A LETTER FROM The Earl of Forth, to His Excellency Robert Earl of Essex, Lord General, etc. dated 15 Feb. 1643.  
AND His Excellencies Answer thereunto, dated 19 Febr. 1643.  

March 8. 1643.  
IT is his Excellency's pleasure these Letters be forthwith printed.  
I Baldwin Secretary to His Excellency.   
ALSO A PETITION of the well-affected Nobility and Gentry of the Realm of Ireland, who have suffered under the bloody Rebels there; and presented to the Lords Justices, to be presented to His Majesty, which was done accordingly; and the Agents accepted to come to His Majesty.  
Printed according to Order.  
march. 13th LONDON, Printed for J. C. and T.G. 1643.   

My Lord,  
I Cannot so willingly write to you in any business, as in that of Peace. The endeavour thereof being the principal duty of those who are trusted in places of our Commands, especially, when the blood that is spilt, is of persons under the same Allegiance, of the same Country and Religion. His Majesty continuing constant in His pious and frequent desires of a happy end to those bloody distractions. I do hereby desire your Lordship to send me a safe Conduct to and from Westminster, for Mr. Richard Fanshaw, and Mr. Thomas Ofly, Esquires; to be sent by His Majesty, concerning a Treaty for Peace. I rest  
Your Lordship's humble servant FORTH. Oxford, Feb. 15. 1643.   

My Lord,  
YOu show your Nobleness in declaring your willingness to write to me in any business as of that of Peace; and I join with you in the same opinion, that it ought to be a principal duty of those who are trusted in a place of our command. And therefore whensoever I shall receive any directions to those who have entrusted me, I shall use my best endeavours; and when you shall send for a safe Conduct for those Gentlemen mentioned in your Letter, from His Majesty to the Houses of Parliament, I shall with all cheerfulness show my willingness to further any way that may produce that happiness that all honest men pray for, which is a true understanding between His Majesty and His faithful and only Council the Parliament.  
Your Lordship's humble servant. ESSEX. Feb. 19 1643.   

TO THE KING'S MOST Excellent Majesty.  
The humble Petition of divers of Your Majesty's Protestant Subjects of Your Kingdom of Ireland, as well Commanders of Your Majesty's Army as others, whose names are subscribed in the behalf of themselves and others your Protestant-Subjects in this your Kingdom;  
Shows,  
THat this your Kingdom reduced with a vast expense of Treasure, and much effusion of British blood, to the obedience of the Imperial Crown of England, hath been by the Princely care of Your Royal Progenitors, especially of Queen Elizabeth, and of Your Royal Father of ever blessed memory, and Your sacred Majesty, in many parts happily planted, great sums of Money disbursed in buildings and improvements, Churches edified and endowed, and frequented with multitudes of good Protestants, and your Customs and Revenues raised to great yearly sums by the industry of the Protestant Subjects especially, and great yearly sums by way of Subsidies and Contributions cheerfully paid unto. Your Majesty by Your said Subjects; in which happiness this Your said Kingdom hath flourished in a long continued Peace, and under Your Highness' most glorious and happy government, until that by the present Conspiracy and Rebellion raised out of detestation of Your blessed government, and for rooting out of the Protestant Religion, and so for the dispossessing of Your Majesty of this Your said Kingdom, without the least occasion offered by Your Majesty or Your Protestant Subjects. And notwithstanding that Your Majesty immediately before had enlarged, beyond precedent, Your Royal favour and bounty to them, in granting all that their and our joint Agents did desi●e of Your Majesty. And we continuing amongst them in all love and amity, without distrust; Your Petitioners and others, who laboured to oppose those damnable designs and practices, have been driven from their Dwellings, Estates and Fortunes, their Houses and Churches burnt and demolished, all Monuments of civility defaced utterly, Your Majesty's Forts and places of strength thrown down, and the Common and Statute Laws of this Your Kingdom utterly confounded, by taking upon themselves the exercise of all manner of Authority and Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and Civil both by Land and Sea, proper and peculiar to Your sacred Majesty, being Your just Prerogatives, and the royal Flowers of Your Imperial Diadem, to the disherison of Your Crown and Revenues brought to nothing, and the Protestant Clergy, wi●h their Revenues and Support, for the present destroyed. This Your Kingdom in all parts, formerly inhabited in all parts by British Protestants, now depopulated of them, and many thousands of Your Protestant Subjects most barbarously used, stripped naked, tortured, famished, hanged, buried alive, drowned, and otherwise by all barbarous cruel sorts of death murdered. Such as yet remain of them are reduced to that extremity, that very few of them have wherewith all to maintain a being, and all of them so terrified and afflicted with these barbarous and inhuman cruelties (the true reports whereof being now spread abroad into the Christian world) Your Suppliants conceive fear that Your Majesty's British Subjects will be discouraged from coming again to inhabit this Kingdom, and the remnant of the British left here will be enforced to departed. All this being done by the Conspiracy of the Papists, who did publicly declare the utter extirpation of the Protestant Religion, and all the British Professors thereof, out of this Your Majesty's Kingdom. And to the end it may the better appear in some measure, Your Suppliants have made choice of Captain William Ridgeway, Sir Francis Hambleton Knight and Baronet. Captain Michael jones, and Master Fenton Parsons, whom they have employed and authorized as their Agents, to manifest the truth thereof in such particulars as for the present they are furnished withal, referring the more ample manifestation to Cap. Wil Ridgeway, Fr. Hambleton, Michael jones, and Fenton Parsons, or any 3 or more of them, or any such other agents as shall with all convenient speed be sent as occasion shall require, to attend Your Majesty, from Your Protestant Subjects of the several Provinces of this Your Kingdom.  
We therefore Your Majesty's most humble loyal and obedient Protestant Subjects, casting down ourselves at Your Royal feet, and flying to You for redress, and Suitors in these our great calamities, as our most gracious Sovereign Lord and King; And next and immediate under Almighty God, our Protector and Defence: most humbly beseeching Your Sacred Majesty to admit into Your Royal Presence, from time to time our said Agents; And in Your great Wisdom to take into Your great care and consideration the distressed estates, and humble desires of your said subjects, so that the glory of God, Your Majesty's Honour, and the happiness of Your Subjects, the Protestant Religion may be restored throughout the whole Kingdom to its justre. That the losses of Your Protestant Subjects may be repaired in such manner, and measure as Your Majesty in Your Princely Wisdom shall think fit. And that this Kingdom may be so settled, as that your said Protestant Subjects may hereafter live therein under the happy government of Your Majesty and Your Royal posterity with comtort and security; whereby Your Majesty will render Yourself throughout the whole World, a most just and glorious defender of the Protestant Religion, and draw down a blessing on all other Your Royal undertake, for which Your Petitioners will ever pray, etc.  


GEorge Kildare.  
Montgomery.  
Henry Blaney.  
Mr. Ridgeway.  
Ja. Montgomery.  
Cham Coote.  
Fra. Hamilton.  
Ar. Forbish.  
Ro. Hannah.  
Ro. Stuart.  
William Cooley.  
Ar. blundel.  
Fra. Shurley.  
Ja. Dumbettr.  
Edw. Pevey.  
Tho. Merideth.  
Ar. Loftus.  
Wil Usher.  
Fra. Slingsby.  
Fra. Willougby.  
jon Morris.  
Geo. Monk.  
Rob. Sterling.  
Hen. jones.  
Io. Pygot.  
Rob. Baliffe.  
Ed. Philpot.  
Anth. Trim.  
Wil Parsons.  
joh. Edgeworth.  
Wil Bodoley.  
Fran. Moor.  
Io. Nueman.  
Fra. Bowes.  
Will. Plankot.  
Jo. Turner.  
Io. cliff.  
Pet. Wyburne.  
Theod. Sceut.  
Brya. Stapleton.  
David Dunbar.  
Tho. Hill.  
Geo. Launder.  
Ed. Montgomery.  
Hen. Tilliard.  
Io. Colvell.  
Will. johnson.  
Geo. Montgomery.  
Io. Reevonin.  
Art. Hambleton.  
Will. Gibbs.  
Bob. Whitfeeld.  
joh. Camphell.  
Ios. Wheeler.  
Io. Wheeler.  
Will. Alfrey.  
Dudley Loftus.  
Nich. Simson.  
Rog. Alinson.  
Will. Pigat.  
Ant. Doping.  
Ratcl. Duckenfeeld.  
Will. Lucasse.  
Tho. Leigh.  
Dan. Foster.  
Io. Sterling.  
Ad. Merideth.  
Rob. Sandersor.  
Tho. Coote.  
Geo. Bently.  
Tho. Lallis.  
Will. White.  
Ed. Pygot.  
joh. Dernelle.  
William. Knight.  
William. Palms.  
Ed. Spring.  
Ro. percival.  
Io. Cranford.  
Tho. Aglmen.  
William. Aubrey.  
Io. johnson.  
Io. Doyley.  
Ios. Allen.  
Rob. Cole.  
joh. Kenedey.  
Nich. Pinner.  
Cooley. Phillip's.  
Rob. Stuart.  
joh. Hoy.  
Tho. White.  
Paul. Canning.  
Sam. Mullenex.  
Io. Light.  
And. Brewarton.  
William. Hamilton.  
Hen. Kenney.  
Io. Billingham.  
Will Humphrey.  
Hug. Gerney.  
Io. Clark.  
Io. Field.  
Ed. Fisher.  
Io. Shenning.  
johnthor Holt.  
Io. Combloody.  
Tho. Lawton.  
And. Crimlle.  
Nath. Higinson.  
Io. Walker.  
Re. Holland.  
Wal. Fraser.  
Geor Os●aston.  
Tho. Manley.  
Fra. Barbar.  
William. Bodington.  
And. Young.  
Ed. Barton.  
William. Richardson.  
Io. Penrose.  
Rob. Mason.  
William. Medops.  
Mat. Sloghson.  
john. Roe.  
William. Steward.  
Adam jones.  
William. Teddey.  
Rob. Bowyer.  
Arno. Cosby.  
William. Sands.  
Nat. Hollington.  
Adam Watson.  
Io. Woods.  
Mat. Forester.  
Arnold. Boate.  
Io. Parsons.  
William. Gilbert.  
Rob. jones.  
Francis King.     
FINIS.