Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	die_v	john_n	sir_n	12,112	5	5.7810	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88998	The picklock of the old Fenne project: or, Heads of Sir John Maynard his severall speeches, taken in short-hand, at the committee for Lincolneshire Fens, in the exchequer chamber. Consisting of matter of fact. Matter of law. Presidents quæres and answers.	Maynard, John, Sir, 1602-1690.	1650 (1650)	Wing M1457; Thomason E594_4; ESTC R206914	10,306	19

THE PICKLOCK OF THE Old Fenne Project OR Heads of Sir JOHN MAYNARD his severall SPEECHES TAKEN In Short-hand at the Committee for LINCOLNESHIRE FENS in the Exchequer Chamber Consisting of Matter of Fact Matter of Law Presidents Quaeres and Answers LONDON Printed by J. B. 1650. The Picklock of the Old-Fenne-Project Mr. Goodwin I Shall observe this Method in answering the Councell on the other side First I shall speake to the matter of Fact Secondly to the matter of Law And thirdly I shall cite some Presidents in the point Sir William Killagrew hath mis-stated the matter of Fact in his Printed Case for therein he alleadges that the Commissioners first invited the King to recommend to them an Undertaker whereas it appears otherwise in the Kings Letters and in three of his Letters the King varies The Undertakers which no question was by Sir Robert Killagrew Sir William Killagrew and Master Robert Longs procurement The Kings first Letter is most observable therein are couched all the fallacies of the Undertakers and the foundation of the project They informed and perswaded the King that he might appoint and command a Tax to be laid of a Marke the Acre without any respect to the interest of particular persons or consult the owners And further That the Tax should be made by the Commissioners on you without Verdict and that their judgement must be the rule of proceedings in this case and not the consent of the Owners whose aversenesse must not prejudice the Publique good In the Kings second Letter the Earl of Lindsey Sir Rob. Killagrew Sir William Killagrew are recommended by way of Mandamus to be Undertakers As we expect and we do command all manner of persons to forbeare to make any particular bargains or works c. In the third Letter it is still by way of Mandamus We have made choice of him meaning the Earle of Lindsey to be the Vndertaker And in the Kings last Letter the King offers to give his Royall Assent The Commissioners began legally for they impannel'd a Jury of the Neighbourhood of twenty five who found that the Levell was not hurtfully surrounded When Mr. Robert Long saw how the Countrey was bent he wisely sold his share for 1500l to Mr. Herne Mr. Nicholas Love and one Mr. Hoyden and they were to be at the charge of draining Likewise Mr. Long perswaded Mr. Thomas Killagrew and Mr. Henry to sell their shares but Sir William Killagrew would not be advised but built a faire House on another folks Lands and fortified it and furnished it with men Ammunition and Artillery Muskets Horsemen and Pistols in a Warlike manner and entertained French and Dutch Yet the Countrey would never yeeld possession but alwaies opposed Sir William and the rest of the Undertakers the Countrymen were Pursuivanted imprisoned by Councell-Table-Warrants some we heare were wounded and affrighted with Mastiffe-Dogs Many men were utterly undone and wearied out and forced to subscribe and enter into Bonds Assoone as the Courtiers saw the Commissioners joyned with the Countrey they procured worthy Patriots to be put out of Commission and Courtiers Servants to the Undertakers and many of themselves were Jndges and Parties After the Jury found the Levell not hurtfully surrounded they were laid aside And the Commissioners many being Undertakers and consequently Judges and Parties got upon Boston Steeple and adjudged all they saw was hurtfully surrounded They might as well have got upon Pauls Steeple and adjudged all the rich Meadows and Marshes on both sides the Thames to be hurtfully surrounded when they are overflowne by Land-floods If you will see to the end you must observe the meanes The Undertakers gave the King 3000. Acres by way of bribe and the King gave them 14000. Acres for being Judges and Parties they might be their own carvers Likewise the Undertakers gave some thousands of Acres to divers Lords of the Councell and both the Secretaries I pray Observe some materiall circumstances First the time when this project was set on foot It was in the Intervals of Parliaments the onely harvest for Projectors then Parliaments were damn'd at Court And observe the persons that were the Patrons of those Projectors they were inveterate enemies to Parliaments The Lord Treasurer Weston who was accused by Sir John Elliot in 3 Car. and most instrumentall to imprison those worthy Members and Sir John Elliot died a Martyr for the Parliament in the Tower The Earle of Lindsey father and son and all the Undertakers have been against the Parliament Alas there is a bed-roule of other grievances and 200. witnesses were examined when Mr. Ellis had the chaire So much in brief to the matter of Fact For the Matter of Law we conceive these Undertakers are higher offenders then the Earle of Strafford for they have not onely indeavoured but traiterously maliciously and premeditately against the light of their own consciences and knowledges have actually subverted the fundamentall Lawes of the Land and introduced an Arbitrary and Tirannicall Government For contrary to the 29. Chap. of Magna Charta which is confirmed by thirty two Sessions of Parliament whereof the Petition of Right and the Act for the abolishing the Star-chamber are two they have imprisoned our persons and destroyed Juries and put out the two eyes of the Law Liberty and Property Likewise contrary to the 15 and 16 chap. of the great Charter wherein it is expressed That no man shall be compelled and distrained to make new ban●● or bridges but as formerly the same is confirmed in the 25. Ed. the 3. ch. 2. the 1. of H. 4. chap. 12. the 6. of H. 6. chap. 5. the 8. of H. 6. chap. 2. the 12. Ed. 4. ch. 7. the 6. of H. 8. chap. 10. All which are knit up in the 23. of H. 8. chap. the 5. yet the Undertakers many being Commissioners have acted point blank against these known Laws For the Commissioners could do nothing without the Jury which are Judges of the matter of Fact and they are to finde the defaulters according to the 12. of Edw. 4. and the 23. of H. 8. and to amerce individuals and not a generall levell and the Commissioners are to approve of such Amerciaments Object But say they the undertakers by the 23. of Hen. 8. the Commissioners may proceed without Juries by view according to their discretion Answ. Sir Edward Cook explains discretion which is Secundum consuetudines leges Angliae otherwise their proceedings are irrationall and illegall Besides the Commissioners could not lay a Tax because they were new moulded of Courtiers which were Judges and Parties and the Countrey Gentlemen contrary to Usance Custom and Law were put out and Strangers put in some not worth fourty Marks per Annum which by the Law they ought to have been so they were not legall Commissioners because they were Undertakers and consequently Judges and Parties and could not contract with themselves Had they been legall Commissioners they could not do it without Juries and

they laid it likewise upon no body for generals signifies nothing but as I said formerly it must be done by the Jury upon individuals All the Kings Letters which are supposed to be indited by Master Role ● Long were diametrially contrary to Law The King could lay no Tax nor give the Commissioners leave to proceed without Juries nor to appoint Undertakers which is contrary to the 43. of Eliz and the 4. and 7. of King Iames In the 43. of Elizabeth there is the first mention of an Undertaker and therein he is limited and directed what how ●●d with whom he must contract A Commissioner likewise hath no authority to contract but the Contract must be by the direction and approbation of the Lords Owners and Commoners under their hands and seals in writing indented Here was no such matter they followed their own lights which were Ignes fatui and so fell into those pits they digged for others They made a Contract with the King which was an evil bargain and they had the Kings Royall Assent which signifies nothing out of Parliament who ought by Law to speak onely by his Writs For Det Lex Regi quod Rex Legi quae Rex jure potest Rex ea sola potest but my fellow Courtiers thought they were above and beyond the Arm of the Law though they were both reached and over-reached at the last The Judges for Ship money were accused for Treason by reason it was destructive to Propriety yet that was not three in the pound but the Fenne-Project cuts our estates asunder at a blow In Ship-Money the King had a Judgement by the sworn or rather forsworn Judges but the Undertakers were the old Levelling Courtiers destroyers of Propriety and got the Kings hand to Letters of their own inditing and just as the Earl of Strafford produced blanks for all his horrid illegall Acts as disarming the Protestants and arming the Papists so did the Undertakers produce the Kings Letters upon all occasions especially to destroy Jucies and to take away our reall estates without consulting the Owners It is the same with the Forrest business for the Judges some of them would have made all England a Forrest So this generation of Undertakers would have incorporated and got a standing Commission in all Counties and so made England the Levell and England to be surrounded and in short time would have taken all we had This was as bad as their Levying War against the Parliament And we conceive Sir William Killagrew did actually Levy War against the Nation and had his project succeeded we had been no more a People Alas the Law of the Land was used by the Undertakers as a Murderer in Frame whose joynts are broken on the Wheel whilest he is yet alive and in good health I should Answer the Counsellors prolix Argument but I know not how to finde the beginning nor end of his ravelled discourse He hath played the part of a flourishing Writer who usually buries the Capitall Letter in a curious knot and instead of enucleating the business I can see no kernell but husks and shels In my apprehension the Gentleman that spake last hath gleaned his Argument from my Lord Finch and some of the Ship-Money Judges All he hath spoken is for the Kings Prerogative against the Law that is not now Ala mode But Master Goodwin I beseech you observe this Honourable Committee hath spent one quarter of a year on the point of possession and I hope we have beaten the Undertakers from that Post Then they pressed to state their case in Law and shew their title so that we hope now we have gained that Post likewise and not only got possession which is eleven points in Law but the twelfth likewise Now the Undertakers are building Castles in the Ayre or rather upon a Quicksandy foundation of the old Arbitrary Government of conveniency and inconveniency if that poynt crack then they will flie to necessity the old Court Retreat Let them traverse their ground and sence as well as they can we shall hit them still and beat them at their own weapon The Presidents IN Queen Elizabeths days this project was set on foot by the then Earl of Lincoln who procured a Patent from the Queen to drain some of these Fens when he was making his Works and new Drains contrary to Law the Country rose and the Lord Willoughby of Erby then Governour of Berwick raised the Trained Bands and assisted the Countrey in beating the workmen off the Earl of Lincoln complained to the Queen of the Riot committed by the Lord Willoughby who was sent for to the Councell Table The Lord Willoughby proved the Earl of Lincoln had not the Countreys consent but some few Tenants and others of his own faction that it was for private ends and lucre not onely to drayne himself and drown his Neighbours but to take great propoitions of Land which were never drowned for melioration and the means my Lord of Lincoln used was bribes to Courtiers to procure such an illegall Commission that himself and his friends might be Judges and Parties and that it was against the 23. of H. 8. The Queen upon full hearing of the business in great passion resumed her Commission and was wroth with the Earl of Lincoln who had been committed to prison but that his Lordship made great friends at Court and the Queen thanked the Lord Willoughby of Erby for assisting her good people in so honest and just a cause In the first of King James the same project was set on foot and a Petition was delivered unto his Majestie as though it had proceeded from the Country just such a Petition as Sir William Killagrew procured by two Ale-house keepers For it was onely a few of the Undertakers faction like to the Agreement of the People Sir Miles Sandes had made many friends at Court and the King was prepossessed it was a glorious work and for the Publique good and the King was made believe the Isle of Ely and the Southside the River Grant was hurtfully surrounded but when the King was hunting the Lord Garret of Chippenbam Sir John Cotton of Chenely Sir John Paytan of Iselham and Sir Thomas Gee acquainted the King with all the cheats of the Undertakers that they being Judges and Parties had made many thousand Acres that were never drowned and the most part of the Land which was the better by overflowing in the nature of River Meadows to be Land hurtfully surrounded That they dreyned and meliorated a little hurtfully surrounded Lands of their own and pejorated ten times as much Lands which were never hurtfully drowned before and that which was most gross and palpable they must not onely have a third part of that Land so pejorated but a third of such Lands as were never drowned for melioration When the King was fully instructed he injoyned secrecy and went up to the Parliament and discovered all the Undertakers fallacies and concluded wittily It is just