MY exceeding urgent necessities, and my extraordinary sufferings by your neglect in doing me justice and right, according to your many oaths and declarations, presseth me above measure still to play the part of the poore importunate widow, mentioned in the Gospel, and to resolve whatever befalls me never to give over till I have attained her end, viz. Iustice.

You may please truly to take notice (and the rather because many of you are new Members) that in the year 1637. and 1638. I suffered a most ba rbarous sentence by the Star Chamber, occasioned by two false oaths sworne against me by Edmond Chillington, now a Lievtenant under Col. Whaly, and by my refusing to answer interrogatories against my self, in executing of which sentence the 18. of April 1638. I was tyed to a Carts tayle at Fleet bridge, and whipt through the streets to West min­ster, and had given me above the number of 500. stripes, with a threefold knotted corded whip, the weeles made in my back thereby being bigger then Tobacco pipes, &c. And set two houres upon the Pillory bare head in an extraordinary hot day, and a gag out into my mouth above an houre, to the almost renting of my jawes in sunder See my printed relation of my businesse before the Lords bar the 13. Feb. 1645 where all this with much more is proved upon Oath.

And upon that very day, 10. Iudges of the said Star Chamber made an Order to murther and starve me, the very words of which Order being, that the said Iohn Lilburn shall be laid alone with irons on his hands and leggs, in the wards of the Fleet, where the basest and meanest sort of prisoners are used to be put: and that the Warden of the Fleet, take especiall care to hinder the resort of any persons whatsoever unto him, and particularly, that he be not supplyed with money from any friend. And yet they nor any for them during all my imprisonment never allowed me the value of one farthing to­ken to live upon, but executed the said Order upon me with so much barbaritie, that my pining, tormenting condition, was a thousand times worse, and lesse to be indured, then any sudden death whatever, under which without doubt I had perished, had it not been for the timely reliefe of this Parliament, by which said sufferings I was rob'd of a profitable trade, in the flower of my dayes.

And being by you set at liberty the first weeke of your sitting, J was by the malice of one Little­ton a Courtier, by the Kings especiall command arrested of high Treason, and the 4. May 1641. by the Kings own direction, I received a kind of an Arraignment at the Lords bar, where the said Littleton most falsely swore point blanke against me, to the apparant hazzard of my life and being if he had not been contradicted by the oath of his own friend Mr. Andrewes a Counceller, upon which day and at that very time, the House of Commons were so sencible of my sad and suffering condition, that they were pleased upon the report of Mr. Rouse to make these Votes for me.

Resolved upon the question. That the sentence of the Star Chamber given against Iohn Lilburne, is illegall and against the liberty of the Subject, and also bloody, wicked, cruell, barbarous, and tyrannicall.

Resolved upon the question, that reparations ought to be given to Mr Lilburne, for his imprisonment, suffering and loss [...]s sustained by that illegall sentence.

And yet I never had to this houre one penny of separations, although J dare safely say it, I have spent above a thousand pound one way and another in following you therefore, above the space of seaven yeares, which is a longer time, for any thing I can read of in Scripture, then ever the importu­nate widow followed the unrighteous iudge (that neither feared God nor reverenced man) and yet obtained justice at his hands.

That upon my deliverance, by the assistance of one of my friends, I betook my self to a [...]ride for my livelyhood, and of my own and my foresaid friend, stockt it with almost 1500. l. ready money, [Page 2]and the late wars comming on, at the desires of many eminent men of this kingdome, my then choice friends, I left my trade, and in iudgement and conscience girded my sword unto my thigh, with an ho­nest resolution to spend my heart blood for the preservation of the lawes and liberties of my native country, which then the Parliament by their Declarations, made me and the Kingdome beleeve was indeavoured to be dist [...]oyed by the King and his evill Councell. And having like a man of un­daunted resolution adventured my life at Edge Hill and Brainford, with good and advantagious successes to the Parliament, though with ill to my selfe, being to a good value plundered at both places, and at the last taken prisoner, where by the inhumaine barbaritie of severall Lords and o­thers, I was d [...]vers times in danger aster quarter given (before I came at Oxford) to be [...]n in pieces, being pinioned with my arms behind me, and tyed to another, and forced on foot through all the dirt and mire to march two dayes together. And being arrived a prisoner at Oxford Castle, I was visited by foure Lords, (viz The Lord Newarke, now Marquesse of Durchester, the Lord Dunsmore, now Earle of Chichester, the Lord Mattravers now Earle of Arundell, and the Lord And ver) as mes­seng [...]rs from the King as they told me, and in his name proferred whatever in reason I could desire in h [...] then prosperous condition, so I would forsake the Parliament, and my present principles, and desire his pardon, which they all unanimously promised to git for me, but I told their Lordships they were mastaken in me, if they thought I was to be courted out of my principles, and as for His Maje­sties pardon, I told them I scorn'd either the craving or accepting of it, having in obedience to the Parliaments then commands done nothing but what I did then beleeve was just and legall, and for which I would willingly lay my life down. & the desiring or accepting of a pardon would argue guil­tinesse, which I told them I beleeved I had no need to confesse. Whereupon I was clapt in irons n [...]ght and day, forc'd to lye in my cloaths upon the flore, lockt up close in a chamber, when I had not a penny of money about me, being lately plundered of all I had, and a centry set at my doore, that I could not speake with any of my fellow prisoners, to borrow a penny to buy me bread, by means of which, I was exposed to the greatest of straights; and immediately in irons arraigned as a Trator, before Sir Robert Heath and Sir Thomas Gardner, for levying war against the King, by authority from the Parliament, and I pleaded to my Indictment, telling the Iudge, I girded my sword unto my thigh in judgement and conscience, by vertue of the greatest authority in the land, with a resolution to spend the last drop of my blood, for the preservation of the just lawes and liberties of my native country, being seduced thereunto by no flesh alive, acting not by an implicite faith, but upon principles of judge­ment and understanding, in the defence whereof I told him I was then as ready to dye by a balter, as before I had been either by a Bullet or a Sword, and having escaped that danger of hanging by a let­ter of the Speakers of this House, threatning unto them, Lex taliones. As you may read in the first part book Decl. pag 802. 803.

I contracted there, by my hard usage, a desparate and dangerous sicknesse, of which I lay speechlesse divers dayes, the inhumanitie of the barbarous Marshall Smith being such toward me, that he would neither suffer Physitian, Apothecary, Surgion, nor Nurse to come neare me, and though some Gentlemen, then in bonds with me, got a poore halfe starved prisoner to looke to me, yet he was clapt up twice close prisoner for helping me in those great straights, and I could not freely injoy his helpe till I purchased it for money at the hands of one of Smiths cruell tormentors.

By which imprisonment (besides my large expences there) I lost at London in debts, &c. (my Debtors taking the advantage of my arraigment for treason, would as they said pay no Traytors debts) about 600. l. every penny of which lay upon my own particular shoulders. And comming out with the same Principles I went in, I betook my self to my sword again, having refused here at London, divers places of ease, profit and honour, and with much resolution and integritie, in the midest of many discouragements, I fought under the Earle of Manchesters command so long, tell (by the visi­ble apostatising from the first declared ends, and by the wickednesse, treachery, basenesse, and perfidi­diousnesse I found there) I had lost all my principles, and could not for all the world any longer [Page 3]kill Cavieleers, in whose service I was plundered the third time at Newarke, to the value almost of 100. l. besides many scores of pounds of my own money in that service I spent, more then ever there I received, there being due unto me at this day for my arreers there, the greatest part of a thousand pounds, as I doubt not upon just and true g [...]ounds clearely when you please to make appeare.

That at the laying down my command I vigorously, with all the interest I had in England betook myself to an earnest prosecution to obtaine at the hands of your House, my just and long expected and promised reparations from my cruell Star Chamber Iudges (one of which sits in your house at this day) in the following of which I met with such heard and unreasonable measure (not only from the hands of your house it self, but also from its Committees, in being causl [...]sly tossed & tumbled out of the hands of one Messenger to another & from one gaol to another) that it made me almost as weary of the Land of my nativity, as ever the Israelites were of Egypt when the cruel tyrant Pharoah made them to make bricks without straw, especially when I considered that all this was done unto me by those for the saving alive, and preserving of whom, I had so often, freely, and resolutely with my sword in my hand adventured my life, and in the dayes of their greatest straights and calamities been as faithfull to them, as ever Jonathan was to David, when he hazzarded ruine and distruction from his father for siding with him. Yea, and if then it had been in my power, could have done a thousand times more then I did, verily beleeving they would have perfor­med their just Declarations to the kingdome. But before the storm of your in­dignation was well blown over, the fearcenes of which had almost overwhelm'd me, behold such a furious tempest the 10. July 1646. ariseth against me by the house of Lords, as if it would have blown me into another Horizon, or have Metamorphased me into the shape and habit of a bruit beast, and have robd me of all things that might give me the denominotion of a man, levelling thereby the liberties and freedomes of all the Commons of England, unto their arbitrary, Lordly wills. And having about 18. moneths agoe fled unto you (as iustly I might) for shelter, protection, and justice against them, which by my severall Pleas before your Committees I have pro­ved you ought long since to have afforded me; and having the 11. of this instant in halfe a sheet of Paper, presented (here at your doore, as now J doe to your hands) an ab­stract of the Lords tyrannicall; illegall dealing with me. And of all by way of Plea, I have for my selfe to say; with a desire to stand or fall under your judgement thereupon, which yet I cannot obtaine from you, and therefore referring you to that Abstract, and to my Grand plea before Mr. Maynard, upon the 20. October last, and my Aditionall Plea annexed unto it, for all the particulars I crave and chal­lenge at your hands as my right and due. I adjure you before Heaven and Earth, and before the Lord Jehovah, and his mighty and glorious Angels, without any more delay, to adjudge my cause betwixt the Lords and me, either to my justification or condemnation, and to doe me justice and right, by helping me to my own, kept from me by you, and doe not by your 7 yeares delay of justice, lay more provokati­ons upon me, then my strength and abilitie is able to beare, and then goe about to [Page 4]distroy me, for my crying out of your oppressiion; when in the eye of reason I have no other remedie left me in this world but that, or to distroy my self, wife and children, which even nature it self abhors, or else to live upon the kindnesses of those, that in future time to my reproach shall (as some from whom I should lit­tle have expected it, have lately done) hit me in the teeth with it, which makes the proffer of their courtesies a scorne unto me, and the thoughts of not being able to repay them againe; a burthen to my spirit. And therefore to conclude, let me in the bitternesse of my spirit, say unto you as the unrighteous Iudge said unto him­self, although by your actings towards me, you declare you neither feare God, nor reve­rence man, yee for my necessitie and pressing importunities sake, now at last doe me justice and right; for if I must dye by yours and the Lords murthering oppression, I am resolved, if I can helpe it, I will not dye alone, nor in a corner in silence. Therfore help me to my own, to leave subsistance unto my wife & children, that they may not beg their bread when I am dead and gone. And if nothing but my blood will serve my cruell adversaries, if they be men, I challenge the stoutest of them in Eng­land, hand to hand, with his sword in his hand like a man to put a period to my dayes, be­ing ready to answer any man in England, Lord or Commoner, that hath any thing to lay to my charge: Either,

• First, as a rationall man: Or,
• Secondly, as a resolved man: Or,
• Thirdly, at an English man.

In the last of which I sh [...]l desire no more favour then every Traytor, Rogue, or Mur­therer, that is arraigned for his life at Newgate Sessions injoyes, viz. the benefit of the declared, known law of England. And so at present I rest.