A PROCLAMATION FOR THE BETTER AND MORE PEACEABLE GOVERNMENT OF THE
MIDDLE SHIRES OF NORTHUMBERLAND, CUMBERLAND, AND WESTMERLAND.
[A long proclamation for the prevention of disorders and outrages
in certain shires, requiring that no person shall lease lands and
tenements without sufficient surety, that all persons shall assist
in the pursuit of criminals, that notorious offenders shall not
receive bail except in open court, that care shall be exercised in
the granting of licenses to "hostler houses and malsters," that known
malefactors shall not be countenanced "by wearing of their liveries or
any other dependance," that the families of offenders who have been
banished shall be sent to join the fugitives, that all outlaws shall
yield themselves up to the law and shall not be sheltered, that for
the prevention of cattle stealing no beef shall be sold in any fair
or market without the hide, that all horses, sheep and cattle shall
be sold only in open fair or market, that notorious offenders shall
be sent to Virginia and other foreign parts, that the use of weapons
and horses be forbidden except to noblemen and gentlemen, that the
overlords shall require sufficient bonds of their tenants, and that
offenders shall be remanded to the place where their offense was
committed. Only the paragraph regarding America is quoted.]
Item, for the more speedy suppressing, and freeing the said Countreis
and places of notorious and wicked offenders that will not be reformed,
but by severity of punishment; Wee have taken order for the making out
a Commission to speciall Commissioners, to survey, search and finde
out, and enforme Us of the most notorious and lewd persons, and of
their faults, within the said Counties of Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Westmerland, Riddesdale, and Bewcastle within the same: And We
hereby signifie our pleasure to be upon Certificate of the said
Commissioners, to send the most notorious ill livers, and misbehaved
persons of them that shall so be certified, into Virginia, or to some
other remote parts to serve in the Warres, or in Colonies, that they
may no more infect the places where they abide within this our Realme.
* * * * *
Given at Our Pallace of Westminister, the three and twentieth
day of December, in the fifteenth yeere of Our Raigne of
Great Britaine, France and Ireland. Anno 1617.