The Humble Petition and Deſires OF THE Commanders, Maſters, Mariners, Younger Brothers and Sea-men of the Shipping belonging to the River of Thames (whoſe names are ſubſcribed to the number of 558), PRESENTED To the Right Honourable The LORDS and COMMONS aſſembled in PARLIAMENT, on Thurſday the 29 of June, 1648.
Together with all their Tranſactions concerning a Perſonall TREATY with His MAIESTY: And their undertaking for the timely reducing of the revolted SHIPS, &c.
John Kerſey, Clerk of Trinity-Houſe.
With deliberate Anſwers of the LORDS and COMMONS ſutable to the importance of the ſaid PETITION.
John Browne Cler. Parliamentorum.
Henry Elſynge Cler. Parl. Dom. Com.
London, Printed for George Lindſey, and are to be ſold at his Shop at London-Stone, 1648.
IT is humbly offered by us whoſe names are here under-written, being Mariners and Seamen, That there may be forthwith a Petition drawn in the behalf of Seamen and Mariners, and preſented to the Honourable Houſes of Parliament: wherein our humble deſires may be repreſented for a perſonal Treatie with His Majeſty, as the onely remedy for the preſent diſtempers of this diſtreſſed4 Kingdom, and the reducing of the Shipping revolted from their truſt. And that it is humbly conceived by us, that we are obliged and bound, according to the Proteſtation and ſolemn League and Covenant formerly taken by every of us, to maintain and defend with our lives, powers and eſtates the true reformed Proteſtant Religion, his Majeſties Royall Perſon, Honour and Eſtate, and alſo the power and Priviledges of Parliament. And we do further declare, That if it ſhall appear that any of thoſe revolted Ships ſhall indeavour to impede or hinder the Kings perſonal Treaty with his two Houſes of Parliament, that we will unanimouſly indeavour with our lives and fortunes to bring them to condign puniſhment, according to our Covenant and Proteſtation formerly taken as aforeſaid.
THat they having a deep ſenſe of the manifold miſeries this Kingdom is like to ſuffer by reaſon of the many Armies now on foot, and the revolting of the Fleet, which might be prevented as we humbly conceive, in caſe the Honourable Houſes of Parliament would be pleaſed to admit of a ſpeedy perſonal Treaty to be had between his Majeſtie and them, which is the ſum of all the pretences of all thoſe at this time in arms againſt the Parliament, as alſo of the Fleet: We therefore6 the Petitioners being not of the leaſt concernment, nor the leaſt concerned, do earneſtly deſire that you will be pleaſed forth with to joyn with us in preſenting the Petition herewith delivered to the Honourable Houſes of Parliament; and that you will likewiſe be pleaſed to appoint ſome one of you to ſpeak unto our Petition at the time of the delivery thereof, whereby the Houſes may be informed how many poore in and about London ſubſiſt onely by the ſea-trade, who, if once neceſsitated by want, will know no government.
That it cannot be imagined that the Seamen of England, who are as it were in a Fraternity will be drawn to fight one againſt another, ſince both pretend and deſire one and the ſelf ſame thing: The deſire of a Perſonall Treaty by the revolted ſhips, being no other then is earneſtly deſired by the generality of all the Seamen.
The inlarging of all which we leave to your greater wiſdoms and experience.
THat your Petitioners have to this time faithfully aſſiſted (according to their Oaths and ſeverall undertakings) in the defence of this Kingdom, and for the preſervation of His Majeſtie and both Houſes of Parliament, in their juſt Rights and Priviledges, wherein they have cheerfully adventured their lives, and ſpent much of their eſtates: And your Petitioners cannot but acquaint8 this Honourable Aſſembly, that they had of late more then hopes, that ſince His Majeſties evill Councell were removed from him, and no face of an enemy appearing to obſtruct, That by the ſetling of his Majeſty in his juſt Rights, this miſerable diſtreſſed Kingdom might have enjoyed a happy and laſting Peace: But to the great terrour and unſpeakable grief of your Petitioners, they find themſelves in a far worſe condition then ever, unleſs by the great wiſdom of this grave Aſſembly it be timely prevented; for (when we conſider the manifold dangers now upon us, and the long time like to be ſpent before a Perſonall Treaty is like to be had) we may juſtly fear the utter ruine of this once flouriſhing Kingdom, eſpecially conſidering the many Armies already on foot in the ſeverall parts thereof, beſides the late falling off of the Ships, which we cannot look upon but as a buſineſs of the greateſt danger which hath yet hapned: for beſides that its a laying flat of our ſtrong Wals, whereby we are expoſed to all forraign Invaſions, the loſs of Trade will be of ſuch conſequence, that we ſhall not need9 to fear a ſecond ruine, nor can your Petitioners conceive any way how thoſe Ships may be reduced, when their pretence is that the Peace of this Kingdom may be ſettled by a Perſonal Treaty with his Majeſty, which your Petitioners are bold to offer to this honorable Aſſembly, is the ſenſe of all or the greateſt part of the Seamen of England.
THat whereas they have received a Petition from the Younger Brothers of their Corporation, as alſo from many well-affected Seamen, Maſters of Ships and others, therein expreſſing their deſires to preſent their humble Petition unto this Honorable Houſe, we do in all humble manner ſhew our great apprehenſion of the many diſtempers both by Sea and Land, occaſioned11 by the fomenting of a diſcontented party, who dayly take up Arms againſt the Parliament and Kingdom, which, if not timely prevented by the mercies of God, and wiſdom of Parliament, is like to engage the Kingdom again in a moſt bloody War, both by ſea and Land, to the endangering of the long expected Peace of the three Kingdoms, the loſſe of Navigation, the obſtructing of Trade, and the utter ruine of many thouſands of Families, relating as well to Marine as Land affairs, whoſe whole ſubſiſtance depends upon trade, to and from this Kingdom.
THe Lords have commanded me to return unto you their hearty thanks and acknowledgements, for the good affections you have expreſſed to this Parliament in many former occaſions, as well as in this Petition now preſented: And to your deſires therein contained, for the ſettling of a wellgrounded Peace, the Lords neither are, nor ſhall at any time be wanting to uſe their utmoſt endeavors for the happy and moſt ſpeedy effecting thereof.
THe Houſe hath read the two Petitions preſented by you to them; One of the Maſter Wardens and fellowſhip of Trinity-houſe; the other of the Commanders, Maſters and Mariners of the Shipping belonging to the River of Thames; and a third preſented by the Younger Brothers of your Corporation, and others, to your ſelves ▪ And as this Houſe calling to mind your former faithful aſſiſtance in this Cauſe, ſo likewiſe by your Petitions they find your readineſſe with your Lives and Fortunes to aſſiſt the Parliament in all their juſt undertakings, againſt their and the Kingdoms enemies, according to the Proteſtation and Solemn League and Covenant. And in anſwer to your deſires of a Perſonal Treaty with his Majeſty for ſetling a well-grounded Peace both in Church and State; The Houſe hath commanded me to let15 you know, that they have the ſame fellowfeeling with you of the Kingdoms ſuffering by Warr, and the manifold dangers that muſt neceſſarily enſue thereupon, and to aſſure you that they do really deſire, and ſhall faithfully endeavor to obtain a ſafe and well-grounded Peace: And in order thereunto have ſpent a great part of this laſt moneth in conſiderations of Peace, and have made ſome progreſſe therein: And for the more ſpeedy diſpatch of what further remains to be done, the Houſes have appointed a Committee to conſider what the King hath formerly offered, and what is further to be offered to the King, for his ſatisfaction, for ſettling of a ſpeedy and well-grounded Peace, and to conſider of time, place and other circumſtances for convenience of addreſſe to be made to his Majeſty, which Committee are met, and are enjoyned with all poſsible ſpeed to make Report to this Houſe, whereupon they intend ſo effectually to proceed, that by the bleſsing of God a ſafe and well-grounded Peace may be ſpeedily ſettled; And they doubt not, but what they have done and ſhall do herein, will be fully16 ſatisfactory, as to your ſelves, ſo to all the welaffected Seamen of this Kingdom; And for your good affections to the Parliament and Kingdom, manifeſted by your former actions in the late War, and in your expreſſions and engagements in your preſent Petitions, they have commanded me to give you thanks.
(EEBO-TCP ; phase 2, no. A86747)
Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 161910)
Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 71:E450[21])
Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.
EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.
EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).
The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.
Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.
Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.
Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.
The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.
Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).
Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.
This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this EEBO-TCP Phase II text, in whole or in part.