We were not called till the last day of the sessions, which was the 21st of the 11th month, 1673. When we came in, they were stricken with paleness in their faces, and it was some time before anything was spoken; insomuch that a butcher in the hall said, “What, are they afraid? Dare not the justices speak to them?” At length, before they spoke to us, Justice Parker made a long speech on the bench, much to the same effect as was contained in the mittimus; often mentioning the common laws, but not instancing any that we had broken; adding, “that he thought it a milder course to send us two to jail, than to put his neighbours to the loss of two hundred pounds, which they must have suffered, had he put the law in execution against conventicles.” But in this he was either very ignorant or very deceitful, for there being no meeting when he came, or any to inform, he had no evidence to convict us, or his neighbours by. When Parker had ended his speech, the justices spoke to us, and began with Thomas Lower, whom they examined as to the cause of his coming into that country; of which he gave them a full and plain account. Sometimes I put in a word while they were examining him, and then they told me, “they were upon his examination, but that when it came to my turn, I should have free liberty to speak, for they would not hinder me; but I should have full time, and they would not ensnare us.” When they had done with him, they asked me an account of my travel, which I gave them, as is mentioned before, but more largely. And whereas Justice Parker, to aggravate the case, had made a great noise of “there being some from London, some from the North, some from Cornwall, and some from Bristol, at the house where I was taken;” I told them, that “this was in a manner all but one family, for there was none from London, but myself; none from the North, but my wife and her daughter; none from Cornwall, but my son-in-law, Thomas Lower; nor any from Bristol, but one Friend, a merchant there; who met us, as it were, providentially, to assist my wife and her daughter in their journey homewards, when by our imprisonment they were deprived of our company and help.” When I had spoken, the chairman, whose name was Simpson, an old Presbyterian, said, “Your relation or account, is very innocent.”