The cry of the oppressed being a true and tragical account of the unparallel'd sufferings of multitudes of poor imprisoned debtors in most of the gaols in England ... together with the case of the publisher.

A Third Letter from the Gaol in Bury St. Edmond.

SIR,

WE received yours of the 29th of No∣vemb. with our Thanks for your Care and Pains in going before the Committee of the House of Commons, and also Petitioning the Parliament, and therein setting forth our Grievances. And whereas you say, you Read my Letter to King the Gaoler of Ipswich; he the said James King was Keeper, or Under-Keeper, of Bury St. Edmond, and was the Man that broke our Goarch, and spilt our Beer; and also when I Petitioned the Judg of the Lenten Assizes, the said James King did Assert to the Judg, That we were Drinking King Jame's Health. Thus to shelter his Cruelty with a gloss of pretended Zeal, it was a plain Lie from a Quaker that pretends the Light, but his Ways are Darkness. He the said King

is sent up to London, by William Patrick his, Son in Law, to Pry and Wheadle into your Transactions, and to dull the Edg of your proceedings, if possible he can. William Pa∣trick, the pretended Keeper, is a very disor∣derly House-Keeper, for there is very few Nights in the Week, that the Under-Keepers, if he himself be not at the Gaol, go to Bed before Two of the Clock in the Morning, and so with Exceffive Drinking make large Scores. About the 2••th of October, 1689, Seven of us Prisoners sent out into the Town a Leather-Bottle for as much Beer as came to Seven Pence, for to refresh our selves in the Morn∣ing, we having more Beer out in the Town for Seven Pence, than the Keeper will sell us for Fourteen Pence, but the Turn-Key, James Collisun, took our Bottle away, and gave the Beer to the Criminals; of which we made our Complaint to William Patrick, the pretended Keeper, who keeps a Tavern in the Town of Bury St. Edmond; for Answer he told us, He would send for Charles Bullard to be our Turn-Key, and he should break all our Bottles, if we sent for any Beer out of Doors. Which Bul∣lard, when Turn-Key, did take away many of our Bottles. Instead of Cherishing Virtue, this Patrick the Keeper is the great promoter of all Vices that can be performed by Rude and Morose Servants, which are the only Men he employs; he encourages them most that can find out new ways to Insult over us, so that we are now in great fear of being Chained,

or that which is worse. And now to quash all the Grievances we have, or can make, the said Patrick, or Mary his Wife, the 24th of November last, brought, or caused to be brought, into the Gaol one John Gurling a known Papist, who by his instigation, has persuaded a great many of the new comers into the Prison to set their Hands to a Paper-Writing of the Gaoler's good Usage, which if it come to your Hands send it down to us. Thus hoping our Representatives now Assem∣bled in Parliament will Correct the Arbitrary Government of Cruel and Morose Gaolers, or otherwise those poor Prisoners, both Men and Women, that are Committed into their Custo∣dy, had as good be cast into a Den of Lions, or a Nest of Wolves; from all which Tor∣ments, Good Lord Deliver us. Yours, John Suckerman, &c.

Decemb. the 2d, 1690.