To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled.
The humble Petition of Elizabeth Wandesford, formerly Widdow and Relict of Garret Foulks, Esq in behalf of her self and Children.
THAT Your unfortunate Petitioner having lost her Husband and five Brothers in His Majesties service in Ireland, had therefore all her worldly Substance seized and Taken from her, in which deplorable Condition your Petitioners Aged Mother, who lay ready to sink under the Oppression of too Just a Grief for the Loss of all her Sons, was with her Children fired out of your Petitioners House, and after Exposed to all the Misery Imaginable: From which distressed Condition she and those Orphans attempted to make their Escapes to Cork, or where ever else their pitty less Fortune should lead them; but the Enemy soon pursued their unhappy Wondering Lives, and with an inflexible Cruelty barbarously Murthered one of your Petitioners Brothers; But to him was more Mercifully Cruel then to the rest: For your Petitioners Aged Mother, Sister and Children, they Stript even of their very Shifts, with the Terrour and Cold of which her Sister and Child died in the Field, and by the hardship they endured shortened the lives of several of your Petitioners own Children also, and the Miserable survivors of them lay a Considerable time in a very week Condition, in the Ruines of some old Walls in a Wast and desolate part of the Country, where the sense of their Miseries was Crush'd by the said wait of peoples own Misfortunes, till General Ginkell, under whose Command your Petitioners friends were Lost, joyn'd with the Government of that Kingdom in representing the hardships of their Case to their Majesties, who in Compassion to their Misfortunes was Graciously pleased to Grant Your Petitioner for the support of her self and Children, a Pention of Two hundred pounds per Ann. to be Continued to her and them, as appears by the Express words of the Patent, as well as the annext Certificate of my Lord Rumney's, till their Majesties could make some better provision for them, or Give something more Considerable and better in lieu of it, in Consideration of their great Sufferings, in Order to which His Majesty was Graciously pleased about three Years since, to accept of a Surrender of the said Pention, and did in lieu of it, and in Order to a farther Grant, Give you Petitioner a Custodiam for three Years of Lands of the same Yearly Vallue; but your Petitioner, whose unhappy fate too much resembles that of her unfortunate Families, had most of those little broken pieces of Land taken from her by other Peoples Agents, which she with great Charge, and Dificulty found out; and being then deprived both of Land and Pention together, His Majesty therefore last Spring was Graciously pleased, upon the Government of Irelands report, and representation of the hardship of your Petitioners Case, who prayed His Majesty to accept of a Surrender of the said Custodiam, and to Grant her in lieu of it, and of the Pention she had Surrendred, a Lease of Ninty nine Years of the above mentioned Two hundred pounds per Ann. out of the Forfeited Estates; upon which His Majesty, according to His first Intentions, was pleased to Grant Your Petitioners Request, by giving his Letter, which directed them to find Your Petitioner as many of the Forfeited Lands as should amount to the Clear Yearly Vallue of Two hundred pounds per Ann. which the Government there has accordingly done; But Your Petitioner being unfortunate in all things, is afraid she shall still meet with the same Fate, and be Excluded from the Favour and Compassionate Consideration of this Honourable House; which sevear Decree would soon Compleat the Ruin of Your Petitioner and Children, whose sufferings already have been, God knows, too Cruel to be pattern'd among the Worst of their Country: Therefore Your Petitioner humbly hopes, that Your Honours will not look upon her Case as a Common one, having besides the first Dear Purchase, given a Valluable Consideration for this small Estate, besides the Expence and Attendance of seven or eight Voiages, too and from that Kingdom, in Obtaining, Fixing and Exchanging those Grants, which has not only Eaten up the benefit of His Majesties Intended Bounty, but Cost Your Petitioner from first to Last, twice more then the Inheritance of so small a Grant can possibly be worth; all which, together with three Years Loss of the Income of her Pention, Your Petitioner humbly Submits to Your Honours Consideration.
And humbly prays, Your Honours will in Consideration of her great Sufferings, and of the Pention which she has Surrendred, propose some way to Establish her and her Children, who otherwise must Inevitably perish, in their Grant of Two hundred pounds per Ann. together with what in Your Wisdoms Your Honours shall think proper towards the vast Charge Your Petioner has been at, and the Loss of so many Years Income of her Pention, all which appears by the Lords Justices Report ready to be produced; and Your Petitioner who has smarted under a Succession of Trouble and Affliction of the heaviest kind, humbly hopes Your Honours will not assign her Miseries a Longer date, nor think her request touching those Lands unreasonable, since her nearest and dearest Relations have Contributed to the recovery of them, with the Loss of their Lives and Fourtunes and utter ruin of their Families, and that it was Her Majesties perticular desire of ever Blessed Memory, as well as Her declared intentions to the Lord Leiutenant of Ireland, that a better Provision and more suitable to her Sufferings should be made in a more Convenient time for Your Petitioner and Children as appears by his Lordships annext Certificate. Your Petitioner therefore humbly begs this Honourable House will be pleased in some kind or other to fulfil Her Majesties desires and Gracious Intentions, and not suffer Your Petitioners hopes after such a Scene of Misery, to be at Last buried in the same Grave with her Royal and bountious benefactor.