dominion that is Eternal over the Consciences of men in matters of Worship vvich the usurpation of man would stand over and this is their honour And this record shall bear it for them to all generations vvhen you are gone and laid in your dust who have persecuted them for bearing testimony to his dominion in the Conscience who is Lord of all against the usurpation of you and all men which as hath been said shall stand by them for ever and ever And these things are spoken to the intent that it may appear that your proceedings are partial and not out of Conscience though thou John Knight dost so loudly boast that what thou dost is out of Conscience of which more anon and therefore it is that thou thus proceedest We know thou wilt pretend that thou hadst directions from the Kings Council so to proceed which thou didst produce when they vvere first before thee as hath been before mentioned which gave thee orders as thou read it to keep them in prison till the next Goale delivery if they would not find sureties to appear or to that purpose and thereupon thou biddest them chuse whether they would be so proceeded against or on the late Act whose end was Banishment and then didst shew some of them thy mercy in tendring them the Oath of Alegiance and committing them for that they could not swear as hath been said But this Fig-leaf will not cover thee for who was he that Wrote up to Whitehall and gave the Councel to understand otherwise of the City and us then it was And insinuated dangers that were not and drew over them and the City such an understanding as neither they nor the City did discern and then produced the Councils Letter upon such suggestions thou shouldst have shewn that and have ingeniously confessed that thou wrotest such a Letter for thou mightst well conclude that we might come to know it and that because thou thy self wouldest not seem to bring the ruine upon them and so the destruction on the City which thou hadest in thy heart therefore thou hast done this and hast laid it upon the Council and so hast abused the Council as thou hast wronged us This had been something bare fac'd and like a plain man at least like one that was so satisfied and in love with his own actions that he dares to avow them before the world and not as one that doth mischief and then slinks into a corner Indeed the Council as hath been said could not be expected otherwise to direct being sworn to attend the safty of the Kingdome upon such suggestions that such a City as Bristol and so to England as Bristol is was in such danger and that by such a people as we and our meetings which in no more danger was nor is nor will be as to us and our meetings then of children in their beds asleep as thou wast told nor deserving such suggestions How could the Council answer the not sending such directions upon such informations as these But as for the King thou knevvest his mind at Bath by his Secretary as aforesaid and his good aspect of this place vvhen Himself vvas lately in it and no hand of His vvas to the Letter So that it appears that through thine own mischievous suggestions it was that Bristol came to be had in disrepute and that such an innocent people therein came to suffer which thou vvouldst need cover with a necessity from the Council and their order which thy suggestions procured It could here be reckoned up vvhat heaps of Informations thou mountedst up against diverse eminent men in the City that had been and vvere Magistrates because they had before thy day held moderation in the Government as to conscience as hath been said and others whose crime as thou didst endeavour to make it was because they came to visit those whom thou hadst made Prisoners of vvhom they were near relations as Brother in-law Vncle c. Partners in Merchandizing as to which they had business and how enraged thou wast at the general applause of the sober part of the City with the Prisoners and Cities detestation of thee and what thou didst to us which their visits thou laidst as the ground of thine Informations and so because they were thy Prisoners thou vvouldst not have them though the Law allowed it to be visited and this upon the foot of vvhat hath been mentioned but because this was somewhat after in order of time produced though now in design and preparation it shall be in this place omitted and a return made to our state as it was vvhen thou madest them Prisoners Much was the Love of the City manifested to the Prisoners even beyond the president of former dayes and continual visits were to them and as Doves flock to the windows so came they to see them manifesting their great disgust of thee for doing as thou hadst to us and not a day passed without some manifestation of their love And vvhereas thou didst seek by what thou hadst done to cool the esteeme of the City to us and to bring us under it arose the more abundantly and so the more thou didst persecute us the more we grew so that thou lost on every hand the love of the people because thou persecutedst the innocent and thy design to decrease them which vvas the intent of thy persecution Therefore least thou shouldst altogether miscarry and so on no hand be saved one of the Prisoners being moved of the Lord thus wrote and sent unto thee Friend VVE are innocent as to God to Men to Thee we live in all good Conscience giving no just occasion of offence to any the King thy Self the Government are safe in Us we desire your welfare God is witness our meetings are in obedience to the Lord and not in any oppsition unto you the Law or Government the searcher of the heart knows it is truth who will render unto every man according to his deeds our refusing to swear is in obedience to the Lord because the Law of him we cannot transgress our behaviour hath been in the fear of the Lord and no other thing have you had from us our conversation hath been blameless as amongst men and we are clear as in the sight of the Lord we have not been an oppression to this City nor the Nation nor to any particular therein but what in us lies we have had peace with all men and we desire the destruction of none but the salvation of all even our enemies whom we pray for whom we bless whom we love we cannot resist evil because of him that hath said Resist not evil We are in Peace and we would be in peace times have tried us revolutions great revolutions the greatest revolutions this Nation hath had have proned us a people not dangerous to Government nor to the peace and safety of this place You have had no hurt from us we have done you no hurt God
Sheriff of the City and his Father Mayor daughter to the said Widow Yeomans he threw down stairs to the bruising of her head and arms the hurt of which she hath not yet recovered And so having shut up men women and children together women with child and nurses he went his way Then the Constables came who had more sense of humanity and let out the women with child and children then when it was even dark came Sheriff Bradway and set at liberty the rest taking their verbal engagement for their appearance the next day And this is the noble and worthy Exploit as men use to call things by the contrary which thou performedst in the siege of a Company of innocent men and women who did not resist thee and these are the things memorable therein Thou saidst when thou came up the stairs see that none go down and when thou camest into the room thou commandedst all to depart and when thou wentest away thou orderedst the doors to be nailed up so that they that remained could not depart so contradictory were thy orders the one to the other and as they were contradictory so they were not observed nor hadst thou Dominion over those people but the good hand of the Lord was over them and their Meetings so that neither the Officers civil nor military asunder nor the Officers Military and Civil together nor the Deputy Lieutetenants and their Guards nor thou in person nor thy Brethren were able so to work as to discontinue our meeting from the beginning of thy year to the end thereof the Lord hereby shewing his dominion to be over all and that his Throne was set up in the midst of his enemies Now to these aforementioned may be added William Wells who for speaking a few words to thy officers in the Meeting who take and leave whom they please and whom to speak to be the matter or the occasion what it will is enough to be sent to Prison themselves being Judges was had to Newgate and there continued the space of eight dayes at which time Sheriff Stremer having heard that he was a poor man and that his family depended for their livelyhood on his liberty upon promise of appearance at Sessions if called was set at Liberty And Philip Dimer of Cork in Ireland and a dealer there being taken up at a Meeting about the time of the faâ—re and sent to Bridewell by some of thy Officers was at the Instance of thy brother Francis Knight of London and other Londoners with vvhom he used to have dealings set free it being a great obstruction to the faire that men of substantialness and dealing as were many of our friends should be by thee thus proceeded with who should'st have been the great encourager of the Faire in confidence of which as of right it ought to be men do frequent the Faire Yet thy fellow Citizens therein cry some could not have that friendshid from thee as strangers though substantial men and great dealers But all thou couldst thou didst bear upon them and by the Fayre especially keeping them up then from their business if so by any means thou couldest bow them unto thee And that which was of Argument why thou shouldst dismiss them to follow their business that thou turnedst as an Argument to hold them to it supposing that by those pressures they might fall under thee But the everlasting armes were underneath them which did keep them and will all those that abide with him Now the Sessions drew on to attend on which thou wast come down from Westminster where thou hadst been for some time having lest it in charge with thy Officers to visit our Meetings in the mean time on the first dayes of the weeke vvhich they did requiring us to depart and takeing names which were said to be sent up to thee for thou could'st not be satisfied for the persecuting spirit in thee could not be at rest but as by some way or another that was done which was in order thereunto and what use of those papers thou madest above thou knowest and what endeavours thou didst use to bring through the Act which was then in hand against us and how thou didst work to have the Convictions in order to Banishment to be without Juries expresly contrary as we Judge to Magna Charta for then thou thoughtest it 's like thou should'st have Matters in thine own hand and so would'st do with us as thou pleasest seeing that the Juries failed thee and thou didst that thou knowest Thy brother Locke a man of that impetuous franticknesse and silliness of understanding that he serves for little else save except to set the Court a laughing if no more would stand by thee so thou wast satisfied And thy Sergeant Jones when he came down from waiting on thee to Westminster boasted in the Meeting that there was a Bill past the House such a day against us for that purpose and Baall vapoured that there were ships coming about that would carry us away and he vvould loose his eare yet he hath not been as good as his word if we were there four Meetings more and so Imperious vvas thy Sergeant Jones grown who from a Beggar of a piece of bread from door to door to a Sawyer and from thence to a Sergeant was advanced that he took upon it to Lord and insult it over his other fellow servants as well as us and because that Paul Williams one of his fellow Sergeants would not take names in the Meeting at his command he sirrah'd him in imitation of thee and laid violent hands on him in the Meeting and tore his Coat and dragg'd him down by violence saying He would send him to Newgate and then brought up an other to do as he commanded And this was the hostility vvith vvhich our peaceable meetings to vvait upon the Lord were exercised by men whom as hath been said one would have scorned to have put with the Dogs of ones flock vvhom they please must go to Prison whom they please must be set in their list what they please they speak and what they please they do and is well vvhatsoever they do This liketh thee to be exercised upon a people of such Estates many of them and qualitie in the City as thou knowest whose Liberty Civil treatment Estates Families Countrey Lives as it may happen and all they have must stand at the courtesie of such and if we tearm them so it is but what they are base fellows But the Lord was with his people and gave them dominion over all and enabled them to bear with Patience this great exercise through the power and strength of him vvho was in the midst of them whom your eyes cannot see Who persecute him in his truth and people who will Reign over you all for ever and ever whom none of the Princes of this world knew for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory So the Sestions being come
the next day thou committedst to Newgate for being at an unlawful assewbly under pretence of Religious worship on Sunday the 12th of June in the time of divine service and for resisting the Officers who were to disperse them and refusing to give sureties for their appearance the next Sessions and in the mean time to be of the good behaviour Signed John Knight Mayor Hen. Creswick Nath. Cale dated 13th June 1664. And this was the Sabboth dayes work of thy officers whom thou sentest on this errand breaking the peace and confirmedst after they had done it who yet pretendedst to the keeping of the Sabbath and criest out upon us for breaking the Sabbath in meeting on that day to wait upon the Lord the work as your selves accounted it of the Sabbath and for coming to town on which day to save a womans life who was in travel thou causest a horse of a man-midwife to be detained till he had paid a fine for riding on that day for that purpose being sent for in hast Richard Blackborrow Brewer thy neighbour and yet thou couldst send a Capias on that day newly taken out of the Court for the wax was wet to detain Robert Steward that was brought to Newgate late the night before in a debt of thy brother in law Duckets of 200 l. who cryest out of the breach of the Sabbath thou Hypocrite who makest Sabbath and Law and all what thou pleasest who shewest of what Religion thou art towards God by these things as of Loyalty to the Law and thy Prince by the other but of this more hereafter And yet thou wast mistaken in thy warrant and shewed thy self thereby how wrong thou didst run even as a man headlong into any thing that seem'd to serve thy end talking of resisting and not dispersing when as the new law which enabled to such things was not then in force and there was no other as we know of that so enabled yet this is the usage that we and our peaceable meetings receive from the hands of thy officers and this is the Justice we receive at thy hands to have thy confirmation of what thy officers have done and all the remedy we have but we leave it to the Lord who will render unto you according to your deeds Now drew on the 1. of the 5. month called July famous for the date of the new Act on which it took place and became in force which thou hadst so much longed for and for the accomplishing of which thou hadst so much trudged for which thou shalt have thy reward from the hand of the Lord and now the day being come having before hand caused the Constables to be warned and the meeting being on the first day of the week and the third of that month thou sentest thy Officers first to bid them to depart to take nams who took away John Moon to Bridewel as he was then declaring in the words of soberness and truth and between the first and second houre in the afternoon thou camest thy self attended with Alder. Lock and Alder. Lawford the other Aldermen it seems being out of the way or not caring to be about such work as this and at the door of our meeting house in the street being set down with them and the Sheriffs thou didst cause an O Yes to be made in the form of a Court one which day no Courts are used to be kept in England who talkest so much of the Sabbath and chargest us with profaning the day because we meet thereon to wait upon the Lord the work of the day as you use to say upon the day and madest the manmidwife pay the fine for coming that day to town as aforesaid the effect of a murderous spirit shewn under the pretence of Religion and conscience to the observation of the Law as did the Pharisees who put him to death who was the end of the Law who healed on that day whom he convinced of the contrary in the example of David in the shew-bread and their own in taking an oxe or an asse out of a pit and sent'st the Capias in thy brother Ducket's behalf on that day as hath been said and to adde no more didst constrain Christopher Woodward to bring upon the foot of a Mortgage payable on that day of the week his mony to the Tolzey whether he was on that day necessitated to bring it least thou shouldst take advantage of the forfeiture of the Mortgage who otherwise wouldst not give him encouragement to accept it when he spake with thee thereabouts and is not this Hypocrisie and that which is like thee in all thy actions pretend conscience and do the contrary In which we shall farther trace thee ere this relation be over Well the Court being set as aforesaid in the nature of a Piepowder one thou sent'st the Constables and Officers up into the Meeting who brought down the men first whom thou didst Maunder at as thou pleasedst and then demanding of some of them mony for of several thou didst not and yet sentest them to prison contrary to Law 10 s. 2 s. 6 d. and of some 6 d. ye 2 d. which they not answering thou sentest some to Newgate some to Bridewel Then the Women were brought down whom thou servedst after the same manner many of them not being fined then nor so much as asked Whether they would pay any Mony though the Law places Imprisonment in default of payment of the fine and not otherwise vvhich practice thou didst use many times after but have them away have them away vvas thy cry and to Bridewel and to Newgate vvere many of them also carried though it is contrary to Law also to make a man suffer twice for one offence vvhich thou madest them to do in committing them for being at a Meeting one day and the next day fining them as by and by shall be related for doing of the same so making the Law a nose of wax bowing and bending it as thou pleasest and yet pretending as to vvhat thou didst to us Conscience to the Law About four hours time thou tookest up in this thy New found vvay of Justice sending Men and Women in heaps to both prisons on this account some Husbands one vvhere their Wives another some Servants vvhere their Masters and Mistrisses vvere not some old some young some under-age by the Law some Women with Child and so big that they knew not of an hour to go and this to Bridewel and yet others vvho were of age thou vvouldst not account so but placest them under having a mind to excuse them and yet thou pretendest Conscience and thou say'st Thou must not be partial and thou must execute the Law and thou must keep thy Oath and though others fail of their duty yet thou must not Thus like the Pharisees making thy Philacteries broad but the Exposition of the Law narrow or none at all as thou pleasest yet thou could'st not accomplish thine end
A RELATION OF THE INHUMANE and Barbarous suffering of the people called QUAKERS In the City of Bristoll during the Mayoralty of John Knight commonly called Sir John Knight commencing from the 29. of the 7. month 1663. to the â—9 day of the same month 1664. Impartially observed by a private hand and now communicated for Publick information by the said People Many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand Dan. 10.12 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Mat. 5. 10 11 12. And shall not God avenge his own elect which cry night and day unto him though he bear long with them I tell you he will avenge them speedily neverthelesse when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth Luke 18. 7 8. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you Luke 6. 26. Printed in the Year 1665. A Relation c. FRiend John Knight for unto thee it is that we direct this ensuing relation of which we have suffered at thy hands during thy being Major in this City for that by thee it was and through thy influence that we have thus suffered It had been well for thee if thou hadst minded the stable condition of this City when thou entred'st into thy Government both for trade and otherwise Robert Canne Kt. And Barronet being thy Predecessor then which no time hath parallel'd it since the date of the late troubles when the King returned A City at peace and unity within its self men of all perswasions as to Religion well perswaded amongst themselves and as to the Civil peace united in the hearts and love of each man to another and the publick benefit And thus it was whilest moderation sat in the Government of this City so that every individual might rest assured of the peace and safety of his estate and Person in the pursuance of the publick And by the way let us tell thee and all to whom these presents may come that there was not a City more united in the publick then this of Bristol before thine entrance whose shadowy steps there-from from this day forwards not upon our personal influence or our principle but thine own receive their gnomon or direction from thy declention from it and will have their let from thee For thou art the man whom rage and asperity with a blind zeal to the worships of the times have set up to counter-buff the stability of this City and to overturn ex industria or of set purpose the well poized Government of unity and peace into disunion and trouble And to lay the sure grounded Fabrick of its prosperity in the dust whilest thou walkest over it with armes folded up and a pitiful countenance as if not thou but the contrary viz. moderation had there laid it And so whilest with the one hand thou entrest in thy sharp incision knife thou stroakest with the other as if so be that which suffers were the cause of its running in not thou of its suffering To manifest which and 〈◊〉 give thee to see that thou art not charged amisse something of thine own actions shall be drawn before thee which by thee have been perpetrated during this thy year to the intent and end that if thou hast yet any thing remaining of true sensiblenesse thou mayest reflect upon what thou hast don and blush and so mayst come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus whom now in Vs thou hast thus persecuted and be saved which is the desire of our hearts and that it may be well with thee for ever But if not that the ground of the miscarriage of this once and very lately flourishing City may be charged where it ought and that after ages may have somewhat upon Record as an account wherefore it was and how it came to passe that a place of so much weight and worth should be laid even with the dust for though we may be much looked over by thee and thy generation as a people not of so considerable an interest as among men though we may claim as considerable a one as your selves yet a higher interest we have then amongst men with him who looks ye over who will render to you according to your deeds and this you will finde when the measure of your iniquity is fulfilled upon us which ye will be suffered to fulfil for the tryal of our faith and Patience and what there is of God in us that he may be glorified for which purpose he hath suffered ye thus to do and without whose suffrance ye could not have done thus unto us and therefore we are content for he will then fulfil upon you the measure of your iniquity and then poor Bristoll will know as well as you the sad effects of persecuting the innocent people of the Lord who are not its enemy nor yours nor the Kings nor his Government that is just answering the just principle of God which we are to follow and nothing but that which is according unto it And where we cannot do to suffer as is our principle and our practice makes it manifest We say we are not enemies to the City to the King nor you but do desire the welfare of it and of you all God is witness who will render to every man according to his deeds And this we speak before hand that in the day of your calamity which you shall see will approach you and compass you about ye may remember that of it you were foretold and that it is come to passe what you were foretold in the day of your prosperity to the end that you might have heard and considered ere it had been too late for this is signified to you in the name of the Lord and let it be as the presage of what shall come to passe and the presage it is The persecution of us will be visited by the Lord with as sharp a hand as ever was drawn forth against it since the foundation thereof And ye shall be tumbled into the dust and your carkasses shall fall as the mire of the streets who have stretched forth your hands without a cause against an innocent people that have done you no wrong and have made them to suffer and an execration you will be and an hissing in the day of the Lords vengeance when he shall render to you according to your deeds this is spoken to such of you as shall not repent as that which shall come upon you in the day that the Lords vengeance shall be made manifest Not that we aspire after dignities or
Sawcer likewise the said Witherley brought out of his Masters shop to the Guard after the windows were thrown down and there he and Boone tied him neck and heels by the order of Smart and the Marshal with a halfe hundred weight so long and after such a manner that his face grew black and his natural spirits began to fail so that the match being cut by one that was not of the Guard they were constrained to give him something to fetch his spirits again The time of his suffering thus was about three quarters of an hour Richard Mercer being in Sarah Bennets shop when they came to shut her Windows down or to require her to cause them to be shut and for saying It was a reasonable thing to shew their Warrant vvas had away likewise to the Guard and by order of the aforesaid persons tyed neck and heels and two Musquets hang'd at his neck for the space of half an hour vvhich vvas performed by Boone aforesaid being the Servant of another as aforesaid vvho vvas none of those people This Tiranical Act without any Warrant of thine as was produced so reflecting on thy Government and so startling the sober people of the City tending also to the dissolution of Government had no other reproof from thee in publick that ever we heard of except that thou thoughtest him a qualified and fit person to be of the Grand Jury to pass upon our friends as aforesaid Before we leave the Militia we shall give one taste of Captain Hicks his spirit to his near and peaceable Neighbours it seems the Deputy Lieutenant and Commissioners of the Militia thought fit to fine some of our friends for not finding arms to the Guard whose principle was against arms and which arms also were converted to the disturbing of our meetings contrary to Law and the imprisoning of our friends amongst the rest Thomas Callowhill was one who dwelling a little below on the other side of the high street where Captain Hicks kept shop and being somewhat of the same occupation Captain Hicks with a Constable came and though the Warrant was not directed to the said Captain Hicks yet with his own hands he took down ten pieces of Manchester tape worth 15 s. for 10 s. fine and gave it to the Constable who carryed it to the said John Hicks his house not returning the overplus Sometime after the said Thomas Callowhill having some business to do in Captain Hicks his shop and receiving 26 s. of him for Buttons he demanded an Acquittance in full of all accounts T. Callowhill desired him to accept of it in full of the buttons and said that he hoped he would return him his ten pieces of tape again at least the overplus but John Hicks would not accept of that then T. Collowhill desired him to call in any Neighbour and he would acknowledg it in full of all accounts only the tape excepted the overplus of which being not returned he thought it not fit to give a discharge Captain Hicks replyed he had nothing to do with that he might go to the Constable T. Callowhill answered it is in thy Chest and why should I go to the Constable seeing that he took it not from me but several saw thee take it thy self Whereupon Captain Hicks brake forth into a great rage and called him Rogue and Knave and laid violent hands on him and hurled him into a dark entry at the further end of his shop out of the hearing of the people in the street and there did strike him and pull him by the hair of the head demanding the money out of his pocket and thrust his fingers so against his throat as if he intended to choak him and tore his coat and so by beating and haling and tearing and desperate words forced his money from him which the said Cap. Hicks detains to this day This is Capt. Hicks a man that never drew sword in the field that dare not meet a man there that dares handle a sword one of thy chieftaines to do thy drudgery A member of the Councel and that hath been Sheriff of the Citie in this day wherein as hath been said shame is become the promotion of fooles And this is some account of the Militia and the work of some of their Officers and Souldiers which put the Citie to so great a charge as the supplying of their armes for so long a season of which the Citie began to grow so weary and the stomacks of the House-keepers and under officers who had formerly been in the field were so clogged to be at such work and to hale their peaceable neighbours up and down who did not resist them And so to be in order to the ruine of them and their families for their conscience that the Deputy Lieutenants who in many things shewed much moderation laid it down whom thou haddest instigated unto much of what they had done to us who haddest no power to command them but yet wouldest not let them be at rest till they had promised thee their assistance of whom thou haddest no need one of thy officers being as sufficient for thy purpose as hath been said as a Regiment for they would not resist though thou lovedst to appear a man in power and having thoughts that thou couldest never do too much against us didst think thou never had too much power to effect it upon us which cost the City so much and may do thee much more if thou dost not repent Thus ended the Militia but here was not an end of thy rage and cruelty for perceiving how the City was bent in favour of the innocent and how their love was raised so much the more to them as thy cruelty exceeded and manifested in their friendly visits for that which was sober could not withhold it self from its own which suffred Thou haveing mist that at which thou aimedst in thy prosecutons aforesaid and having little whereof to glory except that thou haddest failed in thy enterprise as a man enraged because of the love of others to those whom without cause thou didst hate as if so be it had been crime enough that thou haddest cast them in prison and therefore none ought to visit them And haveing not the law on thy side to make them close prisons whose misdemeaners brought not them into thine hands but their conscience thou tookest another course and as if the King and his Councell had nothing else to do thou troubledst their ears with thy Solicitors and their hands with thy papers heaps upon heaps with informations against severall persons of note and eminency in that City whom otherwise thine envy could not reach And the great crime with which thou chargedst them was that they visited the Quakers in prison which neither law made sooner true humanity nor comerce amongst men for the visitors were concerned in the prisoners upon point of relation comerce neighbourhood and Country as aforesaid and here thou keptst ado not
thing for John Saunders but in the hurt of his Conscience though being committed by thee he lay upon stravv in Traytors Ward for his Conscience And this is thy Conscience and the tenderness of thy heart to thy friends and near Relations for their Conscience yet a great deal of love thou wouldst needs pretend to thy Cozen Gouldney as thou hast to many more of Vs but vvherein it appears is yet to appear Sure We are that she continued a Prisoner till the expiration of the time aforesaid and her husband also and John Saunders as thou doest to us vvhat thou pleasest vvhom vvithout a cause thou pursuest but the day of the Lord is upon Thee and thy Deceit is made manifest The next first day of the Week being the 10th of 5th Mon. thou didst cause the doors of the Meeting-house to be kept fast having had thy belly full of toyl the day before and being willing its like to hear how thy other dayes action vvas resented at Court the Prisons moreover being full and the City discontented and the Sessions drawing nigh so the Meeting vvas in the street vvhich received the Taunts of thy Sergeant Jones vvho had newly bought his office and as the Proverb is speaking by contrarieâ— would needs be good in it and Baal aforesaid vvho seeing two strangers there that came out of Ireland took them away to Bridewell and having taken the Names of whom they pleased went their Way The Sessious being come viz. the 12th of the 5th mon. a Bill of Indictment at Comon Law vvas drawn and exhibited against William Ford and those 14 vvith him that were had from Meeting the 12th of the Moneth before as hath been related and laid in Prison vvhich the Grand Iurie finding they were brought to the Hall in the Afternoon and there put into the Cub where Murderers and Felons are used to be placed though W. Ford and Nath. Milner were thy neare Neighbours and men of dealing in whom the Poor were much concern'd and of good Reputation and the Indictment being read to them there For being at an unlawful Meeting by force and Arms c. They pleaded except Thomas Atkins and Iohn Iohns Not Guiltie The Witnesses viz. thy Officers were examined who swore That in the Kings Name they made Proclamation for them to depart When as a Month before when thou committedst them they swore that it was in thy Name for which thou then reprovedst them saying It should have been in the Kings which in a Months time it seems was become so This the Prisoners observed and pleaded against the Validity of their testimony who swore one thing one moneth and another thing as to the same matter another moneth as they did against the falshood of the matter of their Testimony This thou undertook'st to justifie and would'st needs to shew how thou wa'st still concern'd in the Prosecution of our suffering prove by Consequence thus Thou wert the Kings Officer they made Proclamation in thy name who wast an officer of the Kings therefore it was in the Name of the King Fine Logick in Law But a Bill of Indictment as to Perjurie before a Righteous Jury thou not being the Judge for thou art concern'd and no righteous Judgment can be expected at thy hands would clip the ears of thy Offiers and give them other sufferings of fine and Imprisonment and then how could thy Logick serve them For Words of Evidence ought to be plain and the same not one day one thing and another day another thing and thy Name is not the Kings and the Kings Name is not thine in point of Proclamation especially unless thou wilt needs be King in Bristol which it seems one of the Judges of the Kings Bench saw cause to place upon thee as aforesaid Take heed John Knight of these things Ego Rex meas I and my King cost Cardinal Poole something thou must not come too near here though thy mind aspires too much Remember the saying of old viz. Kings and Concubines admit no competitors Take heed Iohn Knight of Tower-hill the Axe there hath an edge for all save Kings and once know that Proclamations as to Law must be in the Name of the King not thine Iohn Knight unless in the Name of the King so thou maist stay thy hast least thou repent at leisure These things rendred thy Witnesses in view of the Hall not fit to testifie having appeared forsworn But thou didst not think so that was not to the business thou hadst in hand viz. Right or Wrong as it seems to make them suffer so false Witnesses may serve any thing that is like that 's call'd a Witness that hath a syllable or two like the matter may serve the turn the matter is judged already viz. They shall suffer The same was in the case of Thomas Speed c. as aforesaid So Robert Edwards Sergeant swore Positively that W. Ford was in the meeting when as he met William Ford in the street and there took him up and when W. Ford asked him In what place he saw him in the Meeting he hung down his head and said nothing The same he also swore as to Iohn Love whom he saw coming down the stairs of the meeting Roome But all men that are in their wits do know that the stairs to a place is not the place and Evidence in point of Testimonie ought to be Positive both as to Place and Time Yet this was the Entertainment that they met with at thine and the hands of thy Officers But this is not all after these thy Witnesses had said what they pleased thou spakest a few words to the Jurie and then they withdrew forthwith not having heard the Prisoners who though they called upon them to stay and to hear what they had to say for themselves for Qui Judicat aliquid altera parte in audita haud equum facit Judicium That is He that judgeth anie thing the other part being unheard can hardly give right Iudgment as the Maxim is Yet away they went as if having heard thee it was enough and that the knowledge of thy mind were sufficient so giving to understand as if there were a Confederacie between You to make them to suffer which one of them intimated to thee in a Letter hereafter to be mentioned Whereupon the Prisoners called aloud to thee and the Town-Clerk to cause them to stay in which being importunate as indeed it did concern them thou and the Town-Clerk called to them to stay yet they would not return to their place to hear them but vvent in and after they vvere vvithdrawn Gunter the Fore-man of the Iurie an Officer formerly in the Militia and a known inveterate enemie to us came forth with the Book of Statutes under his Arme desiring to know of the Town-Clerk against what Statute it was when the Indictment was at Common Law So vvell prepared vvas this Fore-man and the Iurie as men use to say by the contraries and