THE Petitioners CASE OF THE Corporation of ORFORD in SUFFOLK.  
THIS burrow is an ancient Corporation, but sends Burgesses to Parliament by Prescription and not by Charter, and the Elections have always been by the Freemen of the burrow, as well as by the Members of the Corporation.  
They were formerly incorporated by the Name of Proborum Hominum, and after Grants were by the Name of Burgesses; but in the 21th Year of Queen Elizabeth, they changed their Name of Incorporation, and were incorporated by the Name of Mayor and Commonalty; and in that Charter it's said, The Mayor, Eight Portmen, and Twelve Chief Burgesses shall be the Mayor and Commonalty.  
And since the Revolution, under this Umbrage have endeavoured to choose Burgesses to Parliament by this Select Number of 21. and would shut out all the Freemen and Inhabitants, which are more than three times their Number; and by this way of choosing, the present Members are pretended to be Elected and Returned.  
Which is contrary to all the ancient Usage, for the Elections have always been by the Freemen as well as by the Members of the Corporation: And this will be fully proved by living Witnesses, by ancient and Modern Returns, and by the Town-Books.  
But if the Select Number were the true Electors, the Petitioners( and not the Sitting Members) were duly Elected, for the Petitioners have the Majority of the true Select Number, who are the Rightful Officers of the Corporation.  
In the Year 1693. there being some Vacancies in the Portmen and Chief Burgesses, those were filled up with Men that were not liked by one Thomas Hastings, who has long pretended to the Government of the Town( and under whose Interest the present sitting Members are Chosen) upon which the said Hastings and his complices broken open the Town-Chest, and took away the Charters, and all the Town-Books and Evidence.  
And at Michaelmas 1693. they set up by themselves, and Thomas Hastings pretended to be Chosen Mayor, and he choose his Brother Joseph Hastings Justice, tho' at the same time Thomas Palmer was duly Chosen Mayor by the true Electors, and Richard Gooding, the former Mayor, was Justice; And afterwards the said Hastings( to terrify and affright the Legal Officers from Acting) procured an Information to be brought against Palmer, the right Mayor, and against Richard Gooding, the Mayor of the Year before, and against divers others, for Holding Courts, and Filling up those Vacancies, and Acting in the Corporation, and to load them with infinite Charge, they procured the then Attorney-General to insist on the King's Prerogative to try this Information at the Bar, and accordingly it was tried at the King's Bench Bar in Trinity Term 1694. and the Defts justified themselves upon the trial to be Legal Officers, and that the Court they kept to fill up the Vacancies was Legal; and were found not Guilty. Which cost the Defendants in the Information 200 l.  
Afterwards an Action was brought against Joseph Hastings, the pretended Justice, for Imprisonning one Marri●t, on purpose to bring the Legality of Thomas Hastings's Pretence of being Mayor in Question; and that was tried before the Lord Chief Justice Holt in 1694. And upon the trial the sole Question was, Whether Thomas Palmer or Thomas Hastings was Rightful Mayor, and the Verdict went for the Plaintiff in that Action, That Palmer was Rightful Mayor.  
And at the same time an Information was tried against Thomas and Joseph Hastings, for breaking open the Town-Hall and Chest, and taking away the Charters, &c. and they pretended to justify upon the trial, because Thomas Hastings was Mayor, and Joseph Hastings was Justice; and upon full Evidence they were Convicted; and then the Court of King's Bench was moved to make them deliver the Charter's Books, Mace, and other Ensigns of Government, before they set their Fine, which the Court declared they should do; but, to prevent this, the then Attorney-General entered a Noli Prosequi.  
And notwithstanding these three Verdicts against the Legality of their pretended Officers, they have ever since pretended to call Courts, and choose Officers, and kept up a separate set of Officers in the Corporation; and by this illegal set of Officers are the present sitting Members Chosen and Returned, they having a Power with the Sheriffs, and having got the Precept into their pretended Mayor's Hands, who broken open the Town-Hall, and there pretended to make this Election. But the Petitioners appeared, and had a Majority of the Rightful Members, even of the select Number as well as of the Freemen, so that either way the Petitioners are in the right.   

THE Petitioners CASE FOR ORFORD in SUFFOLK.