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<DATE>2014-06-30</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140510.apex.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">P1755</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">[ocm]12277591</BIBNO>
<VID>197460</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P> A PETITION From the I&s;land of SILLEY, Being in the VVe&s;t part of <HI>ENGLAND.</HI></P>
<P>VVherein &s;ome of their grie|vances and oppre&s;sions are laid open and manife&s;ted, together with their &s;incere affection to the pro&s;perity and good of the Kingdome of <HI>England.</HI></P>
<P>Sent by the la&s;t Po&s;t from the afore|&s;aid I&s;land of <HI>Silley,</HI> in a Letter to &s;ome of their Country men in <HI>London,</HI> de&s;iring to have it pub|li&s;hed with a generall con&s;ent of the I&s;land of <HI>Silley.</HI></P>
<P>Wherein is expre&s;t the &s;tate of the tyme, and the Diurnall occurrences of this pre&s;ent age.</P>
<P><HI>London,</HI> printed for <HI>Thomas Bankes. Augu&s;t.</HI> 12. 1642.</P>
<PB REF="2">
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="petition">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>A Petition from the I&s;land of Silley, being in the VVe&s;t part of <HI>England.</HI></HEAD>
<P>THat whereas we the Inhabitants of <HI>Silley</HI> being neither wi&s;e mens elde&s;t &s;onnes, nor po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed of any great meanes whereby our witts and good|willes &s;hould be held in contempt, have not hitherto da|red for feare of deri&s;on to &s;end forth handfulls of our af|fections in blacke and white, or to make our tedious prote&s;tations and Petitions as the Leatherbreeches in the &s;everall Counties of <HI>England</HI> have done, though our intentions towards the King and Parliament are as cleare as cla&s;&s;e, and more tran&s;parent than the ob&s;cure maligni|ry of tho&s;e Countrey Annimalls and quarrelling Cave|leires, men of great &s;tomacks, better feeders than fight|ers: We therefore knowing that fooli&s;h mode&s;ty can never make us thrive in worldly favour, have ioyned all the &s;trength of our wits together, and little enough to draw forth and di&s;cribe the face and picture of our &s;or|rowes and grievances, and al&s;o in ample manner lay
<PB N="2" REF="3"> downe the &s;ub&s;tance of our de&s;ires. Shewing fir&s;t that we being poore innocent creatures of the I&s;land of <HI>Silley,</HI> that have no golden fleeces on our backes, whereby to tempt any iniuries, nor have any Lawyers among&s;t us to pole our e&s;tates, nor any &s;waggering friends and ac|quaintance that will bee ready to borrow money of us and never pay us againe, nor any detractors or backbiters to bla&s;t our reputation are like a people therefore much troubled in minde that wee &s;hould live unworthy of wrongs and iniuries, which are &s;o com|mon and frequent in <HI>England,</HI> that neither the King nor &s;ubiects can e&s;cape the &s;ting of malicious tongues, whereas wee &s;urfet with content, never fearing any thing, no not &s;o much as a Sergeant as many Gentle|men doe in <HI>England.</HI> And now of late having under&s;tood by fi&s;herboate that came from <HI>England</HI> of certaine di&s;|cords ari&s;ing betweene the King and Parliament, upon what ground and &s;mall rea&s;ons wee cannot apprehend, &s;o that the whole land is like to be divided into fractions for picking quarrells in the Church-windowes, we &s;mel|ling our danger a farre off, and out of a deare affection to our &s;elves, e&s;teeming our lives to bee pre&s;ious in our e&s;timation, doe therefore earne&s;tly and hartily de&s;ire that we may di&s;&s;emble our &s;elves together in a po&s;ture of warre, and that we may have Bills, Bowes, Arrowes and Speares, and all kind of murdering engines &s;ent unto us, whereby wee may according to our nece&s;&s;ity arme our corporall bodyes, and if our enemies &s;hould appeare in field (which we hartily wi&s;h they may never doe) we may kill them &s;even miles before they come neere us, and moreover we de&s;ire that wee may have &s;ome redd terrible ill looking Ui&s;ard &s;ent to us, together with a &s;hip
<PB N="3" REF="3"> full of the &s;tronge&s;t Garlike &s;o that having put on tho&s;e &s;carefull Vizards we may affright our enemies with our very lookes, and blow them away, with our &s;trong &s;en|ted &s;tinking breaths.</P>
<P>As for Bi&s;hops we care not greatly whether there be any in <HI>England</HI> or no, for our con&s;titution is not &s;o hot that we can endure none, nor our affections &s;o could, that we cannot permitt any, onely we humbly de&s;ire that all our Bi&s;hops may be &s;pirituall Bakers, that they may make their bread of doctrine as gentle as Ginger Bread, &s;o that old women may mumble it up as in old time they did their <HI>Pater No&s;t<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rs,</HI> and we be&s;eech the&s;e Gho&s;t|ly Fathers that they would bee &s;ure to fleece their Dio|ce&s;&s;es, and to put in &s;ome poore Scholler of <HI>Silley</HI> or &s;ome Silly Scholler to be their Curate in &s;ome Country vil|lage, and moreover that they would never &s;traine their voyces to preach too much, and that never doing any good while they live, they may after their decea&s;e build a Colledge in one of the two Univer&s;ities.</P>
<P>And moreover it is our humble de&s;ire that wee may be better acquainted with the new &s;ects of Roundheads being &s;o like to us the inhabitants of <HI>Silley,</HI> for all their doctrines, opinions and tenets which they main|taine doe all &s;mell &s;trong of the I&s;le of <HI>Silley,</HI> &s;o that as the Papi&s;ts doe fetch the derivation of their Church from Rome, &s;urely the Browni&s;t and the&s;e Roundheads had their originall from one that was borne in <HI>Silley,</HI> for is not their madde kinde of Preaching in Tubb<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> a &s;illy Faction, are not their teaching again&s;t the backe of a <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">haire and ignorant in&s;tructing at a Tables end all &s;illey <GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">nventions, be&s;ides their &s;hort circumci&s;ed hayres makes them all looke like <HI>Sillyes,</HI> it is ourhumble petition there|fore
<PB N="4" REF="4"> that they may all domineere in the city, and pull downe Mini&s;ters out of the Pulpit and never troubled by the King or Parliament, becau&s;e it doth appeare by their mad actions, factions, and di&s;turbances of the Common-wealth that they are a kin to the brethren to the brethren of <HI>Silley</HI> as well as of <HI>Scotland,</HI> and if they &s;hould lacke meanes, which I hope they will &s;corne to doe, the Silley Roundheads being willing to helpeone a|nother, I would have &s;uch as be afflicted there to remove them&s;elves, &amp; not to fly over into new <HI>England,</HI> but unto the I&s;le of Silley, and I thinke it were a great happine&s;&s;e to the Kingdome if all the Rounheads would leave <HI>Eng|land,</HI> and with one generall con&s;ent goe to inhabit in the I&s;le of <HI>Silley,</HI> that there they might exerci&s;e their &s;illy R<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="2 letters">igious feates free from the cen&s;ure of the world, and the trouble of the Common-wealth; who doth wi&s;h them all hang'd on &s;igne po&s;ts, we de&s;ire them therefore in this our Petition to pack up their tooles being trade&s;|men, and take with them their wives and children, and a Bible or two, and &s;o the conduct of their revealing Spirit, pa&s;&s;e over to inhabit in the I&s;lland of <HI>Silley.</HI></P>
<P>Humbly likewi&s;e be&s;eeching that the King and Parliament would not be dogged one towards a|nother, but concurre in affection and abominable love one to another, for di&s;cord doth bring forth nothing but murdering and Killing in kindne&s;&s;e, and if our skinne be &s;la&s;ht and cut, who can mend it, or who can borrow another of his neighbour? be&s;ides who would de&s;ire to have his eyes pu&s;hed out of his head with a musket bullet, or a peece of his skull &s;ea<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ed off with a Cannon bullet? therefore we de&s;ire waking, dreaming, &amp; thinking that there
<PB N="5" REF="4"> may be &s;tore of Pea&s;e as there hath beene alwaies in the Markets, and that wee may live in &s;oft ea&s;e, and content without and trouble, but not a word of fighting, for we the Inhabitants of <HI>Silley</HI> are men of weake &s;tomackes that doe hate Gunnes and Gunpowder, and therefore we are willing to bee undone upon any condition rather than to have our dearely beloved bodies &s;uffer the hardne&s;&s;e of the warres; And therefore wee humbly be&s;eech that how&s;oever di&s;contents may ari&s;e, and &s;ome body may be offended, we name no body, yet in a holy and whol&s;ome pitties of our bodies, we de&s;ire that the noy&s;e of warres may be &s;ilenced, and peace ge|nerally throughout the land imbraced, and no noy&s;e heard in our <HI>Ieru&s;alem,</HI> but kitching Drums, that is chopping of pothearbs on &s;unday mornings, that &s;o we may not be put into &s;uch feares &amp; terrors to the &s;poyling of the witts of the Inhabitants of <HI>Silly,</HI> e&s;pecially women of <HI>Silley</HI> or &s;illy women, who neere u&s;e to pray or ble&s;&s;e them&s;elves, but at the &s;udden report of warres.</P>
<P>As for <HI>Militia,</HI> tis a word we under&s;tand not, un|le&s;&s;e it be di&s;played in the proper colours of di&s;|plea&s;ing and offending in contending about this word, &s;ye upon &s;uch words, <HI>Militia</HI> according to the interpretation and de&s;ire of the I&s;l<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ders of <HI>Silley</HI> is to &s;et our &s;elves in a po&s;ture of eating like Hungarians, drinking Flemmings, and talking of <HI>Hull,</HI> Sir <HI>Iohn Hotham, Yorke,</HI> and the Prentices Re|&s;olution, which wee commend highly, and doe thinke that there are &s;ome of the I&s;land of <HI>Silley</HI> that have as invin&s;ible &s;tomackes, who&s;e knives nor
<PB N="6" REF="5"> &s;words would not be put up at the affront of a Bar|ley pudding, nay it is kowne that wee men of <HI>Silley</HI> for want of knives have drawne our &s;words to open Oy&s;ters, what dare we doe then to make honour waite vpon us? as &s;he hath done &s;ome tymes upon the men of <HI>Silley</HI> or &s;illey men, but in the&s;e times though we de&s;ire &s;ome what, we de&s;ire no honour we love our heads better then to have them fall off, for too much ripene&s;&s;e of witt and dignity, and therefore we humbly de&s;ire that our Petition may be accounted as it is the un&s;ea&s;onable and unrea&s;o|nable reque&s;ts of the &s;ubiects of <HI>Silley.</HI> Now that you may never know the conclu&s;ion of what wee would obtaine, we wil commit the re&s;t to the clo&s;e cu&s;tody of &s;ilence, and not write any thing more for feare it will be too much laught at, but tis no matter, tis u&s;uall in the&s;e times for ignorance to de|ride wi&s;edome, Coblers and Browni&s;ts to jeare Doctors, Rounheads to be wi&s;er than &s;quare Caps, and conceited women to be Preachers, and fooles to bee farmers &s;onnes in de&s;pight of Aldermens heyres. We therefore the Inhabitants of <HI>Silley</HI> la&s;t of all de&s;ire, that none pre&s;ume to reade this Peti|tion unle&s;&s;e hee beleeve that the I&s;landers of <HI>Silley</HI> will &s;tand &s;tiffe to all Declarations, Prote&s;tations, and Reformations as any of the Rounheads or Ca|veleires who are a thought wi&s;er than we the Inha|bitants of <HI>Silley.</HI></P>
<TRAILER>FINIS</TRAILER>
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