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alledged, (to wit,) at the city of Chester aforesaid. And the said Thomas Amery further saith, that on the 1st day of March, in the twenty-second year of the reign of our Lord the now King, he the said Thomas Amery was a citizen and one of the Common-Council of the said city of Chester, then inhabiting in the same city, (that is to say), at the city of Chester aforesaid, and county of the same city; and the said Thomas Amery, so being a Citizen and one of the Common-Council of the said city, and inhabiting there, as aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the said 1st day of March, in the twenty-second year aforesaid, at the city of Chester aforesaid, and county of the same city, by the major part of the then Mayor, Aldermen, and Common-Council of the said city, then and there in the Common-hall of the said city, in due manner assembled and met together, was lawfully, and in due manner, elected and made one of the Aldermen of the said city, after the death, and in the room and place, of one Thomas Astle, lately one of the Aldermen of the said city, and then deceased; and the said Thomas Amery so being elected and made an Alderman of the said city as aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the first day of April, in the twenty-second year aforesaid, at the city of Chester aforesaid, did, in due manner, take an oath for the due execution of his duty of such Alderman of the said city, and did then and there also take the corporal oath, commonly called the oath of allegiance, and the corporal oath, commonly called the oath of supremacy, before Pattison Ellames, Esq. (then Mayor of the said city) and Joseph Snow, (then one of the Alder-[344]-men, and a Justice of the Peace of the same city,) who had then and there a lawful and competent authority to administer the same in that behalf and thereupon, he the said Thomas Amery was then and there duly admitted into the said place and office of one of the Aldermen of the said city; by reason of which said premises, he the said Thomas Amery then and there became, and was, and still is, one of the Aldermen of the said city, (to wit,) at the city of Chester aforesaid, and county of the same city; by virtue whereof he the said Thomas Amery, for all the said time in the said information in that behalf mentioned, hath used and exercised, and still doth use and exercise, the said office of Alderman of the said city of Chester, and hath there claimed, and yet doth there claim, to be one of the Aldermen of the said city of Chester, and to have, use, and enjoy all the liberties, privileges, and franchises to the said office of an Alderman of the said city of Chester, belonging and appertaining, as it was and is lawful for him to do; without this, that the said Thomas Amery hath usurped the said office, liberties, privileges, and franchises upon our said present sovereign Lord the King, in manner and form as by the said information is above supposed. All and singular which said matters and things, he the said Thomas Amery is ready to verify as the court shall consider: whereupon he prays judgment, and that the aforesaid office, liberties, privileges, and franchises in form aforesaid claimed by him the said Thomas Amery, may, for the future, be allowed to him; and that he may be dismissed and discharged by the court here, of and from the premises aforesaid, etc.

And the said James Templar, Esq. Coroner and Attorney of our said sovereign Lord the now King, in the court of our said Lord the now King, before the King himself, who for our said Lord the now King in this behalf prosecutes, being now present here in court, and having heard the said plea of the said Thomas, in manner and form aforesaid, above pleaded in bar, saith, that by reason of any thing by the said Thomas in that same plea alledged, the said Lord the now King ought not to be barred from prosecuting his aforesaid information against the said Thomas Amery; because protesting that the said plea by the said Thomas, in manner and form aforesaid above pleaded, and the matters therein contained, are not sufficient in law to bar the said Lord the now King from having his aforesaid information against the said Thomas, the said Coroner and Attorney of our said Lord the now King, for the said Lord the now King saith, that our sovereign Lord Charles the Second, late King of England, by his letters patent under the great seal of England, bearing date the 4th day of February, in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, did not grant in manner and form as the said Thomas hath above in that behalf by his said plea alledged: and this the said Coroner and Attorney of our said Lord the now King, for our said Lord the now King, prays may be inquired of by the country, etc. And the said Coroner and At-[345]-torney of our said Lord the now King for our said Lord the now King also saith, that the aforesaid letters patent by the