IT is Ordered by this COURT, That the Order hereafter following, (Against Servants being Re­tained without a Testimonial,) Made at the last Quarter Sessions held for this City, shall be forth­with Printed and Published; And that all the Aldermen of this City do cause their Beadles to go from House to House within their respective Wards, to give Notice of the said Order to the several Inhabitants therein.

Lond. ss. Ad General' Quarterial' Sessionem pacis Domini Regis, tent' pro Civitat' London, per Adjornament' apud Justice-Hall in le Old-Baily, London, die Mercurii; scilicet, Octavo die Octobris, Anno Regni Regis CAROLI Secundi, nunc Angl', &c. Tricesimo Sexto.

WHEREAS by a Statute made in the Fifth year of the Reign of the late Queen ELIZABETH, containing divers Orders for Servants, (amongst other Things) It is Enacted, That no Person or Persons that shall depart out of a Service, shall be retained or accepted into any other Service, without shewing before His or Her Retainer such Testimonial, as is in the said Statute specified, to the Chief Officer of the Town Corporate, and in every other Town and Place, to the Constable, Curate, Churchwarden, or other Head Officer of the same, where He or She shall be retained to serve, upon the pain that every such Servant or Servants so departing without such Certificate or Testimonial, shall be Imprisoned until He or She procure a Testimonial or Certificate; The which if He or She cannot do within the space of One and Twenty Days next after the First day of His or Her Imprisonment, Then the said Person to be Whipped and used as a Vagabond, according to the Laws in such case provided. And that any Person retaining any such Servant or Servants, without shewing any such Testimonial or Certificate, as is aforesaid, shall forfeit for every such Offence Five Pounds. And if any such Person shall be taken with any counterfeit or forged Testimonial, then to be Whipped as a Vagabond, as by the said Statute (whereunto relation being had) more fully appeareth. And whereas it is generally Experienced throughout this whole City, as well by the Nobility and Gentry, as other good Citizens and Housholders Inhabiting in the same; That Servants having no such Certificates and Testimonials when They depart out of one Service and come to be retained into another Service, and the Neglect of putting the said Law in Execution, giveth great Occasion to very many Servants to become Idle, Loose, and of Evil-Behaviour, and oftentimes to Cheat and Purloyn from their Masters and Mistresses, and when they come to be retained in a Service upon Liking, without a Testimonial, take Their first Opportunity to run away with their Masters or Mistresses Goods. It is therefore thought fit, and Ordered by this COURT, That according to the said Statute, No Servant or Servants who shall depart out of any Service, shall be Retained or Accepted into any other Service without shewing such Testimonial as aforesaid. And that the Alder­men of the several Wards within this City do take some meet and effectual Course for the Publishing hereof, to the end all Persons concerned may take Notice, and may become conformable hereunto.