crowned blazon or coat of arms of Charles II 
C. R.  dieu ET MON DROIT HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE  
CHARLES by the Grace of GOD King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all Parsons, Vicars and Curates, and also to all Justices of the Peace, Majors, Shreiffes, bailiffs, Constables, Church-wardens, Headburroughs, and to all Officers of Cities, Burroughs and towns Corporate, and to all others, Our Officers, Ministers, and Subjects whatsoever they be,( as well within Liberties as without) to whom these Presents shall come greeting—  
Whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Our Parliament of England, have credibly been informed,( as well by the humble supplication, and Petition of the Inhabitants of the town of Bridgnorth, in the County of Salop, as also by a Certificate under the hands of Our trusty and welbeloved Subjects; William Pierepont, humphrey Mackworth, Robert Clive, Robert Charlton, Harcourt Leighton, John thin, Thomas Nichols, Samuel More, Andrew Lloyd and Thomas Hunt Esquires, all of them Persons nominated and appointed by authority of the said Lords and Commons to be a Committee for the safety of the said County) That the upper Town of Bridgnorth aforesaid, was set on fire, within few dayes after, the Forces raised by the said Lords and Commons under the command of the said Committee of safety for the said County had entred the said town, and by the rage and violence of the said fire, the upper town was destroyed, and also the Church, college and Almsehouses, utterly spoyled and ruinated; And further, that the Inhabitants of the said Town, had most of their goods burnt and consumed, to their damage and loss of ninety thousand pounds Sterling or thereabouts, and have therefore made it their humble request, that such relief might be afforded to them, as to others in like case hath been granted by way of Collection, of the charity of good people, within the kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales; Which request tending onely to the glory of God, and the relief of so many of Our poor undone and distressed Subjects, hath been by the said Lords and Commons approved of, not doubting, but that all good Christians, and Our loving Subjects well weighing the want and calamity of the Inhabitants and poor Almes-people of the town will be ready and willing to extend their liberal Contribution towards the furtherance of so godly and pious a work, as the rebuilding of the said Town, and repairing of the said Church, college and Almshouses.— Know you therefore that of Our special Grace, and by the advice and consent of Our Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament; We have given and granted, and by these Our Letters Patents do give and grant unto Our true and loyal Subjects, the Inhabitants of Bridgnorth, and to their Deputy and Deputies, the Bearer and Bearers hereof( under the Hands and seals of the bailiffs of the said town for the time being in that behalf authorised) full power licence and authority to ask, gather, receive, and take the alms and charitable benevolence of all our loving subjects whatsoever, inhabiting within any of Our Cities, Townes-corporate, privileged Places, Parishes, Villages, and in all other places whatsoever, within Our said kingdom of England, and Dominion of Wales, toward the performance of so godly, charitable and religious a work;— Wherefore We will and command you, and every of you, that at such time and times, as the said inhabitants, or their Deputy, or Deputies, the Bearer or Bearers hereof( authorised as aforesaid) shall come and repair to any of your Churches or chapels, or any other places, to ask and receive the gratuity and charitable benevolence of our said subjects, quietly to permit and suffer them so to do without any manner of your let or contradiction.— And you the said Parsons, Vicars, and Curates for the better stirring up a charitable devotion deliberately to publish and declare the tenor of these Our Letters Patents, or the copy or Breise thereof, unto Our said subjects upon some Sabbath-day or Fast-day when the same shall be tendered unto you, exhorting and persuading them to extend their liberal contribution to so necessary and charitable a dead.— And you the Church-wardens, and other Church-officers of every Parish, where such Collection is to be made,( as afore said) to collect and gather the alms and charitable Benevolence, of all our loving subjects, as well strangers as others, and what shall be by you so gathered, to be by the Ministers and yourselves endorsed on the back side of the brief of these Our Letters Patents, in words at length and not in figures; and the sum and sums of money so gathered and endorsed, to deliver to the Bearer or Bearers of these Our Letters Patents authorised as aforesaid, and to no other person, when as thereunto you shall be required. And Our will and pleasure is, that for the performance hereof according to the true intent and meaning of these Our Letters Patents, We do hereby constitute and appoint Our trusty and well-beloved subject Gilbert Walden the present Minister of the said Town of Bridgnorth, and the said Minister of the said Town for the time being, to be the sole Treasurer for the receiving and issuing forth of all such sum and sums of money as shall by virtue of these Presents be collected and gathered as aforesaid, and that the persons herein before name, being the committee of safety for the said County or any two of them( with the said Gilbert Walden Minister of Bridgnorth) from time to time, do order and dispose the disbursements, employments and accounts of all and every the moneys aforesaid; In witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patents for the space of one whole year next after the date hereof to endure and no longer; witness ourself at Westminster, the XVIII. day of January, in the three and twentieth year of Our reign,  
Anno Dom. 1647.