To the right honourable the knights, citizens and burgesses now assembled in Parliament. The humble petition of Andrew Church, George Allen, Thomas Sander, Robert Parkinson, Iohn Tippin, and Iohn Wigmore as it was by them delivered to Master Speaker the 9 of August, in the behalfe of the multitude of poore trades-men and artificers, in and about the cities of London and Westminster, with the suburbs and liberties of them both, and by Master Speaker, presented to the honourable house of Commons, the 16. of the same moneth. Church, Andrew, fl. 1641. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A74205 of text R210201 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.4[27]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 5 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A74205 Wing C3985 Thomason 669.f.4[27] ESTC R210201 99869021 99869021 160649 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. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A74205) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 160649) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 245:669f4[27]) To the right honourable the knights, citizens and burgesses now assembled in Parliament. The humble petition of Andrew Church, George Allen, Thomas Sander, Robert Parkinson, Iohn Tippin, and Iohn Wigmore as it was by them delivered to Master Speaker the 9 of August, in the behalfe of the multitude of poore trades-men and artificers, in and about the cities of London and Westminster, with the suburbs and liberties of them both, and by Master Speaker, presented to the honourable house of Commons, the 16. of the same moneth. Church, Andrew, fl. 1641. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [London : 1641] Imprint from Wing. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng England and Wales. -- Parliament -- Early works to 1800. London (England) -- Poor -- Early works to 1800. A74205 R210201 (Thomason 669.f.4[27]). civilwar no To the right honourable the knights, citizens and burgesses now assembled in Parliament. The humble petition of Andrew Church, George Allen, Church, Andrew 1641 807 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2008-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2008-07 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-09 Mona Logarbo Sampled and proofread 2008-09 Mona Logarbo Text and markup reviewed and edited 2009-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE The Knights , Citizens and Burgesses now assembled in Parliament . The humble Petition of Andrew Church , George Allen , Thomas Sander , Robert Parkinson , Iohn Tippin , and Iohn Wigmore , as it was by them delivered to Master Speaker the 9 of August , in the behalfe of the multitude of poore trades-men and artificers , in and about the Cities of London and Westminster , with the Suburbs and liberties of them both , And by Master Speaker , presented to the honourable house of Commons , the 16. of the same moneth . HVMBLY SHEWETH , THat the infinite number and increasing multitudes of Aliens which have and still doe Intrude themselves into this Kingdome are so great both of French , Walloones and Dutch , and their accesse of using trades here in these Citties and liberties , which is the Rumating of the most part of the poorer sort of Tradesmen in the said Citties and liberties , That thereby the French , Walloones and Dutch have got our trades into their hands so , that we native borne subiects are enforced to be their servants , and have our bread snatched out of our hands by them , A thing not suffered in any other Common wealth . 2 That since the beginning of this happy parliament there have beene diverse petitions delivered to this honourable Assembly for prevention of this misery and mischiefe , which we poore natives lye groning under the burden of . 3 That we which suffer most ( by this grievance ) are poore men and not able to wage law , and therefore the more sleighted by those of Eminency amongst us , and from our Masters and Officers can get noe Reliefe in this case , our Masters and governors in the places where we live having taken diverse summes of money to licence , admit , and allow the said Aliens to trade as freely as wee , insomuch that many of us Tradesmen which might have lived very comfortably on our Trades and been helpefull unto others , are forced through want of Imployment to be chargeable to the parishes in which we live , many even to beg , many to turne Porters , Day-labourers , Waterbearers , Chimney-sweepers , and the like thus the Aliens are cherished , and many of them get great and unknowne estates , as it were even out of the subiects mouths . 4 That a great part of the said Aliens are Roman Catholiks , and but few of them that have any certificates to shew of what Religion they are , or how they learned their trades which now they use . 5 That the said Aliens the most part of them live in Allies , by-places , and odde corners , postering their houses with five or six families in one house , which is altogether very dangerous for infection , especially now in these Cities and Liberties . 6 That by the tollerating such infinite numbers of them , they having gotten the most part of our trading into their hands , commercing one with another , and imploying men and women of their owne nations , as Brokers , to sell and put off their workes and wares for them , whereby they doe dayly increase , which makes houses at excessive rents , and all provision the dearer . 7 That we native borne subiects , are by the Lawes of this Land , to serve seaven or eight yeares for our trades before we are suffered to worke for our owne benefit : But on the contrary , the Aliens and strangers at their first comming , set up as masters , or worke as iourneymen without restraint . 8 That we Englishmen are not suffered to enioy any of these priviledges in France , but must of necessity be servants there , and not be suffered to worke , no not so much as in our chambers , in paine of the losse of the commodities so wrought . Therefore we laying aside all Confidence in our Magistrates Masters & governours on whom we have Relyed , we do here most humbly appeale to this Honourable assembly , knowing that it is your desires and all you labour for , to doe good , to Relieve the oppressed , to Reforme abuses , and to heare all poore mens grievances : Our request is to this Honourable assembly , that your grave Wisdomes will be pleased to take the premisses into Consideration , and provide some fit meanes whereby we may be releived herein , And your petitioners as in all duty bound will dayly pray for your prosperities .