Honourable, wise, prudent and discreet Jan Jansz Baersdorp, councillor in the Board of Delegated Councillors of the States of Holland; honourable, wise, prudent and discreet fellow brother.
We have received Your Honour’s letter of the twenty-third of this month from The Hague and understood its contents. In answer we state that we believe the noble Lord Winwood, ambassador of His Majesty of Great Britain, has been wrongly informed that we entered into any agreement with certain Brownists.
It is true that last February a petition was presented to us in the name of Jan Rabarts, minister of the Divine Word, together with some members of the congregation of the Christian Reformed religion, born in England. They requested that, because they intended to come and live in Leiden, we grant them free and unrestricted permission. By our endorsement we declared that we refused no honourable persons free and unrestricted entry, provided they behaved honourably and submitted to all local rules and ordinances, and that the petitioners’ arrival would therefore be welcome and agreeable to us, as can be seen from the petition and attached endorsement, copies of which we send Your Honour.
Nothing further was done by us in this matter, nor did we know then, or know now, that the petitioners had been banished from England or belonged to the sect of the Brownists. We therefore request Your Honour to communicate this letter and the attached copy to the Advocate, so that neither the ambassadors nor His Majesty may take offence at us, and so that we may be excused by Their Honours and consequently by His Majesty. Herewith, etc.
Translation by Radicae, The Leiden Connection from the Dutch transcription supplied by Erfgoed Leiden.