Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	speak_v	true_a	word_n	8,834	5	4.4618	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91957	The case of Major Edmond Rolph, truely stated.	Rolph, Edmund.	1648 (1648)	Wing R1890; Thomason 669.f.13[8]; ESTC R210880	5,260	1

preserved Being thus cruelly hurried to the Gatehouse I was as tyrannically used there having a sentence of close imprisonment passed upon me by reason of which my Wife Friends and Chirurgions was kept from me to the hazard of my utter ruine where had not the Honorable House of Commons timely interposed I had certainly perished Two moneths I have remained a prisoner without either legall Warrant legall crime or legall accuser And now in order to the further prosecution of their design not only to ruine me but also to blast the repute of the Army and all other wel-affected persons they have framed an Indictment upon the said scandalous informations and have ordered the same to be transmitted to the next Assizes held for the County of Southampton Now to the end that you may not be left unsatisfied touching the absolute illegality of my imprisonment and the invalidity of the Charge I shall offer unto your view these following Considerations grounded upon the Laws and Customs of this Realm 1. If a suggestion be made to the King or his Councel of any crime committed the party ought to be sent with his suggestion to the Lord Chancellor or to the Iustices of the one Bench or the other there to find sureties to prosecute his suggestion as appears in the Statute of the 38 of Edward the third chap. 9. And forasmuch as by the great Charter the Petition of right c. It is enacted That no Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or be diseised of his freehold or liberties c. or be any other way destroyed c. but by the lawful judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the Land viz. by Indictment or Presentment before Iustices or matter of Record or Writ original according to the old Law of the Land Sir Ed. Cook in his Exposition on the 29 chapter of Magna Charta tells us That by the Law of the Land a man can be taken and imprisoned before Prosentment or Indictment but two ways first either by the Kings Writ or secondly by due proceeding and Warant either in deed or in Law without Writ which Writ must proceed from some Court of Record and the Warrant from some lawful Iudg or Iustice of the Peace or else it cannot be legal And if this be the Law of the Land as cannot be denyed then sure I am that there hath not been one legal step in all the proceedings against me For first my Accusers were never sent to any legal Iudg or Iustice to be examined or constrained to put in security as by Law is directed neither was there ever any legal Writ from any Court of Record or legal Warrant from any lawful Iudg or Iustice issued out for my Attachment or Imprisonment neither was I to this day though I have been a Prisoner two moneths ever so much as sent for or examined or had any particular crime layd to my charge being only committed for high Treason during pleasure contrary to all Law and particularly contrary to the Declarations of Parliament who have declared it to be against the rules of Iustice for any man to be imprisoned upon a general Charge when no particulars are proved against him Generals being no Crimes in Law Besides I stand committed during their pleasure when by Law all commitments ought to be in order to a tryal at Law But leaving this I shall proceed to examine the matters laid to my charge viz. That I should say that to my knowledge the Governour had received Letters intimating that the Army desired the King should be removed out of the way by Poyson or otherwise c. To this Master Osbourn offereth to depose and Master Dowcet saith that I did in a jeering manner aske him why the King came not down according to appointment and that I should likewise say That I stood under the new Platform with a Pistol ready to receive him And this the Lords contrary to Law have adjudged Treason although it be enacted in the Stattute of the 25. of Ed. 3. that in no time to come any thing be adjudged Treason but what is litterally contained in the said Statute Now all offences which are contained in that Statute may be divided into six heads The first concerning death which is either the compassing or imagining the death of the King Queen or Prince and declaring it by some overt deed or a killing or murthering some Officer of Justice in their places doing their offices as the Chancellor Treasurer Justices of the one Bench or the other Justices in Oyer c. The second kind of Treason is the carnal knowing of the Queen the Kings eldest Daughter or Princes wife The third is levying War against the King The fourth is adhereing to the Kings Enemies within or without the Realm and declaring it by some overt act The fifth is the counterfeiting the great Seal the privy Seal or Kings Coyn. The sixt is bringing in counterfeit money to the likenes of the Kings Coine now without an offence be under one of these heads it is no High Treason And certain I am there is none of these crimes laid to my charge neither is there any proofe offered of any such thing against me For first Osbourne doth not charge me with any design to poyson the King but that I should report that the Governor had Letters intimating that the Army desired it So that herein if what he had pretended were true as it is false and scandalous I did neither compass nor imagine the death of the King as having done no overt deed tending to that end and therefore cannot in the least be adjudged guilty of Treason by vertue of any Law of the Kingdom and where there is no Law there is no transgression 2. If what M. Osbourne did give in charge were Treason yet M. Osbournes single Testimony were no sufficient evidence whereby I can be concluded guilty Since by Law there must be two lawful witnesses sworn to prove each particular as appears by the 5. and 6. of Ed. 6. Chap. 11. The words of the Statute are these No person or persons after the first day of June next comming shall be Indicted arraigned condemned convicted or attainted for any of the Treasons or Offences aforesaid or for any other Treasons that now be or hereafter shall be perpetrated committed or done unless the same offender or offenders be thereof accused by two lawful accusers face to face c. Now it is cleerly evident that there is not one lawful accuser that appears against me for if those things which they lay to my charge were Treason and I really guilty yet they knowing thereof and concealing the same for some moneths hath made them equally guilty It being Treason by the Law for a person or persons to conceal a Treason as appears in the Statute of the 1. of Ed. 6. Chap. 12. and 5. 6. of Ed. 6. Chap. 11. So that they being persons concluded under the same guilt cannot in the least be taken as legal witnesses for if that were allowable no man could be secure for if the single evidence of a guilty person should be valid in Law to conclude innocent men guilty what man might not a malicious desperate villain destroy by an envious accusation therefore the Law requires legal accusers as providing against this evil And for what M. Dowcet seems to affirm is of the same nature with that of M. Osbournes namely of words spoken and not of deeds done and comes not in the least under the guilt of Treason if it were true but it will be sufficiently proved that there is no truth in it The Premises considered and Circumstances duly weighed I hope all men will cease to judg before the time especially those who shall be called judicially to consider of the premises as knowing that it is against the Law of God Nature or Nations yea Conscience it self for any man to pass a Censure Sentence or Judgment without good and cleer grounds for the same especially when by such an unconsiderate act the life of the innocent may be destroyed Gatehouse August 23. 1648. Edmond Rolph

The Case of Major Edmond Rolph truely Stated HAving to the utmost of my understanding and ability with all faithfulness served the Parliament and Kingdom ever since the beginning of the late unhappy differences under the Command of the ever to be honored Lieutenant General Cromwel and of late under the Governor of the Isle of Wight but being there in the discharge of my duty and by the wickedness of perfidious men rendred a faithless man in my duty and trust and made not only subject to the cruelty of merciless men but the object of many mens hate and malice to whom the cause thereof was not known and whose passionate affection or too easie credulity to the lying and false suggestion against me would not give them leave to examine And lest the extremities I have since suffered should beget in them an absolute conclusion that they have been deservedly inflicted upon me and that I may not be judged before the time I thought my self bound for their information to publish an unfaigned and impartial Relation of the root growth and fruits of the continual occurrences which have hapned to me by means of some ill-disposed persons which is as followeth Master Osbourn being Gentleman-usher to the King and Master Dowcet Clerk of the Kitchin with others had entred into a conspiracy to betray the person of the King out of the protection of the Parliament and to that end had corrupted several Soldiers which was discovered to me on the 28. of May 1648. which I immediately told to the Governor the night following the time when the said design should have been executed In order to which Osbourn was gone out of the castle to provide Horses for to convey the King from the place of his residence by the Authority of Parliament And receiving the Alarum of the discovery being neer the Castle-wall waiting for the Kings coming down immediately fled and hid himself in some secret corner for the space of 30 days after only Dowcet was taken prisoner that night in the Castle and Floyd one of the Soldiers who upon examination confessed the truth of every particular touching the said design before discovered by three other soldiers that were engaged also but never mentioned the least word that ever Osbourn or Dowcet had so much as pretended that the Kings person was in danger but some days after that the discovery was made the said Osbourn sent a Letter to the Lord Wharton wherein he did charge me with speaking words to this effect viz. That I should say That to my knowledg the Governor had received Letters from the Army intimating that they desired the King might be removed out of the way by poyson or otherwise c. which Letter the Lord Wharton sent unto Col. Hammond the Governor of the Isle of Wight The Governor having examined Dowcet and several other soldiers that were parties in the design Dowcet having affirmed in the presence of many as will be proved that he knew of no such design though the very rope by which the King was to go down was found in his Chamber sent them to London where being brought by a guard and by the way hearing of Osbourns Pamphlet and the Charge contained therein professed openly that he was confident that there was no such thing as that the Kings life was in danger neither did he know any thing concerning me and that he did beleeve Osbourn would never appear to make good his Charge or if he did appear yet he would never be so wicked as to forswear himself But Osbourn appearing having first capitulated with the Houses for a protection from the Laws for his trayterous practises as aforesaid the said Dowcet clean contrary to his former averments gave under his hand a paper wherein he declared that Osbourn had told him That the Kings life was in danger c. And that when he was in prison I had in a jeering manner asked him why the King came not down according to appointment and that I should say that I stood under the new platform with a pistol in my hand to receive him although it will be easily proved that I was all that while in my Chamber until the very time the Governor gave me order to apprehend the said Dowcet Osbourns Letter comming to the Isle of Wight on Wednesday 21 of Iune I immediately that night though I had been sick a week before by reason of an impostumation in my lower parts took my journey toward London and came to the House of Commons on Friday 23. 1648. where at the open Bar I declared what I knew in every particular from which time I attended upon the House of Lords until Tuesday after when by reason of that bodily distemper then upon me increased by my journey I was necessitated to keep my Chamber forbear any further attendance only leaving Notes of the place of my abode with several persons attending the Houses in case I should be enquired for as was affirmed by the Speaker of the honorable House of Commons Upon Tuesday Iune 27. the Lords upon these false informations made an Order for my Attachment and Commitment to the Gatehouse Westminster not so much as ever calling me before themselves or sending me before any legal Magistrate as by Law they ought The day following being the Fast day though I had received information of their proceedings yet I could not receive satisfaction concerning the truth thereof the House not sitting till Thursday being the 29. of Iune 1648. On which day I sent to know the truth thereof the said warrant being not yet executed upon me as I conceive on purpose to give me time to run away hoping that I might prove so cowardly as not to stand to it having such great men as the Lords to deal withall and such a hainous crime as treason layd to my charge But contrary to their expectation on Friday being Iune 30. I sent a Letter to the Lords certifying unto them my condition and place of abode which I am confident they knew well enough though they would take no notice thereof and my two Chyrurgions also to the end they might attest as they afterward did that it was indeed a bodily distemper which occasioned my non-attendance and nothing else Yet notwithstanding this clear evidence of my integrity the Lords persisted and their Officers in the execution of their first and second Warrant exercised such cruelty as hath not been manifested to the Kingdoms greatest enemies neither taking notice of the weakness of my condition attested by my Chyrurgions being not able to turn my self in my bed nor the invalidity of the Charge brought against me by criminal persons there being no crime in Law layd to my charge nor one legal accuser insomuch that my life was by my unseasonable removal not only by my sickness but also by the violence of an inconsiderate multitude to whose rage I was exposed and from whose fury I was with great difficulty by providence