and elsewhere, the Lord opened his understanding by his light, life, and power, and he received the truth and was obedient to it, took up his daily cross, and followed Jesus, came to be his disciple, was taught by him, and went no more to Oxford for learning; and I may say with David, "The Lord made him wiser than all his former teachers." He stayed pretty much at home, and with his eldest brother Charles Lloyd, and in these parts.

The jailor of Welch-Pool was very cruel to Friends, and continued them in that nasty hole before-mentioned, till Edward Evans fell sick, by reason of the dampness and unhealthiness of the room, and died; and the jailor would not suffer us to have his body to be buried, except we would pay the coroner, and so clear him, as if he had no hand in his death; but at last his relations prevailed without a coroner's inquest, and they took and buried him on an hill, on the back-side of the steeple-house in WelchPool; and it happened, as they were digging the grave, they found some bones of a man, and upon inquiry, in some old records, it was said, there was an old judge buried there; and the name of that place is called ever since, Judge's Hill. We had got no burying-place of our own then, but were about having one.

Thomas Lloyd and I not being prisoners now, though (except us two) most that were then convinced were prisoners; the report of such who were turned Quakers, being spread abroad, they were soon sent for before a magistrate, and the oaths of allegiance and supremacy were tendered both to men and women; and they for conscience' sake refusing them were sent to prison in order to be premunired.

My friend Thomas Lloyd and I were moved to go and visit most of the justices that had a hand in committing Friends to prison; we began at the farthest justice towards Machynlleth, and came down to Edward Lord Herbert, Baron of Cherbury, at Llyssin aforesaid, who had committed Charles Lloyd, and several other Friends; we understood on

the way, that he was at a bowling-green, and several with him, near a place called the Cann Office, near the highway side, and not far from Llyssin, where we beheld them bowling. We considered with each other, which way to take, there being a peevish priest, the said lord's chaplain, with them; so I asked Thomas Lloyd, whether he would engage the priest in discourse, or go to the said lord; which he chose, and got into the green leisurely towards him, where most of them knew Thomas; but he went not in their complimenting posture. He stayed there but a little while, and they broke up their game, and while he discoursed with the Lord Herbert, I discoursed a little with the priest. Lord Herbert coming towards the priest and me, he said to the priest, "Mr. Jones, what have you got there?" He answered, "A Quaker, and haberdasher of hats, that lives in Welch-Pool." "O!" said Lord Herbert, "I thought he was such an one, he keeps his hat so fast upon the block.” Then he intending and preparing to come down a great steep ditch, I stepped down to lend him my hand to help him; another priest would have stepped between me and him, but Lord Herbert refused the priest's help; and stopping a little, said to the priest, "Here is a brother that stands by will say, The blind leads the blind, and both will fall into the ditch." The priest was so drunk, that he could not stand by himself. This lord being a very big fat man, took my help to come down, so we went along with him towards his own house at Llyssin, laying the sufferings of our friends before him, and that their sufferings were for their conscience' sakes towards God. He gave us no grant then for their enlargement, but we heard that he sent private instructions, and they had more liberty. The jailor had an empty house at the end of the town, and there he let Friends go, which was a sweet convenient place near the fields, without any keeper over them, and they had the liberty of the town, and to go where they pleased, except to their own houses.

So Charles Lloyd took a house in town, for him and his family to live in; and we kept our meetings in that house of the jailor's aforesaid, for several years. Most of Friends by this time being under a premunire, many Friends came from several places to visit them, and those that were convinced towards Machynlleth, William Evans, and several others of that end of the county (who were formerly Independents) were sent here to prison upon the same account, refusing to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. Peter Price also, a worthy man of Radnorshire, was sent to this prison; he had been in the commission of the peace in Oliver's days; he, with several others with him, were committed by the justices of this county, to the House of Correction in Welch-Pool, for three months, as vagrants, because they came out of their own county Radnorshire, adjoining to this county of Montgomeryshire, where they remained the three months; but they had the liberty of the town, and to go to meetings with the rest of the prisoners. Other friends, that lived in and about the town, met with them in prison, and considerable meetings we had in that house.

A little after this, Thomas Ellis, called a deacon in the Independent congregation, was convinced; a man of great esteem among them, and so he was also afterwards amongst us. He came to my house to visit the prisoners, his former fellow church-members, and shewed me a letter that came to him from their minister, Vavasor Powell, lamenting the deplorable condition and danger they were in at that time; saying, "That the christians were in great danger to be split between two rocks, that was, the world and Q., (meaning the Quakers) but the worst," said he, "is Q." But the Lord hath opened Thomas Ellis' understanding, and given him a sight of their decay and formalities. Some years before the Lord did break in among them, to the convincing of many of them; for Thomas told me, that there came two women Friends among them, in the time of

their breaking of their bread, (I suppose it was before I came from London) and when they had the motion of Truth upon them, they opened their mouths in the name of the Lord, in much fear and humility; so that the Independent elders stood still and gave the women leave to speak what they had to say to the people; then the professors went on again with their business, and after some time the Friends spoke again; and then they commanded them to be taken away, but none was very ready to do it. Then their minister, Vavasor Powell called Brother Ellis, to take them away. Thomas Ellis told me, that he remembered Christ was not hasty in passing sentence upon the woman, that the Jews brought before him in the case of adultery; "but he stooped down, and wrote with his finger upon the ground, as though he heard them not." So T. Ellis told me, he was not willing to take them away, till they had fully cleared themselves of what was upon them to deliver among them; but at last they called to him again, and bid him take them away. Then he arose from among the company and went to them, and desired them to go with him to the next room, for he had something to say to them, and the Friends went readily with him; then he told them on this wise: "Friends, you see how we are met together here; we are like the prodigal, who was spending his portion, and we have a little yet unspent; and when we have spent all, we must return to our heavenly Father, and come to you and your way." The Friends went away well satisfied. I have made much inquiry who these Friends were, and from whence they came, but could not certainly learn who they were. As for our friend Thomas Ellis, the Lord blessed him, and poured his Spirit upon him, and gave him part of the ministry, and he became a faithful labourer and serviceable man among us; and at length he was made a prisoner here at Welch-Pool.

About the year 1663, our friend James Parkes came from the north, hearing that some of his acquaintance and fellow church-members owned Truth; he came to give them a visit

in the love of God, and also to visit those Independents he formerly walked among that were not convinced; and he left a paper with me to deliver to them, which was thus:—

"A Lamentation and warning from the Lord God, in the love of Christ Jesus, unto all the professors in North Wales, especially those about Wrexham in Denbighshire, and Welch-Pool in Montgomeryshire, whom formerly I have known, and walked with, in a fellowship and worship, till the Lord awakened me out of sleep, and opened in me an ear to hear his voice, which cried, 'Come out from amongst them, and be thou separate; touch no unclean thing, and I will receive thee.'

"FRIENDS,

"Hear and lend an ear, O! ye professors of Wrexham and Welch-Pool, and all the places and towns adjacent thereunto, who have been called 'churches of Christ, and members of his body, and followers of the Lamb.' I am come in my Father's name to visit you, and in bowels of his love, in this the day of your calamity and adversity have I visited many of you, in obedience to his command, who sent me in his name and fear into these parts, chiefly for your sakes at this time, that you might hear, and come to fear him, whose voice hath shaken the earth, and removed it out of its place; and he is making the keepers of the house to tremble, and he hath bound the strong man in many, that was armed, and formerly kept the house, then all was at peace; but a stronger than he is risen, and manifest in the hearts of thousands, even Christ Jesus, the Light of the world, who enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world, that all in him, and through him, might believe. He is dividing the spoil, and spoiling principalities and powers; and they whose eyes come to see him the Lord of Hosts, come to be undone. When Moses saw the appearance of the Lord, he did exceedingly fear and quake. It was he