Provincial Court Proceedings, 1663-64.    117

       Lastly to giue yor honrs fuller satisfaction hauing as I humbly Liber B B
     conceiue sufficiently proued, nothing in my Aduersaries Charge can
     bee actionable. I shall now proue aliso under Correction of this
     honble Court, That graunt they were actionable in themselues, yett
     as they are charged, they can beare noe action & tht by the aforesd
     Shephard who fol 44 sayth, They must bee charged wth the uery
     words false & malitiose, or it is not actionable, Both wch words must
     bee fownd by a Jury, ffor if they find one of the words, & not the
     other, The accon will not lye, as in fol. 85.
       Norman & Symonds case, The plf brought an accon for words &
     declared tht they were spoken false & malitiose. The Jury find the
     words false & inuinose, & it was adiudged, the Accon would not lye,
     because the finding of the Jury doth not warrant the Declaraon in the
     substantiall forme of it, Trin. 7 Car. B. R.
       Now I leaue it to yor honrs to judge whither it is possible a Jury [p. 160]
     can find both or eyther of the words, being neyther usd, nor charged
     in my Aduersaries declaraon The sd Shephard calling them by the
     Tytle of the substantiall forme of the Declaraon.
       Notwthstanding (may it please yor honrs) the better to defend my
     self e from the malicious designes of Henry Spinke, & tht Light car
     riaged woman Elionor Edwards, while shee was my seruant, yor
     Petr doth not deny any thing of his Charge or Declaraon yett he
     humbly desyres yor honrs to consider the sequence.
       ffirst that the words I am charged to speake were spoken & soe is
      charged to bee in open Court. now Mr Dent & other members of the
      Court, allso M Jarbo, Mr Turner & others by standers, att least
      six or seauen, who haue declared to mee, they can & will if need bee
      declare uppon oath, they being present att the same time, that they
      heard noe such thing, or in that forme, as most of the others my ad
      uersaries hath procured agst mee make mention of, hee hauing pro
      cured fowre oaths, The prsons of all web had, as I can proue prfect
      preiudice agst my prsofl, Except Mr Hyde, whose oath is nothing
      soe desperate or inuectiue agst mee as the others are: Ney yor Petr
      dare uenter all hee hath, tht the sd Spinke cannott gett the like oath
      of any credible prson as eyther of the other Three haue taken, all
      ouer the Prouince, The men being of uery slender repute, in compari
      son of the prsons present whose oaths if need bee I can produce, who
      only testify of my taxeing her of a whorish or lasciuious carriage,
      while shee was my seruant, & in prticular wth Thomas Hewes, wch
      is most true, And uppon wch I forwarning her of this fellows Com
      pany shee impudently receaues him into my howse when my Wife
      & I was gone to St Maries; Lodging him in my Wifes bed, & Lying
      all night in the roome wth him, as my seruants told mee att my Re
      turne, & wch shee did not deny, when I gaue her Correction for it