On ordinary days, after dressing, she received petitioners of various classes, of whom there were always some.
Pilate came up to Jerusalem and dispersed the petitioners by means of disguised soldiers armed with clubs.
We hear 3 of " Brownists " in London about 1585, while the London petitioners of 1592 refer to their fellows in " other gaols throughout the land "; and the True Confession of 1596 specifies Norwich, Gloucester, Bury St Edmunds, as well as " many other places of the land."
He held open courts for the receipt of petitioners and the dispensation of justice; and in the disposal of business he was indefatigable.
Despite the fierce efforts of Vavasor Powell and his brother itinerant preachers to thwart the reception of this South Wales petition at Westminster, Colonel Freeman was able to urge the claims of the petitioners, or " Anti-Propagators " as they were termed, at the bar of the House of Commons, openly declaring that by the late policy of ejectment and destruction " the light of the Gospel was almost extinguished in Wales."
