File NLW MS 464E/65. - Letter from [--] to [--],

Whereas one Richard Vaughan, more busy than wise, hath advertised 'your' Honour that Doctor Elis has cessed £400 on the inhabitants of Merionethshire, which surmise is most scandalously untrue; the truth of the matter is this, that the gentlemen and freeholders of Merioneth, fearing their inheritance might be touched in some respect or that some exactions, impositions and customs should be laid to their charge, appointed four gentlemen of the country to be suitors to 'your' Lordship; and it was agreed to by all but Vaughan, that a mise of £300 should be cessed and levied upon the country, whereof £80 should be given to the suitors towards their charges, that is, £20 apiece, and the residue delivered to certain gentlemen to keep until occasion required. Which Order was fully agreed upon by all the justices of the Peace, gentlemen and freeholders of Merionethshire at a Quarter Sessions held in January last past. When the said Vaughan was not made one of the suitors, he began to sow slanderous reports of Dr Elis. They think themselves greatly abused by the said Vaughan.