still in his contempt, and addeth daily more forwardness thereunto, I must return the petitioners to my lord's grace of York, to be ordered by the high commissioner according to his grace's intimation signified in his * * *. I wish well to the sillie wilful man, but he makes himself incapable thereof.
"John Cestriensis."[1]
This effort to obtain redress for their grievances does not
appear to have been attended with a success equal to the expectations
of the "thirty," for a little later they instituted a suit in
the consistory court at Chester against the vicar, "and, having
proved their practice good, had sentence against him and
£20 7s. 6d. allowed towards their expenses."[2] The "Thirty-men"
were admitted into the church on Easter Tuesday, 1639.
During the period that Edward Fleetwood was vicar of Kirkham an event occurred in the parish which furnishes a forcible example of the superstitious feeling in religious matters existing amongst all ranks of the people at that time. The whole of the details of the circumstance are embodied in a pamphlet entitled "Strange Signs from Heaven," and by way of an introduction, the tract contains this certificate, "under the hand of Mr. Edward Fleetwood, minister of Kirkham parish in Lancashire, concerning the monster brought forth by Mrs. Haughton, a papist, living in that parish:—
"As we must tell no lie, so we should conceal no truth; especially when it tends
to God's glory: There was a great papist, and of great parentage, within the
parish of Kirkham, and his wife's mother, being of the same religion, did usually
scoff and mock the Roundheads, and, in derision of Mr. Prinne and others, cut off
the cat's ears, and called it by his name: But behold an example of the justice
and equity of God in his judgements; as Adonibezec was repaid in his own kind;
Haman hanged upon the same gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai; and
Pharoah and all his host drowned in the sea, into which he had thought to have
driven the Israelites. And likewise one of the popish prelates, who said he
would not dine till Ridley and Latimer were burnt, was burnt in his own
entrails. So it fell out with this man's wife, a popish creature, who being great
with child, when the time of her delivery came, she brought forth a monstrous
child without a head, ugly and deformed, myself eyewitness thereof.
Edward Fleetwood, pastor.
W. Greenacres, midwife.
The tract itself informs us that in the course of a conversation
with some gentlemen, Mrs. Haughton observed with great
warmth that "the Puritans and Independents deserved all to be
hanged," and concluded her uncharitable remarks by uttering a
