THE COMMONERS COMPLAINT: OR, A DREADFUL WARNING FROM Newgate, to the Commons of England.  
PRESENTED To the Honourable Committee for consideration of the Commoners Liberties.  
Wherein (as in a Glass) every Freeman of England may clearly be hold his own imminent insufferable bondage and slavery under the Norman-Prerogative Men of this Kingdom, represented by the present sufferings of Richard Overton; who for his just Vindication of the Commoners Rights and Freedoms against the Arbitrary Domination of the House of Lords, hath by them been imprisoned these 6 Months in the Goal of Newgate, his wife and his brother also by them most unjustly cast into Maidenlace prison: And from thence, she (with her tender babe of half a years age in her arms) was, for refusing active subjection to their Arbytrary Orders, dragged most barbarously and inhumanely headlong upon the stones through the streers in the dirt and mire (as was her husband formerly (Novemb. 3. 1646) for the said cause) worse than Rebels, Traitors, Thiefs, or Murderers, to the place of execution: And in that most contemptible and villainous manner cast into the most reproachful, infamous Goal of Bridewell: And their 3 small children (as helpless Orphans bereft of Father and Mother, Sister and Brother) exposed to the mercy of the wide world.  
Whereunto is annexed the respective Appeals of his wife, and of his brother, unto the High Court of Parliament, the Commons of England assembled at Westminster.  Isa. 59 14. 
And judgement is turned backward, and justice standeth a fare off: for Truth is fallen in the street, and Equity cannot enter.  
Printed Anno Dom. 1646.   

To his honoured friend, Col. Henry Martin, a Member of the House of Commons, and Chairman to the honourable Committee, for consideration of the Commoners Liberties, and in him, to all the Members of the said Committee; The humble Information & Complaint of Richard Overton, prisoner in the infamous Goal of Newgate; concerning the barbarous cruelties, and inhuman practices of the house of Lord (and of their Prerogative-Agents) exercised upon himself, his wife, children, and whole family, since his legal trial before the said honourable Committee.  Jam. 2 13. He shall have judgement without mercy, that hath showed no mercy. Psalm. 41. 1, 2. Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble, the Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the Earth. 
Master Chair man,  
AS B●ndage and Liberty are two contraries, so you cannot truly consider the one, but you must reflect your eye upon the other: For, though one be so destuctive to the Being of the other, that, where the one is, the other cannot be; yet, each by other is more eminently distinguished: And look how much the one is exceeding the other, by so much the other is deficient, & loseth of its Property: for, quorum unum altero latius est, non suntre anum.  
Therefore, I humbly conceive, that, to the consideration of the Commoners Liberties, the usurpations, encroachments, & destructions thereof, fall inavoydably into like consideration, even so, as the one cannot be truly considered without the other: If you will cast your eye upon the glory and beauty of the one, your ear must be open to the cry and complaint of the other; And therefore, answerably, as you are by the Sovereign power of the Land ordained and deputed for the due and grave consideration of the Commoners Liberties, you are by the same Authority also empowered for the rec●ption of all Petitions, Informations, and Complaints of the Afflicted Commoners, touching their Birthright, Liberties, and Freedoms, and thereof to judge, and accordingly to make Report unto the House.  
Wherefore Sir, I shall presume to present this honourable Committee, with the late most barbarous inhumanities', and Turkish Cruelties, by the most Arbytrary Tyrannical House of Lords, and their Prerogative-Butchers perpetrated upon myself, upon my wife, my three small children, upon my brother, and the rest of my family, in all, consisting of 8 persons, all committed and acted since the late legal consideration and trial of my cause before you, yet still depending upon the Report of this honourable Committee: As for their former illegal usuapations over me, I shall omit their repetition, they being already made public unto the world & only acquaint you with the latter.  
But first, I shall present you with those their illegal cruelties 
See the defiance, & the Arrow against ryrannie.  which concern myself (they falling first in order) together with the mutual passages concerning the same, betwixt their Instruments and me, then answerably I shall descend to their barbarous unheard of inhumanities' (such as never were acted by their Norman Progenitors, since the Prerogative-Foundation of that Norman house was ever laid, or ever since they bore the name of an House of Peers) now lately upon the 6. and 8. of this instant jan. 1646, most villainously perpetrated upon my wife, children, and the rest of my family, and commit the mutual passages on both sides (faithfully penned and presented) unto your grave and judicious consideration, to judge impartially betwixt us: And all that I in the behalf of myself, & of mine, shall crave from this honourable Committee, is but the Benefit of what the Lord himself hath commanded, Leu. 19 15. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgement, thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.  
If I be found a transgressor, then let me speedily suffer my doom; but if I be found none, then let me have speedy relief: I crave no favour, nor boon at your hands; it is only justice which I desire, and that's but a reasonable suit; a suit, which of Pagans, Turks, & Infidels would not be condemned, and therefore justly may be expected from you.  
Thus, then Sir, give me leave to acquaint you, that after my last departure from you in the Palace yard (Novemb. 3. 1646.) and that I was cleared from your presence, and the presence of my friends, and was only left in the hands of my Gaolers, my indignation and detestation (fore-uttered in your presence in the inward Court of Wards) against the Arbytrary tyranny and usurpation of the house of Lords over the Commoners natural & legal Freedoms and Rights, and over mine in particular burst out afresh; and upon consideration, whether I should be so base to my Country, and to myself in particular, as to yield these Arbytrary Lords, so much Villain-service, as to become their Lordship's Prerogative-Porter, to carry myself to the stinking, lousy, barbarous Goal of Newgate again or no; I resolved in myself, that as in heart I defied all injustice, cruelty, tyranny, and oppression, all arbitrary usurpation and usurpers whatsoever, so in person (come life, come death, come what come would) I would not be so treacherous to my own self, to my wife and children, and especially to this Nation (the Land of my Nativity) in general, as personally to yield my active submission of any limb that was mine (either in substance, or in show) in the least, to any Arbitrary Vipers or Pests, Egyptian Grasshoppers, Norman Invaders and Destroyer's of the Commoners legal inheritance and birthright, their liberties and freedoms confirmed to them, both by divine, natural, and humane Right: or once to set one leg before another in subjection or at endance to any of their Cannibal, Canker-worm, Arbytrary Orders Warrants, Significations of their pleasures (so flatly contrary to all good laws, justice, and equity) being as so many Moths in the Royal Robe of the State, or rather as so many Wild-Bores out of the Forest, to root up, devour, disfrancnise and destroy this Nation of all her ancient legal immunities and freedoms, root and branch; yea, and of those tender Plants and Seeds of the Commoners Rights & Liberties, which, in the dreadful face of so many late turbulent, tempestuous, impetuous G●sts of opposition rage, bloodshed, and fury have been implanted and sown in the oppressed Common-field of the State, the which for want of their own natural Dew and Rain from the Superior Orb of Authority, but withheld by some Luciferean Angels of State, Regal, Parliamentary, Synodian Sottish and Scottish; the natural, free-Commoners of England have been forced to wet, moisten, and manure the same with their blood, their flesh, and their bones, etc. that those tender Plants of freedom, equity and justice, might take root, be preserved, spring up, flourish, and bring forth fruit, if not for themselves, yet for their Posterities.  
And upon these or the like considerations, I told my Jailers, that if they had no other Order or Warrant for the remanding back of my person to the Goal of Newgate I would not set one leg before another in subjection thereto; but was fully resolved, that if they would have me back to the Goal, they should carry me.  
But (Sir) lest the rarity and strangeness of this Act should incur yours and the Commits unjust censure and condemnation, like as of the inconsiderate multitude, whose judgements are guided by custom, more than by reason; be pleased to consider, that,  
All State-Deprivation of life, limb, goods, liberty or freedom, either is, or should be, all and every particle thereof, the just execution of the Law executing: For in Equity▪ the Action executing is indivisible from the Law, and only & precisely proper thereto and not at all to the party executed: yea, though a man legally guilty of death should be condemned by the same legal Authority (or rather by persons therein entrusted) to cut his own throat; yet were he in equity not bound thereunto, but in so doing should be guilty of his own blood. And the Law of our Land makes no man his own Executioner, but hath provided Ministers and Executioners, as Majors, Sheriffs, Constable, Gaolers, Hangmen, etc. for that very end and purpose: And the Law of God leaves it as a matter out of all doubt and dispute, and nature itself teaches, that no man shall be his own Butcher or Executioner, for in so doing, he should sin against his own flesh, which is a thing most unnatural and inhuman.  
But my rejection of carrying my own Body to the Goal, was no other but the refusal to be my own Executioner thereins for though it were not of that degree of cruelty and inhumanity to my own flesh, as to cut my own throat; yet was it of the same nature and kind. And therefore if the one must be condemned as unjust, illegal and unnatural, so must the other in its kind, so that as I was not bound, with my hands to cut my own throat, so with my feet, I was not bound to carry myself to prison.  
And from hence is it (as I conceive) that the Law hath provided Portage with Carts, Sledges, or the like, for Malefactors to the place of Execution, that they might not any ways (either actually or apparently) be guilty of their own Execution, a thing abhominated and abhorred of nature.  
But if it be objected, it is only in Capital matters, as of death, and the like, I answer, that from the equity whereon that is founded, the other is necessarily employed, one equity being relative and essential unto both, and so need not be expressed in the less: for by the equity and authority for the greater, the like is justified and commanded to be for the less, for omne majus includit minus the lesse is included in the greater, so that the equity in the greater cannot be denied to the less.  
Therefore, in case I were legally a prisoner, yet were I not bound thereby to set one leg before another in my own execution although there were no precise prescript therefore in the letter of the law to discharge me thereof, which needs no further probation, yet for exemplary illustration: be pleased to consider, that in the case of a General's Commission, it is needless to enjoin him by literal expression, not to turn the mouths of his Cannons against his own Soldiers, for ●hat is so necessarily and naturally employed, that it is needless to be expressed: & as ●t is in the military, even so & much more is it in the politic capacity, the military being but thereto subservient.  
Yet further, though the letter of the Law should enjoin its Condemnants to be their own executioners, yet were that by its own equity condemned, nuld, and made void, for the letter must be subject to the equity: and look how much the letter transgresseth the equity, even so much it is unequal, and is of no validity or force, for the Law taken from its original reason and end is made a shell without a kernel, a shadow without a substance, a Carcase without life: for the equity and reason thereof is that which gives it a legal being and life, and makes it authoritative and binding, if this be not granted, injustice may be a Law, tyranny may be a Law, lust, will, pride, covetousness, and what not? may be Laws; for if equity be not the bounder of the Law, over the corrupt nature of man, all will fall into confusion, and one man will devour another.  
Besides, as no man by Law may be his own Judge, so by the same reason no man may be his own Executioner, for as in equity it appropriateth sole Judgement to itself, so to itself it maketh sole Challenge to its execution: for the contraction and unity of reason betwixt them may not be divided. So that in reason as it is bound to the one, in reason it is bound to provide for the other, & the guilty be suspended from both, and to the Law wholly made passive, both for Judgement and execution.  
But, if any, for want of precedent, shall condemn this Act of mine; to such it's proved rationally will answer, that reason hath no precedent; for, reason is the fountain of all just precedents, and so used, granted and applied by this very Parliament. 1 Book. declare. fol. 264. 298. 709. 726.  
And from this accustomary pedant vassalage formerly though pursuivants (and such like catchpole devouring vermin) have made use for argument safe against those which have complained of their Imprisonment to the Parliament, saying, they did not carry them to prison, but, that they went into prison; But I think I have prevented the use of that objection against me.  
Thus Sir, if the Law impose no such obligation upon its Subjects, then can that which is contradictory thereto so vassalage any? if the Law fetch not that within its compass and bounds, then much less may that which is contrary thereto, which was my then present condition, for I was not in their hands, then under any legal warrant of the Law of the Land, but under an arbitrary order of the House of Lords, directly contrary to the very Being of the Law of the Land: Therefore for me to be my own Executioner or its Executioner upon myself (for going or carrying cannot be denied to be in a great measure its Execution) were to prefers the Law of Lust, or Will, before the Law of the Land: to do more for that Power which is contrary to the very being of the Law, than the very Law itself doth require in its own behalf, and if that were not to make the Law of none effect, judge ye. To do that homage to such a power which is not due to the Law (for no more is due to the Law then the Law doth require, and the Law doth require no more than its due) is to make Lust and Will predominant thereto, to make Will to take the Wall of the Law, to abrogate Law, and in the room thereof to introduce an arbitrary power.  
And therefore as their Lordships in that their arbitrary capacity found Warrants, so should their Lordships find Legs to obey them, for I was resolved, mine should not be enslaved to that their usurpation to do their Arbitrary Drudgery, I would rather lose my life, then in that kind to do them that vassalage: My Legs were borne a free as the rest of my Body, and therefore I scorn that Legs, or Arms, or hands of mine should do them any villeine-Service, for as I am a Freeman by Birth, so I am resolved to live and die, both in heart word and deed, in substance and in show, maugre the Arbitrary malice of the House of Lords: yea if aught else I can devise to show my actual enmity and defiance against their arbitrary power, I'll do it, though it cost the life of me, and mine, and therefore I care not who lets them know, that, that Act of mine was done in despite and defiance of their Warrant.  
But in case you object, that I knew well enough, that if I would not go, they would carry me, therefore it had been better for me to have gone, then to have exposed myself to their cruelty.  
I Answer.  
1. If I had known they would have hanged me, must I therefore have hanged myself?  
2. A good conscience had rather run the hazard of cruelty then to abate an hair's breadth of contestation and opposition against illegality, injustice, and tyranny.  
3. If they had had any legal justifiction over my legs, then at their Commands my legs were bound to obey: And then (in that case) I confess it had been better to obey, then to have exposed m● person to the cruelty of threatening merciless Gaolers: But being free from their Jurisdiction from the Crown of my head to the Sole of my foot, I know no reason, why I should foot it for them, or in the least dance any attendance to their Arbitrary Warrants; their Lordships may put up their pipes, except they will play to the good old tune of the Law of the Land, otherwise their Orders and Warrants are never like to have the Service of my legs or feet, for they were never bred to tread in their Arbitrary Steps, but I shall leave their Orders and their execution to themselves. And therefore, Sir, concerning that action of mine, I shall continue in the said esteem thereof, till my defence be made void, and it be legally proved, that by the Law of the Land, I was bound to set one leg before another in attendance to that Order.  
And further touching this matter, I desire you to remember, that in the inward Court of Wards, when I discovered those resolutions, in the Audience of divers Gentlemen there present, unto you, I told you, that I was no longer under the Arbitrary power of that illegal warrant of the Lords, but under the power of the House of Commons, from which I was resolved not to departed, which in some measure you seemed to oppose, whereat I demanded of you, How then I came there? And if I were not brought thither bp virtue of an Order from that Committee? So that though being formerly Commanded by the Lord's Order to be kept in the Custody of Newgate till their pleasures should be further signified, whereof to that time there had been no further signification at all, yet notwithstanding I was brought from thence by virtue of an Order from that Committee, contrary to the end and intent of that Order of the Lords, so that I conceived, & still do conceive than though that Warrant were not void of itself, yet were it made void by that Order of their own, under the power and protection of which Order I was, sothat being there, I would not departed from the roof & verge of your Authority, and this you know was the substance of my words, and thereupon indeed, I sat we downs in the window, and told my Gaoler, (but one at that time being present) that if he would have me to prison, he should carry me: notwithstanding you would give him no further charge of me, for conceiving from the equity of the Law (which though contradicted by the letter is absolutely binding and valid) that I could not be remanded back unto prison without a new Commitment, I demanded of you, if you would commit me? and I told you, that if you would, I then would go, but that you plainly denied with an absolute No, than I asked you if you would command me to go and I would, but that you also denied, than I told you, that if you would but entreat me for formality sake, (without any relation to that Order of the Lords) to go, I would go, but if you would neither commit, command, nor entreat me, than I would not go, nothing then being against me for my imprisonment, but that Order of the Lords, And as I was resolved I told you, that I would not obey it to set one leg before another after its humour. Therefore Sir, how you can blame me, either of illegality or so much as of disrespect unto you, or this Honourable Committee I cannot see, for no Law did I break, and to prevent all misconstructions I offered you more, then by Law I needed to have done.  

Sir,  
Had there been the letter of the Law directly against me, yet if it were contradicted by the equity of the Law, I had not been at all bound thereunto, except to oppose it: for the Letter if it control and over throw the equity, it is to be controlled and overthrown itself, upon peril of treason to the equity, and the equity to be preserved as the thing only legally obligatory and binding.  
But (Sir) there was neither letter nor equity of the Law against me, but that which was directly contrary to both: for the Lords warrant was directly oppugnant and destructive both to the legal letter and equity.  
Therefore (Sir) I conceive that I was in no measure bound thereunto, but was as free legally, as in case that warrant of the Lords never had been. So that I had good cause, in case you would have had me part with my liberty, to demand, if that you would commit me, command me, or entreat me, and upon your denial of all these to tell you, that then I would not go: For do you think that I am such a fool to part with my liberty, for nothing? Sir, our liberties have been bought at a dearer rate, than so to be trifled and slighted away, especially to captivate the same to the exorbitant wills of the Lords, and to cast myself in prison during their boundless pleasures.  
Had you committed me, commanded me, or entreated me; and thereupon I had gone, and been caught in my own net, yet had I been delivered from a worse, and of two evils the lesse is to be chosen, for thereby the pretended power of the House of Lords over me (even in its very formality) had been utterly routed; and myself absolutely cleared from their prerogative Bondage. But at that time you were not aminded to do it, but left me to their Lordship's Arbytrary power.  
But now Sir, I would not have you think from these demands of mine, that I would be subject to an arbitrary power more in you then in the other, for truly in those demands there was tacitly couched a supposition of that which I knew could not be granted, and therefore I was the freer in my proposal thereof, having an assurance that they would never be granted, yet I thought I would make trial, but and if I had been imprisoned thereon, after I had given their Lordships that Fob, you should have heard from me with a witness; for I cannot suffer oppression and be silent.  
Sir excuse my prolixity about this matter, for by reason of the rarity and the common condemnation thereof, I have therefore the more enlarged myself, for the better removal of all scruple thereon. Now Sir I shall further acquaint you with the mutual proceed betwixt the Gaolers and me, and judge indifferently and impartially betwixt us.  
Thus Sir, as I have told you, having declared my set resolution to my attendant Gaolers, away I was borne to the Boat, and when I was landed at Blackfriars, they would have forced me along up the hill on my feet, yea, they entreated me, but at that time I was not minded to be their DRUDGE, or to make use of my feet to carry the rest of my body to the Goal, therefore I let them hang as if they had been none of my own, or like a couple of farthin Candles dangling at my knees, and after they had dragged me in that admireable posture a while, the one took me very reverently by the head, and the other as reverently by the feet, as if he had intended to have done Homage to His Holinesses great Toe, and so they carried me: but truly Sir, I laughed at the conceit in my sleeve. But this their reverend usage did not continue long, for they grew rerie irreverend and deboyst of a sudden, for ever when they were a little weary, they let my body fall upon the stones, and then again most vallarrouslie like men well appointed for the Cause, they took me by the head and shoulders, and just as if I had been a dead Dog, they dragged and trailed my body upon the stones, and without all reverence to my cloth, drew me through the dirt and mire, and plucked me by the hair of the head, just as if the john of all Sir john's had got little Martin by the feathers, notwithstanding the people's several exclamations against their inhuman incivility and tyranny towards me, and ●heir several desires to carry me in a Chair: And indeed ●n case I had been legally their prisoner, yet had they no authority, to keep me in evil custody, incivilie or inhumanely to use me, but were bound only to keep me in safe custody, and therein to use me like a man, and therefore in case they would not have so honoured me, as to have made me a Chairman, they might have carried me in a Porter's Basket, or in a Cart, (provided it had not been Westward) or in some other such decent necessary Tool, And in this like unheard of barbarous manner they brought me into the lower room in Newgate; called the Lodge, and there they threw me down upon the Boards, and having Sir Edward Cooks 2. part instit. upon Magna Charta the Mr. Briscoe offered to wrest it out of my hands: Then I demanded of him if he intended to rob me, and he told me he would have it from me whether I would or no.  
To whom I replied, that he should not, if to the utmost of my power I could preserve it from him, and I would do my utmost, where upon I clapped it in my Arms, and I laid myself upon my belly, but by force, they violently turned me upon my back then Briscoe (just as if he had been staving off a Dog from the Bear) smote me with his fist, to make me let go my hold, whereupon as loud as I could, I cried out, murder, murder, murder. And thus by an assault they got the great Charter of England's Liberties and Freedoms from me; which I laboured to the utmost of power in me, to preserve and defend, and ever to the death shall maintain, and forth with without any warrant poor Magna Charta was clapped up close prisoner in Newgate, and my poor fellow prisoner derived of the comfortable visitation of friends: And thus being stripped of my armour of proof, the Charter of my legal Rights, Freedoms, and Liberties, after the aforesaid barbarous manner they hurried me up into the common Goal, and as they carried me up stairs, as their custom is, when they bring in a felon, they gave 3. knocks at the door, and so they cast me into that Goal as a felon, and then because they would be sure I should have a pair of prerogative letters, they clapped 2. great Irons with a Chain betwixt them upon my legs, and I'll assure you, Sir, me thought they were the comlyest gingling Spurs that ever I wore in my life, and if your worship will be but pleased to travel with me to the Land of Liberty, come but and take horse at Newgate, and you shall be furnished I'll warrant you, after the gallantest manner, and if need be for the conduct, we ca● raise up the Trained Bands of Newgate, even thousands, and ten thousands of lice to guard you: which indeed and in truth may too soon be the general portion of all the best Members in the House, if you be not active, vigulant, and faithful to your friends.  
And in those Irons I continued that night and till the next day at evening, and then Woleston the vice Master Goaler of Newgate sent to me by one of his substitute Gaolers, the Turn-key, to speak with me below, to whom I returned this answer, go tell your master that I do not owe him so much service, as to come down to him to speak with him in Irons, he knows well enough where I am, if he have any business with me let him come and speak with me, and he came again, and again, with the like message; and I returned the same answer: in the mean time one of his underling Gaolers asked me if I would pay for my Irons, and then they should be knocked off, but I told him, I neither set him a work to knock them on, neither would I set him a work to knock them off, and he that sets you a work let him pay you your wages, for you shall not have a farthen of me, then departing and as I conceive, acquainting Woelston therewith, he returned again with his hammer in his hand, and told me, he must knock them off, and so he did. And when I came down to Woleston, he would needs have made me believe, that I sent to speak with him, and to desire him to take off my Irons, and to be removed to the Master's side again; but I told him no such matters, for indeed that was fare from me, in thought, word, or deed: for I scorn to crouch or debase my Spirits to the lawless cruelty of any merciless tyrants or Gaolers whatsoever: they may devour my Carcase, and make that bend and break with their cruelty, but I trust in God, that in heart and action to the umost of my power in the pursuance of justice and truth, I shall bid defiance to the last gasp of breath to all their oppressions and tyrannios whatsoever.  
Now Sir, having discovered their oppressions and grievances against me, I shall now make bold to present this honourable Committee with the savage and barbarous inhumanity exercised upon my Wife, and upon the rest of my Family: Thus then be pleased further to consider, that those Norman Prerogative-Invaders, have not been herewith content thus to rob me in particular of my just liberty and freedom, and for these six months to incarcerate and corrode my person in their prerogativedevouring jaws of Newgate, but to fill up the measure of their iniquity against me, they send forth their Bloodhounds, the Bishop's old Catchpoles, the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers, to surprise my wife and my brother, and to bring them up to their Prerogative-Barre, who for refusing to be entangled and enslaved to their High-Commission Star-chamber-bondage of catching Interrogatories, were both upon the sixth of this instant January 1646. committed by them to Mayden-lane-prison. But being not therewith content, the next day, without all remorse or compassion over my helpless children, just as if they had intended to destroy me root and branch, they send forth their Catchpoles again to my house to fetch away my Brother-in-law, and my sister (his wife) which, for their present necessity, were forced to live with me, and only remained for the oversight, ordering and tendance of my three children in the absence of their Father and Mother. But he being out of the way; & she by the great mercy of God, escaping their hands, (through their ignorance of her face) fled, & hide herself, and some adjacent neighbours (touched with compassion and pity over the poor, afflicted, destitute, helpless children) took them, for the present, into their houses; and so, Father, Mother, Children, and All, being driven out of House and home, the Doors were shut up; and I, and mine, exposed to utter ruin and confusion by those insulting, domineering, merciless▪ Usurpers and Tyrants, The House of Lords.  
But here, their most inhuman, tyrannical desires not ceasing, out of the boundless limits of their orbitrary domination, they issue forth yet another prerogative order against my wife, not counting it miserable and dishonourable enough, that she should lie in the Goal at Mayden-lane, but, as much as in them lies, for ever to obliterate the honour of her modesty, civility, and chastity; they order, that she shall be cast into the most infamous Goal of Bridewell, that common Centre and receptacle of bawds, whores, and strumpets, more fit for their wanton retrograde Ladies, then for one, who never yet could be taxed of immodesty, either in countenance, gesture, words, or action.  
Now, this order being brought to her by the City Martial to command her away to Bridewell, she thereupon refused (as by Law she was bound, as hath been proved before this Honourable Committee in the case of Lieut: Coll. john Lilburne, and of mine) to yield in the least manner any subjection or obedience thereto, but to the utmost testimony of her weak power made opposition and resistance against it, for in plain downright terms (like a true bred English woman brought up at the feet of Gamaliel) she told the Marshal that she would not obey it, neither would she stir after it, so much as to set one leg before another in attendance thereto: yet, Sir, this rejection and contempt here of the Lords usurped jurisdiction was not uttered without all due respect and acknowledgement of your indubitable Authority, for she told him, that if he brought any Order or Warrant from the House of Commons, she would freely and willingly yield all humble obedience and subjection thereto, which was as absolute an evidence of her acknowledgement and submission unto England's legitimate lawful authority as the other was of defiance and contempt to all arbitrary usurpation whatsoever.  
Now the Gentleman Goaler hearing her resolution and honest intentions for the freedoms of her Country, that rather than she would yield any subjection or connivance to the arbitrary usurpations of any, how great or powerful soever, she would expose herself to the merciless cruelty of the whole House of Norman-prerogative tyrants, I say no sooner had this Turkeycock Marshal heard of her uprightness to the Commons of England, but up he bristled his feathers and looked as big and as bugg as a Lord, and in the height and scorn of derision (just as if he had been Speaker to the House of Peers protempore) out he belched his fury and told her, that if she would not go, than she should be carried in a Porter's Basket, or else draged at a Cart's Arse.  
But she modestly replied that he might do as it seemed good into him, for she was resolved on her course, but thereat his worship being put into a prerogative chafe; out he struts in his Arbitrary Fury, as if he would have forthwith levied whole Armies, and Droves of Porters and Car-men, to advance the poor little harmless innocent woman and her tender Babe to Bridewell:  
But going (as I conceive to consult with their Lordships what was best to be done) he upon his return finding her constant to her honest and just resolutions, our again he flings in his wont fury, and finding some of her friends attending to see the event of the business, he shut them out of the doors and abused them with infamous scurrilous reproaches, nicknames, and derisions, with several menacies to imprison them, threatening them to fetch a warrant to bring them before the now (present pretended illegal) Lord Mayor of London; but departing in that insolent turbulent chafe, he sent for a couple of Porters, but when they came to her like honest & discreet men, they told him, that they would not meddle with a woman that was with child, and had a young sucking Insant in her Arms, lest in so doing they might do that to day which they might answer for to morrow.  
Then the Marshal thinking to bugbear them with the cracking sound of the House of Lords told them, that the Lords had ordered that she should be carried to Bridewell: but one of the Porters wisely answered, that their Lordship's Order was for Gaolers, and not for Porters to carry her, and for their parts, they would carry no quick flesh, if he had any dead flesh they would carry it, and so they departed and left their Lordship's prerogative drudgery to their prerogative vassals.  
Then forth again goes this their Lordship: furious Champion with his prerogative Commission of Array, to raise up new Forces to encounter this weak woman, and her tender Babe on her breast, and having levied a Cart for the prerogative Wars of the House of Peers, which being brought under the conduct of that most puissant Marshal of London to the prison Gate, the Car-man hearing what this beleaguered woman was, wisely refused to lay any hands on her, and departed in peace.  
Then this grim Phylistin of the House of Peers, being thus deferred of his foreign forces, mustered up his Life Guard of Goalers' servants, or hangmen Deputies, and therewith resolved to storm her, and advancing to her Chamber door, first he attempted to circumvent her by his policy with fair, hypocritical, specious promises of his and their Lordship's favour and grace, in case she should open the door and submit herself, but she slighted his proffers, & contemned all favour flowing from that most bitter and corrupt prerogative Fountain.  
Whereupon he caused his men to break open the door, and entering her Chamber, struts towards her like a Crow in a gutter, and with his valiant looks like a man of mettle assails her and her Babe, and by violence attempt to pluck the tender Babe out of her Arms, but she forcibly defended it, and kept it in despite of his Manhood: then he and Christopher Marshal his brother Sam: Tolson, and divers of his servants by the Marshals Command example & Authority laid violent hands upon her, and dragged her down the stairs, and in that infamous barbarous manner, drew her headlong upon the stones in all the dirt and the mire of the streets, with the poor Infant still crying and mourning in her Arms, whose life they spared not to hazard by that inhuman barbarious usage, and all the way as they went, utterly to defame and render her infamous in the streets, the fellows which dragged and carried her on two Cudgels, calling her Strumpet and vild Whore, thereby to possess the people, that she was no woman of honest & godly Conversation, whom they so barbarously abused, but a vile strumpet or whore, and were dragging to Bridewell that common shore & sink of Bawds & Whores, etc.  
For no man could reasonably imagine that any modest civil woman should be so shamefully used, especially in her way to Bridewell; which dishonourable infamous usage was a sufficient matter to blast her reputation for ever, and to beget such a perpetual odium upon her, that for the future (if ever delivered from her bondage) she should not pass the streets upon her necessary occasions any more without contumely and derision, scoffing, hissing, and pointing at her, with such or the like say, as, see, see, there goes a Strumpet that was dragged through the streets to Bridewell, and this is the honour that their Lordships are pleased to confer on the free Commoners wives who stand for their Freedoms and Liberties.  

A Charge against the house of Lords  Now Sir, I humbly desire this Honourable Committee to consider, whether it be reasonable or sufferable, or any wise suitable to the freedoms of the Commons of England, or to the great trust reposed in you, either for you to suffer, or for them to usurp such an unlimited prerogative jurisdiction, to deprive husbands of their wives, and wives of their husbands; Fathers and Mothers of their Children, and Children of their Fathers and Mothers; cast them into several infamous tormenting prisons, hale and drag in most barbarous manner, the Commoners wives and their tender Infants upon the stones of the streets through all the dirt, and the mire, as if the Commoners, their wives and Children were but as dirt and mire under their Lordship's feet, to be trod and trampled upon at their pleasure; also to reproach, revile, and dishonour modest, chaste, and civil women with the imputation and scandal of whores, strumpets, etc. expose whole families to ruin, out them out of house and home, and instead of pity and compassion over such tender Infants whom they have made Orphans to their Arbitrary pleasures to turn them (without all remorse and compunction of heart) to the mercy of the wide world, and not in the least to look after them, take any charge or care over them, or to send them or their imprisoned Parents so much as a crumb of bread, or a drop of pottage for their comfort or relief; but as much as in them lies, to expose such tender innocent babes with their parents to famine for want of sustenance and relief, as also to send forth their armed men in an hostile manner, with muskets, swords, pistols, etc. to beset and assault the Commoners Houses; forcibly to enter their Bedchambers with drawn swords, and pistols ready cocked, even while such persons are in their beds also daily to commit Burglary, flat felony, break in pieces the Commoners doors, burst open their locks, their Trunks, Chests, Desks, etc. pick their pockets, ransack their houses, plunder, rob, steal, and feloniously bear away their proper goods and livelihood, as also to shut up such as are most faithful for the freedoms of the Commons of England, close prisoners, deprive them of the benefit of pen, ink, and paper, of the comfortable countenance and visitation of friends, tumble and toss them from Goal unto Goal, lay most unreasonable fines upon them, as of 2000 1. or the like, ten times beyond the estate of persons so fined, censure them to seven year's imprisonment, endeavour to enforce the Commoners wives, to dip their hands in the blood of their husbands, and to betray their friends and faithful lovers of their Country into their merciless hands, impose oaths upon servants to betray their Master's Counsels, and secrets, imprison, fine, censure, and molest the Commoners of England, for their vindication and defence of the great Charter of their Liberties, and freedoms, for appealing from their usurped jurisdiction to the House of Com: and for refusing to be again entangled in the Star-Chamber High-Commission abolished Bondage of Interrogatories and the like; as also for those Lords to overturn the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom, both for liberty, property, and freedom, endeavouring the Introduction of an Arbitrary Government, and to crush and destroy all such as shall adventure the discovery of their oppressions or shall (as legally they are bound) resist their arbitrary proceed, stop all free progress in the Law, commit the Compter Sergeants, and such Ministers of the Law unto prison for arresting their sons or kindred for debt, and that by the authority of that House, as a contempt offered thereto. All which insufferable oppressions, and cruelties with manifold others, I can and will (God permitting) justify and prove to their faces, if I shall be called thereto. And I do hereby, before this honourable Committee, and consequently before the whole Commons of England, both represented and representative, Charge the House of Lords (which usually assemble at Westminster and which do arrogate unto themselves a Parliamentary title, and power without the free election and common consent of the free borne people of England) with those forementioned usurpations and devastations of the Commoners Liberties and Freedoms: Which Charge I am ready everyday upon the Peril of my vital blood to make good against them, for the case of Lieutenant Col. john Lilhurne, of Mr. Learner, of mine, & of some others, if but duly considered, is sufficient to evidence and confirm the truth then of to every common capacity, as also to their Prerogative Lordship's everlasting shame & confusion of face, if not to the utter extirpation of that their unlimited Arbitrary Domination and power, the which I shall faithfully endeavour to the utmost of my power for the freedom and weal of the rest of my Nationall Brethren the free borne Commons of England, though in that hot and desperate service I, and mine, wife, children and all be devoured by their unreasonable cruelty.  
Thus Sir having made my complaint unto you, and in mine, to this Honourable Committee, the complaint of the whole Commons of England, all being equally interested with me in this contest betwixt the Lords and the Commoners both in life, limb, liberty, and estate; I present my cause, and in mine, the cause of the whole Commons of England to your grave and judicious consideration: for, look what is done unto me or to any other (though never so mean or of inferior degree) for mine or their vindication and maintenance of the just Rights and freedoms of the Commons of England, is as done unto the whole Commons of England, for by those their insultings all as well as one, are made liable to the unlimited cruelty and oppression of their prerogative jurisdiction. And if they may rule by prerogative, then farewell all liberty and property, all Laws, justice, and equity; and if it must be so, I pray you bear us no longer in suspense and expection of redress, but forthwith let our Doom be proclaimed to the whole world, that the Commons of England may know what to trust to; that we may lose our labour no longer in petitioning, appealing, complaining, and seeking for relief at your hands, that such as will may sit down as contented slaves with halters about their necks to be hanged up till the pleasure of that House (forsooth) shall be further signified.  
Now Sir, I shall use no other provocations, incitations or Arguments to this Honourable Committee, to the discharge of their duty, but shall altogether leave the whole matter hereof to your consciences, whether for justice or injustice, mercy or cruelty; for my part I care not though you and all men forsake me, so long as I know the Lord liveth, who will once judge every man according to his deeds, whether good or evel, and then I am sure I shall have righteous judgement, without respect of persons; and against that, to deprive me thereof, neither the gates of Hell nor the powers of Earth are able to prevail; that is my comfort, my hope and support, against all afflictions cryalls, and troubles: And therefore in that sure confidence though I be thus enthralled & encompassed on ev●ry sidewith Bands & Afflictions, I am resolved not to yield an haires-bredth of subjection, no, not so much, as the appearance of subjection either in word or deed to any arbitrary power, orders, significations of their pleasures, etc. maugre their Prisons, Irons, Halters, etc. either for me or mine: And this I pronounce to this Honourable Committee and to the whole Commons of England in open defiance and contempt of the Arbitrary Domination of the House of Peers, their usurpation and encroachments over the Rights and freedoms of the Commons of England; come what come will, or what the utmost of their usurped might and power can inflict upon me for it,  
I scorn their mercy, and dare them to do their worst: let them find Prisons, Dungeons, Irons, Halters, etc. I'll find Carcase, Neck, and Heels, for one in contempt to their usurped jurisdiction; for resolved I am to break before I bend to their oppressions, etc. Sir I am  
From Newgate the place of my Prerogative Captivity. Feb. 1. 1647. Yours and all men's for their just Rights and Freedoms, faithful, to the death. Richard Overton.   
FINIS.