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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	spirit_n	true_a	2,352	5	4.6188	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57466	A blast blown out of the north and ecchoing up towards the south to meet the cry of their oppressed brethren being a relation of some of the sufferings and other exercises of several of the people of God, in scorn called Quakers, in and about Richmond, Massam, Coverdale, Wensleydale, and Swaledale, and some others of the adjacent parts and places in the North Riding of the county of York since the beginning of the year 1660.	R. R. (Richard Robinson), b. 1628?	1680 (1680)	Wing R1713; ESTC R6799	35,019	47

Gurnell of Marsett fined 10s had four Pewter Dishes and one Riding-Coat distrained and taken for the same by the aforesaid Edmond and Bartholomew Blaydes the 13th day of the Moneth aforesaid worth about 1l 9s Mary Lambert of Busk fined 10 s. had Stockings distrained and taken for the same by the aforesaid Edmond and Bartholomew Blaydes worth about 12 s. There were several other Persons at that time fined besides what is before-mentioned so that the Fines in all came to 19 l. 13 s. But whether any of the Residue was distrained for or no I know not Now followeth an Account of some of the Sufferings and other Exercises of several of the said People of God in Scorn called Quakers which hath happened unto them since the beginning of the Year 1670. in and about Richmond Massam and some of the adjacient Parts and Dales within the North Riding of the aforesaid County of York occasioned by the Proceedings of Joseph Craddock now living and James Metcalfe deceased Together with some few others in the Commission of Peace within the said Riding and also by the Proceedings of the Mayor and Recorder of the said Town of Richmond upon the Information of William Thornaby the Elder Inn keeper of the aforesaid Richmond and late one of the Serjeants there but cast out of that Place for his Evil Carriage and Misdemeanours together with his Son and other Agents and Emisaries of his who being given up to Spoil and Destruction did with Covetousness seek after their Neighbours Goods and did greedily endeavour to catch them by any means not regarding what became of the Owners so they could but get their Prey taking their occasion by and Encouragement thereunto from the late Act of Parliament Entituled An Act to Prevent and Suppress Seditious Conventicles c. FRom which I say according to that Construction they passed upon it and Use they have made of it such Loose and Dissolute Persons as the said Thornaby being a man of a desperate Condition hath been Emboldened under the Notion of An Informer for the King to commit such Gross and Horrid Villanies as in the times of a more Sober and Christian-like Dispensation or Distribution of Law and Justice could be looked on by Sober and Discreet Persons as it is by such at this day whose Hearts have been sadded to see it to be no less than Theft and Robbery And that Act according to that Construction they have passed upon and use they have made of it no better or other than a Cloak for such to Act by or under who would have acted as badly before but that they feared Punishment by a Law nay some known Thieves condemning their Doings in this behalf disdaining to act so grosly upon an Innocent Harmless People as they in this Case did upon us being Encouraged thereunto as will appear by the Sequel of this Discourse which is no other than Truth and not all that might be truly said of their Evil Actions in this behalf neither by such whose Endeavours should have been to Suppress Vice and Encourage them that do Well for to this end only should the Magistrate bear his Sword and not to set up and carry on the Interest of False Swearers and other Injurious Persons whose Proceedings in this behalf they Countenanced and Encouraged under pretence of putting that Act in Execution made as appears by the Title and Preamble thereof To Prevent and Suppress Seditious Conventicles Only and to provide a more speedy Remedy against the growing and dangerous Practices of Seditious Sectaries and other Disloyal Persons c. And if made only for such as are Dangerous Seditious Disloyal Contrivers of Insurrections and Plotters and such as are only Pretenders to Tender Conscience but are not really Conscientious and for such as are Disturbers and Breakers of the Peace according as the same ought to be then not for Peaceable Harmless People such as the Harmless People called Quakers are and have been who make and have made it their Endeavours only to Serve Wait upon and Worship the One True and Living God in Spirit and Truth Really and not in or under a pretence only of Religious Exercise do they meet together under that Pretence to Plot or Contrive Insurrections neither to stir up any Sedition or Disturb or break the Peace or offer Violence to any as Experience on their behalf doth witness who have given their Cheeks to the Smiter and their Heads to them that have plucked off the Hair not answering again Neither is it to be believed that a Christian-Parliament and such the Parliament of England would be thought to be who are guided in the Counsel Wisdom and Fear of the Lord and therein directed will ever make Laws to limit the Lord God to this or that Form or to this or that Way of Worship and that he shall either be Served and Worshipped in such a Way as they have prescribed that is to say according to the Liturgy of the Church of England the Inventions of men or he must not be served at all for this were to limit the holy One of Israel and to make God even the Living God Subordinate to Sinful Man but rather to let him have his Liberty to be served and worshipped as he will and in what way he most delighteth and chuseth For doth not the Wind blow where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but neither knowst from whence it is nor whither it goes and so are all they that are born of the Spirit And therefore not to be restrained under great Mulcts and Punishments for this was never the Practice of the People of God in any Age but the contrary Neither can they which practise such things now claim any Interest or Part with the People of God in this Age nor in the Scriptures of Truth and Writings of the Prophets and Holy men of God who were never Persecutors but on the contrary were Persecuted even as it is at this day He that lives after the Flesh Persecutes him that lives after the Spirit And therefore I say in Christian Charity considering they professed themselves to be Christians that made it might the said Act if we did not know their Intent in making it be looked on only to concern Seditious Turbulent Unruly Peace-breaking Persons whose Actions demonstrate them to be so and only to be made and intended for such rather than for Harmless Innocent Self-denying People such as the Innocent People called Quakers are and have been whose Endeavours I say both now and at all times ever since they were a People have been and yet are To keep a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and towards Man and not to Plot and Contrive Insurrections Neither have our Meetings been or yet are a Terror to the People among whom we live or reside and have our Converse they being generally otherwise perswaded of us and know or believe us to be otherwise minded yet against upon us in

more Guilty of endeavouring to take Life then the Quakers making the Informers Word and Oath how false soever a sufficient ground for Conviction and that without calling the partyes accused before them to make their defence according to Law and either to confess or deny the Fact But this though according to Reason and to the Law both of Nature and of Nations they out-run yet nevertheless for and notwithstanding all the Spoil that this Informer Thornaby did make and Goods he thus as aforesaid got from Innocent People and for and notwithstanding all the assistance and encouragement that the said Joseph Craddock and James Metcalfe offered him such was the Judgment of God upon him that though he sometimes as was said got both the King's part and the Poor's part as 't is called unto himself yet instead of satisfying Debts and growing Rich thereby he run so far into Debt and was active in so many Dishonesties that he durst not frequently as formerly shew his Face And it is to be noted that the said William Thornaby the Elder coming upon a time together with the Constable of Bainbrigg into the Honse of one Dorothy Todd in the same Bainbrigg where was a Meeting of the said People in Scorn called Quakers about his aforesaid Wicked Enterprizes where the Compiler of these Paper was present he the same Compiler was moved of the Lord to tell him to wit the said Thornaby That the Lord God was intended or would shortly bring a Ruin Desolation or Destruction upon him and his Family or House or something to that or the like purpose as is remembred which shortly after came to pass for he to wit the said Thornaby never came in that place again But his Wife being dead as aforesaid and he by reason of his Debts and other Misdemeanours not daring well to shew his face as at other times went for a time skulking up and down being often observed to shift or remove in the Evening which gave occasion of bad suspition to People and at last the aforesaid Ja. Metcalfe one of his chief Props being dead as aforesaid he to wit the said Thornaby Cheating an Excise-man of his Horse and other things by borrowing the same of him and going away there-with as was reported he went or removed himself up to London and being come thither applyed himself to the then Attourney General of the King as was said Labouring with him to get all the remaining Fines then ungotten and which had been Charged by reason of his Informations and the Information of his Agents as aforesaid upon several of the aforesaid People called Quakers Inhabiting in and about the places before-mentioned Levied for but failing of his Intent or meeting with a Repulse therein he applyed himself in or about the aforesaid City of London to a Bad Dishonest Cheating kind of Life as was said and after his continuing therein some time at last dyed miserably in Prison as was reported And his Children being as it were despised with many for their Father's Acts became scattered here and there bearing the Reproach or Ignominy of their said Father's Dishonesty And thus or in like mannrr as we are informed was the End of this Thornaby And his Son young William Thornaby yet remains as we hear leading a Life not much unlike the Practices he learned of his Father as we are informed All which might be sufficient Cautions to forewarn all those that remain from having a hand in such like Actions as these men before-mentioned who are now gone pursued lest they fall by that Hand and come into the same Condemnation and under the like Lash and Reproach as these men did Nevertheless the said Joseph Craddock yet remains and not as it seems being content with the Wickedness he hath already committed against the Lord's People neither taking that Example by other men's Harms as will be sufficient to him to make him beware what he doth in that behalf but posting on to the filling up of that measure of Wickedness that is yet behind and being Commissary to the Bishop of Chester within the Arch-Deacony of Richmond in the Diocess of Chester aforesaid hath himself or his Officers or those that act under the Umbrage of him cast several of the aforesaid People called Quakers being most of them of those that suffered as aforesaid in Prison at or near Richmond aforesaid upon Writs of Excommunicato Capiendo to wit Richard Robinson of Countersett John Fothergill of Garr End and Christopher Routh of Hawes all in Wensleydale who were committed the 4th of the 11th moneth 1678. and Stephen Winne and Richard Geldart both of Carleton in Coverdale and two of the aforesaid Sufferers who were committed the 15th day of the 1st moneth last past and most of them without being personally cited or having any Summons served on them or ever hearing of that Proceed until they were either Arrested as was John Fothergill Stephen Winne and Richard Geldart or within two dayes thereof as was Richard Robinson the Cause of whose Commitment as alledged by the Procurers thereof or some of them is as followeth viz. The said Richard Robinson for Non-payment of an Assessment of 10 s. imposed upon him towards the Repair of the Steeplehouse at Askrigg and other Matters joyned with the same as Money for Destroying of Foxes c. all which he could have paid save that for the Repair of the Steeplehouse if the same had been districtly assessed John Fothergill for an Assessment of 5 s. imposed on him for the same Use but never demanded on him as he affirms neither did he hear of the same until he was Arrested which was very Unjust It had been but reasonable to demand or acquaint the Party with what they expect from him before they endeavour to punish for Non-payment of that which they never demanded of him Stephen Winne and Richard Geldart for not going to the Steeple-house nor receiving the Sacrament so called or some such like things And having thus imprisoned them endeavour to make their Bonds as hard as they can or lies in their power by Threatning the Goaler to keep them strait yet nevertheless the Just and Holy God is with them and hath hitherto kept them from bowing or being bowed under them or defiled with them and He that hath hitherto kept them we hope will still be with them so that we hope the Wicked One will not prevail over them to make or compel them notwithstanding all their Endeavours to do that which tends to the Defilement of their Consciences or lessening of that Testimony which God in this behalf hath given unto them NOw it were convenient to discover what all those Fines before mentioned for which the Distresses since the beginning of the year 1670. were taken did amount to to the intent it might appear whether those Persons before mentioned to wit Joseph Craddock James Metcalfe Thomas Craddock and the rest that made themselves so Active in the Matters aforesaid have dealt truly with the King and the Poor in rendring to each their respective Parts of the same but being that we cannot do the same because the Quantity of all the said Fines so distrained for hath not as yet that we remember come to our Knowledge neither know we how all the Goods were by those that distrained the same sold therefore shall cast up as near as we can the true Value and Worth of the said Goods according to that Estimate that the Owners of them have respectively given in and do find them upon Examination to amount besides the Distresses taken in the Town of Richmond to about the sum of 234 l. 9 s. 8 d. Besides paid by James Calvert of Burton 10 l. which in the whole will make the sum of 244 l. 9 s. 8 d. Now seeing the King was by the Act of Parliament to have one Third Part of the said Fines and the Poor another Third Part the Question will be How much of the aforesaid Sum they severally got for it cannot be reasonably expected but that the Value of the Distress so taken being great the Fines for which the same was taken though we cannot acertain them all because we know them not all must also be Considerable But for the Town of Richmond we find that the Fines for which those Distresses there taken were levyed do amount to the Sum of 57 l. 5 s. that 20 l. which Richard Dawson was said to pay for the Goods taken from John Chaytor and which his Widow after his Death restored either in Quantity Quality or Worth being included And then out of this Sum of 55 l. 5 s. The King's Part will be 18 l. 8 s. 4 d. The Poor's Part 18 l. 8 s. 4 d. The Question will be How this last was paid which Thomas Craddock and the Officers concerned must Answer THe Compiler of these Papers did receive the Account of all the Sufferings within mentioned but what himself was a Winess of or Sufferer in from the hands or by the Information of the Sufferers themselves or such Persons as were appointed by them or took it upon them to collect and make known the same and is now after several Examinations thereof as to the Truth of it committed to publick view and owned by us whose Names are hereunto subscribed and who were Witnesses of or concerned in some part or other of the same Sufferings and Passages as a true Testimony and Relation of the same Richard Routh Richard Binks Thomas Whitton Oswald Routh Richard Robinson John Key Thomas Johnson Robert Cutter John Chaytor James Janson James Longstaff William Horner now Prisoners Stephen Winne Christopher Routh John Fothergill Richard Geldart Richard Robinson THE END