A True NARRATIVE OF All the PROCEED AGAINST The Weavers, At a Court of Oyer and Terminer, held at Justice-Hall in the Old-Bayly upon the same occasion, On Thursday the 16th of September 1675.  
With an Account of the manner of their Deportment there, and also of the Punishments allotted them for their Offence.  
How many are to be fined, and how many to stand in the Pillory.  
London: Printed in the Year 1675.   

A True NARRATIVE OF All the PROCEED AGAINST The Weavers.  
IT is, sufficiently known to most person about this City, what great mischief and disorders happened by the Insurrection of the Weavers in August last, not only to the breaking of the public Peace, but to the great damage of several persons whose Looms and Instruments of Trade they forcibly took away from them and burned.  
Great care was then taken by the worthy Sheriffs and other Magistrates of the City, by all fair means at first, if possible, to suppress them, and to persuade them to be quiet; and that if they were grieved as they pretended they were, they should take what remedy the Law would allow them, and not persist to disturb the Peace of the City: but when such softer allays could not assawage the Calenture of their raging fury, but they persisted day after day in continual Tumults to prosecute their Riotous designs, some of the principal of them were taken and committed to several Prisons, in order to be proceeded against by Law, for an Example and warning to others that should offend in the like nature.  
And to this end a Court was held by special Commission of Oyer and Terminer at Justice Hall in the Old-bayly upon Thursday the sixteenth of September Instant, for the Trial of the said Malefactors, where were present several Justices and other Magistrates.  
After the Commission read, the Prisoners were Arraigned, and then the Jury were called, which consisted of Esquires and Gentlemen of good Quality; and as they were called over, the Prisoners being Eleven in number, standing at the Bar, had liberty given them to make their Challenges; after which the Jury being sworn, the other ten were withdrawn, and the eleventh continuing at the Bar, they proceeded first against him, and the Indictment read, which was to this Effect: That he with several other persons to a great number, did Riotously assemble together upon the nine and tenth of August, and did break open the houses of one J. M. and C. and took away and burned their Goods, to the great disturbance of the Peace, etc. after which the King's Council opened the Charge and the Witnesses were sworn, which were the aforesaid C. and M. with several other persons, who by their Evidence did satisfy the Court the prisoner was one of the Rabble, who were about an hundred in number; and that he with the rest, were out on Monday and Tuesday the ninth and tenth of August, and that he was one of them that laid hand on their Goods, and was aiding and assisting to the burning of them. This Evidence was proved against him. Notwithstanding he began a plausible story for himself, as that he kept in all day on Monday, and that on Tuesday he was with the Constable on the Watch till four in the afternoon, and then in his way homewards lighting on the place where the said Rioters were assembled near the house of the said C. and an out cry being made as if some Murder were done in the house, the said C. desired that he and two other men would come into his house to be witnesses what the matter was, where they found all things peaceable and quiet; and that then he and the said C. went to drink together; and that by his own confession he got the said C. to give a Bill of the Penalty of one hundred pound that he should never use the Engine as they called it, any more; which Bill was read in the Court, and it appeared that upon his giving of the said Bill, the Rioters departed; by which, and other circumstances, the Court observed that this man was a principal Ringleader of the Faction.  
After his Trial was over, another was called: it appeared by the Evidence that he also was one of the number; and that although he did not lay violent hands on the Looms that they had taken, yet that he had persuaded the party from whom they were taken, to deliver them up into their hands, to avoid the trouble of having them taken from him; which the Court said was all one to make him guilty with the rest, for that he might be persuaded to, out of fear of worse mischiefs that they might do to him; And that to be present in any such Riotous meeting, and not to endeavour to suppress them, or be in the least aborting to them, was sufficient to make a person Equally Guilty with them.  
After this, two more were called up; one of them carried himself very Insolently, and stood upon his Justification, although the Fact with which he was Charged, which was of the same Nature with the former, was Evidently proved against him. It is Obseruamce, that the Court of their abundant Clemency towards the Prisoners, endeavoured both with him, and the former Prisoner to bring them to an ingenuous Confession of their Faults without troubling the Court with bringing Proofs (which were not wanting) against them, acquainting them, That the King of his gracious Clemency to them, had ordered the Indictments to be such, as should neither extend to Life nor Member, but only Trespass; And that if they would ingenuously Confess the Matters Charged against them, and humble themselves to the Court, they should find the more Favour: upon which, One of the Two last mentioned Prisoners fell on his Knees and begged Mercy, confessing his Indictment, and so did two others after him; which carriage of theirs, the Court was pleased to take into Consideration, and it fared the better with them. The rest stood upon their Trial, and their several Facts proved against them, which being for the manner much of the same Nature of the former, it would be too redious to recount the Particulars. In fine, therefore, after a full hearing of the several Evidences against them, and what they could severally say in their own Defence (in which the Court gave them a great deal of Liberty, the Jury went upon their Verdict, and returned them all Guilty; upon which the Court broke up for the Forenoon.  
In the Afternoon after the Court had dispatched some other business the Prisoners were again called to the Bar to receive their Sentence, in which the Court first acquainting them of the Notoriousness of the Crimes they had been Convicted of, told them next, what Penalty they had thereby made themselves liable to: that the same might have been made High Treason, and they therefore have suffered as Traitors: But that his Majesty of his Gracious Goodness had been willing to dispense with the Rigour of those Sanguinary Laws, and to suffer them to be proceeded against upon such Indictments as should endanger neither Life nor Member; And therefore that those Three Persons who had Confessed their Indictments, and submitted themselves to the Court, should be Fined Twenty Marks apiece, to lie in Prison till their Fines were paid, and to be bound to their Good Behaviour for their Lives. And for the other Eight, for their Contumacy, they were thought worthy of a greater Punishment; and so were Fined Five hundred Marks a Man, to lie in Prison till their Fines were paid; to stand three several Days on the Pillory: to find Sureties for their good Behaviour for their Lives. After which Sentence Pronounced, in a little time the Court broke up, and the Sessions concluded.  
FINIS.