I ² R  
DIEV ET MON DROIT  
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE   royal blazon or coat of arms  
JAMES By the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. To all and singular Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacon's, Deans, and their Officials: Parsons, Vicars, Curates, and to all spiritual persons: And also to all Justices of Peace, majors, Sheriffs, Bailiffs, Constables, Churchwardens, and Headboroughs: And to all Officers of Cities, boroughs, and Towns corporate: And to all other our Officers, Ministers, and Subjects whatsoever they be, aswell within liberties, as without, to whom these presents shall come, greeting.  
WHEREAS we are credibly given to understand aswell by the humble supplication; & petition of our poor distressed Subject john Long of our Borough of Lymmington in our County of Southampton, as also by a Certificate from the Mayor & other Inha●tāts of Lymmington aforesaid, & of the Parishes adjoining, sealed with the usual Seal of the Corporation of Lymmington: That our said poor Subject john Long hath always been a man of honest life & conversation, and one that lived in good reputation, until such time as it pleased God to visit him with great losses by Sea, who being owner of a Bark called the joane of Lymmington, and lading her with iron & Timber, in the year 1612, to be transported from Lymmington to Falmouth in Cornwall, it so happened, that the said Bark in her return homewards being reladen with Tyn & other merchandises was through tempestuous weather cast away with the loss of Three men's lives at Bigbury Bay, together with all the good in her, Amounting in all to the value of Six Hundred and Ten Pounds or theridamas about, To the utter undoing of our said poor Subject, who before this untimely accident lived well, and was able to defend the world, but hath little or no means now left to help himself, or to sustain his poor wife and Children, who live in great want, and are like to continue the rest of their days in great misery unless they be charitably helped and relieved by the good devotion and benevolence of our loving & well-disposed Subjects, in this their great necessity.  
KNOW ye therefore, that we (tendering the lamentable and distressed estate of our said poor Subject) of Our especial Grace & Princely compassion, have given & granted, and by these our Letters Patents do give & grant unto our said poor Subject john Long, and unto Robert Clarke his Deputy, and to their Deputy and Deputies, the bearer or bearers hereof, full power, licence and authority to ask, gather, receive & take the Alms and charitable benevolence of all our loving Subjects whatsoever Inhabiting within our Counties of Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, & Essex, with our Cities of Westminster, Canterbury, Rochester, and the Cinque Ports: And in all other Cities, Towns corporate, privileged places, Parishes, Villages, & in all other places whatsoever within our said Counties, and not elsewhere, for and towards the recovery of his said losses, and the relief & maintenance of himself, his poor wife & Family.  
WHEREFORE we will & command you, & every of you, that at such time & times as the said john Long, and Robert Clarke his Deputy, or their Deputy or Deputies the bearer or bearers hereof, shall come & & repair to any your Churches, Chapels, or other places, to ask, and receive the gratuities & charitable benevolence of our said Subjects, quietly to permit and suffer them so to do, without any manner your lets, or contradictions. And you the said Parsons, Vicars, and Curates, for the better stirring up of a charitable devotion, deliberately to publish & declare the Tenor of these our Letters Patents, or the Copy or Brief thereof, unto our said subjects, within One Month next after your receipt thereof, upon some Sabbath day when no other Collection shall be made, Exhorting & persuading them to extend their liberal contributions in so good and charitable a deed. And you the Churthwardens of every Parish where such Collection is to be made, (as aforesaid) to collect & gather the Arms & charitable benevolence of all our loving Subjects, aswell) strangers as others, from seat to seat; And what shall be by you so gathered, to endorse on the Backside hereof, in words at length, and not in figures, & the same deliver to the bearer or bearers hereof, when as thereunto you shall be required. Any Statute, Law, Ordinance, or provision heretofore made to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.  
IN witness whereof, we have caused these our Letters to be made Patents for the space of One whole year next after the date hereof to endure.  
Witness ourself at Westminster, the Six & Twentieth day of February, in the sixteenth year of our Reign England, France, & Ireland; and of Scotland the Two & Fiftieth. ❀ Steward 
 ❀ God save the King   

Printed by Thomas Purfoot.