subjection and obedience required in this Scripture is onely in things relating to the outward man and not at all of the subjection of the inward man in the things relating to the worship of God So said Edward Pyot but as he had spoken these last words Captain Ollive being then at the Tolzey came and rudely took him by the shoulder and would not suffer him to speak any more but caused him to be had to Newgate to the offence of several sober men present and men of quality who some of them after Edward Pyot was gone spake to him about it as disliking the thing that men for their consciences should not be suffered to speak or that men should suffer for their Consciences which he and every man would willingly for himself enjoy but herein he shewed himself rather a man made up of formality and the authority of the times than of true wisdome and moderation so to deal with one that he knew was a man and his antient acquaintance and that had been a Captain in the City Then George Bishop and Lewis Rogers were committed for being at an unlawful meeting under pretence of divine worship and for refusing to dissolve being thereunto lawfully required and for not finding sureties for the good behaviour Dated the same day and signed by thy self and the rest that signed the warrant aforesaid though they were all taken up in the street near to and at the door of our meeting house where all were still and not one word spoken nor action done onely they with some others of their friends were there standing and then Captain Hicks spake to them to depart they refused not but presently went with the Officers in a manner as soon as Captain Hicks had faintly made the Proclamation for that purpose As for Thomas Goldney and the rest except Nathaniel Milner who being not in the List of the Prisoners kept at Bridewell was not there kept you required them to appear on the fourth day of that week upon the account of Burgesses of the City who appearing you bad to go home about their occasions so there was an end And why not Edward Pyot and George Bishop as well as they seeing they were Citizens and why not Lewis Rogers seeing he was the apprentice of a freeman and that his Masters family depended upon his labour in part for maintenance against whom thou hadst nothing to say whose name is Joseph Owen Was it not hard measure in thee to make the master suffer for the servant yea the master and not the servant for the servant was thereby kept from work and so would not suffer but they would suffer whose maintenance in part came in by his work as thou wast told And because thou wast so told in moderation and meekness by one of the Prisoners thou tookest the Statute book and demanded of him who so spake to thee whether he would take the Oath of Alegiance the usual manner of thy Predecessors in the dayes of Queen Mary who when they knew not what to say against a man or what was spoken presently it was demanded What say you to the Sacrament of the Altar as the book of Martyrs mentions He who spake to thee was George Bishop who demanded thereupon of thee whether what he had said was so offensive as that it deserved the tendring of him the Oath but thou wouldst not give over tendring it notwithstanding till he told you that you knew he could not swear vvho before he spake in this matter of tenderness and equity had not the Oath put to him And now let all that are sober judge whether what he spake was not reasonable and that which should have been taken well at your hands to wit to inform how the matter stood with the young man that so you might not do any wrong through mistakes or ignorance which though he did as aforesaid with all meekness and moderation yet with you it bore no other weight then to be so returned So you have the Oath of Alegiance upon all essayes as a weapon in your hand at this day to use to them that you know in Conscience cannot swear as they had in the Marian which you exercise at pleasure upon the innocent when you have nothing else to say or when what is said doth not like you as they did then who thus carried it against the inocent as it is by you at this day So ye be witnesses unto your selves that ye are the children of them that put to death the Martyrs fill ye up then the measure of your fathers that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias who you slew between the Temple and the Altar and that hath been shed since may come upon you and verily it shall fall on this generation And why could not John Spoore have been sent home also he being a poor man and living in the Countrey near and having a family depending upon his liberty for his maintenance One would think thou mightest have left the strangers to their own Neighbour Justices to deal with them who knew them seeing the Law is general And why not all of them sent home as well as some for as much as all were at the same place and stayed as long or longer then they and did no other thing but what the others had done vvhom thou hadst sent to Newgate as aforesaid If thou sayest Edward Pyott lived not in the City though he was a Burgess it is answered his living is very near as aforesaid And 't is strange that a miles distance should set him altogether from being considered as a Burgess in this particular who removed there only for the aire when as in other things you will deal with him as a Burgess and with George Bishopp you dealt the same as to imprisonment vvho vvas a Burgess and lived in the City and vvas born in it who had done more for you and the City then is here intended to be related though in recompence and as a token of your love you made him the only inhabiting Citizen prisoner as Alderman Cale then observed to you If thou sayest they vvere taken up a week or two before and set at liberty and now were had in Custody again It is answered the rest vvere in the same places and at the same time present and yet neither imprisoned nor so dealt vvith If thou repliest it was to make them Examples being accounted as leading men and as heads as you call them Alas how are ye befooled vvhen as daily experience proves that those people have a head and leader in them whom none of these things thou hast devized and used take in this to the number hath deterred from but rather brought to meetings And herein you have honoured them though against your wills in accounting them by your proceedings Leaders and Heads of such a people who stand to and testifie the
Virdict was given which was done so privately I call it privatelie because wee Prisoners heard it not but when we demanded what Virdict was brought in one of your Clerks said Wee were brout in guiltie without any limit but we are informed otherwise and that it was written in a piece of paper so thou mayst see how unrighteously thou hast delt with us in casting us into prison and so I shall leave these things to the rightoous Iudge of all the earth which will Judge righteously between us and thee Thus have I cleared my conscience who am a lover of thine immortal Soul and desireth the salvation of it William Ford Thus ended the Sessions so far as it related to the Prisoners afairs aforesaid now the Fair drew on as to which both those in prison those out were much concern'd what as to themselvs what as to those who were dealers with them besides many accounts fell then to be made up whilest those strangers were here who had dealing with them especially being upon the foot of a Law for Banishment and many thought who were not of us that these things vvould have had some influence on thee to have pretermitted the edge of thy Prosecutions on us at least till the Faire was over it being a matter of great cruelty that We should be thus put upon it in one juncture to hazzard so much of our business or our conscience And although thou hadst no reflection of tenderness as to us thy Neighbors in this particular to doe as thou wouldst be done unto yet some thought both of thy Relations and others concern'd in the Faire that were not called by our Name that thou wouldst have had some regard to them and the City seeing we were concern'd with so many people that were not of as well as with those who were of us it being thy Place to indulge the Faire by all means thou couldst but thou turnest the deafe ear to all and wouldst not here no not so much as to intermit one dayes furious onset upon us but as if the Prisons were not full enough already or that the weather was not hot or that there was no danger of infection thou drovest on without consideration like the Ostritch in the wilderness that layeth her egg in the sand and considereth not that the horse heel may crush it and when she lifâ—eth her self up regardeth not the cry of the driver and on the 17th of 5th Moneth being the first day of the week without any of the Aldermen with thee at first Alderman Sandy for whom thou didst send coming after thou camest down to the meeting with the Sheriffs and an Oyes being made in the meeting Roome thou there behavedst thy selfe as heretofore and didst commit to Newgate Men. Dennis Hollister John speed Daniel Wastfield Edw. Martingdale William Yeamans John Withers VVilliam Rogers Gobert Sykes John Sanders Nine in all whereof four were Merchants two Grocers two Soap-boylers one Salter most of them considerable men both as for estate and dealing Will. Yeamans son and heire of Robert Yeamans who had been Sheriff of the City and was executed at his wives Fathers door in the beginning of the late war for the King Iohn Speed and Dan. Wastfield sons in Law to the said Robert Yeamans who married two of his daughters but none of these things could prevaile with thee though thou wast not ignorant of them and yet thou pretendest to be a friend of the Kings who then the sea Monsters wast worse of which Ieremie complains for they draws out the breast and give suck to their young ones but thou becamest cruel like the Ostritch in the wilderness Lam. 43. And to Bridewell thou didst commit Men. Tho. North a Master of a ship and on a Voyage to Sea Tho. Baker Thomas Terret Dan. Neal John Mills John Barns Samuel Comb W. Price Rob. Gibbons James Barker W. Wilcox George White Andrew Vivers John Hardiman John Rogers W. Tovy John Naylor John Smith John Hale John Clark W. Shatford Theophilus Newton Sam. Cottrel Richard Lindey Simon Cox Morgan Lamb. 26 Women Jane Batho and Alexandra Harcourt twenty eight in all making up the number with those at Newgate 37. and the number of those before committed two hundred thirty and four that is to say at Newgate 60. and at Bridewel 174. On that day also Sarah Wilkinson was brought to Bridewel for being with Priest Horn at James Steeple house and John Simons the day before for words pretended to be against your Worship though hardly so to be strained making up the number as aforesaid The Sessions being upon the morrow viz. the 18th of 5th Month 1664. for thou heldst them in Adjournment the greatest part of the Quarter to serve thy Pleasure thou didst send for D. Hollister John Speed Dan. Wastfield and Edw. Martingdale and there didst sentence D. Hollister in 4 l. fine the rest in 2 s. 6. d. a piece which they not answering thou condemnedst Hollister to ten weeks Imprisonment a day beyond the Date of thy Government and the rest at a Month and then remaundedst them to Newgate the rest at Newgate and Bridewell committed the day before were sentenced in 2 s. 6 d. apiece and a Months imprisonment in default of payment which they not answering viz. the Fines were continued till the expiration of the date aforesaid Sighed John Knight Mayor John Lock Walter Sandy Indeed Dennis Hollister had something to do with Thee at the Sessions for thou rambledst about there much according to thine old wont talking what thou pleasedst thy self a … charging up and down at what rate thou wouldst and 〈◊〉 wouldst not let him speak in his own justification wit … much interruption calling him Rebel and the Meeting a company of Rebels with a deal of other stuff not worth the Relation So that he was constrained to tell thee That thou wast an Vnrighteous Judge who wouldst not hear as well as speak who wouldst charge a Man and not give him leave to answer for himself and he alleged that he was not satisfied with his commitment seeing that thou hadst neither then nor before made it to appear that the Meeting was under pretence of Religion or that he met so which that it was thou hadst caused to be set down in the Record though the Witness did not so swear and yet wouldst not hear but didst cause thy Record to be read where it was set down as aforesaid viz. that he was there under the pretence of Religion with which he charged thee and with the falsnesse of thy Record whereupon William Kemp the Sergeant which was the witness was called again and he affirmed upon thy demand that he could only say that he saw D. H. at the meeting and that he saw him there but knew not under what pretence it was and that he heard him to speak to thee viz. that he was there in the fear of God and not in contempt Whereupon D. H. told
carriedst thy self after thy wonted manner of Rage and Envy and thou broughtest thither with thee Alderman Lock and Alderman Creswick who made up thy Court the Sheriffs were present also and even to the Widow Yeomans that Antient Grave Matron aforesaid whose age rather bespoke a Coffin then a Banishment thou took'st as thou could'st meet and wouldst have sent her to Newgate also with this croud of Prisoners had it not been for Alderman Creswick who it's like had little rest that night for that dayes service who caused it to be otherwise Yet thou didst commit her though thou released her presently and made that her being with the people of the Lord at meeting to wait upon him a step to her banishment her Gray hairs being thus honoured of the Lord to live to that day to bear a Testimony for him in the face of thy fury and of Banishment who is scarce able in body to reach to the place of Meeting And here we must bring in the sad Reckoning of Lidiah Tovy Wife of Rich. Tovy Brewer Alice the Wife of W. Peachy and Mary Knight servant to Nath. Milner Prisoners aforesaid vvhose lives and the Infant of one of them this dayes work of thine took away from the Earth whose blood cries cries for vengeance against thee and vvill lie upon thy head for ever except thou Repent Lidia Tovy vvas very big with child a little Woman and Young the only daughter living of her Mother who was a Widow and except one son all the children she had alive Thou saw'st in what condition she was when in the meeting as to her being with child thou knew'st her to be thy Neighbour thou didst nevertheless commit her yet thou wouldst seeine somewhat tender and said should be but till the morrow though that was a step in order to Banishment which she was the nearer to by how much her imprisonment vvas short So to prison she was brought and the very noisome sent of the old Goale at the door as she was brought to come in struck in upon her In the Prison she abode till the 7th day of that week notwithstanding that thou saidst before a multitude of witnesses that it should be but till the morrow There she aylded wanting breathing and room vvhich she usually in that condition needed much Her ilness grew on and Symptoms of a Miscarriage though so big and near her time was on her Her Husbands Brother Thomas Tovy who lives on the Bridge and is one of the Council went to thee on the 5th day of the week and her tender mother on the 7th day giving thee to understand how it vvas vvith her for by this time her danger vvas so manifest that she bled upwards thou wouldst not hear but bad her come to thee on Monday That 7th day at night the Keeper of Newgate being with thee about the liberty of some of the Prisoners of whose having been at Bridewell thou hadst heard and therefore sentest for him thereabouts he informing thee of her condition and danger thou began'st to be sensible not for her sake as we may judge but thy own and the out-cry that would be made against thee if she died So thou didst hast him to set her at liberty saying Turn her out turn her out so she came and that night sent her home Well Monday of which thou spakest to her sorrowful mother came but she vvas laid in her bed a most sad spectacle continuing very ill and neither hearing nor seeing her infant came dead from her that night and the next morning being the third day of the week she yielded up the Ghost laying down her life at the foot of thy cruelty vvho vvith her tender babe vvere laid in the earth together never to return thence more for thee to Banish though after her death thy Warrant came to detain her in prison till the 6th of the 7th moneth following the date of her commitment with the rest of them that thou then committedst vvith her vvhose blood shall never depart from Thee and thy house for ever if thou dost not Repent Alice the Wife of W. Peachy vvas a Young Woman also very big vvith child vvhich was her first she vvas at the meeting vvhen thou and thy Officers vvere there One of thy Officers hall'd her rudely towards thee bidding her come along another was behind puting her forwards which being beyond what she was able to do being very big as aforesaid it hurt her and in her face it vvas discovered presently and was so in the observation of some friends present who were about to call on thy Officers for halling her after that manner So she went home ill and was delivered the next day and never was well afterwards but continued ill till the 14th day of the 6th Moneth on which day she dyed her Husband being then prisoner in Bridewell committed with the rest the day aforesaid Mary Knight was also committed on the same day to Bridewel and the next day being very ill was had to her masters house by thy suffrance where she died about twelve daies after of a violent feavour her body being brought to Bridewel from thence to be buried because she was a prisoner there bled afresh at the Nose for about an houre together the certain observation of the invisible judgement that that place was the caue of her death Yet thou wast not satisfied that thou hadst her life but her body being brought to Bridewell to be buried there as aforesaid and the woman of the house desiring thee to give leave to some of the prisoners to carry her to burial thou wast very much offended at its being brought thither and with the woman for that purpo e pose and despight said that if they wanted Bearers the Beadles should do it Thus was the Blood of the innocent shed and of three and an infant as the issue of one of thy daies work yet wast not thou glutted therewith but although that thou hadst committed these as aforesaid and laid up in the prisons heaps upon heaps though the prison was so unholsome so unsavoury though there was such danger of infection yet thou thoughtst the Prisoners were not straitned enough but ever and anon thou hadst the Jailor by the ears rating him as thou pleasedst and threatning him what should be done with him at the Sessions and that all that he had was forfeit to the King if he were worth thousands so that the man was in a great strait how to walk between the pleasing of thee who thirsted after their destruction and the health of the Prison and the prisoners unto whom the Sheriffs had such regard as to order additional lodgings as aforesaid and were willing upon a sober letter of one of the prisoners that they should have a little breath which was all they ask't whilest they were amongst you which is the thing you would have your selves and to have granted them the garden of T Gouldney aforesaid to walk in