TWO PETITIONS Presented to the supreme Authority OF THE NATION, FROM Thousands of the LORDS, OWNERS, and COMMONERS of lincolnshire; against the Old Court-Levellers, or Propriety-Destroyers, the Prerogative Undertakers.  
LONDON, Printed by J. B. 1650.   

To the supreme Authority of the Nation, in PARLIAMENT Assembled:  
The Humble Petition of divers Freemen of England, whose names are hereunto annexed, Inhabitants in the County of Lincoln, in the behalf of themselves, and others the Lords, Owners, and Commoners of, and in the fens belonging to Holland and Kesteven, in the said County, lying between Bourne and Kyme,  
Sheweth:  
THat by the wisdom, hazards, and industry of our prudent Ancestors, the great Charter of England was gained and confirmed, In the 29. chap. of which it is enacted, That no Freeman shall be taken, imprisoned, or be dizseized of his Freehold or Liberties, or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise destroyed; nor past upon, nor condemned, but by lawful Judgement of his peers, or by the Law of the Land. And by the 15. and 16. chap. of which it is enacted, That no Freeman shall be distrained or compelled to make or maintain Banks or Bridges, but what were in old time, and by such as were of right accustomend thereunto: For the well regulating and keeping in repair of which, by future Statutes it is commanded, That Commissions be made in due form to sufficient persons, to be Justices in every County of England; and they are authorised,( in pursuance of the intent of Magna Charta) to survey and inquire by Juries of the Neighbourhood, and to execute and do that which shall be needful and just, according to Law( as appears by the Statutes of 25 E. 3. cap. 2. and the 1 H. 4. cap. 12. and 6 H. 6. cap. 5. and 8 H. 6. cap. 2. and 12 Ed. 4. cap. 7. and 6 H. 8. cap. 10. All which are confirmed by the Commission of Sewers, contained in the Statute of the 23 H. 8. cap. 5. which expressly ties up all the said Commissioners of Sewers, to proceed according to the laws, customs, and Statutes of the kingdom, and not otherwise; which is confirmed by the 3 and 4 Ed. 6. cap. 8. yea and by the Statute of Improvement, of the 43 Eliz. cap. 11. in which there is the first mention of an Undertaker; It is enacted, That the Lord or Lords, as well Bodies politic or Corporate, as any other person or persons whatsoever, of all and every the Wasts and Commons aforesaid, and the most of the Commoners for their particular Commons; and likewise the Owners, and such as have or shall have in several surrounded grounds, lying within or near the same, may contract or bargain for part of such Commons, Wasts, and severals aforesaid, with such as will undertake the draining, and keeping dry perpetually the said grounds: Which Contract, bargain, and Conveyances thereupon made, shall be good and available in Law, to all constructions and purposes, against the said Lords of the said soil, &c. Provided that such Contract, bargain, assignment, and Conveyances, be by writing Indented, Sealed, and delivered by the most part of such Commoners, and to the use of the Undertakers, &c. And provided, That such Undertakers shall lay claim to nothing else, but onely that which is so bargained or contracted for in the form aforesaid: The effect and meaning of which Statute, is pursued by the Statute of the 4 Jac. chap. 8. in that Contract, Covenant, and Agreement, made by Indenture between the Owners of the Marshes of Lesues and Fants in the county of Kent, and William Burrell of ratcliff, the Undertaker; and by the Statute of the 7 Jac. chap. 20. which provides for the recovery of a great quantity of ground lately surrounded in Norfolk and Suffolk by the Sea; those two forementioned indubitable privileges, of the indifferency of the Commissioners themselves, and the manner of their proceeding by Juries of good and lawful men of the Neighbourhood, are preserved to the free People therein concerned: Yet notwithstanding all the privileges of the aforesaid Magna Charta, and the other recited Statutes, Robert late earl of Lindsey, Sir William Killagrew, Robert Long, now Secretary to Charles Stewart, son to the late King, and divers other projecting Undertakers, by bribing the late King and divers Lords of the council( as hath been fully proved) with a design to level and destroy the said ancient and good laws and Liberties of England, and to overthrow our proprieties. Which Actions in the late shipmoney, Judges and the earl of Strafford were voted by the Parliament in 1640. to be Treason) procured from the late King( as by his Letter of the 12. of Febr. in the eighth year of his reign appeareth,) A Prerogative Power and Authority, by their own wils, and without our consents to drain us, and to lay such a Tax upon us the Lords, Owners, and Commoners aforesaid, as( if it be paid) may defray the charge of the work, and recompense the Undertakers for their pains, without any respect to the interest of particular persons, or consulting the Owners; where by their own single view, without any Inquisition or Verdict of Jurors) they find our Land so surrounded or amnoyed with water, that it shall receive benefit by the draining; And that the judgement of the said projecting Undertakers( being both Judges and Parties) must be their rule of proceeding, and not the consent of the Owner, or the Rules of the Law. These are the express words of the Letter; In pursuance of which illegal and Prerogative power, they( like so many armed thieves) took possession of large proportions of our propriety, Lands, and Estates, and by force of arms would have kept it; which we legally maintaining, had divers of our friends and associates murdered; and our proceedings at Law damm'd up by council-table Orders, and left us either in Law or reason, no other remedy but an appeal to the House of Commons: Upon the hearing and full examining of which business, in the particular Case of Master Robert Barkham, they thought it just upon the third of February, 1640. to vote, That the several Imprisonments of Master Barkham, by virtue of several Orders from the council Board, is a grievance, and illegal.  
Resolved, &c.  
That reparation is fit to be given to Master Barkham, for his several commitments, by those Lords of the council that have subscribed to his commitments.  
Resolved, &c.  
That Sir William Killagrew, and Sir Anthony Thomas, shall contribute towards those Reparations to be given to Master Barkham.  
And upon the tenth of February, 1640. It was resolved upon the Question,  
That Master Barkham shall be at liberty to proceed at Common Law touching the premises, and the Injunction made in the Court of duchy to be dissolved.  
So here in his particular Case, the Locks and Bolts fastened upon the Law were taken off, and we left to enjoy our hereditary privileges, or proper remedy at the Law. And besides this particular Case of his, the then House of Commons, in their Grand and first Remonstrance of the state of the kingdom, and of the roots and causes of all the miseries possessing this Nation, enumerate the violence and injustice done to Your Petitioners, as one of the grand Grievances, Projects, injustice, Oppression and Violence, that broke in upon the Nation, without any restraint or moderation: And in page. 7. thus particularly express it: Large quantities of Common and several Grounds have been taken from the Subject, by colour of the Statute of Improvement, and by abuse of the Commission of Sewers, without their consent, and against it. Yea and upon the Report of Sir Guy palms, the 29 July, 1641. of the earl of Lindsey procuring an Order from the House of Lords, to stop us of the benefit of the Law against him and his Associates, the House resolved, That the said Order is a breach of the privilege of that House( the Cause there depending before them) and that the Commons were not bound by the said Orden.  
Our whole business being long since examined before a Committee of Parliament, where Master Ellis had the chair; we were in hopes long since upon the Report thereof, to have exemplary Justice done upon our draining projecting Adversaries, as destroyers of propriety; with which if they had gone on, and so have taken away our Estates and Substance, we had been no more a People; but the Warres coming on( in which divers of them had no little share, as beginners thereof) we waited with a patient expectation of the full enjoyment of all the benefits of your Primitive Declarations, for the full securing of our Liberties and Properties; abundance of us having been active and faithful in arms, in yours and the Nations Service. But contrariwise, we by sad experience find, that our Prerogative Projectors and Destroyers, that had long endeavoured with their swords &c. to cut your and our throats; after the Warres are ended, assume unto themselves the impudence and boldness beyond our imaginations, lately to petition this Honourable House with fundry false suggestions, and pretence of Title to 14000 Acres of our said fens, for their endeavouring as aforesaid, to drain us contrary to Law, and against our consents; which are our Properties, and therefore without our consents cannot upon any pretence whatsoever be taken from us( as largely proved and declared by those two notable printed Arguments of Judge Crook and Judge Hutton, in the Case of shipmoney; as also by your remarkable Votes thereunto annexed; as also by the Act of the seventeenth of the late King, Declaring the shipmoney to be illegal; as also by Naboth's preserving his Title to his Vineyard, against King Ahab, although he would have given him a better for it, or the worth of it in Money; hoping in our absence by the said Petition to have intruded, as formerly they have done, into our ancient and undoubted Right and Inheritance, legally preserved by us under your protection, at a vast charge. Now forasmuch as by the whole Current of all your Declarations, the end of the late Warres was to maintain, defend, and secure our Properties, and fundamental legal Rights, and not in the least to destroy them: And in your Declarations of the second of November, 1642. 1 Part book Dec. pag. 693. You declare your abhorrency and detestation of the Kings Charge laid upon you That you will dispose of the Peoples Fortunes and Estates by your own Votes, contrary to the Law of Propriety. And in your Declaration of the seventeenth of april, 1646. 2 Part, book, Dec. fol. 879. You declare, That although the necessity of war hath stopped the usual course of Justice, enforced the Parliament for the preservation of this State, to impose and require many great and unusual Payments from the good Subjects of this kingdom, and to take extraordinary ways for procuring of moneys for their many pressing occasions; It having pleased God to reduce our Affairee into a more hopeful condition then heretofore; We do Declare, That We will not, nor any by colour of any Authority derived from us, shall not interrupt the ordinary course of Justice, in the several Courts and Judicatories of this Kingdom, nor intermeddle in cases of private interest, otherwhere determinable, unless it be in case of Male Administrationem of Justice, wherein we shall see and provide that right be done, and punishment inflicted, as there shall be occasion, according to the Laws of the Kingdom, and the Trust reposed in us.  
And in your late Declarations of the ninth of Feb. 1648. and the seventeenth of March 1648. you declare you will maintain the good old Laws and Customs of England, the Badges of our Freedom; The benefit whereof our Ancestors enjoyed long before the Conquest, and particularly the Great Charter of Liberties; and that excellent Law( as yourselves call it) of the Petition of Right, with all things therein contained, incident and belonging to the preservation of the Lives, Proprieties, and Liberties of the People; which you there aclowledge, being duly executed, are the most just, free, and equal of any other Laws in the world. And for the violating of the privileges; of which Empson and Dudley, Privy Councellors to Henry 7. for taking away mens Estates, and Proprieties, by their wills and discretions, without trials by Juries, Although they had an Act of Parliament( viz. the 11. Henry 7. Chap. 3. to warrant them for their so doing) lost their heads and lives upon Tower-hill, as Traitors, for subverting the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of England.  
The premises seriously and duly considered, and in that in your Declaration of the 17. January. 1644. 1. Part Book declare. pag. 39. in the Case of the Five Members, against whom Sir will. killigrew was a violent Actor( as by that Declaration appears) You have declared, that you are very sensible, that it equally imports you as well to see Justice done against them that are Criminous, as to defend the just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects, and Parliament of England: And in your Declaration of the 23 of Octob. 1642. 1. Part Book Dec. pa. 656. You declare, that the Execution of Justice is the Soul and Life of all Laws. Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray, That the said Projecting and Propriety-destroying Sir will. killigrew, with all his Participants, may( for the vindicating of the public Justice of the Nation, and for the exemplary deterring of all other in future time to walk in his Arbitrary, Prerogative Law, and Liberty-destroying steps) be speedily and effectually proceeded against, both as to Life and Estate, for his aforesaid Crimes, committed against the common Liberty, Peace, and tranquillity of the Nation, to the utmost extent of any Law in being before his said transgressions. And more particularly, that all Differences betwixt him, &c. and your Petitioners, or any other of their Associates, may be wholly and totally turned over, and left to the ordinary and due Course of the Common Law, in the Ordinary Courts of Justice, the proper and sole Administrators and Executors of the Law; That so we may thereby, without interruption, maintain our undoubted Inheritances, and proprieties, and legally recover our just Satisfaction and Reparations, from him, &c. For all his, and their oppressions, murders, and violences committed upon us, and our associates: It being( in our weak judgements) then, and onely then proper for him, by the Law of England now in being, to appeal to the Parliament, after trials at the Common Law, and his Conceptions of injustice done him there, which is clear by the Statutes of the 27 of Elizab. Cha. 8. and 31. Eliz. c. 1. and the Lord Cooks Plea, fol. 2.24.37. And that we may be enabled to scour, cleanse, wyden, and repair our ancient Rivers, Sewers, Drayns, Goats, sluices, and Clowes, which will sufficiently keep dry our said fens: In the perfecting of which work, we have these 60 years, been interrupted and hindered, by that Court-project of Undertaking.  
And your Petitioners shall ever pray, &c.   

To the Right honourable the supreme Authority of the COMMONS of England, Assembled in PARLIAMENT.  
The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Kirton, Frampton, Skirbeckquarter, Wiberton, Alderkirk, Fosdike, Sutterton, Brothertofte, West-Boston, Swinehead, and Wigtoft, Commoners in Holland fens, alias the eight hundred fen in the County of Lincoln.  
SHEWETH,  
THat in the said Parts of Holland and County of Lincoln, there is a great Common fen called Holland fen alias the eight hundred fen, containing about one and twenty thousand Acres; within which your Petitioners and all others possessed of any ancient messsage, Cottage, or Toftstead, within all or any of the eleven populous Towns abovesaid, have by prescription, time out of mind, peaceably without eviction or disturbance, had and enjoyed Common of pasture for themselves, their Tenants; and Farmers, for all and all manner their own cattle respectively, together with common of Turbary, and other Liberties, during their respective residences in their messages, Cottages, or Toftsteads, as belonging and rightly appertaining to the same: Until of late years, some of your Petitioners were most injuriously vexed, as well by unjust suits of Law, as by other illegal and tyrannical usurpations, promoted and prosecuted in the name of the late King, by several undertakers, who were likewise Commissioners, all or most of them men not onely of ill affencted spirits, but in these late Wars, open and violent oppugnors of the just privileges, undoubted immunities and common peace of this Nation; one while pretending the Kings Title to the said fens, when as in truth no such ever was or could be made appear: And otherwhiles by new Commissioners of Sewers, illegally procured, and as illegally executed, without inquision, verdict of Jurors, or other legal means; declaring a great part of the said fens to be hurtfully surrounded, assessing unnecesary and intolerable taxes for its draining: And in default of payment thereof, decrecing away from your Petitioners, and the rest of the Commissioners, eight thousand Acres of the said fen, worth fourscore thousand pounds at the least, at such a time when your Petitioners cattle there depasturing, were ready to perish for lack of water: Against all such which and other unparallelled oppressive proceedings, not onely imprisoning and fining the persons of divers of your Petitioners, upon their humble, peaceable, and legal implorements of Justice, at large specified in a Petition formerly presented to your honourable House, now remaining in the hands of William Ellis Esquire, then Chairman to the Committee for these affairs. Your Petitioners, though to their great trouble and charge, have not onely lawfully defended themselves, but hitherto have and still do maintain their possession and right in the said fens, in such sort as their Ancestors for many hundred of years past have enjoyed the same. Yet taking notice, that the said undertakers, notorious and declared enemies of the good and peace of this Common-wealth, by new contrivences promote their old corrupt interests; Your Petitioner● as well in conformity to your first Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom, wherein yourselves lay it down as a grievance, that large quantities of Commons have been taken from the Subjects, by colour of the Statute of improvement, and abuse of the Commission of Sewers, without their consents and against it; as in defence of their own just Proprieties, cannot but take themselves bound, as to protest against their horrid and long since exploded undertaking, So to remonstrate to your Honors, that the said eight hundred fen is, and time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary, was a firm soil apt for depasturing all manner of cattle, most part of the year: By the commodity of which many thousands with their families, have been and are encouraged to reside amongst us, the fruit of whose cordial affections, cheerful assistance and liberal contributions in these late unhappy differences, the Parliament and Nation have been no ordinary participants. Upon all which,  
Your Petitioners humbly implore your Honors to own your many Declarations and Votes, against destroying Propriette, by unjust and arbitrary proceedings, and particularly in this case of illegal draining: And that your Petitioners for the vindication of the public Justice of the Nation, according to your former Declarations and Votes, may be freed from those Projectors and propriety destroyers; and that all differences betwixt them and the undertakers, or any of their associates, may be wholly and totally left to the ordinary and due course of the Common Law in ordinary Courts of Justice, that we may at a reasonable charge maintain our undoubted Inheritances and Proprieties, and recover our just Satisfactions for injuries done; which will ease your Honors of much trouble, and put both them and us into ways of Trials for their pretended, and our just Rights: And that those horrid and public enemies of our Country, may not he protected by your Honors, whose destruction they have contrived, and vigorously endeavoured; but that they may be brought to concigne punishment according to the Laws of this Nation; that others may be deterred from treading in their steps; and your Petitioners have cause to aclowledge your Honors the true Patrons of their just Rights and Proprieties.  
FINIS.