A DECLARATION AND APPEAL TO ALL THE FREEBORN PEOPLE OF THIS KINGDOM IN GENERAL.  
And to all the truly Noble, Pious and well affected Patriots and people of God, within the Cities of London and Westminster in particular, Humbly craving their assistance and furtherance of this just request unto the high Court of Parliament. Made from all the brethren the poor afflicted and oppressed Prisoners (imprisoned for debt,) within the several Ghosts. (Being the Soul destroying Houses, and Dens of Cruelty, Injustice, Tyranny and Oppression) within this Kingdom of England.  
IN all humble manner showing unto you, That from the first sitting of this Parliament, (the only hopes left unto us next under God) for the suppressing of all Injustice, Tyranny and Oppression, and for the advancement and opening the door of time Justice, judgement, and mercy to all, in a free currant without respect of persons, according to the Law of God, the fundamental law of this Land, and the just liberty of the Subject, We have expected our just liberty and enlargement from these several Dungions of misery, yet we your poor oppressed Brethren have Still unto this present time been enslaved in our persons, bereift of our Estates, Credits, and Callings, and buried alive in the several Prisonhouse within this Kingdom, and City of London, And there (by jailors) tyrannically oppressed and tormented, contrary to the law of God, the laws of all other nations, and (as is conceived) against the contents of Magna Charta as appeareth by Register folio 77. de Hommo Replegiando, folio 66. also the 3. of Edward the 1. chap 15, and the 25. of Ed. the 3. chap 4, where it appeareth that the body of no free borne Denizen of England is to be imprisoned for Debt. Nice per Legem terrae the 9 of Henry the 3. chap, 29. and the 52. of Henry the the 3. chap, the 5. and the 14. of Edward the 3. chap. 1. and in the Abridgement of Statutes, folio 65. and 6. and by the Petition of Right in the 3. of Charolie. And all Statutes made to the contrary hereof (in point of the Subjects liberty) are absolutely void by the Statute of the 42. of Edward the 3. chap. 1.  
The imprisonment of men for debt, being justly conceived to be contrary to the late Petition of Right, Ratified by His Majesty in Anno 1640. and contrary to the several Oaths, Vows, Protestations, and Nationall Covenant, and the just and undeniable Privilege and liberty of the Subject in general, being also ratified and confirmed, above 30. several times by the several Kings of this Realm, and yet (most unjustly) the virtue and privileges thereof have been for this long time concealed from the people, and the true use and power thereof perverted, by the indirect practices of covetous mercenary Lawyers (the instruments of contention and oppression) who prefer their own unjust gain and the advancement of their kingdom of contention (and the flourishing state of jailors) fair before the just rights and undeniable privileges and liberty of the Subject, which liberty in itself tendeth to the honour of God, the advancement of true piety the establishment of Love, Unity and peace among the people of this land, as also the tranquillity of this Kingdom, whereas the advancement of their Kingdom of contention and Houses of iniquity, tendeth only to the dishonour of God, and the suppressing of true piety, as also to the breach of the bond of true christian love, Unity and Peace amongst all men, and to the universal ruin of this Kingdom, suitable to the words of late uttered by an eminent Lawyer, who said that it were better that all the Prisoners perished, then that the flourishing state of the Law should decline, this saying being like the words of those Ephesins, who reviled Paul the blessed Messenger of Peace and Mercy, and cried up still Dyana the Gods of the Ephesians saying, Great is Dyana the Gods of the Ephesians, and all this proceeding from the Devil that grand enemy to all true Christian Love, Unity, and Peace. And thus the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, they are corrupt they have done abominable works, they speak peaceably to their neighbours, when mischief is in their hearts, for they regard not the works of the Lord, (Even true Justice, Judgement, and mercy) but in their hearts they prefer. That the abominable gain of Injustice and tyranny, and love to possess the riches of Oppression, Fraud and Deceit, despising the Poor and oppressing them, and drawing them before the Judgement Seat, to their utter ruin and deprivation of their Estates and Libertyes.  
That your poor afflicted brethren, have often since the beginning of this Parliament, addressed themselves by their several humble Petitions & Remonstrances unto the honourable court of Parliament for relief against Injustice, Tyranny & oppression inflicted on them by Lawyers & sailors, and forre releafe of their persons from this slavery of imprisonment, most unjustly long since fastened upon them, and the posterity of this whole Nation, by the most subtle and indirect practices of bribing judges, covetous Lawyers, seditious Attorneys, Oppressing jailors, and their potent adherents, but by what unjust and impyous hand we know not, our several Petitions and Remonstrances have been hitherto extremely slighted and obstructed, and we thereby still exposed to all injustice, tyranny, and oppression, and I miserable Languishment in Gaol, where the jailors unlimited power and tyranny transcends all Regal power, being (in his own cause) both Plaintiff and judge, and also Executioner of his own cruel will upon poor Christians committed to his custody, and who are also conceived to be supported and countenanced therein by some eminent persons, allied (unto some of them about London)  
The which impyous restraint of our persons in Gaol, tendeth to none other end then to the inrichment of Lawyers, Attorneys, Solissitors and jailors, and to the utter ruin of thousands of us your oppressed brethren, and of our wives and children, and where also (through the cruelty of jailors and their bloody instruments) divers honest and godly men have suffered untimely ends and most cruel deaths, whose blood (doubtless) cries for vengeance at the hand of God.  
That we your oppressed Brethren still hungering and thirsting after our just and precious Liberty, and seeing no fruits of our former several Petitions and Remonstrances, did in October 1644. address ourselves by our humble APPEAL unto the Reverend Synod of Divines, and thereby humbly craving their  furtherance of our Releasement from this our Inslayed thraldom. From whom also we have hitherto received none other Cordial (for our comfort and hope of Liberty) than a cold comfortless Mess of Broth, seasoned only with a few unsavoury Lentalls, whereby we are still exposed to the many and unexpressable Cruelties of Barbarous and extorting jailors, and their hungry blood sucking Substitutes.  
The Premises justify and piously weighed (by all the Commonalty of this land) and for that this slavery of Imprisonment of men for Debt, (most unjustly fastened upon us and all the Freeborn people of this Land) tendeth to none other end, then to the utter ruin of us and all our posterities, in their Estates, Credits, Callings and precious Liberties, and only to the jurichment of Lawyers, Atturmes, Solissitors, Clerks and jailors, and to the advancement of most wicked and ungodly Contention, Injustice, Tyranny, and Oppression, for which the wrath of God is now come down upon us, under the heavy burden whereof the whole Kingdoms at present groaneth, and by reason whereof Blood toucheth Blood.  
Your poor oppressed and afflicted Brethren (And Prisoners for Debt) do therefore appeal unto you, and most humbly beseech you in the bowels of compassion (and for his sake that hath so derely bought us) to take these our miserable unjust sufferings (and the slavery fastened on you and your posterities) into your serious consideration, that so by a true and speedy course of justice (without respect of person this Egyptian slavery and heavy Yoke of Imprisonment for debt, may be b●…. That so thereby both you and we, and all our posterities in general, may be freed and clearly acquitted from this bondage of imprisonment, tyranny and oppression (for all times and ages to come) according to the true contents and meaning of the great and free Charter of England, being the unalterable and fundamental law of this Kingdom, (for the liberty of the Subject,) purchased by the blood of many thousands of our Ancestors.  
And that it may be ordered and established, That such Prisoners at present, as have Estates, and make the Prison their Sanctuary (to the defrauding of their Creditors) may by some just and impartial course, enforced (out of the two third parts of their estates either in Lands or Goods) to give present satisfaction to their Creditors, and the other third part of the said Debtors Estate to be reserved unto the Debtor, for and towards the future subsistence of him, his Wife and family, and the Education of his children, and their persons being freed from Imprisonment, may then be take themselves to their former Endeavours and Callings.  
And that such poor Prisoners as have been many years since (by their Creditors) berefit of all their estates, credits, callings and liberties, by the help of that most cruel and abominable Statute of Bancrout, and are thereby become the most miserable Spectacle of Poverty (through Tyranny and Oppression) and their wives and children brought to the state of beggary. That these may be forthwith acquitted out of Gaol (Maugre the cruelty of jailors, their bloody Substitutes and potent Adherents) not suffering them to perish in Gaol merely forwant of paying the jailor his unjust and unlimited extorting Fees, as many score of poor Christians have done, within the Prison of King's Bench alone.  
Considering also that 10. 20. or 30. year's imprisonment of the body, discounteth not one penny of debt to the Creditor, but only enableth the jailor and his hellish Substitutes (like so many Vipers) to suck the vital blood of the poor Prisoners. In which particular, England may send a defiance to all Europe, Asia, Africa and America, to parallel her cruelty inflicted on her brethren and fellow members of the same commonwealth.  
That there may be a Certain number of honestable Godly men, in every City and Town corporate appointed (as it is in Germany and many other countries) for the weekly visitation of the several Prisons, to know the just cause of men's imprisonment for debt, and to inquire upon oath the present ability of the prisoner, that so thereby the cruel Creditor, the contentious Lawyer. Attorney and Solissitor, and the oppressing jailor, may be prevented from loding of false and feigned Actions upon the poor Prisoners, who through their extreme poverty are not able to stop the violent current of this their tyranny and oppression. Requiring also of the poor Prisoners no less than 11. Groats for withdrawing of every Action, besides three half pence in the pound for action money, and 3. pence in the pound for Execution money, and besides 28. s. 4. d. by them demanded as a Fee upon the discharge of every Prisoner out of the common Gaol, whereas in truth there is (justly according to the Statute of Henry the 6.) But 4. d due to the jailor upon discharge of the Prisoner. Also besides the 10. s. 6. d. by them extorted from the Prisoner for every day's liberty by Wrir, and 7. 9 6. d by rule on the master side, and 3. s. a day of every Prisoner on the Common side, And besides their excessive Chamber rend of 5. s. 8. s. and 10. s. 2 week extorted from every Prisoner on the Master side, & in the Rules, together with 20 other several unjust extorting Fees exacted from the poor Prisoners by these jailors and their hellish Substitutes. And all this tendering to the utter ruin of the poor Prisoner his Wife and Children, The defrauding of the Creditors, and to the only Inrichment of jailors and their adherents, whose unlimited power reacheth far beyond the lawful power of Sovereignty and exceeds the bounds of justice, Reason and Conscience.  
And further that if any Prisoner be found to be a defrauder of his Creditors, and upon his examination happen wittingly to perjure himself, by concealing his Estate, than the said Commissioners to have power to instict upon such persons convicted Corporal punishment, and then also the said perjured parties Estate, to be disposed of by them to his Creditors, and if a Surpluge there of remain (after the Creditors satisfaction) than the same to be by the said Commissioners disposed of to the poor.  
The reservation of the third part of the Debtors Estate, will prove an encouragement to all, for the disclosing of the whole Estate to the Commissioners and the Corporal punishment of the Frandulent Debtor, together with the deprivation of whole Estate, will be a terror to all evil minded men, (a course usual in many other Countries) and will doubtless prove a thing just and pleasing both to God and man, and beneficial to the Creditors.  
That the murders and inhuman Cruelties by jailors frequently inflicted on Prisoners may be justly and truly searched out. And that all these accursed achan's in this our Israel may receive their due reward of severe justice, whereby God may be glorified, and the Land acquitted from the guilt of innocent blood, For Israel could not have peace, so long as the Gibionites (slain, by Saul) were unrevenged.  
That jailors may be forth with restrained, and by the higher powers, limited and bounded in their Fees and Demands now most unjustly extorted from Prisoners. In especial Sir John Lenthall, who out withstanding the terror of this Parliament (being supported by some Members of the same as is conceived) hath of late inflicted new oppressions on the Prisoners, and also for the advancement of the rent of his seller, & kitchen, enforceth the Prisoners to buy all their meat & drink in the said prison at a far higher price than that which they usually before had it for (abroad at the chandlers.  
And that the palpable malignancy of some eminent jailors may be also suppressed, and restrained in their extraordinary favour, liberty and protection by them conferred upon Papists, jesuites, Priests, Delinquents and Malignants, and that their rigour and extreme cruelty inflicted on all such as stand well affected to Religion the Parliament and liberty may be restrained, that so God may receive the glory, your poor  enslaved Brethren their liberties, and all your and our posterities in general the happiness and comfort to all succeeding generations. For behold, now they despise and tread upon the poor, they afflict the needy, yea they eat up God's people as they eat bread. For we are as a people ensnared in holes, buried alive in prison-houses, rob of our Estates, Credits, Callings and liberty, and yet none saith restore unto them their right (ever their Liberty.)  
Wherefore we beseech you by the Mercies of God, and in the bowels of compassion, to remember us that are in bonds (even as bound with us) and all of us that suffer adversity and tribulation, as being yourselves also in the body (and by the like oppressions made subject to the same afflictions.) For behold we are all your brethren, Flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone, Oh, therefore suffer us not to be any longer tormented, oppressed, distressed, enslaved and utterly ruined and destroyed in Prison-houses, being all of them none other but the proper places of injustice, tyranny and oppression, where they that rule over us make us to howl, and enforce us thereby to wish for the consummation of our days out of this veil of misery, and places of tyranny and oppression:  
For thus saith the Lord, What do I require of thee Oh man, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God, to relieve the Widow, the Fatherless, and the Stranger, and to lee the oppressed (and long imprisoned) go free. Then, (yet not tell then) shall your light break forth as the Sun, and then (yet not tell then) will the Lord your God have mercy upon you and divert these his present judgements from you, and heal the Land, For the Lord our God, is a God of justice, judgement and mercy. Therefore be you merciful, as your heavenly father is merciful: observing and perserving in this sacred rule (truly and constantly (even, To do as you would be done unto.  
November 1645.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS AND COMMONS ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT. The humble Petition of all the poor Oppressed and Distressed Prisoners within the prison of Kings-Bench, and all other Prisons for Debt, within the Kingdom of England, and principality of Wales, Conceived to be about 8000 in number at the least.  
Most humbly Complaining, Shows.  
THat your poor oppressed Petitioners, having sundry times (ever since the beginning of this Parliament) addressed themselves by their several humble petitions, unto this honourable Assembly, for the obtaining of their just and undoubted Rights and Privileges, (being the liberty and freedom of their persons from the slavery of Imprisonment fastened on their persons by the illegal practices and unexpressable abuse of Magna Charta, in all which hitherto your Petitioners have reaped no redress nor release.  
That in the 3. year of his Majesty's reign, the body of this Commonwealth being sensible of many sufferings, occasioned by the breach of Magna Charta (it being the contract and perpetual law between the King and his Subjects) the Lords and Commons then assembled, petitioned His Majesty for confirmation on of the same (which employed their consents) to which His Majestic then ascented and since confirmed (which implies an Act) and if to an Act and a legal confirmation, than we humbly conceive and tha● most true, that it nullifies all latter Statutes that are made in contradiction thereof, tending to the betraying of the Liberty of the Subject, and the enslaving of their persons and the persons of all their posterities, to all succeeding Generations (which contradiction, wehumblie conceive may seem too great in the wisdom of this honourable Assembly) it having been maintained publicly therein, that the Subjects must be eased in their persons (being a freeborn people and no villains nor Slaves) from all illegal excess, and imprisonment of their persons, against Magna Charta, which is our greatest liberty & the only leading Mother-law of this Kingdom, purchased by the blood of many thousands of our Ancestors.  
The premises justly and piously weighed, and for that your Petitioners have been of late (by many religious and well affected persons in this City and Kingdom) Encouraged once more to address themselves unto this honourable Assembly, by this our humble Petition, for release from this their unjust tyrannical restraint, considering also and duly weighing, that 10. 20. or 30. year's imprisonment of the body, doth not discount one penny of debt to the Creditor. Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray, that by the wisdom, justice, and piety of this honourable Assembly, their persons may be restored to their ancient legal and just liberties, as at the first, and the free current of justice opened, that so your Petitioners (notwithstanding their extreme poverty and want of potent friends) may be enabled to partake thereof freely and not enforced to buy it for the price of Iniquity as formerly, and their Estates, if any remaining; may only be made liable, in the two third parts thereof, to satisfy their debts, with some charitable and due consideration first had to the future subsistence of themselves their wives and family, and the education of their children, A think in itself agreeable to the law of God, the rule of Charity and the laws of many other Nations, that so both they and all their posterities to succeeding Generation, being clearly acquitted from this Egyptian bondage may have just cause to bless the memory of this honourable Assembly, and Eternise their names, as of the restores of our ancient Rights and liberties,  
This Petition was before the 6. of October 1645. subscribed by almost a hundred of us the prisoners of Kings-Bench and intended to have been presented from us to the House of Peers within 2. days after, but it coming to the knowledge of Sir John Lenthall & his cruel Deputy Thomas Dutson, they then forthwith procured justice Whittaker to send a Messenger with his Warrant to the prison of King's Bench thereby requiring James Frese, to deliver that and all his other writings, upon whose refusal, they were then by the said Messenger assisted by Thomas Durson and 4. or 5. of Sir John Lenthalls servants, forcibly taken from the said james Frese and are all of them detained from him until this present, this being the third time that the said james Frese hath been forcibly deprived of his writings by the said Sir john Lenthall his Deputy and servants and by their procurement now at the last, contrary to all justice equity and right, and stately against the privilege, liberty and safety of the Subject, and in further persuance in his cruelty against all well affected to the Parliament, he the said Sir john Lenthall hath also since caused one Mr. Robert Cratchrod (a prisoner for Debt) to be violently dragged forth out of the common Gaol of King's Bench and thrust into the Common Dungeon in the White Lion, (some times past the County Gaol, but now only a private house) thereby bereaving the poor Gentleman of his Cain and Lodging, as 〈…〉 (a thing by him usually practised) and all this is done by him, only because the G 〈…〉