A declaration of Master William Lenthall Esquire, Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons wherein is contained the grounds and reasons that moved him to absent himselfe from the service of the House, on Friday July 30, 1647 : together with his resolution not to attend that service, till (by an effectuall prevention of the like tumults) the Parliament be inabled to proceed in a free and Parliamentary way without disturbance or enforcement. Lenthall, William, 1591-1662. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A47686 of text R11515 in the English Short Title Catalog (Wing L1072). 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. 7 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 4 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A47686 Wing L1072 ESTC R11515 12591187 ocm 12591187 63941 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A47686) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 63941) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 672:24) A declaration of Master William Lenthall Esquire, Speaker of the Honorable House of Commons wherein is contained the grounds and reasons that moved him to absent himselfe from the service of the House, on Friday July 30, 1647 : together with his resolution not to attend that service, till (by an effectuall prevention of the like tumults) the Parliament be inabled to proceed in a free and Parliamentary way without disturbance or enforcement. Lenthall, William, 1591-1662. 6 p. Printed by J. Harris and H. Hills ..., Oxford : 1647. Reproduction of original in Huntington Library. eng England and Wales. -- Parliament. -- House of Commons. Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649. A47686 R11515 (Wing L1072). civilwar no A declaration of Master William Lenthall Esquire, Speaker of the honorable House of Commons, wherein is contained the grounds and reasons th Lenthall, William 1647 1241 2 0 0 0 0 0 16 C The rate of 16 defects per 10,000 words puts this text in the C category of texts with between 10 and 35 defects per 10,000 words. 2004-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2004-01 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2004-02 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2004-02 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2004-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A DECLARATION OF Master William Lenthall Esquire , Speaker of the honorable House OF COMMONS , WHEREIN Is contained the grounds and reasons that moved him to absent him selfe from the service of the House , on Friday July 30. 1647. TOGETHER With his resolution not to attend that Service , till ( by an effectuall prevention of the like tumults ) the Parliament be inabled to proceed in a free and Parliamentary way , without disturbance or enforcement . Published by his command , for the satisfaction of the Kingdome . OXFORD Printed by J. Harris , and H. Hills , living in Pennifarthing street , 1647. A DECLARATION OF MR W. LENTHALL . Esq. SPEAKER of the House of Commons , being the reasons and grounds that moved him to absent himselfe from attending the service on Friday , July 30. 1647. ALthough it may happily be contrary to the Expectation of some , that J attend not the service of the House of Commons at this time , as J have constantly done for almost seven yeares last past ; yet can it not be reasonably expected by any that will consider the violence offered to both the Houses of Parliament , and to my selfe in particular the last monday , July 26. Insomuch that J can safely take it upon my conscience , and so J doubt not may all the Members of both Houses also , that they sat in continuall feare of their lives , and by terrour thereof were compelled to passe such Votes as it pleased an unruly multitude to inforce upon them ; which as J did then openly declare in the House , so J cannot but believe that they are all void and Nul , being extorted by force and violence , and in that manner that they were : And J cannot any longer dispence with my selfe to be an instrument in passing such Votes , and to give any colour or shadow of Parliamentary authority unto them , which were not the Votes of the representative body of the Kingdome ; but of a tumultuous multitude , as those must needs be accounted that seemed to passe the House on Monday July 26. and which shall passe hereafter untill better provision be made for the safe and free sitting of the Houses of Parliament ; there being no effectuall course taken by the City since the adiournment of the House , to prevent the like tumults for the future no nor so much as a Declaration from them , to shew their dislike thereof : but on the contrary , it was generally voiced in the Towne , that there would be a farre greater confluence of Apprentizes , Reformado's , and others by Friday at the Parliament dores ; and particular notice was given to me , that after they had made the House Vote what they pleased , they would destroy me : J had likewise information given me that there would be a great number of Apprentizes of a contrary opinion and affection to the other , about the Parliament dores on Friday morning , which J foresaw must ▪ of necessity cause a great combustion , and in probability occasion much bloud-shed . The prevention of which mischiefe ( together with the consideration aforesaid ) have weighed more with me , then any thing which may concerne my particular : and especially having served the Parliament faithfully and diligently for the space of almost seven yeares in a free and Parliamentary way of proceeding : that J might not now be made a servant to such a rude and tumultuous multitude , to transferre upon them the colour of Parliamentary authority , therewith to abuse , and deceive the minds , and to destroy the lives , liberties and estates of the People of this Kingdome , and having taken a solemn protestation and Covenant , in my place and calling , to maintaine the priviledges of Parliament , and the rights and liberties of the Subiect , J could not now satisfie my selfe how J should discharge my duty therein , but by absenting my selfe at this time , rather then by my presence , to give any shadow or countenance of the authority of Parliament , to such apparent violation thereof , neither can the omission of a circumstance or some formality in the adiournment of the House , when through force and violence it cannot meet quiet in any sort as a Parliament , be any preiudice to the future sitting and proceeding thereof , when it may meet and sit againe as a free Parliament ▪ it being well known that nothing can dissolve this Parliament , but an Act of Parliament . When a company of Apprentices , Reformadoes and others , shall call the Ordinances of both Houses of Parliament pretended Ordinances , shall locke the doores of the Houses upon them , shall sweare not to let them out till they have passed what they pleased concerning the Militia of London and other things ( though the House had immediatly before voted otherwise ) shall threaten the Houses in case they doe not instantly satisfie thier demands ; shall knock , hoote , and hollow at the Parliaments doores , that the Members could not be heard to speake or debate , and after the House of Commons had passed a Vote concerning the Militia of London , and that the Speaker by the Vote had iudged the maior part to be for the negative , shall not suffer the House to be devided , but in a threatning way require those that gave their Votes against them to come out to them if they would , when after the House was adiourned , they shall by maine force thrust back the Speaker againe into the House , and force the Members in their presence and sight , ( direct thrusting themselves into the House ) to Vote what they demanded , when they shall iustle , pull , and hale the Speaker , all the way he went downe to his Caroch , and force him ( to avoid the violence ) to betake himselfe to the next Caroch he could get into , for refuge : When they shall breath forth bloody threats against the Members , as they come out of the House ; and since against me in particular , at the next sitting of the House , as J am credibly informed , and when there is no appearance but that they will continue to doe as formerly they have done , or far worse on Fryday : J could not in discharge of my trust , Protestation , and Covenant , sit in the Chaire of the House of Commons , whilest it shall be in such a condition ; but so soone as it may sit againe , in freedome and safety , J shall be ready to returne to the service of the House , but till then as J have upon the fore-mentioned grounds fully satisfied my owne conscience , so J doubt not but J shall give the whole Kingdome ( whose interest is most concerned in it ) ample satisfaction in the necessity of my action . WJLLJAM LENTHALL . Speaker .