Caught!

Eventually Katherine Pettus managed to find Margaret Bancroft, had her arrested and delivered to the Fleet prison in July 1648: Charles the First having suffered a more permanent arrest just six months before. The new authority in the country was Parliament which decided to embody its power by commissioning a Great Seal of England. They had planned this new seal before the King had been executed. On one side of the seal was a picture of the House of Commons with the Speaker in his chair [ no House of Lords ] and the border inscribed, In the First Year of Freedom by God's blessing restored 1648, on the other side a map of England and Ireland. Scotland was not then united with England despite the strenuous efforts of many preceding Kings and Queens. Force to create union had not worked with Scotland for many centuries, but in the following century money succeeded where force had failed. The United Kingdom was created with the Act of Union in 1707 when England paid off the national debt of Scotland.

Death of the King and the supremacy of Parliament was perhaps the point when Katherine Pettus's suit began to fade. In the following years - although Margaret Bancroft remained in prison - appeals to Parliament and the Court of Chancery became less effective. The Court of Star Chamber had been abolished in 1641 and by mid 1653 the Rump of the Long Parliament had been dissolved and the Barebones or Nominated Parliament began shortly afterwards. This new Parliament resolved to abolish the Court of Chancery but that was seen to be too radical. Instead, in 1654, the First Protectorate Parliament made reforms which lasted until 1658. Without doubt these changes had some effect on the progress of Katherine's case.

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