The Case of Anne Smyth, the wife of Daniel Smyth, one of the daughters of Sir John Danvers of Culworth in the County of Northampton Kt, deceased, truly stated. Humbly tendered to the Consideration of the Supreme Authority of England, The COMMONS Assembled in Parliament.  
May it please your Honours,  
ABout the year 1642. your Petitioners Father dying, left to her by Will an estate of one thousand pound, as a Portion, in the hands of Sir John Danvers of Chelsey Knight, who with Sir Peter Osborn Knight, his brother, were named Executors: By which said Will was likewise devised the payment of one hundred pounds to your Petitioner, in lieu of so much of hers received by the Testator about forty years since, upon condition and promise of improvement thereof for the use of the Petitioner.  
Sir Peter Osborne being out of the land, your Petitioners husband applied himself to Sir John Danvers of Chelsey concerning the said Portion, who thereupon furnished your Petitioner with such sums of money from time to time as then supplied her extreme necessity; And after a time, proffered a living at Stow in Northamptonshire to your Petitioners husband upon a rent, who accepting it, went with his Family thither, with the good liking and encouragement of the said Sir John Danvers, who (with other things) gave him in charge, to give his best assistance to Master William Seller Minister there, who (as he thought) was maliciously prosecuted and troubled by some of his neighbours: which command, your Petitioners husband finding just cause, readily observed. But after a time the said Sir John Danvers, being inclinable to remove the said Master Seller, and to place there one Yates, brother to a servant of his, gave intimation thereof to your Petitioners husband, requiring now his assistance on the behalf of the said Yates.  
But your Petitioners Husband, being abundantly satisfied of the unjust and causeless prosecution of the said Master Seller, and also seriously considering the many just causes of exception against the said Yates, (As his extreme inability and insufficiency for the place, his very scandalous conversation, not without great suspicion, and many times appearance of malignancy, and disaffection to the Commonwealth) your Petitioners Husband being extremely pressed in his Conscience, and touched with the sense of the unjustness and unwarrantableness of such proceed; and being much more desirous to forward the work of Reformation (by God's providence then newly begun) then to have a hand in the nourishing of ignorance, and setting up of profaneness and licentiousness, (necessary consequences of this new intended Minister) out of his duty to God, the Commonwealth, and the Parish wherein he lived; and of his care to the honour of the Parliament, and in particular of Sir John Danvers, whose power must necessarily be made use of to effect it, your Petitioners husband conceived he had good cause to give notice of the premises to the said Sir John Danvers, and to pray an excuse from such service.  
Whereupon the said Sir John Danvers (returning for the present a displeased answer) gave order in short time after, for the speedy removing of your Petitioner out of the said Living, assigning to the said intended Minister Yates, thereby necessitating your Petitioners Husband to make sudden provision for his Family elsewhere, means being used to cast him out thence by Ejectment: who understanding of a promise and intention (as was supposed) in the said Sir John Danvers, to pay in your Petitioners portion to Sir Samuel Danvers, her brother, your Petitioners Husband was encouraged to contract for a Living in the same County, which might have been of great advantage to him; but could not prevail by any means possible, with the said Sir John Danvers, to pay in the said portion, or any part thereof; yet was threatened with a suit at Law from the said Sir John Danvers, for not avoiding according to order, insomuch that he could not any longer endeavour for the said money, for danger of being arrested; and not long after (for want of money to go on with his said bargain) was, upon breach of Covenant, cast into prison, where falling very dangerously sick, and your Petitioner being constrained to come up to him, the said Sir John Danvers (in her absence, being with her sick husband in prison) gave order to the said intended Minister Yates, to break into your Petitioners house at Stowe, by force of arms, amongst all her goods, and to keep possession there from your Petitioner: who by that means (notwithstanding her relation to Sir John Danvers as his Kinswoman, her being left to his care by her deceased Father, her livelihood all in his hands, and having been to his knowledge for at least these twenty years in an extreme weak and diseased condition, now grown to that extremity by occasion of these troubles, that she is in danger to perish for want of means to provide against it) had now nothing at all left her, but a prison for a shelter, and the charity of friends and well-disposed persons, for subsistence of herself and poor Children, her husband being in no capacity to make any provision for them: And notwithstanding your Petitioners many supplications to the said Sir John Danvers at several times, and in this her distressed and lamentable condition, yet no answer could be obtained, but threats of Law, and expressions of displeasure, and all this (as is conceived) for no other reason, but to deter and disable your Petitioner from seeking after her right, and to ruin her Husband for opposing the said Yates, although it was in order to the discharging of his conscience, and manifesting his constancy to his principles, and real affection to the Commonwealth.  
So that your Petitioner, (being the eldest child of the Testator (having lent him one hundred pounds for above forty years, upon condition as abovesaid, at such time when it was of most advantage to him, and now stayed much the longest for her portion (notwithstanding the said Sir John Danvers hath in his own hands two thousand five hundred pounds, and Bonds for above three thousand pounds more, in danger to be lost for want of looking after) is now like to be defrauded of her estate, and with her small children impoverished and undone, by means of an unlimited power, procured to the said Sir John Danvers by his said servant Yates, who under pretence of love to the Testator, and care of his Family, had obtained a hand in drawing the said Will. So that with the oppressor there is great power, but on the side of the oppressed there is no helper, unless it shall please God to move your Honours to commiserate her sad condition, she having not left her (out of Sir John Danvers his hands) wherewithal to subsist, much less (by the tedious and chargeable way of Law, were it that way recoverable) to contend with so mighty an Adversary.  
Having therefore no other means to avoid such cruelty, your Petitioner is necessitated to fly unto your Honours for refuge and protection, and in this day of her great calamity to implore your favourable assistance, that so the cries and groans of the afflicted and oppressed, by your timely justice (especially against the mighty, that are so able to break in pieces, and stamp under foot) may be turned into prayers to that great Protector of States, for a blessing upon your counsels and undertake, And no place found for that Woe, so long ago denounced against those that shall neglect to judge the cause of the fatherless, or shall stop their ears against the cries of the oppressed.  
To which end your Petitioner humbly prayeth, That the hearing and examination of the truth of her said Case, may be referred by your Honours to some such uninteressed persons as shall be nominated by you, and have power from you to end and determine the same, that she may not only receive out of her said Father's estate, her said portion of one thousand pounds, with damages for forbearance, As also the said hundred pounds, with interest from the time that it was upon that condition lent to the Testator, there being sufficient of the Testators estate in the said Sir John Danvers hand and power to discharge the same, over and above all other claims thereunto.  
But likewise that her said Husband may by some means be secured from such unnecessary suits, as from the said Sir John Danvers are threatened against him, and already brought against such other of the parish, to their almost utter undoing, as out of conscience could not adhere to the said Yates: He having offered, and is still ready, to give all just and fair satisfaction that shall be required from him.  
For which your Petitioner, and her poor Children, shall pray, etc. Anne Smyth.