THE Suffering CASE OF William Gutheridge, Of Banwell in Sommersetshire, Truly Stated, and Committed to the Tender Consideration of all True English Men.  
ABout the Year 1676. James Crosman, Vicar of Banwell and Puckson in Sommersetshire, procured a Writ of Attachment against the said William Gutheridge, because for Conscience sake he could not Swear to an Answer to his Bill in the Exchequer for small Tithes; and by Virtue thereof had him to Ilchester Goal, and kept him there Four Years. The Value of the said Tithes appears by the Affidavits of three men to be between Forty and Fifty Shillings a Year; as also by the Certificate of Ten substantial Men of the Neighbourhood, Witnessed under their Hands; For which, after Four Years Imprisonment at Ilchester, he, with Thomas Tegg, an Impropriator, had him up to the Fleet Prison in London, where he hath remained about Nine Years; and while so a Prisoner, the said James Crosman, caused him to be Indicted at the Quarter Sessions in Sommersetshire, upon the Statute of Recusancy, for being Absent from his Parish Church Eleven Months: the Penalty Two Hundred and Twenty Pounds, which put him to great Trouble and Charges. And not only this, but hath Prosecuted him in the Exchequer, and hath Sworn his small Tithes to be worth Six Pounds ten Shillings a Year; and thereupon hath obtained a Sequestration against him, and hath Entered upon his Goods and Chattels, to the value of One Hundred and Fifty one Pounds seven Shillings, as appears by the Appraisement that he and the Sequestrators have Returned into the Court of Exchequer, but are really worth about twice as much. And hath also Seized upon his Lands and Tenements, to the value of Sixty or Seventy Pounds a Year, which the Sequestrators, by the direction of the said James Crosman, keeps in their hands; and notwithstanding, keeps the said William Gutheridge in Prison, saying, He shall never come out, he being separate a Hundred Miles from his Wife and Family. And thus deprived of his Estate by the unheard of Cruelty of this Priest James Crosman, and his Merciless Proceedings.  
William Gutheridge.