A pitiful Remonstrance, or just Complaint MADE  
To all freeborn truehearted Englishmen, sensible of the Kingdoms miserable slavery. From all the poor afflicted and miserable, enslaved and immured Prisoners for Debt, Contempts, and other trivial matters; Mr. John Raiment, a man of known fidelity, being 500 l. out for the State, yet having been most unjustly held in suit these 12 years in the Court of Request and Chancery for pretended Debt of 537 l. 19 s. 6 d by one John john's: although never a pen y proved against him, but hath been cleared by Mr. Leigh. and Mr Northy Merchants of known ability, to whom it was referred, who brought upon acocmpt 54. l. due to the said Raiment; yet did that corrupt Judge Manchester, after he had pronounced him clear, in the open Court, yet in private suffered it to go on in suit, and being here twelve years, Mr. Speaker ordered, the 537. l. 19 s. 6. d. to be brought into the Court, and then they should have a trial, though never a penny proved to be due upon the not doing, of which he is committed to the Fleet in his old days, there to end his days without some course of justice be taken, which he always desired: The said john's having neither Bill, Bond, Hand, or any Witness against him, to prove penny or pennyworth due. In all the several murdering slaughter-houses, and dens of cruelty, called Gaols, Prisons, and Comptors, within the Kingdom of England, and principality of Wales, about 20000 in number.  
SHOWETHS,  
THat we the oppressed prisoners have (though fruitless) for these seven years by our humble Petitions addressed ourselves to the high Court of Parliament, craving deliverance from this unjust, inhuman slavery of imprisonment for debt, illegally fastened, as on us, so, on this whole Nation and their posterity, contrary to the Law of God, and the fundamental great Charter of England's Liberty, and the Parliaments several Declarations, Manifestations, Protestations, and Imprecations, and to the trust reposed in them at their Election, as the Kingdoms Stewards to see Injustice and Oppression banished the Land, and Justice and Mercy recalled and established, where the enslaved prisoners are buried alive, and rob of their Estates, Callings, and precious Liberties, contrary to the true Liberty of the Commons of England; as appeareth plainly by Register. folio. 77. Dehomino Replegiando, folio 66. the 3 of Edward, the 1. chap. 15. the 25. of Edward, 3 chap. 4. where it appeareth, That the body of no Commoner of England is to be imprisoned for Debt, but only for Murder, Felony and Treason, Nisi per legem terrae, the 9 of Henry, the 3. chap. 29. the 52. of Henry the 3. chap. 5. and the 14. of Edward the 3. chap. 1. and Abridgement of Statutes, folio 65. & 6. as also by the Petition of Right, in the 3. of King Charles, confirmed this Session of Parliament, and it appeareth by the Statute of the 42. of Edward the 3. chap. 1. That all Statutes which have been since made, to the insringement of the Subjects Liberty, contrary to Magna Charta, are absolutely void, and of none effect, as if they had never been made, and reason good, for the lesser and latter must needs give place to the greater, and Mother Law of this Kingdom  
Thus you see, dear Countrymen and fellow Commoners, it appeareth clearly, that imprisonment of the persons of the free Commons of England for debt, (which had its rise and original but from the time of Henry the 8. at his dissolution of Abbeys, Friaries, and Nunneries,) is only an unjust, illegal, slavish Innovation fastened upon us, the free Commons of England, within these hundred years, by the subtle, diabolical practice of ambitious, unjust Judges, and by evil minded, covetous, exacting Lawyers, whose beginning and rise also was with Ignatius Loyola, the Infernal Father and Founder of the order of Jesuits, about an hundred years since, under whose heavy, slavish yokes of Injustice, Tyranny and Oppression, this Commonwealth hath long groaned, and doth still groan: Witness the many thousands of stained houses, and ancient families in this Kingdom.  
Nor can this great oppressing evil be ever redressed, unless these wicked Mercenary, Contentious Instruments of Injustice and oppression (the Lawyers) 
No Lawyers suffered to fit in Parliament, or in any great Council, in Scotland, nor in any other Kingdom, but only in England. Many hundred of poor Christians have been murdered, starved & destroyed, in the Gaols of King's Bench, the Fleet Newgate, and in divers other Prisons; by the Gaolers, their Clarks and Servants; as will be proved when ever by justice required.  be quite expelled the House of Commons, as the proud Lordly Bishops were out of the House of Lords; a Lawyer being no more fit to be chosen for a Parliament man then a Butcher, or a Gaoler, for a Jury man, much less for a Justice of Peace. For we, the Commons of England, must not expect, that these Mercenary Lawyers will ever suffer the Conduit of Justice to be opened, or the free and clear currant thereof to overflow and drown their Infernal, Impious, gainful, filthy, raging waters of contention: so long as they can keep the staff of honour, credit, respect, and power in their hands, and by their wicked, gainful Instruments the bloody Gaolers, Bailiffs, Sergeants, Attorneys and Solicitors, bring all the Wealth or Grain of the Kingdom to their impious, abominable Mills of contention, corruptly called Courts of Justice, or rather of Fees and Bribes, where they grind the faces of the poor, the widow, the fatherless and the stranger even to dust, and devour their estates, liberties and lives.  
The abovesaid particulars being by you, dear Countrymen and fellow feeling Commoners, truly and seriously considered:  
Our humble and earnest request unto you is, That you would be pleased by some speedy, just and pious course (in your addresses to the high Court of Parliament) to acquit yourselves and us, and the posterity of this whole Nation. from this inhuman, cruel bondage, and starving condition of Being, that so our lives, and the lives of our wives and children may be preserved from perishing, and we by our liberties thus regained, may be enabled in and by our several Callings, to provide for our and their future subsistence.  
And Courteous Readers, We beseech you in the bowels of compassion, to suffer this our pitiful complaint to stand, that so all may see and read it, and by it may become sensible of this our inhuman, cruel, slavish, starving condition of Being, not to be paralleled by any other Country, or in any other Kingdom, Christian or Pagan, within the confines of Europe, Asia, Africa, nor America, being a cruelty repugnant to the Law of God, of all other Nations, and of this Kingdom.  
In the Fleet, Prisoners upon contempt.  
1 Mr. Robert Ramsey hath 700. l. per annum, unjustly kept from him by Sir Tho. Walsingham, and yet kept in prison by him upon a pretended contempt these 12. or 13. years.  
2. Henry Adis, whose cruel Adversary Keyzar (by Mr. Lenthal, the Speakers unjust practices) illegally turns Adis out of his house, seizes upon all his goods, and upon a pretended contempt keeps Adis close prisoner in the Fleet.  
3. Robert Cole (now more than two years) illegally detained prisoner by the Warden of the Fleet, upon a pretended contempt, obtained against him by his Adversary Bayber, who is 2000 l. indebted to Cole, and Cole oweth him nothing.  
4. James Frese Merchant (upon a private verbal command from the Speaker, (Mr. Lenthal) and his brother Sir John Lenthal,) hath been these two years, and four months, (and is still) kept close prisoner in the Tower Chamber by the Warden of the Fleet.  
5. Captain Sanford, who, in the service of the Kingdom, hath adventured both estate and life, to whom are great sums due from the State, was taken and imprisoned upon a pretended contempt, out of the Chancery, although he hath proved, that he was not served with any Subpaena in the cause; and also that he was then in actual service for the Parliament, far remote from his house.  
These, and many other such like cruel, illegal practices in the Law, exposes and enslaves all the Commons of England in their Lives, Estates and Liberties, to the imperious will of greatness, and to the rage and cruelty of their Adversaries, Lawyers and Gaolers. Although they know, that only the poor prisoners future endeavours by liberty enjoyed, must give some hope to the Creditor, of satisfaction for his debt, although not in whole, yet in part, which is better than the loss of all their debt. Besides, the guilt of the poor prisoners blood, and the perishing condition of his poor wife and children to lie upon him. Under the impious, heavy burden, of which several great cruelties this whole Land groaneth.  
And thus it plainly doth appear,  
That Lawyers do rule all things there.  
Where we expected Justice, that the Speaker  
Rules Lawyers, the Gaoler rules the Speaker,  
But himself in every thing  
Is ruled by that wicked sting.  
Of Death and Hell, named Thomas Dudson,  
Who is none other than the Devil's godson,  
Directed always, by that fiend of Hell,  
For all his actions in cruelties excel.  
Thus England's Steed is carried still  
By Lenthals, Dudsons, and the Devils will,  
Rubbed and furbisht by the Lawyer's Fees,  
The Priestly tithes have brought him on his knees,  
And Jailer cruelties have made him lame,  
Are not these imps of Hell for this to blame?  
Yea, worthy to be whipped, their proper fee,  
Being just sentence, and the triple tree.  
Justice, and Mercy, preserves the Land, and all  
Her Sons and Daughters, from ruins final fall,  
But they that Justice, Truth, and Mercy slight  
Are foes to Christ, despised in his sight.  
O then let Justice, Truth, and Mercy sway,  
That so from England, wrath may fly away,  
And Mercy, Truth, and Justice, then may dwell  
Within our Land, till then 'twill ne'er be well.