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WE, to the Number of a Thousand and more, Widdows and Fatherless Children, of the Counties of Dorset, Somerset, and Devon, our dear Husbands and tender Fathers having been so Tyran∣nously Butcher'd, and some Transported, our Estates sold from us, and our Inheritance cut off by the
severe and harsh Sentence of George Lord Jefferies, now we understand in the Tower of London a Pri∣soner, who has lately, we hear, endeavoured to ex∣cuse himself from those Tyrannical and Illegal Sen∣tences, by laying it on Information by some Gen∣tlemen, who are known to us to be good Chri∣stians, true Protestants and English-men. We your poor Petititioners, many hundreds of us, on our Knees have begg'd Mercy for our dear Husbands and tender Parents, from his Cruel Hands, but his thirst for Blood was so great, and his Barbarism so Cruel, that instead of granting Mercy for some, which were made appear to be Innocent, and Pe∣titioned for by the flower of the Gentry of the said Counties, he immediately Executed; and so barbarously, that a very good Gentlevvoman at Dorchester, begging on her Knees the Life of a worthy Gentleman, to Marry him, and make him her Husband, this vile Wretch not having com∣mon Civility with him, and laying aside that Ho∣nour and Respect due to a Person of her worth, told her, Come, I know your meaning, some part of your Petition I will grant, which shall be that after he is Hanged and Quartered, you shall have that Member you best like when living, and so I will give Orders to the Sheriff: These, with many hundred more Ty∣rannical
Acts are ready to be made appear in the said Counties, by honest and credible Persons, and therefore your Petitioners desire, that the said George Jefferies, late Lord Chancellour, the Vilest of Men, may be brought down to the Counties aforesaid, where we the good Women in the West shall be glad to see him; and give him another manner of Welcome than he had there three Years since.
And your Petitioners shall ever Pray, &c.