Poyer's Vindication, In answer to a lying Pamphlet, Entitled A Short Comment upon the Grounds and Reasons of POYER 's taking up Arms in the second Differences, Which are monstrous false Lies: Scattered abroad To uphold the broken reputation of a poor Solicitor, for those Cowardly turncoat Cavaliers in the County of PEMBROKE, Who (for reducing of them unto the Parliament) useth all means to have mine and my fellow-Prisoners blood; which they (and their Cavaliering Army) durst not attempt when they were in Arms against the Parliament.  
Published for satisfaction of all those that desire the Truth herein:  
By Col. JOHN POYER, now a Prisoner at Whitehall.   

READER,  
I Can judge no other to be the Author of that ridiculous Pamphlet, wherein I am so much mentioned, but one John eliot; who to satisfy his unsatiable desire, hath thus masked himself in a dark Scene, (without name) being ashamed to own such falsehood as is there set forth. I delight not to speak any thing of my own welldoing, but to remove those base aspersions cast upon me (by inveterate enemies to me, and all those that first affected the Parliament) somewhat I shall briefly say.  
I praise God, for though I boast not of my Parents, yet it's well known they were not such as did accompany the Relator eliot's Father from place to place for livelihood: And whosoever shall look upon former Subsidy Rolls, and the Subsidies granted in the beginning of this Parliament, shall find me an high Collector, and equally charged with his Worship; who hath succeeded so well in his false Informations, that he believes to be credited beyond Records. The best Gentleman in the Town of Pembroke bound his Son to be my Apprentice, my deal being in Wool, Corn, Skins, Butter, and Tallow; and it is well known, I employed more poor on work in making of Cloth than any man in that Country; and that I dealt in these Commodities with Merchants of B●istol for many thousands yearly, and have given them full satisfaction in all things.  
That for sixteen years together I was thought worthy to have the command of the Trained Bands of the Town of Pembroke, wherein I gained the love of those Inhabitants generally; that when the unhappy differences first began, they did unanimously joys with me (by the encouragement of some noble Gentlemen) ●o preserve and fortify the Town and Castle of Pembroke to the use of the Parliament (the Castle being my right (long before these troubles) as Captain Cowney can justify when all other Towns and Counties in Wales were against the Parliament. It is also evidently known, how I have promoted and endeavoured the Parliaments Interest in that Country, by raising one Troop of Horse, two Troops of Dragoons, and three Foot-Companies, all armed in their Service: by fortifying several Garrisons, and furnishing them with Ordnance, Arms, Men, Victuals and Ammunition: By relieving the Protestants in Dublin and Yaughall in their extremities: By taking Irish Rebels, Priests and Papists (which the Relator Eliot terms well-affected:) By taking two of the King's Men of War, and by assisting and encouraging the Parliaments Ships within the Harbour of Milford. For these and many other Services the House of Commons was pleased to Order I should receive Thanks.  
As for the aspersion cast upon me for an irreligious Person, it is well known, my Religion to be such as is professed by the Church of England, I refer myself to divers worthy Divines and Gentlemen; whereof some of them are now Members both of the Parliament and Army, who knew my life and conversation, and had encouragement from me for shelter, when they and myself were persecuted and prosecuted for our Religion by the said Eliot and other of the King's party, and can justify those Aspersions cast upon me, to be altogether false, scandalous and untrue.  
Whereas it is all eadged in that lying Pamphlet, that I did plunder Roger Lort, and others well affected to the Parliament; and that I seized upon Ships and Goods of the well-affected, (viz. Papists) having the King's Commission) and have pursed it to my own use, being no lawful prize.  
I wonder with what impudence their Solicitor eliot, can charge me with the plundering of Col. Lorts house, it being well known to hundreds in this City, that the said Lort fortified his house against the Parliament; and I being commanded to assist Major General Laughorn, Col. powel and others, to go and besiege the said Lorts house so fortified against the Parliament, who did with the effusion of much blood, take it upon Storm, to the use of the Parliament, and what was taken by the Soldiers in the heat of blood, cannot be imputed to our dishonour.  
And for that aspersion concerning the Ships, it is likewise well known that they were the one Commissioned by the marquis of Ormond, and the other by Sir John Pennington to be Men of War against the Parliament, as by their Commissions appeareth; one of those Ships and goods, (except the Ordnance, Arms, and Ammunition) was by order of the Earl of Warwick sent to Dover, and the other Ship rescued by the King's men of War, invited to that Harbour by the Relator eliot, Roger Lort, and their Confederates; It cannot be made appear that I advantaged myself Six pence by those Ships, much less 6000 l. as eliot falsely allegeth; nor can they make it justly appear, that ever I took the goods of any 〈◊〉, though Roger Lort did plunder (or steal) the Goods of Capt. Cowney and others for their wel-affection to the Parliament, and converted them to his own use without any satisfaction to the owner.  
Reader, I shall acquaint you a little further, how that Roger Lort, Sampson Lort, and John Lort, would have drawn me to their treacherous Confederacy in the year 1644 being shortly after their coming in to Major General Langhorn, inviting me to a feast, where great show of kindness was offered by them, the conclusion was, to engage me to join with them against Major General Langhorn and his party, and they would procure me the King's Commission to Command the Towns of Pembroke and T●●●●, with the Country thereabo●●d, this was presently after the 〈◊〉 given the Earl of Essex in the West, though they were then named Committee-men for the Parliament.  
The Relator eliot, saith, That I was not put forth of my Commands by the Parliament, yet telleth what I did was without Commission. It is known to most of the well-affected in South-wales, how the Relator eliot, Roger Lort, Sampson Lort, and their party, have prosecuted me and the rest of the Soldiery in that Country; Mr. Sollcitor General Cook may be pleased to remember (who was then my Council) much of the passages of that Faction; and how rigorously they did prosecute me, and did cause me to be Arrested in 2000 l. Action, and cast in prison to hinder my lawful proceed against them; and I being afterwards freed from that unjust Arrest, without paying of Fees; which so wrought with eliot, that he procured another Writ to be delivered to the Bailiff of Westminster, immediately on the discharge of my former troubles, he conceiving me not out of custody, thought thereby to have continued his enterprise; and on a new Rising in Glamorganshire I was commanded to my Charge, where being come to the County of Pembroke, the Lorts did set upon me several times in the highway, likewise attempted to have murdered me in the Church, and did with the Relator Eliot, combine together that no indemnity should be granted me, as by their Letters may appear. And whereas they charge me with disobeying of his Excellencies the Lord General's Orders, it is to be proved, that (in obedience to his Excellency's Order) I was coming to the headquarters to give account of all particulars: Roger Lort and his Confederates finding my inclination of an appeal to his Excellency, did send forth an Hue and Cry, and divers Warrants from the high Sheriff of the county to apprehend me, & to keep close watch and wards on all the high ways, to intercept my going to the headquarters; and shortly after (without any Order from the Parment or his Excellency) to render me more odious in the eye of all people) proclaimed me Traitor. All which considered, might well give me caution to stand upon my guard against those bloody Rebels, who were (as aforesaid) reduced to the obedience of the Parliament.  
That Roger Lort, Samson Lort, James Lewis, John Lout, and their Confederates, contrary to an order of free debate unanimously agreed upon by the Committee of Pembrokeshire, kept and maintained (upon the public charge) the Relator Eliot here in London these three or four years, to be Solicitor for them and cloak their knavery: under colour of which employments, they have procured unto him many hundreds of pounds, with which he hath clad himself in fine garbs, (viz. Scarlet, gold Lace, silver and gold Buttons, etc.) although he had not a cloak to wear when he went to Oxford to be Knighted for betraying the Town and Castle of Tenby to the King's party; his habit and vizard being such, that the King would not afford him the title of Sir John Eliot, though he much laboured it; his moneys being so short to pay the fees of Knighthood, that he returned home with his Title of Honour, called the Jeppo Gentleman.  
The Relator Eliot having not wearied himself with lies in his Pamphlet, he adds one more, and such a one as he hopes will strike home to my reputation and destruction: His malice resteth not upon me only, but upon my poor Wife and Children, making my Wife a Whore, and my Children Bastards. But Relator, be thou assured to give a good account (above all the rest) of this base slander. I do very well know how thou thirstest after my blood; and if thou obtain thy longing desire to glution thyself with it, be assured that God will find means to right my Wife and Children, whom thou and thy Confederates have so evidently wronged. Relator, thou dost not well, to charge the innocent, and let the guilty go free: Remember thy Sisters, and thy best friends of the female sort. Eliot, was it not a merry time at Carmarthen, when a Insty Cavalier courted a bonny Lass? Fie, be more modest then to believe that any woman went 13 months, and the honest Doctor Millard must not administer after so great a Club. Eliot, hadst thou looked about thee when thou goest into the County of Pembroke with thy dark Lantern, and waste for thy false Services feasted by thy Masters, Roger Lort and James Lewis, thou mightest have seen many Bastards, a lovely Lass feasted, and the poor Wife starved.  
The Relator makes men (if he could) believe, that all the old Cavaliers and his turncoat Friends are faithful men to the Parliament; and most shamefully denies that himself or his Confederates were Commissioners of Array, or ever for the King's party; I doubt not but to make it evidently appear, that they were chief Agents, prime Actors and Abettors of Judge Jenkins and others; that did proclaim myself and several Gentlemen of the County of Pembroke Traitors for acting in the Service of the Parliament.  
The Relator further saith, That one of my Friends is sequestered for sitting in the Juncto at Oxford, citing Sir Hugh Owen Knight and Baronet; whom I grant, was both my friend and the States, in preservin the Parliaments Interest against the Relator Eliot and his Confederates, for which he was proclaimed Traitor, and carried prisoner to Oxfora; and if Eliot be pleased to remember his own being, and the passages there, he could tell, that Sir Hugh Owen (for not joining with him and his Confederates, was sent close prisoner to Wastingford, and afterwards remanded into the County to be ●●yed by Commission of Oyer and Terminer for his life; and upon success of the Parliaments Forces in Pembrokeshire, carried prisoner back to Oxford: but for his sitting in the Juncto, as I do not believe it, so I can soy nothing to it, not finding him inserted amongst the rest that sat there, in the Book of Ordinances printed by the Authority of Parliament: As for his Sequestration likewise, I can say little, it being long after I was a prisoner; only I have heard that those that formerly for his Service to the Parliament fought his life, did now sequester him; and their main Witness and Sequestrator was one Rees ap Rees Gerrard's Hangman, and now entituled their loving friend; who before these unhappy Differences had suffered the Pillory for false Oaths; A fit instrument for their justice, and one that they delight much in his company.  
For the Mountebanks losses, the Relator speaks of himself and his Confederates, I can say little having formerly fully answered their gains, out of their Country's ruin, and their own particular; it is known to to the whole County where he lived, that the Port and Garb which he now lives in, could not be maintained in the best of times by his Revenue: And that he lived these twenty years generaly hated by all the honest hearted men in that Country, as being a temporiser, and sour of Sedition, having for lucre of petty gains, viz. a Cock-shut, betraying the trust reposed in him, by the Tenants of Nerbert, who were his neighbours, and employed him as solicitor in a suit between them and the Lord of (the Manor.  

I have formerly offered the charge following against the said Eliot and his Confederates, (which caused them with that violence to persecute me) and still am ready to make it good, by a hundred Witnesses if admitted thereunto.  
First, That Roger Lort, James Lewis, Griffeth White, Thomas Bowen, Herbert Perrot, Sampson Lort, and John Eliot, was of several Commissioners for the King, (viz.) of the Array the Association, the Commission of Peace, and did endeavour as much as in them lay, to establish the County of Pembroke for the King's party, All which was by them effected, except Pembroke. Town and Castle.  
Secondly, That the said Confederates did associate the Counties of Pembroke with the Counties of Carmarthen, Cardi●an for the King, and did Petition the King that the Earl of Ch●rb●ry, should command the said association and did likewise go out of their own Country to the King's Army and did their declare each to other and unanimously subscribe a declaration to assist his Majesties with their lives and fortunes against all Rebels and Rebellion.  
Thirdly, That the aforesaid Confederates, did march with the King's forces into the County of Pembroke, and did subscribe under their hands and seals, to raise ●●●● pounds' to be present in Testa- of their Loyal hearts, to his Majesty's sacred hands, and did subscribe to raise Men Horse and Arms, for the King's party, and did force many hundreds of men to serve the king, and to the great annoyance of the well affected, did raise many Thousands of Ponds to maintain the war against the Parliament.  
Fourthly, That the said Confederates, to further their horrid design against the Parliament, did send John Eliot, Thomas Brown, and Roger Lort, to the King to Oxford, who did there for themselves and in the name of all the rest, subscribe to fortify the Harbour of Milford against the Parliament, and to disarm, all the well affected to the Parliament in the County of Pembroke; the said Lort, Bowen and Eliot, having returned from Oxford, all the aforesaid Confederates did with them join together and fortify seven or eight several Garrisons against the Parliament in the County of Pembroke, and did obstinately keep the same until they had been several times beaten and routed, most of their Garrisons taken by storms and batteries, to the obedience of the Parliament.  
Fiftly, That Roger Lort, and John Eliot were ring leaders, to promote the King's party in that Town, the said Lorts House being as aforesaid, a Garrison against the Parliament, and did keep correspondency with Gerrard who did ruin the whole County of Pembroke in the year 1645, and that Roger Lort, though a committee man, yet he had a protection from Gerrard for his Estate, as may appear by the oaths of Mr. Anslow his brother in Law, and James Rees his servant.  
Sixtly that notwithstanding all aforesaid, the said Confederates, did by sinister means, made by some of the secluded Members who obstructed the Kingdoms right, get themselves to be Committee-men, Commissioners, Justices of Peace, Sequestrators, and 〈◊〉 offices of trust, by virtue of which power they have kept back 〈◊〉 questration from themselves and other the most Active Malignan●● in those three Counties to the hindrance of the State 2000● Pounds.  
Seaventhly, that the aforesaid Confederates being entrusted 〈◊〉 the Parliament, did use all means of revenge on myself and 〈◊〉 Souldery, for forcing their obedience unto the Parliament, 〈◊〉 did obstruct all that of right did belong unto the Soldiers and 〈◊〉 self, the Shoulders being senceable of their own present suffering▪ and their hard duty and loss of blood in several Leagures 〈◊〉 Skirmishes until they had reduced them, did run into such a discontent, that nothing would satisfy the Soldiers, till Justice 〈◊〉 showed on those Caterpillars of their Country, the Relator 〈◊〉 Roger Lort, and their Confederates, finding the Inclination of the Souldery to be moved against them, did never give over until they had procured some of their favourites, who had formerly endeavoured the kingdom's ruin (by disbanding the whole Army) to yet them all disbanded without any security for their Arrears, supplies for their present necessities or indempnities for what past: The Soldiers taking the same into Consideration, having a former presi●●●● by his Excellency's Army) would not upon the malice of their Exemies be disbanded until justice were showed to them and executed upon Roger Lort, Sampson Lort, John Eliot, Herbert Perrot, John Lout, etc. who were the Causers of them, and their countries' ruin, and had never compounded for their Malignancy, but had intruded themselves into several Offices as aforesaid, contrary to the Declaration of both Houses, and Ordinance of Parliament in that case provided, the well affected to the Parliament being thereby aggrieved and generally oppressed, which made the Soldiers so much to stand for 〈◊〉 of their Arrears and indemnity.  
This true and hasty Answer, (to a scandalous Pamphlet, spread abroad by the the Relator Ellior as a foresaid) I have thought good 〈◊〉 forth, left falsbood (for want of Reply) should be taken for verity; the Innocent guilty, and Knaves shot free.   By Colonel John Poyer, 
FINIS.