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<DATE>2014-07-28</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140510.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<VID>197019</VID>
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<P>The humble REMONSTRANCE AND COMPLAINT OF Many thou&s;ands of poore di&s;tre&s;&s;ed Pri&s;oners in the pri&s;ons in and about the Citie of <HI>London;</HI> committed for debt, and other uncapitall offences.</P>
<P>Wherein is plainly declared the in|&s;ufferable abu&s;es both in fees and other exa|ctions inflicted on poore Pri&s;oners, by Jaylors and &s;uch other in&s;truments of Law, though not of Ju&s;tice.</P>
<P>Pre&s;ented to the con&s;ideration of the High Court of PARLIAMENT.</P>
<Q><L>Potiore metallis</L>
<L>Libertate caremus.</L></Q>
<P>Printed at <HI>London</HI> for <HI>John Gib&s;on. Febr.</HI> 3. 1643.</P>
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<HEAD>THE Humble Remon&s;trance and Com|plaint of many thou&s;ands of poore di&s;tre&s;&s;ed Pri&s;oners in and about the Citie of <HI>London;</HI> committed for debt and other uncapitall offences.</HEAD>
<P>_SO many (Right Honourable and Noble Di&s;pencers of equitie and ju&s;tice, you the Illu&s;trious Members of both Hou&s;es of Parliament) are the grievances which we poore Pri&s;oners, in the &s;everall Gaols of the <HI>Fleet, Kings Bench, Mar&s;hal&s;ey, Gate-hou&s;e, New-gate, Lud-gate,</HI> and both the <HI>Counters,</HI> and other pri&s;ons in and about the Citie of <HI>London,</HI> doe &s;u&s;taine in our durance by the in&s;ufferable in|&s;olence and &s;everitie of Officers, that in this happie time of Parliament, wherein your judicious eares are open to all complaints, wee who are only bereaved of our libertie by our mi&s;-fortunes not malefactions; &s;uch as for debt and &s;ureti&s;hip, and by commitment are here Captives, thought our &s;elves ingaged in charitie to our &s;elves, and the abject wretchedne&s;&s;e of our &s;ufferings, to &s;alute your honourable wi&s;domes with this Remon&s;trance of our ju&s;t complaint, ho|ping to find favour in your eyes, and a redre&s;&s;e for our op|pre&s;&s;ions. But le&s;t wee &s;hould &s;in too much again&s;t the pub|like profit, being too tedious in the relation of our grievan|ces, we &s;hall without any longer Preamble de&s;cend briefly to the rehear&s;all of our affaires.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t then, we who are either arre&s;ted for debt, or attached
<PB N="4" REF="3"> by command, are obnoxious to all the greedine&s;&s;e and avarice of the Officers, in who&s;e hands we are before we are con|veyed to tho&s;e hou&s;es of affliction, pri&s;ons; they making lawfull pri&s;es of us, &amp; under &s;hadow &amp; pretence of doing us favours (which men in mi&s;erie are alwayes apt to accept, ex|torting upon us more than the Jaylors them&s;elves, making us pay in&s;ufferable rates for a &s;mall procra&s;tination of our thraldome. Fir&s;t, we are to remon&s;trate the exce&s;&s;ive inju|ries inflicted on us poore pri&s;oners, by the uncon&s;cionable|ne&s;&s;e of Officers, tho&s;e in&s;truments of Hell the Sergeants, and far more mercile&s;&s;e Mar&s;hals men; who though their Knight had the fortune to go to Heaven at <HI>Keinton</HI> battell, &amp; their new Knight <HI>Siddenham</HI> hath neither &s;een them, nor &s;worne them his &s;ervants, yet do they &s;till a&s;&s;ume the privi|ledge to arre&s;t, and take fees beyond the extortion of Bawds and Brokers: your Sergeants and plump Yeomen running the &s;ame cour&s;e, who are growne &s;o licenciou&s;ly valiant in the&s;e times, that on Tue&s;day night la&s;t in <HI>Fetter-lane,</HI> having arre&s;ted a Gentleman who obeyed their authoritie without re&s;i&s;tance, they fell upon his man becau&s;e he wore a &s;word, and being foure of them upon the young man, almo&s;t out him to peeces: and certainly, though the Law allowes them to detaine and arre&s;t peoples per&s;ons, it does not patronize them to cut their throats; debt, as we take it, being neither felony nor trea&s;on; for which offences, though crimes of the highe&s;t nature, the Law priviledges not their Officers of ju&s;tice to kill men before the Jurie have found them guiltie. And &s;urely it is no point of ju&s;tice, that we who are only un|fortunate undone men, &s;hould &s;uffer wor&s;e puni&s;hment, and be in le&s;&s;e &s;afetie than publike and notorious malefactors.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides, which is a bitter aggravation to our ju&s;t com|plaint, when we are once committed to pri&s;on, again&s;t the cu&s;tome of all other Nations, who re&s;traine men by durance for debt, only for a yeare and a day, to try it in that time they can work meanes for their libertie, and &s;atisfie their debt, and then finding them impo&s;&s;ibilited of paying, they are di&s;char|ged,
<PB N="5" REF="3"> their Creditors even paying their fees, if they be una|ble. We are here impri&s;oned pa&s;t hope of relea&s;e, if wee cannot di&s;charge to the utmo&s;t farthing our debts, our wives, children, and families, in the meane time being betrayed to all the mi&s;eries of penurie and want, wee who &s;hould get their livings by our occupations, trades, and other indu&s;tri|ous meanes, being deprived by our want of freedome, of affording them any &s;uccours, our debts by our enthralment being never the nearer paid, but the Creditours cruelty mu&s;t be &s;atisfied with our carka&s;&s;es, which certainly &s;ome of tho&s;e avaritious wretches more de&s;ire than their money; for otherwi&s;e they would afford us libertie, that by it we might endevour in our vocations to give them &s;ome &s;atisfaction, which here we can never doe, being utterly di&s;-inabled for getting a farthing any way, but forced to live either on the almes of good people, or out of the poore remainder of our ruined e&s;tates.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides, we are no way &s;ecure from daily running into debts: the extraordinary rent of our chambers in pri&s;on &s;ur|pa&s;&s;ing all the u&s;ury and brokage in the world; fifty, thirty, twenty, ten, and eight pounds <HI>per annum,</HI> being an ordinary rent for a chamber which a man can &s;carce turne him&s;elfe in: and we do verily believe, the law which was in&s;tituted for the reliefe of di&s;tre&s;&s;ed per&s;ons, never intended they &s;hould by its execution upon them be ruined pa&s;t all redemp|tion; for a lamentable ca&s;e it is, that a man who &s;hall be arre&s;ted for &s;ome triviall debt of forty or fifty &s;hillings, &s;hall be compelled to lie in pri&s;on there, till his very chamber rent amount to thrice the value of his debt, and that to be e&s;tee|med as due as the principall, there being no hope of liber|ty till the utmo&s;t peny of our rack'd and inju&s;t fees be paid to the mercile&s;&s;e Jaylour and his cruell Officers, who have no &s;en&s;e of compunction in them, nor will de&s;cend to the lea&s;t mitigation of their exactions; &s;o that wee may truly and confidently affirme, there are as many men, very neere, that are condemned to perpetuall impri&s;onment for their
<PB N="6" REF="4"> fees, as &s;uffer that mi&s;ery for their debts; wee are be&s;ides u&s;ed with no more re&s;pect then if we were <HI>Turks,</HI> or per&s;ons condemned to the &s;lavery of the gallies, the cruell and im|placable Jaylors, being, for the mo&s;t part, men of au&s;tere and inhumane conditions, &s;uch as are fitter to keepe wild Bea&s;ts in Cages, or have command over the Beares then tyrannize over men. The&s;e fellowes, no longer then wee are able to feed their greedy humours with money, wine, and the like pre&s;ents, never permit us to enjoy one minute of quietne&s;&s;e, but are &s;till reviling us with the termes of beggerly and bankrupt Rogues and Ra&s;cals, threatning us with the ter|ror of the hole and dungeon, nay, even with fetters them|&s;elves; and if the&s;e be fit u&s;ages for hone&s;t and Chri&s;tian men, let any charitable per&s;ons be indifferent judges, and but make it their owne ca&s;e, what an affliction it is to any man to be deprived of all the ble&s;&s;ings which nature and for|tune hath be&s;towed upon him, to be bereaved of the bene|fit which Bea&s;ts enjoy, to walke abroad; to be bereaved of the &s;ociety of his friends, kindred and acquaintance, and cir|cum&s;cribed to one filthy &s;tinking place; confined to the nar|row limits of a pri&s;on where wee &s;carce ever conver&s;e with ought but our owne mi&s;eries; heare nothing but the clocke that tells our woes, our dayes and nights being both, as it were, produced at once, and twins in mi&s;ery; nor all the&s;e afflictions doe not terminate or conclude our &s;ufferings, the &s;ervants to the Jaylors being more in&s;ufferably tyrannicall then their Ma&s;ters; the fat Turne-keyes, and drunken Por|ters, and the like, mini&s;ters of incivility and barbari&s;me, tri|umphing and in&s;ulting over pri&s;oners of the be&s;t quality, Genltemen that formerly would have di&s;dained to have con|ver&s;ed with fellows of that abject quality, being glad to &s;tand cap in hand to the ra&s;cally companions, who Lord it over them with an in&s;olent licence, making them pay and pray too for what they have, and glad they can get it, both by their money and faire per&s;wa&s;ions; &s;uch is the in&s;uffera|ble condition of our thraldome, that if a cunning Painter were
<PB N="7" REF="4"> to delineate a locall hell, he need goe no further for a lively pre&s;ident then to one of the&s;e divelli&s;h pri&s;ons, which &s;o apt|ly re&s;embles it in all its attributes: as &s;tench, horror and darkne&s;&s;e, the narrowne&s;&s;e of the roomes, and their unclean|ne&s;&s;e, being able to infect and &s;uffocate peoples &s;pirits who have beene inured to fre&s;h and open ayre; the&s;e mi&s;eries, like &s;<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="MURP" EXTENT="1 letter">me, increa&s;ing by going on, &s;till growing more intol|lerable, being bettered daily into wor&s;e; &s;o that if the <HI>I&s;ra|elites</HI> in <HI>Egypt</HI> may be &s;aid to have groaned under the heavie burthen of their oppre&s;&s;ions there, we may ju&s;tly parallel ours with their mi&s;eries, all manner of mi&s;chiefes flowing about us, and the &s;hadow of death encompa&s;&s;ing us round; &s;o that if &s;ome &s;udden order be not taken for the mitigation of the rigour and tyranny of pri&s;ons, many a hundred of hone&s;t and able men mu&s;t &s;uffer wor&s;e deaths then the mo&s;t ungracious malefactors, they dying but one death for their capitall of|fences, and we for no offence at all, dying for many moneths, weeks and yeeres a daily death: nor is this condition onely of &s;uch of us as pri&s;oners meerly for debt, they who are in upon command from any Court of Judicature or otherwi&s;e committed, running the &s;ame misfortune, they are &s;ubject to the &s;ame contumelies and di&s;graces, liable to the &s;ame af|fronts and abu&s;es, no redre&s;&s;e being given to their grievances, nor end to their afflictions during their impri&s;onment. If ei|ther any of them or us can obtaine &s;o much favour as to goe abroad with a keeper (which is e&s;teemed a &s;uperlative cour|te&s;ie) we are &s;ure to pay as many &s;hillings as we are abroad houres, be&s;ides the exce&s;&s;ive wages mu&s;t be allowed to tho&s;e Harpies our keepers, who will not permit us to &s;tay abroad a minute longer then they are fed either with gifts, or faire promi&s;es; &s;o that by all this former Di&s;cour&s;e and Relation of this our complaint, you may plainly perceive, Right Ho|nourable and ju&s;t reformers of all abu&s;es in the Common|wealth, you of both the noble Hou&s;es of Parliament, how again&s;t law, equity, and con&s;cience many thou&s;ands of poore &s;tre&s;&s;ed men, who have formerly beene had in very good
<PB N="8" REF="5"> e&s;teeme in this City, and in their owne Countries, paying &s;cot and lot, and doing very good &s;ervice to the Kingdome by their indu&s;try, are, as it were, killed alive by the daily torments for their debts, and yet their creditors never the neerer, but a greater deale farther off from their expected debts; wee being daily more and more impoveri&s;hed in our e&s;tates by the cruelty and expence of our durance; our wives &amp; childen either enforced to beg their bread, or to live upon the almes of the Pari&s;hes in which they dwell.</P>
<P>In con&s;ideration of all which hideous and in&s;ufferable grievances, we your poore Complainants mo&s;t humbly be|&s;eech you for the honour of God, and in regard we are Chri|&s;tian men, for our poore wives and children &s;ake, that lan|gui&s;h and groan under our &s;ufferings, that &s;ome way may be taken for the &s;peedy redre&s;&s;e of the&s;e our heavie grievances, that our creditors may by &s;ome act of yours be ingaged to give &s;uch of us our liberties as by evident te&s;timony of our neighbours are knowne and approved utterly unable to pay our debts, and that our Jaylors may be compelled to a more moderate and civill dealing with us, without exaction of &s;uch uncon&s;cionable and illegall fees; that Serjeants, Mar|&s;hals men, Bayliffes and the like, may be taught to u&s;e more humanity toward their pri&s;oners under arre&s;t, and wee, our wives and children, as in all duty bound, &s;hall ever pray for your tranquillity, peace and happine&s;&s;e.</P>
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