A pittifull Remonstrance, or just Complaint MADE
To all free-born true-hearted Englishmen, sensible of the Kingdoms miserable slavery. From all the poor afflicted and miserable, inslaved and immured Prisoners for Debt, Contempts, and other trivial matters; Mr. John Rayment, a man of known fidelity, being 500. l. out for the State, yet having been most unjustly held in suit these 12 years in the Court of Request and Chancery for pretended Debt of 537 l. 19 s. 6 d by one John Johns: although neuer a pen y proued against him, but hath been cleared by Mr. Leigh. and Mr Northy Merchants of known ability, to whom it was referred, who brought upon acocmpt 54. l. due to the said Rayment; yet did that corrupt Judg Manchester, after he had pronounced him clear, in the open Court, yet in private suffered it to go on in sute, and being here twelve years, Mr. Speaker ordered, the 537. l. 19. s. 6. d. to be brought into the Court, and then they should have a trial, though never a penny proved to be due upon the not doing, of which he is committed to the Fleet in his old days, there to end his days without some course of Iustice be taken, which he always desired: The said Johns having nei­ther Bill, Bond, Hand, or any Witness against him, to prove penny or pennyworth due. In all the several murdering slaughter-houses, and dens of cruelty, called Gaols, Prisons, and Comptors, within the Kingdom of England, and principality of Wales, about 20000 in number.

SHEWETH,

THat we the oppressed prisoners have (though fruitless) for these seven years by our humble Petitions addressed our selves to the high Court of Parliament, craving deliverance from this unjust, inhumane slavery of imprisonment for debt, illegally fastned, as on us, so, on this whole Nati­on and their posterity, contrary to the Law of God, and the fundamental great Charter of Englands Liberty, and the Parliaments several Declarations, Manifestations, Protestations, and Imprecations, and to the trust reposed in them at their Election, as the Kingdoms Stewards to see Injustice and Oppression banished the Land, and Justice and Mercy recalled and established, where the inslaved prisoners are buried alive, and rob­bed of their Estates, Callings, and precious Liberties, contrary to the true Liberty of the Commons of England; as appeareth plainly by Register. folio. 77. Dehomino Replegiando, folio 66. the 3 of Edward, the 1. chap. 15. the 25. of Edward, 3 chap. 4. where it appeareth, That the body of no Commoner of England is to be imprisoned for Debt, but only for Murther, Fellony and Treason, Nisi per legem terrae, the 9. of Henry, the 3. chap. 29. the 52. of Henry the 3. chap. 5. and the 14. of Edward the 3. chap. 1. and Abridgment of Statutes, folio 65. & 6. as also by the Petition of Right, in the 3. of King Charles, confirmed this Session of Parliament, and it appeareth by the Statute of the 42. of Edward the 3. chap. 1. That all Statutes which have bin since made, to the insringement of the Subjects Liberty, contrary to Magna Charta, are absolutely voyd, and of none effect, as if they had never been made, and reason good, for the lesser and latter must needs give place to the greater, and Mother Law of this Kingdom

Thus you see, dear Countrymen and fellow Commoners, it appeareth clearly, that imprisonment of the persons of the free Commons of England for debt, (which had its rise and original but from the time of Henry the 8. at his dissolution of Abbies, Frieries, and Nunneries,) is only an unjust, illegal, slavish Innovation fastned upon us, the free Commons of England, within these hundred years, by the subtile, diabolical practise of ambitious, unjust Judges, and by evil minded, covetous, exacting Lawyers, whose beginning and rise also was with Ignatius Loyola, the Infernal Father and Founder of the order of Jesuites, about an hundred years since, under whose heavy, slavish yokes of Injustice, Tyranny and Oppression, this Common-wealth hath long groaned, and doth still groan: Witness the many thousands of stained houses, and ancient families in this Kingdom.

Nor can this great oppressing evil be ever redressed, unless these wicked Mercenary, Contentious Instruments of Injustice and oppression (the Lawyers) No Lawyers suffered to fit in Parliament, or in any great Coun­cel, in Scot­land, nor in a­ny other King­dom, but only in England. Many hun­dred of poor Christians have been murdered, starved & de­stroyed, in the Gaols of Kings Bench, the Fleet Newgate, and in divers o­ther Prisons; by the Gaol­ers, their Clarks and Servants; as will be proved when ever by Iustice re­quired. be quite expelled the House of Commons, as the proud Lordly Bishops were out of the House of Lords; a Lawyer being no more fit to be chosen for a Parliament man then a Butcher, or a Gaoler, for a Jury man, much less for a Justice of Peace. For we, the Commons of England, must not expect, that these Mercenary Lawyers will ever suffer the Conduite of Justice to be opened, or the free and clear currant thereof to overflow and drown their Infernal, Impious, gainful, filthy, raging waters of contention: so long as they can keep the staff of honor, credit, respect, and power in their hands, and by their wicked, gainful Instruments the bloody Gaolers, Bayliffs, Sergeants, Atturnies and Solicitors, bring all the Wealth or Grayn of the Kingdom to their im­pious, abhominable Mills of contention, corruptly called Courts of Justice, or rather of Fees and Bribes, where they grind the faces of the poor, the wid­dow, the fatherless and the stranger even to dust, and devour their estates, liberties and lives.

The abovesaid particulars being by you, dear Countrymen and fellow feeling Commoners, truly and seriously considered:

Our humble and earnest request unto you is, That you would be pleased by some speedy, just and pious course (in your addresses to the high Court of Parliament) to acquit your selves and us, and the posterity of this whole Nation. from this inhumane, cruel bondage, and starving condition of Being, that so our lives, and the lives of our wives and children may be preserved from perishing, and we by our liberties thus regained, may be inabled in and by our several Callings, to provide for our and their future subsistance.

And Courteous Readers, We beseech you in the bowels of compassion, to suffer this our pittiful complaint to stand, that so all may see and read it, and by it may become sensible of this our inhumane, cruel, slavish, starving condition of Being, not to be paraleld by any other Country, or in any other King­dom, Christian or Pagan, within the confines of Europe, Asia, Africa, nor America, being a cruelty repugnant to the Law of God, of all o­ther Nations, and of this Kingdom.

In the Fleet, Prisoners upon contempt.

1 Mr. Robert Ramsey hath 700. l. per annum, unjustly kept from him by Sir Tho. Walsingham, and yet kept in prison by him upon a pretended contempt these 12. or 13. years.

2. Henry Adis, whose cruel Adversary Keyzar (by Mr. Lenthal, the Speakers unjust practises) illegally turns Adis out of his house, seases upon all his goods, and upon a pretended contempt keeps Adis close prisoner in the Fleet.

3. Robert Cole (now more then two years) illegally detained prisoner by the Warden of the Fleet, upon a pretended contempt, obtained against him by his Adversary Bayber, who is 2000. l. indebted to Cole, and Cole oweth him nothing.

4. James Frese Marchant (upon a private verbal command from the Speaker, (Mr. Lenthal) and his brother Sir John Lenthal,) hath been these two years, and four moneths, (and is still) kept close prisoner in the Tower Chamber by the Warden of the Fleet.

5. Captain Sanford, who, in the service of the Kingdom, hath adventured both estate and life, to whom are great sums due from the State, was taken and imprisoned upon a pretended contempt, out of the Chancery, although he hath proved, that he was not served with any Subpaena in the cause; and also that he was then in actual service for the Parliament, far remote from his house.

These, and many other such like cruel, illegal practises in the Law, exposes and inslaves all the Commons of England in their Lives, Estates and Liberties, to the imperious will of greatness, and to the rage and cruelty of their Adversaries, Lawyers and Gaolers. Although they know, that only the poor prisoners future endeavours by liberty enjoyed, must give some hope to the Creditor, of satisfaction for his debt, although not in whole, yet in part, which is better then the loss of all their debt. Besides, the guilt of the poor prisoners blood, and the perishing condition of his poor wife and children to lie upon him. Un­der the impious, heavy burden, of which several great cruelties this whole Land groaneth.

And thus it plainly doth appear,
That Lawyers do rule all things there.
Where we expected Justice, that the Speaker
Rules Lawyers, the Gaoler rules the Speaker,
But himself in every thing
Is ruled by that wicked sting.
Of Death and Hell, named Thomas Dudson,
Who is none other then the Devils godson,
Directed always, by that fiend of Hell,
For all his actions in cruelties excel.
Thus Englands Steed is carryed still
By Lenthals, Dudsons, and the Devils will,
Rub'd and furbisht by the Lawyers Fees,
The Priestly tythes have brought him on his knees,
And Gaoler cruelties have made him lame,
Are not these imps of Hell for this to blame?
Yea, worthy to be whipt, their proper fee,
Being just sentence, and the triple tree.
Justice, and Mercy, preserves the Land, and all
Her Sons and Daughters, from ruins final fall,
But they that Justice, Truth, and Mercy slight
Are foes to Christ, despised in his sight.
O then let Justice, Truth, and Mercy sway,
That so from England, wrath may flie away,
And Mercy, Truth, and Justice, then may dwell
Within our Land, till then 'twill ne're be well.

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