THat your Petitioners being Tenants of, and within the said Barony, of right ought to hold, and their An­cestors time out of mind have held their respective Tenements in fee by Copy of Court-Roll of the said Barony, as may appear, not onely by Records and their Copies in the time of Henry the eight (rea­dy to be produced) but also by Survey taken 12. Eliz. upon the attainder of Thomas Earl of Nor­thumberland, Lord of the said Barony; upon whose attainder the said Barony came to the Crown; under whom your Pettioners said Ancestors, quietly held and enjoyed their said Estates, paying onely the rents re­served upon their said Copies. And were upon every Discent or Alienation by the Stewards of the said Barony (who held by Patent from the Crown) admitted Tenants according to the Custome of the said Barony, until the 16 Iac. In which year one Iohn Murray Esquire, one of the Bed-Chamber to King Iames (having before gotten the said Barony setled upon Feoffees for his use, and knowing that by the Title of the Crown he could not destroy the Petitioners custome of Copy-hold) exhibited his Bill of complaint before the Lord Verulam in Chancery against your Petitioners said Ancestors, and therein most falsly declared, that he was at the time of the exhibiting his said Bill, by vertue of a conveyance from the co-heirs of the said Earl, seized of the said Barony in his demeasne as of Fee; and that the Tenants thereof were only Tenants at the Wills of the Lords of the said Barony, and not by Co­py of inheritance; upon which suggestions, and others as false (too long to be here inserted) obtained a most unjust Decree against some of your Petitioners yet alive; and the Ancestors of the rest, for destroying their said Copyhold of inheritance: And thereupon most barbarously and cruelly persecuted your said Petitioners and Ancestors (by tying some of them neck and heels together, and throwing them naked into the snow, and imprisoning a great many in the Fleet here at London, and others in several prisons far remote from their friends or habitation, where they suffered most inhumane cruelties) untill some of them had submitted to the loss of their Customes, by accepting of Leases from him; which was no sooner done, but he then waved the title of the coheirs; and desires his Feoffees to surrender their right back to the Crown, which they did; and then within two months after their surrender he takes from King Iames an Estate in Feesimple in his own name to him and his heirs for ever, making no further use of the for­mer pretended titles of the Coheirs; and afterwards disposes of his title to Sir Edward Ratcliff Baronet (a man of the like cruelty; and whose Religion is such, that he openly professeth it is as lawfull to kill a Protestant as a Veal-Calf, or a Dog.) For whose Recusancie and Delinquencie, his Estate was by Act of Parliament appointed to be sold, and the said Barony, being parcel of his Estate, was by the Trustees in that behalf accordingly sold to one George Hurd, a person intrusted by and for Sir Edward Ratcliff. Others there are of your Petitioners, who never submit­ted to the said Decree; yet have enjoyed their Lands according to their said ancient custome paying onely their old Rents.

Your Petitioners for recovery of their just and ancient right made their claim within the time limited by the Act for sale of the said Lands, before the Committee for removing obstructions; but in regard it did not appear unto them that the aforesaid Decree was reversed; they did conceave themselves bound up thereby, and no way capable to al­low of your Petitioners said claim, and there upon dismissed it.

That your Petitioners are so impoverished by the late war, frequent plundring of the Moss-troopers, and cruel exacti­ons of their Lords; that they are no way able to wage Law, or prosecute a Bill of review of the said Decree, although admitted in forma pauperis: fourty of your Petitioners at least, being not able to make up 5 shillings in ready mony.

And therefore your Petitioners most humbly beseech your Honours, to take their sad condition into your pious conside­ration, and in regard of their aforesaid poverty, that they may receive from your Honors, who are the fountain of Iustice in this Commonwealth; such Iustice as shall upon the examination of their case, appear to be agreeable with the ancient Laws of this Nation, and the equity of their cause.

⟨Jan: 1654⟩ And they shall pray, &c.