No relevant fact was truthfully stated, yet Bramhall certified to the King that he had “studied the petition”; that Clotworthy “is certainly entitled to some compensation in respect of the pension of 6s. 8d. a day”; that both the fishing and soil of Lough Neagh, and of the Bann above Coleraine, were in the possession of the Crown, and that a lease should be granted to Clotworthy on the same terms which it was feigned Cromwell had sanctioned. Bramhall’s traffickings as a prize-agent may explain why an Anglican Bishop, who owed everything to Strafford, should favour the pietist who had not only sent his patron to the block, but had embittered and disturbed Archbishop Laud’s last moments on the scaffold. The King (with Ormonde beside him) could see no reason for the haste with which his courtier urged that Sir John’s lease should be renewed. He put aside the petition and left the Bishop’s report unnoticed. Secretary Nicholas was then moved to jog his Majesty and request “that a warrant be prepared for his royal signature for drawing a Patent in Sir John Clotworthy’s favour, according to the report of the Bishop of Derry.” Still Charles made no sign. Possibly some recollection of his engagements to the London Corporation crossed his mind; perhaps the Duke of Ormonde dropped a hint in Chichester’s interest; or his Majesty may have sought for a reason why he should extend such benevolence to Cromwell’s righthand man. At any rate, the King was not touched to persuasion. The feverish Clotworthy now tried another stratagem. He knew that if a King’s Letter were sent to Ireland authorising a Patent (as Secretary Nicholas recommended), this would involve delay and inquiry, and that the arrival of Lord Donegall, or the intervention of the Londoners, might prove fatal to his hopes. He, therefore, changed his hand; and, instead of an Irish Patent, pressed for a lease direct from the King at Whitehall. This would involve an innovation in procedure startling to Crown lawyers. Even Cromwell had not attempted any such inroad on ancient usage, but carried out his behests by the olden method of sending a Signet Letter to Dublin to authorise a Patent there under the Great Seal of Ireland. The needs of Sir John, however, brooked no delay, and sticklers for form could be “squared.” Still the King, in spite of the pressure put upon him, refused to yield, and for three months he held firm.