Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	john_n	page_n	sir_n	23,574	5	9.7151	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48472	The picture of the Councell of State, held forth to the free people of England by Lieut. Col. John Lilburn, M. Thomas Prince, and M. Richard Overton, now prisoners in the Tower of London for bearing testimony to the liberties of England against the present tyrants at White-Hall, and their associates, or, a full narrative of the late extrajudiciall and military proceedings against them ; together with the substance of their severall examinations, answers, and deportments before them at Darby-house, upon March 28 last.	Lilburne, John, 1614?-1657.; Prince, Thomas.; Overton, Richard, fl. 1646.	1649 (1649)	Wing L2155; ESTC R10562	40,210	29

which I have proved that I am more cruelly dealt with then bloudy Bonner dealt with the poor Saints and Martyrs in Queen Marys dayes and that I am denyed that which in England was never yet denyed to any Traytor that ever I read of And in it I accuse William Laud the Prelate of Canterbury for High Treason the which I did a yeer agone before Sir John Banks Knight and will still venture my life upon the proof thereof if I may have a Legall proceeding One ground of my accusation is this the Parliament Laws and Statutes of this Land as the 25 and 37 of Hen. 8. and the first of Edw. 6. and the first and 27 of Elizabeth doth enact to this effect That whosoever goes about to set up or challenge any forrain or domestick Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but what doth immediately flow and come from the Imperiall Crown is ipso facto a Traitor and ought to die without the benefit of Clergie as more at large in them you may read Now the Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of his mercilesse brethren about four yeers agone in the Censure of that Noble Doctor Bastwick now of late much degenerate there in their open Court at Lambeth renounced the King and his Authority and said They were not beholding to him for their Episcopall Jurisdiction for they were made Bishops by Jesus Christ and consecrated by the holy Ghost and they had their thrones and were before Christian Kings and they held the Crowns of Kings upon their heads and their Maxime was No Bishop no King And if this be not treason then I think there was never any committed And this with much more to this effect Doctor Bastwick doth declare in his answer to Sir John Banks his Information as you may read in the tenth and eleventh pages thereof And for this most Noble Lord was I against all Law and Justice laid in irons for a long time together in a most inhumane manner and lock'd up close prisoner for these twelve months together against all Law and to the violating of the Subjects Libertie for by Magna Charta and other Statutes of this Land which are still in force but onely the execution of them is thrown in the kennell neither the Lord Keeper nor any others ought to commit any of the Kings Subjects close prisoners unless either for Felony or Treason and onely in case of an extraordinary crime and then they must forthwith bring them to their tryall But by close imprisonment the Law doth not mean that the Kings Subjects should be locked up in rooms much lesse that their friends should not be suffered to come to speak with them and bring them victuals to preserve their lives as grave Judge Cr●ok not long since in his Speech at Westminster-Hall did prove when he pleaded for the Subjects Liberty But contrary to the Parliament Laws yea and the practice of Heathens and Pagans I am locks up close all alone and cannot be suffered to come to a just tryall but am kept up so close that my friends and acquaintance that bring me relief I being long since deserted of my Kindred are not suffered to come at me but are sent away with that they bring me with all the abuses reproaches and revilings that possible may be by my Keeper And one that came unto me he hath beaten and others he hath threatned to kick if they come any more to me and to others of them he hath most fasly and slinderously reviled me calling me Rebell and Traytor telling them that no victuals should come at me so that I am forced daily in regard of barbarous cruelty to cry out aloud at my iron grate to the prisoners and strangers to let them know the height of my misery wherein I live and yet no redresse can I have but daily more and more cruelty is exercised upon me and many grievous threats from bloudy murthering Morry my keeper who threatens to hamper me and lock my head and legs together for my complaining This he did the last Lords day at night and also offered to beat me with his keys in so much that at ten a clock at night I was forced to cry out to the prisoners of it And in this most miserable condition do I remain though I have been dangerously sick almost these eleven months which many times hath brought me even unto deaths door and in regard of my exceeding extremity of pain in my head by reason of my long closenesse ever since Candlemass Term was twelve months and my cruell torments besides I have been constrained for to get a little ease of my extream pain which in sudden fits takes me for two or three hours together to be tied to a constant course of Physick usually once in fourteen dayes and sometimes oftner And though of late I had a little liberty to walk once a day in the common prison yard yet I am now deprived of it by the Warden for complaining of my keepers cruelty and his shamefull abusing me and my friends which did but come to look upon me with whom this was my greatest discourse that I had tied my self by promise before I could get that little liberty of walking that I would not talk with any Friends therefore I desired them not to be offended for I durst not talk with them Yet because they came but to see me I was deprived of it and also they that looked to me in my sicknesse and weaknesse kept from me so that now in my weakness I have none to look to me In my Grievous and mournfull Complaint already published I have a little touched the Wardens galled conscience for his cruell oppressions wherefore he in revenge it seems intends to murther me lest I should by my just complaints make it cost him as dear as the salving up of his wickednesse did when he was last called to an account for I have heard the prisoners with open mouth proclaim it that for making his peace he gave to the Barl of Bohon ten thousand pounds and to the fore-man of the Jury one thousand pounds for which his conscience being troubled he revealed it upon his death bed And also to an Officer five hundred pounds to rase out some things which were upon record yea I have heard the poor Prisoners proclaim it aloud that he cozens them of above seven hundred pounds a yeer which belongs to them and allows them but a small pittance upon which they are not able to live and some of them have severall times in the open Chappel cryed out to the Gentlemen prisoners that they are ready to starve and perish for want of food yea so great hath been the barbarous cruelty of the Warden to the poor that if the Prisoners reports may be beleeved poor men here have been forced for want of food to eat their own dung And this had been my own condition in likelyhood had not God raised up some compassionate Friends that were meer strangers

one word more and that is this I am not onely in time of peace the Courts of Justice being all open fetcht and forc't out of my house by multitudes of armed men in an hostile manner and carried as a captive up and down the streets contr●ry to all Law and Justice but I am by force of Armes still kept in their custody and it may be may be intended to be sent to them again who are no Guardians of the Law of England no nor so much as the meanest Administrators or executors of it but ought to be subject to it themselves and to the Administrators of it as is cleer by the Petition of Right c. yea the General himself And truly Sir I had rather die then basely betray my Liberties into their martiall fingers who after their fighting for our Freedoms would now destroy them and tread them under their feet that have nothing at all to do with me nor any pretended or reall civill offender in England I know not what you intend to do with me neither do I much care having learned long since to die and rather for my Liberties then in my bed It s true I am at present in no capacity effectually to dispute your power because I am under guards of armed Masketiers but I intreat you if you will continue me a prisoner that you will free me from the military Sword and send me to some Civil Gaol and I will at present in peace and quietnesse obey your command and go And so I concluded and was commanded to withdraw which I did and then Mr. William Walwin was called in and while he was within I gave unto my Comrades Mr. Prince and Mr. Overton and the rest of the people a summary account of what had past between me and them And within a little time after Mr. Walwin came out again and Mr. Overton was called in next And at Mr. Walwin's coming out he acquainted us what they said to him which was in a manner the same they said to me and all that he said to them was but this That he did not know why he was suspected To which Mr. Bradshaw replyed Is that all you have to say And Mr. Walwin answered Yes So he was commanded to withdraw And after M. Overton was come out M. Prince was called in and after he had withdrawn they spent some time of debate among themselves and then I was called in again So I marched in Sutable to my first posture and went close to M. Bradshaw who said unto me to this effect Lieut. Colonel Lilburn this Councel hath considered what you have said and what they have been informed of concerning you and also of that duty that lies upon them by the command of the House which enjoynes them to improve their utmost ability to find out the Author of this Book and therefore to effect that end they judge themselves bound to demand of you this question Whether you made not this Book or were privie to the making of it or no And after some pause and wondring at the strangeness of the quesion I answered and said M. Bradshaw I cannot but stand amazed that you should ask me such a question as this at this time of the day considering what you said unto me at my first being before you and considering it is now about eight yeers ago since this very Parliament annihilated the Court of Star-chamber Councel board and High Commission and that for such proceedings as these * See the Acts that abolished them made in the 16 C. R. printed in my Book called The peoples Prerogative p. 22. 23. 24. 25. And truly Sir I have been a contestor and sufferer for the Liberties of England these twelve years together and I should now look upon my self as the baseft fellow in the world if now in one moment I should undo all that I have been doing all this while which I must of necessity do if I should answer you to questions against my self For in the first place by answering this question against my self I should betray the Liberties of England in acknowledging you to have legall Jurisdiction over me to try and adjudge me which I have already proved to your faces you have not in the least And if you have forgot what you said to me thereupon yet I have not forgot what I said to you And Secondly Sir If I should answer to questions against my self and so betray my self I should do that which not onely Law but Nature abhorrs And therefore I cannot but * And well might I for M. John Cook and M. Bradshaw himself were my Counsel at the Lords Bar against the Star-chamber the 13 of Feb. 1645. where M. Bradshaw did most excellently oppen the Star-chamber injustice towards me and at the reading of their first Sentence he observed to the Lords that that Sentence was felo de se guilty of his own death the ground whereof said he being because M. Lilburn refused to take an oath to answer to all such questions as should be demanded of him it being contrary to the Laws of God Nature and the Kingdom for any man to be his own Accuser whose words you may more at large read in the printed Relation thereof drawn up by M. John Cook and my self p. 3. But he that condemned it in the Star-chamber now practiseth it in the Councel of State but the more base and unworthy man he for so doing wonder that you your selves are not ashamed to demand so iilegall and unworthy a thing of me as this is and therefore in short were it that I owned your power which I do not in the least I would be hanged before I would do so base and un-Englishman like an Action to betray my Liberty which I must of necessity do in answering questions to accuse my self But Sir this I will say to you My late Actions have not been done in a hole or a corner but on the house top in the face of the Sun before hundreds and some thousands of people and therefore why ask you me any questions Go to those that have heard me and seen me and it is possible you may finde some hundreds of witnesses to tell you what I have said and done for I hate holes and corners My late Actions need no covers nor hidings they have been more honest then so and I am not sorry for what I have done for I did look well about me before I did what I did and I am ready to lay down my life to justifie what I have done And so much in answer to your question But now Sir with your favour one word more to minde you again of what I said before in reference to my Martiall imprisonment and truly Sir I must tell you Circumstantials of my Liberty at this time I shall not much dispute but for the Essentials of them I shall die I am now in the Souldiers custodie where to continue in silence and

of an hours warning But as to man I bid defiance to all my Adversaries upon earth to search my wayes and goings with a candle and to lay any one base Action to my charge in any kind whatsoever since the first day that I visibly made profession of the fear of God which is now about twelve yeers yea I bid defiance to him or them to proclaim it upon the house top provided he will set his hand to it and proclaim a publike place where before indifferent men in the face of the Sun his accusation may be scand yea I here declare that if any man or woman in England either in reference to my publike actions to the States money or in reference to my private dealings in the world shall come in and prove against me that ever I defrauded him or her of twelve pence and for every twelve pence that I have so done I will make him or her twenty shillings worth of amends so far as all the estate I have in the world will extend Courteous Reader and deer Countryman excuse I beseech thee my boasting and glorying for I am necessitated to it my adversaries base and lying calumniations puting me upon it and Iohn Lilburn that never yet changed his principles from better to worse nor could never be threatned out of them nor courted from them that never feared the rich nor mighty nor never despised the poor nor needy but alwayes hath and hopes by Gods goodness to continue semper idem Paul and Samuel did it before me and so I am thine if thou art for the just Freedoms and liberties of the land of thy Nativity From my rejoycing captivity for bearing witnesse against Tyranny in whomsoever I find it in the Tower of London April 3. 1649 Postscript CUrteous Reader I have much wondred with my self what should make most of the Preachers in the Anabaptists Congregations so mad at us four as this day to deliver so base a Petition in the intention of it against us all four who have been as hazardous Sticklers for their particular liberties as any be in England and never put a provocation upon them that I know of especially considering the most if not all their Congregations as from divers of their own member I am informed sprotested against their intentions openly in their Congregations upon the Lords day last and I am further certainly informed that the aforesaid Petition the Preachers delivered is not that which was read by themselves amongst the people but another of their own framing since which I cannot hear was ever read in any one of their Congregations so that for the Preachers viz. M. Kiffin M. Spilsbury M. Patience M. Draps M. Richardson M. Constant M. Wayd the Schoolemaster c. to deliver it to the Parliament in the name of their Congregations they have delivered a lye and a falshood and are a pack of fauning daubing knaves for so doing but as I understand from one of M. Kiffins members Kiffin himself did ingenuously confesse upon the Lords day last in his open Congregation that he was put upon the doing of what he did by some Parliament men who he perceived were willing and desirous to be rid of us four so they might come off handsomely without too much losse of credit to themselves and therefore intended to take a rise from their Pettition to free us and for that end it was that in their Petition read in the Congregations after they had sufficiently bespattered us yet in the conclusion they beg mercy for us because we had been formerly active for the Publick Secondly I have been lately told Some of the Congregationall Preachers are very mad at a late published and licensed Book sold in Popes-head Alley and the blue Anchor in Cornhill intituled The vanity of the present Churches supposing it to be the Pen of some of our Friends and therefore out of revenge might petition against us I confesse I have within a few hours seen and read the Book and not before and must ingenuously confesse it is one of the shrewdest Books that ever I read in my life and do beleeve it may be possible they may be netled to the purpose at it but I wish every honest unbyassed man in England would seriously read it over April 4. 1649. John Lilburn I Shall desire to acquaint the Reader that when the Title page of the fore-going Book was first set there was an absolute determination to have re-printed all our Examinations together but for some weighty reasons the intentions are altered and because I understand that the fury rage and bloud-thirstinesse of Cromwell Ireton Hasterig and Harrison is most at me right or wrong to destroy me and have my bloud I am determined by Gods assistance to fill their hands as full with my own pen as all the brains I have can fill them and to make them pay a valuable price if possibly I can for every hair of my head And in order to my future intentions I shall here annex my Out-cryes against the Bishops when they had like to have murdered me in the Fleet being printed at Amsterdam 1639 intituled A CRY FOR JUSTICE OR An Epistle written by John Lilburn To all the grave and worthy Citizens of the famous City of London but especially to the Right honorable Maurice Abbot Lord Maior thereof The most miserable and lamentable complaint of that inhumane barbarous savage and unparalell'd cruelty and tyranny that is causelesly unjustly and wrongfully exercised upon me J●hn Lilburn a faithfull Subject to my Prince Country and a Prentise of this Honorable City though now a most deplorable close prisoner in the common Gaol of the Fleet. 1639. MOst Honorable and Noble Lord The chief cause wherefore God the wise Governour of Heaven and Earth did appoint Magistrates was for the good of the sons of men and that they should do Justice betwixt a man and his neighbour and that they should hear the grievances of the oppressed and deliver them from the cruelty of their oppressors That wrong violence and injustice that I have suffered would be now too long to relate in particular but it being so insupportable made me to publish it abroad unto the view of the world to the perpetuall infamy of my tormentors the chief of which are the traiterous bloody murthering Prelates The story of my former misery and wrongs you may if you please read at large in three severall Books of mine now in print and published to the view of England Scotland Ireland and Holland They are called My unjust Censure in the Star-chamber My Speech at the Pillory and My mournsull Lamentations I have not seen them since they were put in print because the Prelate of Canterbury wrongfully detains well nigh two thousand of them from me but there are still many thousands of them behinde and I doubt not but some who pities my afflicted estate will convey some of them unto your Lordships hands In the last of

unto me before my sufferings some of which through all difficulties and reproaches from my Keeper have brought me food And though the poor have not by the Wardens means the tenth part of their due yet to lessen that small means which the poor hitherto hath had some of which have nothing else in the world to live upon he hath of late added unto them so many more some of which are men of able estates which he hath put upon the charity contrary to their Orders purposely to starve the poor indeed yea he hath by force put upon the charity Henry the Hangman who is under-Turn-key and hath forty pound land a yeer as he himself confesseth and whose vailes besides as I have heard the prisoners say are some times better worth then three shillings a day and this the warden hath done for him because he is so officious and ready in beating and abusing the poor distressed prisoners that cry out of the wardons cruelty and not only the poor prisoners but also some of those that come to visit and relievethem some of which he hath beat and threatned to kick others I have heard the prisoners affirm that the revenues of the Fleet hath been cast ●p to be above threescore thousand pounds a yeer oh therefore the height of cruelty not to be paralell'd I think amongst the savage and barbarous Heathens and Pagans and which mightily crys unto your Honer now in our Soveraigns absence for the wellfare of the City betimes to be looked unto and with the assistance of the Noble Lord Protector to examine out the truth of things that poor oppressed men may have speedy redress of their wrongs the greatest part of which ariseth by reason of the wardens greatnesse with the Bishop of Canterbury and the Lord Keeper so that they dare not for fear as I have heard some of them say complain of him Besides my Lord it is notoriously known that John Morry my upper keeper hath been arraigned at Newgate for murthering a prisoner here in former times and I think here are other fresh things against him if poor prisoners might be heard and have justice which would bear another inditement and at least manifest him to be too too bloudy a man to have the keeping of poor innocent men For some in this prison as it is here reported have been secretly poysoned and lost their lives upon it and others with eating garlike and like antidotes have expelled it and are yet living here to justifie the same and my dogged under keeper hath been a hangman whereupon the prisoners at their fallings out with him do say this verse to his face vix Morry the Irish pedler and Harry the hangman of Cambridge-Shiere and by these two bloody men from both of which I have received unsufferable wrongs my Adversaries intend I shall be killed in a corner Because of my untainted innocency they dare not bring me to a legall publike tryal to the view of the Kingdom wherefore I am forced by reason of intolerable cruely injustice and wrong to cry out unto your Honour as I have often done at my grate murther murther murther therefore hear O Heavens and give care O Earth and all ye that hear or read this my just complaint and lamentation bear witnesse to future generations that I cry out of violence wrong injustice cruelty and inhumanity that I suffer from the trayterous Bishop and the unjust Lord Keeper old Sir Henry Vaine and their bloody Jaylours which do and will execute their commands be they never so unjust and unlawfull And how that for my zeal and courage for my God and his truth and glory and for my ardent love to my Prince and Country and for my strong de●ire and indeavour for the prosperity and flourishing estate of this renowned City the Metropolis of England I am like to lose my life and blood by murthering cruelty in close Imprisonment Therefore oh all ye brave and worthy Citizens save help and rescue me a poor distressed and greatly oppressed young man from the devouring pawes of devouring Lionish men Now my Honorable Lord I come to make my humble supplication unto your self which is this that you would be pleased to take my most deplorable condition into your grave and serious consideration and after your consultation about it with your worshipfull brethren the Aldermen of this City acquaint the honourable Lord protector that noble and courteous Earl of Northumberland with it who in part knows it already but alas alas I am long since deserted of my kindred and friends so that I have none that dare follow my businesse for me wherefore I am like shortly to perish in my great distress unless your Lorships be pleased in this particular to do something for me I desire from your Honours neitheir silver nor gold for alas at present it would do me no pleasure for had I all treasure in the world to buy me victuals and want a stomack when I should have them they would nothing avail me and yet so lamentable is my condition by reason of my longe closeness and painfull sickness so that all the favour I desire is but the one of these two things First that îf I be thought to be an offender that then I may be forthwith brought to a publick tryal and suffered with freedom to pleade my own just cause again the Bishops and the Lord Keeper and old Sir Henry Vaine's illegall and unjust censure of me which was onely upon this ground because I refused to take an illegall and unlawfull inquisition oath which he the Lord Keeper tendred to me which as I told him to his face in the Star-chamber is against the Statute Lawes of this land yea against the petttion of right enacted in the 3 yeer of our Soveraign King Charles yea I told him and proved it to be against the Lawes of God and man and contrary to the practise of the Heathens and Pagans as you may read in the Acts of the Apostles yet this was the onely ground wherefore he and old Sir Henry Vane c. censured me to pay 500 pound and to be whipt for there was no witness brought against me face to face onely there was read two false oaths made by one Edmond Chillington now a Lieut. in Col. Whalyes Regiment and one of the principal men that lately caused the Souldier to be shot to death at Pauls whom the Bishop hired by giving him his liberty out of New-gate prison for swearing those two false oaths and doing them other wicked service of the like nature My Lord for my own part I desire no mercy nor favour nor compassion from the greatest of my enemies but onely the benefit of my Soveraignes Lawes which as I am a faithfull and loyal subject to my Prince and Contry I do according to my priviledge earnestly crave and begg not fearing by reason of my unspotted Innocency the rigour of Justice for my innocency is such that I fear neither