THat your Petitioner having lain under a Close Imprison­ment, in the said Tower, for about the space of Four months, by vertue of a Warrant of Commitment for High-Treason, under the Hand and Seal of Sir Leoline Jenkins Knight, one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, as by the Copy of Commitment appears; who by colour of his being Secretary of State, committed your Petitioner (though but a mean Commoner) to the said Tower, not only against the Common Law of this Land, but also against the Statute made in the Fifth year of Henry the Fourth, which provides, That no Justice of Peace shall commit any Person but to the Common Gaol; nor is there any Provision in that Statute, that a Secretary shall have power to commit to an unlawful Gaol, more than other Justices of Peace.

That by Law there is no Prison of State in England for Commoners, nor was the Tower of London ever made use of as a Prison of State, but by Parliament, and the King and Council, for great Personages, out of respect to their Quality. Your Petitioner lying under this Oppression, petitioned this Court last Sessions to be Tried or Bailed, according to the Statute of the 31 of this King; and then prayed your Honours who were of the Degree of the Coif to grant your Petitioner a Habeas Corpus upon the said Statute, to bring your Petitioner before your Ho­nours, in order to such Ends: He believing then (as still he doth) that such Writ could not be denied him, without the Forfeiture mentioned in the said last-recited Act; which Act was never intended to be defea­ted or evaded by any Tower or Fort in England. For that your Peti­tioner well knows, that a Commission of Oyer and Terminer being in Execution in any City or County, the Commissioners that act therein have power to bring any Person before them, from any Prison what­ever within the said City or County, to be tried or acquitted by the [Page] Course of Common Law; much more since the making of the said Statute for securing the Liberty of the Subject, which was so intended, and not that the said Tower, which is in London and Middlesex, should debar any Person from having the Liberty of a Subject, contrary to the known Law of the Land.

That your Petitioner being an innocent Person, and a free born Sub­ject of England, cannot but expect the full Benefit of the Law, as his just due; and is well assured, that if an Indictment was found against him at this or any other Sessions, the Writs of Habeas Corpus ad deli­berandum & recipiendum would certainly be of power enough to bring your Petitioner to that Court to be Tried, without any Scruple in Law, as also any other Habeas Corpus upon the said Statute. And your Petitioner conceives there is the same Justice in granting your Petitioner such VVrits, to discharge him, if nothing be against him af­ter so long Imprisonment, as to bring him to be Tried and Condemned.

That your Petitioner conceives the Laws of the Land are the only Bulwarks which preserve the Nation, and every individual Commoner (in their just Rights) from Violence: The Kings of England being sworn to maintain the Laws; and such of your Honours as are Judges are sworn to administer Justice indifferently between the King and His Subjects, and not delay or deny Justice to any Person. Upon these Considerations, your Petitioner not being the last Sessions, according to his Petition, Tried or Bailed, as was then prayed, and your Honours not granting him his Habeas Corpus, as desired, according to the said Statute of this King;

Tour Petitioner therefore now most humbly prays your Honours (as his Right by Law) to be discharged from his Impri­sonment this Sessions: And that your Honours will grant your Petitioner an Habeas Corpus to the Constable or Lieutenant of the Tower, to bring your Petitioner and set him before your Honours, in order to be discharged from his Imprisonment according to Law.