The Kentish Petition of 1701 was a

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...

from leading citizens of the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, presented to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

on 8 May 1701. The petition had been circulated at the Kentish

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

held at

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

on 29 April, and was signed by the deputy lieutenants, grand jurors, and 23 justices, as well as a number of freeholders. The message was on Whiggish principles, asking that the

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

-dominated House would turn their loyal addresses into bills of supply, to enable the King ( William III) to build a

standing army A standing army is a permanent, often professional, army. It is composed of full-time soldiers who may be either career soldiers or conscripts. It differs from army reserves, who are enrolled for the long term, but activated only during wars or n ...

and forge alliances to counteract the French threat to the peace of Europe. An angry Commons declared the petition ‘scandalous, insolent and

seditious Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establ ...

; tending to destroy the constitution of Parliaments, and to subvert the established government of the realm’. The five presenters of the petition were ordered into the custody of the

serjeant-at-arms A serjeant-at-arms, or sergeant-at-arms, is an officer appointed by a deliberative body, usually a legislature, to keep order during its meetings. The word "serjeant" is derived from the Latin ''serviens'', which means "servant". Historically, s ...

, then four of them were sent as prisoners to

Gatehouse Prison Gatehouse Prison was a prison in Westminster, built in 1370 as the gatehouse of Westminster Abbey. It was first used as a prison by the Abbot, a powerful churchman who held considerable power over the precincts and sanctuary. It was one of the pri ...

, where they remained till the end of the session. They were William Colepeper, chairman of the quarter sessions, who had drawn up the petition;

David Polhill David Polhill (1674 – 15 January 1754), of Chipstead, Kent, was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1710 and 1754. He was one of the signatories of the Kentish petition in 1701. ...

; Thomas Colepeper (who absconded before the others were sent to the Gatehouse); William Hamilton; and Justinian Champneys. On 14 May

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...

flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality in case of any attempt to arrest him, presented a ''Legion's Memorial'' (of which he was tacitly understood to be the author) to the

Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings. Systems that have such a position include: * Speaker of ...

, Robert Harley. It demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners in the name of 200,000 loyal British subjects. Since the petition had promulgated Whiggish views, and the petitioners were exercising their constitutional right to petition the legislature, the five became Whig heroes; upon their release at the end of the session they were honored at a banquet in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and eventually escorted back home to Kent in triumph, culminating in a further round of celebrations in

. Daniel Defoe wrote a pamphlet, ''The History of the Kentish Petition'', which presents the pro-petition Whig view of the affair, and describes the Tories (who had passed a bill of supply) as slinking quietly out of town before the session had completed, out of sheer terror of public opprobrium.Defoe, Daniel. ''The History of the Kentish Petition'' London, 1701
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References

History of Kent {{England-hist-stub