1685.
Thomas Briggs, who also had suffered very much, having been one of the first preachers among the Quakers, and being become old and weak, about this time wrote a letter to G. Fox, in which he signified his perseverance in godliness; and not long after, viz. about the beginning of the year 1685, he died.
It was about this time also, that the king was seized with such violent fits of convulsion, that he died in the month called February. The throne by his death being become vacant, was filled again by his brother James the Second, who succeeding him, was the same day proclaimed king. Now I cannot but take notice, that persecution went on to the death of king Charles, and continued hot to that very instant; and he being gone off the stage, many seemed to fear that worse times were at hand, and that burning of heretics would come in vogue again, as in the former age: yet some there were who imagined that ease was like to follow; and that they guessed not amiss, time showed.
King James had not been long at the helm of the government, but the dissenters applied to him for liberty of worship, and among these were also the Quakers, who made the following petition:
To the King and both houses of parliament, the suffering condition of the peaceable people called Quakers, only for tender conscience towards Almighty God, humbly presented.
‘Showing, that of late above one thousand five hundred of the said people, both men and women, having been detained prisoners in England, and part of them in Wales, (some of which being since discharged by the judges, and others freed by death, through their long and tedious imprisonment,) there are now remaining, according to late accounts, about one thousand three hundred, eighty and three; about two hundred of them women. Many under sentence of premunire, both men and women, and more than three hundred near it; not for denying the duty, or refusing the substance of allegiance itself, but only because they dare not swear: many on writs of excommunication and fines for the king, and upon the act for banishment: besides above three hundred and twenty have died in prison, and prisoners, since the year 1660, near one hundred whereof, by means of this long imprisonment, as it is judged, since the account delivered to the late king and parliament, in 1680; thereby making widows and fatherless, and leaving them in distress and sorrow: the two last hard winters restraint, and the close confinement of great numbers in divers jails, unavoidably tending towards their destruction, their healths being evidently impaired thereby.
‘And here in London, the jail of Newgate hath been from time to time crowded, within these two years, (sometimes near twenty in one room) to the prejudice of their health; and several poor innocent tradesmen, of late, have been so suffocated by the coldness of the prison, that they have been taken out sick of a malignant fever, and died in a few days after.
‘Besides these long-continued and destructive hardships upon the persons of men and women, as aforesaid, great violences, outrageous distresses, and woful havoc and spoil have been, and still are frequently made upon our goods and estates, both in and about this city of London, and other parts of this nation, by a company of idle, extravagant, and merciless informers, and their prosecutions upon the conventicle act; many being convicted and fined, unsummoned and unheard in their own defence. As also on qui tam writs, at the suit of informers, who prosecute for one-third part for themselves, and on other processes, for twenty pounds a month, and two-thirds of estates, seized for the king; all tending to the ruin of trade, husbandry, and farmers, and the impoverishing of many industrious families, without compassion shown to widows, fatherless, or desolate: to some not a bed left to rest upon; to others, no cattle to till their ground, nor corn for bread or seed, nor tools to work withal: the said informers and sheriffs bailiffs in some places being outrageous and excessive in their distresses, and seizures, breaking into houses, and making great waste and spoil. And all these and other severities done against us by them, under pretence of serving the king and the church, thereby to force us to a conformity, without inward conviction or satisfaction of our tender consciences, wherein our peace with God is concerned, which we are very tender of.
‘The statutes on which we, the said people, suffer imprisonment, distress, and spoil, are as followeth: