Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A30726
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The true case of John Butler, B.D., a minister of the true Church of England in answer to the libel of Martha his sometimes wife : treating of a marriage dissolved and made null by desertion and of a lawful concubinage in a case of necessity, wherein lawful marriage conveniently or possibly cannot be obtained.
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J. B. (John Butler)
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B6276; ESTC R20976
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33,278
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45
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Dame of the Family yet God did plainly allow of a lawful Concubinage or addional wives for the bed for Issue sake the Issue whereof are no where termed Bastards either in old or new Testament but upon all occasions in case of heirs male wanting by the proper wife the son of Concubinage became heirs Thus Ismael Son of Abraham by his maid servant should have been heir if Isaac had not been born of Sarah Gen. 17 18. And thus Rehoboam Son of Soloman by Naamah a meer Concubine was his Heir unto his Throne for that he had no Son by his proper Wife Yea tho Daughters he had several And thus Jephâ—bab Son of Gilead by a Stranger or a meer Concubine became the Prince of the People before any of his brethren Born of the lawful Wife because of his Abilities above any of them Judg. 11. â— 2 and 11 which had he been a Bastard could not have been For a Bastard might not enter into any office in the Church to become so much as a Constable or a Church-warden much less a King or Judge Deut. 23 2. but was to remaine a slave equal to the Gibeonites a hewer of wood and a drawer of water And at this rate none were esteemed Bastards but children begotten in Adultery or Whordom of another mans wife or of a common Whore and such could not inherit Incest was a foul sin and yet the Children Born of Incest did inherit and were not reputed Bastards as Pharez Son of Judah by his Son's Widow and Janna Son of Joseph Arses by his Nice Both which were Heirs in the Genealogy of our Saviour and therefore no Bastards But the Pope made Bastords of such which by God's Law are reputed well born And from the Pope our Statute Laws still keep up the practice Declaring all childeren to be bastards which are born out of marriage So as Childeren begotten out of marriage was a sin against the King's Laws and Statutes and yet no sin against God's Law Now it hapned that betewen the year from Janu. 1. 1637 unto the 24 of June 1660. there were so many hundred thousand children born out of marriage because of the true Laws of marriage put down that there was no other remedy to heal so many disorders in marriages by sinning against the King's Laws but by an Act of Indemnity and by that Act all manner of sins against the King's Laws in case of deficient marriage except some exceptions in that Act expressed whereof this is none being pardoned All sorts of comming together by any single man and si ngle woman and not disallowed by Gods Laws and the children born of such a beding together are made as lawful to all intents and purposes as if they had been married in all things according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England And hence all manner of Concubinages between single persons during the time aforesaid were made good in Law by a Statute-Law And thus the marriage of this Respondent with this said Complainant became a lawful marriage by Statute-Law as well as by Gods Law And so it was also of all other Concubinages of the same time from 1637 unto June 1660. And the children of such a bed were lawful born children and no bastards but were and are to be taken as the true and lawful Heirs unto their Fathers Dignities and Estates in as much as if they had been born of lawful marriage And now the second marriage of this Respondent with the said Mary Tomkins being a lawful marriage according to God's word barr'd of the benefit of the King's Laws only because of dangerous inconveniences in the way And being in the same state as all the Concubinages in the years aforesaid laments only the want of the same remedy And being a lawful marriage before God pleads for its self as a lawful and innocent concubinage tho not a good marriage according to the King's Laws 2ly This Respondent farther pleads that tho the Statute-Law of this Realm seem to condemn this his deficiency of marriage yet the customs of the Kingdom do fully and plainly allow of it For first whereas it appears by the Chronicles of Scotland that Robert Stuart the next Heir unto David then King of Scotland as his eldest Sisters Son lived with Elizabeth the daughter of Sir Adam Moor as his Concubine out of marriage and had by her three sons John Robert and Alexander and afterwards the said Elizabeth still living he Married with Euphame the Daughter of the Earl of Rosse by whom he had two Sons called David and Walter And after that being Crown'd King Euphame dy'd and he married his old Concubine Elizabeth And being old he called a Parliament of Lord's Spiritual and Temporal to advise him which son of right ought to inherit his Throne And it was resolved for the eldest Son of the Concubine before the sons of his married wife For that she had been a true wife to him before God in all things excepting the deficiency of the rites and ceremonies of marriage This therefore was approv'd of by all the wisdom of the Realm to have been a lawful Concubinage And insomuch as the Heirs of that Concubinage are without any gainsaying admitted also to inherit the Imperial Throne of this Realm it is also become an allowed Custome in this Kingdome also That the Heirs of a lawful Concubinage may inherit the Patrimony of their Parentage Thus also in the case of William of Normandy who was born out of marriage who was admitted and his Heirs after him to enjoy the Imperial Throne of this Kingdom and owned as a lawful King by all the Nobles and Bishops of this Realm Henry the Seventh also of this Kingdom was admitted and allowed in several Parliaments as the lawful Heir of John Duke of Lancaster altho' he was the Grand-child of John Earl of Sommerset the Son of the said John Duke of Lancaster by Katherne Swinford his Concubine born out of marriage and as I take it in the Life time of Constance his wife And the Heirs of these Concubinages do continue unto this Day Now have Parliaments admitted of such things as these as lawful and good Successions and shall they not be called the Custom of England And if lawful Customs then Custom pleads to be of kin unto a Law yea tho ar the sametime it seems to clash with Law But we must distinguish between matters of Concubinage for tho' some of them may justly by Law be Condemned yet some other of them in the mean while ought to have a despensation against the perils of the Law And among others this Case of the Respondent humbly begs a Reprieve in asmuch as necessity for want of the Power of Continency requirs an honest company of some Bed-fellows but it may not be an Whore and cannot with safety be a married wife according to the Laws of this Land for want of an Authoritative Sentence to acquaint him of his former
And never had a child by any woman but her self until above one year after she utterly left me And in attestation of these thing and in vindication of my proceedings in the whole mater I have written this ensuing treatise in answer to her scandalous Libel And in vindication of the Nullity of our marriage by her desertion of me of the lawfulness of an honest Concubinage in a case of necessity where lawful marriage cannot conveniently or possibly be enjoyed Unto which discourse I refer my readers as to the malitious rebellions of both my sons who were the chief incendiaries unto all the Evil that their said mother hath acted against me And yet I have great reason to imagin that the green heads of these infernally inspired villains had yet a deeper foundation then their own unripe pales to build upon There was among my pretended intimate friends a certain Divine of the Church of England as he pretended to be And might a man of integrity be judged by his hat and gown and girdle he was so cap-a-pee Or might a man be distinguished by his graceful garb a smooth tongue affable discourse and a courteous presence he could not be otherwise But when we approach so near a man as to find an Achitophel's head Rabshakel's lips and a Doegs hard heart all met in the presence of a stubborn Jew And a church-man's habit upon the body of a secretly resolved Papist What can a man look for but a Beast out of a bottomless pit throwing about his firebrands arrows and death and saying am not I in sport What can a man expect otherwise but infernally contrived mischiefs which without the gracious help of God above cannot reasonably be prevented I have received this sting at mine heart And these humble papers are intended as an humble Antidote against the poyson thereof And the good God grant me his blessing therein according to my integrity Let truth and righteousness ever flourish but let lyes and slanders of the ungodly always be detected and come to nought And the good Lord of his mercy justify the innocent and let me ever escape the malitious Plots and Contrivances of the venemous lips of Cham Ham. And let not the innocent and godly sons of the pure church who have kept promise tho to their hurt be ensnared to believe the gilded lyes of a false brother Amen The true STATE OF THE CASE BETWEEN JOHN BUTLER Clerk AND Martha somtime his Wife in a Matter of Marriage dissolved by Desertion As it is now about to be Controverted in the Honourable Court of Arches by a Libel brought by the said Martha against John and the Allegation of the said John in Answer thereto c. The Libel came to the Hands of this Respondent on the tenth Day of June 1697. and says as follows IN Dei nomine Amen Coram vobis venerabili egregio viro Georgio Oxenden Legum Doctore almae curiae cantuar de Arcubus London Officiali principali legitime constituto vestrove Surro aut alio Judice in hac parte competenti quocunque pars discretae foeminae Marthae Butler uxoris Johannis Butler de Hammersmith in Com Mid cler contra adversus dictum Johannem Butler ejus maritum paroch de Hammersmith predict ac Con. adversus quemcunque alium five quoscunque alios per viam quaerelae ac vobis in hac parte querelando dicit allegat in hiis Scriptis injure proponit articulatim pro ut sequitur viz. Imprimis That the said John Butler Clerk and Martha Butler formerly Perkins Daughter of one Isaac Perkins being free from all Matrimonial Contracts were on or about the seventh Day of May which was in the Year of our Lord God 1651 joined together in holy Matrimony by a Minister in holy Orders in the Parish Church of Weedon in the County of Northampton according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England and after such their Marriage they did live or cohabit together as lawful Man and Wife and for and as lawful Man and Wife they the said John Butler and Martha were and still are commonly accounted reputed and taken to be and the said Marriage hath been consummated by carnal copulation and he the said John Butler hath had several children born on the body of the said Mar ha his Wife four of which to wit Simon Alban Annsusan and Barbara are now living and were and are commonly accounted reputed the lawful children of them the said John and Martha Butler his Wife and the Marriage of the said John and Martha Butler doth appear to be entred in the Register-Book kept for marriages in the Parish Church of Weedon in the County of Northampton aforesaid Hoc que fuit est verum publicum notorium manifestum pariter ac famosum ponit tamen de quolibet alio temporis spatio majori medio vel minori ponit conj divisim de quolibet Such is her first Article of her Libel Unto which is answered by this Respondent That it is not altogether True being stuft with several presumptions which cannot be prov'd nor aptly be discovered And first As to the pretended Marriage this Respondent saith That it was really his desire that such a marriage might have been effected as in the Libel is pretended but in the year above mentioned it was a time of Rebellion and of great disorders both in Church and State and the lawful way of solemn matrimony according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England was gainsaid and â—â—erly forbidden in those days and forty shillings fine imposed on every Minister as should marry by the Common-Prayer Book and hence lawful Ministers in benefice durst not perform lawful marriage under the pain of the said forty shillings 〈◊〉 Wherefore this Respondent being ill willing to submit unto a scismatical and new invented Form of Marrimony was constrain'd to make use of a stranger that he never saw before nor since who was a man out of benefice and promised to marry us in due form in the Church as in the Libel mentioned And in presence of witnesses did begin to read the form of Marriage but in the management whether out of mistake or ignorance or willfulness this Respondent cannot say but so it was That he neglected and utterly omitted to use that most essential part of the marriage whereby this Respondent should have been betrothed to the said Martha the Complainant And altho this Respondent did whisper and correct him by making known his mistake yet he amended it not seeming as one confounded and in an amazement insomuch that the company burst out into a loud laughter So as he did not take this Respondent by the right Hand nor cause him to take the said Martha by her right Hand and to say after him saying I John take thee Martha to my wedded Wife to have and to hold from this day forward for better for worse for richer for poorer