I went next day to Swarthmore, Francis Howgill and Thomas Curtis
being with me. I had not been long there before Henry Porter, a
justice, sent a warrant by the chief constable and three petty
constables to apprehend me. I had a sense of this beforehand; and
being in the parlor with Richard Richardson and Margaret Fell, her
servants came and told her there were some come to search the house
for arms; and they went up into the chambers under that pretence.
It came upon me to go out to them; and as I was going by some of them
I spoke to them; whereupon they asked me my name. I readily told them
my name; and then they laid hold on me, saying that I was the man
they looked for, and led me away to Ulverstone.
They kept me all night at the constable's house, and set a guard of
fifteen or sixteen men to watch me; some of whom sat in the chimney,
for fear I should go up it; such dark imaginations possessed them.
They were very rude and uncivil, and would neither suffer me to
speak to Friends, nor suffer them to bring me necessaries; but with
violence thrust them out, and kept a strong guard upon me. Very
wicked and rude they were, and a great noise they made about me. One
of the constables, whose name was Ashburnham, said he did not think
a thousand men could have taken me. Another of the constables, whose
name was Mount, a very wicked man, said he would have served Judge
Fell himself so, if he had been alive, and he had had a warrant for
him.
Next morning, about six, I was putting on my boots and spurs to go
with them before some justice; but they pulled off my spurs, took my
knife out of my pocket, and hurried me away through the town, with a
party of horse and abundance of people, not suffering me to stay till
my own horse came down.
When I was gone about a quarter of a mile with them, some Friends,
with Margaret Fell and her children, came towards me; and then a
great party of horse gathered about me in a mad rage and fury, crying
out, "Will they rescue him? Will they rescue him?" Thereupon I said
unto them, "Here is my hair; here is my back; here are my cheeks;
strike on!" With these words their heat was a little assuaged.
Then they brought a little horse, and two of them took up one of my
legs and put my foot in the stirrup, and two or three lifting over my
other leg, set me upon it behind the saddle, and so led the horse by
the halter; but I had nothing to hold by. When they were come some
distance out of the town they beat the little horse, and made him
kick and gallop. Thereupon I slipped off him. I told them they should
not abuse the creature. They were much enraged at my getting off, and
took me by the legs and feet, and set me upon the same horse, behind
the saddle again; and so led it about two miles till they came to a
great water called the Carter-Ford.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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