House of Lords Journal Volume 9: 17 November 1647

DIE Mercurii, 17 die Novembris.

PRAYERS, by Mr.

Domini præsentes fuerunt:

Comes Manchester, Speaker.

Lisle to attend, concerning Impostmoney.

Ordered, That Mr. Lilse shall attend this House between this and Friday next, to give an Account concerning the Impost-money due to the Peers.

Evelyn versus Sir J. Brook.

Upon reading the Petition of Arthur Evelinge Esquire, &c. against Sir John Brooke:

It is Ordered, That Sir John Brooke shall have a Copy of the Petition, and return his Answer within Three Days after Notice given him.

Letter to Colonel Hammond.

A Letter to be sent to Colonel Hamond, was read; and Ordered to be sent to the House of Commons for their Concurrence; and that it may be signed by both Speakers.

Servants to attend the King.

A List of such Servants as are to attend the King, was read, and approved of; and Ordered to be sent to the House of Commons, for their Concurrence.

Message to the H. C. with a List of them;—with the Letter to Colonel Hammond;— and about the following Particulars.

A Message was sent to the House of Commons, by Sir Edward Leech and Mr. Page:

1. To deliver to them the Letter to Colonel Hamond, and desire their Consent therein; and to be signed by both Speakers.

2. To put them in Mind of the Conference Yesterday, and desire they would take the same into speedy Consideration.

3. To put them in Mind of the Business concerning Sir Francis Willoughby, formerly sent down to them.

4. To deliver to them the Ordinance concerning setting the Poor on Work, and desire their Concurrence therein.

5. To recommend to them Captain Swaine's Petition.

6. To deliver to them the Names of the Servants to be presently sent to attend the King.

Ordinance to augment the Living of Banbury.

An Ordinance for augmenting the Living of the Minister of Banbury, was read, and approved of; and Ordered to be sent to the House of Commons, for their Concurrence.

Order for 900l. to Officers.

Ordered, That the Ordinance passed this House 13 Nov. 1647, for Nine Hundred Pounds to be paid to Mr. Pocock and Mr. Greenhill, shall bear Date this Day, videlicet, Die Mercurii, 17 Die Novembris, 1647.

Remonstrance from Sir T. Fairfax.

The Remonstrance sent Yesterday from the General, was this Day read. (Here enter it.)

Declaration against The Agreement of the People.

Ordered, That it be referred to the Committee appointed Yesterday to examine the Authors and Abettors of the Irregularities, to consider also the Book (fn. 1) printed, called "The Agreement with the People;" and to prepare a Declaration, shewing the Dislike of it.

Letter from Nottingham, inclosing that Pamphlet, and encouraging People to sign it.

The Speaker acquainted the House, "That he hath received from Nottingham a Letter, with "The Agreement of the People" inclosed, sent down thither by an Agent, from The Saricen's Head, in Friday Street, London; stirring up the People to subscribe the Agreement; and to send the same up to London, to The Saricen's Hend."

Message to the H. C. for Committees to consider them.

Ordered, That these Papers be sent to the House of Commons; and desire that the Consideration of these Papers may be referred to the Committee appointed Yesterday to examine the Irregularities of the London Agents; and that they may consider what they think fit to be presently done for Suppression (fn. 2) of this throughout the Kingdom.

This was sent down to the House of Commons, by Sir Edward Leech and Mr. Page.

Vote about the Propositions to be communicated to the Scots Commissioners.

Ordered, That the Committee of both Kingdoms do meet this Afternoon, at Derby House, to communicate to the Scotts Commissioners the Vote passed Yesterday, concerning the Propositions.

"A Remonstrance from his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairefax, and his Council of War, concerning the late Discontent and Distraction in the Army; with his Excellency's Declaration of himself, and Expectation from the Army thereupon, for the future uniting of the Army.

Remonstrance of Sir T. Fairfax; against the London Agents, for encouraging the late Mutiny in the Army;— and with the following Requisitions,—That a Time shall be fixedfor this Parliament to determine,— for Indeminity for the Army, — for their Pay to be settled,— for a Provision to be made for maimed Soldiers;—and that the Officers and Soldiers shall subscribe the following Declaration.

"That, ever since the Engagement of the Army at Newmarkett Heath, his Excellency, with the General Officers and General Council of the Army (to which that Engagement refers) have been doing their Duty and best Endeavour for the Good of the Army and Kingdom, according to the Ends of that Engagement, and the Declarations and other Papers that have since passed from the Army.

"And in this (according to their Consciences, and the best of their Understandings) they have done the utmost they could, without present Destruction to the Parliament, which in their Opinions would inevitably have put the Kingdom into Blood and Confusion, and so both the Army and Kingdom into an Incapacity, or past all rational Hopes, of attaining or enjoying that Satisfaction or Security for which the Engagement was entered into; and if they have neglected any Thing wherein they might have done better, they have been ready (as still they are) to be convinced thereof, and to amend the Default, and to hearken to what any Man would soberly offer for that Purpose, or to lead them to any Thing better.

"That, while they have been thus doing their Duty (besides many other Interruptions or Diversion bythe Designs and Workings of Enemies), they have of late found the greatest Interruption to their Proceedings by a few Men, Members of the Army, who (without any Authority, or just Call thereunto, that we know of, assuming the Name of Agents for several Regiments) have (for what Ends we know not) taken upon them to act as a divided Party from the said Council and Army, and, associating themselves with, or rather (as we have just Cause to believe) give themselves up to be acted or guided by, divers private Persons that are not of the Army, have endeavoured, by various Falsehoods and Scandals, raised and divulged in Print, and otherwise, against the General, the General Officers and Council, to possess the Army and Kingdom with Jealousies of them, and Prejudices against them [as if they were fallen from their Principles, had broke all their Engagements and Declarations, and thereby forfeited their Trust, and were in their whole Proceedings false and treacherous both to the Army and Kingdoms]. And, by these and other Practices, the said Agents and their Associates have laboured to make Parties and Factions in the Army, to raise Discontents, Mutinies, and Disorders therein, to divide the Soldiers from the Officers, and both Officers and Soldiers amongst themselves, and to withdraw several Parts of the Army from their Duty and Obedience to the General's Orders, (and that) in Things most necessary for the Safety of the Army and Kingdom.

"And thus, while they causelessly cry out against Breach of Engagements and Dividing the Army, they themselves have made, or endeavoured to make, the greatest Breaches of their Engagements, and greatest Dividing of the Army, that can be; a Dividing most truly contrary to the Engagements, a Dividing which is as bad and destructive as Disbanding, even the Dissolution of all that Order, Combination, and Government, which is the Essence of an Army; and, under false and delusive Pretences (that the Engagements have been broken), they have endeavoured really to loosen and draw the Army off from its former Engagements, and to draw it into new Engagements, different from, and (in some Things) destructive to, the former; and have thus endangered the greatest Forfeiture of the Faith, and Honour of the Army, that ever it incurred.

"And whilst they cry out there is nothing done, they themselves have made the greatest Obstructions to the doing of any Good for the Army or Kingdom, both in the Hindrance and Delays to our Proceedings, and the Expence of Time which with their Workings have occasioned (either to have satisfied them (if it had been possible), or else to salve and quiet those Discontents and Distractions which they have raised in the Army); and also by the Occasions which the Parliament and Kingdom (yea even our best Friends in both) have thus received, to discourage them from Compliance with, or Confidence in, an Army so uncertain, so unsettled, so divided.

"For these Causes, the General hath thought fit to rendezvous the Army, or such Parts of it as are not fixed upon necessary Duty elsewhere; and having (with the Advice of the General Council) sent to the Parliament more importunately than before, for speedy Satisfaction to the Army in their just Desires (especially in Point of Provision for constant Pay to avoid Free Quarter, and of Security for Arrears), thought it best (with the same Advice) to dismiss most of the Officers and Agitators from the Head Quarters, for a Fortnight, unto their respective Regiments, to satisfy and compose these Discontents and Division, which have thus been raised in them; and, for Ease to the Country, and Accommodation to the Soldiery (with respect to the Season of the Year), thought fit to contract the Quarters of the Army in Three Brigades, and to draw them to Three several Rendezvous not far from each other, and this in order to One general Rendezvous, if there should be any Occasion; and in this the several Regiments of Horse and Foot have been appointed to contract Quarters, in order to those several Rendezvous, by taking them directly in Order as their several Quarters lay before, without any other Respect or Consideration: But even these Things the said pretended Agents and their Associates have laboured to pervert and make Advantage of, to the aforesaid Ends of Discontent and Distraction, and to represent the same to the several Regiments as done in Pursuance of the same treacherous Counsels and Designs which they had before suggested: And what Good they could not deny to be in the Things, they assume to themselves, as gained by their Procurement; and so greedily catch at the sole Credit of it, as if the General and his Council (but for them) had not done it; and, by Letters or Messages contradicting the General's Order, they have (under such scandalous Pretences) laboured to draw divers Regiments, from the Quarters and Rendezvous to which they were ordered, unto the First Rendezvous near Ware, in a disorderly and confused Manner, to the Oppression of the Country, and Disaccommodation (if not Quarreling and Distraction) of the Soldiery in Quartering.

"That, without Redress of these Abuses and Disorders, his Excellency cannot nor will any longer undergo or undertake further to discharge his present Trust, to the Parliament, and the Army and Kingdom.

"That, though he is far above any such low Thoughts as to court or woo the Army to continue him their General; yet, to discharge himself to the utmost, and bring the Business to a clear and certain Issue, his Excellency doth now Declare,

"That he is yet willing to adhere to, and to conduct, and live and die with, the Army, in the lawful Prosecution of these Things following; (videlicet,)

"First, for the Soldiery to obtain:

"1. Present Provision for constant Pay while continued; to enable them to discharge Quarters.

"2. The present Stating of Accompts, and Security for Arrears; with an effectual and speedy Course to raise Monies thereupon.

"3. Sufficient Indemnity, and Commissioners in every County for that Purpose.

"4. Provision for maimed Soldiers, and the Widows and Orphans of Men slain in the Service (and that in a certain and more (fn. 3) honourable Way); with Commissioners in every County for that Purpose.

"5. Provisions for Freedom from Pressing, according to the First Petition of the Army.

"6. Provision for Freedom of Apprentices that have served in this War, with a Penalty upon Masters refusing to give it.

"Secondly, for the Kingdom:

"A Period to be set for this present Parliament (to end so soon as may be with Safety), and Provision therewith to be made for future Parliaments; for the Certainty of their Meeting, Sitting and Ending; and for the Freedom and Equality of Elections thereto; to render the House of Commons (as near as may be) an equal Representative of the People that are to elect.

"And (according to the Representation of the Army, of June the 14th) to leave other Things to, and acquiesce in the Determinations of, Parliament; but to mind the Parliament of, and mediate with them for, Redress of the common Grievances of the People, and all other Things that the Army have declared their Desires for.

"That, upon his Excellency's continued Conjunction in these Things, he expects that, for the particular Circumstances of them, the Army shall (according to their aforesaid First Engagements) acquiesce in what shall be agreed unto by the general Council of the Army to which that Engagement refers; and for Matter of Ordering, Conduct, and Government of the Army, that every Member of it shall be observant of, and subject to, his Excellency, his Council of War, and every One of his Superior Officers, according to the Discipline of War; for Assurance whereof, he expects that as many as are satisfied herewith, and agree hereunto, do severally subscribe to what is hereunder written for that Purpose.

Declaration to be subscribed by the Army, that they will submit to the Orders of Sir T. Fairfax and his Council of War.

"We, the Officers and Soldiers of Regiment of, whose Names are here subscribed, do hereby Declare, That we are satisfied in his Excellency the General's continued Conjunction with the Army, in the lawful Prosecution of the Things here before declared to be prosecuted for the Soldiery and Kingdom respectively; and for the particular Circumstance of them, we shall (according to the general Engagement of the Army above-mentioned) acquiesce in what shall be agreed unto by the General Council of the Army to which that Engagement refers: And for the Matter of Ordering, Conduct, and Government of the Army, we shall be observant of, and subject to, his Excellency, his Council of War, and every One of us to our Superior Officers in this Regiment and the Army, according to the Discipline of War.

Hertford, Nov. the 14th 1647.

"Signed, by the Appointment of his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairefax and the Council of War.

"Jo. Rushworth, Secretary."