John Bunyan appeal for his freedom (1661)
Bunyan’s new wife Elizabeth worked courageously to get her husband released even though she had suffered a miscarriage at the news of his arrest and had to look after her husband’s children. Elizabeth even went to the House of Lords in London to petition the release of her husband but was told that he could only be freed at the local Assizes. Not deterred Elizabeth petitioned the judges before and during the Assize later in the year, however, all her pleas were rejected. As a last resort she pushed her way into a room in the Swan Inn where the two judges were having a meeting and set forth her petition again, but again it was rejected and John Bunyan remained in prison for the next 12 years until the King passed the Act of Indulgence in 1672 that brought a certain amount of toleration towards Dissenters.