CHAPTER VI (3)

We were not called till the last day of the sessions, which was the 21st of the 11th month, 1673. When we came in, they were stricken with paleness in their faces, and it was some time before anything was spoken; insomuch that a butcher in the hall said, “What, are they afraid? Dare not the justices speak to them?” At length, before they spoke to us, Justice Parker made a long speech on the bench, much to the same effect as was contained in the mittimus; often mentioning the common laws, but not instancing any that we had broken; adding, “that he thought it a milder course to send us two to jail, than to put his neighbours to the loss of two hundred pounds, which they must have suffered, had he put the law in execution against conventicles.” But in this he was either very ignorant or very deceitful, for there being no meeting when he came, or any to inform, he had no evidence to convict us, or his neighbours by.

When Parker had ended his speechspeech, the justices spoke to us, and began with Thomas Lower, whom they examined as to the cause of his coming into that country; of which he gave them a full and plain account. Sometimes I put in a word while they were examining him, and then they told me, “they were upon his examination, but that when it came to my turn, I should have free liberty to speak, for they would not hinder me; but I should have full time, and they would not ensnare us.” When they had done with him, they asked me an account of my travel, which I gave them, as is mentioned before, but more largely. And whereas Justice Parker, to aggravate the case, had made a great noise of “there being some from London, some from the North, some from Cornwall, and some from Bristol, at the house where I was taken;” I told them, that “this was in a manner all but one family, for there was none from London, but myself; none from the North, but my wife and her daughter; none from Cornwall, but my son-in-law, Thomas Lower; nor any from Bristol, but one Friend, a merchant there; who met us, as it were, providentially, to assist my wife and her daughter in their journey homewards, when by our imprisonment they were deprived of our company and help.” When I had spoken, the chairman, whose name was Simpson, an old Presbyterian, said, “Your relation or account, is very innocent.”

Then he and Parker whispered a while together, and after that the chairman stood up and said, “You, Mr. Fox, are a famous man, and all this may be true which you have said; but, that we may be the better satisfied, will you take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy?” I told them, “they had said they would not ensnare us; but this was a plain snare; for they knew we could not take any oath.” However, they caused the oath to be read; and when they had done, I told them, “I never took an oath in my life, but I had always been true to the government; that I was cast into the dungeon at Derby, and kept a prisoner six months there, because I would not take up arms against King Charles at Worcester fight; and for going to meetings was carried up out of Leicestershire, and brought before Oliver Cromwell, as a plotter to bring in King Charles. And ye know,” said I, “in your own consciences, that we, the people called Quakers, cannot take an oath, or swear in any case, because Christ hath forbidden it. But as to the matter or substance contained in the oaths, this I can and do say, that I do own and acknowledge the king of England to be the lawful heir and successor to the realm of England; and do abhor all plots and plotters, and contrivances against him; and I have nothing in my heart but love and good-will to him and all men, and desire his and their prosperity; the Lord knows it, before whom I stand, an innocent man. And as to the oath of supremacy, I deny the Pope, and his power, and his religion, and abhor it with my heart.” While I was speaking, they cried, “give him the book;” and I said, “the book saith, ‘Swear not at all.’” Then they cried, “take him away, jailer;” and I still speaking on, they were urgent upon the jailer, crying, “take him away, we shall have a meeting here; why do you not take him away? that fellow (meaning the jailer) loves to hear him preach.” Then the jailer drew me away, and as I was turning from them, I stretched out my arm and said, “the Lord forgive you, who cast me into prison for obeying the doctrine of Christ.” Thus they apparently broke their promise in the face of the country; for they promised I should have free liberty to speak, but now they would not give it me; and they promised they would not ensnare us, yet now they tendered me the oaths on purpose to ensnare me.

After I was had away Thomas Lower was stayed behind in the court, and they told him, “he was at liberty.” Then he would have reasoned with them, asking them, “why I might not be set at liberty as well as he, seeing we were both taken together, and our case was alike?” But they told him, “they would not hear him,” saying, “you may be gone about your business, for we have nothing more to say to you, seeing you are discharged.” And this was all he could get from them. Wherefore after the court was risen, he went to speak with them at their chamber, desiring to know, “what cause they had to detain his father, seeing they had discharged him;” and wishing them to consider whether this was not partiality, and would be a blemish to them. Whereupon Simpson threatened him, saying, “if you be not content, we will tender you the oaths also, and send you to your father.” To which he replied, “they might do that, if they thought fit; but whether they sent him or not, he intended to go, and to wait upon his father in prison, for that was now his business in that country.” Then said Justice Parker to him, “Do you think Mr. Lower, that I had not cause to send your father and you to prison, when you had so great a meeting, that the parson of the parish complained to me, that he has lost the greatest part of his parishioners; so that when he comes among them, he has scarcely any auditors left?” “I have heard,” replied Thomas Lower, “that the priest of that parish comes so seldom to visit his flock (but once, it may be, or twice in a year, to gather up his tithes,) that it was but charity in my father to visit so forlorn and forsaken a flock; and therefore thou hadst no cause to send my father to prison for visiting them, or for teaching, instructing, and directing them to Christ, their true teacher, who had so little comfort or benefit from their pretended pastor, who comes amongst them only to seek for his ‘gain from his quarter.’” Upon this the justice fell a laughing, for it seems Dr. Crowder (who was the priest they spoke of) was then in the room, sitting among them, though Thomas Lower did not know him; and he had the wit to hold his tongue, and not undertake to vindicate himself in a matter so notoriously known to be true. But when Thomas Lower was come from them, the justices did so play upon Dr. Crowder, that he was pitifully ashamed, and so nettled with it that he threatened to sue Thomas Lower in the bishop’s court, upon an action of defamation. Which when Thomas Lower heard, he sent him word, that he would answer his suit, let him begin it when he would; and would bring his whole parish in evidence against him. This cooled the doctor. Yet some time after, he came to the prison, pretending that he had a mind to dispute with me, and to talk with Thomas Lower about that business; and he brought another with him, he himself being then a prebendary at Worcester.

When he came in, he asked me, “What I was in prison for?” “Dost thou not know that?” said I. “Wast not thou upon the bench when Justice Simpson and Parker tendered the oath to me? And hadst not thou a hand in it?” Then he said, “It is lawful to swear; and Christ did not forbid swearing before a magistrate; but swearing by the sun, and the like.” I bid him prove that by the Scriptures, but he could not. Then he brought that saying of Paul’s, “All things are lawful unto me,” 1 Cor. vi. 12. “And if,” said he, “all things were lawful unto him, then swearing was lawful unto him.” “By this argument,” said I, “thou mayest also affirm, that drunkenness, adultery, and all manner of sin and wickedness is lawful also, as well as swearing.” “Why,” said Dr. Crowder, “do you hold that adultery is unlawful?” “Yes,” said I, “that I do.” “Why then,” said he, “this contradicts the saying of St. Paul.” Thereupon I called to the prisoners and the jailer, to hear what doctrine Dr. Crowder had laid down as orthodox, viz., “that drunkenness, swearing, adultery, and such like things were lawful.” Then he said, “he would give it under his hand;” and took a pen, but wrote another thing than that which he had spoken. Then, turning to Thomas Lower, he asked him, “whether he would answer what he had there written?” who undertook it. Whereupon, when he had threatened Thomas Lower to sue him in the bishop’s court, for speaking so abusively (as he called it) of him before the justices, and Thomas had bid him begin when he pleased, for he would answer him, and bring his parishioners in evidence against him, he went away in a great fret, grumbling to himself as he went. A few days after Thomas Lower sent him an answer to the paper he had written and left with him; which answer a Friend of Worcester carried to him; and he read it and said, “he would reply to it;” but never did, though he often sent him word he would do it.

Soon after the sessions, the term coming on, an habeas corpus was sent down to Worcester for the sheriff to bring me up to the King’s Bench bar. Whereupon, the under-sheriff, having made Thomas Lower his deputy to convey me to London, we set out the 29th of the 11th Month, 1673, and came to London the 2nd of the 12th; the ways being very deep, and the waters out. Next day, notice being given that I was brought up, the sheriff was ordered to bring me into court. I went accordingly, and appeared before Judge Wild; and both he and the lawyers were pretty fair, so that I had time to speak, to clear my innocency, and show my wrong imprisonment. After the return of the writ was entered, I was ordered to be brought into court again next day, the order of court being as follows:—

“The“The defendant being brought here into court, upon a writ of ‘habeas‘habeas corpus ad subjiciend’, &c., under the custody of the sheriff of the county aforesaid; it is ordered, That the Return unto the habeas corpus be filed, and the defendant is committed unto the marshal of this court, to be safely kept until, &c.

In the morning, I walked in the hall, till the sheriff came to me (for he trusted me to go whither I would,) and it being early, we went into the court of the King’s Bench, and sat there among the lawyers almost an hour till the judges came in. When they came in, the sheriff took off my hat; and after a while I was called. The Lord’s presence was with me, and his power I felt was over all. I stood and heard the king’s attorney, whose name was Jones, who indeed spoke notably on my behalf, as did also another counsellor after him; and the judges, who were three, were all very moderate, not casting any reflecting words at me. I stood still in the power and Spirit of the Lord, seeing how he was at work. When they had done, I applied to the chief justice to speak; and he said, I might. Then I related the cause of our journey, the manner of our being taken and committed, and the time of our imprisonment until the sessions; with a brief account of our trial there, and what I had offered to the justices then, as a declaration that I could make or sign, instead of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. When I had done, the chief justice said, “I was to be turned over to the King’s Bench, and the sheriff of Worcester to be discharged of me.” He said also “they would consider further of it; and if they found any error in the record, or in the justice’s proceedings, I should be set at liberty.” So a tipstaff was called to take me into custody, and he delivered me to the keeper of the King’s Bench, who let me go to a Friend’s house, where I lodged, and appointed to meet me at Edward Mann’s, in Bishopsgate Street, next day.