HAving suffered much by the Rude People, as Dirting, Stone­ing, Stocking, Spitting and Pissing upon, and having been often assaulted with great companies of rude people in our meetings, & having suffered much Abuse and Violence, not onlie in our meetings but also in the Prison, upon us who were prisoners, who were at sometimes 20. in number, concerning which I shal mention little, but direct the Reader to two printed Papers, one with this Title, (A representation of the Government of Evesham, &c.) but especially to another, titled (The cruelty of the Magistrates of Evesham) wherein is laid open the manner of their proceedings against us, with their most unjust actings of those that sate to do Justice there against us at the general Sessions held for that place, where many of us were fined, and eleven prisoned, yet not any law could be read unto us that we had broken: But to lay open some more of the most inhumane dealings of him cal­led Mayor, with the rest of the persecuting Magistrates against us.

Friends, Having suffered much by the rude multitude, and en­during all patiently, at last they grew ashamed and confounded, and then they grew more quiet, and friends met peaceably twice or thrice a week, so that the ignorant began to be convinced, and the gain-sayers mouthes stopped, and much people received the truth in love, whereby the meetings were encreased, & the gain­sayers mouthes stopped, and the work of the Lord begun to pros­per; thus we countinued a certain spce day by day in peace, and [Page 2] then there arose up a new Mayor, who knew not the Righteous seed, as there arose up a new King in Egypt, Exod. 1 and he saw the people of God encrease, and was vexed at it, as the world was alwaies vexed at the encrease of the Righteous Seed; so that Mayor (Edward Young) said he would break our meetings, or else his bones should lye in the dirt, the which he did. Upon the 14. day of the 8. month, being the first day of the week, friends met in a house; and as two friends of the town were going to the meeting, the Mayor laid hands on them and put them in Prison. And in the latter part of the day friends met in the street, where they were peaceably without any disturbance, until the Mayor came with Officers, and said, it was an unlawful Assembly; & said, if there were above eight persons met together, it was an unlaw­full Assemblie, and presentlie laid hands on friends, and pulled, and thrust, and kickt many, and put many into prison and into the Stocks and put me and two more into the Dungeon; & when he saw that friends were not afraid, and that his cruelty could not move them, he said he wanted another prison for the wo­men, (for he had imprisoned men in four severall places:) that time when this was done, he commanded his Sergeant to make a noise and proclaim and command, in the name of the Pro­tector, that every one should depart thence upon pain of impri­sonment, when he wanted more prisons to put us in: Thus he broke our meetings who harmed not any, nor resisted his vio­lence. Then he said if we would meet in houses or in the fields, he would not molest us: Yet, on the next first day, he saw one of the Town going along to the meeting that we had then appointed in a house, and him he put in prison, and so I being that day put in the Dungeon, as once before I was put in for praying, then he endeavoured to keep all people from me and for several dayes and nights we were denyed having candles in this dark dungeon; at last he sent us each man a pennyworth of bread, and a half pen­ny worth of beere, the which the Goaler said was the Towns al­lowance, but we still denyed it, and sent him word, That if we should not have food for our money, or from our friends, then we should be without it: So at last when we could have bread from our friends, and water when we could have it, then we did eat and drink and praise the Lord.

Thus he much endeavoured to bring us to slavery to his corrupt wil, which was according to the words of Robert Atkins that sate Judg at the sessions, who then said to me thus, You have been kept very high, but I shal take a course ere I go hence, that you shall be kept shorter. And the mayor, Edward Young, caused a trap-door to be made to the Dungeon, and locked down, & all our bed­ding and bed-cloathes that friends had sent us, he caused to bee taken avvay from us, and wil not let our friends have them again. Ioshua Frensom, a friend & prisoner, having much pain with his teeth did somthing earnestly desire that whil'st he was a pri­soner, he might have the use of a pillow that was taken away, w ^ch was his own, but it was denied. On the second day after we were put into the dungeon, a friend brought us some straw to ly upon but the goaler would not suffer it to be brought in to us, because they would not give him mony for to open the door. Once I sent to the Mayor to have liberty for some man or friend to fetch out, our dung from us, & he denied it, and sent for a Cunstable to put that friend in the stocks that came to ask it; and while I was in the other prison, before I was put in the dungeon, sometimes our books & writings were taken from us, and sometimes our stools that we had to sit or write upon & our candles, besides much abuse which our friends received from the goaler, who were prisoners at his house, which I shal forbear to mention, onely thus he said unto them, if they would not pay 4. d. a night for each mans lod­ging, & 8. d. a meal for each mans meat, then they should go all to the main goal, which they refusing to satisfie his wil in, neither did they eat of his dyet, being all townsmen; but sometime he would not suffer their wives nor any other friend to come to them to bring their diet, nor yet to come in to them: then a man got leave of him that dwelt next house to the goaler, and so went through his house & brought food to the prisoners, which when the goaler saw, he threatned the man which had suffered them to go through his house, and took the beer from them that brought it to the pri­soners, intending by such actions to force them to his will, which they would not be subject to, therefore he brought them all to the main-goal, and then he said unto us, that if he might have his will he would hang us all on the morrow, and he had said before he might do what he would unto us, for we should have no bene­fit of the Law, neither durst any Lawyer plead for us. Then were [Page 4] them eight kept in that Goal, and we three in the Dungeon under them, where I and some others have been kept in this Dungeon and Prison, with our own dung in the same room, from time to time for this fourteen Weeks.

And as for the Prison or Hole where we are kept, it is not 12. foot square, and one Goal-hole belonging to, four inches wide, where we take in our food and straw to lie upon, and we are for­ced to burn candle every day when we have it, by reason the Pri­son is so dark and so close, and so many in so little room, and so little ayre, with the stinck of our own dung, all which might have occasioned the death of some of us ere this time; & one they kept with me in the dungeon until he was sick, & after turned him out in the night; and some others have not been wel by reason of the exceeding closeness of the prison, whereby sometimes the stinck of the prison hath been so strong in the streets, that people could not endure to stand by it. Sometimes when the dayes were hot the breath of some prisoners vvas almost stopped, and lay for se­verall dayes like men asleep; and vvhen the dayes are at the col­dest, vve have not room nor place either to make fire or to vvalk to keep our bodies vvarm; yet there is a large prison over our heads, where they do sometime prison many of our friends, but that large prison they will not let us be in, neither could we, nor friends for us, prevail to have liberty to walk in that prison some­times by day, and to come down into the other prison by night.

Therefore let all people take notice, whose hearts is tender to­wards the Lord, how we are not only deprived of outward liber­ty, without the breach of any law, but are also kept in a most bar­barous condition, worse than thieves and murtherers, as the goaler hath said, that if we had been in for theft or murther, he could have let us have more liberty then now he durst, because of the Mayor.

One day two Countrey men were passing by the prison with their Teams, which men came and enquired what we were in pri­son for, and the Goaler being by, enticed them in to us, and then he locked the door again and went his way; so the men were con­strained by reason of their Teams, to send several messengers with entreating words to the Goaler to come again, & then they were forced to agree with him for to let them forth for money, the [Page 5] which they presently paid. Another time one of the town came to see us when the Goaler was there and the doors open, and the Goaler locked the door and kept him in that day from his labor, and the night, and his wife nor her friends could not prevaile with the Mayor nor the Goaler, to let him out without money.

James Wall, who had been a souldier many years, and served an Apprentiship in the Town, and a Freeman thereof, and have born severall Offices, being a Shop-keeper, having for seven years kept a standing in the Market place, untill since he was a prisoner for witnessing the Truth; yet the Mayor, Edward Young, forbad his Wife to stand in the Market place, which for so many years he had done, neither would he let her stand that time where he was wont to do, nor in any part of the Market place; then she went to him about it, and once he said she should have a standing for to open in the market, but after he began to speak suttlely to her, saying, I hear that your Husband doth abuse you: She answered, my Husband did never abuse me; but as for that judgement which he now holdeth, once I could not own it, but now seeing it is so much persecuted, makes me own it, because the way of God was alwayes persecuted; & vvhen the mayor heard that, and saw he could have no occasion against her Husband by her words, then he said she should not have a standing place for five pounds. Also two of Iames Walls Chap­men came to him, with whom he had dealed much, and their ac­counts were large, and some money he owed them, who went to the mayor, and proffered him what Baile he would desire for him to come forth one day to perfect his Accounts, but they could not prevail with him, but the mayor said to them, that if they vvould have a Warrant to seize on his Goods they should, but the men said they had no reason so to do, for the mayor he seeks to ruinate not onely him, but all the other also. Upon that daye vve came before the late mayor, George Kempe, I said, I ovvn Magistrates that are for the punishing of evill do­ers, and the praise of them that do vvell, he ansvvered, You vvill finde none such in England; (And I am sure I finde none such in Evesham.)

Vpon the 17. day of the 9. month Margret Newby, and Eli­zabeth Courten, came to this town in obedience to the Lord, who had a meeting on the morrow, being the first day, at Edward Pit­wayes house, and after the meeting was ended, about the fourth hour in the latter part of the day, they came to the prison to visit us that were in it, and as they were returning the Mayor laid vio­lent hands on them himself, and sent for Officers, and caused them to be put in a pair of stocks in a prison over us, which stocks are worse than ordinary, made for hands & feet to be put in, & when the Constable had put them in those stocks, the Mayor went up to the prison to see if they were put in bad enough & the Constable had put them in one near to another, and the Mayor caused the stocks to be opened, and removed them one as far from another, as might be one at the one end of the stocks, and the other at the other, and the holes that are for the hands their hands were to lit­tle, and he made them put in their legs a yeard one from another, and the women desired a block to sit on it being a great distance between the place where they were to sit, and the places in which their legs were put; and the mayor bid the constable fetch a block and thrust it between their legs, & said they should not have them between their legs which they would have, & other uncivil words he used, and locked the prison door, and went his way, and would not suffer any to go to them to carry any cloaths or any thing for them to sit on, in a most barbarous and cruel manner for the space of fifteen hours; and after they had been in all that time, he pre­sently (after he had caused them to be taken out) sent them out of the town a back way, without suffering them to go to any place to refresh themselves, it being a freezing night. And the same first day at evening he caused a friend that came to the pri­son hole, who came to the tovvn the day before, him he caused to be put in the common stocks, not shovving him any reason vvhy they did it; and after he had been in the stocks all that freezing night in the street, then the Mayor sent him out of the tovvn by the Goaler, and vvhen the Goaler had left him he returned to the tovvn again along the road vvay, it being the Market day, & came to the prison to us, and then vvent to the Mayor to knovv vvhat offence he had to charge him vvith, that he thus punished him, but the Mayor having nothing to accuse him of, vvas vvrath, [Page 7] and sent him to the stocks again, where both his feet were put in.

Then they sent for Robert Vens, who did go along with that friend out of the town, that had been in the stocks all night, and when Robert Vens came before them called Justices, Samuel Gar­diner, and Robert Martin; the one of them said, what shall we do with this fellow? the other answered, put him in the Goal and hang him; but at last they sent him to stocks, and he knows no rea­son why they did it, but for going with the other friend out of the town; & when he had been in the stocks five hours, then they sent for him to see what the Goaler had to charge him with for any words that he might speake when he went with the other friend; so when they had punished him, they went to enquire what fault he had done.

Some of the Inhabitants of the town intended to send two men to the Protector (when this persecution begun in Evesham; and the corruption of the Magistrates did so plainly appear) to let him know what corrupt men were in authority in this town, and they writ somthing to that effect to send by them, the which wri­ting was subscribed about fifty hands to it; but I said unto them, that they might put themselves to much trouble, and yet not speak with the Protector; therefore if they would not otherwise be sa­tisfied, they might put some four hands to it and send it to print, and then I should endeavour to have it sent to the Protector, that he might be left without excuse; so they sent it to print with 20. hands to it, which was titled, A Representation of the Government of Evesham from many of the Inhabitants thereof, directed unto the Protector, O. C.

And at the Sessions many of them were fined, and some were both fined and imprisoned ever since in the Protectors name, for declaring to the Protector the corruption of those that are put in authority under the Protector, who act contrary to the Protectors laws against those that have been faithfull souldiers both for the Parliament and the Protector, and there is not any friend at any time, that can by any means since the Sessions, procure by any means, or buy for money, a copy of our Indictments.

And let all people take notice, that all that is printed in the first, second, and this third book, is all but a short declaration to what might be printed of the persecutions of Priests Magi­gistrates [Page] and people of this Tovvn of Evesham against the Saints: