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[fol. 171r] The occasion mi right honorable good Lord, of my comyng to the Cowrt att this present, was to have spoken with your L. if the tyme wold so have suffered it, butt seing the same verey harde, I am bolde to putt my mynde in wryteng, beseching yow verey humbly to consyder of it according to your accustomed goodnes, & to pardon me, if I presume to troble yow more than becomes me. Mi state is suche, mi good Lord, as by your honorabell menes the Q. majestie hath bin verey good unto me, for whose preservatyon & yowres, I pray dayly to God, & am redy contynually to yelld mi life for you both, knowing verey well that her majesties inclynatyon & yowres is, to rayse me from these miseryes & wants wherin I have bin, & to make me hable to lyve competently in the world, wherby this generall malyce that is borne me, may be withstode, & I the more redy to do ani servyce that lyes in me, butt mi Creditors in the mene tyme supposing that I have even mowntaynes, do so importune me, as that I am wery to be in ani place. & they give me no tyme to attend suche an occasyon, as by her majesties goodnes & yowres, I might be hable to satisfye them as I cowd, butt ether being provoked by myne enmyes, they do defface me, or elles threttning to complayne unto the Q. majestie & your L. they wold undo me & this I lyve perplexed & oppressed verey muche, having taken [ deleted: this] a sober cowrse in hand [ deleted: ether] to lyve without ani imputacyon [ deleted: wherby I might be] of wrong, & to be so within compasse, as might plese bothe God & the world, wherin first for my detts. I beseche your L. to be the judge for of 200li that her [ deleted: majesties] majestie hath bestowed uppon me in money att iij severall tymes, I have payd ij C markes to suche as had most nede of it, besyde 50li & od [ deleted: pownds] that my imprisonment coste me, wherby your L. by my procedings may beholde the honeste menyng I have, & how lyttel remaynes for me to lyve uppon, & then for mi behavyor otherwise, I challenge no wyttnesse butt the acte it self. Butt where her majestie hath bestowed uppon me, [ deleted: the] by your L. most ernest travayll & favor, the stattment of R. [ ... ] Smiths dett, certainly I take it for so grett a goodnes, as never hapned gretter to so mene a man, butt I sowght it more for cowntenance [fol. 171v] (being lowred att by mani) than for gayne, which sholde procede unto me therby, & yett with tyme it may do me som further good, & som money I shold have towards mi chargs, which surely the poverty of the partyes canott give unto me as yett (though withall the som be verey lyttel in respect of suche a sute) butt I hope that your L. being now the cheef parson in the'xcheqwer shall se that I have don the Q. majestie good servyce, in travayleng to bryng her good assurance for so grett a som, the partyes being so weke ^as they ar^ & this is on thyng that I content mi self in, though yett I se that the Q. majestie were better for example sake to lose that & a gretter som, than to be easy in example to remitt unto those kynde of men, which makes the giffte gretter unto me, though nott so proffitable, Therfore I most humblye beseche your L. to consyder of me, that I might ones paye my detts, & than I [ deleted: held] holde mi self sufficyently riche, & will humbly deserve it more wayes than on, for this is suche a clog & suche a perpetuall necessity, as that duryng the same, I can applye mi self to nothing & their importunity so contynues as forceth me to absent mi self for all together, or elles to make my mone unto your L. & certainly there is nothing that a nomber doth desire & loke for, butt for mi playn decaye, & mi eyes ar bent to your L. that you will nott suffer them to have their will, though nott for myne owne sake, yett for the publick respect which they hate me for, wherin they wishe that every man sholde be discoraiged that wisheth well to his Prynce & Contrey, & hym if they se ether in want or distresse, they make a comune joye of it, & further it all thatt they may. Butt mi good Lord, it is no grett matter that I crave, therfore I may the eselyer be holpen pervecyng that wheras the Q. majestie this laste yere att Richemond, dyd by your honorable motyon grawnt me a lease in reversyon where I might fynde it owtt, the same I fynde to be a thyng that the Q. majestie doth nott willingly grawnt, & therfore most humbly am I content to resigne it agayn, & beseche only to have som other thyng bestowed uppon me, which in the same might have som occasyons to employe mi self [ deleted: in som travayll & servyce] withall, which is that wheras att Hampton Cowrte when [fol. 172r] her majestie this last sumer began her progresse, I made a sute to your L. to have the executyon of ij statutes, which you answered me in that for the on it was moved by master Hatton & granted att his reqwest, & that for the other, that my L. of Lecester had granted his good will to a clothyer on Blackburne butt that you had moved my sayd Lord of Lecester in mi behalf, & that if I cowd be content to be joyned with hym, & that I shold have it, & therfore that I sholde give his L. thanckes which was for the surveyng of clothyers to make trew drapery, which is the thyng that I now most humbly renew unto you, & can be content to have the Q. [majes] ties parte for my portyon & the sayd Blackburne to have the other moytye, who indede hath consumed a grett dele of tyme & money abowtt the sute of it, & hath bin assured by the L. of Lecester to obtayne his desyre therin, so as I hope mi Lord wold be glad att your honorable motyon, in prefferyng [ deleted: this party according to his promis] me, to do this party good, which may be a convenyent occasyon to help us bothe in which matter I have talked with master Marshe & with sondry other skilfull & honest merchants, who now wishe ernestly for a redresse by a Comission as I desire it, for there was never gretter abuse used nor like to procede further, than it is by the clothyers fallse drapery att this present, bothe to a [ deleted: gen] generall losse att home, & to a generall sclander abrode, which in th'end will overthrow the Credite of our clothing throwowtt the world, In which refformatyon (if it be vowchesaved to me) I will use suche modesty & discretyon, as nether disorder shall follow, nor the thyng be unredressed, to the Comfort & benefitte of mery sorte & withall I beseche your L. verey humbly to take suche parte therin as may encoraige us to shew the more diligence [ deleted: therein] & to be assisted in our welldoing, craving lastly that if it may nott be granted, [ deleted: yett] that ye will vowchesave that I may understand it assone as you may, to avoyd consumptyon of tyme & money, having somwhatt to saye unto your L. towching the sallt workes, which yow wilbe glad to here, & so I most humbly fynishe. 21 ^o^ auguste. your L. most humbly W. Herlle.