. where thou shalt find these words a Commitment lawful viz. to be in the 28. line which ought to be placed at the end of the 26. line as thou mayst easily perceive For other faults if thou meet with any impute them not unto the Authour who could not be at the correcting hereof but in love to him amend them Vale. FJNJS

An Anatomy of the Lords Tyranny and iniustice exercised upon Lieu. Col. IOHN LILBURNE now a prisoner in the Tower of LONDON Delivered in a speech by him Novem. 6. 1646. before the honorable Committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider of the priviledges of the Commons of England The originall Copy of which he in obedience to the order and command of the said Committee delivered in writing to the hands of Col. Henry Martin Chairm-man of the said Committe Nov. 9. 1646 and now published to the view of all the Commons of England for their information knowledge of their Liberties and Priviledges To the Honorable the COMMITTEE for the Liberty of the Commons of ENGLAND May it please this Honorable Committee in obedience to your command and Order of the 6. of November last I here humbly present you with the narration under my hand which by word of mouth I made unto you upon Friday last of my particular sufferings since my commitment by the Lords MAY it please this Honorable Committee I had a hearing before you upon Tuesday the 27 of October last and then I truly acquainted you with the manner of the Lords first sending for me to their Barre by order of the 10. June 1646. to answer a charge there I acquainted you truly what passed betwixt their messenger my self also what was said to me at their Bar and how that for no misbehaviour or any other cause saving my exhibiting to them my Protest and refusing to answer illegall Interrogatories they the 11. of June 1646. committed mee to Newgate and how that upon the 16. of June 1646. I sent my appeale to the Honorable House of Commons which was accepted of And the last time I was before you I was reading the second Warrant of the Lords to bring me the second time to their Barre In the midst of which you were called away and therefore for what then passed I shall referre you Mr. Martin to your own Notes and my Papers delivered in to you but especially to my printed relation of their first proceedings with me which you have And now I shall humbly desire liberty methodically to goe on And as to me it appeares the Lords taking notice that I had appealed to your House their indignation being thereby increased sent a warrant the 22. of June 1646. to the Keeper of Newgate in these words Ordered by the Lords in Parliament assembled that Lieutenant Colonell John Lilburne now a prisoner in Newgate shall be brought before their Lordships in the high Court of Parliament to morrow morning by 10. of the clock And this to be a sufficient Warrant in that behalfe John Brown Cler. Parl. And I being in bed was by my Keeper about 10 a lcock at night certified that such a Warrant was come to carry me in the morning to the Lords Barre I rose betimes and went and spoke with Brisco the Clerk of Newgate and my Keepers Master and told him the Lords had no power nor jurisdiction over me by law and therefore I told him I neither could nor would give my consent to goe up to them And then he told me he would force me Wherupon I went up to my chamber and locked my door and writ a Letter to Mr. Wollastone the chiefe Keeper under the Sheriffes of London And in his absence my wife and a friend carried it to the Sheriffes then at Guild-Hall with the Court of Aldermen and delivered it and my appeale c. to them who as they conceive amongst themselves read it But for any thing I know ordered Brisco to make a forcible entry upon my lodging for hee came up and broke my Chamber-wall and by force carried me down and put me in a Coach which carried me to the Lords The Copy of the above-mentioned letter in print I here present unto you SIR I This morning have seen a Warrant from the House of Lords made yesterday to command you to bring me this day at ten a clock before them the warrant expresseth no cause wherefore I should dance attendance before them neither doe I know any ground or reason wherefore I should nor any Law that compels me thereunto For their Lordships sitting by vertue of Prerogative-patents and not by election or common consent of the people have as Magna Charta and other good lawes of the land tell me nothing to doe to try me or any Commoner whatsoever in any criminall case either for life limb liberty or estate But contrary hereunto as incroachers and usurpers upon my freedomes and liberties they lately and illegally endeavoured to try me a Commoner at their Bar for which I under my hand and seal protested to their faces against them as violent and illegall incroachers upon the rights and liberties of me and all the Commons of England a copy of which c. I in print herewith send you and at their Bar I openly appealed to my competent proper legall Tryers and Judges the Commons of England assembled in Parliament for which their Lordships did illegally arbitrarily and tyrannically commit me to prison into your custody unto whom divers dayes agoe I sent my appeal c. which now remains in the hands of their Speaker if it be not already read in the House unto which I do and will stand and obey their commands Sir I am a free-man of England and therefore I am not to be used as a Slave or Vassall by the Lords which they have already done and would further doe I also am a man of peace and quietnesse and desire not to molest any if I be not forced thereunto therefore I desire you as you tender my good and your own take this for answer that I cannot without turning traytor to my Liberties dance attendance to their Lordships Barre being bound in conscience dutie to God my selfe mine and my Countrey to oppose their incroachments to the death which by the strength of God I am resolved to doe Sir you may or cause to be exercised upon me some force or vielence to pull and dragge me out of my Chamber which I am resolved to maintain as long as I can before I will be compelled to goe before them and therefore I desire you in a friendly way to bee wise and considerate before you doe that which it may be you can never undoe From my Cock-loft in the Presse-yard of Newgate this 13 of Iune 1646. Sir I am your true and faire conditioned prisoner if you will be so to me JOHN LILBURN And being in the Painted Chamber talking with Col. Francis Russel a Member of your House Brisco came to me and before him told me that the Lords had commanded that I should not speak with any To which I replied Are the Lords ashamed of their cause that they dare not venture my declaring of it to my friend But goe tell their Lordships from me I understand the liberties of England better then so suddenly to be their slave and to

Iune 1646. and the Charge not brought in till the 10. of Iuly 1646 which is a most illegall and unjust thing in any Court whatsoever 2. I beseech you observe that almost all and the principall things layd to my charge are pretended crimes committed not before my being brought to their barre to answer a Charge but afterwards namely in the time of an unjust and provokeing imprisonment and therefore a great injustice it is as any can be in the world to force a man to dance attendance at their Barre to answer a Charge before they have filed one against him or have so much as the pretence of a crime to lay to his charge and then arbitrarily and illegally to commit a man to a tyrannicall imprisonment there by extraordinary provocations to necessitate and force a man as it were to commit slips and fallings that thereby they may pick a hole in his coate because they had none before and then fall upon him and destroy him and this in every particuler hath been the Lords dealing with me which I humbly conceive to be the height of tyranny and injustice Now Mr. Martin I humbly intreate you to read the sentence for upon the 10. Iuly there issued out an order to bring me up againe to their barre the next day to heare my Charge read which was accordingly put in execution Now Sir you having read the sentence I shall humbly crave leave first to make some observations upon it and then secondly to go on methodically with the matter of fact And first I beseech you observe that the 10. Iune 1646. I was summoned to attend their Lordships in their House and the 11. Iune 1646. I there appeared and was then committed by them to Newgate the 16. of the same moneth I appealed to the Right Honourable the House of Commons as my legall and proper Iudges who accepted read approved and committed my appeale to a speciall Committee and yet notwithstanding the 22. of the same moneth the Lords command the Keeper of Newgate to bring me up to their barre and there upon the 23. day I was committed close prisonet to Newgate till the 10. Iuly 1646. at which time my Charge was brought into the Lords House and not before which was a moneth after the first processe or warrant issued out for me All which proceedings besides their not having any legall Iudicature at all over mee are erroneous and illegall and principally in these two points First because I was summoned before any Charge was recorded which proceedings are point blanke against the expresse Statutes of 9. H. 3. 29. 5. E. 3. 9. 25. E. 3. 4. 28. E. 3. 3. which expresly say that none shall be imprisoned nor put out of his free hold nor of his franchises nor free customs unlesse it be by the law of the Land which is that none shall be taken by Petition or suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Councel unlesse it be by inditement or presentment of his good and lawfull people of the same neighbourhood where such deeds be done in due manner or by processe made by Writ originall at the common law c. which Statutes are confirmed by the petition of Right and by the Statute for abolishing the Star-Chamber made this present Parliament And indeed regularly both in law and equity the Declaration or bill ought to be filed or recorded before any writ or processe ought to issue against the defendant or party accused either in civill or criminall causes and the write warrant or processe ought to containe the matter of the declaration bill or petition and this appeares cleerly in every writ as the learned in the law informe me set forth by the Register and Fitzherberts natura brevium and that every English bill either in Chancery Exchequer or Star-Chamber doth pray that processe of sub-pena be awarded against the defendant which proves that processe orders or Warrants ought not to be awarded or granted against any man out of any Court of Justice whatever till his charge be recorded against him in the same Court and sutable to this is your own doctrine in your own Declarations Booke Decl. page 38 39 278 845. Secondly I beseech you observe that all the Lords proceedings with me after my appeale to the honourable house of Commons are void in Law because by my appeale to the proper Jurisdiction which is only your House the Lords are outed of their Jurisdiction or conusans of the plea the cause being removed by the Appeale their judgment was thereby determined or at least suspended being but the effect of the cause before them till such time as the Appeal is determined the Appeal being a supersedas to the Lords further proceeding in the same cause and they ought not to have proceeded any further at all but to give them as much as by any just colour or claime they can challenge they ought not any further to have gone on without the privity licence and direction of the honourable house of Commons and therefore all their proceedings with me especially since my Appeal to your honourable house are coram non judice and therefore void and erroneous And I further conceive under favour that the Lords proceedings with me after your House had accepted of my Appeal is as great an affront and indignity offered to the majesty honour and greatnesse of your house the absolute supream derivative power of all the Commons of England the original and absolute fountain of all power therein as their proceedings are unjust towards me destructive to the lawes and liberties of England Again I beseech you observe that in their Articles the originall and chief supposed crime that they charge me with is for scandalizing the Earl of Manchester a Peer as they call him of the Kingdome Now may it please you to take notice that I say if his conscience had not been guilty told him that it was possible I might justly and groundedly have proved much more against him then I lay to his charge in my printed Epistle to Judge Reeve c. hee would never have shunned and avoided the known law of the Kingdome which sufficiently proves a remedy for him in case I had scandalized him as appeares by the statutes of 3. E. 1 33. 27. E. 3. ●8 38. E. 3. 9. 42 E. 3. 3. 2 R. 2. 5. 12. R. 2. 11 17. R. 2. 16. which expresly command that if any man scandalize any of the great men of the kingdome he shall be taken and kept in custody or put in security till he prove what he saith and in case he cannot then he shall incur the same pain that the other should have had if he were attainted and that processe of the law be made against them without being taken and imprisoned against the great Charter and other statutes but his leaving the common common and just road of the kingdom that sufficiently provides for his reparation if innocent argues his knowledge

of his owne guilt or else he would never have betaken himself to an extraordinary meanes and especially in such a place where himself is chiefe Judge in his own cause and there against me by a kind of a legislative and unlimitted power of Judicature which is not in them especially singly neither can they take them in the highest capacity that ever law estated them in proceed to determine any thing out of the way of the known and established lawes by any arbitrary or discretionary Rules when there is a known law in the case And I am sure it is a received Maxime in law That where remedy may be had by an ordinary course in Law the party grieved shall never have his recourse to extraordinaries And Sir under favour to speak truly the Parliament properly are not nor ought not to meddle with causes betwixt party party that are decideable at common-law they being the supream Judicature of the Kingdome and the last refuge to appeale to by the people in case of injustice else-where and so may properly be called Judge of Judges rather then Judge of particular parties and causes My last observation upon the sentence that I shall humbly entreat you to take notice of is this That although by the 14 Chap. of Magna Charta it is declared that a free-man shall not be amer●ed or fined for a small fault but after the manner of the fault and for a great fault after the greatnesse thereof saving to him his contenement or countenance and a merchant likewise saving to him his Merchandize And any other villain then the Kings shall be likewise amerced saving his wainage or teame and none of the said amerciaments shall be assessed but by the oath of honest and lawfull men of the vicinage But I beseech you observe the Lords had no oath of any honest man what ever against me nor one word of my own confession of any guiltinesse of any crime whatsoever but a constant resolution manifested to maintain the lawes and liberties of the kingdome against their usurpations for which just honest and legall action and for no other they unrighteously unjustly and barbarously sentenced me not saving to me my contenement or countenance or leaving me some reasonable proportion after their Fines or Amercement to live upon in the quality or condition I had done before but they amerced or find me at four thousand pounds which is divers thousands of pounds more then either I am worth or ever was in my life Now I beseech this honourable Committee to observe that by this sentence the unrighteous cruell Lords have done as much as in them lyes every hour of time to put me into such a condition that I shall be liable to have all the estate that I have in the world taken from me to satisfie this unjust Fine and so leave nothing for me my wife and small children to live upon nay and that which is worse then all this the greatnesse of the Fine is much more then I can satisfie So that in case all that little that I have should be seized upon yet there is such abundance would remain behind which would rob me of all credit whatsoever for who will be so unwise as to lend a man money that is thousands of pounds worse then nothing which is my case by this Fine But yet this is not at all for they commit me for 7. years the age of a man in the eye of the Law a prisoner to the extraordinary chargeable Prison of the Tower where I cannot earn one penny nor it being no through-fare for me to beg a penny to live upon Now Sir laying all these things together I beseech you consider whether in the intention of the Lords I be not exposed to miseries and torments worse then death it selfe for either by their intentions I must perish by hunger and famine or else be forced to eat my wife and children or any other that I can over-come and what is this but the height of tyranny and cruelty and a torment worse then any death in the world for saith Jerem. in his Lamentations Better is he that dyes by the sword then he that dyes by famine and he gives the reason because there is a speedy end of the pain of him that dyes by the sword but he that dyes by hunger and famine pines away and is in a continuall torment alwayes dying and wishing and longing for death And undoubtedly Sir this is my condition by the intention of the Lords Now Sir having with your patience made these obseruations I humbly desire to goe on with the matter of fact Which is that upon the tenth of July when Serjeant Finch brought in my Charge into the House of Peeres they that day made an Order to command the Sheriffs of London the next day to bring me up to their Bar to hear my Charge The copy of which warrant I have not in regard the Sheriffe contrary to law refused to give it me although I sent to him to desire it and I having formerly told the Jaylors of Newgate I could not nor would not go up to the Lords Bar by vertue of their own Warrāt without a forcible compulsion The Sheriffes sent about 30. or 40. of the attenders upon the Hangman when he goes to doe execution at Tiburn to carry me up to the Lords Bar. And being in the Painted chamber I desired Mr. Brisco one of my Keepers and Tormenters to to goe and tell the Lords from me that seeing they had the impudency and boldnesse to tread the Lawes and Liberties of England under their feet and did so contemne and under-value the authority of the Honorable House of Commons to whom I had appealed as yet to goe on in their illegall courses with mee with whom by Law they had nothing to doe I must bee forced in the highest nature I could to contemne and despise their proceedings and therefore was resolved not to come to their Bar without a forcible compulsion and to come in with my hat upon my head and to stop my eares when they read my Charge in detestation and bearing witnesse against their usurpations and injustice So away hee went But I was compeld in and being brought up to the Bar I was commanded to kneele which I absolutely refused And then my Lord of Manchester my grand adversary who hath for these two or three yeares thirsted after my blood for no other crime but that I was faithfull and active in executing the trust reposed in me for the good of the Parliament and Kingdom he I say as speaker of the House of Lords commanded the Clerk to read me my Charge which he began to do At which I stopped my eares with my fingers till such time as I perceived the Clerks lips to leave moving Wherupon I was commanded to with-draw and after some distance of time I was called in again and was again commanded to kneele but I told them My Lords