In the latter part of the year 1645 began the era of petitions, which should be taken with allowance, for the age has been characterized as one of perjury, and in the representations by both parties in Maryland politics, advantage was taken of every slight point to strengthen their respective positions, and from internal evidence it seems that some statements were garbled, to say the least about them. The opening of this era was marked by the presentation, December 25th, 1645, by the committee of plantations, to the House of Lords, the following statements and suggestions, viz: that many had complained of the tyranny of recusants in Maryland, "who have seduced and forced many of his Majesty's subjects from their religion;" that by a certificate from the Judge of the Admiralty grounded upon the deposition of witnesses taken in that Court: Leonard Calvert, late Governor there, had a commission from Oxford to seize such persons, ships and goods as belonged to any of London; which he registered, proclaimed, and endeavored to put in execution at Virginia; and that one Brent, his deputy Governor, had seized upon a ship, empowered under a commission derived from the Parliament, because she was of London, and afterward not only tampered with the crew thereof to carry her to Bristol, then in hostility against the Parliament, but also tendered them an oath against the Parliament; the committee under these circumstances recommended that the province should be settled in the hands of protestants.[50] This was the first part of the determined effort to deprive the great Cecil Calvert of his charter of Maryland, which Richard Ingle continued so vigorously in after years. He was probably in England at that time, for he refers to the action of the Lords in regard to the settling of the Maryland government, in his petition of February 24th, 1645/6, to the House of Lords. To this petition was appended a statement on behalf of Cornwallis, which will explain it. Cornwallis said that on Ingle's return to England, to cover up his defalcation in the matter of 200 pounds worth of goods, he had complained to the committee for examinations against Cornwallis as an enemy to the State. The matter was given a full hearing, and when it was left to the law and the defendant was granted the right of having witnesses in Maryland examined, Ingle had him arrested upon two feigned actions to the value of 15,000 pounds sterling. Some friends succeeded in rescuing him from prison, and then Ingle sent the following petition to the House of Lords, which had the effect of stopping for the time proceedings against him.[51] Having done so he carried the prosecution no further. The petition is somewhat lengthy, but it should be read as it is eminently characteristic of the man.[52]