THE DECLARATION and ADDRESS of the GENTRY of the County of ESSEX, who have adhered to the KING, and suffered Imprisonment, or Sequestration, during the late Troubles. May it please Your Excellency, We the Gentlemen of the County of ESSEX, taking notice how industrious some pernicious and desperate persons have been to raise a jealousy, that all who adhered to the KING have such a Settlement of rancour and revenge in their hearts, against those who were of a different party, that the blessing of a firm and lasting PEACE, so long wished for and now hoped to be in a near propinquity, is not likely to take its due and desired effect, Have thought fit to express the true sense of our hearts, in a Declaration which we have enclosed herein, Conceiving it very fitting, not to make the same more public, till it hath first arrived at the view of your Excellency, whom God hath been pleased to make so signally eminent in the delivering of this Nation from those pressing miseries it hath so long lain panting and groaning under; and for which, as we can never enough magnify his mercy, so can we not sufficiently express that high Honour and respect which we retain in our hearts to wards Your Excellency, the great and worthy instrument he hath been pleased to make use of therein. Chelmesford, April 17. 1660. MY LORD, We subscribe ourselves, Your excellency's most Humble and Devoted Servants. This was subscribed by the Gentry, whose names are expressed under the subsequent Declaration, and superscribed To His excellency the Lord General MONCK. The DECLARATION. WHereas Almighty God hath raised this distracted Nation to some hopes of resettlement on Just, Known, and Lasting Foundations: We magnify his Mercy from the bottom of our hearts, and shall ever pay a most grateful acknowledgement to his EXCELLENCY the Lord Gen. MONCK as the signal Instrument of so great a Deliverance. And whereas some pernicious and desperate Persons have laboured to raise a jealousy, that those who adhered to the KING do still in their hearts retain Revenge against such as were of a different Party: We think ourselves bound to declare to all the World (in the presence of God) that we detest and abhor all thoughts of Animosity or Revenge against any Party or Persons whatsoever. For as we could wish the late Divisions had never been begotten, so we desire they may for ever be buried, and shall think those Persons the greatest and common Enemies of our Country who shall offer to revive them. And we also declare, That we will thankfully submit and attend the Resolutions of the next ensuing Parliament, for a just and happy Settlement of Church and State, that so at last (by God's blessing) those odious marks of Sides and Parties may for ever be blotted out, and a perfect Union may again be restored to this distressed Nation. Edward Russel, Esq Sir Henry Appleton, Baronet. Sir Benjamin Ayloff, Baronet. Sir Denner Strutt, Baronet. Sir Humphrey Mildemay, Knight. Sir John Tirell, Knight. Sir Cranmer Herris, Knight. Sir Edmund Peirce, Knight. Sir Henry Wroth, Knight. William Ayloffes, Esq James Altham, Esq Gamaliel Capel, Esq Anthony Browne, Esq Charles Fytche, Esq Thomas Argall, Esq Stephan Smyth, Esq Salter Herris, Esq Henry Pert, Esq John Fanshaw, Esq Thomas Roberts, Esq Richard Humphrey, Esq John Lynn, Esq Dr. John Michaelson, Richard Symonds, Esq Anthony Kempson, Esq William Herris, Esq William Bramston, Esq John Brown, Gent. Nicholas Serle. John Vavasour, Gent. John Greene, Gent. James Cookson, Gent. Edmund Coole, Gent. This Declaration and Address was agreed-upon by the Subscribers at a General Meeting, at Chelmesford in Essex, April 17. 1660. Sir Benjamin Ayloffes, and Sir Edmond Peirce being then appointed and desired to present them to his Excellency, which was done accordingly at St. James' the 19th of the same Month. LONDON, Printed for Gabriel Bedell, and Thomas Collins, at the middle Temple-gate in Fleet street.