To the Right Honourable, THE LORDS, In the High Court of Parliament assembled. THe humble Petition of the Cause of the poor Alms-men of East-ham now depending before your Lordships, together with a Letter to the Right Honourable the Lo: Grey of the Chair from the Honourable standing Committee of Chelmsford in the County of Essex. Sheweth the difficulty and great charge the poor are and have been at to get their Pensions paid them, and also how uncertainly it is to be paid hereafter. It ought to be paid quarterly; but there is now our Lady day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, & almost Christmas due. And the poor notwithstanding the help of the said Committee at Chelmsford, and all other means they could use, have gotten but 6. l. of the said Lady days rend, 4. l. of Midsummerâ–ª and 4. l. of Michaelmas rend paid them, being but the sum of 14. l. which is all that five poor men have had to live upon these twelve months, there being justly due unto them 40. l. per ann. from the Tenant, according to his covenant with the Lo: keeper, and Mr. Draper, son to the Lady, and Mr. Coniers, Purchaser. And the Tenant his positive Answer to the Committee, is, That he will pay no more. They therefore most humbly pray your good Lordships to pass your judgements upon the point in Law, and matter of fact or equity, submitted to your Lordship's judgement, & give a final determination to their said Cause. And they as in duty bound shall ever pray, etc. In further consideration of the said Cause, may it please your good Lordships to vouchsafe to peruse some particulars of the proceed thereof. 1. It was brought from the Honourable House of Commons, by Petition to your Honours, and not dismissed. 2. It was read before your Honours, and referred to the Lo. Brampston, who did certify that the purchased Land was not of value to the devised Land, and above 30. miles distant from the Poors Almshouses. And the point submitted to by your Lordship's judgements, was, Whether the poor might have the first devised Lands, which was of better value, and more convenient, or must accept of the other. 3. Your Lordship's hearing it again, than the Sense of the House was to all that heard of it, That your Lordships intended the poor should have their Land that was first devised: And ordered that the Judges, and the King's Council should certify whether your Lordships had power to alter a Decree made by he Lo: Keeper without an Act in Parliament, which cost the poor some charge, and trouble to be resolved. 4. The Judges did certify that your Lordships had power to alter any Decree that was contrary to Equity and good Conscience, as that was. 5. The 10. of August then following, your Lordships appointed to hear the said Cause again; and as we apprehended it, to judge and determine the point submitted to your Lordships: and therefore came unprovided of Witnesses, or Council to open the point in Law, and matter of fact, to your Lordships; Only one Council to open the point in Law, (conceiving the proofs had been sufficiently made before) which was, that a personal trust dieth with the person trusted: And that no Purchaser can act that, that the Trusty should have done in his life time; especially when the Purchaser hath confirmed the trust by his own act, and with his own knowledge, approbation, and joint consent, as the Lady Kemp did with Sir Giles Allington in this Cause. All these are at large in Print, if your Lordships please to command them. 6. There no Age, Time, Chronicle, Record, neither in Parliament, nor out of Parliament, that can show that a Case so honest, just, and lawful, hath been so many years heard, read, debated, and approved of in both Houses; referred, certified by witnesses and sufficient testimony, that ever was dismissed a Parliament without relief. But our hopes yet are, that the justice of a Parliament will not permit so unjust an act as this of the Lady Kemp's is, to pass uncensured, wherein is so much Law and Equity as is in this. If your Honours make doubt of it, the Witnesses are yet living to testify the truth, if they may be admitted to speak, as the Lady Kemp's have been. The Copy of a Letter to the Right Honourable the Lord Grey of the Chair (to the Honourable House of Peers) from the standing at Chelmsford in the County of Essex. May it please your Lordship. THe crying necessities if the poor Almes-men of East-ham, and these continual Petitions and clamours unto us to help them unto their means (which is not in our power) enforce us to recommend their sad condition unto the Honourable House of Peers, from whom is their only hope of redress. And the situation of the Hospital within this County, doth in the apprehension of these poor men, entitle us to this boldness of interceding for them, and assisting their Petition with these lines. The case is not new to your Lordship, having had several debates in that Honourable House. But they make it appear to us by their present miseries, that the intent of the Testator Master bream, who provided a comfortable subsistence for them at the Hospital doors, is frustrated (as we are informed) by the Decree and other orders of Chancery, procured by the means of the purchaser the Lady Kemp: which hath put the poor men into a starving condition, whiles they expect their means above thirty miles off, being not able to keep Bailiffs to gather their Rent that should feed them, or to sue an untoward Tenant that will pay nothing or very little, but by compulsion. We shall not need to use importunity to that most Honourable House in a Cause so just, and for the poor. And therefore humbly praying your Lordship to acquaint them with this our senes of the case, We present ourselves CHELMSFORD, 29. Nou. 1644. Your Lordship's most humble and devoted Servants, Tho. Honywood. William Goldingham. Henry Holcroft. Robert Smith. Robert Crane.