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[Banishing Notorious Offenders to Virginia.]

BY THE KING.

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.

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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.

God Save the King.

Imprinted at London by Bonham Norton and John Bill, Deputies and Assignes of Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie. Anno M.DC.XVII.

4 pp. folio. Copies in Antiq., I. T., P. C., P. R. O., and Q. C. Entered on Patent Rolls; entered in Privy Council Register (Scotland), xi, 288.