“Whereas, We are credibly given to understand, as well by the humble Supplication and Petition of the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Our Town of Bridgnorth, in Our County of Salop, as also by a Certificate under the hands and seals of our Trusty and well-beloved Subjects, Sir William Whitmore, Baronet, Sir Thomas Wolrich, Knight and Baronet, Sir Walter Acton, Baronet, Sir John Weld, the younger, Knight, Sir Richard Otley, Knight, Richard Scriven, Thomas Whitmore, Robert Sandford, Robert Leighton, and Thomas Holland, Esqs.; Justices of the Peace, at the general Sessions of the Peace held for the said County, at Salop, on Tuesday next after the Feast of the Epiphany, now last past, that in the year of our Lord One Thousand, Six Hundred, Forty and Six, at which time, our said Town being kept as a Garrison for Our dear Father, the same was surprized by the contrary party then in Arms, and the upper town thereof being set on fire, all the houses and the greatest part of the goods and wares therein, and their Market House, the Colledge, Alms Houses, and great Collegiate Church, were burned down and consumed, and that at the said Sessions, it appeared to our said Justices, by the Oaths of Edward Whitehead and Michaell Millington, able and sufficient persons; that the losses sustained by the same fire, do amount in the whole unto the value of Threescore Thousand Pounds at the least; which being to the utter destruction and laying waste of Our said town, and the great impoverishment and undoing of the Inhabitants thereof, unless they shall be relieved by the love and charity of such whose hearts the Lord (who is the great disposer of hearts) shall warm and stir up to commiserate them in this their most deplorable condition, Our said Justices did humbly certifie the same to Our Princely and Christian consideration, to the end that our gracious Letters Patents for a collection of the charitable benevolence of our well-disposed subjects of Our Kingdome of England, might be granted unto Our said Bailiffs, Burgesses, and other Inhabitants of our said town, for and towards their relief and the re-edifying of the said Collegiate Church and Colledge. We therefore, and upon the Petition of the said Bailiffs, Burgesses, and Inhabitants have thereunto condescended, not doubting but that all compassionate and tender-hearted Christians rightly and duely considering the Premisses and the miserable and mutable state of man through these inevitable and deplorable accidents, (none knowing how soon they may fall into the like calamity) will be ready and willing to extend their liberal contributions towards this so charitable and pious a work, the same tending not only to the relief, support, and refreshment of Our said distressed subjects in their great necessity, but to the advancement of the Honour and Worship of Almighty God. Know ye therefore, that of Our especial grace and Christian compassion have given and granted, and by these Our Letters