thieves, thieves: OR, A RELATION OF Sir John GELL'S proceedings in Darbyshire, in gathering up the Rents of the Lords and Gentlemen of that County by pretended authority from the two Houses of PARLIAMENT.  
Printed in the year M.DC.XLIII.   

thieves thieves: OR, A Relation of Sir John Gell's proceedings in Derbyshire, in gathering up the Rents of the Lords and Gentlemen of that County.  
IT was most happily observed by His Sacred majesty, upon occasion of the Ordinance for the Twentieth part, that The same power which robbed His Subjects of the Twentieth part of their estates, had by that made a claim, and entitled itself to the other nineteen, when it should be thought fit to hasten the general ruin: in which His majesty hath proved but too true a Prophet. For when these great asserters of the public liberty, had found some possible hopes to prevail in that, amongst the wretched and infatuated people of the city of London, they forthwith flattered themselves into a belief, that they should find as much obedience, and as pernicious instruments to effect their ends in the Country also. They practised first upon the city, as anciently unskilful empirics did on their slaves and servants; not doubting if they thrived and prospered in that experiment, but the whole kingdom shortly would become their Patient. And thereto they would go no further at the first attempt then a twentieth part, which was conceived to be no pressing imposition: knowing full well, that if the Subject could be brought to submit unto it, they did immediately divest themselves of that right and property, which by the wisdom and justice of former Parliaments was provided for them; and that it would be no hard matter for the next new Ordinance to take all at once. He that is once so skilled in the Art of game, as to play at Pluck-penny, will quickly come to Sweep-stake: and so it proved in the event. For what did follow hereupon but loan upon loan, and levy after levy, until the sum of the executions amounted to two millions of money, as hath been openly affirmed in the House of Commons: and after such a vast effusion of the Treasure of the kingdom, a loan of 6000l to be raised at once upon that city; a levy of 4000l a month to be raised for ever, if they sit so long; 8000l a month imposed to fortify the town against their sovereign; collections under several stiles to the same ill ends; and on refusal of the twentieth part so unjustly called for, the whole estate of many a rich and wealthy Citizen, forcibly taken from him, against Law and Justice, under pretence of a distress; and he himself committed to some common goal, at Colchester, Yarmouth, Harwich, Rochester, or wheresoever else these offended powers, those laesa numina( for they are more then Kings already) have been pleased to sand them. And at this instant a design to lay an Excise on all the Wine and Tobacco to be sold in London, for speeding of the which, their general is expected to come shortly thither; that by the terror of his arms it may pass the easier: which if it take effect upon those commodities, and in the city of London onely for the present time, will quickly be extended to all kindes of Victuals; and finally obtruded upon all the kingdom.  
This trial made upon the city, though they found more reluctance and resistance in it, then they had promised to themselves; their next design is to attempt the like invasion on the whole body of the realm. Accordingly an Ordinance is made by the Lords and Commons, for the speedy raising and levying of money,( that is to say, 150000l per mensem) for the maintaining of their Armies, to be assessed upon the Cities of London and Westminster, and every County and city of the kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales; Commissioners appointed to impose and collect the same, after the forms of several Acts of Parliament made this present Session, proportions predetermined of for all the Counties and chief towns, according to the platform( never known before) of raising the 400000l to discharge their debts; several penalties enjoined, and divers extraordinary Acts of force and violence authorised thereby, to compel the Subject to yield to so unreasonable and unjust a tax; and pretty sleights devised to betray those men into their power, whom they could neither terrify by threats, nor compel by force. Of this last kind one of the finest Artifices was to make themselves the general Lardlords of the Common-wealth, and bring the Tenants, bailiffs, and other Officers of the English Gentry, to be responsal unto them for their Rents and Duties: it being declared in the said Ordinance, That the Collectors of this tax should have power respectively to inquire of any sum or sums of money due, or to be due to any person so assessed,( which shall refuse to pay the said monthly rates) from any person or persons, for any Rents, Tithes, Goods, or Debts, or any other thing or cause whatsoever; and to compound for any of the said Rents, Tithes, Goods, Debts, due to the person so assessed, respectively as afore-said, with any person or persons, by whom the said Rents, Tithes, Goods, Debts, or other things due unto the said person so assessed, respectively ought to be paid and accounted for; as also to give full discharge for the money by them so received, upon composition or otherwise; which discharge shall be good and effectual to all intents and purposes. So far the Letter of the Ordinance.  
And to say truth, it stood with Reason and with Justice both that it should be so, that they who had released themselves of all subjection to their sovereign Lord, seized on His Revenues, prohibited the serving in of His accustomend Provisions, applied the ordinary customs imposed on merchandise to their own proper use, and stopped all ways, as much at least as in them was, by which His majesty might subsist in the condition of a private Gentleman, should also free and manumit inferior persons from all manner of service to their Lords, appropriate unto themselves the whole Revenue of the kingdom, and in conclusion break in sunder as well the bonds of Oeconomicall as of political obedience. For though it was conceived at first by some moderate men, who would fain nourish confidence where there was no hope; that this was onely done to content the Citizens in making them believe that all the rest of the kingdom should bear the burden of the war as well as they; and that it was not to be put in execution, but where the people were already enured to bondage: yet this was but a sickmans hope, which usually layeth hold on any thing that comes next to hand; it being resolved from the beginning to exercise this prodigy of Arbitrary power and tyranny( as it is called most justly by His sacred Majesty) in all parts and places, where either their party was so servill as willingly to yield unto it, or their authority so strong as to force obedience, which being perceived by His Majesty he caused a Proclamation to be published, dated March the 8. forbidding all assessing, collections, and paying of the twentieth part, and of all weekly taxes by colour of any Orders or Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament, under such several pains and penalties to the Assessors, Collectors, and such as shall assist therein, as are there expressed. His majesty had good reason to expect of the English Subjects, who have been anciently so zealous of their native Liberties, that willingly they would not help to betray each other to a shameful servitude: especially when as His Majesty appeared so visibly in defence thereof, not onely by his Declarations and Proclamations which might be valued as a cheap and easy favour, but by adventuring his own life and fortunes to preserve their privileges.  
But notwithstanding all his care of his sacred Majesty to Protect his Subjects, & the presumptions that he had to find His people answerably mindful of their native property: there want not many in most Counties,( in all Counties some) who fear not to bee looked upon as the betrayers of the laws and Liberties they were born unto, so they may bring about those ungodly ends, for which they have engaged both their faith, and fortunes. And amongst these I meet with none more practical then Gell of Darbyshire, who being notoriously guilty of high Treason against His Majesty, and publicly proscribed by Proclamation, is come at last to that condition, that he hath little reason to hope for better, or fear to fall into a worse estate, then he now is under. In this regard, he with the rest of his complices, Pretending or having a Commission from both the Houses of Parliament, hath undertaken to discharge this dreadful Ordinance, in all those parts and places where he hath authority, or can procure authority by his power and arms: especially on those well-affected Gentlemen and others of more eminent note, who have the courage not to yield to so wild a Tyranny; or so much loyalty and common prudence, as to assist their sovereign in their own defence. And to this end he sends out warrants unto the Constables of each hundred within the veirge of his Commission, with notice to the Tenants of all such persons, whose names he annexed in a schedule, to appear before him and his Associates at a place appointed; and to compound with them for their rents, promising to abate the fourth part, and give acquittance for the whole; and with these subtle Acts and promises, mingling such powerful threats and terrors, as were conceived to have most influence upon Vulgar spirits. One of which warrants coming by good luck to my hands, I have here transcribed, that all the Subjects of this kingdom may perceive at last( if wilfully they have not put out their own eyes) how near they are to that general ruin of their Rights and Liberties, to which they have betrayed themselves by their blind obedience,  

To the Constable of Ackmanton.  
Whereas these unnatural warres at this present, are fomented & maintained by Papists and Malignants, to the utter undoing of many honest men, and the ruin of the whole common-wealth: for the better preventing of which misery, and to do the best wee can to put a speedy end to these distractions, according to the trust reposed in us by the Ordinance of Parliament, we think fit and do command you that presently upon receipt hereof, you give notice to all the Tenants within your Constablerie, if any of the Persons name in a Schedule herewith sent you, that henceforward they pay all their rents due to any of those persons or to any other that contribute, or bear arms against the Parliament, to the Committee here at derby, or to such other Person or Persons as the said Committee shall nominate. And we all promise that such of those Tenants that show their forwardness to bring in their Rents to the Committee at derby by our Lady-day next, or within four dayes afterwards, shall have a discharge against their Landlords of the whole rent, and shall have a fourth part abated them; And those Tenants that are refractory and come not willingly to us, shall not onely be forced to pay their whole rents, but also shall be proceeded against as Malignant Persons, and such as endeavour the continuance of these troubles.  
Given under our hands, March. 1642.   

Post-script.  
You may let such of these Tenants know that if they cannot procure the whole rents so soon as is appointed, yet if they bring part to the Committee at derby at that time, then they shall have further time for the residue, and such abatement as the Committee and they shall agree of.  
signed. 

John Gell.  
Tho. Gell.  
John Gresley.  
mat. hallows.     
Nor were the Persons whose estates were thus disposed of, of any ordinary rank and quality, such upon whom experiments of this dangerous nature, might be tried most safely: but the most choice and eminent men both of nobility and Gentry in all that County, as you intelligent reader, may perceive by their very name, being these that follow in the schedule.  

The earl of Newcastle.  
The earl of Devonshire.  
The Lord Maltravers.  
Sr. Andrew Kniveton.  
sir Wil. Savil.  
Sr. joh. Harper of Caulk.  
Sr. jo. Fitz. Herb. of Tissington.  
Mr. Barnesly.  
Mr. John Bullock.  
Mr. Rowland Eyre.  
Mr. pool of Spinkehill.  
Mr. Pusey.  
Mr. Humlock.  
Mr. Will. Millard.  
Mr. Hen. Gilbert.  
Mr. John cuff.  
Mr. Francis Cavendish.  
Mr. jackson.  
The earl of Shrewsbury.  
The earl of Chesterfield.  
Mr. Henry Hastings.  
Sr. Edward Moseley.  
Sr. joh. Harper of Swarstone.  
Sr. jo. Fitz-Herbert of Norbury.  
Mr. Hen. Merry.  
Mr. John Merry.  
Mr. Powtherell.  
Mr: John Fretchwell.  
Mr. John Shawcrosse.  
Mr. John Byram.  
Mr. Stanford.  
Mr. Aston Cockaine.  
Mr. Edw. lo.  
Mr. Will. Stanhope.  
Mr. Eltoft.  
Mr. Burridge.  
Mr. Christopher Eoe.  
Mr. Howson.  
Mr. Savill of Backwell.  
Mr. Th. Bagshaw of Ridge.  
Mr. Nic. Brown of marsh.  
Mr. Richard cook.  
Mr. Sidenham.  
Mr. John Pale.  
Mr. Boden of Boden.  
Mr, Rich. Carrier.   
He must be needs abused to an infinite dulness, who finds not sensibly how utterly destructive these proceedings are of the rights and Liberties of the English Subject; when once the Tenant is seduced to deceive his Landlord, to play the knave by the authority of Parliament, and to be tempted to it by so faire a bait, as the abaitement of his rent in so large a measure; which doubtless is prevailing oratory with most country people: needs must he be extremely stuped, who seeth not what poor and groundless hopes the lower shrubs may have to avoid the blow; when once the Axe is laid unto the Root of these goodly Cedars. For howsoever most if not all of these whose names we meet with in that schedule, may be comprehended in the style of malignants and delinquents( terms of no signification in the laws of England) as they are most commonly; yet who sees not, how easily that man may be called malignant, or Voted up for a delinquent, whose large revenues may invite them so to style the owner, in hope to benefit themselves by the confiscation. Do we not see, that to be an honest man is to be a Malignant, when those who guided by the rules of common honesty, make conscience of paying their Rents unto any other then their rightful Landlords, are presently declared to be Malignants, and threatened in Gell's Warrant produced before, to be proceeded against as Malignant Persons? And if that common honesty be thought sufficient( as it seems to be) to make men Malignants; think we that loyalty, being a duty of more excellent and more public nature, will not as easily be found sufficient to make men Delinquents? If so, as so assuredly it is, then let us seriously consider to what degree of tamenesse we have brought ourselves, when persons of such desperate fortunes( as those who are employed most commonly in these guilty offices) are furnished with a power to receive our Rents, compound for our Debts, dispose of our Estates, and fell our Goods: and finally to undo those poor honest men, who shall not readily betray their Masters, or put a cheat upon their Landlords. Quid Domini facient, audent cum talia Fures? If Gell and such as he have this power upon us, 'tis time to give up all to these awful hands, the little finger of the which is grown heavier to us, then the loins of all the Kings that have reigned in England, were on our Progenitors. And yet so tender would they fain be thought of the Subjects liberties, that when their general had sent out a warrant for raising 52 l. out of the town of Richmond, toward the payment of his Souldiers quartered thereabouts; it was complained of, and condemned in the House of Commons, as being destructive of the peoples property, by which it seems to be against the privilege of Parliament, that any but themselves should contribute to the ruin of the Common-Wealth.  
Nor let them think, who hitherto have been the instruments of this wretched servitude, or have been wrought upon so far as to contribute arms and Money to their own undoing; that they live in Goshen, and that not one of all the Plagues which afflict their neighbours, shall come near their dwellings. The frequent plunderings of their friends, as well as of such others as affect them not; and Master Pyms defence of Long on the like occasion, that many things are to born with, if they conduce unto the great and necessary affairs of the Common-wealth; shows evidently what their friends must look for, when they have served their turn upon their enemies. And that will prove in fine such a churlish courtesy, as Polyphemus promised to his loved Ulysses; which was to keep him till the last, and not to eat him till he had devoured all his fellowes. With how much better hopes of success and fortune, may they permit themselves to be disabused, resume the use of their own sences, and not give up their intellectuals, nay their very souls, to the lusts of those, who all this while have held them captive, and shortly mean to make them follow their triumphant chariots. With how much fairer possibility to enjoy their rights, may they unite both hearts & hands to defend His Majesty, considering that by so doing they defend themselves: and rather choose to give his Majesty nineteen parts to preserve the twentieth, though tis our hope that we shall never be reduced unto those extremities; then by so giving up the twentieth part, or indeed any part at all to loose all the rest, which of all likelihood will follow after, if not timely remedied. I ad no more, but that if these considerations and examples prevail not on us, and that we do not somewhat speedily to assert our liberties, the blessing of Issachar will fall heavy like a curse upon us, and we of this brave freeborn nation, which heretofore hath been the wonder, as it was the envy of the Christian world, will come to be the strong ass which the Scriptures speak of, crouching between two burdens: strong onely in our patience of enduring pressures, and crouching to so poor a degree of slavery, as to be brought to kiss the rod, wherewith all the scourge us. Which as it is the greatest infamy, the severest bondage that can be possibly imposed on men born to servitude; so is it far more odious and unsufferable to men of judgements and courage, then the sharpest death.  
FINIS.