During the reign of James I, the king and his councillors received hundreds of petitions every year. As part of ‘The Power of Petitioning’ project, we have transcribed and published almost 400 of these manuscripts from across the seventeenth century on British History Online. We also completed a six-month Shared Learning Project with a large group of amateur researchers from the London Region of the University of the Third Age.
Each of these researchers wrote one or more reports about the petitioners and their requests or complaints. The introduction to this U3A project includes much more information, including important caveats about accuracy and interpretation. This first set of 46 reports cover the first twenty-five years of the seventeenth century.
Among the many reports we find the long-running case of Jane and John Daniell, who was imprisoned in 1601 for forging letters of the Earl of Essex. The couple, individually and jointly, sent innumerable petitions to royal authorities asking for mercy over next nine years, and Penny Bidgood has investigated their troubles. Another notable petitioner was Mary Carleill, the widow well-known naval commander, sought control of lands she claimed had been promised to her husband by Queen Elizabeth. As Virginia Gingell reports, Carleill’s request seems to have fallen on deaf ears, despite her pitiable status as a ‘poore widdowe’. The case of Giles Waters of Winchelsea, who petitioned about his imprisonment and claimed that the mayor had killed his mastiff, is equally intriguing. Lesley Scott-Stapleton shows that Waters had an ambiguous place in his community, regularly getting into trouble but also serving in various official capacities in the 1620s. Together, we hope that these reports suggest how we can use petitions to get a glimpse into the struggles of all sorts of people in late Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
The Petitions and the Reports
- 1600, Thomas Watkyns petitions from prison about corruption in Bristol
- 1600, Samuel Aylmer complains about the ‘fraud’ of a tax collector
- 1601, William Dethick petitions the Privy Council about an attack by John Hele
- 1601, William Nutt and other imprisoned victuallers petition against Westminster’s clerk of the market
- 1601-1610, Jane and John Daniell pester the authorities with many petitions
- 1602, Edward Hall petitions against his imprisonment for treasonous words
- 1604, William Udall, an informer, petitions Robert Cecil for mercy
- 1604, John Cuttes and royal hunting at Somersham
- 1604, Henry Fanshawe seeks patronage for Exchequer clerks
- 1605, Marie Hills seeks a licence to sell rabbits and chickens
- 1606, Selby and Chapman, Newcastle MPs, petition about a coal bill
- 1606, Cambridgeshire inhabitants seek exception from fen draining
- 1607, William Freeman, Robert Brooke and company merchants complain about the Duke of Medina
- 1607, Sir Fulk Greville asks the king for an extra perquisite
- 1608, William Mosse or Morse asks for favour as a royal tenant
- 1608, Daniel Brames or Breames asks to be treated as a freeborn Englishman
- 1609, Francis Galbreth hopes for a grant of land in Cumberland
- 1609, Mary Carleill, widow, petitions for possession of the lands of the felon William Vaux
- 1610, the tenants of King’s Norton complain about the corrupt new royal steward
- 1610, the town of Tewkesbury petitions the king to escape a legal bond
- 1611, Robert Swinglehurst and other royal tenants in Yorkshire seek legal security
- 1611, Sir Robert Stewart asks for a grant of wood on royal manors
- 1612, Robert Meverell petitions about his lands in Nottinghamshire
- 1612, the town of Berwick petitions for royal help to build a new stone bridge
- 1612, Thomas Wilson seeks a reward for sorting out the king’s records and papers
- 1613, David Dromounde petitions about the profits from a Somerset manor
- 1614, Samuel Willingham complains about men taking his corn and ploughing up his land
- 1615, Martyn Lumley seeks help collecting a big debt from a London tailor
- 1617, Henry Gibbe petitions for royal help in a dispute about a manor in Kent
- 1617, James Cavell asks to be excused from attending court in person
- 1617, Matthew Poker, supported by his mother and grandmother, asks for release from Dover castle
- 1618, Thomas Napleton asks to be released from prison to go to Bath for his health
- 1618, William Brereton claims he is too poor to pay a £100 fine and asks for mercy
- 1619, Paul Vinion asks for permission to make glass despite a new royal prohibition
- 1619, The Eastland merchants ask for lower taxes because their trade has decayed
- 1619, the Commissioners of Sewers for Cambridgeshire and Ely against holding a meeting during the winter floods
- 1620, the drapers of Shrewsbury and Oswestry seek to protect their trading privileges
- 1620, Phillip Jones petitions for a position as inspector of hops
- 1621, Giles Waters complains that the mayor of Winchelsea killed his dog and imprisoned him
- 1621, Edward Harwaid (or Harward) seeks arbitration after escaping from prison in Hythe
- 1622, the leatherdressers of Southwark complain that foreigners are taking their jobs
- 1623, Dame Katharine Mompesson pleads for permission for her husband to return to England
- 1623, Edward Nicholas asks Prince Charles for a lucrative government post
- 1623, Ipswich shipowners complain that Harwich impounded their ships
- 1624, Thomas Austyn seeks royal support for implimenting a potentially profitable legal statute
- 1625, the Muscovia Company seek help in their disputes with the Dutch about fishing in Greenland
For further petitions and reports from the rest of the seventeenth century, return to the main ‘Investigating Petitioners’ page.