Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	sir_n	treasurer_n	13,982	5	10.9987	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25666	The Anti-projector, or, The history of the Fen project		1646 (1646)	Wing A3504; ESTC R27192	7,788	9

THE ANTI-PROJECTOR OR The History of the Fen Project IT 's ausual question Whether drayning be good for the Common wealth Answ 1. There are two kindes of legal drayning The one is by the ancient Commissions of Sewers according to the 23 H. 8. where the Commissioners of Sewers and Jurors are to be of the same County where the land ly●th who once or twice every year if occasion required ought to view the wants of scowring the old Drains and to return the defaulters to the Commissioners who used to ascertain their Amerciaments The second is according to a Law made in the 43 Eliz. whereby the major part of the owner and Commonners of any Township may agree with any person or Corporation for a certain sum of money under their hands and seals indented for the drayning of such lands as they finde hurtfully surrounded This is also Legal and good for the Common-wealth because it is with their free consents It may be objected Why hath not the Country Drayned themselves all this while The Countries have been alwaies able and willing but for these fifty years or thereabouts their legal Commissioners according to the 23 of H. 8. have been obstructed by powerful undertakers Courtiers Lord-keepers Atturnies-General and Projectors and dissolutions and intervals of Parliament The which Law if it had been constantly put in execution without these gross interruptions would have done the work in most Towns where need required within the supposed Level For without doubt the stopping of the old Draynes is the cause of all their new mischiefs Illegal Drayning All the illegal undertakers have pretended they had the consents of the Countries to be drayned by them which alwaies hath been the ground of their cheat from the beginning viZ. The first notorious undertaker was the Earl of Lincoln in Queen Elizabeths dayes His covetous Lordship by bribes to some Courtiers and mis-information by pretending what a glorious work drayning would be to the Publick and that he had the consent of the Country which indeed were but an inconsiderable party of his own faction procured a Pattent or Commission for the drayning of the Fens But his private ends were to drain his own surrounded foul lands at the Public charges and he so packed his Commissioners by making them Judges and Parties that they made a Level and took away the poor Country-mens lands which were never drowned or bettered by overflowing for melioration The Queen being informed how her good Subjects were abused and that the said Commission was contrary to the Law of Sewers viz. 23. H. 8. She thereupon made that just and equitable Law so consonant to nature and reason for the most strict preservation of propriety called The Statute of Improvement in the forty third year of her raign Which Law prescribes the Rule to undertaking or contracting viz. First there must be fairly and freely obtained the consents of the major part of the owners and Commoners under their hands and seals indented So that the Commissioners of Sewers have nothing to do with the matter and manner of undertaking Neither is a Commissioner of Sewers capable to be in undertaker for then he should be both Judge and Party and so to contract with himself which were absurd Primo Jacobi Sir Miles Sandys having purchased some hurtfully surrounded lands to drain himself though to the drowning of his neighbours by bribes to Courtiers procured a Commission to drain the Fens and got himself and his participants to be made Commissioners and consequently judges and Parties Then they made a Level and brought in those Towns of Cambridge shire on the South-side the River Graunt to be part of the Level or hurtfully surrounded grounds which words are convertible and they contracted with themselves and gave to themselves one third part of those lands for draining and melioration most part of which lands being in truth dry grounds or bettered by overflowing or at least able to drain themselves by clensing the old Sewers had not the Legal Commissions of Sewers been obstructed by these undertakers This Project was wittily discovered to King James in the beginning of his raign for one told the King he should hear a Cow speak which the King wondered at and was perswaded to go to his Stables at Theobalds where the Cow was covered all over The King commanded the Company to withdraw and uncovered the Cow and upon the horns there was a large Parchment rolled up and all the undertakers fallacies discovered therein The King enjoyned secrecy and in full Parliament spake against it in these words It is just the same Case my Lords as though a pack of Theeves should give me 20000. l. to give them a Patent under my broad seal to rob my loyal Subjects of 200000 l. by the which I should perjure my self and become a Thief and Tyrant And thereupon it was thrown out for a Project Some of the undertakers friends pressed earnestly that the Countries might bear their charges Sir Edward Cook replyed Let those pay them that set them on work 19. Jacobi The King himself turned undertaker contrary to his speech in Parliament and contrary to the Acts made 43 Eliz. and the fourth and seventh of his Raign The occasion the King brake that Parliament was for his favourites sake whose brother Sir Edward Villiers was questioned for a Monopolist Observe this undertaking of 19 Jacobi was the foundation of Francis E. of Bedfords undertaking as it appears in their Lyn Law where the Bribe given to the King is nearly couched which was 12000 acres of our lands After King Charles had condemned Loan money by the Petition of Right and had often broke his own Law then the Projectors swarmed again for they knew the King was irreconcilable to Parliaments and all things were carried with a high hand and those most renowned udges chief justice Crew and chief Baron Walter were disgraced and the Judges Patents were altered and those words Quam diu se bene gesserit expunged and those Prerogative words inserted Ad bene placitum Domini Regis This was a fit season to Monopolize and in this interval of Parliaments Franci● Earl of Bedford the Lord Treasurer Weston the Earl of Dorset the Earl of ●insey and his son the Lord Mowbray Lord Gorge Sir Edward Heron Sir John Brook Sir David Coningham Mr. Latch Sir John Munson Sir Philbert Vernatt with many more of the Kings Party turned undertakers and gave bribes to the King Queen and Lords of the Councel Secretaries Attournyes General and Courtiers and procured illegal Commissions and made themselves Judges and Parties and gave the peoples lands to themselves as Commissioners and undertakers which are inconsistent for the reasons premised At Kings-Lyn 6 Caroli They pretended they had the Major part of the Owners and Commoners consents which if they can shew under our hands and seals according to the 43 Eliz. we are content they shall enjoy our lands we are ready to joyn Issue with them upon

that point and so are those of the Isle of Axom against Mr. Gibbons Likewise those which oppose the Earl of Linsey Sir Anthony Thomas Sir John Murson Sir Cornelius Vermooden and others are ready to prove all their undertakings have been against the Countries Consents and that they have been both Commissioners and undertakers Judges and Parties which is against the Law of God Nature and common Reason By the same reason these packed Commissioners being Judges and Parties made 300000 acres the Level very much of which land is dry or bettered by overflowing they may make England the Level England to be surrounded and take one third this year for drayning and another third the next for melioration and the third take all by their Prerogative The six Counties Petitioned King Charles at Newmarket against Lyn Law which was condemned at a Session of Sewers held at Huntington 14 Car. Before this the people were Pursuvanted imprisoned by Councel Table warrants and their Hay taken off their C●res and the six Counties were most grievously oppressed Afterwards the King turned undertaker himself and so our oppression continued for the Comissioners were still Judges and Parties and took away our lands against our consents In the beginning of the last Parliament when Francis Earl of Bedford was mad● Lord Treasurer then by his power and faction in the Lords House a Bill was exhibited to the Parliament by some of the undertakers for drayning against the peoples consents but that bill dyed with him Afterwards when William Earl of Bedford was made General of the Parliaments Horse there was a bill for drayning committed there was a Committee of 30 or 40. and they sate in the Court of Exchequer and Mr. Pelham had the Chair The Earl was there present himself and some Parliament men which were the said Earls participants were very active and sate at the Committee as Judges and Parties Upon a long debate that bill was overthrown About two years after when William Earl of Bedford and Mr. Henly returned from Oxford there was a short Ordinance for drayning committed The Committee sate in the Star-chamber and the six Counties were summoned and there was an extraordinary appearance against the undertakers Mr. Scowen had the Chair and the people cryed out no Mr. Scowen for he was Francis Earl of Bedford's Sollicitor This Committee was furnish'd with too many undertakers of Parliment men There were at least twelve several Chairmen of that Committee and most of them byassed for the undertakers for no witnesses were fairly examined for the six Counties but leading Interrogatories obtruded upon them not one Town of ten were examined at all when the six Counties attended there were commonly two or three undertakers who adjourned the Committee in Westminster-hall on purpose to vex and tire the people when the people had spent their money and were gone out or town then the Committee sate in one corner or another so that their sollicitors were fain to watch them The Committee-men were often feasted by the undertakers and our lands were offered to be sold at two years value to Parliament men which was often complained of to the Parliament by some worthy Patriots This great not good bargain increased very much their faction yet providence which hath done wonders blafted this Ordinance that it withered away to nothing About four years since there was a new Act set on foot and the six Counties were surprised for they were not as formerly so much as summoned This Act was a child of darkness for it could not endure the light We are informed the Chairman ushered in this Act with a Petition like unto that at Kings-Lyn as though it proceeded from the Major part of the owners and Commoners but it was a meer imposture of the undertakers faction and not one of a hundred The House was very thin when this Act was passed about 43. and some of them were parties interressed and the undertakers of all the Levels like birds of a feather flocked together and watched their oppertunity when many of the uninteressed Parliament-men were absent If the truth were known there was no House because there was an Order That no Parliament man being a participant should be Judge and Party in his own Cause For the Act it self it is a formidable monster The Title and Preamble is like a Sarazens head and neck the Body is proportionable and worse then that and the conclusion worst of all We shall make it appear to be against the Law of God nature reason and common sense For first They have enacted parties interessed to be Judges Secondly they have enacted impossibilities as wet to be dry and dry wet viz. that to be the Level which is not the Level they may as well enact white to be black and black white Thirdly This Act destroys Propriety Fourthly the Earl of Bedfords Pan Thorney Abby is exempted from draining when dry land and such as is bettered by overflowing must contribute Fifthly they have destroyed a chief branch of the Common Law in depriving the people of their Juries of the neighbourhood Sixthly they have enacted a most intollerable grievance in impowring the Commissioners to make the people dance attendance a hundred miles from their homes every seaventh day after the Term to attend them for four or five hours to spend their monies and have no agrievance redressed sometimes no Committee appearing whereas anciently according to Law and equity for the ease of the six Counties This Level was seaven Levels and each Level had their several Commissioners and Iurors and acted only in their proper Countries We shall discover many more insufferable grievances if the Supreme Authority please to hear us by witnesses upon Oath And we hope their Honours in their wisdoms will take care we shall not be obstructed by Judges and Parties and biassed Chairmen as formerly we have been The Undertakers have had two Adjudications which they much boast of The first was when many thousand acres were actually drowned occasioned by land-flouds incident to River-Medows yet contrary to occular demonstration they were adjudged drained The other was in the extremity of the drought when it was impossible to judge what land was drained and what not And they have adjudged thousands of acres drained which were never drowned and thousands drowned which are bettered by overflowing in the nature of River-Meadows The people are put out of possession of their lands without hearing one witness upon oath on their parts which is against the fundamental Law of the Land and the great Charter of Liberty and property The Lincolneshier men in the Isle of Axom had the benefit of the Law against Mr. Gibbons and they have a verdict against him Sr. Edward Barkham Captain Hall and Mr. Waldren were left to the Law by the Parliament and recovered against the Undertakers But we of the six Counties have been so obstructed in the E. of Bedfords Level by the Undertakers faction that we are barred the Law by