On 4 November 1654 George Cony refused to pay these taxes (in the form of customs duties on goods which he imported), on the grounds that they were "an imposition notoriously against the law, and the property of the subject, which all honest men were bound to defend."
Cony noted that Cromwell himself had once said "that all who submitted… and paid illegal taxes, were more to blame, and greater enemies to their country, than they who had imposed them; and that the tyranny of princes could never be grievous, but by the tameness and stupidity of the people.
George Radcliffe wrote:[5] In England there is great expectation what wilbe comme of Conyes busines; it is put off till the next terme, and mens eyes are attent upon it, as more concerned then at any thinge which happened these many yeares.
Cromwell, when he committed Maynard and Twisden and another lawyer, tould them that, if they would have Magna Carta (which they had talked so much on in Westminster Hall), they must put on each a helmet and troope for it!
Here is the liberty of ye subject.Under the succeeding judge, John Glynne, Cony withdrew his case under pressure, without a formal decision having been issued about his arguments.