FOrasmuch as divers of the Inha­bitants of the severall Counties of York, Lincolne, Nottingham, and other adjoyning Counties in the severall places where His Majesties Armie is, and hath been Quartered and Billetted for His Majesties Service, have at their great charges, and to their much impoverishment kept and maintained the said Armie for certain Mo­neths [Page] by past, without any payment or satisfaction for the same: And whereas they the said Inhabit­ants of the said severall Counties have been desired, and are contented to forbear the Moneys due, and to be due to them respectively, for the said Billet, un­till the Moneth of November next, (if there be not means to pay and discharge the same in the mean time) And whereas divers of the Officers of the said Armie are likewise contented to forbear some part of their Pay, according to an Order in that be­half made in the Commons House of Parliament this present Session, untill the time aforesaid.

To the end therefore that both the said Inha­bitants, and the said Officers may be secured for the true payment of the said Moneys accordingly, and to avoid or decide all differences and controversies which might arise, upon the severall accounts be­tween the said Inhabitants and the Souldiers, for the certaintie of the said Billet Money: May it please Your most Excellent Majestie, that it may be Enacted; And be it enacted by Your most Excellent Majestie, the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by authority of the same, that all and every the sum or sums of Money which now are, or before the time of payment of the said Billet Money, shall appear to be due, and owing ei­ther to the said Inhabitants or any of them, for the Billet of the said Armie, or any part thereof, or to any of the said Officers, according to the said Order shall upon the tenth day of November next coming, or sooner, if there be means to do it, be well and true­ly paid, and discharged to the severall persons to whom the same are or shall be due respectively, out of the Moneys which shall be raised by vertue of an [Page] Act made in this present Session of Parliament, in­tituled, An Act for the speedie provision of Money for the disbanding the Armies, and setling the Peace of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland; by the Treasurers, or persons appointed by that Act for the receipt of the Moneys so to be raised, or by such other wayes and means as the House of Commons shall think fit and appoint, in manner and form following; That is to say, That the persons appointed by the said Act for the receipt of such part of the said Moneys, as is by vertue thereof payable at the Chamber in the Ci­tie of York, shall out of the same, at, or in the said Chamber, upon the said tenth day of November (or sooner, if there be means to do it) well and truely pay unto the hands of Sir William Lister, Sir Gervase Cutler, Sir Arthur Ingram the younger, and Sir John Ramsden, Knights, John Kay, and Peter Jennings, Esquires, or to any two, or more of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Inhabitants of the West-Riding of the said Countie of Yorke respectively, for the said Billet Money: To the hands of Sir Mar­maduke Wyvell, Knight and Baronet, Sir Ri­chard Darley, Knight, Bryan Stapleton, John Calverley, Henry Anderson, John Dodsworth the younger, James Pennyman, William Calye, and Francis Lassells Esquires, or to any two or more of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall In­habitants of the North-Riding of the said County of York, and of such places within the County of Durham, where any of His Majesties said Army is, or hath been Quartered or Billetted respectively, for the Billet of the said Souldiers. To the hands of John Legard of Gaunton, Richard Remington, Christopher [Page] Appleyard, Francis Munckton, and Edward Paler Es­quires, or to any two or more of them, all such Mo­neys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the se­verall Inhabitants of the East-Riding of the said County of York respectively, for the said Billet-Mo­ney. To the hands of Lancelot Roper, James Watkinson, and Nicholas Denman Gentlemen, or to any two of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Inhabitants of the Town and County of Kingston upon Hull respective­ly, for the Billet of the said souldiers. To the hands of Sir William Fairfaxe, and Sir Thomas Harrison Knights, John Geldart Merchant, and Robert Knight Grocer, or to any three of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Inhabitants of the said City of York, and County of the same respectively, for the said Billet-Money. To the hands of Sir William Pelham Knight, Wil­loughbie Hickman, Charles Pelham, and Thomas Sander­son Esquires, or any two or more of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Inhabitants of the said County of Lincoln respectively for the said Billet-Money. And to the hands of John Nevile, An [...]hony Ayre, William Moseley, and William Sanderson Esquires, or to any two or more of them, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Inhabitants of the Coun­ty of Nottingham respectively, for the said Billet-Money. And that the said Moneys so to be paid, and every part thereof, shall be paid according to the Certificate for so much as is already certainly certi­fied, and for the residue after the rate of three shil­lings by the week for every Common foot Souldi­er, as shall appear due by a Certificate to be taken upon the Disbanding, unlesse where it shall appear [Page] that there hath been some expresse agreement for an otherrate; and for the Horsmen after the rate of seven shillings and six pence by the week for every common Souldier and his Horse, unlesse where it shall appear that there hath been expresse agreement for another rate: And for the Officers both of Horse and Foot, such rates as shall be set down by the Lord Generall of the Army, and the Lord Lieutenant of the County of York.

And be it further enacted by the Authority afore­said, that the Acquittances of so many, and such of the said persons above named, for the receipt of the said Moneys due to the said severall Inhabitants of the severall Counties and places above mention­ed, as shall receive the same despectively, as afore­said, shall be sufficient discharges to, and for the said persons from whom they shall so receive the same by vertue of this Act, for such severall sums of Money as they shall so receive respectively.

And be it likewise further enacted by the Autho­rity aforesaid, That the persons, who shall by ver­tue of the said recited Act receive such part of the said Moneys as is thereby payable at or in the Chamberlains Office in Guildhall within the City of London, shall out of the same, at or in the said Chamberlains Office, upon the said tenth day of November (or sooner, if there be means to do it) pay to the hands of Sir William Vuedall Knight, Treasu­rer of His Majesties said Army, all such Moneys as are or shall be due, as aforesaid, to the severall Offi­cers of the said Army, who shall forbear the same according to the Order above mentioned; And that the Acquittances of the said Sir William Vuedall shall be a sufficient discharge for what he shall so receive.

WHereas divers Writs of late time, issued under the great Seal of Eng­land, commonly called Shipwrits, for the charging of the Ports, Towns, Cities, Boroughs, and Counties of this Realm respectively, to provide and furnish certain Ships for His Majesties service: And whereas upon the execution of the same Writs, and Returns of Certioraries thereupon made, and the sending the same by Mittimus into the Court of Ex­chequer, Processe hath been thence made against [Page] sundry persons pretended to be charged by way of Contribution, for the making up of certain sums assessed for the providing of the said Ships, and in especiall in Easter Term, in the thirteenth yeer of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King that now is, a Writ of Scire facias was awarded out of the Court of Exchequer, to the then Sheriffe of Bucking­ham-shire, against John Hampden Esquire to appear and shew cause, why he should not be charged with a certain sum so assessed upon him, upon whose ap­pearance and demurrer to the proceedings therein, the Barons of the Exchequer adjourned the same case in­to the Exchequer-chamber, where it was solemnly argued divers dayes, and at length it was there a­greed by the greater part of all the Iustices of the Courts of Kings Bench, and Common Pleas, and of the Barons of the Exchequer there assembled, that the said John Hampden should be charged with the said sum so as aforesaid assessed on him; The main grounds and reasons of the said Iustices and Barons which so agreed, being that when the good and safety of the Kingdom in generall is concerned, and the whole Kingdom in danger, the King might by Writ under the Great Seal of England, command all the Subjects of this his Kingdom, at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men, Victuals, and Munition, and for such time as the King should think sit, for the defence and safegard of the Kingdom, from such danger and perill, and that by Law the King might compell the doing thereof, in case of refusall, or refractarinesse, and that the King is the sole Iudge both of the dan­ger, and when, and how the same is to be prevented, and avoided, according to which grounds, and rea­sons [Page] all the Iustices of the said Courts of Kings Bench, and Common Pleas, and the said Barons of the Exchequer having been formerly consulted with by His Majesties command, had set their hands to an extrajudiciall opinion expressed to the same pur­pose, which opinion with their names thereunto was also by His Majesties command inrolled in the Courts of Chancery, Kings Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, and likewise entred among the Remembrances of the Court of Star-Cham­ber, and according to the said agreement of the said Iustices, and Barons, Iudgement was given by the Barons of the Exchequer, That the said John Hampden should be charged with the said sum so as­sessed on him; And whereas some other Actions and Proces, depend, and have depended in the said Court of Exchequer, and in some other Courts against o­ther persons, for the like kinde of charge, grounded upon the said Writs, commonly called Shipwrits, all which Writs, and proceedings as aforesaid, were ut­terly against the Law of the Land:

Be it therefore declared and Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty, and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authoritie of the same, That the said charge imposed upon the Subject, for the providing and furnishing of Ships, commonly called Ship­money, and the said extrajudiciall opinion of the said Iustices and Barons, and the said Writs, and every of them, and the said agreement or opinion of the greater part of the said Iustices and Barons, and the said Iudgement given against the said John Hampden were, and are contrary to, and against the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, the right of [Page] propertie, the libertie of the Subjects, former resolu­tions in Parliament, and the Petition of right made in the third yeer of the Reign of His Majestie that now is.

And it is further declared and Enacted by the Au­thoritie aforesaid, That all and every the particu­lars prayed or desired in the said Petition of right, shall from henceforth be put in execution according­ly, and shall be firmly and strictly holden and ob­served, as in the same Petition they are prayed and expressed, and that all and every the Records and re­membrances of all and every the Iudgement, In­rolments, Entry and proceedings, as aforesaid, and all and every the proceedings whatsoever, upon, or by pretext or colour of any of the said Writs, com­monly called Ship writs, and all and every the De­pendents on any of them, shall be Deemed and Ad­judged to all intents, constructions, and purposes, to be utterly void and disannulled, and that all and every the said Iudgement, Inrolments, Entryes, Proceedings, and Dependents of what kinde so­ever, shall be vacated and cancelled in such manner and form as Records use to be that are vacated.