House of Lords Journal Volume 10: 11 February 1648

DIE Veneris, 11 die Februarii.

PRAYERS, by Mr. Carter.

Domini præsentes fuerunt:

Comes Manchester, Speaker.

Chamberlain to be Sheriff of Oxon.

Resolved upon the Question, That Mr. Chamberlaine shall be High Sheriff for the County of Oxon. (Here enter it.)

Message from the H. C. with an Ordinance.

A Message was brought from the House of Commons, by Mr. John Stephens, &c.; who brought an Order for the Suppression of all Stage Plays and Interludes.

Read the First and Second Time.

Lewin, Taylor, & al. Per

The Petition of John Lewin, Joseph Taylor, Rob'te Benfeild, and others, was likewise read.

Ordinance a suppress Stage Plays.

The Ordinance for Suppression of all Stage Plays, &c. was committed to the Committee of the whole House.

And accordingly the House was adjourned into a Committee during Pleasure.

The House being resumed;

The said Ordinance was read the Third Time.

And the Question being put, "Whether to agree to this Ordinance as it now came up from the House of Commons?"

It was Resolved in the Affirmative. (Here enter it.)

Answer.

The Answer returned was:

That this House agrees to the Ordinance now brought up, for suppressing of Stage Plays and Interludes.

Message from the H. C. that the Lords agree to Chamberlayn being Sheriff of Oxon.

A Message was sent to the House of Commons, by Doctor Bennett and Doctor Aylett:

That the Lords do concur with that House, in the making Jo. Chamb'leine Esquire Sheriff of the County of Oxford. (Here enter it.)

Pet. from Westmorland.

A Petition from some of the Committee of Westm'land, was read. (Here enter it.)

It is Ordered, That the Consideration of this Petition is respited until some of the Judges be present.

Proceedings against L. Willoughby.

Ordered, That, upon Tuesday Morning, this House will take into Consideration what Course to proceed in against the Lord Willoughby; and then the Judges are to be present, and Precedents to be searched.

Standen sent for, for refusing to act as Sheriff of Berks.

Ordered, That Mr. Standen, lately chosen Sheriff of Berksshire, refusing to accept of the said Commission, and to take his Oath:

It is Ordered, That he shall attend this House on Tuesday Morning next, to answer his said Refusal; being appointed by both Houses.

Counsel for the impeached Lords.

Ordered, That Mr. Heron, Mr. Chute, Mr. Nudigate, Mr. Hales, Mr. Walker, Mr. Prynn, and Mr. Phillippes, be of Counsel with the Six Lords.

E. of Devon, a Pass to Spa.

Ordered, That the Earl of Devon and the Lady Dowager of Devon shall have a Pass, to go to The Spaw, with their Retinue.

Mrs. Brett & al. to have the Arrears of their Pension.

Upon reading the Petition of Mrs. Mary Brett, &c.

It is Ordered, To be recommended to the House of Commons, that they may have the Arrears of their Pensions paid them.

Ordinance to raise 20,000£. per Mensem for Ireland.

Ordered, That these Lords Committees following shall consider of the Ordinance for raising Twenty Thousand Pounds for the Service of Ireland, and report the same on Wednesday Morning next:

Any Two; to meet when they please.

Examination of the Violence offered to the Houses.

Ordered, That the Earl of Kent and the Lord Howard shall make Report, on Tuesday Morning next, of the Examinations concerning the Business of the Force upon the Parliament.

Workman to be instituted to Alderley.

Ordered, That Doctor do give Institution and Induction unto Giles Workeman Clerk, Master of Arts, to the Rectory of Alderley, in the County of Gloucester, void by the Death of the last Incumbent; Salvo Jure cujuscunque: Presentation under the Hand and Seal of Mary Barker, the lawful Patroness pleno Jure.

(fn. 1) "Die Mercurii, 9 Februarii, 1647.

"An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for the utter Suppression and Abolishing of all Stage Plays and Interludes; with the Penalties to be inflicted upon the Actors and Spectators herein expressed.

Ordinance to suppress Stage Plays.

"Whereas the Acts of Stage Plays, Interludes, and Common Plays, condemned by antient Heathens, and much less to be tolerated amongst Professors of the Christian Religion, is the Occasion of many and sundry great Vices and Disorders, tending to the high Provocation of God's Wrath and Displeasure, which lies heavy upon this Kingdom, and to the Disturbance of the Peace thereof; in regard whereof, the same hath been prohibited by Ordinance of this present Parliament, and yet is presumed to be practised by divers, in Contempt thereof: Therefore, for the better Suppression of the said Stage Plays, Interludes, and Common Players, it is Ordered and Ordained, by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, That all Stage Players, and Players of Interludes and Common Plays, are hereby declared to be, and are and shall be taken to be, Rogues, and punishable within the Statutes of the Thirty-ninth Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and the Seventh Year of the Reign of King James, and liable unto the Pains and Penalties therein contained, and proceeded against according to the said Statutes, whether they be Wanderers or no, and notwithstanding any Licence whatsoever from the King, or any Person or Persons, to that Purpose.

"And it is further Ordered and Ordained, by the Authority aforesaid, That the Lord Mayor, Justices of the Peace, and Sheriffs, of the City of London and Westminster, and of the Counties of Middlesex and Surrey, or any Two or more of them, shall and may, and are hereby authorized and required to pull down and demolish, or cause or procure to be pulled down and demolished, all Stage Galleries, Seats, and Boxes, erected or used, or which shall be erected and used, for the acting or playing, or seeing acted or played, such Stage Plays, Interludes, and Plays aforesaid, within the said City of London and Liberties thereof, and other Places within their respective Jurisdictions; and all such Common Players, and Actors of such Plays and Interludes, as, upon View of them, or any One of them, or by Oath of Two Witnesses (which they are hereby authorized to administer) shall be proved, before them, or any Two of them, to have acted or played such Plays and Interludes as aforesaid, at any Time hereafter, or within the Space of Two Months before the Time of the said Conviction, by their Warrant or Warrants under their Hands and Seals, to cause to be apprehended, and openly and publicly whipped in some Market Town within their several Jurisdictions, during the Time of the said Market; and also to cause such Offender and Offenders to enter into Recognizance or Recognizances, with Two sufficient Sureties, never to act or play any Plays or Interludes any more; and shall return in the said Recognizance or Recognizances into the 'Sizes or Sessions to be then next holden for the said Counties and Cities respectively; and to commit to the Common Gaol any such Person and Persons as aforesaid, as shall refuse to be bound and find such Sureties as aforesaid, until he or they shall so become bound: And in case any such Person or Persons, so convicted of the said Offence, shall after again offend in the same Kind, that then the said Person or Persons so offending shall be, and is hereby declared to be, and be taken as, an incorrigible Rogue, and shall be punished and dealt with as an incorrigible Rogue ought to be by the said Statutes.

"And it is hereby further Ordered and Ordained, That all and every Sum and Sums of Money, gathered, collected, and taken, by any Person or Persons, of such Persons as shall come to see and be Spectators of the said Stage Plays and Interludes, shall be forfeited and paid unto the Churchwardens of the Church or Parish where the said Sums shall be so collected and taken, to be disposed of to the Use of the Poor of the said Parish; and shall from Time to Time be levied, by the said Churchwardens and Constables of the said Parish, by Warrant under the Hands and Seals of any Two of the Justices of the Peace of the County, City, or Town Corporate, where the said Sums are so taken and collected, upon Complaint thereof to them made, on the Goods and Chattels of the Person or Persons collecting the same, or of the Person and Persons to whom the same shall be paid by them that collect the same, by Distress and Sale of their Goods and Chattels, rendering to them the Overplus, upon Examination of the said Persons, or Proof made upon Oath before the said Justices of the Sum or Sums so collected and received, which the said Justices are hereby authorized to take and examine.

"And it is hereby further Ordered and Ordained, That every Person or Persons, which shall be present, and a Spectator, at any such Stage Play or Interlude hereby prohibited, shall, for every Time he shall be so present, forfeit and pay the Sum of Five Shillings, to the Use of the Poor of the Parish where the said Person or Persons shall at that Time dwell or sojourn; being convicted thereof by his own Confession, or Proof of any One Witness upon Oath, before any One Justice of Peace of the County, City, or Town Corporate, where the said Offence is committed (who is hereby authorized to take the same Oath), to be levied by the Churchwardens or Constables of the said Parish, by Warrant of the said Justice of Peace, by Distress and Sale of the Goods of the said Person offending, rendering to him the Overplus.

"And it is hereby further Ordered and Ordained, That all Mayors, Bailiffs, Constables, and other Officers, Soldiers, and other Persons, being thereunto required, shall be from Time to Time, and all Times hereafter, aiding and assisting unto the said Lord Mayor, Justices of the Peace, and Sheriffs, in the due Execution of this Ordinance, upon Pain to be fined for their Contempt in their Neglect or Refusal thereof.

"Joh. Brown, Cler. Parliamentorum."

To be published.

"Die Veneris, 11 Februarii, 1647.

"Ordered, by the Lords assembled in Parliament, That this Ordinance for the Suppression of Stage Plays shall be forthwith printed and published.

"Joh. Brown, Cler. Parliamentorum."

Information of the Committee of Weltmorland, against Knipe, Halhead, Wilson, Gilpin, & al. for imprisoning them, and seizing the Magazine, &c.

"To the Right Honourable the House of Peers in Parliament assembled.

The Information and Certificate of the Committee for Sequestrations, within the Barony of Kendall, and County of Westmerland.

May it please the Right Honourable House to be certified,

"That, upon Tuesday, being the Tenth Day of August last, Anthony Knipe, Miles Halhead, Alan Wilson, Christopher Gilpin, George Mackereth, Thomas Lickbarrowe, Stephen Jopson, Mr. Henry Feild, and John Briggs, with many others, to the Number of Four Hundred or thereabouts, all Inhabitants within the Barony of Kendall aforesaid, did, in a rebellious and riotous Manner, assemble themselves together within the said Barony, armed with Muskets, Swords, Pikes, Hand Guns, and other Instruments of War, to the great Terror and Affrightment of all peaceable and well-affected Persons thereabouts; and, being so assembled and armed, did, in a most violent and furious Manner, march together to the Town of Kendall, within the said County of Westmerland, being the Place where the said Committee of Parliament did usually sit; and, upon the Day following, being Wednesday, the said Committee, or the most of them, being met and sitting together, at the House of one Peter Huggon, in Kendall aforesaid, and consulting how to discharge the Trust reposed in them by the Right Honourable Houses of Parliament, and to do what good Office they could for the Country, the aforesaid Persons, with a great Number more, all armed, and many of them with their Swords drawn, Matches lighted, and other Instruments of War in their Hands, did violently enter into the Chamber where the said Committee were so sitting, and discharging their Duties; and apprehended Mr Alan Gilpin Mayor of Kendall aforesaid, with the rest of the Committee there present, and, in most shameful and disgraceful Manner, hawled and pulled them down, and by Force carried them to the House of one Peter Sheppard in the said Town, a known Malignant, where they imprisoned the said Committee, and set Guards upon them, till Thursday Afternoon then next following; during which Time and after (they continuing in Arms until the Sunday Morning next following) they uttered many Menaces and Threats against the said Committee, declaring themselves both by their Words and Actions to be opposite to any Parliamentary Power; as, by calling upon all to their Assistance that (as they termed it) stood for God and the King, appointing Captain Huddleston, Philipson, Leonard, Ayrey, Reginald, Harrison, with others, who had all been formerly in actual Arms against the Parliament, to be their Leaders and Commanders: And, to testify their further Malignity, they seized upon the Magazine and Arms provided for the Parliament's Service and Defence of the said Barony, and disposed thereof at their Pleasures; and caused the Drums which they forced from the Officers within the said Town, to beat up and down the Town; apprehended and imprisoned Mr. Henry Massey, Minister of the said Town, a Man ever well-affected to the Parliament; opposed the Troop formerly raised within the said Barony by Order of the Parliament, and imprisoned some of them; with divers other such like Words and Actions: And it being demanded of them, by the said Committee, "By what Authority they did do such Things?" They answered, "Their Swords were their Commissions." Thus much we conceive ourselves bound in Duty to certify your Lordships; leaving the Consideration of the Premises to your most wise and grave Considerations; not doubting but, according to the Ordinance of Parliament, we shall be protected from such desperate Attempts, by the Power of the Parliament, and the principal Authors and Actors of the Premises shall receive such condign Punishment as others may be deterred from attempting the like hereafter; and the rather, because we find our Proceedings ever since much obstructed, the Delinquents (by their Encouragements) refusing to make Payment of their Rents for the Lands and Grounds they farmed of the said Committee, in manifest Contempt of the Orders and Ordinances of Parliament in that Behalf. We remain

"Your Honours and the Kingdom's Servants,

Adjourn.

House adjourned till 10^a Tuesday Morning next.