(crumpled at right side) replication of Edw Ross gentleman and Rose his wife to the several answers of Jeff Cuckoke Ralph Lunt and Prudence his wife three of the defendants to the bill of complaint of the said Rose in the name of Rose Partridge widow complainant the said repliants say that the said bill of complaint of the complainant Rose and their bill of revivor thereof are both certain and sufficient in law for the said defendants to answer unto that the said bill of complaint and revivor and every article and thing in them contained are certain and true in such sort manner and form as in the same are therein set forth and declared which these repliants are ready to aver justify and prove as this honourable court shall direct and award and these repliants first say that the said defendants several answers to the said complaint of the said repliant Rose are very uncertain and insufficient in the law for these repliants or either of them to reply unto and full of many imperfections and untruths nevertheless all advantage and benefit of exception insufficiency and uncertainty of the said defendants several answers these repliants say in every part clause article and thing as in their said bill of revivor they have said and the said Rose in and by her said bill of complaint hath said and these repliants further say that it was not the intention or meaning of the said Jeff Cuckoke first husband of the repliant Rose in and by his last will and testament that the said Rose should enjoy the lands in the said will bequeathed for and during her life only and that after her decease the lands in Birch should come unto Jeff Cuckoke her eldest son and his copyhold lands and tenements in Earls Colne and Colne Priory should come unto the rest of his younger children for these repliants say that such an intent or meaning in the said Jeff Cuckoke the father was directly against the very words of his will and the surrender he made of his said copyhold lands which were to the use of the repliant Rose and her heirs absolutely and he did directly intend and mean to pass away his said lands to the said Rose his wife who was nearer to him than his said children and she doth say that the true last will of the said Jeff Cuckoke the father was proven in the ecclesiastical court and no other will instead thereof as the said defendants most fraudulently and falsely in and by their said answer do most untruly surmise and the said repliant Rose further saith that she duly and truly and paid the said defendants Jeff Cuckoke and Prudence and such other of the children of the said Jeff Cuckoke the father and the said Rose as lived and attained their age limited by the said will of their father for receipt of their said several legacies all such legacies and filial portions as their said father in and by his said last will and testament willed and bequeathed unto them in or by their said father's will as may appear as by five several acquittances under the hands of the said two defendants Jeff Cuckoke and Prudence Lunt among three of their said brothers and sisters acquittances remaining in the hands of these repliants may appear without that that the said money which the said repliant Rose paid them the said defendants Jeff and Prudence Lunt or either of them she being asked what money it was she paid them or either of them answered that it was interest money due unto them for their said legacies of 20li as most untruly in and by their said answers is pretended for this repliant Rose saith that contrary thereof appeareth in and by their said several acquittances made to the said repliant Rose by the said defendants upon the receipt of their said legacies as aforesaid without that such hath been the unnaturalness of the complainant Rose towards her said children that some of them hath wandered up and down living upon the alms of well disposed people their own mother not so much as once taking care or thought for them as most scandalously and untruly and unbeseeming the duty and obedience the said defendants do by nature and religion owe the said repliant Rose in and by their said answers is surmised or that many or any of her said children perished for want or that the portions of the said defendants brothers and sisters which are dead ought to come to them the said defendants equally as the said defendants in and by their said answers do without show or reason or law pretend without that that the said repliant Rose was at any time important or urgent with an uncle of the defendants named Barnaby Ward or with any other person or persons whatsoever divers times or at any time to give her a copy of the true and last will of the said Jeff Cuckoke her first husband in the said defendants answer surmised or that to the said persuasions their said uncle made any such answer as in and by the said defendants answer is likewise without colour or show or truth or reason suggested and this repliant Rose absolutely denieth that she at any time or any other for her or on her behalf did at any time get from the said Barnaby Ward or from any other any will of the said Jeff Cuckoke her husband other than besides the said will which she proved in the spiritual court as aforesaid and without that that upon any fallings out between the repliant and her late husband Robt Partridge in the said defendants answer named she or her said husband used any such speeches about the pretended cosining or deceiving of the said defendants as in and by their said answer is also untruly pretended and without that that she the said repliant Rose hath vowed that never a child which she had either by her husband Cuckoke or the said Robt Partridge should be one penny the better off by the lands which she enjoyed either whilst she liveth or after her death or that rather than they should she would use all the means she could to sell it or if she could not then would she leave it in their hands that should keep it safe enough from her said children as also most untruly unnaturally and irreligiously is pretended by the said defendants in and by their said answer for these repliants say that if by any colour and anger at the lewd lives and crooked courses of the said children the said repliant hath at any time upon passion or grief of heart used any such words against them yet it is impiety in the defendants to utter publish or discover the same to the world but they ought with all vigilancy and carefulness to have concealed and covered the same with the shadow and cloak of silence but these repliants hope that this most honourable court will inflict some exemplary punishment upon the said defendants for their said contemptuous and graceless usage of their old mother in their said answer and will also thereby judge of their rebellious courses and wicked attempts which some of them have used to shorten her days and that if she should at any time upon just indignation at their wickedness have uttered such words as they pretend the court will judge the said words were not used without just cause for this repliant Rose saith besides the attempts used by the said defendants against her as aforesaid they have by their ill courses of life put her to much shame trouble costs and charges which she for modesty and love of them will not now publicly particularise but refer them to the judgements of their own consciences which if they have not with their duty and allegiance to her cast away they cannot but be ashamed and blush to think or remember how they have in their virulent answer undeservedly sought the disgrace and discredit of their aged mother without that that any other matter or thing in the said answer contained etc Dewes