The master, being thus crossed and vexed, cursed them that put him
upon this freight, and said he hoped he should not go far before he
was taken. And the vessel was but a little while gone out of sight of
Plymouth before she was taken by a Dutch man-of-war, and carried into
Holland.
When they came into Holland, the States sent the banished Friends
back to England, with a letter of passport, and a certificate that
they had not made an escape, but were sent back by them.
In time the Lord's power wrought over this storm, and many of our
persecutors were confounded and put to shame.
After I had lain prisoner above a year in Scarborough Castle, I
sent a letter to the King, in which I gave him an account of my
imprisonment, and the bad usage I had received in prison; and also
that I was informed no man could deliver me but him. After this,
John Whitehead being at London, and having acquaintance also with
Esquire Marsh, he went to visit him, and spoke to him about me; and
he undertook, if John Whitehead would get the state of my case drawn
up, to deliver it to the master of requests, Sir John Birkenhead, who
would endeavor to get a release for me.
So John Whitehead and Ellis Hookes drew up a relation of my
imprisonment and sufferings, and carried it to Marsh; and he went
with it to the master of requests, who procured an order from the
King for my release. The substance of the order was that "the King,
being certainly informed that I was a man principled against plotting
and fighting, and had been ready at all times to discover plots,
rather than to make any, etc., therefore his royal pleasure was that
I should be discharged from my imprisonment," etc.
As soon as this order was obtained, John Whitehead came to
Scarborough with it, and delivered it to the Governor; who, upon
receipt thereof, gathered the officers together, and, without
requiring bond or sureties for my peaceable living, being satisfied
that I was a man of a peaceable life, he discharged me freely, and
gave me the following passport:
"Permit the bearer hereof, George Fox, late a prisoner here, and
now discharged by His Majesty's order, quietly to pass about his
lawful occasions, without any molestation. Given under my hand
at Scarborough Castle, this first day of September, 1666.
"JORDAN CROSLANDS,
"Governor of Scarborough Castle."
After I was released, I would have made the Governor a present for
the civility and kindness he had of late shown me; but he would not
receive anything; saying that whatever good he could do for me and my
friends he would do it, and never do them any hurt. And afterwards,
if at any time the mayor of the town sent to him for soldiers to
break up Friends' meetings, if he sent any down he would privately
give them a charge not to meddle. He continued loving to his dying
day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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