To the high court of Parliament of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. The humble petition of poore prisoners, in the severall prisons in and about London. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A94445 of text R212085 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.19[14]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 3 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A94445 Wing T1400 Thomason 669.f.19[14] ESTC R212085 99870736 99870736 163352 2240938710

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Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A94445) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 163352) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 246:669f19[14]) To the high court of Parliament of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. The humble petition of poore prisoners, in the severall prisons in and about London. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [London : 1654] Imprint from Wing. "Praying that they may be speedily brought to trial [for debt]; and that, in view of the expense of bringing witnesses to London, either they may be tried 'in their own counties where they reside,' or their witnesses may be examined there, and their examination sent up." -- Thomason Catalogue. Annotation on Thomason copy: "September 1654". Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Debt, Imprisonment for -- England -- Early works to 1800. Poor -- England -- Early works to 1800. A94445 R212085 (Thomason 669.f.19[14]). civilwar no To the high court of Parliament of the Common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c. The humble petition of poore prisoners, in the s anon. 1654 1 542 1 0 0 0 0 0 18 C The rate of 18 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2007-06 Assigned for keying and markup 2007-06 Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2007-08 Sampled and proofread 2007-08 Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-02 Batch review (QC) and XML conversion
To the High Court of PARLIAMENT of the Common-wealth of England , Scotland , and Jreland , &c.

The humble Petition of poore Prisoners , in the severall Prisons in and about London .

SHEWETH :

THat many of Your poore inslaved Petitioners suffer miserably ( their Imprisonment being most unjust ) others of your said Petitioners , by the late sad accidents of Warre , and their cruell Creditors , are utterly Undone ; And although some of your Petitioners have more Owing them by the State , then will satisfie the Debts they lye for ; yet all of Us by spending what wee either had or could borrow , upon Lawyers Clerkes and Solicitors , and in bringing up of our Witnesses severall times , Fifty , a hundred , or two hundred miles , some more ; by Order of the Judges , and in expectation of Relief by the late Act , are by the severall Suspendings of the said Act and Ordinances , brought to a perishing Condition , having spent much and can borrow no more , Friends ( and all weary with delayes of justice ) forsaking Us , and many lying upon the bare Bords for want of meanes .

That many who lye as Sureties for other men , by the severall suspendings of the Act and Ordinances , as aforesaid , their Expences having been so great , are likewise in much Misery ; whilest the Principals , Executors , and Administrators of those deceased , though able to Satisfie , contrive meanes to obscure and conceale their Estates .

That your Petitioners , their Wives , Children , and Friends ; and likewise many of their conscientious Creditors suffer much , whose Cryes if Man refuse to hearken too , the Lord will Answer to the punishment of all those who obstruct their Reliefe ; seeing to relieve the Poore , and set the oppressed Free , is a worke so acceptable to him .

Your Petitioners humble Prayer is , That during the Vacancie of the Expected Act , the Judges suspended , or some others , may bee againe impowred to continue Sitting to relieve the Poore who are many , and those who are undone by the accident of Warre ; and likewise those , who lye for other mens Debts , who are able to Satisfie ; and that those may not perish for Bread , to whom the State owes more then will satisf●e the Debts they lye for .

And whereas your Petitioners finds the Charge of bringing up their Witnesses to London to bee so great ; that they may have Liberty , either upon good Security , to goe downe and bee tryed in their owne Counties where they reside ; or that their said Witnesses may be there Examined by the Judges , or next Justices ; and their Examination being sent up , may be accepted of by the Iudges heare , seeing the Poverty of your Petitioners is so great , that many must lye and perish for want of meanes to bring their Witnesses up to London .

And Your Petitioners shall ever pray , &c.