Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	common_a	justice_n	king_n	6,067	5	3.7578	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86077	Londons lawless liberty: or A Gozmonian partie licensed. Being a true discoverie of a pack of prodigious knaves, who have under pretence of an act of Common Councell of the City of London, seized (as they tearme it) and taken away from divers free-men of the same city, their true aud [sic] proper goods, and that in such a horrid and uncivil[l?] manner, as no heathens whatsoever, could with more cruelty have exercised the same. Together with a particular of the names of some of those persons which have had their goods illegally taken away, as the same was attested under their hands, and presented to the adjutators of the army, under the command of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax, Captaine Generall of all the forces in England and Wales, the 27. of August, 1647. / Published by Iohn Harvey Gentleman.	Harvey, John, gentleman.	1647 (1647)	Wing H1082; Thomason E407_9; ESTC R201941	9,634	13

the true meaning hereof And be it further inacted by the authority aforesaid that no person or persons whatsoever shall at any time hereafter by any colour wayes or meanes whatsoever directly or indirectly sell utter or put to sale by way of hawking or as a Hawket any Linnen cloth or any other ware made of Linnen cloth Starch or any other wares or merchandizes whatsoever in any open street or laine within the said City or the liberties thereof victuall in the market place and in market time only excepted otherwise then upon the stall of his her or their own shop or dwelling house or in his her or their ware house shop or dwelling house upon paine to forfeit for every time he she or they shall so offend all the Linnen cloath or other ware whatsoever to be sold uttered or put to sale contrary to the true meaning hereof and to forfeit also the sum of 20 s of lawful money of England And be it further enacted ordained and established by the authority aforesaid that the one mo●tie or halse part of all the paines penalties and forfeitures to be forfeited by vertue of this Act shall be to the Chamberlin of the City of London for the time being to the use of the Major and Commonalty and Citizens of the same City And the other moity thereof to him or them that will therefore sue by Action of debt Bill or information to be affirmed exhibited or commonsed and prosecuted in the Queens Majesties Court to be hosden before the Major and Aldermen of the said City in the chamber of Guild Hall of the same City wherein no wager of Law shall be admitted for the Defendant And that it shall and may be lawfull to all and every person or persons whatsoever thereunto authorized by the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen of the City aforesaid for the time being who shall see or know any Linnen cloath wares made of Linnen cloath Starch or other wares or merchandizes whatsoever which shall bee bought sold uttered or offered to be put to sale contrary to the true meaning of this present Act. And thereby shall be forfeited by vertue of this Act to seize the same and to carrie and convey the same to the Guild Hall of the said City or to some place neer unto the same there to remaine in safe custodie untill the same shall be disposed of according to the true meaning of this present Act. This Act of Common Counsel City of Londons ●ase Devinets ase an 2. ●hil and ●ary 7 2. Edw. ● 1 ●o Hen. ● 14 is utterly void and against law for that no Citizen or free man of London can be restrained by an act of Common Councell to sell or proffer his wares in the street upon pain of forfeiture Secondly This Act of Common Councell is void for that every act of Common Councell ought to have these quallifications First it ought to be agreeable to law Secondly it ought to be moderate imposing a pecunary and not a corporall paine and no forfeiture of goods Thirdly for suppressing of evill things Fourthly agreeable to reason Fifthly for common profit This Act is void of all these It is not agreeable to law neither is there any moderation but extremitie by penall paine and forfeiture here is no evill suppressed for there is no evill done by a Citizen of London to sell his goods in London London is an open market every day in the yeare but Sunday for a free man to sell his goods in open marker is no evill It is not agreeable to reason to debarre a free man of a City to trade freely therein reason being the fountaine of honest lawes gives to every man propriety and liberty property of interest freedom of enjoyment and improvement to his best advantage It is not for the common profit the sellers being manufactors and freemen of the City pay taxes and tallages This Act is in effect to raise prices for the manufactor selleth cheaper then the shop keeper who endeavouring to bring all the custome to their shops is only to advance a kind of a monopolie which the law abhorteth For as Sir Edward Cooke in the third part of his Institutions fol. 181. commenting upon the Statute of the 21 Iames 3. which Statute is absolutely against Monopolists and Monopolizers he there possitively saith that they are against the antient and fundamentall lawes of this Kingdom and that he may be the better understood what he means by Monopolie he thus defines it A Monopolie is an institution or allowance by the Kings grant Commission or otherwise to any person or persons bodies politique or corporate o● or for the sole buying selling making or useing of any thing whereby any person or person bodies politique or corporate are sought to be restrained of any freedome or libertie that they had before or hindred in their lawfull trades Deut. 24 6. And he there saith that the law of this Realm against Monopolies is grounded upon the law of God No man shal take the nether or upper milstone to pledge for he taketh a mans life to pledge Whereby it appeareth that a mans trade is counted his life the Monopolist or shop keeper which taketh away a mans trade taketh away his life and therefore he is so much the more odious because he is Vir sanguinis a man of blood against those inventors and propounders of evill the holy Ghost hath spoken Rom. 1.30 Inventoris malorum c. digni sunt morti the Inventors of evill c. ate worthy of death This Act of Common Councell is also contrary to the light of nature which teacheth men to walk by congruety and equallity not to oppresse because they would not be oppressed nor to take away another mans right because they would not have another to use the same measure to them which principle of nature is ingrav●n upon the hearts of Heathens who certainly wil one day rise up in judgment against them which would make us slaves in our own land contrary to the honour of nation because by it the people are put into a condition of vassalage in their owne country This Act of Common Councell being also against the common right and profit of the people and not approved before the execution thereof by the Lord Chancellor Treasurer both the chiefe Iustices or three of them the partie which put the Act in execution forfeit 40. l. 19. Hen. 7.7 Neverthelesse although it be the knowne freedome of every free man of London handicrafts man shop keeper or merchant to sell his goods Manufactors wares or commoditie either to free man or Farriner English man or stranger in ware house shop private house or Inn yet the shop keepers have and doe unconscionably repine at the use of this libertie in the Manufacterors and as time have favoured injustice have accustomed to struggle against this their lawfull libertie to the great oppression and hindrance of multittudes of the poorer sort

of trades men and to the extream miserie and affliction of their families for that if in vacations and dead times necessit us people had not this libertie but were in effect bound up to the shop keeper or to sell to f●ee men they would so frequently be put either upon pawning their goods to Userers or selling them to extream losse for money to buy their food that they would be thereby undone an brought to beggery All which the Shopkepers well knowing the better to accomplish their unjust unlawfull and unconscionable design petitioned Mr. Alderman Adams when he was Major for a warrant to seize and take away such goods and commodities as the Manufacture● should conveigh or send to his Merchant or Chapman upon which petition they obtained a warrant the contents whereof is as followeth viz Adam Major Martis 16 Die Junii 1646. Anno 2. Regis Carrol 2 This day upon the humble petition of divers Citizens for redresse of abuses and inconveniences by Huxiers Pediets and H●g●ers hawking and offering their wares to sell in the open streets of this City this Court doth hereby appoint and authorize that Edward Hancock Robert Petly John Co●pson Nicholas Wainew●ight and Perigrin Stevenson Free men of this City according to an Act of Common Counsell made the sixt day of July 1602 joyntly and severally to see that one said Act for the future be duly executed in its particular branch according to the tenor and true meaning thereof Which Act albeit the same was never put in execution against Freemen in above fortie years before the patties authorized being persons of a meane cond●●on but of cruel and malicious spirits have according to their unconscionable and unchristianlike will and pleasures cruelly and maliciously put the same in execution and have taken from divers weavers other Manufacturors being free men of London severall parcells of wares to a 〈…〉 the same tending to the utter ruin and undoing of them and their families and in particular from the persons here after mentioned viz Vpon the second day of September 1646. they by force and violence took from the person of William Smith at Besomes 〈◊〉 in L●wtence laine London a parcell of Silke Ribb●ns being his own Manufactory to the value of 20 l or thereabouts and upon the 12 day of January following Iohn Crown Merchant bought of him the said Smith another parcell of Silke Ribbins to the value of 70. l or thereabouts some of which parcell he the said Mr. Crown carried a vay with him and the residue Smiths wife carried to Rude laine London to a place where the said Merchant appointed at which place the above named parties did by force and violence take the same ●rom her together with her basket and cloath in which the warn was to the value of 5. s more putting her in great feare and danger of her life she being then great with child That upon or about the second day of September 1646. Iohn Williams bought of Thomas Poole a parcell of Silke Ribbins being his own Manufactory to the value of 30 l the same being by the direction of the said Merchant to be carried to Bosoms J●n in Lawrence laine London Poole sent the same by his wife and Elizabeth his daughter to the place so appointed where the said Petly Hancock Compson Wainright and Stevenson by force and violence took the same parcell of R●bbins from Elizabeth the daughter of the said Poole most inhumainly and barbarously abusing both her and her mother so that they were by them inforced to cry out murther That upon the 8 day of June last Richard Russell sold unto Thomas Hind Merchant a parcell of Silke Lace to the value of 5. l 10. s being his own Manufactory and according to the direction of the said Hind he the said Russell delivered the same to him at his lodging at the bare in Basing shawstreet London where the said Petly Hancock Compson Wain Wright and Stevenson did by force and violence take the said parcell of Lace from the said Hinde under pretence of their warrant aforesaid That upon the 23 day of June last one Mr. Ogliby a Merchant bought of Roger Rockly Cutler a parcell of Swords to the value of 3. l being his owne manufactury which comodities were by Rocklyes wife carried to Mr. Coles in Rude laine London where the said Compson Hancock Petly Wainwright and Stevenson by force and violence took the same from her and inhumainly beat thrust and abused her she being great with child cryed out to them to have pittie upon her to which Compson answered that he neither cared for her or her child upon which fright and abuse she presently sell in labour and the child dyed and with in 7 dayes after she also dyed all the time she lived crying our for justice against the murtherer but as yet none can be had They also took from the wife of Nicholas Govers a parcell of Silke Ribbins being his own Manufactury to the value of 7. l which parcell of wares was sold to Andrew Dove Merchant They the said Hancock Petly Compson Wain Wright and Stevenson also took from George Persons a parcell of Silke Ribbins being his own Manufactury to the value of three pounds Which said wrongs and oppressions were by the parties above mentioned presented unto the Adjutators of the army under the Command of his Excellencie Sir Thomas Fairfax Captaine Generall of all the forces raised in England and Wales the 27 of August 1647. All which said and divers other such illegall and unwarrantable seizures since the making of the said warrant by Mc. Alderman Adams as aforesaid have so cu●ely and with such rigor and unchristian like demeaner been acted by them the said Edward Hancock Robert Petly Iohn Compson Nich. Wainwright and Perig●in Stevenson as no Heathens or Infidels whatsoever could with more cruelty have exercised the same But should I particularly mention all the free men of London from whom they have by force and violence taken away their crue and proper goods together with the manner of their uncivill and inhumaine carriage towards them a quire of paper would not be sufficient to containe the same And further to make their sufferings more grievous the parties thus wronged and abused can neither have Law nor justice against their oppressors For when Roger Rockly complained against Compson for murthering his wife to Sir Iohn Woollaston Knight and desired him to bind Compson over to answer the same at the Sessions he refused so to do And when divers free men complained to Mr. Alderman Geares now Lord Major of London for reliefe against the said Hancock Compson and their confederates for taking away their goods the same have been denyed the parties offending countenanced in their actions approving the same to be good and warrantable willing them to persist therein By reason whereof the parties thus wronged being denyed justice they have sought their reliefe at common law and Smith and Poole have brough their

severall Actions in his Maiesties Court of Kings Bench against the said Wainwright and his confederated consorts whereby the potencie of the City and pollicie of their Recorder they have been delayed these foure rearmes and can by no meanes bring their actions to a try all contrary to that clause in the grand Charter of England expressed in these words ●en 3. No free man shall be taken or imprisonned or be disseazed of his free hold or liberties free customes or bee outlawed or exiled or any other wayes destroyed nor will we passe upon him nor condemne him but by the lawfull judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the lands we will sell to no man we will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right That forasmuch as the said Hancock Compson and Wainwright and the rest of their Competitors perceiving themselves to be thus countenanced and maintained in their unlawfull actions they most impudently and audatiously give out in speeches that they will ruinate and utterly undoe Smith and Poole and make them run away further saying that they have collected of the shop keepers who imployed them about taking away the wares and commodities which they so unlawfully seized as aforesaid 500 l in two dayes which they will expend but they will accomplish the same Accordingly they have caused Smith and Poole to be arrested upon great Actions for saying as they pretend that they stole the commodities from them Wainewright in two Tearmes brought his action to a try all did Smith what he could and procured only Petly his fellow taker or rather fellow to prove the words and he according to his unlimitted conscience swore he heard the same whereupon the Jury gave Wainewright 20. l dammage upon which Smith was cast in prison where he remained until he had made satisfaction The parties thus wronged and their true and proper goods so illegally taken away by the said Compson Wainwright and their conferated consorts by the Monopolizing shop keepers which contrary to the Statute disbursed money to maintain law against them have been threatned that if they take any course against the said Compson Wainwright 32.8 and the rest of them for the recovering of the goods which they so illegally took a company of elboe fellowes as they be which lke drones doe but live upon their labours I would not value one penny although the Sly'st shop-keeper of them should say it But would take my lawful remedy if I might have it both against them for taking away my goods and against such of the proudest of the shopkeepers as I could prove did uphold them in law against me You honest Citizens Apprentices and others which Esan like will not be contented to sell or which is worse to give away out Birth rights and inheritance the fundamentall lawes or the Kingdome which the meanest of you as he is a freeman of England may as lawfully claime as the greatest Gentleman or Nobleman in the Kingdome Doe not therefore any of you countenance maintain or suffer either Compson Hancock or any of their said confederates so unlawfully to seize as they tearme it to take away free mens goods in execution of their pretended warrant granted unto them for the putting of that illegall and unwarrantable Act of Common-Counsell in execurion Which Act being against the fundamentall lawes of this Kingdome the parties which made their warrant and they which execute it and also those which assist them may be the knowne and declared lawes of the kingdome be indited as accessories for taking away such goods as they shall so seize or rather steale from any freeman of the City in persuance of the said Act of Common Councell Accursed be he that is afraid of man that shall dy of the son of man which shal be made as grasse If the late Earle of St●affo●d and the Bishop of Canterbury had so he●vie a doom for endeavouring only to subvert the lawes and liberties of England what doe these men deserve which have seen their punishment before their eyes and yet have subverted the lawes and liberties of the kingdome and endeavour to make us slaves by a law after we have spent the blood of so many thousand gallant Englishmen for the preservation of our freedoms for saith the Parliament in their Declaration pag. 694. Slavery would be our condition if we should goe about to overthrow the lawes of the land and the propriety of every mans estate and the liberty of his person All which three divers of the Grandees of the City of London and the monopolizing shop keepers and their adherents have done without any remorse or conscience and their latter practises are worse then their beginning It would be great honour benefit and profit to the common wealth that guilty persons should be punished lest by the omission of the punishment of one many men by that evill example should be incouraged to commit more hainous offences And excellent to this purpose is that saying of the Parliament which I desire may never by any true hearted Englishman be forgotten Book Decl. pag 39. Which is that they are very sensible that it equally imports them as well to see justice done against them which are criminous as to defend the just rights and liberties of the subjects and Parliament of England and therefore pag. 656. they call the execution of the law the very life and soule of the law as indeed it is without which it is but a dead letter and a senselesse block But woe unto you Citizens of London and to your competitors and agents if the law should be executed against you for that you would be in a worse condition then you were when some of you with a joynt fraternity like brethren in iniquity gave above 60. th●usand pounds ot one time for a bribe in the dayes of the Councell table to preserve you from law and justice and to destroy the law and to buy and rob your fellow Citizens as free as your selves of their liberties franchises trades and lively hoods Read the discourse for free trade And know yee further you Free men and Apprentices of London that they which now give warrant and authority to seize and take away the true and proper goods of any free-man of London in the the streets may if he please by as good a principle and as warrantable give power and authority to take his or any of your goods out of his or any of your houses which without all doubt if speedy justice be not done against them they will hereafter doe FINIS