We have here seen how the judge said, there is a new statute which will make you fewer. This statute bore the title of an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles. And though the act made two years before did extend to banishment, yet that punishment was renewed, and expressed more at large in this, which was as followeth:
Whereas an act made in the five and thirtieth year of the reign of our late sovereign lady queen Elizabeth, intitled an act to retain the queen’s majesty’s subjects in their due obedience, hath not been put in due execution by reason of some doubt of late made, whether the said act be still in force; although it be very clear and evident, and it is hereby declared, that the said act is still in force, and ought to be put in due execution:
II. For providing therefore of further and more speedy remedies against the growing and dangerous practices of seditious sectaries, and other disloyal persons, who under pretence of tender consciences, do at their meetings contrive insurrections, as late experience hath showed;
III. Be it enacted by the king’s most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any person of the age of sixteen years or upwards, being a subject of this realm, at any time after the 1st day of July, which shall be in the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred sixty and four, shall be present at any assembly, conventicle or meeting, under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion, in other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the church of England in any place within the kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; at which conventicle, meeting, or assembly, there shall be five persons or more assembled together, over and above those of the same household; then it shall and may be lawful to and for any two justices of the peace of the county, limit, division or liberty wherein the offence aforesaid shall be committed, or for the chief magistrate of the place where such offence aforesaid shall be committed, (if it be within a corporation where there are not two justices of the peace,) (2) and they are hereby required and enjoined upon proof to them or him respectively made of such offence, either by confession of the party, or oath of witness, or notorious evidence of the fact, (which oath the said justices of the peace, and chief magistrate respectively, are hereby empowered and required to administer,) to make a record of every such offence and offences under their hands and seals respectively; (3) which record so made, as aforesaid, shall to all intents and purposes be in law taken and adjudged to be a full and perfect conviction of every such offender for such offence: and thereupon the said justices and chief magistrate respectively shall commit every such offender so convicted, as aforesaid, to the jail or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding the space of three months, unless such offender shall pay down to the said justices or chief magistrate such sum of money not exceeding five pounds, as the said justices or chief magistrate, (who are hereby thereunto authorized and required,) shall fine the said offender at, for his or her said offence; which money shall be paid to the church wardens for the relief of the poor of the parish where such offender did last inhabit.
IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if such offender so convicted, as aforesaid, shall at any time again commit the like offence contrary to this act, and be thereof in manner aforesaid convicted, then such offender so convicted of such second offence, shall incur the penalty of imprisonment in the jail or house of correction, for any time not exceeding six months, without bail or mainprize, unless such offender shall pay down to the said justices or chief magistrate, such sum of money, not exceeding ten pounds, as the said justices or chief magistrate, (who are thereunto authorized and required, as aforesaid,) shall fine the said offender at, for his or her said second offence, the said fine to be disposed in manner aforesaid.
V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any such offender so convicted of a second offence contrary to this act in manner aforesaid, shall at any time again commit the like offence contrary to this act, then any two justices of the peace, and chief magistrate, as aforesaid, respectively, shall commit every such offender to the jail, or house of correction, there to remain without bail or mainprize until the next general quarter sessions, assizes, jail-delivery, great sessions, or sitting of any commission of Oyer and Terminer in the respective county, limit, division or liberty which shall first happen; (2) when and where every such offender shall be proceeded against by indictment for such offence, and shall forthwith be arraigned upon such indictment, and shall then plead the general issue of not guilty, and give any special matter in evidence, or confess the indictment: (3) and if such offender proceeded against, shall be lawfully convicted of such offence, either by confession or verdict, or if such offender shall refuse to plead the general issue, or to confess the indictment, then the respective justices of the peace at their general quarter sessions, judges of assize and jail-delivery, justices of the great sessions at the great sessions, and commissioners of Oyer and Terminer at their sitting, are hereby enabled and required to cause judgment to be entered against such offender, that such offender shall be transported beyond the seas to any of his majesty’s foreign plantations, (Virginia and New England only excepted,) there to remain seven years: (4) and shall forthwith under their hands and seals make out warrants to the sheriff or sheriffs of the same county where such conviction or refusal to plead or to confess, as aforesaid, shall be, safely to convey such offender to some port or haven nearest or most commodious to be appointed by them respectively; and from thence to embark such offender to be safely transported to any of his majesty’s plantations beyond the seas, as shall be also by them respectively appointed, (Virginia and New England only excepted:) (5) whereupon the said sheriff shall safely convey and embark, or cause to be embarked such offender, to be transported, as aforesaid, under pain of forfeiting for default of so transporting every such offender, the sum of forty pounds of lawful money, the one moiety thereof to the king, and the other moiety to him or them that shall sue for the same in any of the king’s courts of record, by bill, plaint, action of debt, or information; in any of which no wager of law, essoign or protection shall be admitted: (6) and the said respective court shall then also make out warrants to the several constables, headboroughs, or tithingmen of the respective places where the estate real or personal of such offender so to be transported shall happen to be, commanding them thereby to sequester into their hands the profits of the lands, and to distrain and sell the goods of the offender so to be transported, for the reimbursing of the said sheriff all such reasonable charges as he shall be at, and shall be allowed him by the said respective court for such conveying, or embarking of such offender so to be transported, rendering to the party, or his or her assigns, the overplus of the same, if any be, unless such offender, or some other on the behalf of such offender so to be transported, shall give the sheriff such security as he shall approve of, for the paying all the said charges unto him.
VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in default of defraying such charges by the parties to be transported, or some other in their behalf; or in default of security given to the sheriff, as aforesaid, it shall and may be lawful for every such sheriff to contract with any master of a ship, merchant, or other person, for the transporting of such offender at the best rate he can: (2) and that in every such case it shall and may be lawful for such persons so contracting with any sheriff for transporting such offender, as aforesaid, to detain and employ every such offender so by them transported, as a labourer to them or their assigns, for the space of five years, to all intents and purposes, as if he or she were bound by indentures to such person for that purpose: (3) and that the respective sheriffs shall be allowed or paid from the king, upon their respective accompt in the exchequer, all such charges by them expended, for conveying, embarking and transporting of such persons, which shall be allowed by the said respective courts from whence they received their respective warrants, and which shall not have been by any of the ways aforementioned paid, secured, or reimbursed unto them, as aforesaid.
VII. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that in case the offender so indicted and convicted for the said third offence, shall pay into the hands of the register or clerk of the court or sessions where he shall be convicted, (before the said court or sessions shall be ended,) the sum of one hundred pounds, that then the said offender shall be discharged from imprisonment and transportation, and the judgment for the same.
VIII. And be it further enacted, that the like imprisonment, indictment, arraignment and proceedings shall be against every such offender, as often as he shall again offend after such third offence; nevertheless is dischargeable and discharged, by the payment of the like sum as was paid by such offender for his or her said offence next before committed, together with the additional and increased sum of one hundred pounds more upon every new offence committed; (2) the said respective sums to be paid as aforesaid, and to be disposed as followeth, viz. the one moiety for the repair of the parish church or churches, chapel or chapels of such parish within which such conventicle, assembly, or meeting shall be held; and the other moiety to the repair of the highways of the said parish or parishes, (if need require,) or otherwise for the amendment of such highways as the justices of peace at their respective quarter sessions shall direct and appoint. (3) And if any constable, headborough or tithingman, shall neglect to execute any the said warrants made unto them for sequestering, distraining, and selling any of the goods and chattels of any offender against this act, for the levying such sums of money as shall be imposed for the first or second offence, he shall forfeit for every such neglect, the sum of five pounds of lawful money of England, the one moiety thereof to the king, and the other moiety to him that shall sue for the same in any of the king’s courts of record, as is aforesaid. (4) And if any person be at any time sued for putting in execution any of the powers contained in this act, such person shall and may plead the general issue, and give the special matter in evidence; (5) And if the plaintiff be nonsuited, or a verdict pass for the defendant thereupon, or if the plaintiff discontinue his action, or if upon demurrer, judgment be given for the defendant, every such defendant shall have his or their treble costs.
IX. And be it further enacted, that if any person against whom judgment of transportation shall be given in manner aforesaid, shall make escape before transportation, or being transported as aforesaid, shall return unto this realm of England, dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, without the special license of his majesty, his heirs and successors, in that behalf first had and obtained, that the party so escaping or returning, shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer death as in case of felony, without benefit of clergy, (2) and shall forfeit and lose to his majesty all his or her goods and chattels forever; and shall further lose to his majesty all his or her lands, tenements and hereditaments for and during the life only of such offender, and no longer: and that the wife of any such offender by force of this act, shall not lose her dower, nor shall any corruption of blood grow, or be by reason of any such offence mentioned in this act; but that the heir of every such offender by force of this act, shall and may after the death of such offender, have and enjoy the lands, tenements and hereditaments of such offenders, as if this act had not been made.