CEPI Corpus supranominati Willm. Aston, & eum paratum habeo, prout mihi superiùs præcipitur.

Hugh Pope, John Laston, John Sparrow, Edward Sanders, Thomas Brown, Gregory Newman, Henry Hudson, John Woodward, Thomas Bullen, William Lawman, Matthew Hinde, &c. His Keepers appointed. Christoph. Southows.

EEwardus Warner Miles, Locumtenens Dominæ Reginæ Turr. suæ prædict. omnibus Officiariis, ministris, & subditis dictæ Dominæ Reginæ, salutem. Cùm secundum privilegium & consuetudinem in Curia Turris prædictæ ab antiquo usitat. & approbat. quilibet condemnatus in Curia prædicta ad sectam alicujus in placito debiti, ac in custodia dicti Locumtenentis sive ejus deputat. pro eodem debito existen. super certas considerationes ipsam Locumtenentem moventes, prædict. condemnat. ire & redire quò voluerit infra regnum Angliæ permissus fuerit. Et quia Willm. Aston de London Civis & Haberdasher, coram me præfato Locumtenente & Senescall. in Curia Turris prædictæ, venit ad sectam cujusdam Johannis Thomson in placito debiti, super demand. viginti librarum bonæ & legalis monetæ Angliæ, & 21s. pro missis & custagiis Curiæ condemnat. existit, & in prisona Turris prædictæ sub custodia mei præfati Locumtenentis, prout mox est, pro eodem debito existen. Sciatis me præfatum Locumtenentem considerantem statum & paupertatem prædicti Willm. Aston, ac eò quòd citiùs debitum suum prædictum de amicis & bonis suis propriis levare possit, præsentium Willm. cum custode seu latore præsentium super considerationem prædictam, quo voluerit, dimiss. fore à die dat. præsentium pro uno Anno integro prox. futuro. Igitur ex parte dictæ Dominæ Reginæ, vobis et cuilibet vestrum mando, Quod prædictum Willm. prisonarium meum, cum custode seu latore præsentium, in aliquo non molestetis nec arrestetis pro aliqua personali actione. Nec quantum in vobis ab aliis inser. permitt. periculo incumbent. Dat. apud Turr. præd. sub sigillo quo utor in hoc officio, Decimo tertio die Novembris, An. Regni Elizabethæ, Dei gratia, Angliæ, Franciæ, & Hiberniæ Reginæ, Fidei Defensoris, &c. Primo. Edward Warner.

Also in the Year of our Lord God 1585. Sir Owen Hopton Kt. Lieutenant of the Tower of London, (of whom something was said before in Portsoken Ward) by colour of his Office, pretending Title to a Garden Plot near the Tower, did cause his Servants violently to take Possession thereof, and to bring those Persons before him that kept the Possession, whom he imprisoned in the Tower. Whereupon a Writ of Habeas Corpus was sued forth of the King's Bench for the removing of the Body of Robert Shapely, one of the Prisoners, which Writ was brought and delivered unto the Lieutenant by Robert Smith, then Solicitor of the City of London; but the Lieutenant would not receive nor obey the Writ, but would have compelled the said Robert Smith to carry it back again with him: which he refusing, the Lieutenant put the Writ into his Pocket, and abused and imprisoned also the said Robert Smith in the Tower. For Redress of which Wrongs, and of many others, there was Complaint made to the Lords of the Privy Council, who referred the Hearing of those Controversies, and the Examination of the Rights and Priveleges which the Lieutenant pretended to belong unto his Office, to the Lords Chief Justices and to the Master of the Rolls, who were to certify their Opinions thereof in Writing, as by the Letters of the Lords of the Council in that behalf sent and directed unto them, of the Tenor following, appeareth.

AFter our very hearty Commendations, &c. There hath been complaint made unto us in the behalf of the Lord Maior and Citizens of London against Sir Owen Hopton Knt. Lieutenant of the Tower, whom they charge with some disordered Dealing by him used towards one Robert Smith, a Solicitor for the City, sent lately unto him with a Writ of Habeas Corpus, out of the Court of her Majesty's bench, for the removing of the Body of one Robert Shapeley, a Servant to one William Wikins a Citizen, imprisoned by the Lieutenant upon some pretended Quarrel of Privilege; the manner whereof shall best appear unto you by the several Complaints and Articles herein inclosed, exhibited unto us by the said Smith and Wikins.

And forasmuch as Maior, Aldermen and Citizens of London, have heretofore oftentimes found themselves grieved, with sundry Actions of unkind and violent Dealings, offered by the said Lieutenant and his Officers as they have informed, to the breach of their Charters and Liberties, whereby there is grown some Division and Dissension between them (which we desire by all good means to have removed;) and whereas the Lieutenant seemeth to warrant his Doings by ancient Privileges and Customs of the Tower, whereunto the Citizens on their part, upon opinion of the Validities of their Charters, refuse to yield: We considering what Inconvanience may ensue of the private Dissension between them, have thou be good to require you, calling Master Lieutenant before you, and the Parties, whose Complaints are herewith sent unto you, with such Proofs and Witness as may be produced, effectually to examine the Matters thereby informed against him: and that you also take Knowledge of such other Complaints and Controversies, as the Lord Maior and the Recorder of London shall deliver unto you against the Lieutenant of the Tower concerning their former Debates and Strifes, for Matter of Liberties, Prescriptions and Customs, and the like on the behalf of the Lieutenant against them, praying you to take some Pains to hear the Matters at large on both Sides, and to see upon what Privileges, Customs, and Prescriptions, their several Claims are grounded and pretended; as also to consider of their Strength and Validity in Law, wherein after you shall have spent some time, and heard and understood the Matters at large, we require you then to make report unto us what you shall have found on both Sides, as well touching the Complaints of Smith and Wikins, as of the Lord Maior and Citizens, with your Opinions of their said Complaints and Controversies, and what Course were fittest to be taken between them, which we pray you to do with