House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 21 December 1666

Die Veneris, 21 Decembris, 18 Car. IIdi.

Prayers.

Mildmay's Estate.

AN ingrossed Bill for selling Part of the Lands of Henry Mildmay Esquire, deceased, for Payment of his Debts, and making Provision for his Children, was read.

Resolved, &c. That the Bill do pass: And that the Title shall be, An Act for selling Part of the Lands of Henry Mildmay Esquire, deceased, for Payment of his Debts, and making Provision for his Children.

And Sir Foulke Lucy is to carry up the Bill to the Lords.

Impeachment of Ld. Mordant.

Mr. Pryn reports from the Committee to which it was referred to draw up an Impeachment against the Lord Viscount Mordant, upon the Votes of the House, That the Committee had agreed, and drawn up, in Writing, several Articles of Impeachment against the said Lord Mordant: Which he read; and after, delivered the same in at the Clerk's Table: Which Articles were read the First time; and after, were severally read the Second time; and, upon the Question, severally agreed to: And are as followeth; viz.

Articles of Impeachment, by the Commons of England, assembled in Parliament, in the Name of themselves, and of all the Commons of England, against John Lord Viscount Mordant, Constable of the Castle of Windsore, for several high Crimes and Misdemeanors committed by him.

I. THAT the said Lord Viscount Mordant, being a Peer of this Realm, and Constable of the Castle of Windsore in the County of Berks, and Commander of the Garison Soldiers there, understanding that one William Tayleur Esquire (who had faithful . . served his late Majesty King Charles the First in his Wars, and been a great Sufferer for his Loyalty to him during the Time of . . . late Usurpations; and, by his Majesty King Charles the Second, since his most happy Restoration, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, promoted to several Offices of Trust within the said Castle and Honour of Windsore, and in actual Possession of certain Lodgings within the said Castle, claimed by him as appertaining to his said Offices, or one of them); did intend to stand for the Election of one of the Burgesses of the said Borough of Windsore, to serve in this present Parliament, for which Writs of Summons were issued in the Month of March in the Year of our Lord 1660, some Weeks before the Time of the said Election; to disparage and prevent the free Election of the said Wm. Tayleur, and strike a Terror into those of the said Borough who should give their Voices for him, and deprive them of the Freedom of their Voices at the Election, by Colour of a Warrant from his Majesty, on or about the Seventeenth Day of the said Month of March, did by Soldiers, forcibly eject the said Wm. Tayleur, together with his Wife (then great with Child), Family, and Goods, out of the said Lodgings and Castle; the rude Carriage of which Soldiers then frighted a young Child of the said Mr. Tayleur out of his Wits; whereof it soon after died: And moreover, on the Twenty-third Day of the same Month, the said Lord Viscount Mordant, contrary to the great Charter and other Laws and Statutes of this Realm, and the Liberty of all English Freemen, did command and cause the said William Tayleur to be forcibly, illegally, and arbitrarily seized upon, by his Soldiers, in the Prison of the said Borough, out of the Precincts of the said Castle; which Soldiers broke open the said Prison Doors, where the said William Tayleur was then a Prisoner, under an Arrest for Debt; and carried him out of the said Prison, into the said Castle, without any Warrant but their Swords, or any lawful Cause; and there detained him Prisoner, by the said Lord Viscount Mordant's Command, from Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, till near One of the Clock the next Morning, in a cold low Room, some Steps under ground; refusing to accept of Two thousand Pound Bail, then proffered, for his Enlargement.

II. That the said Lord Viscount Mordant, at the Time of the said Mr. Tayleur's Imprisonment, when Two thousand Pound Bail was proffered for his Release, being told, That the said Mr. Tayleur was the King's Servant, and had the King's great Seal for his Place, as well as the Lord Mordant had for his, in high Contempt, of his Majesty's royal Authority, and Great Seal, replied, He would dispose of the said Mr. Tayleur's Places, and break the Great Seal, and justify it when he had done.

III. That the said Lord Viscount Mordant, in or about the Month of March Anno Domini 1664, by Letters, and otherwise, made sundry uncivil Addresses to Mrs. Ann Tayleur (now Mrs. Vachell), Daughter to the said William Tayleur: Which she rejecting; and threatening to make the said Lord Viscount's Lady acquainted with them; the said Lord Viscount swore, by a most dreadful Oath and Imprecation, He would prosecute her, and her Family, to all Eternity.

IV. That, not long after, on or about the Three-andtwentieth Day of November, Anno Domini 1665, by order of the said Lord Viscount Mordant, the said William Tayleur was forcibly and illegally dispossessed, by Soldiers, of certain Rooms in the Timber Yard belonging to the said Castle, without the Walls thereof, claimed by the said William Tayleur, as belonging to his Offices of Paymaster and Surveyor of the said Castle, and peaceable held and enjoyed by him, from the Time of his foresaid Ejection out of the Lodgings he possessed within the said Castle in March 1660.

V. That a Warrant, obtained from his Majesty by untrue Suggestions and Misinformations, dated the Thirtieth of November 1665, but not produced till some Months after upon a Pluries habeas corpus, for the Restraining of the said William Tayleur from going out of the said Castle, was directed to the said Lord Viscount Mordant; who, by virtue of his own Warrant (not mentioning the said Warrant of his Majesty's) about the Ninth of December following, caused the said Mr. Tayleur to be again forcibly and illegally apprehended, and taken into Custody, in the said Borough of Windsore, without the Precincts of the said Castle, by one Richard Voyle, then Marshal of the said Castle, assisted with a File of Musqueteers; who, by Command from the said Lord Mordant, carried him Prisoner into the said Castle; and there continued, and illegally detained him Prisoner, during the Space of Twenty Weeks, and Five Weeks thereof a close Prisoner, not permitting him to go to Church, though he desired it; and locking him up every Night, refusing to take Bail for him, when offered soon after his Imprisonment; whereas his Majesty's Warrant was only to restrain him within the Castle: At which time Henry Martin, a Traitor, one of the late Regicides, then a Prisoner there, had Liberty to go abroad out of the said Castle, without a Keeper.

VI. That the said Lord Viscount Mordant, during the said William Tayleur's Imprisonment, illegally refused to return and obey an Habeas Corpus brought by the said Mr. Tayleur for his Enlargement: And, being afterwards served with an Alias habeas corpus by Leonard Symondson, Servant to the said Mr. Tayleur, for his Enlargement, the said Lord Viscount Mordant, in high Contempt of his Majesty's Authority, and Laws of this Realm, gave the said Servant reproachful Language, calling him Rogue, for delivering the said Writ; and saying, "That was all the Answer he would give to it:" directly refusing to obey the same; and continued the said Mr. Tayleur divers Weeks after Prisoner, till set at Liberty upon a Pluries habeas corpus by his Majesty's Court of King's Bench.

VII. That the said Mr. Tayleur, soon after his Enlargement upon the said Pluries habeas corpus, hearing and fearing, that he should be again illegally imprisoned by the said Lord Viscount Mordant, did thereupon make Application to his Lordship by his Friends for a Reconciliation: Who answered them, "He would never be reconciled to him;" and threatened to imprison him again; "and then, if he brought another Habeas corpus, he would imprison him again and again; and keep him Prisoner as long as he lived; and likewise turn him out of all his Employments and Offices, and dispose of the same to others, as he pleased:" By reason of which Threats and Menaces, the said Mr. Tayleur was enforced to desert his Wife, Family, and Employments at the said Borough of Wyndsore, and to obscure himself elsewhere, till this present Session of Parliament, to prevent future illegal Imprisonments by the said Lord Viscount Mordant.

All and every which Proceedings are contrary to the great Charter, and other Laws and Statutes of this Realm, and the Rights and Liberties of all the Commons and Freemen of England; and of dangerous Consequence and Example, if unredressed.

And the said Commons, by Protestation, saving to themselves the Liberty of exhibiting, at any time hereafter, any other Accusation or Impeachment against the said Lord Viscount Mordant, and also of replying to the Answer to the said Articles, or any of them, or of offering Proof of the Premises, or any other Impeachment or Accusations that shall be exhibited by them (as the Case shall, according to the Course of Parliaments, require) do pray, That the said Lord Viscount Mordant may be called to answer the said several Crimes and Misdemeanors; and receive such condign Punishment, as the same shall deserve; and that such further Proceedings may be, upon every one of them, had and used against him, as is agreeable to Law and Justice.

The Title of the said Articles were twice read; and upon the Question, agreed to.

Resolved, That the said Articles be ingrossed.

Regulating Printing.

The Question being put, That the Report from the Committee to which the Matter touching Printing was referred, be now heard;

The House was divided.

The Noes went out.

Tellers,

And so it passed in the Negative.

Hemp and Flax.

An ingrossed Bill, sent from the Lords, for encouraging the Sowing and Planting of Hemp and Flax, was read the First time.

Ordered, That this Bill be read the Second time Tomorrow Morning.

Northern Borders.

An ingrossed Bill to continue a former Act for preventing Theft and Rapine on the Northern Borders of England, was read.

Resolved, &c. That the Bill do pass: And that the Title shall be, An Act for preventing Theft and Rapine on the Northern Borders of England.

And the Lord Morpeth is to carry up the Bill to the Lords.

Higgon's Claims.

Mr. Steward reports from the Committee to which the Bill for satisfying a just Debt to Sir Thomas Higgons, which was due to the late Countess of Essex, . . . . . some Amendments agreed by the Committee to be made to the Bill: Which he read, with the Coherence; and after, delivered the same in at the Clerk's Table. And the Amendments, being twice read, were, upon the Question, severally agreed to.

The Question being propounded, That the Bill, with the Amendments agreed to, be ingrossed;

The Question being put, That this Question for ingrossing be now put;

The Noes went out.

Tellers,

And so it was resolved in the Affirmative.

The main Question being put, That the Bill, with the Amendments, be ingrossed;

The House was divided.

The Yeas went out.

Tellers,

And so it was resolved in the Affirmative.

Ordered, That the Bill, being ingrossed, be read the Third Day of January next: And that the Ordinance be then produced, to the end it may be compared with the Clause in the Act of Indemnity.

Pride's Estate.

Ordered, That Colonel Kirkby, Mr. Daniell, Sir Fran. Clarke, Sir Thom. Woodcocke, Sir Edw. Masters, Mr. Jolliffe, Sir Roger Bradshaigh, Colonel Gilby, Mr. Edw. Seymour, Captain Jones, Sir Geo. Reeves, Sir Thom. Littleton, Mr. Crooke, be added to Mr. Pride's Committee: And they are to sit To-morrow in the Afternoon, in the Place formerly appointed.