1439-07-21, Westminster

Commission to John Cottesmore, John Fray, William Crane, John Harleston, Reginald Rous and thesheriff of Suffolk, to make inquisition in the said county touching a petition of William Wolfe, knight, and Maurice Lowell, shewing that one John Belsham feloniously slew Alice, the wife of the said Maurice, dwelling at Haddeley, co. Suffolk, and her unborn child, whereof he was indicted before the justices of the peace and of oyer and terminer for the said county and appealed by John Morys, son of the said Maurice and Alice and servant to the said Wolfe; and that the said John Belsham slew William Sugge, the king's constable of the said town, whereof he is also indicted, and he is known to have committed divers felonies and robberies in divers parts of the realm, but, because the present . -Parr 2. 7 petitioners have furthered the said appeal, the said John Belsham has made a suggestion of high treason against them in a petition to the king, and though they are ready to meet this charge according to the common law and statutes in that behalf, the petitioner William Wolfe has been pué under surety in Chancery with persons bound in large sums on his behalf, whereby he is prevented from obtaining his acquittal at common law, and prays, therefore, that, considering that he has always been a true liegeman, and has faithfully served the king at home and overseas, as all the lords know, he may be dismissed from the said false suggestion, to which he and his fellow-petitioner ought not to answer without due suit or matter of record or due process or original writ and that they may be ruled according to the common law and the statutes of the realm. By p.s.