The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By HimselfEllwood, Thomas
History
The History of Thomas Ellwood Written By Himself
Ellwood, Thomas
Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713; Quakers -- Biography
It so fell out that my father was at that time from home, I think in
London; whereupon he that commanded the party alighted and came in. My
eldest sister, hearing the noise of soldiers, came hastily up into my
chamber, and told me there were soldiers below, who inquired for me. I
forthwith went down to them, and found the commander was a barber of
Thame, and one who had always been my barber till I was a Quaker. His
name was Whately, a bold brisk fellow.
I asked him what his business was with me: he told me I must go with him.
I demanded to see his warrant: he laid his hand on his sword, and said
that was his warrant. I told him though that was not a legal warrant,
yet I would not dispute it, but was ready to bear injuries. He told me
he could not help it; he was commanded to bring me forthwith before the
deputy-lieutenants, and therefore desired me to order a horse to be got
ready, because he was in haste. I let him know I had no horse of my own,
and would not meddle with any of my father’s horses, in his absence
especially; and that therefore, if he would have me with him, he must
carry me as he could.
He thereupon taking my sister aside, told her he found I was resolute,
and his orders were peremptory; wherefore he desired that she would give
order for a horse to be made ready for me, for otherwise he should be
forced to mount me behind a trooper, which would be very unsuitable for
me, and which he was very unwilling to do. She thereupon ordered a horse
to be got ready, upon which, when I had taken leave of my sisters, I
mounted, and went off, not knowing whither he intended to carry me.
He had orders, it seems, to take some others also in a neighbouring
village, whose names he had, but their houses he did not know.
Wherefore, as we rode he asked me if I knew such and such men (whom he
named) and where they lived; and when he understood that I knew them, he
desired me to show him their houses. “No,” said I, “I scorn to be an
informer against my neighbours, to bring them into trouble.” He
thereupon, riding to and fro, found by inquiry most of their houses; but,
as it happened, found none of them at home, at which I was glad.
At length he brought me to the house of one called Esquire Clark, of
Weston, by Thame, who, being afterwards knighted, was called Sir John
Clark; a jolly man, too much addicted to drinking in soberer times, but
was now grown more licentious that way, as the times did now more favour
debauchery. He and I had known one another for some years, though not
very intimately, having met sometimes at the Lord Wenman’s table.
This Clark was one of the deputy-lieutenants whom I was to be brought
before; and he had gotten another thither to join with him in tendering
me the oaths, whom I knew only by name and character; he was called
Esquire Knowls, of Grays, by Henley, and reputed a man of better morals
than the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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