WHereas we the oppressed Prisoners have (though, to the Parliaments shame and guilt, without effect) for these last seven years by our humble Petitions addressed our selves to that high Court, for redress of Gaols, and deliverance of our persons from this inhumane slavery of imprisonment for debt, illegally fastened (as on us, so) on this whole Nation, and their posterity, contrary to the Law of God, Nature and Nations; the 5. Ed. 1. c. 25 9 H. 3. c. 29 52 H. 3. c. 5 14 Ed. 3. c. [...] 25 Ed. 3. c. 4 Register so. 77 De ho. Repleg. so. 66. And the Petition of Right; And whatsover Sta­tutes have bin made since, contrary to these, are, ipso facto, void. See 42 Ed. 3. cha. 1 fundamental Laws, and great Charter of this Land, and the Parliaments many Declarations and Imprecations, the general Protestation, and Solemn League and Covenant; And yet can by no means obtain any relief or release, but the pri­sons are still dayly stowed and stuffed with the persons of poor men, either by the unreasonable and uncharitable Creditor, or by the powerful and injust Oppressor, Judg, Justice, Parliament man, or other publique Minister; to the utter ruin and undoing of multitudes and their families, yea often times of their souls as well as their bodies: Gaols being the very sinks and common sewers of all wickedness.

And for that all Gaolers throughout the Realm, and more especially, Lenthal of the Kings-Bench prison, (who is upheld by his brother the Speaker, and in him all the Gaolers in England) Hopkins of the Fleet, and Woolaston of Newgate, (who is upheld by his brother the Alderman) do not only continue, but are (both they, their Clarks and Substitutes,) counte­nanced, and through impunity encouraged, to exercise all manner of intolerable extortion and oppression, insolency and cruelty upon us, even to destruction and death, as we are able and ready to prove.

And for that in these times of general calamity, wherein, because iniquity doth abound, mercy and truth are scarce to be found, and that famin and sickness (the inseparable attendants of Wars) do menace the whole Kingdom, of which fore judgments poor prisoners are likely to have the greatest portion, and for so much as many of us have for want of bread al­ready miserably perisht, others have been One Master Smithson, and many more formerly, and one Ramsey lately have been starved & murdered by Lenthal; one Sparks, Smith and Allum, within less then two years by Woolaston, and so Master Fei [...] ding and Master Bates were, with ma­ny more, by the Warden of the Fleet and his Clark Re­vet; And yet who higher then these men in the fa­vour of the fudges? starved, and murdered by Gaolers, and many more are in danger to perish in like miserable manner, and yet no eye pittyeth us, no heart considereth us, nor is there any care or thought in all the Magistracy, to provide for, preserve, or deliver us. And observing that all the Petitions of City and Counties, mind nothing but particu­lar interests, and make not so much as mention of us, by which it manifestly appears how grosly insensible and inconsi­derate they are of our doleful condition, to which misery they and their posterity are also liable; The oppressions and abusage of Gaols and Gaolers, being the very Summary, yea the only Fortress and Bulwark of all the common grievances in the Kingdom:

Our humble and earnest suit and request is to all our brethren and fellow Commeners of England, (who, if they seriously consider, are in our sufferings, equally concerned,) That if there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fel­lowship of the spirit, if any howels and mercies in them; or any sence or fellowseeling of our sorrows and afflictions, or any regard or accompt of their, and their posterities, native rights and Liberties; they would speedily with one consent minister their help and assistance, both by commemorating our distresses to the Parliament in their Petitions, and owning of our suffer­ings in all other their endeavours and addresses for the Publique, that so this iron yoke of bondage may yet at last be broken from our necks, and this whole Nation freed from this insupportable vassalage and thraldom, to the praise of the great God, and the abasing of the power of the Oppressor:

And we poor oppressed Prisoners, your distressed Brethren and fellow Commoners, beseech you, even for Christs sake, to let this our pittyful Remonstrance stand, that all the world may read our ex­tream sorrows; and whose sorrow is like unto ours, who are couped up within stone walls like wild beasts, separated from wives, children and friends, debarred from all outward comforts, and exposed to all manner of miseries.

⟨July. 5. 1648⟩

Remember the word, which saith;
‘Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others: Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who was moved with compas­sion toward the people, and pronounceth those blessed that feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the sick and such as are in prison,’ Phil. 2.4, 5. Mat. 14.14. & 25.34, 35, 36, &c.