President White Library, Corn e ll u n i ve rs ity. Cornell University Library DA 405.K55 Hertfordshire during the great civil war 3 1924 028 065 989 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028065989 HEETFOEDSHIRE DUKING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR HERTFORD : PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. PREFACE. The field of research for the years of the Great Civil "War is so vast, and the experience of the actors in. the great drama so infinitely varied, that he would he a hold man indeed •who should claim to have produced an exhaustive account of the actions and the sufferings of the men and women of the time, even in one county. My aim in giving some account of the War from the point of view of the Hertfordshire people has heen to present those salient features of the War which from their local colour may be considered of general interest to the people of the county as a whole, rather than of antiquarian interest for the few. The authorities consulted will be found, for the most part, referred to in the notes which accompany the text. The chief sources of information have been : The Journals of Parliament ; State Papers and Eoyalist Composition Papers in the Public Eeoord Office ; Eeports of the Eoyal Commission on Historical Manuscripts ; the Thomasson Collection, or King's Pamphlets, and the old Civil "War Newspapers and News-letters in the British Museum ; Standard Works, such as Eushworth's Historical Collections, and many con- temporary authors in the British Museum Library, the Cambridge University Library, and elsewhere ; the Herts County Histories by Clutterhuck, Cussans and Chaunoy, Rev. W. TJrwick's "Nonconformity in Herts," &c. The great bulk of the Hertfordshire Eecords, now preserved at the Shire Hall, Hertford, belong to a time subsequent to the great upheaval of the Civil War. Of those which are as old as the first half of the 17th century, there are, as might be expected, considerable gaps in the series for the years of the Civil War and the Commonwealth, between 1640 and 1660; and, as far as I have been able to examine them — by the courtesy of Mr. Dumville, Deputy Clerk of the Peace — the few records in existence for these years refer more to the criminal business coming before Quarter Sessions than to the public life of the County, which would have been reflected in the transactions of the County Committees under Parliament, had the records of these transactions been preserved. Fortunately, however, many of the communications which passed between the Herts Parliamentary Committee and the Committee for Both Kingdoms sitting in London, at critical points of the War for the Hertfordshire people, are preserved in the Letter-Books of the latter Committee, among the State Papers in the Public Eecord Office ; and these, with the despatches of the Commanding Officers engaged within or upon the borders of the County, materially help to supply the missing links in the County Eecords. For information supplied, and for courteous assistance given, I am also indebted to representatives of some of the oldest Hertfordshire families whose ancestors were concerned in the troubles of the times under review — to the Marquis of Salisbury, of Hatfield House ; the Hon. Reginald Capel, Little Cassiobury, "Watford ; Sir John Bennet Lawes, of Eothamsted ; General Apsley Cherry-Garrard, of Lamer Park, "Wheathampstead ; Major Gape, St. Albans, and others ; also to Mr. Lewis Evans, Belswains, Hemel Hempstead, for the loan of some rare tracts from his interesting collection of Hertfordshire matters, literary, pictorial, and curious ; and for local information to Messrs. E. T. and W. F. Andrews, of Hertford; Mr. A. E. Gibbs, of St. Albans ; Mr. G. Loosley, of Berkhamsted, and many others. While I am conscious that the life and work of a journalist may not seem quite consistent with that learned leisure which the writing of a book such as this may very properly demand, I yet venture to hope that the result of such use as I have been able to make of the intervals of a busy life may not be without interest for Hertfordshire readers, and perhaps for others outside the County. A. E. CONTENTS. Frontispiece — "Cromwell Arresting tte High Sheriff in St. Albans Market.'' By F. G. Eition. PAET I.— IN THE HUELT-BURLT. Introduction. How the Fray began. Strange Scenes in Hertfordshire Churches. Grievances, Petitions, and Protestations. The King's March through Hertford- shire. Hertfordshire Men getting into Armour. " Terrible Newes from Hartford." A Curious Night Surprise. Raid on Hadham Hall. The first Great Army on the March through Hertfordshire ; its return from the Battle of Edgehill. The Battle of Brentford. Lady Sussex and her Four Husbands. The Temper of Hertfordshire Men. Cromwell on the Scene. A Hertfordshire Council of "War. Stirring Scenes in Hertfordshire. Cromwell Captures the High Sheriff in St. Albans Market. Plunder and Panic. Hertfordshire folk getting behind Barricades. Royalist Invasion of Beds and Herts. Great Rendezvous at Hitchin. Pursuit of the Cavaliers. Mutiny at St. Albans. Hertfordshire Families in Oxford. Say " Shibboleth." The Hertford- shiremen's Lament. Return of the King's Army. Cavaliers Shooting at the Parson in the Pulpit. " To your tents, Israel ! " A Supreme Crisis for Hertfordshire. The Rising of the Yeomen. Hertfordshiremen on the March. Military Glory versus Harvest "Wages. Recruiting for the Battle of Naseby. Hertfordshiremen in the Fight. The King and the Cavaliers at Huntingdon. The King's flight through Herts in disguise. The Army demands its "Wages. Stormy Scenes in Saffron "Walden Church. Twenty Thousand Soldiers on Strike ! Cromwell's Ultimatum from Royston. The March on London ! Strange Contrasts. The King at Royston, Baldock, St. Albans and Hatfield. A Notable Dilemma. Hertfordshire Sides with the "Biggest Battalions." Cromwell and Fairfax threatened at Hertford. The "Ware Mutiny in Corkbush-field. " The Levellers Levelled." Hertfordshire takes its Burdens to Parliament. The Second Civil "War. Fighting in Hertfordshire. Exciting Chase of the Cavaliers. The Battle of St. Neots. The Siege of Colchester. Prisoners in Hertfordshire Churches. Council of War in St. Albans Abbey. The King's Fate Sealed ! Hertfordshire Regrets and Reproaches. Sanguinary Fight in Royston Market Place! Taking Down the Vlll. CONIBNIS. King's Arms. Hertfordsliire and the " Good Old Cause." Eoyalist Affray at Sawtridge- worth. General Monk and Ids Army at St. Albans. His Majesty's "Happy Eestauration ! "— Pages 1-102. PAET II.— HEROES IN THE STEIFE. Eoyalids. — Lord Capel, of Hadham ; h.is life and Adventures ; Ms Trial and Execution. Lord Falkland, of Aldenham. Thomas Coningsby, ofKorth Mimms. Sir Eichard and Lady Fansbawe, of "Ware Park. The Eomance of Love and War. Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park. Col. Silas Titus, of Bushey. Heroes and Victims : Col. Eawdon, of Hoddesdon; Sir John "Watts, Sir John Butler, and other Eoyalists. Parliamentarians. — Daniel Axtell, of Berkhamsted ; Ironside and Eegicide. Col. Alban Cox and the Hertfordshire Forces. Capt. "Wingate and his Adventures. The Earl of Salisbury and Six John Garrard. Lord Lieutenant and High Sheriff. Sir John "Wittewrong, of Eothamsted. Sir Harbottle Grimston, and others. ^How the "Delinquents" were dealt with. Pages 103-161. PAET III.— EFFECTS OF THE "WAE UPON PUBLIC LIFE. The Conduct of the Hertfordshire Clergy. Hertfordshire Clergy at the Bar and in Prison. How the Pulpits were filled. A Theological Battle Ground at Hemel Hempstead. John Bunyan and the "Mechanical Men." Some famous Hertfordshire Preachers. Omens, Signs and "Wonders ! "What the "War meant for Hertfordshire. Collecting Money and Men. Effects of the "War upon Industrial Life. Land, Tithes and Taxes. Soldiers, "Women and "War. Civil Marriages. Camp Followers and Drinking. Cromwell and " Local Option." The Puritan Sunday. Conclusion. — Pages 162-195. APPENDIX. I. — Supplementary. IL— Hertfordshire Letters to Cromwell. III. — List of Deprived Eoyalist Clergy Pages 196-205. INDEX. Pages 206-212. HERTFOEDSHIEE BUEING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR AND THE LONG PAHLIAMENT. Paei I.— IE" THE HTJELT-BUELT. INTEODUCTION. And louder atill, and still more loud, Prom uoderneath that rolling cloud, Is heard the trumpet's war- note proud, The trampling and the hum ! — Macaulay. Like the Tvom track of a mountain torrent, stopped in its natural course by some unnatural means till it bursts through all restraints and marks the coiirse of its rage over the face of the earth for aU time, so, now and again during the long centuries of human history, we see some great movement of the people marking out the course it has taken with an emphasis which cannot be excluded even from the dignity of history, con- cerning itself, as it does, for the most part with tracing the footprints of kings and men in high places. Perhaps the greatest of all such land- marks in the history of England was that rugged signature of the people to their act and deed in the great upheaval which resulted in the Civil War in the reign of Charles I. — the great turning- point of our modem history when the battle of the Constitution was fought. In tracing this, the greatest revolution of England's history, one is conscious that there must be, even in one county, manifold instances of heroic devotion to the highest dictates of chivalry, and to a lofty patriotism and principle, which can only be recalled in part. Of the minor features of the great picture which the Civil War unfolded many have faded beyond recall — hair-breadth escapes, hard riding to and from all points of the compass such as no other period of our history ever knew ; besides tragedies and comedies, which would be hard to match in the pages of fiction. Of the heroism, the chivalry, the patriotism, the tragic vicissi- tudes, and the romantic adventures of Hertford- shire men and women in the cutting of that stout Gordian knot only a part can ever be recalled. Some interesting ghmpses of the strange ordeal may, however, be obtained, and sufiioient, it is hoped, to make the story worth attempting. About two centuries before the Great Civil War in the reign of Charles I., the county of Hertford and its inhabitants had played a prominent part in another great struggle — I mean the Wars of the Eoses, with their battles of St. Albans — and a parallel between the upheavals at both these periods has been drawn by the late Professor Eogers in which he says : — "The ParHament of 1449 is singularly like that of 1640 in its temper and policy. In both Parliaments the country had been stirred to its very centre, and an extraordinary number of new men, instructed to find a full and complete remedy for the mismanagement of public afiairs, was sent to Westminster. In both, for a time at least, the Commons were practically HERTFOEDSHIEE DTialN"a THE SKEAT CIVIL WAE. unanimous. In both, the House insisted on the redress of grievances before the grant of supply." Upon that point of the unanimity of Parlia- ment when the struggle began, it may be remarked that in these days there is a risk of overlooking the altered character of the struggle between Charles I. and the Parliament as the Civil War proceeded ; and of assuming that, as it was a struggle against the King, it was there- fore an instance of Republicanism versus Monarchy. In its later development the struggle may have assumed that character, but during the first years of actual hostilities it was rather a struggle for the greater independence of Parhament as the voice of the people under a Constitutional Monarchy. It is only by bearing this in mind that we can quite realise the signifi- cance of two facts which should not be lost sight of at the outset of these sketches — the one of a general and the other of a local application, viz. (1) the unanimity of Parliament in the iirst instance against the King, and (2) the com- parative absence of any Parliamentary defection among the inhabitants of a county like Hertford with its many attachments to Royalty through its leading families. A few notable exceptions to this rule there were among the gentry, and more among the clergy, but these only seemed to mark the general unanimity, and were much less notable, if openly declared at all, at first, than after the conflict had come to an open rupture, with the employment on both sides of armed force ; when, it is true, a good number of Hertfordshire families went over to the King. If the reader is surprised at the few open chami>ions of the King in a county like Hert- ford when the conflict began, it should be remembered how the initial stage of the struggle presented itself to the county people. Hert- fordshire was a Puritan county, and on the side of the King there were ecclesiastical tendencies running contrary to Puritan feeling. The Parliamentary party had this immense advan- tage, that they managed, to use a colloquial phrase, to get hold of the handle which con- trolled much of the local machinery of the county, as that machinery had normally pre- sented itself to the minds of the inhabitants for ages. These elfective old forms — from Parliament down to the justices of the peace in Quarter Sessions ; nay, down to the parish constable and the parish stocks — remained, and if the King had somehow got out of the main stream of the Constitution himself, and set himself up as absolute head, he could not so easily divest his subjects of these old ties and restraints, which had been the growth of ages and were bound up with their lives and liberties, merely for the sentiment of devotion to the King's person. Hence, on the lines of the status quo, wiierever that could be maintained, as it seemed likely to be in the county of Hertford, the Parliamentarians had a solid advantage destined to be of immense service in the great difilculties of raising the necessary men and arms for entering upon a war from which all shrunk with a certain repugnance ; for, though the King might be going agaiiist all constitu- tional usage, his punishment by arms, and by his own subjects, was naturally against the instincts of the people. It was from these two tendencies — the old conflict of natural inclina- tion and duty, upon which have hinged the dramas of Greece and Rome and of all time — that the ordeal was to arise which was to tear the country in halves ; from groups of States- men, down through social and domestic life, even to the dividing of lovers over whom Cupid himself was for the time dispossessed of his throne. Cavalier and Roundhead, or Royalist and Republican, as symbols of division, in the first instance, are not quite accurate, because the Civil War in its inception rested upon the Con- stitutional paradox of the King fighting against himself. The inscription upon the stone sus- pended on a chain or necklet which Hampden wore — .Against my King I never fight, But for my King and country's right, would have been a very good motto for the Hertfordshire people at the beginning of the strife. At least from the point of view of the Parhament of 1640, it was a struggle in the name of the King, that is, the kingly ofiice, against the uses which Charles I. was making of that office, and not against having a king as the head of the nation ; a distinction which was not altogether abohshed even by the first two years of actual war, as the journals of Parliament still bear witness. Thus, when the conflict had continued for some time, the same formal recognition of the King in oflficial documents was observed ; for, in an ordinance for raising troops in Hertfordshire and other counties, by the Parliament against the King's forces, the many services of these counties is acknowledged as being "out of their loyal respect to his Majesty, their pious disposition to the peace and happiness of this kingdom," &c. Nothing but a remembrance of this distinction between the King's acts and his office wiU enable us to understand, for instance, the practical HEETFOETJSHIEE DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. unanimity of Parliament in taking up the. struggle against the King, the action of Arthur Capel, of Hadham, the member for Hertfordshire — the first to stand up to proclaim the people's grievances in Parliament, yet the first to stand by the King when he thought things had gone too far— or the presence upon the Committee for Hertfordshire for carrying on the war in the Parliamentary cause, of such names as those of Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, Hertford, and others, whom we shall find in very different company as the war proceeded. The writer is fully aware of the disadvantage under which he must labour in an attempt to disentangle the afiairs of one county from the general maelstrom in which the country was involved by the Civil War resulting from the conflict between King and Parliament in 1640-49 ; and also of his inability to deduce any fresh historical lesson from the materials brought together for the purposes of such a survey. At the same time he hopes that a particular survey of the struggle as it affected Hertfordshire, and to some extent adjoining counties, will enable him to present to the reader many matters which, through not being generally known, may have an interest for the inhabitants of the county dealt with, and in some respects afford a typical example of the struggle in other counties, in which, with one or two exceptions, no attempt has been made to present any consecutive story of the Civil War. The objection to taking what may appear to be the hmited view presented by one county, loses some of its force when the peculiarity of the struggle is remembered. Unlike our ideas of modem war, or even of a nation in arms to resist an invasion, the Great Civil War, though raising broad issues of national concern, was almost by necessity a sectional warfare in its methods. To a large extent it was, at least in its earlier stages, a war waged by counties, nay, by towns, by villages, by families, and by individuals. It will therefore be of more interest, perhaps, to endeavour to get some ghmpses of the part played by one county in the great stmggle, and the extent to which it suffered in its civil, religious, social, and domestic life, especially when that county was, geographically, so situated as Hertfordshire was for forming what, from a strategical point of view, was at once a sort of out-post and out-let for the civil protec- tion and mihtary resources of the Metropolis. The people of the Metropolis were, for the most part, placed at some distance from the ever shifting scene of hostilities, and were in a constant ferment, and thrilled through every fibre — now elated with tidings of victory and anon despondent beneath the omens of defeat — as intelligence travelled slowly and uncertainly citywards, along the great highways through Hertfordshire from the North and West. The situation of the county of Hertford makes its annals during these stirring twenty years of the Long Parliament of more interest than those of any of the counties within the famous Eastern Counties Association. It saw more of the or- ganization and movement of the Parliamentary Army, and felt more of the effects of the presence within its borders of that Army upon the civil life of the people, than any of the other five counties of the Association ; and when the war was virtually over, it was in Hertfordshire and upon its borders that the great Parha- mentary Army began to exercise that tre- mendous power as a political factor which was to determine the fate of the King himself and remodel the governing authority of the country. Not only by the necessities of the case arising from its situation was the county of Hertford thus closely connected with the organizing, marching, and negotiating of the Parliamentary Army, but it had also peculiar associations which might under other circumstances have influenced the attachment of some of its in- habitants to the Royal cause. The King had, for instance, spent some of his boyhood and early life at Berkhamsted and at Eoyston ; had gone forth from his father's home at Eoyston on his Spanish wooing expedition, and in later years as King had kept up the home at Eoyston, and resorted thither much more frequently than he has been credited with in the published notices of the quaint old town. Three times, at critical points in the great struggle, we shall see the King passing through and sojourning within the county thus associated with his boyhood— once in scorn, once in bitter humiliation and alone, and once in a kind of triumph though nominally a prisoner. Though the inhabitants of the county saw no very great share of actual hostihties, yet, between the sticking up of a notable document on a post in the town of Ware at the beginning of the strife, and the exposure of a Berkhamsted man's head on Westminster Hall in 1660, there was therefore enough happened in the county— of turbulence, of romance, of comedy and tragedy, and enough also of heroic deeds by Hertfordshire HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJETFG THE GEEAT CIVH "WAE. men and women — to make some record of it worth attempting in however incomplete and cursory a form. Without binding myself, by any hard and fast line, absolutely to what happened in the county of Hertford, I have endeavoured, wherever it seemed necessary to travel beyond its limits, to confine myself almost exclusively to related movements and occurrences on the borders of adjoining counties, and especially in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Essex, with just so much of incidental and passing allusion to general events of the struggle as appeared necessary to make the local occurrences intelligible. In the following pages it is hoped that, as far as possible, the materials available may be arranged in the natural order of cause and effect as the stages of the dramatic story unfold them- selves ; and under the heads, Of&cial, Military, Personal, Civil, and Ecclesiastical, will be noticed the official machinery of the county and its means of aiding in the war ; the military movements through and the more remarkable occurrences in the county as the great hurly-burly roUed on its course ; of the part played by Hertfordshire heroes in the strife and the fate which befel them ; and of the effects of the war upon the pubhc, social, domestic, and ecclesiastical hfe of the county. HOW THE FEAY BEGAN.— STRANGE SCENES IN HEETFOEDSHIRE CHURCHES ! From off unutterable woes, The curtain of the future rose ! The causes which led up to the great Civil War are too much matters of general history to call for particular mention here. The reader is well aware that for some years before things came to an open conflict, King Charles' attempt to govern without a Parliament, and the bitter remonstrances of the people, were widening the inevitable breach. From that famous parish meeting in Buckinghamshire at which John Hampden met the overseers and parish constables with a refusal to pay his assessment of Ship-money, the cause of the King began to drift apart from, and to alienate, the sympathies of the people. Hampden's trial widened the issue to one of a broad principle upon which lesser folk could readily take sides. Hampden's conduct was reflected in many parts of Hertfordshire, as well as in other Counties, notwithstanding, or perhaps because of, the rigorous levying of the impost by the Sheriff; Thomas Coningsby, of North Mimms. Against Berkhamsted — a town with so high a sense of its official dignity that one of its constitutions ran : " Lett none deride or evill doe or speake against the Corporation, the Ballyue, or any of ye capitall Burgesses" — against such a town, "Thomas Coningsby reported in 1638 that the levy of .£25 Ship- money was unpaid. But worse than this, the King's Hertfordshire champion was defied by a near neighbour, for Henry Coghill, of Aldenham, had his goods destrained for refusing to pay Ship-money, and his servant, Arthur Daykins, put in the Fleet Prison for rescuing one of his master's horses from the destraining party. The amount of Ship-money levied in 1636 upon the county of Hertford was £3,984 6s. 8d. Burdens and grievances had been growing in volume for some time before the actual crisis. At the end of 1638 the Corporation of St. Albans " Resolved that as Mayors in time past had susteyned verie great charges during their Mayoralties," and as their successors were most " likhe to susteyne yerelie more and greater charges, troubles and losses * * by reason of the greate charge of the tymes that now are and hereafter likelie to ensue," they, the Corporation, allowed the Mayor, Eaphe Pemberton, £32 a year over and above the £2 2s. usually allowed the Mayor " for distribution among maymed soldiers and poore strangers passing through the Burrough." Besides Ship-money, there was another grievance to the county in " coat and conduct money " — the cost of providing the soldiers with coats and conducting them to the rendez- vous — the Deputy Lieutenants of Herts questioned its legality, and five of them were summoned to London to answer for their remiss- ness. In fact, neither this nor Ship-money came in very readily from the counties, and the King, to meet his immediate needs, put up to auction the office of Master of the Rolls, and the highest bidder was Sir Charles Csesar, of Bennington, Herts, who secured the prize for Jl 5,000. [State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles I.] Before that expressive Short Parliament of 1640 gets together, things are fast coming to a crisis. Jenny Geddes has hurled her stool at the head of the ecclesiastical system which Charles HEETFOEDSHIEE I)tniIN& THE GREAT CITIL WAK. sought to impose upon Scotland, and the year 1640 marks the beginning of the momentous struggle. The memorable Short Parliament, ■which, sitting for only three weeks, did nothing itself, and yet was the means of bringing into one focus the common sentiment of England, has been hastily dissolved, and at last the King has granted a ParUament which cannot be dissolved but with its own consent, a condition which has practically tied his Majesty's hands in one direction, and given a tremendous impetus to the forces arrayed against the right divine notion. " Bang Charles did undo himself by signing and passing his Royal assent to two Parliamentary Bills, which proved fatal to his Majesty ; one of which was for the continuance of the present Parliament, not to be dissolved without their own consent, a devilish con- trivance." So writes Charles Ctesar, of Benning- ton, Herts, in his common-place book. [Life and Times of Sir Julius Caesar, p. 69.] The representation of Hertfordshire in Parliament at the beginning of the War, or rather in 1640, was as follows : — The county was represented by Sir WUham Lytton, and Arthur Capel, Esq., of Hadham, and when in 1641 the latter was made Lord Capel, Sir Thomas Dacres, of Cheshimt, took his place in the Commons ; for the town of Hertford, Sir Thomas Eanshawe, of Ware Park, and Charles Viscount Cranbome, eldest son of the Earl of Sahsbury, and afterwards William Leman ; for St. Albans the members were Sir John Jennings, Knight, and Edward Wingate, Esq., Richard Jennings, Esq., succeeding his father at his death in 1642. But besides these, Hertfordshire men and Hertfordshire landowners were in full force at the beginning of the Long Pariiament. Robert Cecil, 2nd son of the Earl of Sahsbury, sat for Old Sarum, Lucius Cary, or Lord Falkland (of Aldenham), for Newport, Isle of Wight ; Sir Richard Lucy, of Broibourne, for Old Sarum, Sir Henry Slingsby (Newsells) for Knares- borough ; Sir Henry Anderson (Pendley) for Newcastle-on-Tyne ; Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, for Lancashire, and his son, William, for Queenborough ; Sir Henry Mildmay for Maiden, and last, but not least of Hertfordshire men yet to be, Harbottle Grimston, Esq., for Colchester. For the neighbouring counties, Cambs was represented by Thomas Chichley, of Wimpole Hall, and Sir Dudley Korth, and Oliver Cromwell and John Lowry sat for the town of Cambridge ; and for the rest, Members of Parliament ran very much in families— the Montagues for Hunts, Sir Samuel and Sir Oliver Luke for Beds, and the Verneys for Bucks. When the Long Parliament is summoned in the autumn of 1640 the conflict is nearly twelve months off, and yet there are enough of rumours of war in the air to unsettle the peaceful life of Hertfordshire. In September an order went forth for Hertfordshire to have in readiness a number of " able pioneers, good carts furnished with men and horse," and likewise spades, shovels, and pickaxes, and "all other tools necessary for the making of works of defence in these perilous times," and further, " that the magazine of the county be well stored with powder, shot, and match, and that the beacons of the county be presently made ready and duly watched." It was only because of the invasion of the Scotch army, but the " pioneers, spades, and beacon fires " will very soon be re- quired for affairs nearer home ! There was not only the objectionable demand upon the purses of the county people, but matters of an ecclesiastical kind touching the settled habits of life which were making men uneasy. Old men remembered the time when the Communion table was placed in the centre of every Hertfordshire parish church, but now in many of them it was placed at the east end in the chancel, and railed in as something which was to be for the priest alone and no part of their common life ; women remembered when they were permitted to be churched without wearing the veil, as if they had come to do penance instead of give thanks — but now they had these new ceremonies and observances which " do put upon the churches the shape and face of Popery," and against all this tendency the county was ready to speak out. There was a general resistance to the levies to march against the Scotch army, especially in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, and even where the men were forthcoming they were mutinous. At Aylesbury the mutiny had resulted in the burning of twenty-two houses, and at Icklington, or Ickleton, Cambs, near Royston, the soldiers chased the parson out of his parish ! Many of the soldiers felt that to fight against the Scotch would, under present circumstances, be like " fighting for the Papacy against the Gospel ! " From the outset of the struggle in Hertfordshire the element which made the great Civil War so largely a religious war, or a war about ecclesiastical systems, held a prominent place. Some of the inhabitants at any rate were prepared to stoutly HEETFOEDSHIEE DTTEING THE GEEAT ClVn WXR. resist what they considered the Romanising tendency of a number of the clergy in the county. In the western parts of the county from Watford to Hemel Hempstead, and in some parishes around Hitchiu, about harvest time, 1640, a number of soldiers belonging to the county had in various churches entered a rough protest against things ecclesiastical by pulling down the altar rails, and with the evident sympathy of the inhabitants, who were being led with a high hand by the supporters of Laud among their clergy. The magistrates found the people would not give up the soldiers' names. The acts were committed openly, either by the soldiers finding the church door open and walking in, or obtain- ing the key for the purpose. In all, seventeen churches in the county were treated in this fashion. Perhaps the most remarkable form of this protest was that which was witnessed at King's Walden, in the " half-hundred " of Hitchin. The people there had assembled in Church for divine service on a Sunday morning in harvest time. Whilst Ralph Battell, the curate (on the small stipend of £12 per annum and fees), is con- ducting the service, the tired, sleepy harvest folk are roused to a pitch of uncommon interest by the entry of soldiers, twenty-fom' in number, who march into the Church in an ominous manner which shows them to be anything but ordinary worshij^pers. Without pausing to look for a seat amongst the people they march down the aisle, and, to the consternation of the parish clerk and the Rev. Ralph Battell, right into the chancel itself ! All eyes were now fixed upon the new rails shutting in the communion table, which Mr. Battell, with his notions of high church and low fees, possibly assisted by the " rich and able men " owning the living, had somehow got fixed there. The soldiers, however, coolly appropriate the available seats, and, forming a congregation by themselves in the chancel, bide their time ! The minister, thinking probably he had better not provoke a riot, goes on with the sermon. When the sermon was ended the soldiers " before all the congregation, tore down the rails and de- faced the wainscoat," and having " extracted some money " from the poorly-paid minister, "invited themselves to the Churchwardens to dinner ! " In the afternoon they brought an ex-communi- cated person into the Church and forced the minister to read evening prayers in his presence. This extreme form of a protest, which in principle met with a good deal of tacit approval, was ton much, even in unsettled times, to be allowed to pass without notice of the ordinary law ; and, as similar incidents had occurred else- where, an Order in Council called upon the Justices of Herts to " make strict inquiry for and to vigorously punish all vmruly soldiers and others the authors of the late disorders and profanities [of churches] in that county." The Justices set about an inquiry, and their report, read between the lines, discloses an extraordinary state of things and a disposition not to convict anybody if that can well be avoided ! Writing to the Council on I7th September, 1640, they give this remarkable narrative : — " Before your letter of the 6th of this month * * * came to our hands we had directed a precept to the Sheriff for an inquisition at Watton [apparently at Sir John Butler's house] on the 15th of this month, and warrants to the constables in the hundred of Broadwater and half-hundred of Hitchin for strict inquiries to be made for rioters and their countenancers and abettors * * The Jury gave their verdict in writing that the i-ails of the chanoells in five churches in the Broadwater hundred were pulled down by the soldiers, but they seriously affirm to us on oath that they could not discover the name or dwelling of one rioter. * * * In the half-hundred of Hitchin only the Church of King's Walden had the railes pulled down. [Here follows the incident described above.] By no means could we discover the names or dwellings of any of these malefactors, save that they were soldiers billcttcd in Beds ; and three days after- wards, openly and in the day time, they entered the ground of Periam Docwra, Esq. [of Lilley ?] and took thence a fat ox which they brought into the next market town [Hitchin ?] with a drum, the owner and his servants looking on and not daring to resist it ; it was restored to the owner for 16."!. drink money. Thejurors presented that Edward Dickenson, of Luton, Beds., was one of them. " After their disbanding, five of these vagabond soldiers went to a gentleman's house in Broad- water Hundred, where Capt. Brockett was, and pretended the captain had detained their wages, and threatened to have money or his blood, when the captain wounded one of them with his sword whereof he died ne.^t day. The soldier so slain, the Master of the House of Correction informs us, was an incorrigible rogue, born and bred of vagabond parents, and it is thought the leader of those who pro- faned the Churches, from which time there has been no rioting so far as we know. * " [State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles I., vol. 467.] HEETFORDSHIRE DTTRHrO THE GHEAT CIVIL WAR. A very plausible statement indeed ! But what follows will show that the unfortunate Broadwater tramp, who was run through by Captain Brockett's sword, apparently without any trouble coming to the Captain, was, to some extent, a Puritan scapegoat. The same kind of thing had been happening in other parts of the county. Indeed, the pulling down of the offensive altar rails, if not the fighting and riot- ing which sometimes ensued, had been winked at in high places, and it became necessary to make an example ; so an Order in Council goes forth to Sir John Jennings, K.B., member of Parlia- ment for St. Albans, who, it alleged, had shown great remissness in the exercise of his office as Justice of the Peace in Herts " in [not] appre- hending certain soldiers that had committed great profanation of Churches and otherwise," and he was sent for by warrant to the House of Lords ; and being examined was found "very faulty and no way able to justify [refute] the charge against him." Sir John was thereupon ordered to be com- mitted to the Fleet prison till he gives security before the Attorney General for his appearance in the Star Chamber. By the 9th Sir John had found the security, and upon that the Warden of the Fleet had warrant to release him on his bond to appear in the Court of the Star Chamber. Shortly afterwards he and Sir John Butler are sitting at Hertford upon inquisition, inquiring into these very ofiences, in the hundreds of Cashio and Dacorum, and on the 5th October they certify to the Council that they " selected 17 jurors able and sufficient freeholders out of the 24 returned by the Sherift;" who, after hearing the constables and ministers of the parishes and others, returned their verdict " that the rails in the chancels of ten Churches in those hundreds were pulled down by soldiers, who had entered the Churches by finding the doors open or procuring the key, but the names and habitations of the rioters they declared they knew not." It was unfortunate for Sir John, with the Star Chamber doom impending, that the justices could show so Uttle with such a jury and with such unwiUing witnesses. One Edmund Aylee, a glazier, of Bishop Stortford, described as the "captain of those unruly soldiers," did get within the clutches of Thomas Coningsby, and was committed to prison at Hemel Hempstead, but only to be released by force by his fellow soldiers, he confessing that " he could have five hundred to relieve him in case of need." Aylee confessed that he and seven other impressed soldiers did enter Eickmansworth Church, and after the end of the morning sermon, " did there wittingly and suddenly pull down and break in pieces the rayle about the Communion table, and that in the afternoon they broke down part of the cover of the font, and he acknowledged a conversation at the White Hart at Rickmans- worth about the coming of the Soots Army." So the affair ended rather badly for Sir John Jennings, Member for St. Albans, upon whom the brunt fell, and in December he is committed to the Fleet again, and soon after dies, and is succeeded by Kichard Jennings, Esq. The high-church clergy in their parishes had an unpleasant time of it in this year, 1640. Away in the quiet corner of Hertfordshire at the Pelhams, with their legendary lore of Piers Shonks and the Evil One, there is walking up and down through the solitary hours of night a very high priest of Laud, with a soul full of hot zeal for the King, unquestioning faith in Bishops, and of unutterable things against Puritan reformers — swinging his stout sword in his hand too, with ill omen for those intent upon pulling down the ofi'ending rails which shut off the Communion Table from the common people in his Parish Church ! In one case in a neighbouring county the altar rails were burnt down with " broom fagots " ; in another they were taken away and set up round a pond called the " Parson's pond." In Hert- fordshire also when the rails were pulled down they were in some cases afterwards burnt, and at Hoddesdon after the rails had been pulled down dogs were turned, in an offensive manner, under the Communion Table ! GRIEVANCES, PETITIONS AND PROTESTATIONS.— THE KING'S MARCH THROUGH HERTFORDSHIRE. "The Petitioners take upon them the humble boldnesse to declare their readinesse to staud to and defend to ihe utmost perill of their lives***" Herts Petition. " For the Militia, he would not trust his Wife and Children with it an hour, and that it was never asked of any King." King Charles' reply at Eoyston. In the month of November, 1640, was sum- moned the famous Long Parliament, the members of which, for Herts and neighbouring counties, have already been mentioned. This Parliament, from which so much was e-xpected, commenced to run its eventful course by " a consideration of HEmrOEDSHIEE DtTRING THE GfiEAT CIVIL 'WAK. all the grievances of the people these many years," in which they had been dejirived of a voice in Parliament. This measure opened the flood-gates of popular feeling, and set all counties to work drawing up, and preparing to present, their petitions, and tlertfordshire was one of the first counties to contribute to that avalanche of petitions. " The first that stood up at this time to repre- sent the grievances of this country was Arthur Capel, Esq., then Knight of the Shire for the County of Hertford, afterwards Lord Capel, who presented a petition in the name of the free- holder of that county, setting forth the burden and oppressions of the people during the long intermission of Parliament, in their consciences, liberties, and properties, and particularly in the heavy tax of ship money." [Eushworth's His- torical Collections, vol. 4, p 21.] Arthur Capel and the Hertfordshire petitioners were supported by a future Hertfordshire man, whom we shall meet in Harbottle Grimston, who summed up the burden of the debate with an anecdote from the bar, winding up with the epigram "they begin to say in town that the judges have over- thrown the law and the bishops the gospel." Pym also made a speech on the occasion of this Hertfordshire petition, and the Hertfordshire petitioners received the thanks of the House. The County of Hertford was getting into a discontented mood all round over its grievances, and just before spending that Christmas with which was to disappear for a time all thoughts of " Peace on earth and good will towards men," we see divers inhabitants in and about the towns of Watford and St. Albans presenting their humble petitions against Thomas Coningsby, the High Sheriff, for his rigorous levying of Ship-money, placing Mr. Coning.sby in a corner, from which he only extricated himself by giving bail. It must suffice to say that during the year 1641 the turmoil did not cease. Straftbrd, " the one supremely able man the King had," has been sacrificed ; and the country people who went up to see the execution have returned to their homes shouting, with the authority of eye witnesses — " His head is off! His head is off !" and breaking the windows of those who would not celebrate the event with a bonfire ! [Warwick's Memoirs.] With strange scenes of tumult without, the House of Commons draws up its Protestation — " We take the Supreme to witness that we will stand by one another to the death in prosecution of our just objects here, in defence of law, loyalty and Gospel here" — a protestation which, as the months go by, lays hold of Hertfordshire and neighbouring counties, of whom there goes up an impressive cavalcade of 4,000 Buckinghamshire petitioners with the Protestation stuck in their hats ! The scene, as counties go up, is quaintly and eloquently described by Vicars in that strange medley of Biblical and secular words and things entitled, " God in the Mount, or England's Remembrancer." He has been describing the vote of the House, vindicating the action of petitioners in defence of the privileges of Parlia- ment, and thus breaks out : " Nay, yet to make the beautie and brightnesse of that foresaid Tewsday's sunshine of comfort yet more glorious to our eyes and hearts ; that very same 11th Jan., I say being Tewsday, came a numerous multitude of Buckinghamshire men, both gentlemen, ministers and others of that county on hors back, in very fair and orderly manner with the Protestation in their hats and hands, partly in the behalf of the most worthy Knight of their Shire in Parhament, Mr. Hamp- den, but especially to Petition Parliament for the reform of the evils in Church and State, * * the sweet harmonious concurrence of both Houses against all sinister obstructions," &c., &c., " and since which time, even immediately after, mightie multitudes out of Essex, divers thousands out of Hartfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, and other counties of the Kingdom, in brief from all Shires and Counties of the whole Kealm, came still one after another to London to exhibit their petitions to the Parliament in the causes aforesaid ; from all parts swelling in the stream of affections and petitions, all having one desire, all I say, as one man unanimously con- senting in this one thing, namely a serious and settled resolution to petition and pray a speedie, refining and reforming of persons and things amisse among us." Memorable as the march of a great army must have been the sight of these Knights and tree- holders from the Shires of England ; and even London itself, used to all kinds of petitioning parties in these days — the City of London petition carried by a selected 400 riding to West- minster in fifty coaches — turns out to see the spectacle, one item in which, the Bedfordshire petitioners, is thus described by Nehemiah Wallington in his Historical Notices : — "I myself did see I think above two thousand of these men come riding from Pinsbury Fields, four in a rank, with their Protestations in their hats." HEETrOKDSHIEE DtJBING THE GKEAT CIVIL AVAU. The petition out of Buckinghamshire had been " brought to the town by about six thousand men," and so determined was this army of free- holdei-s and constituents of Hampden to be heard, that they had come prepared with a separate petition for the Commons, for the House of Lords, and one for the King, and succeeding in present- ing each before returning to their homes ! The most memorable of the Hertfordshire petitions was some months later. AVherever the clergy who were favourable to Parliament, and especially those nominated and appointed by Parliament, found themselves called upon to discharge any function connected with the civil and official hfe of the county, it is not surprising that they should " improve " the occasion a little, such as at the opening of the Commission for Assizes, &c. There is, for instance, a singular story related of the conduct of the preacher at the opening of the Commission for the Hertford Assizes by Sir. Justice MaUett in 1641. " Mr. Foiley (an antient man), preaching at Hartford Assizes dehvered this doctrine. That none could be saved but a Puritan. I will prove this point (said he) by Scripture, &c. — and there [be] was at a stay and could not proceed further. Whereupon the Clarke sung a Psalme. Then he would have gone with thB proof of his former doctrine, but could not proceed a word more ; so a second Psalme was sung by the Clarke, and so likewise a third time, till the congregation was abruptly dismissed, and the Preacher hurried out of the Church and the judge departed." [Baker MSS., University Library, Cambridge, vol. 34, p. 31.] When in Kovember, 1641, the King, returning from his journey to Scotland, was received with demonstrations and speeches from mayors and others of the towns through which he passed, some of the inhabitants of that part of Hert- fordshire on the North Road were inclined, amidst all the sinister omens of Irish rebellions and Parliamentary remonstrances, to throw up their hats, as appears by this interesting ghmpse obtained from the correspondence between the King and Sir Edward Nicholas, his secretary. The latter writing to the King while on the road, " I hear from a very good hand that there are diverse principall gent, of Hertfordsh : ^ who are desirous to tender their duty to your Majestic att Ware, and to wayte on you into that towne, if your Majestie shall make any stop there, and they will bring with them diverse of their neigh- bours and friends who are desirous to show how welcome your Majestie's returue is into that country, whereof I thought good to give your Majestie this tymely notice, for that 1 humbly conceave it would not be amisse for your Majestie in these tymes to accept grac'ously ye affec'ons of your subjects in that kinde, whereby you will have opportunity to show youself grac'ous to your people as your Majestie passeth, and to speake a few good words to them which will gaine ye affons (especially of ye vulgar) more then anything that hath bene donne for them this Parliamt." Two days later the Queen writes to " Maistre Nicholas," stating that the King "will be at Tibols vendnesday and shall lye there." But before the King gets anywhere near Theobalds Sir Edward renews his artful coaching of his Majesty about his behaviour on coming to Ware in these terms : — " I have now again roceaved assurance, that * * ye gent : and diverse of ye best of ye free- holders of Hertfordshire will wayte on your Majestie a myle before you come to Ware, and if your Majestie please to make a little stop in that towne, that ye better sorte may there kisse your Royall hand, and ye rest be spoken to by your Majestie, it will give them very great contentmt * * * * I am ye more diUigent to give your jMajestie this advertisemt because I know those gent : will not fayle in this manner to shew their affec'ons and duty to you, and that county being soe neere a neighbour to London it wilbe a good encouragemt and comfort to yovir well affected people here to understand that they have neigh- bours that have ye like dutifuU affec'ons to your Majestie's person and governmt." I have found no record of how the Ware recep- tion actually went off', but there is little room for doubt that the gentry and freeholders about Ware got their hearts' desire from a King who could listen to the glowing speeches of the mayors of Stamford and Huntingdon, the last-named gentleman winding up with the boast that " although Rome's hens should daily hatch of its preposterous eggs, orocodilicall chickens, yet under the shield of Faith, by you, our most Royal Sovereigne defended, and by the King of Heavens as I stand and your most medicable councell, would we not be fearful to withstand them." Who were the gent : who were to " kiss the Royall hand," and how far the event had a good effect upon " ye vulgar" about Ware, the reader will be at no loss to guess and appreciate as our 10 HEETrOEBSHIEE DUEING THE GREAT CIVIL WAE. narrative proceeds. Capel had already come under the royal favour and had been created Baron Capel of Hadham, only a few weeks before, and Sir John Watts, of Mardocks, and the Fanshawes, of Ware Park, were probably with Lord Capel in going out to meet the King ; but, as we shall see presently, the bulk of the inhabitants were entirely with the Parlia- ment. At the end of the year 1641, or rather at the beginning of 1642, the county of Hertford presented two petitions, one to the House of Peers and the other to the House of Commons, in an imposing fashion, "dehvered by at least 4,000 knights, gentlemen, freeholders, and other inhabitants of the county of Hertford." In the first of these petitions the great army of knights, gentlemen and freeholders set forth : — " That the petitioners have hitherto with much patience waited for, and with great confidence expected the happy progress of this Parliament, and therein the removal of aU those grievances, under which they have long groaned, and the l^erfect reformation of Church and Commonwealth. They are now constrained to represent unto this Honourable House the manifold fears, troubles and distractions wherewith they are encompassed * * * from the continuance of the prelacy and multitudes of scandalous ministers * * the insolence of the Papists * * the great and unparalleled breaches lately made upon the privileges of Parliament, the delay of putting the kingdom into a posture of war for their better defence ; the misunderstanding between His Majesty and the Parliament, and the want of compliance by the Honourable House with the House of Commons. * * * All which * * having occasioned the total decay of trade and great scarcity of money and thereby the im- poverishing and unsettlement of the kingdom * * * The petitioners therefore pray that the voting of Popish Lords and Bishops may be removed out of the House of Lords, that the evil councillors * * may be taken from about His Majesty." The second petition, to the House of Com- mons, was more outspoken on the ecclesiastical side, showing : — " That this Church and Kingdom, being by the prelates, those multitudes of corrupt and scandalous ministers (their creatures) and Popish party * * evil ministers of state, and great swarms of projectors * * * brought to a sad and almost desperate condition, and thereby the splendour of His Majesty's Crown and dignity dangerously weaken and eclipsed * * and although by the calling of a Parlia- ment * * Arbitrary Courts, Ship-money, monopolies, and other illegal impositions have been removed, the progress of this good work is hindered by the malignant party of prelates and papists, who seek to divide between his Majesty and this Honourable Assembly, and to render the same contemptible and * * bur- densome to the people * * * the petitioners take upon them the humble boldnesse to declare their readinesse and great engagements accord- ing to their Protestation to stand to, and defend, to the utmost jjerill of their lives and estates, the King's Majestie and High Com-t of Parliament, witli all the power and priviledges of the same, * * against all Popish and other malignant opposers, who endeavour, either by evill counsell, secret plots, or open force to hurt or prejudice the same, or to make divisions betweene his Majesty and the Parliament." So the petitioners prayed that the Papists might be fully disarmed, the laws against them executed, " the Kingdom, and especially this county, according to tlieir late petition on that behalf, put into a posture of warre for their better defence," * * and, generally, that all pressures and grievances in Church and Commonwealth be removed, and " the reforming of what is therein amisse." So spake the predominant voice of the people of Hertfordshire at the opening of the momentous year of 1642. On January 10th, 1642, t Lady Sussex is indulging in lier gossipy comments on public aftairs from Gorhambury to Sir Ralph Verney in London, and says : "These distracted times put us all in great disorders, but I hope we shall not be killed yet ; * * Your Parliament flies high, but truly it is a happy thing I think they have so much courage to stand to maintain their rights." In spite of petitions and grand remonstrances, the opening months of 1642 saw the King — having sent the Queen out of England to a place t According to the old style of reckoniag the year, this would have been 1641. the year ending on 24th of March. I have thought it better, throughout this Book, to give the date in the year according to the new style, i.e., eommenciog with. January 1st, excepting where a date occurs in an actual quotation, when the difference will be indicated in parentheees. HEBTFOEDSHIBE DtTEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 11 of safety in Holland with the crown jewels to pawn— on his march away from his Parliament in a double sense, through Hertfordshire for the North—" The first incident of the drama which soon afterwards filled the stage with the thunder of drums and trumpets." [Fairfax Corre- spondence.'] On the 28th of February he is at Theobalds and on March 3rd reaches Royston. Here, with the Prince of "Wales, the Duke of York, and the many nobles in his train, His Majesty makes a long stay of five days [Iter. Carol I Hum, in Somers Tracts, Brit. Mus.] in the Old Court House of his Eoyal Father, James I. While at Royston, the declaration of Parlia- ment concerning the Militia was brought to the King by the Earls of Pembroke and Holland, when His Majesty returned a most pohte declaration, and verbally told the Lords that for the Jlihtia he would not trust his wife and children with it for an hour, and that it was never asked of any King. [Heath's Chronicle of the Ciril War.] Here, too, we get an interesting glimpse of the state of the Eoyal temper in the letters written by Prince Charles, the future Charles II. Writing, from the old Palace of his grandfather, to "the Lady Marie," his most " Royal sister," two days after the King had gone on from Royston to Newmarket, the young Prince candidly admits : — " My father is very disconsolate, and troubled, partly for my Royal mother's and your absence, and partly for the disturbances of the Kingdome. I could wi.sh and daily pray that there might be a conjunct and perfect uniting between my father's Majesty and his Parliament ; that there might be a perfect concordance with them in the subject of the removal of the grievances of the country and the ruining of our decayed joys. We are as much we may merrie, and more than we wood sad, in respect we cannot alter the present distempers of these turbulent times. My father's resolution is now for York, where he intends to reside to see the event or sequell of these bad unpropitious beginnings, where you may direct your letter to. Your loving brother, Carol: Peinceps. Foyston, March 9, 1641 (1642). [King's Pamphlets E. 140 (16) Brit. Mus.J Here, at least, is no notion of Divine right, but a tacit acknowledgment that his Royal father may have been in the wrong as well as Parlia- ment. A sensible letter from a lad not yet quite twelve years of age. Accompanied by Dukes and Earls, the young Prince leaves Royston for Cambridge, witnesses a comedy at Trinity College, and gained the credit for " not hiding his devotion in his hat" at a service in King's College Chapel ; and received his degree. The King leaves his tennis and races at Newmarket to join his son at Cambridge, having replied to the loudly muttered demand for his giving up power of the Mihtia with that final defiant message to Parhament : — " No ! by God ! not for an hour ! " That is the last word, though the raising of the standard at Nottingham is five months ahead ; and, joining Prince Charles, and the nobles at Cambridge, the King " took coach for Huntingdon " on his way to York to await " the sequeU of these unpropitious begin- nings" ! HERTFORDSHIRE MEN GETTING INTO ARMOUR. The Horsemen and the Footmen Are pouring in amain, From many a stately market place, From many a fruitful plain ! Macaulay. Henceforth, the only question for Hertfordshire men and women, as for many others, will be one of taking sides in the tremendous issues which are arising. Parliament sets about an ordinance for dealing with the Militia ; and, says Carlyle, " the question puts itself to every English soul, which of these will you obey ? — and in all quarters of English ground, with swords getting out of their scabbards, and yet the constable's baton still struggling to rule supreme, there is a most con- fused solution of it going on. Mr. Cromwell has gone down into Cambridgeshire in person since they began to train there, and assumed the chief management. The like was going on in all shires of England ; wherever the Parliament had a zealous member it sent him down to his shire in these critical months to take what management he could, or durst. The most confused months England ever saw. In every shire, in every parish, in court houses, ale houses, churches, markets, wheresoever men were gathered together, England with sorrowful confusion in every fibre, is tearing itself into hostile halves to carry on the voting by pikeand bullet henceforth." The gentlemen sent down to the county of Herts were the members of Parliament, Lord Cranborne, Mr. Robert Cecil, Captain Wingate, and Sir John Harrison, who, on the I4th July, 12 HEEirOEBSHIEE DTmlS"G THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. were ordered to be at Hertford at the Assizes on the morrow to advance the propositions for bringing in money, plate and horse. Through all the county nothing falls upon the ears of the agitated country folk but the strains of martial music — not the strains of the military band, as we understand them (to-day, but the rousing blare of trumpets and the rolling of drums ! For with these heralds all proclama- tions are made, whether of orders of Parliament, commissions from the King, or the authority of the recruiting sergeant. Such a universal blow- ing of trumpets and beating of drums was never heard in England before — like the echoes of the rams' horns which brought down the walls of Jericho, and many old Puritan folk are thinking seriously of the parallel, and are predicting the falhng down of thrones and palaces of earthly kings before the voice of the God of battles ! Yet these heralds of drums and trumpets are but a part of the distressing confusion of ominous sounds with which the air is full — like the advance guard behind which are angry moving masses of a mighty army ; or the first great pattering rain drops and soughing of the wind before the electric shock of the tempest. Into the nooks and crannies of gable-shaded streets in our old Hertfordshire towns these heralds press their claims with a terrible meaning already visible upon men's faces ! Away on the village green, too, where the May- pole has been wont to be set up, the echoes have come to the children, who, always ready to catch up sides in a popular movement, are sharpening wooden swords, flinging at each other the catch- words and coming to mimic warfare — sturdy little Roundheads and haughty little Cavaliers, to whom the great drama approaching is as a tale that is told ! To the youth and the maiden the reality comes nearer which is to make the two hearts grow sad and two faces grow older, as Romeo begins to make a conscience of his lean- ings to King or Parliament, and his Juliet sees the great gulf between the Montagues and C.'apulets stretching away beyond the reach of that golden link which was to have united two young lives. To the aged the trial is bitter with a discipline which tries as by fire — in the market, the family, at the altar, and on the village green the dividing element is cutting down to the marrow of all county life ! Already private and family hfe is shrinking from the terrible possibilities impending. " They }iromi^c(l as all should be well if my lord Strafford's head were off, but since then there is nothing better." * * "Oh that the sweet Parliament would come with the olive branch in its mouth ! " * * " We are like so many frightened people." * * * " If I hear but a door creak I take it to be a drum," — these are expressions from the private letters of the time, and Lady Sussex, from Gorhambury, writes, " God's power is above all, who I hope in mercy will yet keep us from the miseries we expect." What will Hertfordshire people do ? Already in the ancestral homes of the county, men, animated by family pride and the traditions of their house, are taking down old suits of armour, rusty from disuse ; and, buckling on their swords, are thinking also of how they may best equip their dependents, or those of their yeomen tenants who may be inclined to follow their lead. Torn asunder by sentiments, not of personal enmity or family feud — and certainly not by any feeling of class against class — but simply by principles which appeal to old traditions and settled habits, the more resolute soon know upon which side to rauge themselves, and for the irresolute there will be no choice but to yield to the force of circumstances, and these are fast becoming urgent and pressing. Over nearly all Hertfordshire Puritan influence is strong enough to make it doubtful whether the King will get much support from the great body of the people. Certain great families and many of the clergy are already stirring for the King, and the relative strength of Royalists and Parliamentarians in Hertfordshire will depend upon how far the influence of those families extends. Westward of St. Albans, and indeed all over the northern part of the county as well, Royalists will be comparatively few. The chief centre of support to which the King's party may look will be within a few miles of the county town. In the neighbourhood of Hertford and Ware are powerful families ; all of them popular in the county both on the local grounds of a generous recognition of their responsibilities to dependents and tenants, and on the general ground of their action, hitherto, in county affairs. Within a few miles of Hertford there are for instance the branches of the great family of Boteler or Butler, who, whether at Watton Woodhall, Hatfield, Tewin, Sacombe, or else- where, are all going solid for the King ! The Ranshawes, of Ware Park, have already declared themselves on the same side, with Sir John Watts, of Mardooks ; while the Harrisons, of Balls Park, are so intimately related to the same families that their allegiance is only a question nEETFOEBSHIEB DTTRINO TEE GKEAT CIVIL WAR. of time, oven if one of Sir John's sons has not ah-eady gone off after the King. Then last, but not least, there is Arthur Capel, late member for the county and now Lord Capel, of Hadham, who, though he stood up for grievances so strongly at first on behalf of his constituency, is a man of too high a character for anyone in Hertfordshire to doubt his sincerity in going over to the King, and has too great an influence and popularity for that act not to affect some of his neighbours. In these dividing times men are asking " stands Hatfield House where it did ?" Will the house of Cecil continue at the right hand of Kings, even a Stuart of the Stuarts ? The answer is just now a little doubtful, for to the surprise of the whole coimty, and to the alarm of many, WiUiam, Earl of Sahsbury, staunch Puritan though he is, having, with other noble lords, signed the declaration of belief that the King has no intention of making war upon Parliament, has gone off to the King at York ! It is true there comes news that the Earl has again turned his horses' heads southward, has declined to remain with the King, and is on his way back to Parlia- ment, which soon proves to be the case, to the great rehef of the people of the county. His son. Viscount Cranborne, no one doubts, will go with the people of the county and with Parliament, and thus Hatfield House is assured for Parlia- ment — the Earl as a statesman and his son as a soldier in command of county forces. There is one more figure of considerable note in Thomas Coningsby, of Korth Mimms ; but, hot-headed and zealous for the King to a fault, his example is not likely to have as much weight as some of those already named. His neighbours remember Ship-money and Mr. Coningsby's action in regard to that subject, but he is one whowill have to be reckoned with. To the influencef of the above-named groups of powerful famiUes, upon the yeomanry and smaller county folk, may be added the divided counsels which seemed likely to prevail in Hertford and St. Albans Cor- porations, and are hkely at first to cause some trouble, though the majority of the townsmen will here, as in other towns, come out on the side of Parhament in the end. If only the more ardent Koyalists get drawn away by the course of events, the whole of the county will go pretty solid for Parliament ; if not there will be trouble; for Hertfordshire, if only for its great roads of communication, must be kept open and held for the Parhament at all costs ! Quietly, but unceasingly, in the mansions of the old county families I have named, there is a preparation going forward which calls upon every smith and metal worker in the neighbourhood to be working night and day in repairing old armour ; and in some cases, as at Ware Park, the Royalist families are keeping smiths con- cealed at work in their own houses, while in others, such as Hadham Hall, there has been for some time past an unusual arrival of boxes, the contents of which are shrewdly guessed at by many, though the time for open avowal is not yet ripe ! All through the summer of 1642 recruiting and training of Volunteers is going forward — London enlisting four or five thousand in a single day ; contributions in horses, arms, money and plate, and "even women's thimbles to an unheard of amount " come in, and the friends of the King are equally forward in giving up treasure ! The University of Cambridge has got together a vast treasure, but, unfortunately, Mr. Cromwell, member for the town, is already in evidence, and on the 15th of August seizes the magazine in the Castle at Cambridge, and at one stroke " hinders the carrying off the plate from the University, which, as some report, was of the value of £20,000." [Commons Journals.] In almost every town and village the training of Volunteers and turning out of old armour is going forward under no small difficulty to avoid open conflict. Intimidation there was as much as could find a place without actual violence ! The very first altempt of training Hertford- shire men under the Parliament's militia order in June was hampered in this way around Hertford, and " young Mr. Keeling," steward of the Borough of Hertford, and Andrew Palmer, the Mayor, sent to Mr. Turner, and others who were training the citizens in arms, to take their names I This resulted in a curious little piece of cross-purposes shortly afterwards at the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions. Young Mr. Keeling happened to preside and charged the Grand Jury to make presentment of the names of such as had exercised in arms ; but, un- fortunately for Mr. Keeling, the foreman of the Grand Jury was this same Mr. Turner, the drill-sergeant for Parliament ! Mr. Turner re- fused to make the presentment, and as for young Mr. Keeling and the Mayor, they were " sent for " by Parliament, and one of them at least we shall meet with again ! 14 HEETFOEDSHIKE BTJEING THE GBEAT CIVIL WAR. Still, the power of the Royalist families was at first very considerable in the county, and the apprehension of the non-combatants is very well reflected in the lament of Lady Sussex from Gorhambury — " These miserable times will make us sufier in many ways. The King's party grows so strong that certainly he will overcome the power of the Parliament. They come in abun- dantly to him I hear at York. Truly if there should be any blows I know not what will come of us ! " But the West of the county is coming out strong for Parliament. Thus on June 19th, J 642, we find that : — " The towne of Watford in Hartfordshire also sent up to London fifty or sixty very good horses and their riders, together with about i£l,200 in money and plate, which was brought into Guildhall in London and their horses listed in Moorefields. These manifested their cheereful readinesse to stand for religion. King, and Parliament, which though but a particular towne of a county, I have mentioned particularly as most worthy of observation to the honour of the pious and worthy inhabitants thereof [Vicars' Parliamen- tary Chronicle.] On the 1st July, Dr. Surges, then vicar of Watford, presents to the House a petition from the inhabitants of Watford with respect to this contribution in money and serviceable horses. The House accepted their petition and thanked them for their liberal ofifer and subscription " in a business so nearly concerning the safety of the King, religion, and kingdom, as an acceptable service to the Commonwealth." The Speaker was especially desired to give thanks to the town of Wcatford, who had given so ample testimony of their affection. The Watford people had, in fact, already suffered from troops raised for the King, and the inhabitants of the town and neighbour- hood mustered the Volunteers with sufficient spirit to make it worth while for the Royalists to retire. The Royalist gentry of the county having got together large bodies of Horse seem likely to cause much trouble before the year is out. Families who have no taste for the fray are cautiously putting away their valuables, and especially plate, and preparing for the evil day. The day after the foregoing record of the doings of the Watford people, for instance. Lady Susses writes from Gorhambury : — " I hope in God we shall have no fighting : truly the Lords' protestation methinks is a very good one, defend the King's person and estate and lawful prerogative and privilege of Parliament. Methinks everyone should sub- scribe to this." And then the shrewd, cautious Parliamentarian shows how much more important it is to hold your own goods and chattels while you appear to hold other people's opinions : — " I am loth to eat in pewter yet, but truly I have put up my plate, and say it is sold. I hope they will have to borrow no money of my lord, if they do we must deny it ; 'tis enough for us to pay subsidies." The conflict between King and Parliament for the possession of power over the Mihtia was reflected in every county. The King in order to keep it in his hands appointed Commissioners of his own — Coningsby, Capel, and others— to call out the Militia ; Parliament had got the Lord Lieutenant and Deputy Lieutenants into its hands, and appointed fresh Deputy Lieutenants where any began to show signs of going over to the King. On the 12th July Parliament passes a resolution for raising an army " for the safety of the King's person and the defence of both Houses " ; and on the other hand the King appoints his Commissioners of Array not only to call out the Militia but also to raise an army for the safety of the King's person, and in defiance of both Houses ! Under that conflict of authorities our local and county Ufe presented a strange spectacle all through the summer and autumn of 1642, of rival proclamations being posted up, torn down again, and others pasted over them, on Church doors, town houses, and gateways of inns in every town and parish in the county — like the mural literature of a county election, but with a more serious import ! The handling of these old proclamations is occasionally referred to in old town records and parish accounts. Thus, in the Mayor's accounts for St. Albans in that year (1642) there is the entry : — "Given to a messenger who brought three proclamations, one for the obeying of the Com- missioners about the Militia, and another forbidding horses to be levied, or forces with- out his Majesty's great seal, and another forbid- ding the staying of horses." There are also similar entries in the Church- wardens' accounts of St. Peter's Parish, St. Albans, HKHTFOEBSnlEB DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAE. 15 into the formal details of whicli it is not necessary further to enter. In July and August Parliament made order for the towns of Hertford and St. Albans and adjacent towns to train their volunteers — at Hertford under Mr. Isaac Puller, and at St. Albans under Mr. Alban Cox (for the horse), and Mr. John Marsh for the foot — and guaranteed them the protection of and indemnity from Parliament for so doing. Special care was also enjoined to guard the town of Hertford, and the powder magazine there. How the town was guarded and converted into a military centre in a few short weeks we shall see presently in some " terrible newes from Hartford." " TEEEIBLE NEWES FROM HARTFORD." —A CURIOUS NIGHT SURPRISE.— R4ID ON HADHAM HALL! A sound of tumult troubles all the air Like the low thunders of a sultrj sky. ******** The hills blaze red with warnings, foes draw nigh ! JVhittier. The example of the two principal towns spread to all parts of the county. The Hertford borough records still testify to the drilling of the in- habitants in such entries as " Paid for work at the Butts," while new arms were purchased by the Corporation, and the old ones re-dressed, and other items are entered " for gunpowder for the m.usters," and " for dressing muskets," &c., &o. The first thing to he done to organize a county force was to secure the action of the Lord Lieutenant in setting on foot and drilling the Militia. The Earl of Salisbury was at first either half-hearted in the business or had not got back from the King at York in time. At any rate " upon the failure of the Lord Lieutenant " the deputies were ordered by Parliament to put the Mihtia order in execution, and Lord Cranborne was nominated Lord Lieutenant in place of the Earl of Sahsbury, his father. To a few leading men in the county upon whom he could rely the King has issued Com- missions of Array ; commencing " right trusty and weU-beloved we greet you well," and pro- ceeding to denounce the Parliament's Militia order and its promoters as traitors, and authorising the raising of horse and troops for the King. Lord Capel, of Hadham, and Thomas Coningsby, the rigorous levier of Ship-money, each receives a Commission, as later on do Sir Thomas Fan- shawe, of Ware Park, Sir John Watts, of Mardooks, near Ware, and Sir John Butler, of Watton Woodhall. With the posting up of proclamations, that question of " which is to be obeyed " comes home to Hertfordshire people in a notable form. The regular functionaries of town crier and parish beadle have duly posted the Ordinance of the ililitia, but the King has to trust to other means for getting his bill-posting done in the county. In every parish the clergyman received a copy of the Parliament's proclamation, and the King had taken care that a class of men for the most part his strongest supporters should receive a copy of his proclamation too. Then Parliament sent out a second proclamation forbidding the publishing of that of the King ! By the time the proclamations had been posted, most of the clergy had by that act, if by no other, declared themselves, though not perhaps so openly as did the Rev. Mr. George, vicar of Copel, Beds, who jjut the issue thus : — " Judge whether I am to obey God or man ! By God's word I am com- manded to obey the King. I find no such command for the Parliament," upon which he " threw away the two declarations of the Parlia- ment scornfully," and — got committed to Newgate and fined £100 by the Parliament. In boroughs the posting up of the proclama- tion was in the hands of the Mayor, and in this summer of 1642, with the King on the point of setting up his standard at Nottingham, the Mayors of Hertford and St. Albans have notions of their own about which proclamation they shall issue, that of the Parliament, or that of the King ! In both these important centres the King's proclamation is pubhshed, and with Lord Capel and others actively pushing the King's cause, matters are looking dubious for the Parliament. In St. Albans and Hertford there is a powder magazine, the keys of which must be held for Parliament at all costs, even if the dignity of a mayor has to be set aside ! And so Mr. Andrew Palmer, mayor of Hertford, and Mr. William Newe, mayor of St. Albans, are " sent for " to attend at the Bar of the House, and there on the 29th of July they appear in person, giving a rather indifferent account of their conduct. For publishing the King's proclamation against the ordinance of the Militia, and other proclama- tions for the Commission of Array contrary to the orders of the House, Mr. William Newe, mayor of St. Albans, was first called in and the 16 HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJEING THE GEEAT CITII, 'WAE. Speaker did acquaint him of tlie complaint. He confessed that he knew there was an ordinance of the Militia, and that he had received an order from Parliament not to publish any proclamation contrary to it. To aggravate his offence in the eyes of Parliament, he was obliged to confess that he published the King's proclamation against levies and contributions, on the very day that the people were coming in from the country to bring their money, horse and plate, though he knew not that it was the day, but that he was " moved to pubUsh the proclamation out of tenderness to his oath." The House resolved that ilr. Newe be committed a prisoner to the Fleet, there to remain during the pleasure of the House. Next, Mr. Andrew Palmer, mayor of Hertford, was called to the Bar. He confessed that he caused divers proclamations to be published — one against the Militia and one concerning the King's Commission of Array, both before he received any order to the contrary, but after- wards said that he did publish one proclamation after he received orders to the contrary ; and the House promptly ordered Mr. Palmer off a prisoner to the King's Bench during the pleasure of the House. In the Borough records of St. Albans is a de- tailed account of Mr. Newe's personal expenses during his imprisonment. There was £5 lis. for the Sergeant-at-Arms, 7s. to his man ; for ad- mission to the Fleet prison, 3s. 6^TUEES -HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION. Our lion-like Capel undaunted stood. Beset with crosses in a field of blood ! Historically we should expect that the temper of Hertfordshire would be of that kind which would go strongly with measures for keeping the King within the lines of the Constitution, which marked the earlier stages of the struggle, and yet as soon as those measures took the extreme form of actual hostilities against the head of the Constitution, many of the leading families could no longer distinguish between what was aimed at the King's unwise policy, and what was aimed at his Majesty and the Kingship. Hence they became Koyahsts and fought for the continuance of a King, even a weak one, rather than as vindicating his past acts. They ^ would rather drop their grievances than their King, and pre- ferred historical continuity to a movement which began to threaten all Kings and Princes. In the field of actual war, the weak point in the Eoyahst leaders was their lack of statesman- ship and persistence ; serving a Cavalier Prince they fought cavalierly, giving " the rebels," their opponents, a contemptuous drubbing whenever circumstances made it dignified to do so, but failing to follow up their advantage when, in the early stages of the conflict, the game was almost in their own hands. Displaying notable acts of bravery, they lacked the administrative abihty to turn them to the best account, and failed to grasp the strength of their opponents— the inspiration of a great principle, which when once it got into the hearts of a sufficient body of men, and could find sufficient means for its adequate expression, must be invincible. The Cavaliers, having missed their chance of complete victory in the field, opened out to them in the year 1643, found in the end the cause of a people must be stronger than the cause of a King when the two come in conflict. Yet their personal devotion and splendid acts of self-sacrifice for the Royal cause — when every- thing, the loss of social and domestic ties, and of wealth and estates, was thrown into the balance against them — and the striking contrasts in the situations they found themselves brought into by the force of events, give to the careers of these Royalist leaders in Hertfordshire a dramatic element and a degree of human interest which hardly belonged to the leaders of the Parlia- mentary party, with the exception of Axtell, and perhaps one or two others. They were indeed — A loyal band to follow their liege lord * * * * Along a track of most unnatural years, In execution of heroic deeds ! For this reason, though the great body of the inhabitants of the county of Hertford were, on the whole, consistent svipporters of the Parlia- ment, the interest of individual careers within the county lies chiefly on the side of the Royalists. First and most valiant of all the Hert- fordshire, and indeed of English, Royalists, was Arthur, Lord Capel, of Hadham ; for, next to his Royal Master, the King, there is perhaps no individual career in that stormy period which, on the Royalist side, occupies such a conspicuous 104 HEHTFOBBSHIEE DTORING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. place as that of Lord Capel, more especially iii what he suffered, and in the fortunes which attended him in life and in death. At the outbreak of the War, Capel was in the prime of life, 37 years of age, very tall and hand- some ; and, already noted for his hospitality and generous regard for the poor, it is not surprising that he was very popular in the county, or that in the Parliament of 1640, when great things were expected from the people's representatives, at last having a voice, he should have been chosen as one of the Knights to represent the County. From contemporary writings it is evident that at the commencement of his career he was strongly opposed to the use which was being made of the Royal prerogative, and he re- presented his constituents, the freeholders of Hertfordshire, by presenting a petition for them against Ship-money, the Star Chamber, High Commission Courts, and other grievances. As the opposition to the King became more pro- nounced and less moderate, his views completely changed, and Capel became as strong a sup- porter of the cause of the King as he had been before of the cause of the Parliament, though no one seems to have accused him of any self- seeking motive. It could not have been long after he had stood up in the House of Commons so conspicuously for his county and their grievances that Capel began to see that the Parliamentary party were bent upon extreme measures in which he would have to part company, and by the summer months of 1641, the attitude of the Member for Hertford.shire had been so much changed as to come under the notice of the King, then on the look out for the support of every man of influence, character, and position. In one of his letters to the Queen the King wrote : — " There is one that doth not yet pre- tend, that deserves as well as any ; I mean Capel ; therefore I desire thy assistance to find out something for him before he ask." [Britton's History of Cassiohv.ry Park, p. 22.] It was soon after this, on the 6th of August, 1641, that Capel was raised to the Peerage by the title of Baron Capel, of Hadham. When the King left London for York Capel was one of the lords who accompanied his Iklajesty, and signed the declaration expressing the belief that the King " had no intention of making war upon Parliament." But circum- stances were stronger than declarations, and when the King issued his Commission of Array for raising money, arms, and men, Capel immediately set about the raising of a troop of horse for the King ; and, " in the straits to which the King was driven for want of money, Capel showed great energy in making and getting contributions from all who could be prevailed upon to subscribe." He raised a body of horse at his own cost, and, as we have seen, was for some time a trouble and cause of anxiety to Cromwell around Cambridge when the War began. After Capel had drawn oflf his forces from Cambridgeshire, we find him in April, 1643, " maintaining the King's cause in Shropshire," and urging upon Prince Rupert to advance against Cheshire on the plea that " if Nautwich were taken Manchester would soon fall, and after that, between Oxford and Scotland, the King's affairs will have little impediment." In the same year Capel was sent by the King to Shrewsbury with the Commission of Lieutenant- General of Shropshire, Cheshire, and North Wales, where his influence, as a person of great fortune and honour, " quickly engaged those parts in a cheerful association, and raised a body of horse and foot," which gave Sir William Brereton much trouble. As the War progressed, Capel was taken some- what out of the main current of the conflict by the determination of the King that a Council should be appointed " to be about the Prince of Wales, to meet frequently at the Prince's lodgings to confer with his Highness." Capel was appointed one of the Commissioners, but he still found abundant scope for his splendid sacrifices for the Royal cause, as well as for his courageous adherence to what he believed to be a right and patriotic line of conduct. When, in 1644-5, Capel was in command of one regiment of Horse and one of Foot to attend upon the Prince of Wales, these regiments had to be raised by Capel " upon his own credit and interest," there being at that time not one man raised of Horse or Foot, nor any means in view for the payment of them, nor for the support of the Prince and his family — " in so great a scarcity and poverty was the King himself at his Court at Oxford." In 1*546, in the month of May, when Prince Charles was in Jersey, and Capel and Culpepper were sent to St. Germains to urge the Queen to desist from her desire to remove the Prince thither, Capel was much against the Queen, and when the Prince preferred to obey his mother to her advisers, Hyde, Capel, and Hopton refused to accompany him ; upon which Gardiner, the historian, says ; HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJEING THE GREAT CIVIL WAIl. 105 " These three men represented the honourable Royahsm which stooped to no intrigue and would soil itself with no baseness." While Capel was waiting for another oppor- tunity of serving the King, his estates at Hadhara, Cassiobury, and other places, had been taken in hand by the Sequestrating Committee sitting at Hertford, and had been bestowed by Parliament upon the Earl of Esses. After this Capel came back to England, made terms with the Parliament, and spent some time in retirement with his family and neighbours at Hadham. t Meanwhile events were happening which caused him again to be impatient for action. The King, as we have seen, was with the Army a prisoner only in name in that famous procession from Xewmarket and Triplow Heath through Royston to Hatfield, whence, after tarrying awhile, he proceeded to Hampton Court. While Parliament was wrangling about how near it was safe for the Army to come to the Metropolis, Lord Capel at Hadham was in fre- quent communication with the King at Hamp- ton Court, and was in the secret of the King's flight to the Isle of Wight. Then the county of Hertford was thrown into a state of ferment by Lord Capel beginning an active Commission of Array amongst his neighbours, raising forces for the Second Civil War, some local incidents of which have already been described. In Hert- fordshire Capel was partially successful, carry- ing with him several of the gentry, chiefly from his own eastern side of the county, including Sir John Watts, Sir Thomas Panshawe, the Bromleys of Westmill (Ware), and others of his near neighbourhood. But so many of the Royalists in other parts of the county had had their " wings chpped," or had tired of the con- flict, that the array by Capel was not generally popular over the whole county. Still, if he did not succeed to so large an extent in his own county as his influence and high character in other respects would have deserved, he was able, from this and adjoining counties, to command a solid amount of support which has not unjustly fixed upon Capel the chief responsibility for that renewal of the Civil War in 1648 which led to the disastrous results at Colchester already described. At the surrender of Colchester, f Lord Capel, while resident at Hadham, was one of the Justices sitting at Buntingford, as appears by his signature to the monthly returns of Justices, as to their commitments, management of the highways, etc., which were required to be made to the Privy Council. IState Papers, Charles I.] after its terrible siege, in August, 1648, the ofiicers, including Capel, were detained as prisoners of war, and Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, being " soldiers of fortune," were led out to be shot t After the execution of Lucas and Lisle, Fairfax visited Capel in the Town-house, where he was expecting the same fate. Fairfax " who (says Clarendon) was an ill orator on the most plausible occasion," spoke civilly to Capel as if to excuse what had been done, and said that having done " what military justice required " the lives of the rest were safe, that they should be well treated and disposed of as Parliament should direct ; to which Capel, " with the undaunted spirit of a Roman," had " not so soon digested this so late barbarous proceeding," replied that " they should do well to finish their work and execute the same rigour to the rest." Upon this there were " two or three such sharp and bitter replies between him and Ireton," that it is thought may have led to the severe sentence upon Capel which followed a few months later. From Colchester Lord Capel was sent a prisoner to Windsor Castle. Upon the 10th of November following, the House voted that he should be banished out of the kingdom, but that punishment was apparently not considered severe enough, and he was removed a prisoner to the Tower. Ever full of resource as well as courage, Capel, who could face death, if need be, was not the man to remain inactive long, and soon began to cast about him for means of escape. Aided by friends, he, on the 1st of February, 1649, soon after being brought to the Tower, set about his adventure. A cord and all things necessary were conveyed to him to enable him to let himself down from his chamber window in the night time, over the wall of the Tower. But outside the wall the risk only began, for he would have to wade through the deep ditch ! He had received directions at what point to wade through the ditch, but in the dark appears to have missed the safe part, and soon found the mud and water so deep th,at " if he had not been by the head taller than other men he must have perished, since the water came up to his chin." We are further told that— t When they arrived at the place of execution Lucas, tearing open his doublet, exclaimed, " Fire, Eebels ! " and instantly fell. Sir George Lisle ran to his old friend, kissed his dead body, and then turning to Fairfax's soldiers desired them to advance nearer, to which one of them replied, " Fear not, Sir, we shall hit you," to which Lisle answered "My friends, I have been nearer when you have missed me." 14 106 HEEirOEDSHIEE DTTRING THE GEEil CIVIL WAE. " The way was so long to the other side, and the fatigue of drawing himself out of so much mud so intolerable, that his spirits were near spent, and he was ready to call out for help , thinking it better to be carried back to the prison than to be found in such a place from whence he could not extricate himself, and where he was ready to expire. But it pleased God that he got at last to the other side ; where his friends expected him, and carried him to a chamber in the Temple ; where he remained two or three nights secure from any discovery, not- withstanding the diligence that could not but be used to recover a man they designed to use no better." In fact, a strict search was made for him and a reward of £100 was offered by Parhament for his capture. When proceeding at night up the river with a friend in order to conceal himself at his friend's house in Lambeth Marsh, though in disguise, the waterman who rowed him, after the landing, followed them, saw the house they went to and then went and asked an officer what he would give him " to bring him to the place where the Lord Capel lay." The result was that Capel was taken back to the Tower, and the House on February 3rd, only two days after the midnight adventure in the mud, "ordered that the Com- mittee of Revenue jpay £40 to those persons that took Lord Capel, as Col. Harrison shall think fit." When Capel was brought before the Com- mission appointed to try him, and others, under Bradshaw, he, with dignity and firmness, maintained that the terms of the capitulation of Colchester, assented to by Fairfax, secured to him his life. " I am a prisoner of war ; I had a fair quarter given me, and all the gowns in the world have nothing to do with me." So spake Capel, who demanded to be tried by his peers or that he might see the jury who were to try liim. But all this, says Walker [Hist. Independency], " was but to charm a deaf adder. He was a gallant gentleman, and they durst not let him live." Bradshaw, the president, told Lord Capel, " with many insolent expressions," that he was tried before such judges as the Parliament thought fit to assign him, and who had judged a better man than himself [referring to the trial of the late King], f t Fairfax, in defending himaelf in regard to Capel, remarked that everything was done according to his comraiasion, in handing Capel over to Parliament, and in answer to the objection that he may have lent coun- The Earl of Holland — the unfortunate individual whom we have seen passing through Hertfordshire with a bullet in his shoulder, pursued by the Parliamentarians to the ill-fated battle of St. Neots — he, too, with Lord Goring and the Duke of Hamilton, and Sir John Owen, a Welshman, are all on their trial. Sir John Owen, who had had the misfortune to kill a High Sheriff, said he was a plain gentleman of Wales who had been always taught to obey the King ; that he had served him honestly during the VVar, and that the High Sheriff endeavoured to oppose him and so chanced to be killed, " which he might have avoided if he had stayed at home. " All five of them were sentenced " to lose their heads," upon which the witty Welshman made a low reverence, and gave them humble thanks, and, being asked by a stander-by what he meant, said aloud, " it was a very great honour to a poor gentleman of Wales to lose his head with such noble lords," and swore a great oath " that he was afraid they would have hanged him." But Capel and his companions in misfortune are not to lose their heads without an effort by their friends, with the bribes which were necessary to get their petitions presented and supported. On the 7th of March the humble petitions of the noble lords are presented, excepting Capel's ; for him there appears a mediator. The House is informed " that the Lady Elizabeth Capel is at the door of the House." She is ordered to be called in, and there at the Bar of the House is pleading for her husband's life by presenting a petition which (after Lady Capel has withdrawn) is read, and is entitled " the humble petition of Arthur Lord Capel." While the weighty matter of these petitions is under consideration no member is allowed to depart without leave of the House, and upon a division 38 say " no," and only 28 " yea," on the question whether the matter shall be further considered. Next day, in a House for which the division list shows an attendance of only about 60 members, the question is again raised, and the " noes " being in a minority of three, the petitions are read, candles are ordered to be tenance to Capel's trial by going into the Court during the trial, he says :— " To which I answer that it was at the earnest request of my Lord Capel's friends, who desired me to explain there ' what was meant by sur- render to mercy,' otherwise I had not gone there, being always unsatisfied with those courts."— Fairfax's Short Memorial. HEETrOEBSHIEE DtJEINS THE GEEAT CIVII, "WAE. 107 brought in, and the House settles down to debating the vital question of life or death ! The cumbersome machinery of tlie Long Parlia- ment's division is set in motion on the formal question " whether the execution of shall be respited a short time." The Earl of Holland's life is forfeited by one vote only — 3 1 for death, 30 for hfe — Goring's life is trembling in the balance. The House has thinned, and 24 say hfe and 24 death. Mr. Speaker Lenthall gives the casting vote for life ! Then "the humble petition of Arthur Lord Capel was read again, and the question was put that the execution of Lord Capel be respited for a short time." When Lady Capel had presented her petition for her husband, " many gentlemen spoke on his behalf and mentioned the great virtues which were in him, and said that he had never deceived them, or pretended to be of their party, but always resolutely declared himself for the King." Cromwell " spoke so much good of him, and professed to have so much kindness and respect for him that all men thought he was now safe," till he (Cromwell) concluded by saying that " his affection for the pubUc so much weighed down his private friendship that he could not but tell them that : The question now is whether you will preserve the most bitter and the most im- placable enemy you. have. I know the Lord Capel very well, and I know that he would be the last man in England that would desert the Eoyal cause. He has great courage, industry and generosity. He has many friends who would adhere to him, and as long as he lives, whatsoever condition he may be in, he will always be a thorn in your sides. Therefore, for the good of the Commonwealth, I shall give my vote against the petition." Coming from such a source, this was perhaps the finest testimony that could be passed upon Capel ; and, it is not surprising, after this dehveranoe from one who knew every man of worth he had to contend with so well as Cromwell did, to read in the old journals of Parhament the laconic entry, "it passed with the negative." And so Capel's doom is sealed ! The remarkable scene at the execution, his touching letters to his wife, and his fortitude in the face of death, all suggest the apphcation of Aytoun's lines — And he never walked to battle More proudly than to die ! On the day before his execution, Capel was attended by Dr. Morley, Bishop of Winchester, to whom he avowed that he could not accuse himself of any great sin but only one, and that was the giving his vote in Parliament for the death of Lord Strafford, " which," said he, " I did against my conscience, not of any malice to the person of the man but out of a base fear, and carried away by the violence of a prevailing faction, and for which I have been and am heartily sorry, and have often with tears begged and (I hope) obtained pardon of Almighty God ; " adding that if he (Dr. Morley) thought fit "he would make this confession upon the scaffold." The letters written to Lady Capel, his wife, just before his death are very touching and manly. The day before his execution he wrote thus : — " My dear Life, my greatest care in relation to the world is for thy dear self. I beseech thee again and again moderate thy apprehension and sorrows for me, and preserve thyself to the benefit of our dear children. * * * I pray remember that the occasion of my death will give thee more cause to celebrate my memory with praise rather than to consider it with sadness. God hath commanded my obedience to the Fifth Commandment, and for acting that duty I am condemned. * * * I shall leave thee my dear children ; in them I live with thee, and leave them to the protection of a most gracious God." Writing again a few last words to his noble wife on the day of his execution he says : — " Let me live long here in thy dear memory, to the comfort of my family and our dear children, whom God, out of mercy in Christ, hath bestowed upon us. God be unto thee better than an husband, and to my children better than a father. God be with thee, my most virtuous wife ; God multiply many comforts to thee and my children, is the fervent prayer of thy," etc. t On the 9th of March, the day appointed for his execution. Lord Capel was carried in a sedan chair, under guard, to Sir Thomas Cotton's house at Westminster, where he remained two hours, spending most of the time in religious exercises. Just before being taken to the scaffold he told Dr. Morley that " if he thought there were nothing of vain ostentation in it, he would give order that his heart should be ■^ Excellent Contemplations, ^c, Brit, Mu3. Lib. 1416, .27. 108 HEETFOEDSHIKE DUEtrTG THE GEEAI OIVIl WAU. taken out of his body, and kept in a silver box until his Majesty came home (as he doubted not but he would) and then that it might be presented to him, with his humble desire that where the King, his father, was interred, it might be buried at his feet in testimony of the zeal he had for his service, and the affection he had for his person whilst he lived." On the morning of the execution of the noble lords, a great crowd of people gathered in front of Westminster Hall to witness an incident in the drama, which, next to the execution of the King, created a greater amount of interest than any event since the termination of the War. The scaffold was erected at the front of Westminster Hall, and the peers had to walk down the Hall, the Duke of Hamilton first, then the Earl of Holland, who has now lost all that ready faculty of speech with which he sought to conciliate the St. Albans and St. Neots people six months before. He now, " by his long sickness, was so spent that his spirits served not to entertain the people with long discourse ; and was so weak that he could not have Uved long," for "when his head was cut off very httle blood followed." Very different was the Lord Capel, whose tall commanding figure was next seen coming down the Hall to the foot of the scaffold. At his (Capel's) request Dr. Morley parted with him at the foot of the scaffold. The following interesting particulars of the last moments of Lord Capel and of his bearing upon the scaffold are taken from Whitelock's Memorials. The extract follows the account of the execution of the other noble lords. " Next was my Lord Capel brought to the scaffold much after the manner of a stout Roman ; he had no minister with him, nor showed any sense of death approaching, but carried himself all the time he was upon the scaffold with that boldness and resolution as was to be admired. " He wore a sad coloured suit, his hat cocked up, and his cloak thrown under one arm. He looked towards the people at his first coming up, and put off his hat in a manner of a salute ; he had a little discourse with some gentlemen upon the scaffold and passed up and down in a careless posture. "He went to the front of the scaffold and, leaning over, made a speech to the people. He said he died a Protestant according to the religion professed in the Thirty-nine Articles, the best he knew of. That he was condemned for keeping the Fifth Commandment written by God's own finger, which commanded to obey magistrates ; and he died for obeying his King, the most reUgious of all princes, and his son Prince Charles, who he said was King, and the rest of the King's children heirs of the Crown. " He concluded with a desire to the people to pray for him, and after a short discourse with some on the scaffold, he spake once or twice to the executioner and gave him money ; then he put off his cloak and doublet with much con- fidence, and put on a white cap, tooli leave briefly of the gentlemen on the scaffold, and prepared for the block ; where, laying himself down, with hands and eyes lifted up, he prayed a while ; after that, fitting himself to the block, upon the signal of stretching forth his right hand, the executioner severed his head from his body at one blow, which were coffined up and carried away." Another contemporary authority says that at the last moment, in giving directions to the executioner as to the signal for him to strike, Lord Capel said " Honest man, I have forgiven thee, therefore strike boldly ; from my very soul I do it." t Clarendon says : — " As soon as his Lordship had ascended the scaffold, he looked vigorously about and asked ' whether the other lords had spoken to the people with their hats on ? ' and being told 'that they were bare' he gave his hat to his servant, and then with a clear and strong voice he said that he was brought thither to die for doing that which he could not repent of ; that he had been born and bred under the govern- ment of a King, whom he was bound in con- science to obey ; under laws to which he had been always obedient, and in the bosom of a Church which he thought the best in the world ; that he had never violated his faith to either of those, and was now condemned to die against all the laws of the land ; to which sentence he did submit. * * He prayed to God to forgive the nation the innocent blood of the late King * * and recommended their present King, * their t Whether the executioner of the King was the same man who was entrusted with the melancholy office for his loyal servant, Lord Capel, is not very clear, but it is on record iState Trials, vol. v, p. 1192] that at Capel's execution he asked Gregory Brandon, who was to be his executioner, if he was the man who tilled his late master the Xing'. " Aye, sir," Brandon replied. " And with this axe P " asked Lord Capel. "Even so," the man replied. Whereupon Lord Capel "kissed the axe and gave the executioner some money," HEETFOEDSHIEE BTJEINQ THE GREAT CIVIL WAH. 109 true and lawful sovereign, and was worthy to be so : that he had the honour to have been some years near his person, and therefore he could not but know him well * * and advised them to submit to his government as the only means to preserve themselves, their posterity, and the Protestant religion. * * After some prayers very de%-outly pronounced upon his knees, he submitted himself with au unparalleled Christian courage to the fatal stroke, which deprived the nation of the noblest champion it had." [Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion.'] " Thus died Lord Capel," says Carlyle, " the first who complained of grievances ; in seven years there are such changes for a man ; and the first acts of his Drama little know what the last win be." Heath says : " But my Lord Capel (like a true Christian hero), as he came last, so did he sum up all (both in speech, countenance, and gestures) that was good, praiseworthy, and generous in them both. * * So as with Samson, he may be said to have done these Phihstians more harm at his death than in all his life ; raising and renewing the desires of the people after so deserving a Prince." [Chronicle of the Civil War, p. 424.] For one who stood in the front rank of the Eoyalists, Lord Capel was not in personal appearance quite the dashing Cavalier that might be inferred. In fact, judging from the almost contemporary portrait in Heath's Chronicle, the face is one of judicial temper even to gravity ; with almost a Puritan plainness of collar and manner of dressing the hair — as much the head and face of a Puritan scholar as ot the other extreme of the foppish Cavaher. In accordance with the request expressed to Dr. Morley, Lord Capel's heart was taken out of his body and deposited in a silver box, enclosed within another, with two locks, and placed in the hands of Lord Beauchamp, who had the keeping of one key, and Sir Thomas Corbett of the other. Lord Beauchamp, just before his death, delivered up the box to Sir Thomas Corbett. Bishop Morley, in his narrative, adds : " As soon as the King came home I brought Sir Thos. Corbett to him and saw him give the silver box, with that generous and loyal heart in it, to the King's own hands." No funeral rites having been performed to the memory of Charles I, the silver box con- taining Capel's heart was sent by King Charles II, at the Restoration, to the son of Lord Capel, who was then created Earl of Essex, and who caused the casket containing the heart of his father to be deposited in the evidence room at I Hadham Hall, where (says Clutterbuck) it was accidentally discovered in 1703 by Dr. Stanley, Dean of St. Asaph and Chaplain to the Earl of Essex, who received directions from the Family to deposit it in the Family Vault, t but that upon his recommendation, and as a means of guarding against its being stolen for the sake of the silver, an iron box was obtained, the silver box sold and the proceeds given to the poor of the parish, and the iron box with the heart con- tained in it was deposited in the family vault. There it remained at Hadham for another hundred years or more, when in 1809, George, Earl of Essex, had it removed to Cassiobury. From this point — the removal of the casket from Hadham to Watford in 1809 — the actual fate and place of disposal of this interesting relic have given rise to several rather conflicting statements in different countypublications, which it may be well here to simplify a little. There is on the wall of the Inner Library at Cassiobury — the palatial seat of the Earls of Essex, from the time that title was conferred upon Lord Capel's son — a brass plate bearing this inscrip- tion : — "Within this atone ia depoaited the heart of Arthur, Lord Cape], who was beheaded bj the rebels, March 9th, 1649." And it further states that it was brought to Cassiobury from Hadham by George, Earl of Essex, in 1809. Beyond this, there is, it appears, no absolute certainty upon the point whether the heart is now actually deposited behind this brass plate or not. On the one hand the use of the words, "Within this stone," seem rather f Lord Capel was buried within the aanctuary of Little Hadham Church, and upon a large black stone ia the inscription : — " Here under lyeth interred the body of Arthur Lord Capell, Baron of Hadham, who was murdered for his loyalty to King Charles I, March 9th, 1649." It was stated in a paper read to the members of the Society for Preserving Memorials of the Dead, by the Rep. J. M. Bury, rector of Hadham, upon a visit by the Society in June, 1892, that at the partial restora- tion and repairing of the chancel of the church in 1883, the Capel vault, within the altar rails, was opened in the presence of the late Earl of Essex and Lady Essex ; that within the vault were found the lead easing of the body of Lord Capel, also of his wife, and his son, Lord Tewkesbury. It further appeared from notes furnished at the time by Mr, Betts, the present owner of Hadham Hall, that in the same year a mould was taken of the lead casing over the body of Lord Capel, and that even the joints of the fingers could be seen through the lead casing, and that the brass plate with the name and date of his death was soldered on to the lead over the chest like a breast-plate. no HEETFOEDSHIEB Dtmiira THE GEEAT CIVXL WAE. suggestive of the previous deposit in the vault at Hadham, rather than in the wall of a room ; yet on the other hand the latter part of the inscription seems to suggest that it was composed and put in its present position by the person who caused the relic to be removed from Hadham in 1809, viz. by the then Earl of Essex. That there was such a removal of the casket in 1809 seems beyond doubt, and as the inscription on the face of it appears to be contemporary with and intended to record such removal, there is a strong presumption that it marks the spot where the relic was and still is deposited, f Of the character of Lord Capel, Clarendon says : "He was a man in whom the malice of his enemies could discover very few faults, and whom his friends covild not wish better accom- plished. He had always lived in a state of great plenty and general estimation, having a very noble fortune of his own descent, and a fair addition to it by his marriage with an excellent wife, a lady of very worthy extraction, of great virtue and beauty, by whom he had a numerous issue of both sexes, in which he took great joy and comfort ; so that no man was more happy in all his domestic affairs. * * And yet the King's honour was no sooner violated and his just power invaded than he threw all those blessings behind him, and having no other obligations to the Crown than those which his own honour and conscience suggested to him, he frankly engaged his person and his fortune in the beginning of the troubles, in all actions and enterprises of the greatest hazard and danger, ,and continued to the end without ever making one false step. In a word, he was a man that whoever shall after him deserve best of the English nation, he can never think himself under- valued, when he shall hear that his courage, virtue, and fidelity is laid in the balance with, and compared to, that of Lord Capel." Carlyle's implied hint at Capel's interested motives — that he was the first to stand up for grievances, but being made Lord Capel, " the wind sits in another quarter now " — was simply an instance of riding rovigh-shod over everything running counter to his own hero, and in the face of Cromwell's own testimony, and Capel's life and death, had better have been left unsaid ; for, whatever we may think of the cause for t I believe I am riglit in sayingf that, whatever element of doubt there may be, it has not been EuSieient to outweigh the reluctance of the noble owners of Cassiobury to disturb the work of their ancestor, by any actual teet or examination. which he fought and died, there was no single career perhaps which, judged by its results, more clearly bore the stamp of disinterestedness than that which Capel sealed with his hfe. That he should have taken so prominent a part in forcing on the Second Civil War when there was no hope of eliciting such a response from the country as would make it effectual — when in fact the country had, for the most part, wearied of the strife, and was ready to acknowledge — War fails, try peace, put up the useless sword ! — this, however promising the venture might seem to a Royalist of Capel's martial spirit, was the one constitutional mistake to which possibly he owed the loss of his life, and by which it may be the fate of his Royal JIaster, whom he was ready to die to serve, may have been made the more difficult to extricate from that overwhelm- ing odds which had already accumulated against him. No one, who has at all studied Capel's career to the end, with all the consequences it involved, can well avoid the conclusion that he would have become a Royalist even as the plain Arthur Capel, the Member for Hertfordshire, who first stood up for grievances. Among the contemporary books which the fate of the King and Lord Capel brought forth is the curious book of elegies by John Quarles, preserved with the collection of King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, entitled, " Regale Lectum Miserice, or a Kingly Bed of Miserie," the chief contents being " An Elegy upon the never-to-be forgotten Charles the First " [the alternate pages of which are solid blackink], and also " An Elegy upon the Right Honourable Lord Capell, Baron of Hadham, who was beheaded at Westminster for maintaining the ancient and fundamental lawes of the Kingdom of England." The poetry is not very notable, but the sentiment was appropriate enough to Capel's life and death ; — 'Twill be a glory when the world shall say, 'Twas bravely done, his Sovereigne led the way, And he {as valiant souldiers ought to doe) March'd boldly after, and was alwayea true. At the end is quoted the text from St. James V, 6, "Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." The bibliography of Lord Capel also includes " An elegy on that renowned hero and Cavalier, the Lord Capell." " Obsequies of that unexemplar champion of Chivalrie and perfect patern of true prowesse, Arthur Lord Capell ;" and, per contra, " Shropshire's misery and mercie manifested in HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE GREiT CIVIL WAR. Ill the defeat given to the Lord Capel's ravenous and devouring armie by the forces of Cheshire and Shropshire under Sir William Breretou," etc. Among Uapel's own writings there are " Daily Observations and Meditations " ; " Excellent Contemplations," and his " Dying Speech," which have already been referred to and quoted from. The " Excellent Contemplations " are such as did credit to the head and heart of the writer. More interesting than these are his letters written while in the Tower just before his execution. In one of these he thus lays down his own position : — " My conclusion shall be very plain. The antient constitutions aud present laws of this Kingdom are my inheritance and birth-right. If any shall think to impose upon me that which is worse than death, which is the profane and dastardly parting from these laws, I will chuse the less evil, which is death. I have also a right in Kingship, the protector of those laws ; and lastly in this King is my present right and also obligations of inestimable favours received from him. I would to God my Ufe could be a sacrifice to preserve his." The book in the British Museum containing the above CapeUiana adds the following lines : — Here virtue, valour, charity, and all Those rare endowments we celestial call Included are, nor wonder at the story, Capel lies here, loyalty's chiefest glory. The couplet placed at the head of this notice of the hfe and death of Capel refers to his Arms —a lion rampant in a Field Gules, between three crosses— hence the lines in the King's Pamphlets, which Chauncey conveniently misquotes as, Thv^ Uon-hke Capel — Our lion-like Capel undaunted stood, Beset with crosses in a field of blood. Lord Capel married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Charles Morrison, of Cassiobury, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. At Cassio- bury, then the seat of the Morrisons and now of the Earl of Essex, there are portraits of Lord Capel and Elizabeth, his devoted wife, and of his children, and below this family group is the m- soription referring to the removal from Hadham of the case containing the heart of Lord Capel. Here is also preserved the patent by which Charles I created him Baron Capel of Hadham, besides relics of Charles I— a piece of the ribbon of the garter worn by the King at his execution, and a piece of his funeral pall. There is also a portrait of Lord Capel at the Grove, now the seat of the Earl of Clarendon, and another at Hadham Hall, now the seat of Mr. Samuel Betts. For some time after Lord Capel had lost his life for his service to the King, his family affairs continued to engage the attention of Parliament. The total sum of the debts, as set forth in the Royalist Composition Papers [Record Office] which he had contracted in the King's service, amounted to £20,000, the chief creditors being Richard, Thomas and John Bennett, £5,500 ; Wm. Dorrington, £.3,000 ; John Beadle, £3,500 ; Mrs. Hearne, £1,050 ; and Margaret his sister, £2,000, " being her whole portion." It is a curious circumstance that the pension of £10,000 a year for the Parliamentary Com- mander, the tlien Earl of Essex, the last of the family of Devereux, was in 1645 ordered to be made up as to one moiety of £5,000, out of the estates of Lord Capel t at Hadham, Cassio- bury aud other estates of his, and of those of other Royalists — that the pension for the last earl of one family sliould be made up from the estates of a man whose sou and descendants were destined to hold the title of Earl of Essex for another family. On 18th June, 1660, Lady Elizabeth Capel, " the disconsolate widow of the late Lord Capel," petitions the House of Lords, that " all those who had a hand in the notorious wickedness of the unjust sentence and barbarous murder of her husband, contrary to the solemn engage- ment of the Army at the siege of Colchester, may be brought to condign punishment." To this petition there was destined to be a very sufficient answer in the trial and execution of the Regicides within a few short weeks. There are indications that the young Arthur Capel, like the young Cromwell and the old, mingled in the fray. There is also abundant evidence of his personal courage. After the Restoration he was made Earl of Essex in recognition of the valour of his noble father, and it is a matter of general history how he uplield the supremacy of the British flag, and braved f The County Committee for Hertfordshire, showing a desire to out-Parliament Parliament, conceived the brilliant idea of letting Lord Capel's house at Cassiobury to his old enemy at the siege of Chester, Sir William Brereton, but Parliament saved this " unkindest cut of all" by giving the preference to the Earl of Pembroke in the renting of Cassiobury House during the time in which it was sequestrated from Lord Capel's use by Parliament. — Lords' Journals, vol. viii., 26 Oct. 1616. 112 HESTFOEDSHIEE DTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. the guns of Croningsberg, as Ambassador to Denmark, by refusing to strike sail to the Danish King's ships, with the result that the Governor of Croningsberg for firing upon him had to beg the Earl's forgiveness on his knees in the streets of Croningsberg, before the young Ambassador's lodgings. The unfortunate ending of the life of this young nobleman also belongs to more general history, though it may be mentioned that there is in tlie Library of the British Museum " A Discourse endeavouring to prove that Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, did not murther himself, with the deposition of many witnesses."— [Harl. MSS. 1221.] LORD FALKLAND OF ALDENHAM. Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking ! Dream of battle fields no more, Days of danger, nights of waking. The spirit of these lines, if not their precise literary form, might very well rest as an epitaph upon the memorial, on the battle-field of New- bury, of Lucius Cary, of Aldenham, Herts, and the great Lord Falkland of liistory. A prince among the learned, a moderate leader in the State, when moderate men were sorely needed, but were unhappily too few for their influence to l^revail — poet, philosopher, and statesman, he was thrown into the great maelstrom as a soldier by necessity and not by choice. In that severe battle which lasted from morn- ing till night — the first battle of Newbury, 20th Sept., 1643 — England lost one of her greatest statesmen, and the King, one whose moderation, wisdom, and enlarged and liberal views might have been of great value in the bitter years that were to come. Viscount Falkland was a noble- man of prodigious accomplishments, " one of the wonders of his age " [Nalson], whose culture found a typical ex^jression in his own remark that he " pitied unlearned men in a rainy day." His vast learning and accomplishments did not, however, bear him up, but weighed him down, amidst the trying ordeal of the War, of which he soon became intensely weary. In those final negotiations which were rejected by ParHament with " infinite scorn " it was the pacific Viscount Falkland who passed through Hertfordshire as the bearer of the last proposals for peace which unhappily failed. Before the quarrel had reached the arbitrament of the sword, Falkland was almost at one with his Hertfordshire neighbours, frankly asserting in his speeches in ParUament that the principal cause of the oppressions of the Kingdom in religion and liberty had been some Bishops and their adherents who had been " the destruction of unity under the pretence of uniformity," who had " brought in superstition and scandal under the titles of reverence and decency," and had " defiled the Church by adorning the Churches." The temperament of the great statesman is indicated by the story that, after the fashion of the astrologists and fortune-tellers of the day, and the casting of a fate by a verse of the Bible or a line from Virgil, when King Charles I. and Lord Falkland were in the Bodleian Library at Oxford they made experiments with the " Sortes Virgilianee," and both got ominous answers ; Falkland's being " harassed by the arms and the fight of the audacious people." This great " prince of knowledge '' was out of place on the battle-field, and before the crisis at Newbury he, at the siege of Gloucester among his friends, would, after a deep silence, says Clarendon, " ingeminate the word ' peace ! peace ! ' and would passionately profess that the very agony of the War, and the view of the calamities and desolation which the Kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him and would shortly break his heart." The night before the fia-st battle of Newbury, in September, 1643, it is said he lodged with a respectable tradesman of the name of Head, in the Market-place at Newbury ; and, as if to be fully prepared for an event which he knew was certain, very early on the morning of the battle he desired the clergyman of Newbury to administer to him, as well as to Mr. Head and his family, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In preparing and arranging his apparel he exhibited more than usual care, " assigning as a reason that the enemy should not find his body in a slovenly condition." [Burke's Romance of Oreat Families.'] Contrary to the advice of his friends when the battle had begun, he went into the thick of the fight, saying — " I am weary of the times, and foresee much misery to my country, but I believe I shall be out of it ere night." In this mood he went to the front, placing himself in the first rank of Sir John Byron's Regiment, and was struck by a musket ball and killed. It was in Sir John Byron's attempt to dislodge HEETFORDSHIEE DURING THE GREAT CITIL WAR. 113 the Parliamentarians from a strong position that Falldand fell, of which Sir John Byron says : — " My Lord Falliland did me the honour to ride in my troop this day, and I would needs go along with him ; the enemy had beat our foot out of the close, and was drawne up near the hedge I went to view ; and as I was giving orders to malie the gapp wide enough, my horse was shott in the throat * * * in the meanwhile my Lord Falkland (more gallantly than advisedly) spurred his horse through the gapp, where both he and his horse were immediately killed." In the charge which ensued Lord Falkland's body was trampled in the earth, and found the next morning after the battle " stript, trod upon and mangled, and could only be identified, by one who waited upon him in his chamber, by a certain mole his lordship had upon his neck." Thus not many hours after he had left Mr. Head's house the corpse of the King's faithful secretary, statesman, philosopher, and poet, was brought off the battle-field into the town of Kewbury " slung across a horse," and was finally removed from the Town Hall for interment. Tradition says that his body was found on the north edge of Wash Common, where two tall poplars have since stood, t Though his action upon that fatal day has been regarded by some as little less than suicidal, yet it must be remembered that there were many t On the battle-field of Newbury there now stands a handsome ^anite memorial to Lord Falkland. The inscriptions are out into the four sides of a twelve ton block of granite, which is surmounted by an octagonal monolith seventeen feet high, the total height of the memorial being about 33 feet. The principal insorip- tiOQ is that on the north side, which reads as follows : — " In memory of those who on the 20th September, 1643, fell fighting in the Army of King Charles I., on the field of Newbury, and especially of Lucius Gary Viscount Falkland, who died here in the 34th year of his age, this monument is set up by those to whom the majesty of the Crown and the liberties of this country are dear." On the other side are appropriate quotations from the classics which Falkland loved so well. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Carnarvon in 1878, and the site for it was given by Mr. W. Money, F.S.A., author of the " History of the two Battles of Newbury," and a " History of Newbury," from which the above particulars are taken. The body of Falkland was conveyed the next morning after the battle to the Guildhall at Newbury and on the following day removed to Great Tew, Oxfordshire, and interred in the chancel of the Parish Church, as the register records :— " The 23rd day of September, a.d., 1643, the Right Honour- able Sir Lucius Gary, Knight, Lord Viscount of Falkland, and Lord of the Manor of Great Tew, was Buried here." men worthy of an honourable place in the nation's regard who were weighed down with an almost equal horror of the War in its earlier stages, and the services of such men the nation could have ill spared, while there had been any hope of moderate counsels getting a hearing. His only fault was perhaps that he was not a soldier. But a man who could reprove the fiery Prince Rupert to his face, by teUing him that " in neg- lecting me you neglect the King," occupied no mean position in the affairs of the nation at the outbreak of the War. In the early struggles against the priestly tendency of Laud, with the revulsion towards Presbyterianism, "Falkland," says Gardiner, " saw before Milton saw it, that ' new presbyter would be but old priest writ large.' His glory was that when other eyes per- sisted in seeing nothing but party divisions he had persisted in seeing England as a whole. * * History * * cannot but think of Falkland as of one whose heart was large enough to embrace all that was noble on either side. * * It sees in him a prophet whose vision of peace was too pure and too harmonious to allay the discords of his own day, and whose longings could only be satisfied by the reconciliation which was to be accomplished long after he had ceased to breathe." \_History oftheOreat Civil War."] " If his memory,'' says the writer of the article on Falkland in the Dictionary of National Biography, " is never forgotten in England, it is not for what he did but for what he was. Throwing himself from side to side in party strife his mind was at least too large permanently to accept mere party watchwords, and his heart was even greater than his mind." It is an interesting fact, apart from the possible motive for the act, that in June, 1642, two months before the King raised his standard at Nottingham, and about the time Falkland was passing through the county on his pacific errands, he sold the manor of Aldenham to Sir Job Harby, Bart., a staunch Royalist. The manor afterwards (1663) passed into the hands of the famous Parliamentarian, Denzil Holies, who held Mr. Speaker Finch in the chair while that famous resolution against Popery, etc., was passed in 1629, and who in later years became Lord Holies, of Ifeild. The name and fame of Lord Falkland linger still in the parish of Aldenham, where there is 15 114 HEETFOEBSHIEE BTJEINa THE GREAT CITIL TVAB. preserved in the Parish Church a helmet coramonly associated with his name, f There is also a brass tablet in the Church erected by the present Viscount Falkland to the memory of several members of the Cary family, including " Mr. Aldolphus Cary, son of Lucius, 2nd Viscount Falkland and Lord Carye, he died at the age of 2 years and was buried here Jan. xxii, 1640." There are also hung in the vestry two prints of Lord Falkland, one of his wife, and two of his father, the first Viscount Falkland, and also one of the famous Denzil Holies, the successor in the manor of Aldenham. Lord Falkland's poems have been collected and edited by A. B. Grossart, and were pubhshed in 1870. THOMAS CONINGSBY OF NOETH MIMMS. Forced to descend alive into his tomb, A dungeon dark wtiere he must waste the year, And lie cut off from all his heart holds dear, What time his injured country is a stage, Whereon deliberate valour and the rage Of righteous vengeance side by side appear, Filling from morn to night the heroic scene. •■it * * * Say, can he think of this with mind serene And silent fetters P Thomas Coningsby, Esq., of North Mimms, whom we left in the undignified position of High Sheriff, being hustled off from St. Albans to the Tower of London by Cromwell and his soldiers, at the beginning of the hurly-burly, deserves to be placed among the foremost rank of the Royalists, though as a county man he never occupied the position in popular estimation that Lord Capel and others did. As to what his position may have been in the conflict, his fighting career was cut short too soon to enable us to judge. Coningsby was a Royahst of what the Parlia- mentarians in the county would have dubbed a specially " malignant " type. Unlike Capel, who was a zealous patriot, and served the King when and because he found his opponents bent upon a t The Vicar of the parish, the Eev. Kenneth F. Gibbs, writes to me on this subject : — " The helmet in question, which I have put up on an iron bracket in the Church, used to be in the Vestry ; it is said to have belonged to the 1st Viscount Falkland, whose son, the famous Falkland, was killed at Newbury." revolution, Coningsby was the zealous partisan who from the first was prepared to serve the King because he was the King, and irrespective of the merits of the quarrel. If he had escaped in that afl'ray in St. Albans Market-place, his haughty, fiery spirit would soon have brought him in coniiict with the County Committee, through them to the bar of the House of Parlia- ment, and to the Tower by another route. His rigorous levying of Ship-money for the King would have probably lessened his influence in the county, just as on the other hand it placed him among the first of Hertfordshire men upon whom Charles relied for support ; but at the same time his impetuosity would have cut a notable figure in the strife had not his first adventure for the King ended so disastrously at the outset. Thomas Coningsby, of North Mimms, was a descendant of Sir Humphrey Coningsby, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in the reign of Henry VIII. Having been High Sheriff for Hertfordshire in 1637, and rendered such con- spicuous service to the King over Ship-money, it is not surprising that at the outbreak of the War he sliould be in request for the King's service. At the end of 1642, after the Brentford fight had stirred the minds of the Hertfordshire people and elicited that remonstrance, addressed to Parliament, expressing their determination to " willingly and resolutely sacrifice their lives in this religious and just quarrel," and that they would " never lay down their arms till this which is called the King's Army be dissolved " — with this feeling so vigorously expressed by Hertford- shire men, it was necessary for the King to secure a few strong supporters in the county ; and so, remembering Mr. Coningsby's former services, the King addresses to him this letter : — " Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well, and do hereby give you our assurance that, although we have at present made choice of you to be our High Sheritf of our County of Hertford, we have done it out of no other respect than as a mark and testimony of our favour and confidence of the utmost of your service in these times wherein we intend to employ persons of the greatest integrity and known affection to us, and the good of our Kingdom, of which you have formerly given sufficient testimony ; and although it may bring upon you great expense and trouble, yet we are confident you will not value it in regard of our service, and the good of our county, which shall not be forgotten by us on all occasions. HEETFOEDSHIRB BTJEHTO THE GKEAT CIVIL WAR. 115 " So we bid you hearty farewell. From our Court at Reading, this 11th November, 1642." Of how great the trouble of it was to be, Mr. Coningsby was soon to get a foretaste. That he felt highly honoured by such a communication there can be no doubt, and when a little later he, as High Sheriff, received a writ and proclamation from the Court at Oxford, declaring the Earl of Essex and his adherents traitors, he appears to have lost no time in finding an opportunity for making it known in the county, and with what result the reader has already been made acquainted. Knowing the temper of the people of the county just then, he was obliged to con- ceal the objects of his Commission of Array for raising forces, by giving it the character of a quasi-oivU act, for the prevention of "felonies and robberies and for keeping the peace." But Lord Cranborne, the Lord Lieutenant, knew the High Sherifi^ too well to have been misled at such a time, even if Cromwell had not so opportunely appeared upon the scene at St. Albans. With the High Sheriff inside the walls of the Tower of London, it was an enormous gain to the Parhamentary party, whose commands the county people and lesser officials would have less scruple in obeying, than if a High Sheriff had been on the spot. The result was that the list of High Sheriffs for the county contains for the year 1642 the significant entry — " No Sheriff because of the "Wars." But Mr. Coningsby's troubles did not end with his commitment to prison. A few days afterwards there is read in the House of Lords the following : — " Petition of Thomas Coningsby, Esq., High Sheriff for the County of Hertford. The petitioner's wife and children coming to town on Friday last in their coach to see him, one Gregson took away two of his horses by power of some warrant, which he conceives to be contrary to the ordinance of Parliament * * prays that the horses may be released." [Lordif Journals, vol. v. p. 646.] The result was that Gregson was ordered to restore the horses, unless it could be shown that they were seized by the Lord General's order. An instance of the lofty carriage of the High Sheriff occurred about the same time as the incident at St. Albans. In fact on the very same day that Mr. Coningsby was brought up from the Tower to answer at the bar of the House of Commons for the incident in St. Albans market, he was also summoned and appeared at the bar of tlie House of Lords to answer for some " un- befitting words " spoken by him about the Parliament. The incident was as follows : — Robert Childe, of Berkhamsted, a trooper in Col. Goodwin's regiment had foolishly let his tongue wag about the King, using " traitorous and scandalous words in derogation and con- tempt of the person and dignity of the King." For the apprehending of the said Childe the King sent his warrant to the High Sheriff of Hertford- shire to attach him and send him to Oxford. Childe was, however, at Aylesbury with his regi- ment, and Mr. Coningsby could not apprehend him. The Earl of Salisbury sent a messenger to the High Sheriff suggesting that he should petition Parliament on the subject with a view to receiving their instructions. Mr. Coningsby, having a poor opinion of Parliament, informed the messenger that " it was below him for him to petition the Parliament," and " hereupon this House resented as a great mdigmty and affront to the Parliament, and ordered that the said Mr. Coningsby, High Sheriff, shall be attached and brought before the House as a delinquent." [Lords' Journals, vol. v.] When brovight to the bar of the House Mr. Coningsby denied the accusation and demanded the name of the informer. Mr. Kirkham, the Earl of Salisbury's messenger, then made a state- ment that Mr. Coningsby told him " he was vice- comes of the county of Hertford ; and, having the King's authority, it is unfit for him to petition anywhere." Mr. Coningsby now assured the House that he meant nothing to their disrespect, and he was let off with a " reprehension " and sent back to the Tower upon his former offence. As for the talkative Trooper Childe, of Berkham- sted, Parliament directed the Governors of Aylesbury to send him to Hertford Gaol to be proceeded against according to law. At a later date, finding his imprisonment likely to be lasting, the High Sheriff again petitions from the Tower, that " he was in January last committed by the Commons a prisoner to London House, and in March follow- ing removed to the Tower, where he has ever since continued in extreme duress to the danger of his health but without any charge having been brought against him. He prays that he may be brought before their Lordships by habeas corpus and his case determined." [Historical MSS. Com- mission Reports.] But the year 1643 was too full of absorbing events for Parliament to inquire into every case. 116 HEUTFOEDSHIEE DTJEINff THE GREAT CIVIL 'WAR. It -was enough that Mr. Coningsby was out of mischief, and so he had to remain a prisoner. On the 6th March, 1645, Parliament accepted his composition upon a fine of £1,000 and discharged his estate from sequestration, but the unfortunate Royalist himself, probably unable to pay the fine, remained a prisoner. Though friends could mitigate the severity of confinement so far as bed and board were concerned, in some other respects confinement in the Tower for such a man as Mr. Coningsby must have been galling in the ex- treme ; more especially during the first few months of his confinement, when the House ordered (April 9th, 1643) that none should " speak with him but in the keeper's presence," and further that he was " not to be allowed pen, ink, and paper." Still, I am not quite sure, after all, that Mr. Coningsby needed all the commiseration put into the lines at the head of this notice. Though a prisoner in the Tower, there were certain indulgences that could be had for money ; and, after the first rigour had been relaxed, there were fellow prisoners and occasionally news from the outside world. One can imagine the gvisto with which Mr. Coningsby would enter into the telling of the following tale, and how he would chuckle over the supposed fate of the man who spoilt his own career in the St. Albans Market-place : — " I might here relate unto you a late disaster which happened last week to Coningsby, High Sheriff, of St. Albans [sic], as he and some malignants and delinquents were rejoicing in the Tower over the pretended overthrow given by the enemy to Lieutenant-General Cromwell's forces, wherein they reported that he lost 2,000 men ; that Cromwell himself was either slain or wounded." [True Information, May 13th, 1645.] What the " disaster " was the writer does not say, but, apparently, it was the discovery by Coningsby and his fellow prisoners that their merriment had been ill-timed, and that it was simply a hoax. Languishing in the Tower, his proud spirit broken, his home and estate seized by Parlia- ment, and only death after ten years lingering imprisonment to come to his relief — such an ex- perience was worse than all the fortunes of war ! Tliomas Coningsby died nearly ten years after that appearance in St. Albans market ; not in 1653 as is stated in one of the county histories, but some time before October, 1652, as the entry in the Journals of Parliament would seem to indicate : — October, 1652. — Upon the passing of the Bill for the sale of lands and estates forfeited to the Commonwealth for treason, it was resolved "that the name of Thomas Coningsby, late of North Myms, in the County of Hertford, be inserted in this Bill — Deceased." Like many other family settlements of the time, Thomas Coningsby's estate at North Mimms, Herts, and Wood Ditton, in Cambs, was complicated by annual charges to different members of the family in a manner which gave the Parliament no end of trouble before they had done with it. In 1650 his wife was then petitioning for her third, and it was granted. On 21st of May, 1651, he is begging for particulars of his delinquency and sequestration, and in December, 1652, he, being dead, Martha Coningsby, his widow, and Henry and Thomas, his sons, beg the discharge of the manors of North Mimms and Wood Ditton ; and the Herts Committee being able to certify that Thomas Coningsby, the younger, is not a dehnquent, the claims are allowed. No end of applications upon leases and settlements followed, and the affairs of Thomas Coningsby and the Parliament wind up with the plea of Eliza Watts for her annuity of £Q 13s. 9d., be- queathed to her by her grandfather. Sir Harry Coningsby, and paid to her for near 60 years. She pleads being very aged and in great necessity. The claim was allowed, the seques- tration finally discharged and the affairs of Thomas Coningsby, the Royalist High Sheriff, disappear from our view in 1654. f t There are other glimpses of the estate of the CoDingsbya, of North Mimma, in the Beports of the Committee for Covipouiidincr, which make it difficult to say with certainty whether Mr. Coningsby remained in the Tower till the time of his death or not. When the estate was sequestrated, the wood on North Mimms Common was let by Parliament to Roger North, and for years there were repeated scenes of riot on the Common arising out of the cutting down of timber in the interest of Thomas Coningsby, if not by his direc- tion, and contrary to the orders of Parliament, and against the bargain made with Roger North. In 1648 the reference is to Thomas Coningsby and "others acting under him," and the workmen of one party set upon the workmen of the others. It is possible, how- ever, that the references may be consistent with Mr. Coningsby's continued imprisonment in the Tower or with a second imprisonment up to the time of his death. HEETFOEDSHIEP, BUEING THE QEEAT CIVIL WAE. 117 SIE EICHAED AND LADY FANSHAWE, OF WARE PARE. -THE ROMANCE OF LOVE AND WAR ! What thou art is mine. Our state cannot be sever'd ; we are one, One flesh ; to lose thee were to lose myself. I^aradise Lost. A distinguished place among the Royalists of Hertfordshire must be assigned to the Fanahawes, of Ware Park, whose devotion to the King scarcely yields the palm even to the undaunted Capel himself ; while it has, besides, a flavour of romance not unworthy to be placed beside the scenes in the Woodstoci: of Sir Walter Scott. This interest centres mainly in the two brothers Thomas and Eichard, sons of Sir Henry Fan- shawe, King's Remembrancer in the Exchequer. It is, however, with Richard or " Dick," as we shall know him in Royal Company hereafter, that the interest of the family in the Civil War chiefly rests ; and perhaps even more than in him, in his brave, beautiful wife, Lady Anne, daughter of Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, Hertford, whose narrative of her own and her husband's adventures, told with an artless eloquence, pathos, and humour, sheds a halo of romance over both their lives, and affords a true and fascinating picture of the troublous times in which their fortunes were cast, t Richard Fanshawe, the younger of the two distinguished Royahsts, was at first intended for the law and studied for that profession, but afterwards travelled abroad. He entered the diplomatic service of his country, and on his return found himself as a sworn servant of the t The Memoirs which Lady Fanshawe left behind in MS. have been freely drawn upon by Clutterbuok and others, but have since been published and make a most fascinating book, bearing the following title : — " Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe, wife ot the Eight Honourable Sir Richard Fanshawe, Bart., ambassador for Charles the Second to the Court of Madrid, 1665, written by herself, to which are added the correspondence of Sir Richard Fanshawe. London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, 1874." These memoirs are addressed by Lady Fanshawe to her son, and in his introduction the editor, Charles Robert Fanshawe, says: " Should times, which God forbid, call for similar exertion, may the descendants of Lady Fanshawe prove that loyalty and courage did not die with her ; but that those qualities still animate the hearts and steel the bands of her family — "Like men to conquer, or like Christians fall." King, upon the Civil War breaking out, taking up arms for the King, whom he attended to Oxford. To understand his romantic experience there, it is necessary to travel back to Hertford for a clue. Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, Hertford, from a member of the Herts Parlia- mentary Committee at the beginning of the War had gone over to the King, warmly espoused the Royal cause, and, with other Hertfordshire families who went on a similar pilgrimage, joined the King and his Court at Oxford. The two families of Harrison and Fanshawe were already related by marriage, and one of Sir John's sons, as well aa the Fanshawes, was with the King at Oxford before Sir John left the Herts County Committee to go there. It is interesting to note that this going over to the King at Oxford, which was so common a feature of country hfe, and figures so frequently in the ofiences set out against Royalist gentry by the Parliamentary Sequestrators of their estates, did not mean simply that the head of the family, or an individual member, had gone over and placed his sword at the service of the King. It meant that generally, but very often it meant too the removal of a whole family into that crowded city, camp, and court around the King at Oxford. In this case of the Harrisons, for instance, we find that Sir John desired that his daughters might come to him from Balls Park to Oxford. Whether from prudential motives of safety, or from a desire for their social advancement at Court, or to nurse their wounded brother, it is needless to inquire ; but in that strange assemblage at Oxford, there was a social cosmos as interesting in its details, I daresay, as if no question of sanguinary strife was raging around ! Even more interesting on that account, probably, was that brilliant world of soldiers, courtiers and fair ladies so strangely brought together. Here, county families met old friends and neighbours. Hither, too, came messengers bringing, at some peril often, inteUigence from the old home, from relatives left behind halting between two opinions, and of the doings of Parliamentary soldiers and Committees upon their estates. In such a place the beautiful young girls from Balls Park would be an acquisition to the strange social life which other Hertfordshire families were enduring in their devotion to the Royal cause. With drums everywhere beating, trumpets sounding and artillery booming, young Richard Fanshawe, the polished courtier and diplomatist, 118 HEETFOEDSHIEE DUMNQ THE GEBAT CrVIL WAE. met again the -welcome sight of his fair young cousins from Balls Park. What the two families and other county famiUes had to forego in the shape of comforts, to say nothing of luxuries, and to bear in the way of discomforts, is graphically told in the Memoirs above referred to. Here is the account of the fair young girl of only eighteen summers, taken from the quieter atmosphere of the old home at Hertford, with its wealthy surroundings and splendid hospitalities, and transplanted into the very different sur- rovmdings of an over-crowded camp and court life in Oxford : — " My father commanded my sister and myself to come to him at Oxford, where the Court then was ; but we, who till that hour lived m great plenty and great order, found ourselves like fish out of the water, and the scene so changed that we knew not at all how to act any part but obedience ; for, from as good houses as any gentlemen in England had, we came to a baker's house in an obscure street ; and from rooms well furnished, to lie in a very bad bed in a garret, to one dish of meat, and that not the best ordered ; no money, for we were as poor as Job, nor cloaths more than a man or two brought in their cloak bags ; we had the perpetual discourse of losing and gaining towns and men ; at the windows the sad spectacle of war, sometimes plague, sometimes sickness of other kind, by reason of so many people being packed together, as I beheve there never was before of that quality ; always in want, yet I must needs say, that most bore it with a martyr-like cheerful- ness ; for my own part I began to think we should all, like Abraham, live in tents all the days of our lives." Even so, and I daresay the fair young Hert- fordshire lady was content with the prospect ; for was not her lover there too ? Over all the gruesome work of Mars, Cupid was already weaving a gossamer veil of romance which tempered the sterner look of things to the fair young girl. Besides the straits on the domestic side of their lot, misfortunes had to be borne, and her brother William Harrison had died in consequence of a fall from his horse, which was shot under him in a skirmish against a party of the Earl of Essex. But love triumphed over all difficulties, and amidst the distractions of news of towns and men lost and won, and the trials and sufferings in the city and camp, Richard Fanshawe, then 35 years of age, and one of the handsomest as well as one of the most accompUshed of men at the Court of King Charles, and Anne Harrison, a young girl in her 19th year, exceedingly beau- tiful too, if the portrait in the volume of memoirs may be trusted, met at the small village Church of Wolvercot, two miles outside Oxford, on the road to Eoyal Woodstock ; and, there, forgetting all the notes of discord around, were made man and wife, defying all untoward circumstances, though their entire capital, as the lady candidly admits, was only twenty pounds ! In fact, both his fortune and her own promised portion — which was made £10,000 — were at that time in expectation, and " we might truly be called merchant adventurers, for the stock we set up with and traded with did not amount to £20 between us." But though money was lacking, honours fell thick and fast upon the young couple, for in the same year Richard Fanshawe had the degree of D.C.L. conferred upon him by the University, and was appointed secretary to the Prince of Wales. But even this post of honour was to cost them more sacrifices. In March of the next year the Prince removed to Bristol and the lovers were called upon to part, just after the young wife's confinement. " It was the first time we had parted since we married," she says, " and he was extremly afSioted even to tears * * the sense of leaving me with a dying child, which did die two days after, in a garrison town, extremely weak and very poor, were such circumstances as he could not bear with, only the argument of necessity, and for my own part I was so weak that it was ten weeks before I could go alone." Two months after they had parted (in May, 1645) she goes out for a first time to a Church, and then is gladdened with a letter from her husband with fifty gold pieces, and the welcome news that she was to go to him on the following Thursday, for she says " that gold your father sent me when I was ready to perish did not so much revive me, as his summons." After a perilous journey to Bristol, husband and wife meet and are supremely happy with each other's society, and she writes : — " Now I thought myself a perfect queen, and my husband so glorious a crown that I more valued myself to be called by his name than a born princess ! " Alas ! the plague at Bristol drove them with the Prince to the Scilly Isles, and on the way there was a mutiny among the sailors, their trunks were broken open and ^60 stolen, besides gold, and valuables to the amount of £300. " Next day, after having been pillaged and extremely sick * * HEEIFOKDSHIEE DURING THE QBEAT CIVIL VfAS.. 119 I was set on shore almost dead in the Island of SciUy." Their quarters were two low rooms with two lofts above for the servants, and in one room was stored dried fish ! Next morning she awoke shivering, finding her bed " near swimming in the sea." To add to their cup of bitterness, news came to them that their goods left at Bristol in a house, \inder the charge of one Captain Bluett, had been aU plundered to the value of ;£100 ; but it was managed somehow that the Captain's own things were not touched ! When the Prince left the Island, Richard Fanshawe and his wife stayed behind for a time with Lord Capel. Afterwards Mr. Fanshawe went to Caen to his brother, who was iU. His wife came to England to try and raise money, and in 1646 the brave woman succeeded in obtaining per- mission to compound for her husband's estate, and its release from the hands of the Herts Sequestration Committee, for the sum of £300, and permission for him to return to England. In 1647 they lived in comparative retirement, but soon after this time occurs another of the interesting experiences recorded in Lady Fanshawe's memoirs. After the King had passed through Hertfordshire with the Army from that stormy scene at Thriplow and Eoyston, his Majesty went to Hampton Court, and while he was here Lady Fanshawe states that she had three audiences with his Majesty, now drawing near the end of his troubled career. Her descrip- tion of these interviews and of the farewell scene recalls the romantic incident, enshrined in fiction by Sir "Walter Scott, of the parting of Charles II with the fair daughter of the old valiant Sir Henry Lee, of Woodstock Here is her account of their farewell of the unfortunate King :— " The last time I ever saw him was on taking my leaf. I could not refrain from weeping, and when he saluted me I prayed God to preserve his Majesty with long hfe and happy years. He stroked my cheek and said 'Child, if God pleaseth it shall be so, but both you and I must submit to God's will, and you know in what hands I am.' Turning to Mr. Fanshawe he said 'Be sure, Dick (a term by which his Majesty generally spoke to Mr. Fanshawe), to tell my son all that I have said, and deliver those letters to my wife. Pray God bless her. I hope I shall do well,' and, taking him in his arms, observed ' thou hast ever been an honest man and I hope God will bless thee and make thee an happy servant of my son, whom I have charged in my letter to continue his love and trust in you,' adding, 'I do promise you that if ever I am restored to my dignity I will bountifully reward you both for your services and sufferings.' Thus did we part from that glorious sun that within a few months afterwards was murdered, to the grief of all Christians that were not forsaken by God ! " But though their Royal master was soon to close his chequered career, this interesting couple had other adventures in store. Narrowly escaping a shot fired from the Dutch fleet when about to embark at Portsmouth for Paris in 1 648, they are next found in Ireland, at Cork, and Mrs. Fanshawe (near her confinement) passes through another strange adventure. Staying at Red Abbey, the house of Dean Boyle, within a few weeks she heard the news of the death of her son Henry, and the landing of Cromwell, "who so hotly marched over Ireland that the fleet with Prince Rupert was forced to set sail and lost all his riches." The Fanshawes remained. Mrs. Fanshawe had broken her wrist by a fall from her horse, and while lying in bed with this, her husband being away at Kinsale, in the beginning of November, 1650, Cromwell's troops appeared before Cork, compelling it to surrender, of which she gives this graphic picture : — " At midnight I heard the great guns go off, and thereupon I called up my family to rise, which I did as well as I could in that condition. Hearing lamentable shrieks of men, women and children, I asked at the window the cause ; they told me they were all Irish, stripped and wounded, and turned out of the town, and that Colonel Jefferies and some others had possessed them- selves of the town, for Cromwell. Upon this I immediately wrote a letter to my husband, blessing God's providence that he was not there with me, persuading him to patience and hope that I should get safely out of the town by God's assistance, and desired him to shift for himself for fear of the surprise, with the promise that I would secure his papers." Having sent this letter by a faithful servant, let down by the garden wall of Red Abbey ; packed up her husband's cabinet with all his writings and near one thousand pounds in gold and silver, the brave lady, with her broken wrist, next thought of the safety of herself and family. " In the morning by the light of a taper, and in that pain I was in, I went into the Market Place with only a man and a maid, and passing through an unruly tumult with their swords in their hands, searched for their chief commander Jefferies, who, whilst he was loyal, had received many civihties from your father. * * * He 120 HEETFOEBSHIEE BXrEIITG IHE GEEAI CITCL WAE. instantly wrote me a pass both for myself, family and goods, and said he would never forget the respect he owed your father. With this I came through thousands of naked swords to Eed Abbey and hired the next neighbour's cart, which carried all that I could remove, and myself, sister, and little girl Nan, with three maids and two men set forth at five o'clock [in the morning] in November, having but two horses amongst us all, which we rid on by turns." She adds that £100 worth of goods were left behind at Red Abbey, which were plundered, and that they went the ten miles to Kinsale in perpetual fear of being fetched back again ! " But by little and little, I thank God we got safe to the garrison, where I found your father the most disconsolate man in the world for fear of his family, which he had no possibility of as- sisting ; but his joys exceeded, to see me and his darling daughter, and to hear the wondex-ful escape we, through the assistance of God, had made." When the affair was reported to Cromwell he immediately asked where Mr. Fanshawe was, and being told he had gone to Kinsale demanded where his papers and his family were. "At which they all stared one at another but made no reply. Their General said ' it was as much worth to have seized his papers as the town, for I did make account to have known by them what these parts of the country were worth.' " Mr. Fanshawe followed the Prince again, and after an unfruitful mission to Spain to raise means for the Royal cause, he, while his wife was taking up her residence at Ware Park, acted as secretary to Charles II, and accompanied him to Scotland, and on that eventful march to the battle of Worcester. Here he, with his brother. Sir Thomas Fanshawe, was taken a prisoner in the famous battle from which Charles H escaped in that romantic manner which gave an immortality to the Royal Oak. Mrs. Fanshawe was at Ware Park with a baby two months old when the news came of the battle of Worcester. After some days of terrible suspense as to his fate she learns that her husband is taken a prisoner, that he will shortly be brought to London, and that he has appointed a place to see her near Charing Cross, where she is only to see him for a short time. The narrative of the meeting of husband and wife and what followed is full of pathos, and even of humour, and affords a rare example of domestic love and fidelity, simply but beautifully expressed. At the place of meeting, in a room near Charing Cross, with her father. Sir John Harrison, and some friends, waiting for the interview, she thus describes the scene of the arrival of the prisoners from the battle of Worcester, and her husband's account of what happened on the way. "We saw hundreds of poor soldiers, both English and Scotch, marching all naked and on foot, and many on horseback. At last came the captain and two soldiers with your father. He was very cheerful in appearance. After he had spoken to me and saluted me and his friends he said : ' Pray let us not lose time, for I know not how little I have to spare. This is the chance of war ; nothing venture nothing have, and so let us sit down and be merry whilst we may.' Then, taking my hand and kissing me, he said, ' cease weeping ; no other thing on earth can move me ; remember we are all at God's disposal.' Then he told us how kind the captain had been to him ; that the people as he passed offered him money and brought him good things, and parti- cularly Lady Dynham, at Boston [Borstal] House t would have given him all the money she had in the house, but he returned her thanks and told her that he had so ill kept his own, and he would not tempt his governor with more, but that if she would give him a shirt or two and a few handkerchiefs he would keep them as long as he could for her sake. She fetched him some shifts of her own and some handkerchiefs, saying that she was ashamed to give them to him, but having none of her son's shirts at home she desired him to wear them." After this short interview Mr. Fanshawe was taken prisoner to Whitehall, where the close confinement for ten weeks, following his long marches and hardships, brought him so low, lying there all the while ' ' under the expectation of death," that he was " almost at death's door." Then follows this crowning touch of heroic womanhood : — " During the time of his imprisonment I failed not constantly when the clock struck four in the morning to go vsdth a dark lanthorn in my hand, all alone and on foot, from my lodgings in Chancery Lane to Whitehall by the entry that went out of King's Street into the Bowling Green. There I would go, under his window and call him softly. He, excepting the first time, never afterwards failed to put out his head at the t Borstal House, tbe Eoyalist stronghold, which had given so much trouble to and been captured by the Parliamentary forces, was at this time in the hands of its rightful owner. HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJUING THE GREAT CIVIL WAE. 121 first call. Thus we talked together, and some- times I was so wet with rain that it went in at my neck and out at my heels." What will not woman, gentle woman, dare When strong afifeotion stirs her spirit up P Faithfully and untiringly the noble woman pressed the 'claims of her sick husband, and getting the ear of Cromwell, who she says "had a great respect for your father and would have bought him off to his service on any terms " — at last she obtained his release on the ground of his health, on bail in a bond of four thousand pounds. When her husband was at last able to leave England for Paris, conceahng his real errand under the pretence of travelling abroad with the son of the Earl of Pembroke, he left Mrs. Eanshawe behind, but again the brave woman was equal to the occasion. Going to "WaUingford House, where passes were granted to persons travelling abroad, in order to follow her husband she says : " I dressed in as plain a way and speech as I could devise (leai-ing my maid at the gate, who was a much iiner gentlewoman than myself) with as ill a mien and tone as I could express I told the fellow that I found in the office that I desired a pass to Paris to go to my husband." When the fellow in the office demanded of her what her husband was and what was her name, she played her part by informing him "with many curtsies" that her husband was a young merchant and her name was Harrison [her maiden name]. She thus succeeded in obtaining a pass for herself, her man, maid servant and three children. The official,little knowing whom he was serving, told her that " a malignant (one of the King's party) would give him five pounds for such a pass." Carrying ofi' the pass to her lodgings she cleverly altered the letters of the name into " Eanshawe," obtained a barge, reached Gravesend by six o'clock at night, travelled thence to Dover by coach, crossed to Paris and joined her husband, who had been knighted by Charles II., then at Breda. Sir Richard and Lady Eanshawe returned to England at the Restoration, and Lady Eanshawe was among the first to meet the Prince at Whitehall, and to offer her congi-atulations to him as Charles II., as she had done her prayers under such very different circumstances on leaving his royal father at Hampton Court. Upon this occasion Sir Richard was presented with the King's (Charles II.) portrait set in diamonds, and had the further good fortune to be the first Member returned to Parliament after the King came home, being returned for the University of Cambridge, an honour " which cost him no more than a letter of thanks and two brace of bucks and twenty pieces of gold to buy them wine." Who the party was that received the price of the seat Lady Eanshawe does not state, but she evidently regarded the election as one of the smoothest passages in the eventful life of her husband. After the Restoration, Sir Richard and Lady Eanshawe went to the Court of Spain, to which Sir Richard was sent as Ambassador. The splendour of their reception, and the high honours paid to her husband (whosedistinguished Spanish scholarship made him very popular) and to herself on their arrival, and while residing there, form an interesting chapter in Lady Fan- shawe's charming memoirs. Sir Richard died of a malignant fever only fifteen days before his expected return to England. His body was embalmed and conveyed to England accompanied by his widow, and landed at the Tower of London on the 12th November, 1666. The body was afterwards conveyed to All Saints' Church, at Hertford, where it was placed in the vault of Sir John Harrison, his father-in-law, and in 1671 it was removed to Ware and placed in the Chapel of St. Mary in the Ware Parish Church, and a monument of white marble was erected there to his memory, with the arms of the Fanshawes and those of the Harrisons impaled, and upon which is inscribed in Latin a tribute to his virtues, his culture, and his public services and worth. But the best tribute that could ever be paid to any man, whether in those distracted times or any other age, is that penned by Lady Eanshawe, his wife ; for, unaffected and sincere, it discloses a degree of felicity in wedded and family life which survived all the trials and misfortunes of a trying time. "He was," says Lady Eanshawe, "of the highest size of men, strong, and of the best pro- portion, his complexion sanguine, his skin exceeding fair, his hair dark brown, and very curhng, but not very long ; his eyes grey and very penetrating ; his nose high, his countenance gracious, and wise, his motion good, his speech clear and distinct. He never used exercise but walking, and that generally with some book in his hand, which oftentimes was poetry, in which he spent his idle hours ; sometimes he would ride out to take the air, but his most delight was to go only with me in a coach some miles, and there discourse of those things which most pleased him, 15 122 HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJEIH-G THE GEEiT CIVIL WAE. of wliat nature so ever. He was very obliging to all, and forward to serve his master, his country and friend ; chearfal in his conversation, his discourse ever pleasant, mixed with the sayings of wise men and their histories, repeated as occasion offered ; yet so reserved that he never showed the thought of his heart iu its greatest sense, but to myself only ; and this 1 thank God with all my soul for, that he never discovered his trouble to me, but went from me with perfect chearfulness and content ; nor revealed he his joys and hopes, but he would say they were doubled by putting them in my breast, I never heard him hold dispute in my life, but often he would speak against it, saying it was an uncharitable custom, which never turned to the advantage of either party. * * He was a true Protestant of the Church of England, so born, so brought up, aud so died. His conversation was so honest that I never heard hiia speak a word in my life that tended to God's dishonour, or encouragement of debauchery or sin. He was ever much esteemed by his two masters, Charles the First and Charles the Second, both for great parts and honesty, as for his conversation, in which they took great dehght, he being so free from passion that made him Iseloved of all that knew him ; nor did I ever see him moved but with his master's concerns, in which he would hotly pursue his interest through the greatest difficulties. He was the tenderest father imaginable, the carefuUest and most generous master I ever knew ; he loved hospitality, and would often say it was wholly essential for the Constitution of England, he loved aud kept order with the greatest decency possible ; and though he would say I managed his domestics wholly, yet I ever governed them and myself by his commands, in the managing of which, I thank God, I found his approbation aud content." Lady Fanshawe bore Sir Eichard a large family of fourteen children, six sons and eight daughters, besides six that were stillborn. The career of this brave, courageous woman, afibrds a striking instance of what many a lady of high degree endured patiently, driven to the necessity of taking care of herself and family and nobly stand- ing by the interests of her imprisoned husband. In many respects it compares singularly with that of the beautiful Lady Margaret Verney, wife of Sir Ralph Verney, who spent some time at Gorhambury with Lady Sussex, when Sir Ralph was under a cloud through not seeing his way to take the Covenant. Sir Thomas Fanshawe, brother of Sir Eichard, was knighted at the Coronation of Charles I. He was, as we have seen, one of the King's Commissioners of Array in Hertfordshire, and had well prepared himself in arms for the War when the Parliamentary troops made that raid upon Ware Park at the beginning of" the War. He was taken prisoner at the Battle of Worcester, and he and his son suffered imprisonment and had their estates sequestrated. At the Restoration he was chosen Member for tlie county, and in 1661 was created Viscount Fanshawe of Drommore. His eldest son also became knighted as Sir Thomas Fanshawe, sat in Parliament for Hertford, and married the daughter and heir of John Skinner, of Hitohin, whose name still aj)pears upon the front of the Almshouses in that town which were erected soon after the Restoration. This young Sir Thomas was concerned in the Royalist rising in Hertford- shire, with the Leveuthorpes of Sawbridgeworth, in 11)59. Simeon Fanshawe, brother of Sir Richard, also got into the hands of the sequestra- tors. SIB JOHN HARRISON, OF BALLS PAEK. Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, Hertford, a man of enormous wealth, was at first as useful to Parliament with his influence and his money as he afterwards was to the King. He was Member of Parliament for Lancaster, and his son William sat for Queenborough. At the very beginning of the War, William went over to the Iving on his setting up his standard at Nottingham. While sitting in Parliament in 1641 the young Member for Queenborough, writes his sister. Lady Fan- shawe, " undertook for my father to lend £150,000 to pay the Scots, who then had entered England, and it seems were to be both paid and prayed to go home." This immense sum to be advanced by a single individual was sufficient to cripple even a wealthy man like Sir John, who had to wait till the Restoration of the King for the payment of his debt, and liis daughter. Lady Fanshawe, had to wait for her portion of £10,000, and marry Richard Fanshawe on that small joint capital of £20 already referred to. Though placed upon the Hertfordshire Com- mittee for the Parliament, Sir John Harrison must have very soon followed the example of Lord Capel ; for, before the end of 1642, as soon in fact as the dissensions had assumed the stern phase of actual war, he openly esj)oused the Royal cause, and at the outset narrowly escaped the hard fate of Mr. Coningsby, the High HEBTFOEDSHIEE DUEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 123 Sheriff. He was made a prisoner in his own London residence at Montague House, in Bishopsgate-street. Unlike Tliomas Coningsby, whose former rigorous levying of Ship-money made him unpopular, Sir John Harrison had apparently served the country as Farmer of the Customs with satisfaction, and found his former service to the King the means of his escape. The Parhamentary officers guarding his house demanded of him certain papers respecting his accounts of the Ciistoms, and under the pretence of going to fetch these he effected his escape. In the following year, 1643, he made his way to the King at Oxford, and was expelled from his seat as a Member of Parliament for Lancaster, and his estates were seized. In 1644 he sent for his daughters to Oxford, as already described, and of the part he played there his daughter writes in her Jle/uoirs : — " The King sent m)' father a warrant for a Baronet, but he returned it with thanks, saying ' he had too much honour of his knighthood which his Majesty had honoured him with some years before, for the fortune he possessed.' " After he left Oxford it is on record in the Royalist Composition Papers [Public Record Office] that when in the West of England in August, 1645, he endeavoured to render himself up to be dealt with by Parliament, but, being "where the King's forces were, was obliged to go into France." In 1646 he compounds for his delinquency "in deserting Parliament and adhering to forces raised against it." At first the fine imposed upon him for relieving his estates (being considerable) was a very heavy one. On the 5th January, 1648 (or, present style, 1649), we find Lady Mary Harrison, his wife, in a petition to Parliament, "begs that until the weighty affairs of the Kingdom [the impending trial of the King, &c.] permit the House of Commons to consider her husband's petition and give him absolute discharge, that she may have the house in county Herts called Balls, which stands empty, as Mr. Holies makes little or no use of it, or the gardens and orchards, and she is altogether destitute of habitation and means for providing for herself and children." In July following is recorded a " Petition from Sir John Harrison and resolution passed that this House doth accept the fine of £1000 for taking off the delinquency of Sir John Harrison, knight." The beautiful house at Balls Park, to which Sir John's wife begged Parliament to allow her and her children to return, had only been erected by Sir John just before the commencement of the War. It was to see " Sir John Harrison's house new built " that Evelyn visited Hertford, as he records in his Diarij for 16th March, 1643 ; a house which Chauucy also describes as a " fair and stately fabric, every side equally fronted, and exactly uniform ; the ceilings wrought with several and distinct patterns of fretwork, the steps in the great stair- case wainscotted in panes, the hall paved with black and white marble, and the whole edifice standing towering upon a hill com- manding a pleasant and delicious prospect." At the Restoration he had his employment and estates restored to him, and he continued in the quiet possession of his home at Balls Park until his death, which took place in 1669. His daughter says that he was " a handsome gentleman of great natural parts, a great aocomptant, of vast memory, and an incomparable penman, of great integrity and service to his Prince, had been a member of five Parliaments, a good husband and father, especially to me, who never can sufficiently praise God for him, nor acknow- ledge his most tender affection and bounty to me and mine." Whatever view the inhabitants of Ware and Hertford may have taken of the Royalist ardour of the Fanshawes of Ware Park and the Harri- sons of Balls Park, connected by several inter- marriages — Sir John Harrison himself having first married a Fanshawe— abundant evidence was left of their kindly disposition towards the people amongst whom they hved, for whose benefit, and for the benefit of their children's children, numerous charitable bequests were left by these two famihes, especially by the Harrisons at Hertford. Sir John was buried in a vault in All Saints' Church, Hertford, + but his widow. Lady Mary, I The following is a copy of the memorial to Sir John Harrison placed upon the South Wall of the chancel of All Saints' Church, Hertford, but in modern epell- " Hereunder lieth interred the body of Sir John Harrison, Knight, late of Balls, within this county and parish who departed this life the 28th of September in the year of Christ 1669, and in the 80th year of his age ; who in the whole coarse of that large time of his mortality was an admired example of piety, integrity, and moderation; and amongst the various and con- siderable employments which his industrious and pru- dent temper put him upon, and conducted him through, was always very eminent in his loyalty to his King, and love to his country, having served King Charles the 124 HESTFOEBSHIEE DTJEHTO THE GEBiT CIVIL WAR. lived to see another revolution, which, though less sanguinary, was scarcely less momentous in its results, and died in the year 1705, " full of days and good works," at the great age of 93. COLONEL SILAS TITUS.— PAELIAMEN- TAEIAN AND EOYALIST. To give tlie rebel dogs their due, Where the roaring shot poured thick and hot, They were stalwart men and true. These lines from an old Cavalier song embody at ouce the contempt and the solid respect for the Parliamentary troopers which were strangely mingled in the breasts of the Royalists ; and no man knew better how to appreciate this dual character of " the rebel dogs " and " the stalwart men and true " than he whose name stands at the head of this notice. He, at any rate, had played both characters by turns, and for this reason there is some difficulty in deciding into First aa a Farmer of his Customs, and in other weighty affairs, and his native place of Lancaster as a member of three Parliaments in the King's reign, in the last whereof (called in the year 1640) by his strenuous adhe^-ence to his sovereign and the established laws of the land against the violence of an unnatural Civil War he did deeply share in his King and country's calamities ; sometimes by a voluntary exile and always by an illegal sequestration and detention from plentiful properties and possessions, until by the happy and peaceful restoration of his present Majesty King Charles the Second, in Anno 1660, he was most justly and meritoriously restored to his former condition of Commissioner and Farmer of his Customs and to the trust of a Member of Parliament for his native place aforesaid, and then after nine years peaceably passed, happily and lamentedly finished the period of his long and well-spent life : to whose worth and memory his dearly loving wife and relict, Dame Mary Harrison, erected this memorial." To the above is added the following to the memory of Lady Mary Harrison : — " She, who formerly erected this monument, obtained at length what she often prayed for, to be dissolved that she might be blessed with Christ, though not until the age of almost 93 years, she dying on the 14th day of February, 1705, full of days and good works, which are a monument more durable than marble or brass. Her remains rest in a neighbouring vault in hope of a glorious resurrection." The destruction of these monuments by the recent burning down of All Saints' Church will, the writer feels sure, be accepted by the reader as a sufficient reason for placing the inscriptions on record in a work of this kind. which camp he should be placed. The facts that he came out ultimately as a Royalist, and that more is known of his doings in that capacity than as a Parliamentarian, are the chief reasons for assigning him the position of a Royalist. Silas, or Silus, Titus saw a good deal of both sides in the struggle, and his was a career brim full of adventure ; some of it of a romantic kind, and some displaying an independence 'of character which placed him in a curious light. Born at Bushey, he had just come home from a three years' residence at O-xford, and had entered at the Inns of Court when those memorable streams of Hertfordshire Knights and freeholders went up in their thousands to assert the rights of the people and the privileges of their representatives in Parliament. For young Titus legal studies had no longer a sufficient interest to hold him back. Throwing himself into the fray with all the ardour of a young man of spirit, we soon find him a captain in the Parliamentary Army. In that critical summer of 1644 he was doing yeo- man's service with those of the Hertfordshire forces who went to serve out of their county and who did not run away from their colours. Among the many stubborn sieges around Royalist strongholds none was more fomous than the attacks, again and again renewed and as often repulsed, upon the massive, battered towers and keep of Donnington Castle, just outside Newbury, held by the redoutable Sir John Boys, whose answers to the Parliamentary challenges to surrender are among the choice epigrams of history, f It was before this famous old Don- nington Castle that Captain Titus, in command of a company of Hertfordshire soldiers, wrote the following characteristic letter to Col. Alban Cox, his superior officer in Hertfordshire : — " For my much-honoured ffi'einde Alban Cox. These present. " Sir, — My monie being expired, according to your order I addressed myself to my Lorde of Manchester. His lordship told me that two t When, in 1644, the Parliamentary Commander summoned Sir John Boys to surrender the Castle (about three weeks after Oapt, Titus wrote his letter), and threatened that if he did not they " would not leave one stone upon another," the gallant Royalist coolly sent back answer, " If so I am not bound to repair it ;" and when a second summons was accompanied by an ofi'er to allow him to march out with all arms and ammunition, he courageously replied: — "Carry away the Castle walls themselves if you can ; but with God's help 1 am resolved to keep the ground they stand on till 1 have orders from the King my Master to quit, or 1 will die upon the spot." HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE GREAT CIVIL 'WAR. 125 months not being yet out, I was to expect my pay from the Committee, and to that purpose he nath written to them this enclosed : (Sir), with that monie I have received, I have paide all the officers a month's pay, and made an indiiForent shift to satisfie the soldiers hitherto. Now I am quite empty, and have nothing to encourage the soldiers in theire hardshippe with such duty and cold quarter's, makes not a little. Here is nothing to be had without present monie ; and as yet wee have not founde that great zeal in Newberry to this cause. I am sure they do not expresse it in theire forwarduesse to accommo- date the soldiers. (Sir), If I can have a moneth's pay more for my officers, and the other fortnight's pay (to come) for my soldiers, I shall not trouble the Committee fiu-ther. (Sir), I desire that you will take the paines to send me an answeare, and I shall esteeme it one of the maine engagements, I have to be. Sir, your most affectionate servant, S. Titus. " Donnington, Oct. Tth, 1644. "For newes (Sir), our Hertfordshire soldiers are pretty well vers't in the severall soundes of bullets, and are farre more confident than they were at first. The Castle is much battered, and if rehefe come not, will suddenly be streitened. I have had about ten shott in my compainie, but none killed or maimed. The King hastens to Bristol, t " We hear but little of Capt. Titus further till the time when a great many were wavering between the King and the growing Independent force in the Army ; in fact, till the King was so adroitly carried off from Holdenby by Cornet Joyce, but from that time Captain Titus gets fairly into the swim of congenial adventure. It was Captain Titus who conveyed to the Houses of ParUament the astounding news of the King being carried off by Cornet Joyce from Holdenby to the Army at Newmarket, and on this occasion the House voted him £.50 " to buy a horse for his great service ; " little thinking the dkection in which Capt. Titus was likely to ride ! Whether Titus found the attraction of personal contact with the King too much to withstand I know not, but it did happen that the first signs of a change from Parliamentarian to Royalist were manifested soon after Titus had come in t Clatterback quotes this letter from the original in the possession of Thomas Kinder, Esq., to whom Beaumonts, the then residence of Albau Cox, afterwards belonged. contact with the King at Holdenby ; in fact, he had scarcely benefited by that special honorarium from Parliament of a horse for bringing the news from Holdenby before Cromwell's keen scent for treachery began to suspect Titus as one of those about the King's person who could not be trusted ; a suspicion which was abundantly j ustified by the change from Parliamentary Captain to the con- fidential servant of the King, disclosed in the letters quoted below. From this time Capt. Titus appears to have been one of the party in attendance upon the King. It was by means of secret correspondence between the King and his now loyal henchman, Capt. Titus, that the attempt was made for an escape from Carisbrook Castle, and the affair was progressing so favourably that the King had good reason to place reliance upon Capt. Titus for his fidelity and discretion. The following is, apparently, one of the first letters from the King on the subject of the attempted escape, and it has a peculiar significance in the light of the previous career of Titus. " Capt. Titus. Let those officers you tould me of know, that, as my necessity is now greater than ever ; so, what scruioe shall be done me now, must have the first place in my thoughts, wheneuer I shall be in a condition to requite my Friends and pitty my Ennimies. I command you (when you can doe it without hazard either to your selfe or them) that you send me in particular, the names of those who, you thus finde sensible of their duty, and resolved to dis- charge the parts of true Englishmen ; lastly asseure euery one, that, with me, present seruices wipes out former falts. So I rest, Your asseured Friend, Charles, E. For Capt. Titus." Of the desperate straits of the King in his attempts at escape from Carisbrook Castle, and of the intimate relation of Captain Titus with his Majesty in the secret, the following letter, written to Titus by the King in a feigned hand, is con- clusive evidence — W. I have beene considering the Bar of my Window, and fynde that I must cut it in two places ; for that place where I must cut it above, I can hyde it with the leade that tyes the glasse ; but there is nothing that can hyde the lower part ; wherefor, I conceave it cannot but be dis- covered if I have it off when I have once begun it ; and how to make but one labour of it, having no other instrument but such as I sent 126 HEETFOKDSHIEE DUEING THE &EEAT CITIL -(VAE. you, I cannot yet conceave ; but if I had a forcer, I could make my way well anufe ; or if you could teach me how to make the fyre-shovell and tongues supply that place ; which I believe not impossible. Of this (I meane, how to remove the Bar) I desyre to be resolved before you goe ; wherefor I pray you give me an answer to this as soone as you can ; for I believe our maine Busi- ness depends upon it. I." " I pray you 577 : 359 : 117 : 343 : 279 : 20 : 356 ; ffor W." The handwriting of the King is very well con- cealed, though there are not wanting points where, upon close inspection, the fine linear writing of Charles comes out in the older and more angular Jacobean style adopted by the Eoyal prisoner. That picturesque little post- script in cipher is, I imagine, an instance of the ingenuity of John Barwick, who was later on to be made Rector of Therfield, Herts, and to whose close attendance the King was indebted for much valuable service in this line ; the cipher used in these secret transactions being Bar- wick's invention. The following letter, also written in a feigned hand, shows how the secret negociations over that obstinate iron window bar of the King's chamber in the Castle were progressing. " W. This being a business of action and not of words, I will be verrie brife ; and I were much too blame, if I were otherwais ; for I really (to my judgment) it is so well layed that I have but one particular to make a quere upon (after thryce reading over your papers) which is, whether I shall have tyme anufe, after I have supt, and before I goe to bed, to remove the bar ; for if I had a forcer, I would make no question of it, but having nothing but fyles, I much dout that my time will be too scant ; wherefore I desyre to be well instructed in it ; which being adjusted, I know nothing to be mended in your paper. But you know there must be terminus ad quern, as well as terminus a quo ; therefore I desyre to know whither you intend that I should goe after I am over the water ? I desyre you to answer this paper as soone as you can, henceforth I will go eearly to bed." Whether Captain Titus was at fault in con- veying his instructions to the King ; whether the " fyre-shovell and tongues " were effective enough as a "forcer," or whether the Captain was a competent teacher of the King in the best use to make of those homely weapons, I know not, but one thing is as certain as history can make it, viz., though good use was made of the " fyles," his Majesty, to the consternation of other Englishmen besides Captain Titus, was found stuck fast between the bars of his window, and the history of England was, I daresay, modified by that simple issue. The King was not the only person who fared worse for the failure of the plot. These were times when men could not be relied upon with any degree of certainty, and Cromwell, having put down the Levellers in Corkbush-field, has found out by that marvellous intelligence department of his that Titus is " playing the fox," and so he writes to " Dear Robin," otherwise Col. Robert Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight : — "Intelligence came to the hands of a very considerable person that the King attempted to get out of his window ; and that he had a cord of silk with him whereby to slip down, but his breast was so big the bar would not give him passage. This was done in one of the dark nights about a fortnight ago. A gentleman with you led him the way and slipped down. The guards that night had some quantity of wine with them. * * He saith that Captain Titus and some others about the King are not to be trusted. * * The gentleman that came out of the window was Master Firebrace ; the gentlemen doubted are Cresset, Burro wes and Titus." This little incident was enough to blast the re- putation of anyone so closely connected with the person of the King as Titus was, and being charged with high treason he fled out of the country. Henceforth the former Parliamentary Captain must be considered an open Royahst, though still preserving a certain independent notion of doing things in his own way which adds interest to the adventures which yet remained to him. The King did not forget the faithful services of Titus, and when upon the scaffold at Whitehall he recommended him, through Arch- bishop Juxon, to the protection of his son and successor, Charles II. In 1651, information reaches the Committee in London that Titus' mother allowed him to convey to Holland i!lO0 out of his own estate of £180 a year from houses in London ; and from this time forward he is actively engaged in the interest of Charles II, crossing and recrossing the sea whenever such an act was possible. In 1657 we find Titus playing the part of pamphleteer to some purpose. Having lost his Royal master on the scaffold, he, under the name of William Allen, is credited with having published the pamphlet entitled " Killing no Murder," — " a noisy pamphlet much noised of in HERTFOEDSHIRT! DUKING THE CHEAT CIVH 'WAV.. 127 those months, and afterwards," says Carlyle, in which he sought to show that the killing of the Protector would be a lawful and meritorious act. Crom.well is said to have been much affected by the pamphlet, became gloomy and suspicious, seldom slept twice in the same bed, and carried firearms, Tlie next prominent scene in which Titus figures reads like a page from Aiusworth. It is at a well-known tavern in London wliere Royalists were known to meet, and where Titus is in company with Firebrace. Cromwell has found out not only who was the author of the noisy pamphlet, but also where Titus could be found. Accordingly a " trusty officer " is despatched to the Tavern with soldiers to effect his arrest. But " there's many a slip " — for, at a time which tried the temper of men enough to upset all calculations of diplomacy, this " trusty oflicer " seems to have possessed a private as well as an oflicial conscience, and in meeting tlie demands of both we see him obtaining admission to the Tavern by assuring the master of the place that " he had come to save and not to take away the lives of his guests." Once in the room where Captain Titus and Firebrace were, the trusty officer first discharges his private con- science by throwing his red cloak over his head and calling out — " If Titus and Firebrace be in the room, let them escape for their lives this in- stant ! " Such a message did not need repeat- ing, and by the time the officer had thrown off his cloak, assumed his stern official demeanour and called in his soldiers, Titus and Firebrace had made their escajje through the window of the apartment, were already mounted on their horses, and anon were clattering along the high road for Scotland, where Captain Titus joined General Monk ! If the horse referred to below was the one Titus bought with the gratuity from Parliament, it was only another of the strange turns in the wheel of fortune favoured by the times. " Order of the Committee for compounding, on the information that there is a study of boolis and a horse belonging to Captain [Silas] Titus, now with the King of Scotland [Charles II.] in Scotland, not yet seized, that they be secured and appraised, and that the landlord of the King's Arms, Holborn, who has the horse, be in- demnified for delivering it up." When the Restoration came, though the late King was no longer on the scene to " requite his friends and pitty his ennimies," his recommen- dation of Captain Titus to his son's considera- tion was not forgotten, aud in the righting of old scores, aud the table-turning of that memorable spring of 1660, Captain Titus and his faithful services to Charles I were officially recognised by his appointment as Groom of the Bed Chamber, and he was given the Commission of Colonel. The warrant of Charles II. for that appointment contains such an eloquent enumeration of Colonel Titus' services, and withal brings out another memorable business in which he was en- gaged, that it is well worth reproducing here. The warrant is addressed to Sir Edmund Walker, Knight, Garter Principal King at Arms. " Whereas we have taken into our royall con- sideration the many heroick, signall, and loyall services performed by our trusty aud well-beloved subject and seruant Silius Titus, esq,, one of the groomes of our Bed Chamber, not only unto our royall father King Charles the First of ever blessed memory, but unto ourselfe ; particularly that in the years 1646, 1647, 1648, he was by our royall father entrusted in his affayres of greatest importance, both in relation to his restitution and in order to his escape out of the captivity he was held in by the rebels, for which he was by them charged with high treason and forced to fly beyond the seas. After whicli, as the highest testimony of our royall father's j ustice and confi- dence, he did, even at the time of his execrable murder, and upon the accursed scaflbld, recom- mend him, the said Sylas Titus, and his singular fidelity unto us, by thelate Archbishop of Canter- bury, then assisting, who happily lived to declare the same ; since when, even unto our happy restoration, wee, being as highly satisfied with his great prudence, loyalty and zeale to our ser- vice, have entrusted and employed him in our most private aflairs and designs, whereby he was exposed to the greatest dangers, had his estate confiscated by the rebels, aud was by an act of theirs condemned of high treason ; nothwith- standing which he crossed the seas in order to our service about twenty times, and by his penn and practices against the Usui-per Oliver, vigorously endeavoured the destruction of that tyrant and his government. And after our restoration (being then a member of Parliament) he did as vigorously pursue to justice the accursed regicides ; aud by his motion the carcases of Oliver Cromwell, Bradshawe and Ireton were taken up out of our royall chapell at \Vestminster, drawne to Tibourne, there hanged, then buried under the gallows, and the heads sett upon West- minster Hall ; for which and other services and sufferings he has three thousand pounds voted to 128 HEBTFOEDSHIEI] BTIRIirG THE GEEAT CITO, WAR. him by the two Houses of Parliament, in such terms as the honour thereof was equal to the gift. " All which considered cannot but esteeme him most highly worthy of merit from us some such signall marke and honorary ensignes of armes in testimony of our grace and favour, as may be bourne and used by him and his posterity. Our will and pleasure therefore is, and we do hereby require you * * to grant and assigne unto the said Sylas Titus * * the additional coat of armes here after exprest, viz. : Or upon a chiefe imbattelled Gules, a lion of England, pasant gardant Or ; to be bourne and used by him and his descendants in the first place quarterly together with the armes of his family ; and for so doing this shall be youre sufficient warrant. Given at our Court at Whitehall, the — day of in the 17th year of our reigne." Carlyle's suggestion that Saxby may have written " Killing no Murder " and his innuendo that Titus may have taken credit for it to win favour at Court, lose some of their force by the testimony of Charles II. that Titus "by his penn and practices vigorously endeavoured the destruction of that tyrant." It is true that Charles 11. while at Breda was not in a position to know for certain, but for his testimony to the part played by Titus in getting the bodies of Cromwell and others removed to Tyburn he was a competent witness, and that part was at least in perfect harmony with the authorship of the " noisy pamphlet," Killing no Ahirder. f f Killing no Murder : Briefly discoursed in three Questions. — "And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword. — 2 Chron. xxiii 21." The text of the pamphlet is preceded by a letter addressed " to his Highness Oliver Cromwell," in which the writer sets out his purpose in the following mixture of candour and irony : — " To your Highness justly belongs the honour of dying for the people and it cannot choose but be an unspeakable consolation to you in the last moments of your life to consider with how much benefit to the world you are like to leave it. * * Tou are the true father of your country, for while you live we can call nothing ours and it is from your death that we hope for our inheritance. Let this fortify your Highnesse'smind and the terrorsof your evil conscience, that the good you will do by your death will somewhat balance the evils of your life, and if in the black catalogue of high malefactors few can be found that have lived more to the afflictions and disturbance of mankind than your Highness hath done ; yet your greatest enemies will not deny, but there are likewise as few that have expired more to the universal benefit of mankind than your Highness is like to do. To hasten this great good is the chief end of my writing this Colonel Titus lived to become a member of Parliament for his native county of Hertford (1 678), but moved by the " no popery " sentiment of those times soon lost favour at Court by opposing the royal prerogative. In 1686 he became member for Huntingdon, and again dis- tinguished himself for his faithful adherence to the old Protestant lines by voting for the Bill for the exclusion of the Duke of York from the Succession. It was on that occasion that Titus justified his vote by a speech in which he delivered the apt and famous hnes — I hear a lion in the Lobby roar, Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door ? Or do you rather chuse to let him in ? But how then shall we get him out again ? We know that they did eventually let him in, preferring a Papist lion to a bastard, and also paper, and if it have the effects I hope it will, your Highness will quickly be out of reach of men's malice * « * Amongst all that put in their requests and supplications for your Highness's speedy deliverance from all earthly troubles none is more assiduous nor more fervent than he that (with the rest of the nation) hath the honour to be * * your Highness's present slave and vassal," &c. Then there follows a spirited address to " those officers and soldiers of the Army that remember the engagements and dare to be honest. Could ever England have thought to have seen that Army that was never mentioned without the titles of religious, zealous, faithful, courageous— the fence of her liberty at home and the terror of her enemies abroad — become jailors ; not her guard but her oppressors, not her soldiers, but her tyrant's executioners, drawing to blocks and gibbets all that dare be honester than themselves ? This you do, and this you are, nor can you redeem your honour * * if you let not speedily the world see that you have been deceived, which they will only then believe when they see your vengeance upon his faithless head that did it. To let you see that you may do this as a lawful action and to persuade you to it as a glorious one, is the principle intent of this following paper. This is from one that was once amongst you and will be so again when you dare to be as you were." The writer then proceeds with his main argument whether the Protector is a tyrant or not ; if he be, whether it is lawful to do justice upon him and kill him, and if it be lawful , whether it is likely to prove profitable or noxious to the Commonwealth. The conclusion has no uncertain sound — " his bed, his table, is not secure, and he stands in need of other guards to defend him ; death and destruction pursue him wherever he goes. He shall flee from the iron weapon and a bow of steel shall strike him through ; though his Excellency mount up to the Heavens and his head reacheth unto the clouds yet he shall perish * * They that have seen him shall say where is he." Several editions of this famous pamphlet were printed, one of which, with notes of the others, may be found in the Harleian Miscellany. HEETFOEBSHIEE BTJEING THE SHEAT CITIL WAK. 129 that after the horrors of a Jeiferiea' Bloody Assize they did manage to " get him out again." Titus was not disgraced even in the eyes of royalty, for he was introduced to the " Uon " as James II., and sworn on the Piivy Council, from which he retired on the abdication of the King. After sitting in Parliament for Ludlow Col. Titus ends his notable career quietly at his native place at Bushey, where he left three daughters. By a strange turn in the wheel of fortune, of which there were not a few in these times, Col. Titus became the owner by purchase of the estate of Sir Henry Cromwell, uncle of the Protector, at Ramsey, Hunts.— [Harl. MSS.] HEROES AND VIOTIMS.-COL EAWDON, OP HODDESDON-SIE JOHS WATTS, SIR JOHN BUTLER, AND OTHER ROYALISTS. Rawdon House, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, is associated with one member, as the conduit of water in the centre of the town is with a later member, of a noted family, of whom two, at least, played a conspicuous and adventurous part in the Civil "War. Marmaduke Rawdon, one of the City heutenants, findmg the City going against the King at the outset retired to the house he had built at Hoddesdon, but in 1643 was unable to resist the attractions of the War, and went and offered his sword to the King at Oxford, raised a regiment of loot and a troop of horse, and for a long time by his valour made the garrison of Basing House, in Hampshire, a landmark in the history of the great struggle and a thorn in the side of the Parliamentary armies mai-ching west- wards. Sir William Waller, in besieging the place, was again and again repulsed by the valour of Col Rawdon, and in one sanguinary encounter with the loss of nearly 3,000 men. The King, hearing of his success, commanded Col. Rawdon to appear before him at Oxford, where in the presence of many nobles and gentry, he desired him to draw his sword and then said : this sword hath got you honour and shall give it YOU " and so, bidding him kneel down, conferred upon him the honour of Knighthood and an augmentation to his family Arms. After this Sir Marmaduke stuck to his old post, where he was besieged by Fairfax. When at last the great stronghold fell, even the victorious legions of Fairfax could not but marvel at the resources which Col. Rawdon had got within Basing House. " The circumvallation was above a mile ; * * * the house was fit to make au emperor's court, with provisions for some years rather than months — four hundred quarter of wheat ; divers rooms full of bacon, containing hundreds of flitches ; cheese proportionable, with oat meal, beef, pork, and beer divers cellars full, and that very good." f The soldiers held a corn market and sold the wheat to the country people, and prices at first were high but afterwards fell. Besides provisions, many prisoners not actually soldiers were brought out from the protection of Col. Rawdon — poor old Iiiigo Jones, stripped of everything else, was brought out in a blanket ! Afterwards Rawdon gave a stubborn account of himself to the forces of Fairfax around Farring- don, dying in harness in 1646. Of the ten sons and six daughters born to him by his wife, the daughter of Thomas Thorowgood, of Hoddesdon, Thomas Rawdon, his eldest son, was a worthy successor, and, following his father to Oxford, was there made a Captain of Horse, and soon after a Colonel, fought at the siege of Gloucester, and had the strange experience of being one of the relieving party sent to the relief of his own father when besieged in Basing House, as already described. He fought in several other battles, including both the battles of Newbury ; and many other strange adventures were in store for him. He was sent as Consul for the King to Portugal, but liked the stirring life of the field better and soon returned. He was with the King in his strange adventure with Cornet Joyce at Holdenby, and apparently accompanied his Majesty from Royston through Hertfordshire in his progress already described ; was with him still at Hampton Court, and in his flight to the Isle of Wight, when he rendered good service in carrying private messages from the King to his friends in London. Finding he could no longer serve the King effectually he came to the old house at Hoddesdon, but could not safely abide there and fled to the Island of Tenerifle, where his brother and another relative had already gone. At the Restoration he returned to Eng- land, was presented at the court of Charles II., but though finding his own and his father's services to the royal cause acknowledged by the King, he could only get the promise of future favour which never came, and after travels across the seas came home to Hoddesdon to die in 1666. f Sprigge's Anglia Hediviva. 17 130 HEHTFOEDSHIEE DTJEING THE SEEAT CIVIL WAE. One of the earliest of the Hertfordshire Eoyalists to support Lord Capel in raising forces in the County and Eastern Association, as well as a fellow sufferer in the turn of events six years later, was Sir John Watts, of Mardocks, near Ware, one of the Herts Royalists who received a Commission of Array from the King. The reader has met with Sir John when in 1642 he attempted to execute his Commission of Array for the Royalist cause at the " Bell " (now " Salisbury Arms ") at Hertford, and with other Knights was obliged to retire upon the approach of the Parliamentary soldiers. It was this Sir John Watts who was expected to give battle in that midnight march to Hertford by the Earl of Bedford's Horse in the summer of 1642. He was knighted in 1642 and " for the general good and welfare of the Kingdom " he received a com- mission to raise a troop of horse, which he com- manded under Lord Capel. Afterwards he was made Governor of Thirsk Castle, which he had to surrender and did so upon honourable terms. Upon the King being confined in the Isle of Wight, Sir John Watts joined with Lord Capel in advising how to rescue the King from his enemies and restore him to his throne, and embarked with Capel upon the abortive enter- prise of the Second Civil War in 1648, sharing in the horrors of the Siege of Colchester, when Sir John was among the gentlemen taken prisoners by Fairfax. After this he made his composition for the recovery of his estates out of the hands of the Herts Sequestration Committee, sold his estate and manor of Mardocks, near Ware, and disappears from our view, leaving behind for posterity only this interesting fragmentary memorial, which I am told is or was to be seen in Hertingfordbury Church : — " Near this place lyes buried in one grave, those loyal and worthy gentlemen. Sir John Watts and Captain Harry Hooker." The Butler family of Watton Woodhall, Hatfield, Tewin, and other places in the county, furnished no mean contingent of loyal gentry, and in the matter of furnishing supplies, and of the frequency of the family name of Boteler or Butler among the King's supporters, no Hert- fordshire family name figures more prominently in the annals of the time. At the head of the family, or families, was Sir John Butler, of Watton Woodhall, to whom the King gave a commission for raising forces in the county at the beginning of the War. The in- formation against him afterwards laid by Parlia- ment was, that on receiving the Commission of Array in August, 1643, he wrote to Sir Peter Saltonstall (of Parkway) and other gentlemen to consult thereupon, and that he spoke openly in the Sessions at Hertford against the Militia and " said they were idle fellows ; " that he brought a pardon from the King for Hertfordshire which he delivered to the High Sheriff ; that he opposed the Covenant and " said they were traitors and foresworn that took it," and that his estate was £2,000 a year. It was advised that he be imprisoned and that the fine imposed be £2,000 or £3,000. In March, 1645, he was admitted to compound upon a fine of £2,000, when he pleaded debts, six children to provide' for, the lowering of his rents, loss by free quarter of soldiers, by his two years' imprisonment, hisformer assistance to Parliament with £300 in Horse and Arms, and £1,200 in money ; and not having assisted the King, he begged them to accept his ofier of £1,000, and discharge him from imprisonment for the recovery of his health. In August, 1645, while imprisoned at Peter House, Sir John indulged himself by using his tongue freely in the presence of the other prisoners, declaring " that the major and better part of the Parliament, that were good subjects, had left the Parliament here, and were with the King ; and that it was unlawful to take up arms against the King ; which the Parliament had done, and that they were traitors and rebels, and other discourse to this effect, to the disgrace of Parliament." Upon this it was ordered that Sir John Butler be removed from Peter House and committed prisoner to the Tower during the pleasure of the House, and the Lieutenant of the Tower was injoined to prevent Sir John Butler and Sir George Sandys (committed at the same time) from coming one to another. Afterwards the House so far relented as to allow Sir John to be heard in defence, and ordered that the sale of his goods be stayed for ten days. But meanwhile the Committee at Hertford had been active in carrying off some of the things from Woodhall Park, and a few days later an order for staying the sale for thirty days placed the Committee in the awkward position of having to take the things back to Watton ! On the 25th of Sep- tember (1645) an order was made for his release from the Tower upon his paying his former fine and composition. By a later order, however. Sir John Butler was allowed to pay the remaining £500 of his fine HERTFOEBSHIEE DTTBING THE GEEAT CIVIL 'WAE, 131 within the next five years, one hundred pounda each year, aud on the 18th May, 1646, an ordinance was passed by Parliament for " grant- ing a pardon unto Sir John Boteler, of Watton- at-Stone, in the county of Herts., Knight, for his delinquency, and the discharge of the sequestra- tion of his estate." He failed to keep up the yeai'ly payments, however, and in 1650 sequestra- tion was again ordered. Sir John died soon after getting through his troubles in 165.3 in the 66th year of his age and was buried at Watton. t Besides Sir John there were several other members of the Butler family who figured conspicuously in the Wars. Sir Philip Butler, son and heir of Sir John, was an active Royalist, and for his services was made a Knight of the Bath at the Restoration. Sir Francis Butler, of Hatfield Woodhall, son of Sir Ralph, of Tewin, was with the King at York in 1642, and was Knighted for his services in Ireland. Sir George Butler, of Tewin, was created a baronet in December, 1643, from which it may be inferred that he also was with the King, and probably at Oxford. Sir "Wilham Butler, who married a sister of Lady Ann Fanshawe, and a daughter of Sir John Harrison, of Balls Park, Hertford, was killed at Cropredy Bridge, near Banbury, while in com- mand of a part of the King's Forces, on June 29th, 1644, when the King defeated Waller, and then marched into Bedfordshire and Hertford- shire and created the crisis for the Parliamen- tarians in these counties described in a previous chapter. But the greatest adventurer in the War who could claim connection with the ancient mansion and family of Watton Woodhall was the famous Colonel Belasise who married Lady Jane Butler, niece of Sir John, and owner of the manor of Saoombe. Not only was this dashing young soldier with the King at Nottingham, but he took with him a regiment of Foot which he had raised himself, and afterwards raised five other regi- ments, became commander of the King's forces in Yorkshire, fought the battle of Selby against Fairfax, I and defended Newark until the King t The story has got into print "that the more ancient monamenta of the family were preserved during the Civil Wars by the care of a Parliamen- tarian who resided at Bardolphs, a sub-manor ot T Coi Belasise was the chief commander at Selby, when Fairfax, after severe fighting, captured the place and took Belasise and "almost one hundred officers, and two thousand prisoners, of which great battle there was " not paper enough in the town to write in a sheet." came in person, after that march in disguise through Hertfordshire, and ordered its surrender. Like other fighting Royalists, he saw no end of adventure, was wounded in several engagements, and was three times a prisoner in the Tower, where his uncle, Sir John Butler, Mr. Coningsby, and other Hertfordshire men spent a part of the time. In 1645 he was created Baron Belasise ; and, living all through the troublous times, became employed in the service of Charles II. after the Restoration. A few more Hertfordshire Royalists who fought for the King may be conveniently grouped in this place, who, though less known to fame than the foregoing, were none the less devoted to the Royal cause. Among the oldest families in the county who took their stand on the side of the King was that of the Gapes, of St. Michael's Manor, St. Albans. They were descended from a family who fought in the Wars of the Roses, when Henry Gape (or Guipe) is said to have fought, near his own home, in the second battle of St. Albans, and held a command in the Lancastrian Army in 1461. The names of both a John and a Francis Gape are mentioned among the Royahsts, but it is John that concerns us here. Though I am not aware of any details of his action in the Wars, it seems clear that he fought for the King, the best evidence of which is that a medal presented to John Gape by Charles I. is still in the possession of Major James J. Gape, J.P., the present representative of a family whicli has been closely connected for generations with the county life of Hertfordshire, and furnished members of Parliament for St. Albans, without an interruption, from Charles II. to George II. Sir John Monson was with the King at Oxford, and reputed to be " as wise a man as any of them in Oxford, where he then assisted in all Councils, and was in all treaties, particularly in that con- cerning the surrender of the garrison at Oxford in 164(3," and having suffered much for his loyalty, he retired to his manor house at Broxbourne, where he spent a hospitable evening of life among his neighbours. In the same parish of Broxbourne the monu- ments there testify, or did do so, to the trials of Sir Richard Skeffington, Knight, whose quiet spirit "mett with soe many andsoe just occasions of sorrow for the divisions in Church and State, and for the sadd effects thereof, as turned his employment into such a burthen as caused him to retire to this place for ease," when he died in 1647, leaving " five children and a world of friends to mourne their losse." 132 HEETFOEDSHraE "DTJEIKG THE GEEAT CIVH WAE. When in August, 1 644, the rival armies of the King and the Earl of Essex were in the West, and the King and his officers made an overture to treat with the Earl of Essex, the list of Hertford- shire officers who signed the document were Henry Baron Gary, of Rickmansworth, and Nath. Slingsby, of Newsells. It was Baron Gary who had the honour of entertaining the King at dinner upon that march from Hatfield House to Windsor Gastle as already described. Sir Henry Gary held one of the forts at the storming of Dartmouth in the West, which surrendered to Fairfax in January, 1646, and he was allowed to march away with his men upon giving up their arms and ammunition. Soon after this he was seeking to compound for his estate, and his fine was accepted and he was pardoned in 1647. Another Royalist of the Gary family who was pardoned at the same time was Ernestus Gary, and among the killed at Marston Moor (1644) was Lyonell, eldest son of the Right Hon. Baron Gary, who is buried in the Chancel of the Parish Church at Rickmansworth. John Newport, a member of the Newport family of Pelham, fought for the King, and after the defeat at Naseby he marched into the West and took part in the efi'ort to retrieve the cause of the King in that quarter ; and in a skirmish with the Parliamentary forces in Wiltshire he was wounded, from the efiects of which he died in January, 1646. While he was fighting for the King his house at Furneaux Pelham shared the fate of other Royalists and his family were deprived of its use, to which they retm'ned at the Restoration. A typical and full blown Cavalier was Robert Lord Dormer, owner of the manor of Studham, on the borders of Herts, on the hiUs bordering the county near Ashridge. A rollicking sportsman " fond of his hounds and his hawks," he, when the war began, buckled on his sword and threw him- self into the struggle during his short career which terminated by a Parliamentary trooper running him through with his sword at the First Battle of Newbury when the great Lord Falkland fell, in September, 1643. In June (-^th), 1643, the son of Sir John Harby, and a cousin of Sir Job Harby, of Aldenham, and related by marriage with the Saltonstalls, of Barkway, was the subject of the following order of Parliament made to his father Sir John Harby, " to have a warrant to bring a hearse with his son's corpse from Oxon," an order which tells its own tale. George Bromley, of Waterford Hall, and owner of the manor of Westmill near Ware, Herts, drew his sword for the King and joined with Lord Capel and the Fanshawes at the opening and during the War, and in 1644 sought to evade the loss of his estate by a conveyance of it to another person, an act which Parliament declared to be fraudulent, and the Herts Sequestration Com- mittee put them.selves in possession, as appears by their certificate dated June, 1644. t Upon this in 1645 a fine of £100 was fixed, and he pleaded in ability to pay, " the County Committee having taken his lands worth £86 a year, and his goods, &c., worth £600." In August of the same year he had paid the fine, however, and the House of Commons passed an order for his pardon and the discharge of his estates. But Mr. Bromley had not done with his troubles, for, undeterred by his former experience, he in 1648 joined Lord Capel and Sir Thomas Fanshawe in raising troops for the Second Civil War, which brought him, apparently, into the horrors of the Siege of Colchester, and to a subsequent im- prisonment. Again he was among those who endeavoured to restore the son of the late King to the Throne, "for which attempt his estate was sequestrated and he forced to retire to some obscure habitation " until the Restoration of King Charles, and after his death his estate had become so impoverished that his son, " not being able to retrieve his father's debts," sold it to Thomas Feltham. " Young Mr. Keeling," steward of the Borough of Hertford, whom the reader has met at the Herts Quarter Sessions, there trying to get the grand jury to present the names of those who had trained as Volunteers for Parliament at the beginning of the fray, shared the fate of Andrew Palmer, the Royahst Mayor of Hertford, but was not so soon liberated from imprisonment. For in 1644, finding their Steward of the Borough still a close prisoner in Windsor Castle, the Hert- ford Corporation dismissed him from his office, which his father had held for many years before him, and the Herts Sequestration Committee looked after his estate. At the Restoration, however, he not only got back his estate but was made a Serjeant-at-Law, and in 1663 was knighted and made a j ustice of the King's Bench, of which he afterwards became Chief Justice. Sir Henry Blount, of Ridge, near Barnet, the reputed " Socrates of the age," was one of those who attended the King at EdgehiU, and in that f Reports of Committee for Compounding. HEETFOKDSHIRE DITRING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 133 battle according to a tradition in the family is said to have had the care of the Royal children. He was with the King at Oxford, but retiring to London was brought before the House of Commons, where pleading that he had only performed such duties as his post required of him, he was let off. Sir Thomas Salisbury was among those who were, at the very beginning of the War, in Sept., 1642, to be " impeached for high treason for actual levying of war against the King and Parliament, and marching at the head of his forces against the Parhament." The above are some of the principal members of old Hertfordshire families who may be properly grouped as fighting Royalists, as distinguished from others, who though supporters of the cause of the King in principle, confined their loyalty to furnishing means for can-ying on the War for the King, or to refusing to comply with the demands of Parliament, and as the manner of deaUng with these by Parliament and the County Committee has a peculiar interest of its own, they will be noticed in a separate chapter. HEROES FOE, PAELTAMENT. — DANIEL AXTELL OF BERKHAJISTED, IRONSIDE AND EEGICIDE. Such soula. Whose andden visitationg daze the world, Vanish like lightning-, but they leave behind, A voice that in the distance far away, Wakens the alambering ages. Sir H. Taylor. — Philip van Artevelde. The Parliamentarians may have ridden rough- shod over mere sentimental attachments and personal devotion to one man ; but stern and uninviting though the manner of many of the fighting men on their side was, they left an exampfe of contending for a great principle which was destined to hve in the history of England when the smoke of battle had passed away. The name of Master Hampden, the friend of many Hertfordshire families, besides the Lyttona, of Knebworth— the member of Parliament chosen for Wendover, on the borders of Hertfordshire, though preferring to sit for his county of Bucks in that famous Parliament of 1640, was a house- hold word, and a name to conjure with among the Hertfordshire people when the War began. His cause the Hertfordshire people had, to a large extent, made their own, and the principle which animated his followers was a powerful element in the county when it came to the question of taking sides in the conflict. On the negative side, Hampden's historic protest had carried witli it the whole of the county families of Hertfordsliire, and it was only when its logical eifect carried adherents into the field of actual war that something like a social cleavage manifested itself, and a number of the leading families went over to the King. The result of that cleavage was that while the county of Hertford furnished from its yeomen and its malt-mal^ers substantial levies for the Parliamentary Army all through the War, the county produced few soldiers of distinction on the Parliament side considered as commanders in the field of actual war. Of administrators and Committee-men it could furnish no end of leaders, but either they had not the qualifications for command in war, or, as events developed, they were half - hearted in the business of fighting. Major-General Browne, we have seen, attributed some of his difiioulties with the Hertfordshire and Essex men in the crisis of 1644 partly to the backwardness of some of the commanders themselves. The great majority of the leading men for Parliament, within the county, were men of the old county type of those Knights whom we have seen now carrying to Parliament their protestations and their petitions, and now acting on County Com- mittees for organising means for carrying on the War. But while the actual fighting for Hertfordshire on the side of Parhament had thus to be done by men who rest, for the most part, in forgotten and vmheroic graves, a few notable figures remain whose exploits must claim a place in general and county history. Just as Lord Capel was foremost, in unselfish loyalty, of those who fought and suffered for the King, so at the opposite extreme the County of Hertford produced one of the most distinguished, though one of the youngest, of those fighting, praying Ironsides, whose names stand out for valour in the pages of history. Colonel Axtell, who distinguished himself on the side of Parliament during the War, who became a notable figure in the band of Regicides, and suffered from the reaction at the Restoration, was a native of Berkhamsted. The family was for many generations connected with that town, and evidently occupied a position of substance and of influence there. As early as the reign of Henry VIII a membqr of the family became a monk of the order of Bon 134 HEKTrOEDSHIEE IIUEING THE &EEAT CrVTL WAR. Hommes, in Ashridge House, before the Dissolution. At the outbreak of the Civil War the head of the family was one William Axtell, whose son, Daniel, was then twenty years of age. t When the War broke out the future hero of the Ironsides had gone up to London, apprenticed there to a trade — as the boys of many a substantial country family then were — and was in surroundings which did not seem to promise any such distinction on the public stage as that to which he was so soon to attain. But at a time when the religious side of the quarrel was especially prominent, when fears of a Roman Catholic ascendancy in Church and State wrought effectually upon the imagination, and stimulated the oratory of Puritan preachers, both in and outside the pulpits of the Established Church, young Axtell, the London apprentice, came under the spell of one or two of these " cry-aloud and spare-not " type of Puritan preachers. Under the spell of their oratory he threw in his lot with the Parliamentary side of the quarrel, gave up his trade, shouldered a pike, and rose by his zeal to the ranks of Captain, of Major, and then of Lieut.-Colonel of a Regiment of Foot at the early age of twenty-six years. He, apparently, went all through the War, was with the Army at Thriplow Heath, and his regiment was certainly present at the Ware rendezvous in Corkbush-field. Among the many occasions of hard fighting in which young Axtell had a share there is one in which he is specially commended. While the soldiers of Axtell's own county were, in the summer of 1 648, engaged in chasing the Cavaliers through Hertfordshire to the battle of St. Neots, Col. Axtell was engaged with Col. Rich at the siege of Deal Castle. On August 22nd of that year the surrender of the Castle was reported to the House. Col. Rich, in writing to Parliament an account of the taking of Deal Castle , says : — " In this and the other leaguer, at Walmer, the bearer, Lieutenant-Colonel Axtelljhath been extraordinary active and diligent, and will, if your leisure permits, give you account of the provisions we found here ; and this Castle wanted not men to defend it, there being not less than 200 and upwards that marched out." [Letter in Gary Memorials, vol. ii., page 4.] t " 1622 : Danniell, ye sonne of William Axtell, was baptized ye 26th of May." Berkhamsted Parish Eegistere, Lieut. -Col. Axtell, who was in the whole action, was called into the House, and " declared the particulars of the proceedings in this service, and delivered in the articles of surrender thereof" It was " Ordered that the sum of one hundred pounds be bestowed upon Lieut. -Col. Axtell, and paid to him by the Committee of Kent out of the sequestrations of that county." By the time the Army had marched from its deliberations in St. Albans Abbey to take into its own hands the Parliamentary division lists and the fate of the King, Axtell, for a young man, had come rapidly to the front, and appears to have strongly opposed all endeavours at a reconciliation with the King ; and at the King's trial, as we shall see presently, he was in com- mand of the Guards in charge of Westminster Hall, when it was alleged he made himself notorious in quelling and counteracting any popular expressions of sympathy with his Majesty as he passed to and from the scene of the trial in the Hall. After the execution of the King, in which Axtell played a prominent part, his regiment was drawn for service in Ireland, and while in that country it was alleged by his opponents that he committed acts of cruelty upon both Protestants and Catholics, and that his conduct elicited the disapproval of his fellow officers. But Ludlow, writing of Axtell's career, says that he had behaved himself honestly and bravely in the service of the Commonwealth. He further adds that "he had been captain, major, lieutenant-colonel in a regiment of foot, and when Cromwell was sent by Parliament into Ireland with an army against the rebels, and the regiment in which Col. Axtell served was drawn out by lot for that expedition, he cheerfully undertook the employment and for his fidelity, courage, and good conduct was soon preferred to the head of a regiment and not long after was made Governor of Kilkenny and the adjacent precinct, which important trust he discharged with diligence and success. In this station he showed a more than ordinary zeal in punishing those Irish who had been gviilty of murdering the Protestants, and on this account, as well as for what he had done in relation to the late King, the Court [at the Restoration] had procured him to be excepted out of the Act of Indemnity." But if Axtell was at fault in avenging the massacre of the Protestants, Cromwell's policy in Ireland gave dissatisfaction to the Puritans and especially the Anabaptists, and Axtell, with other officers, resigned his commission in HEETFOEDSHIEE DTJEING THE GtEEAT CIVIL WAE. 135 November, 1656, returned to England and lived upon "his estates which he had acquired in the service." After Cromwell's death he received the appointment of the command of a division of the Irish Brigade, and upon General Monk's march with his army from Scotland, Col. Axtell and the rest of the officers of the Irish Brigade, " the best troops in the Kingdom," kept their body from acting against him. It is said that Monk, know- ing that the troops while under such officers would never concur in the King's restoration, got them by stratagem to change them for other officers, and thus weakened Lambert's army so that his (Monk's) march to London could not be opposed, as it might otherwise have been. Axtell, seeing which way the wind blew, shifted for himself. But though he had now no command, upon Lambert's escape from the Tower in 1660 he joined him at Daventry with a body of horse. AVhen this force was dispersed and Lambert was again made prisoner Axtell was among the " considerable officers " who managed to escape for the time being, but not long after he, too, found himself within the walls of the Tower. Ludlow says that his capture came about through a stratagem — that " he was trepanned by the Cavaliers under the pretence of treating with him for the purchase of some lands and was sent to the Tower." So Colonel Axtell, though not actually one of the Eegicides, was brought to trial. The circum- stances attending his trial and that of others at the Eestoration were these. The King (Charles II.) had, before landing in England, made pro- clamation at Breda declaring a free pardon to all who within forty days should claim the benefit of it, excepting any who were excepted by Parha- ment ; Axtell was not among those excepted ; but, with others who were relying upon the benefit of that proclamation, he found the tide of feeling too strong for proclamations to stand in the way, and he and others were insisted upon as victims. The Court which tried Colonel Axtell and the other Kegicides was presided over by Sir Orlando Bridgeman, the Lord Chief Baron — who after- wards figured notably in Hertfordshire in the trial and punishment of the Quakers — and the judges included at least two Hertfordshire men in Baron Atkins, the former Serjeant Atkins, who was made steward of the Borough of Hert- ford in place of "young Mr. Keeling," and Sir Harbottle Grimston. The indictment charged Axtell with " imagin- ing and compassing the King's death," and when placed at the bar the Clerk of the Court called out — " Daniel Axtell, hold up thy hand. How sayest thou, art thou guilty or not guilty of the treason 1 " But Axtell, like many of the Regicides, who were put up in batches to plead at the same time, at fir.st refused to make a plea either of guilty or not guilty, in so many words, without the opportunity of making a qualifying statement or explanation, to which the Court would not listen. Sir Orlando Bridgeman : Then I will tell you the law. He that doth refuse to put himself upon his legal trial of God and the country is a mute in law ; and therefore you must plead guilty or not guilty — let his language be what it will he is a mute in law. Axtell : I do not refuse it. The Court : Then say. Axtell : I am not guilty. The Court : How wilt thou be tried ? Axtell : By twelve lawful men, according to the Constitution of the law. The Court : That is, " By God and the country." t Axtell : That is not lawful — God is not locally here ! The Clerk : How wilt thou be tried ? You must say " By God and the country." Axtell : By God and the country. The Clerk : God send you a good deliverance. Axtell then asked to be supplied with pen and ink, and, having challenged some of the jury, the trial proceeded. Counsel for the prosecution opened the pro- ceedings by painting the deeds of Axtell as " the commander of that black, that cruel and bloody guard of soldiers in Westminster Hall at the King's trial," in the blackest colours. In support of the rather vague charge it was f The formal answer to this question in the legal procedure of the time was " By God and the country," to which answer the Clerk of the Court formally added " God send you a good deliverance." The exact meaning of the phrase "by God and the country" comes out in the direction given to the jury— "the prisoner hath put himself upon God and the country, which country you are." 136 HEETFOEDSHIEE DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. urged against him that when the King was passing to the High Court of Justice during his trial, some of the people called out " God save the King," that Col. Axtell beat the soldiers till they called out " Justice, justice," and that upon the last day of the trial when the people called out " God preserve your Majesty," as the King passed, Axtell compelled the soldiers to call out " Execution, Execution." One of the principal incidents spoken to by the witnesses was this :— When, at the opening of the King's trial in Westminster Hall, Lady Fairfax, who was among the ladies in the gallery, in answer to her husband's name in the roll-call of the judges called out from behind a mask, " he has more wit than to be here " ; and again when the King was asked to answer the charge " in the behalf of the Commons assembled in Parliament and the good people of England," Lady Fairfax again called out " It is a lie ; not half nor a quarter of the people of England ; Oliver Cromwell is a traitor," — it was alleged that Colonel Astell lost his temper and actually ordered his soldiers to fire, or rather to point their guns, to where Lady Fairfax and others sat ! One of the witnesses at the trial referring to this incident swore that when the lady called out from the gallery Astell commanded some musqueteers to present their guns against the lady and commanded her to unmask ! Axtell : What lady is it ? I desire to know. Witness : She went by the name of Lady Fairfax. I know not whether it was so or no ; it was the common report it was she. Ool. Huncks, another witness, said on the morning the King died the prisoner Axtell came to the door of the room where Col. Phayre, Col. Hacker, Cromwell and the witness were at Whitehall (Ireton and Harrison lying in bed together in the same room). Axtell stood at the door half in and half out. Witness refused to sign the order for executing the King as Cromwell ordered him to do, '' and some little cross language having passed, saith the prisoner at the bar, ' Col. Huncks, I am ashamed of you ! The ship is now coming into the harbour and will you strike sail before we come to anchor ? ' " Axtell denied having seen the witness, t t Col. Huncks in a further account of this scene stated tliat when he refused to draw up an order for the execution of the King " Cromwell would have no delay. There was a little table that stood by the door, and pen, ink and paper being there, Cromwell writ (I Sir P. Temple was another witness, and he swore that at the King's trial he saw Astell beat four or iive of his soldiers till they called out "justice, justice," and that when they with the powder in the palms of their hands forced the King to rise out of his chair Axtell was much pleased and laughed at it. Axtell strongly denied this. Another witness swore that when Astell called out "shoot them if they [in the gallery] speak one word more," they were all very " hush." Another witness swore that Axtell encom-aged the soldiers to say "let us have justice against the King ! " One witness against Astell was John Jeonar, a domestic servant upon the late King, and in attendance uijon his Majesty at the trial. Witness was close to the King and Col. Astell was upon the right hand commanding the guard, and called out to the soldiers to cry out "justice" on the last day of the trial. Axtell : Are you certain ? I have heard other men, I confess, accused for this — some other officers. Witness : I did hear you. Samuel Burden, an over-confident witness, said he believed Col. Axtell knew him well enough, as he was then under his command at Whitehall, and he added that there were some Cavaliers then in the regiment, and it was his fortune to come into Col, AxteU's regiment and he wished he never had. Col. Axtell commanded him and others to be a witness against the King. Axtell also commanded Elisha Axtell, with a file of soldiers, to take a boat and go down to the common hangman, who lived beyond the Tower, to execute the King. The Counsel for the prosecution having submitted to the Court that the evidence had made the prisoner out to be " blacker than they thought " said he " left him to his defence." Col. Astell addressed the Court with con- siderable ability and at some length. At first he had endeavoured to evade the charges as to beating the soldiers and to make them call out "justice" conceive he wrote that which he would have had me to write) as soon as he had done writing, he gives the pen over to Hacker, Hacker he stoops and did write (I cannot say what he writ). Away goes Cromwell, and then Axtell; we all went out, afterwards they went into another room ; immediately the King came out and was murthered." H'EIlTI'OIlDSHrRE DTTEUTO THE GHEAT CITIL WAR. 137 and " execution," saying that he might have beaten the soldiers for crying out, and might have repeated their words by saying " I'll justice you," and " I'll execution you." This plea was soon over-ruled. It was in vain also that he now submitted to the Court that he considered the war in which he had taken part was legal because it was ordered by a Parliament called by the King's writ ; that he was no more guilty than General Monk, who acted upon the same authority ; that he was not of the Council, and had no hand in the execution of the King ; that he was only obeying the order of Parliament, and if he acted treason it was under that authority, and if the House of Commons, who were tlie coUeotive body and the representatives of the nation, be guilty, then all the people of England who chose them were guilty, and then where would be the jury to try them ? This ingenious legal point being over-ruled. Col. AiteU said his commission to obey his General was given to him when the Lords and Commons sat in Parliament. He had no other commission than this ; and Lord Fairfax com- manded the army after the King's death by a like commission. He did but his duty in going to his regiment. If his General said " go to such a place " and he refused " then by the law of war I die ; if I obey, then I am in danger." The Court over-ruled Aitell again, and asked if his commission authorised him to cry "justice, justice," and to look up and down to get witnesses against the King — was that his commission ? AxteU : lam toserve and obey all my superior officers, that is my commission, and if I do not I die by the law of the country. The Court : You are to obey them in all just commands ; aU unjust commands are invalid. As to Lady Fairfax, AxteU said, " I knew not who the lady was that called out. But, my Lord, to silence a lady, I suppose, is not treason. If a lady will talk impertinently it is no treason to bid her hold her tongue ! " Upon the statement of a witness that he " laughed when others sighed " AxteU said that he believed he had as deep a sense of what was transacted that day as others, but if he had smiled he hoped that was not treason. If he did encourage his soldiers to demand justice and execution, the execution of justice was a glorious thing ; justice wm one of the great attributes of God, and the desiring of it would be no crime. But 'the words, not being spoken with a personal application, might have a good as well as a bad construction ; and, in favour of life, the best sense ought to be put upon them. The Lord Chief Baron : Have you done, sir ? AxteU : I leave the matter to the jury, in whose hands 1 and my httle ones and family are left ; I only say this to you — remember your ancestors, remember your posterity ... I never heard it before that words were treason . . . . Gentlemen of the jury I leave my case, my life, my all in your hands, t The Clerk [after the jury had consulted] : Daniel AxteU, hold up thy hand. Gentlemen, look upon the prisoner at the bar. How say you, is he guilty of high treason whereof he stands indicted or not ? The Foreman : Guilty. Look to him, keeper. What goods or chattels ? The Jury : Not any to our knowledge. And so the doughty Hertfordshire Ironside vanishes for a time — down that inclined plane on which the Regicides are rapidly faUiug — down to the condemned cell, there to await the impending doom of being hung, drawn, and quartered ! The glimpses we get of AxteU after the sentence of the Court show us anything but a man going to an ignominious death on the scaffold. Returning from his trial at the Court to his prison, " with a cheerful countenance," and his wife coming to meet him full of trouble, AxteU said, " not a tear, wife ! What hurt have they done me to send me sooner to heaven ? I bless the Lord I could have freely gone from the bar to the gibbet ! " Attention being called by his friends to his coarse lodgings, he replied, " what matter is it to have a little dirty way when we have a fair house to go into ! " When his daughter came in to visit him he remarked, " where hast thou been all this while ? I thought thou hadst been ashamed of my chains." To a gentleman coming in to see him before departing for Ireland, AxteU said, " Tell them that for the good old cause which we were en- gaged in under Parliament, I am now going to be their martyr, and aa for the King I wish him as weU as my own soul." Hearing other prisoners go by his door on their way to execu- tion, he called out, " The Lord go with you." t The above particulars are taken from the State Trials (Cobbett's Collection, vol. v), the Trial of the Regicides, and other contemporary sources, the accounts in'each of which substantially agree. 18 138 HEBTFOEDSHIKE DTJEING THE GEEAI CIVIL WAE. Laying his hand upon his fellow-prisoner, Col. Hacker, who had been condemned at the same time, Axtell said, " Come, brother, be not so sad ; by this time to-morrow we shall be with our Father in glory. What hurt will they do us to bring us through the Cross to the Crown ; well, our God is the God of Newgate." When parting with his friends at the door of his dungeon he said, " I am now going to my bed of roses ; my last bed. If I had a thousand lives I would lay them down for the good old cause." Embracing his son and daughter, he urged them to " keep close to Christ ; He will be a better Father to thee than I." When on the morrow the sledge was brought to convey Col. Axtell and Col. Hacker to their execution, Axtell desired his friends to be at the place of execution, and then " with a cheerful countenance they were drawn to Tyburn." When it came to Col. Axtell's turn to be executed, the crowd who had witnessed almost a surfeit of executions at Charing Cross turned up at Tyburn, where Axtell's and Hacker's execution was appointed to take place, in a more favourable mood for the victims. They had already witnessed the execution of Cook, the Solicitor- General, of Hugh Peters, the " mad chaplaiu " or " the Prince of Army Chaplains," whom we have met in the Abbey Church at St. Albans ; of Col. Scroop, who marched from Hertford and won the battle of St. Neot's, while Capel was shut in Colchester ; of Harrison, Scott, and others, of Corkbush-field notoriety, had seen the manner in which their bodies were mangled, and had been impressed by the fortitude with which they met their fate. Wheu, therefore, it came to Axtell's turn, though he was the very man who had taken so prominent a part at the trial and execution of the King, there were no reproaches or uncivil taunts from the crowd, t In fact, the Court party had found that the •f " Thougli Colonel Axtell and Colonel Hacker had actual charge of the scatfold, and were the super- intendents, and, except for the hangmen, the execu- tioners of the King, the crowd would, in their cases, permit no reproaches or incivility towards them. * * Axtell was, to some extent, regarded by the people as a Protestant hero, for he had been Governor of Kilkenny, and had been very active in punishing those of the Irish rebels who had been concerned in the massacre of the Protestants. For this reason it was said that the Court had induced the Parliament to except him from the Act of Oblivion, of which he otherwise would have had the benefit, his life having been expressly spared by resolution of the House of Commons. — Inderwick's Side-lights on the Stuarts, policy of revenge, and the course of slaughter, might over-reach itself in the eyes of the people ; and from prudential motives, apparently, tne execution of Col. Axtell and Col. Hacker was removed from Charing Cross, where the above named had been executed, to Tyburn. The scene at Tyburn, when Col. Axtell and Col Hacker arrived for exeo^ition was, however, a very remarkable one. Havmg been drawn thither on a sledge from Newgate _" with a cheerful countenance they were placed m a cart, and the rope placed round their necks," ready for the cart to be drawn from beneath the gallows and leave them swinging after ^ the manner of execution by hanging in those times, and all around them was a great crowd of people. The rabble rout forbore to shout. And each man held his breath. For well they knew the hero's soul, Was face to face with death ! Colonel Axtell, addressing the Sheriff, said : " Mr. Sheriff, I am now, as you see, come to the place of execution according to my sentence. I desire your leave that I may speak freely and without interruption, first to these people and then to God, for it is the last that I shall speak in this world, and I hope it will redound to your account." To this the Sheriflf replied : " You know that the Court prohibited you to speak, and what was spoken at the bar of the Court was there decided ; therefore it is needless for you to repeat it here. I hope you will keep to the preseut business which concerns you and not go out into impertinencies ; and because you have little time, spend it to your best advantage and the good of the people, and then you shall not be interrupted." Colonel Axtell then, with a Bible in his hand, addressed the people, declaring that " the very cause for which I have engaged is contained in this book of God, both in the civil and religious rights of it, which I leave to you [giving the Bible to the Sheriff]. * * I must truly tell you that, before these late wars, it pleased the Lord to call me by His grace through the work of the ministry, and afterwards, keeping a day of humiliation and fasting and prayer, with Mr. Simeon Ash, Mr. Love, Mr. Woodcooke, and other ministers in Laurence-lane, they did so clearly state the cause of the Parliament that I was fully convinced in my own conscience of the justness of the War, and thereupon engaged in the Parliament service, which (as I did and do HEETFOEDSHIRE DTIEINe THE GEEAT Crvm WAE. 139 believe) was tlie cause of the Lord ; I ventured my life freely for it, and now die for it. t The Sheriff : Sir, remember yourself ! Axtell : After the work of the Lord was done in England my lot cast me in the service of Ire- land, and I thank the Lord I was serviceable to the English iu that country, and have discharged my duty fully according to the trust committed to me there. * * As for the fact for which 1 now suffer, it is for words, and but for words, and the sentence is already reversed in my own conscience, and it will be reversed by Jesus Christ bye-and-bye ; I pray God from the very bottom of my soul to forgive all that have had any hand in my death." Then giving reasons for his faith, he concluded with an acknowledgment of " the faults that fell upon my own heart," and the determination that as Jesus Christ had, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross and despised the shame, therefore he, hoping to see his Saviour shortly in His glory and majesty, despised the shame, as a sinful creature who could not expect better than his Master, and could not think it a despicable thing that they should suffer for Him, having been engaged in the work of God. " But Christ must and will prevail in His righteousness ; and now, Mr. Sheriff, I thank you for your civilities and for this leave. I desire all that fear the Lord to bear with patience and to lift up their hearts to see the Lord with me that we may have strength and the presence of His spirit from this world to everlasting life." AxteU then prayed fervently and in a loud voice before the people ; begging, as the last request " this side Heaven," that " this poor people might have the pardon of a dying Saviour," adding with fervour, " Thy poor servants would not part with Christ for ten thousand hves." Having ended his prayer AxteU again thanked + According to Dr. South. AxteU said •' that he, with many more, went into that execrable war with such a controlling horror upon their spirits from those public sermons, especially of Brooks and Calamy, that they verily believed they should have been accursed by God for ever if they had not acted their part in that dismal tragedy, and heartily done the devil's work." This Dr. South says he had from Axtell's own mouth, but the " execrable war," dismal tragedy," and devil's work," certainly could not have been Axtell's words. For the rest, the sentiment agrees with that given above, but it affords a significant instance of how a man s own words were twisted in those times. the High Sheriff for his civility, and then turn- ing to Colonel Hacker they " saluted and em- braced each other in their arms," and said, " the Lord sweeten our passage and give us a, happy meeting with Himself in glory I " Then putting the cap over his eyes, " expecting as he supposed that the cart should be drawn away, with his hands lifted up he [AxteU] uttered these words with a loud and audible voice, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! ' but, the cart staying a little longer, he lifted up his hands a second time and with the like audible and loud voice said, ' into Thy hands, Father, I commend my spirit ! ' And yet, in regard there was no man found to put forward the horse to draw away the cart until the common hangman came down out of the cart to do it ; the carman, as many witnesses affirm, saying he would lose his cart and horse before he would have a hand in hanging such a man. By these means he had opportunity to lift up his hands and utter the like words a third time also." " One thing more is very remarkable, that when Colonel Axtell and Colonel Hacker were taken out of the sledge into the cart the spectators, being in great numbers there, behaved themselves very civilly. Only two persons among them, as soon as the ropes were put about their necks, cried out very earnestly, 'hang them ! hang them ! rogues ! traitors and murderers ! hangman, draw away the cart ! ' (the common reproaches of the crowd at the execution of the other regicides], whereupon a man that stood by them desired them to be civil and said, ' the Sherifi' knoweth what he hath to do,' and there- upon they were silent and gave attention to Axtell's speech and prayer ; but before he had done those very persons were so affected that they could not refrain from pouring out many tears * * and went aside to weep." So passed away one of the stout old praying, fighting Ironsides, the Berkhamsted boy who learned to pray as an apprentice in Laurence- lane, and to wield the sword on many a hard fought field ! It is a small matter, though characteristic of the times, that Axtell was, after his death, drawn and quartered, that his head was severed from his body and set upon the further end of Westminster Hall and his quarters exposed to public view in other parts of the City. His life and work may have had in them all the defects as well as the virtues of the extreme party to which he attached hinaself ; he may have allowed his zeal for the " good old cause" to out- run his discretion in that memorable scene at the 140 HEETFOEDSHIEE BTJUING THE OEEAT CITIL WAE. trial of the King in Westminster Hall ; he may- have been rigorous for the Protestant cause in his Irish service ; but through it all the side of Parliament had no braver soldier, Pro- testantism no stouter champion, and the great drama of the Civil War no more courageous man in the face of its awful development than Daniel AsteU. It may be of interest to add, as coming from a distinguished member of the Bar, that Mr. Inderwiok {Side-lights on the Stuarts) in re- viewing the sentences upon the Regicides ex- presses the opinion that the case of the officers who acted under the orders of their superiors seems more doubtful [than that of other Regicides], and that " the capital sentences might very well have been remitted in the in- stances of Col. Axtell and Col. Hacker." But vindictive feelings were stronger than law, and the fact that Axtell had thrown some feeling into his executive duties, was sufficient to account for the retaliation which cost him his life, but could scarcely have justified a barbarous treatment of his remains, more suggestive of the Middle Ages, f This seems perfectly clear from the fact that some of the Regicides, who kept out of the way until the violent feeling of the hour had subsided, fared better than their com- rades who bore the brunt of the re-action at the time. Axtell's companion on the gallows at Tyburn, Colonel Hacker, was a Nottinghamshire gentle- man of an old family, in whose hands was left the warrant for the execution of the King. This his wife handed over to the Crown, hoping, though in vain, that by doing so she would obtain mercy for her husband, who, however, was at least spared the barbarous treatment of his remains after death which was shown in the case of Axtell. f The spirit of revenge in which the sentences upon the Eegicides were carried out may be gathered from the fact that when it came to the turn of Cook, the Solicitor-General, he was dragged on the sledge from Newgate to Charing Cross with the head of Harrison (previously executed) placed on the sledge with him, and facing him daring his dismal progress. In the case of Hugh Peters, the executioner having finished his work upon Cook, went with his gory hands and Cook's mangled remains to Peters, who was awaiting his turn, and addressing him said, " Come, Mr. Peters, how do you like this work P " to which the famous Chaplain replied : "I am not, thank God, terrified at it j you may do your worst ! '* As the occupier of Berkham,sted Mansion, Castle or Place, Col. Axtell held a position of some note in Hertfordshire, and especially in the town of his birth. The mansion had at least been visited by Charles I. in his early life, and it is said that Mrs. Murray, who occupied it during his reign, had nursed him there. Unfortunately the Parish Registers are silent about Axtell's marriage and his family, but there is sufficient evidence, I think, to warrant the assumption that he must have married some time during the progress of the War, and probably very soon after he had acquired a position of responsibility and trust in the Army. For, although he refers in his speech at the trial to his " little ones," his manner of addressing his son and daughter on the occasion of their visit just before his execution shows that they at least were approaching to years of discretion, and were no longer children. There is the interesting fact that an Elisha Axtell is mentioned by one of the witnesses at the trial as having been sent by Axtell for the hangman at the King's execution. As Axtell was at that time himself only in his twenty-seventh year, it is clear that this Elisha could not have been his son, but it points to the likelihood of another member of the Axtell family having engaged in the War. The name of Axtell, Axtill or Axtoll, is of very frequent occurrence in the Berkhamsted Parish Registers of a later date, the last of which is the following :— " 1734, May 26th, Anne Axtell, an almshouse woman, was buried." In Cobb's History of Berkhamsted, which contains but a brief notice of Axtell, it is stated that " this family is now settled in America. The Rev. J. Axtell, jun.. West Medway, Mass., wrote to me in 1875 requesting information to make his genealogical tree complete." Miss Axtell, a descendant of Colonel Axtell, also visited Berkhamsted not many years ago and made inquiries respecting the old scenes and associations of her famous ancestor, and among other places visited Berkhamsted House, in which Colonel Axtell lived, and now the residence of Lady Sarah Spencer. Other evidence of the influential position of the Axtell family in the parish and neighbourhood is afforded by surveys made in the time of James I. The name was also to be met with in other parts of Hertford- shire, as at Redbourn, where about the time of the execution of King Charles I. a Timothy Axtell was concerned in a law suit on behalf of the poor and their charity lands. HEETFOEBSHIEE DTJEING TEE GEEAI CITII, WAE. 141 COLONEL ALBAN COX AND THE HEET- POEDSHIRE EORCES. - CAPT. WINGATE AND HIS ADVENTURES. " We are in the haads, I am satisfied, of a man of honour." Alban Cos, of Beaumonts, near St. Albans, a son of Alban Cox, of Shenley, deserves special notice rather for his many useful services to ParUament, and for the moderation with which he tempered his procedure when the necessity for hostile acts towards those in the county on the side of the King brought him into conflict with oldassociations, rathertlian for any such notorious conduct as that of a Titus or an Axtell. He was a tower of strength on the administrative side of the cause of Parliament in the county, which caused him to stand in high favour and to win the regard of Cromwell, both in the progress of the War and also when Cromwell became Protector. In those anxious months of July and August, 1642, when the impending first blow was straining men's minds with suspense and the official life of Hertfordshire was in the strangest confusion as to the giving and obeying orders, the responsible step of commencing to train Volunteers at St. Albans and adjacent towns and villages was entrusted by Parliament to Alban Cox in respect to mounted men and Mr.- (afterwards Colonel) Marsh as to the foot soldiers. In the first years of the War he was in command of a troop of horse raised in the county of Hertford, and, as Colonel in the Parliamentary Army, had under him the more famous Silas Titus, whom we have met with as a Captain of Horse with the Hertfordshire troops at Newbury in that part of Titus' career when he was on the side of the Parhament and wrote to Col. Alban Cox that interesting letter from before Donnington Castle, near Newbury, on the subject of the doings and sufferings of the Hertfordshire soldiers. Col. Cox appears to have had a larger share iu the organising of levies in the county and in command of its defensive operations than of fighting service outside the borders of the county, but of the value of his service to the county, both from a military and civil point of view, there is httle doubt. Abundant evidence of this is afforded by Crom- well's letters to him. Thus in April, 1655, he writes from Whitehall : — " Sir, — Having occasion to speak with you upon some affairs relating to the public, I would have you, as soon as this comes to your hands, to repair hither ; and upon your coming you shall be acquainted with the particular reasons of my sending for you. I rest, your loving friend, Oliver P." The reasons for requiring Col. Alban Cox's attendance at Whitehall were probably very well known to his neighbours in Hertfordshire, and we, by the aid of contemporary records, and by putting two and two together, have little difficulty in guessing the reasons. Though the estates of Royalists were sequestrated, and the owners themselves deprived of their revenues effectively enough, it did sometimes happen that all the raoney was not accounted for to the State. This kind of thing had happened in the previous year in Hertfordshire, and in the same month of April, 1655, the case of the moneys arising from the sequestrated estate of Sir Henry Anderson, of Peadley, formed the subject of reports and debates in Parliament, and upon the matter being referred to Commissioners to ascertain how the profits had been disposed of, what came to the Commonwealth, and how the State had been abused or deceived therein. Sir Henry Anderson was " enjoined to attend the said Commissioners and make good the information given by him touching the deceit to the State therein. It may have been in reference to this business that Col. Alban Cox was specially summoned by the Protector. Another letter was written by Cromwell to Col. Alban Cox on the same day that he had dis- solved the Parliament in which his new batch of Peers had caused him some trouble : — "Por Col. Alban Cox, Captain of the Militia Troop in our county of Hertford : These, for our special service. To be left with the Postmaster of St. Albans to be speedily sent, Whitehall, 4th February, 1657. Sir, — By our last letters to you we acquainted you what danger the Commonwealth wa^ then in from the old Cavalier party (who were designing new insurrections within us, whilst their Head and Master was contriving to invade us from abroad) and thereupon desired your care and vigilancy for preserving the peace and apprehend- ing all dangerous persons. Our intelligence of that kind still continues." The letter proceeds to refer to the tendency to " stirring up and cherishing such humours " in the debates in Parhament, and continues " We, judging these things to have in them very dangerous consequences to the Peace of this nation and to the loosening of all the bonds of Government * * * thought it of absolute 142 HEETPOHDSHIEE DTrEnfO THE GREAT CIVIL WAE. necessity to dissolve this present Parliament — which I have done this day —and to give you notice thereof ; that you with your Troop may he most vigilant for the suppressing of any dis- turbance which may arise from any party whatsoever. And if you can hear of any persons who have been active to promote the aforesaid treasonable petition, that you apprehend them, and give an account thereof to us forthwith. And we do further let you know that we are sensible of your want of pay for yourself and Troop ; and do assure you that effectual care shall be taken therein, and that without delay. And so I rest your loving friend, Oliver P." There is every reason to believe that in Col. Alban Cox, member of Parliament for St. Albans, Cromwell, both as a soldier and statesman, found one whom he could trust, notwithstanding attempts to discredit him in the County. Of his moderation towards the Royalists in the county the following memorial is quoted by Clutterbuck \_History of Hertfordshire, vol. i, p. 113] : — " Upon information that some persons have reported CoUell Alban Cox to have dealt severely and unhandsomely with those gentlemen of the county of Hertford, which formerly went dis- tinguished by the name of the King's party or Cavalleers ; wee, whose names are hereunto sub- scribed (being inhabitance of the sayd county, and of the number of those who were soe dis- tinguished) doe under our hands aver and testifie that the sayd Alban Cox, haveing the command of a troope of county horse in Hertfordshire, did use us with all civility and respect ; and that when the persons soe distinguished were in all other Countyes twice gathered together, andlonge deteyned in a chargeable durance from their houses ; that wee, by the undertakeing and en- gageing of the sayd Coxe for us, weare not at all molested or disturbed, and that there being orders a third time for ourseizeingandsecureing, the sayd Coxe, being, as wee have heard, in- formed against to Oliver Cromwell for holding intelligence with his mat'=, saying ' That a crowne would become the head of a Steward better than a Cromwell' and for being a favoror of, and sider with, all delinquents, malignants and Cavalliers ; the sayd Cox did send for and acquaint some of us what he stood accused of, and by whom, and that hee was no longer able to serve us, being both accused, and haveing information against him, and therefore was resolved to quitt his command, which he, the said Cox, was by some of us disuaded from, all telling him that it would scarcely gaine a beliefe in Cromwell : that all he stood accused of was truth, but that his com- mand would bee given to some meane and rude person from whom, in all probability, we might receive unhandsome usage, and thai; the sayd Cox being ordered by him, who was his superior in command, to send some of us to Alisbury, did att our requests prevaile with him for the continueing us at St. Albans, where wee acknowledge ourselves to have bin very curteously and civilly intreated, and not restrained of any hberty wee (then) could in reason demannd, or expected from him. Witness our hands this eight and twentieth day of June, in the twelft yeare of his matie's reigne that now is, Tho. Coningesbie, Jo. Jeffery, Edward Crosbie, Elias Jenkes, Rt. Shngesby, Francis Boteler, Dan. Treswell, John Watts, Ea. Baeshe." Though the record of the particular doings of Alban Cox in the civil and military affairs of the county is imperfect, the reader has sufficient in the above memorial alone, reading between the lines, to get a very good idea of one who deserves to be placed with the first of Hertfordshire Parlia- mentarian heroes in the strife. Though his was a less noisy career than some others, the part he played was of the more value to his cause, coming from an honourable county man of good family— unspoiled by narrow theological bitter- ness of the hip-and-thigh, cry-aloud-and-spare- not type of some on his side wh? drew their verbal inspiration so freely from the Old Testament and too often forgot the spirit of the New. The reader of Sir Walter Scott's Wood- stock will see in Alban Cox a Markham Everard in the flesh. A man of good birth, holding as a matter of conscience to the principles of the side he believes to be right, yet strong enough and generous enough to remember, amidst all the clamour and stress of Civil War, the older bond of friendship and local ties ; and, just as the Parliamentary Colonel of fiction was to win his reward in the daughter of the implacable old Cavalier, so the Parliamentary Colonel of Hert- fordshire history finds, in his hour of need, the very men whom it had been his painful duty to imprison, and his inclination to spare, coming forward to silence his detractors ; asserting their belief that even their mortal enemy " Old Noll " would never credit his accusers. The fact was that so long as a man was not a " traitor " and inclined to "play fox," Cromwell with all his stern military discipline could always find room for men of varying temper and disposition, and his remark about Lieut. -Col. Packer, " I advised you formerly to bear with men of different minds from yourself" — shows that he would not be hkely to set aside a public man of great influence HERTPORDSHrEE DT7BING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 143 in his own county, who, while adhering to the cause of the Parliament, could yet for his mag- nanimity towards the claims of private life, extract that splendid testimony from those who had left no stone unturned to bring the county of Hertford over to the King. That testimony to one who, in a peculiarly painful position, had, as far as possible, acted up to the golden rule, so rarely thought of in the distractions of the hour, came at an opportune moment, when there were evidently not wanting men in the county who were seeking to prejudice his case, in the face of that new order of things which was just about to reverse the fortunes of so many actors in the great drama. '' In the twelft yeare of his matie's reigne that now is " indicated a very "bad quarter-of-an-hour " approaching for some who had fought against King Charles the First, and happy was the man who, like Col. Alban Cox, the honourable member for St. Albans, found old feuds forgotten, and former enemies standing forward as neighbours of old, in time of need to remember an act of kindness shown to them in their day of adversity when it was in his power to have added to their bitter fortunes and himiiUation. Alban Cox lived about five years after the above incident, and at his death in February, 1664^5, was buried in St. Peter's Church, St. Albans. Around the family estate at Beaumonts near St. Albans are several traditions of the friendship between Cromwell and Alban Cox. Here Cromwell himself had occasionally stayed when in the neighbourhood ; here an old oak, destroyed by a gale only a few years ago, was said to have been planted by Cromwell ; here were preserved not only a pair of jackboots said to have been the property of Cromwell, but also those interesting letters from Colonel Silas Titus and CromweU which have been quoted. These rehcs came into the hands of the Kinder family to whom the estate descended by the marriage of one of them (Thomas Kinder in 1754) with Mrs. Coles, a widow and heiress of Thomas Cox, the last male representative of the Alban Cox of Parhamentary fame. The career of Edward Wingate was, from the temperament of the man and the many strange scenes he passed through, one in strikmg contrast with that of Col. Alban Cox. When the War began Edward Wingate was member of Parhament for St. Albans, his colleague being Sir John Jennings. We have seen that Alban Cox had charge of the organizing of the first Volunteer force in the St. Albans part of the County, but there was another function equally important, and that was to stimulate the bringing in of " money and plate " from the well-to-do inhabitants who were prepared to make sacrifices for the cause for which Parliament was taking up arms. For this service Parliament, in July, 1642, sent down Edward Wingate, member for St. Albans, Viscount Cranborne, member for Hertford, Mr. Robert Cecil (member for Sarum), and Sir John Harrison— who had not then gone over to the King— sent them down to attend the Summer Assizes at Hertford, " to advance the propositions for bringing in money and plate." No sooner had the actual marching of armies begun than Edward Wingate left his seat in Parliament, buckled on his sword, and joined that imposing march of the great Army under the Earl of Essex which the reader has seen passing through St. Albans to meet the King's Army after the raising of the Standard at Not- tingham, Aug. 22nd, 1642. Captain Wingate soon gave evidence of his spirit and gained a character for " beha\'ing himself stoutly," but his first fighting experience was brief. He fought in the very first encounter with the Royalists near \Vorcester, in which Prince Rupert routed a, part of the Parliamentary Horse. Shortly after- wards Captain Wingate was taken prisoner and was carried off to Oxford, where his adventures and what he and other prisoners had to endure were matters of interest to Hertfordshire and also to Parliament, as appears by the follow- ing :— On the 31st December, 1642, Capt. Wingate's wife appears before the House of Parliament, and " having lately come from Oxford she reports to the House the hard usage of her husband and the Captains that are prisoners there. She affirmed that they were famished for want of food, bemg allowed but l^d. a day to maintain them, and some days had not bread or water to eat or drink, so they are consumed away to death and eaten of vermin, and no friends, not their own wives, suffered to come near them to give them relief. "+ Efforts were made by Parhament to make an ■(• " A true and most sad Relation of the hard usaage and extreme cruelty used to Captain Wingate and others of the Parliament Soaldiera." King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mua 144 HEETFOEDSHIBE DTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. exchange of Capt. Wingate for one of the Eoyalist prisoners, but the Committee sitting at Oxford wrote stating that there would be no exchange for him. Some of Mrs. Wingate's friends took up her case, and brought the matter before the Herts County Committee to get her husband's arrears paid to her, with the result that the following petition was made to Parliament on April 7th, 1643 :— " A petition from divers of the inhabitants of the county of Herts, preferred to the Committee of that county, and this day from them exhibited to this House, desiring that the arrears due to Captain Edward Wingate may be paid. Ordered that the arrears due to Captain Wingate, as captain of a troop of Horse, by him raised at the command of both Houses for the defence of Parliament, be paid unto Mrs. Wingate, or her assignees out of the monthly collections as shall be raised out of the hundreds of Broad- water and Hitchin, in the county of Herts. * * * Ordered that Captain Wingate's tenants be required to pay such rents as are due unto him, and that such as shall refuse be accounted as ill-affected and answer their con- tempt." [Commons' Journals, vol. iii.] This order some of the tenants or other " rude persons " appear to have resented, and upon some plea of common right, about six weeks afterwards, set upon his premises near Shenley, cut down his gates, and used threats which caused Parliament again to intervene.! But the unfortunate member for St. Albans is a prisoner in Oxford not by any law which Parliament can control, but by the laws of war, and only by force or strategy can he be released. f "Whereas the House was this day informed that divers rude people have in the nipfht assembled them- selves together, and in a riotous manner gone to certain grounds on the Blackheath lying in Shenley parish, in the county of Hertford (being the inheritance of Captain Edward Wingate) which are now sown with wheat and oats, and have sawn asunder the gates, and have taken them away, and do threaten to destroy the said corn by turning in their cattle ; there being now a very hopeful crop upon the ground, also to dig down the banks and fences and lay all the said grounds common ; it is therefore ordered that the deputy-lieutenants of the said county and all justices of the peace, constables, and other officers, do from time to time use their utmost endeavours to apprehend such disorderly rude persons that have cut the said gates or threaten to commit other outrages * * and to bring them in safe custody to the Parliament to be proceeded against according to law." \_Cmnmo7is' Journals, vol. iii, May 20th, 1643.] Six months after his wife's pathetic appjal to Parliament, Captain Wingate succeeded in making his escape from the Royalist Army in Oxford, evidently to the great joy of the people of St. Albans, and of the county as well as of Parliament itself, of which eloquent testimony is thus recorded : — " About the 3rd of June also came most cer- tain information by letters from Ailesbury that Captain Wingate, a noble and valiant gentleman, and a worthy member of this present Parlia- ment, after a long, tedious, and most cruel im- prisonment, and barbarous usage by the accursed CavaUers, especially at Oxford, having most happily escaped out of prison there * * when the mutinie was there, came safely (though weakly and faintly by his long im- prisonment) to Aislesbury, where he was most joyously entertained, * * * whither our most noble Lord General (as was credibly re- ported) sent his own coach for him, and conveyed him thence to London to the Parliament, where also he was most joyfully received again as a member thereof, with most sweet embrace- ments, and at whose presence such a multitude of people pressed about him, congratulating him upon this his most happy deliverance." [Vicars' Parliamentary Chronicle, p. 344.] During these summer months of 1643 the honourable members who gathered in West- minster Hall did not always keep their tempers ; some of the Enghsh and Scotch members drew their swords, and had them taken away from them ; and then there was a challenge to a duel. In this electrical atmosphere, Captain Wingate's fighting instinct was soon called into play, and he demands reparation of the Recorder for words alleged to have been spoken ; the House inter- venes in the quarrel, the Recorder makes it appear that he did not use the offensive words, and Captain Wingate in his place in the House, and by its direction, makes acknowledgment of his error. Whether the hundreds of Broadwater and Hitchin did not yield the necessary funds for the payment of Capt. Wingate's arrears, I know not, but in the summer of 1645 (July ] 6th) Parliament again ordered " that Captain Wingate shall have the sum of ten pounds per week, upon account, paid to him by the Committee of Revenue till the sum of two hundred pounds be paid to him." The member for St. Albans appears to have fought in most of the principal engagements of 1644-5. With regard to his presence at the battle of Marston Moor this seems evident from HERirOEDSHmE DTTEINO THE GEEAI CITIL WAR. 145 the Yerney MSS., in which it is stated that Captain Wingate was able to give to Sir Roger Burgoyne information of the losses at Marston Moor, where it was said that " among the slain Koyalists left on the field there were two gentle- men for every ordinary soldier." t In 1646 (March 24th) he was the subject of an order by Parliament that he was to have " the allowance of four pounds per week allowed and paid unto him in the same manner, and from the same time, as other members have received it," but soon after this he was again in the midst of strange adventures, and the strangest of them all must have been that which befel him in 1647, when he got into the awkward predica- ment of being tried and sentenced to death by the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, at lUingworth Castle. A^^lat were the exact cir- cumstances which led up to this I have been unable to trace, but Parliament took the matter up, ordered an inquiry into " the illegal trial and sentence of death against Captain Wingate," and " that he may have reparation against the said Commissioners, and others." He evidently got safely through this, as his many other adventures. Captain Wingate was one of the Wingates of HarUngton, Beds, but his father obtained the estate of Lockleys, at Welwyn ; and here, after all the trials and troubles of a chequered career were over, the former Parliamentary Captain, and member for St. Albans, amused himself by making a fair warren and stocking it with " a choice breed of rabbits, all silver haired," and " planting an orchard with walnuts and rarest of fruit trees, and cutting streams from the Mimram for trouts and other fish for the provision of his table." In his later years he became one of the Com- missioners of Excise to King Charles II., and died at the age of 79, and was buried at Welwyn. THE EARL OF SALISBURY AND SIR JOHN GARRARD.— LORD LIEUTENANT AND HIGH SHERIFF. It would be but a partial and a very inade- quate estimate of the part which the Cecils of Hatfield House have played all through the f Letters from Sir Roger Burgoyne to Ralph Verney, in the Verney MSS. history of England and of Hertfordshire for the last three hundred years which did not recognise the immense advantage gained in the county for that party in the Great Civil War which could claim on its side the Cecils of Hatfield House, of whom at the outbreak of the War three held seats in the Legislature — William, Earl of Salis- bury, in the House of Lords, and two sons — Viscount Cranborne, for Hertford ; and Robert Cecil, for Old Sarum — in the Commons. To this advantage there was added another in havingboth the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff on the side of Parliament. With these two important offices in the county were associated the names of the Earl of Salisbury and Sir John Garrard. William, second Earl of Salisbury, and son of more famous ministers of State, played a part in the stirring events of his time in striking contrast with that of Lord Capel and other covmty men who at first championed the people in their grievances but refused to be led to the extreme of a revolu- tion. Unlike Falkland and Capel, the Earl of Salisbury was at first with the King, and turned against him when events were drifting towards an open conflict. He was Lord Lieutenant for Dorsetshire, and in February, 1642, was nomi- nated for that office for the county of Hertford. When the King set out on that march northward, and sent back from Royston and Newmarket those emphatic refusals to the request to give up power of the Militia, the new Lord Lieutenant for Hertfordshire accompanied his Majesty, with other noble lords, to York, and the Earl was one of those who signed the declaration of belief that the King had no intention of making war upon Parliament. Meanwhile the absence of the Earl placed the county in a difficulty when it came to a question of organizing its Militia, and Parliament in June appointed a Committee " to consider how the deputy-lieutenants of Hertford- shire could have power to exercise in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant." The inhabitants of Hertfordshire had thus a double interest in the question whether Hatfield House went for the King or Parliament ; and it was a relief to the great majority in the county when news came that the Earl had turned his horses' heads southwards. For going to the King at York the Earl incurred the displeasure of the House of Lords, and was summoned to appear at the bar of the House, but this order was dispensed with, and here is his Lordship's defence : — " The Earl of Sarum gave thanks to this House for taking off the order for his coming to bar. He confessed that he hath committed an offence in 19 146 HEETFOEDSHTELE DTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAB. going away to York without leave of the House for which he was heartily sorry. He further said that the King gent him espress command upon his allegiance to give his attendance, which accordingly he did, and when his Lordship came to Yorli he desired the King's leave to come to the Parliament ; but his Majesty commanded him not to go away, yet his Lordship came away with- out the King's leave." — Lords' Journals, vol. v, p. 136. Apparently his Lordship was unable to accept the oath tendered by the King to the nobles at York — " to bear a true and faithful allegiance to my true and undoubted Sovereign Lord Charles * * and to resist to the utmost hazard of life and fortune all seditions, rebellions, conspiracies, covenants, treasons whatsoever against his Royal dignity or crown, raised or set up under what pretence or colour so ever " ; and especially the positive engagement to " defend his Majesty's person, crown and dignity, just and legal pre- rogatives against all persons whatsoever, and not to obey any rule, order oi ordinance whatsoever concerning the Militia that hath not the Koyal assent." + Though the absence, and failure to act at the needful moment, of the Lord Lieutenant resulted in his sou Viscount Cranborne being appointed for a time to discharge the duties, the Earl of Salisbury was henceforth one of the most obedient instruments of Parliament, and was selected in all cases where Commissioners were sent to treat with those of the King, including that journey of the Commissioners to the King at Oxford with the propositions for peace when, fearing that his Majesty was nearly starved into submission, the Commissioners carried their own food with them lest they should find none when tliey came to Oxford ! t t Thia " engagement," which, if .adhered to, would stand in the way of serving Parliament in the times that were coming, the Earl, according to Sir Philip Warwick [Memoirs], actually subscribed, and "within a few days afterwards stole away to London." X " And here I cannot omit one strategem, which at that time occasioned some mirth. The common people of London were persuaded * that there was so great scarcity of victual and provisions at Oxford, and in all the King's quarters, that they were not without danger of starving.' * * To make good this report, pro- visions of all kinds, even to bread, were sent in waggons, and on horses from London to Oxford, for the supply of this Committee ; when without doubt they found as great plenty of all things when they came as they had left behind them." [Clarendon's History of the Eehdlion.'] Upon another of those occasions when there arose " a passionate desire for peace," at least on paper, and Uxbridge was assigned for the place of tlie abortive treaty, the Earl was one of the Com- missioners to treat for Parliament, as Lord Capel was one of those for the King. The Earl was also one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, and had a great deal to do with the administrative side of the Parliamentary cause, as distinguished from the use of the sword. Again, in the winter of 1645, King Charles, having made those flying visits to Huntingdon, Wobura, and other places near the borders of Herts, and then settled down again at Oxford, with little hope of retrieving tlie fortunes of the Royal cause so completely crushed in the field at Naseby, a great deal of time was spent by Parlia- ment in drafting negotiations with the King for securing that illusive prospect of a "safe and well grounded peace." In these propositions Parliament made some rather comprehensive stipulations on the score of disqualification for office of those members of either House who had deserted their place and sat in the King's " unlawful assembly," and " pretended " Parlia- ment at Oxford ; and on tlie other hand of securing favours and promotions for those who had stuck to the old stock Parliament at West- minster. Among the latter class was, of course, the Earl of Salisbury. When, therefore, it came to a question of sub- mitting propositions to the King for establishing a new order of things, the Earl's services to Parliament were not forgotten. Fairfax, Crom- well, and Sir Wm. Waller, besides receiving pen- sions, were to be made barons of the Kingdom of England ; the Earl of Essex was to receive a Dukedom, and a similar title to the Earl of Warwick, who became the third husband of Lady Sussex (when her Ladyship turned " towards matrimony again " at Gorhambury), and the Earl of Manchester, her fourth husband, was to be made a Marquis. Concerning the Earl of Salisbury there was this proposition (made Dec. 1st, 1645) :— " Resolved, &c., that the title and dignity of an English Marquis, with all Rights, Privileges, Pre- emiuencies, and Precedencies, to the said title and dignity belonging or appertaining, be conferred and settled upon Wilham, Earl of Salisbury, and the heirs male of his body, and that his Majesty be desired, in these propositions, to grant and confer the said title and dignity upon him, and the heirs male of his body accordingly, and that it be referred to the former Committee, to con- HEETFOBBSHIRE DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 147 sider of a fit way and manner for the perfecting hereof ?"t But " these propositions," like so many others of their kind, came to nothing, and so the Essex title came to the Capels as an Earl instead of a Duke, and the title of Marquis had to come to a Cecil of a later date, in 1789. Five years after the Earl of Sahsbury had come away from York, " without the King's leave," and against the King's command, a strange conjunction of circumstances brought his Majesty as a guest to Hatfield House, when passing through Hertfordshire with the Army in 1647, as already described. There was nothing incon- sistent with what had occurred elsewhere, nor inconsistent with the general sentiment towards the person of the King which prevailed among all raoderate men, in this act of the Earl of Salisbury in entertaining the King with whom he had difiered so widely, but against whom he had not used his sword. The meeting of the King as the guest of the " violent Puritan," who had deserted his Majesty at York, in the home of the Cecils, presented strange historic contrasts which made it one of those cartoons of history which appeal to the imagination. Between the Cecil who had found it necessary to depart from the traditions of his House, and a King who had helped to strain to the breaking point the historical continuity of loyal service between the Cecils and Royalty, the relationship during those five days and nights in June, 1647, must have been one of considerable delicacy; even if tact and good sense were sufEicient to avoid open reproaches. These two men could not have been thus strangely thrown together even as host and guest within walls on which were pictures of Kings and Statesmen, without at least some mute questionings and regrets—" Why did you leave me V " Why did you make it impossible for me to serve you ? " How the King with a lost cause in the home of the Cecils, and the Earl as a partisan of the Pariiament, got through the necessary courtesies of the situation for five days and nights in such a place without strained relations can only be left to the imagination of the reader. In the Isle of Wight attempts at treaty-making between King and Parhament, the Earl came once more in contact with the King ; and when, impressed by his Majesty's wisdom and other good quahties, he remarked to Sir Philip Warwick, t Commons Journals, vol. iv, p. 361. " the King is wonderfully improved," Warwick replied — " he was always so, but your Lordship too late discerned it." But though the Earl of Salisbury went con- sistently with the Parliament and shared such honours as it had to offer in regard to ofiice, his partisanship was never that of the sword. "A violent Puritan " is the character given to him by one whose authority I am bound to respect. A Puritan he was, no doubt, but there is a tradition at Hatfield House which shows that he had a tender regard for some of the associations of his home conflicting with typical Parifan sentimeut, and a shrewd estimate of the lengths to which Puritanism might lead some of its less scrupulous agents. The tradition is that when iconoclasm was rampant in the county, pulling down and destroying images and other objects regarded as superstitious in places of worship, under orders from that Parliament of which the Earl was such a consistent supporter, his patriotism and attachment to the old historic associations of his house for the moment outweighed his Puritanism. He " did not like to lose the painted windows of the Chapel, and built up a mound of earth against them in order to conceal them from his friends." So runs the tradition. This was not the only instance in which Puritanism as well as Eoyalism halted short of its logical conclusion when home and family attachments became thrown into the balance, and what thereby went to the discredit of the partisan should I suppose be placed to the credit of the man. f The ordeal which divided men for King or Parliament cut into the family Ufe of more than one Hertfordshire family, and the conflict between natural inchnation on the one side and fidelity to principle in the strife on the other must have sometimes put a severe strain even upon family ties. How bravely many a man struggled to be faithful to the two claims of f I am aware that Clarendon gives a les3 sentimental character to the Earl, besides endeavouring to belittle one who had departed from the traditions of his honse. " The Earls of Pembroke and Salisbury were so totally without credit or interest in the Parliament or country that it was no matter which way their inclinations or affections disposed them * * They had rather the King and his posterity should be distroyed, than that Wilton should be taken from the one of them or Hatfield from the other ; the preservation of both which from danger they both believed to be the highest point of prudence and politic circumspection." — Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. 148 HERTEOEBSHIEB DTTEINO THE GEEA.T CITIL WAK. kindred and King, which temporarily divided them, is shown in the noble characters of Sir Henry and Sir Ralph Verney, of Clayden House, Bucks ; and though the Earl of Salisbury had no such divided loyality of father and son, in re- gard to at least his two sons who mingled in public life — the two members of Parliament already referred to — he yet had a very real thorn in the Parliamentary side to be in some measure accountable for in his son-in-law. His second daughter. Lady Elizabeth Cecil, had married William Cavendish, third Earl of Devonshire, who was with the King at York, but unlike hisfather- in-law did not turn back, but stuck to the King. As a Royalist he was impeached by Parliament ; and upon refusing to appear at the bar was expelled the House of Lords. An order was passed for his commitment to the Tower, but like many others he fled from the country. His estates were sequestrated, and upon his return and submission to Parliament in 1645, that body put a rather high fine upon the Earl which apparently he had then no means of paying. In fact, a fine of .£5,000, and he had to fall back upon his ParUameutary father-in-law to get him out of the dilemma. Thus it came about that when (16 Sept., 1645) the question of pardoning his delinquency was being considered, " The Committee reported the voluntary offer of the Earl of Sahsbury to lay down five thousand pounds, presently, for discharge of his [the Earl of Devonshire's] delinquency and sequestration. Resolved that this House doth accept of the offer of the Earl of Salisbury to pay the sum of five thousand pounds forthwith for discharge of delinquency and sequestration of the Earl of Devonshire ; and that upon payment thereof an order be brought in for the discharge of the delinquency * * " t The pardoned son-in-law retired and lived for some time with his mother at Latimers (in Bucks), where the King stayed one night about a month after the Earl had been thus bought off by his father-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury. All through the War the Earl was a regular attendant on the Committee sitting in London, and when it was over and the House of Lords was abolished, he was elected to the Common- wealth Council of State. He was thus more actively concerned with the broader issues coming within the purview of Parliament than of County Committees ; and, while he may have f Commons' Journals^ vol. iv, p. 275. had an eye to the management of his own affairs, as appears by his claims arising out of the keepership of Theobalds Park, and in procuring exemption at the hands of the Herts Committee from assessment of his Parks, t the impartial reader may very well take Parha- ment's own estimate of the Earl's pubUc services, as a set-ofi' against the disparaging estimate of Clarendon. The association of the Garrard family of Lamer Park, Wheathampstead, with one or two interest- ing events of the War and its issues has an interest which is not confined to any one individual member of the family, though the head of the Qarrards of that time deserves a place among the individual actors in the county during the War. The reader has seen how the county of Hert- ford was suddenly deprived of its High Sheriff by Cromwell's appearance in St. Albans market and the carrying off Mr. Coningsby at the be- ginning of the War ; an act which resulted in the County being without a Sheriff for the remainder of the year. As soon as Parliament could attend to the matter of appointing Sheriffs without the assistance of the King, it selected Sir John Garrard, of Lamer Park, to fill that office. He was already upon the County Committee, and was also selected for service upon the Grand Committee for the Eastern Counties Association sitting at Cambridge. He was apparently sometimes in command of the County Forces ; but, with the above official claims upon him — filling the office of High Sheriff for three consecutive years during the most active period of the War — he did not see much service out of the County. In the crisis of 1644, when the Royalist Army and the King were hanging over the borders of the County between St. Albans and Hitchin, and Major- Qeneral Brown was organising a force of Train- Bands to oppose the King, Sir John Garrard was one of those on the County Committee who f la June, 1644, the Earl of Sarum, finding himself much grieved by the taxes and the assessments made by the Committee at Hertford upon his parks in the county of ETertford '' being parks that are ancient and not liable formerly to any taxes and no profit made of them " — he appealed to tlie House of Lords, and their Lordships sent a declaration to the Committee at Hertford to let them know that the parks of the Earl of Sarum ought to be discharged from assessments and taxes. [Lords' Journals. ] HEETFOEBSHIBE BTIRING THE GEEAT CIVH WAE. 149 represented to the General the difficulty of taking the Hertfordshire soldiers for service outside the County. He was compelled to an- nounce the unwelcome intelligence that the greater part of his own regiment was disbanded for want of pay, and he was confident that " the rest would not march without money," a declara- tion which owed its origin to the system of taking coimty forces outside the County while still in the pay of the County Committee, rather than to Sir John's want of allegiance to Parliament. The association of Sir John Garrard's home at Lamer with the interesting incident of King Charles' flight through Hertfordshire in disguise, in 1646, and his supposed visit to Lamer for the night, has already been referred to [page 62], and I can find no trace of Sir John or his family ha\-ing sufiered for that hospitality to the King in his hour of need. The Garrard family was a very numerous one, and others besides Sir John appear to have thrown in their lot with the cause of Parliament. With the prospect of the King's return there was a general flutter among those county famihes who had been on the side of Parliament during the wars, and a natural desire to stand well under the new order of things in which it was expected that old scores would be righted. Except in a few extreme cases of individuals concerned in the death of the late King, the general pardon offered by Charles II., at his Court at Breda over the sea, only required to be accepted by public declaration within forty days to be efiectual. In the county of Hertford there must have been many public declarations of loyalty to and accepting the pardon of the King, made and signed before the Speaker of the House of Commons, but the only actual declaration signed by a member of a Hertfordshire family that has come under my notice is one preserved at Lamer Park, Wheathampstead, in the possession of General Apsley Cherry - Garrard, to whose courtesy I am indebted for an opportunity of seeing the document. There can be Uttle doubt that Sir John Garrard made a similar declara- tion but the one in question was made by Lady Jane Garrard, wife of his eldest son. Though now much faded and worn, the document is still fairly readable, with the exception of here and there a word : — " In pursuance of the gracious decree of his most gracious Majesty and Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the Grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the Faith, &c. ; Given under his Majesties sign manual and privie signet, att his Court at Breda the Ath Aprill last and the first of May last, and ordered by the Commons House to be promul- gated and published, I Dame Jeane Garrard of Covent Garden, in the County of Middlesex, do with humble and hearty thankfulness lay hold upon his Majesty's free and general jiardon by this Declaration granted, and I do hereby publicly declare that I do lay hold upon his Majesty's grace and favour, and that I am and will continue his Majesty's loyal and obedient subject ; in testimony whereof I do subscribe my name this eighth day of June, in the twelfth year of his Majesty's Reign, one thousand six hundred and sixty. "This declaration was publicly J' Gaeraed. made the eighth day of June by the above named Dame Jane Garrard before me, " Har. Grimston, Speaker of the House of Commons." The above was only one of many such declarations made before Harbottle Grimstonby his Hertfordshire neighbours. The Dame Jane Garrard who signs the declaration had not done anything very dreadful, I imagine, against the King. These pubhc declarations were in such oases more of the nature of formal pledges of loyalty for the future than acts of penitence for the past. Sir John himself and other members of the Garrard family had probably made similar declarations, though that of Dame Jane Garrard happens to be the only one preserved among the family papers at Lamer. In Wheathampstead Church there are numerous handsome memorials to members of the Garrard family, with which the estate of Lamer, situate upon high ground about one mile from Wheathampstead, has been associated for the last three hundred years and more. SIR JOHN WITTEWEONG OF EOTHAMSTED. —SIR HARBOTTLE GRIMSTON, AND OTHERS. The son of a Protestant family of some note who had fled to England from Flanders to escape the persecution there. Sir John Wittewrong, Knight, of Eothamsted, Harpenden, Herts,' was, as the reader may suppose, a Puritan, and took sides with the Parliament. He was placed upon the Herts County Committeefor Parliament, and. 150 HEETPOEBSHIEE DITEIINO THE GEE AT CIVIL WAE. at any rate at the beginning of the War, was also one of the Herts Committee who took their turn of duty on the Central Council for carrying on the War in the Eastern Association, sitting at Cambridge. For this sphere he was more fitted by temperament than for the field of war. His name occasionally occurs in connection with the organizing and command of Volunteer forces raised in the county, but the official responsibility for carrying on the War did not, as events progressed, find in him that degree of ardour for the fray which characterised some of the Hert- fordshire Puritans. The comparative absence of his name from the usual public sources of infor- mation seems to indicate that as the strife was prolonged he found a more congenial occupation in making those daily records of observation on the weather and the crops for which Rothamsted was to continue and increase in fame in after years. Occasionally when disturbances and acts of lawlessness occurred in the County, Parliament found Sir John a useful and influential agent for magisterial investigation and report, and in that capacity his name occasionally figures in the State Papers of the time. But it is a singular thing that though Sir John Wittewrong was chosen on the County Committee, and as a delegate to the Grand Committee at Cambridge, and must have seen not a little of the earlier stages of the conflict around him, yet in his other- wise interesting manuscript account of his own life and of those of his three wives, he makes, apparently, no reference to the stirring events in the county in which at first he had some share ; a clear indication that his sympathies inclined him to those quieter pursuits of human know- ledge rather than to the harassing affairs on the public stage around him. This view is confirmed by the testimony of the present owner of JRothamsted, who has given to that germ of daily records and observations, begun amidst the distractions of the old Civil War time, the crowning triumph of becoming a system of experiments of world-wide fame. Sir John Bennet Lawes writes to me on the above point as follows : — " Sir John Wittewrong kept daily records of weather, crops, and household expenses, but appeared to be desirous to avoid all reference to political subjects, and there is certainly no notice in his journals of the death of Charles I." Yet, when the Restoration came, it was necessary, in regard to the official position he had held in the county under Parliament during the War, that he should subscribe the form of declara- tion accepting the King's (Charles II.) pardon, and pledging himself to fidelity to the King in the future. The man who had busied himself in the midst of his public duties for Parliament with laying the foundation for Rothamsted experi- ments, and who had filled the office of High Sheriff for Hertfordshire in the year of the Protector's death, made his declaration accepting the King's pardon on the 28th day of May, just one day before the full tide of Royal acclaim was to burst over the land. It is interesting to add that this and other declarations accepting the King's pardon by Hertfordshire people were made and signed, like that of Dame Jane Garrard, at the bar of the House of Commons before their Hertfordshire neighbour, Sir Harbottle Grimston, the new Speaker of the House of Commons. Sir John Wittewrong had bought the Manor of Rothamsted in 1640, and about 1650 he was employing himself in the enlargement of the Manor House, the principal front of which still remains as Sir John left it. Cussans {History of Hertfordshire) says : — " Not the least interesting memorial of the Wittewronges, preserved at Rothamsted — more interesting perhaps than the portraits as a relic of the past — is a large doll's house, with carved mantelpieces reaching to the ceilings, in the parlour and kitchen, with which ten generations of children have played." Sir John was created a baronet in 1662, and continued a long and useful life in those quieter pursuits of daily observation, until 1693, when he died. Foremost of those who succeeded in per- forming the difficult feat of steering clear of the dangers of the Scylla and Charybdis of King and Parliament, or rather of those who contrived to serve both, and still maintain a public career of some note, was Sir Harbottle Grimston, the first of the Grimstons of Gorhambury. Born at Bradfield Hall, Essex, young Harbottle was in- tended for the law and entered at Lincoln's Inn, but he loved a maiden better than the law, which he abandoned. Unfortunately for Harbottle, the maiden was the daughter of a great lawyer. Sir George Croke. When the great Judge was approached respecting his daughter's hand, he did not absolutely refuse his consent, but coupled with it a condition that it would be refused unless young Grimston resumed his study of the law which he had so lightly cast aside. This made even the law fascinating, and young Har- HESTFOEDSHIEE DUEIIfG THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 151 bottle again set his face towards the woolsack, " with the ardom' of a lover," and soon acquired a fund of legal knowledge sufficient to win his bride and to gain the appointment of Recorder for Colchester. In the famous Long Parliament of 1640 he was returned to Parliament, succeeded to his father's title, and soon made a figure in the Parliament in those stormy scenes over the people's grievances, in which his epigrams made their mark. He contributed two horses and £20 for Parliament, but with the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643 he absented himself from the House for a time. But when the growing power of the Army made Cromwell a figure in the House, Grim- ston was again in his element. It is said by Burnet [History of His own Time] that when Cromwell in the quarrel between Army and Parliament uttered the famous words about purging the Army, that he was sure of the Army, but " there was another body that had more need of purging, naming the House of Commons, and he thought the Army only could do that," Har- bottle Grimston had the temerity to bring Cromwell's words before the House as a matter of privilege, charging Cromwell with putting a force upon the House. It was this that brought about the historic scene when Cromwell went on his knees upon the floor of the House, and made a solemn prayer to God attesting his innocence with so much fervour and vehemence, and with many tears ; and when, after this strange and bold preamble, he made so long a speech * * that he wearied out the House and wrought so much upon his party, that what the witnesses [brought in by Grimston] had said was so little beUeved, that, had it been moved, Grimston thought both he and they would have been sent to the Tower ! * * To complete the scene, as soon as ever Cromwell got out of the House he resolved to trust himself no more amongst them, but " went to the Army, and in a few days brought them up and forced a great many from the House." In the famous "Pride's Purge" incident Harbottle Grimston was one of the excluded members and soon after he, with the Earl of SaHsbury, was one of the Commissioners for Parliament sent to treat with the King in the Isle of Wight. He was so averse to the pro- ceedings against the King, and his influence with the Army so much feared, that he was imprisoned for a time and discharged by the order of Fairfax on the day of the King's execution upon entering into an engagement not to do anything to the disservice of Parhament or Army. After a period of retirement he was again returned to Parliament in 1656, was among the members who were not allowed to take their seats and joined in the remonstrance and " appeal unto God and to the good people of England." Upon the abdication of Richard Cromwell, Grimston was placed .by Monk on the Committee for summoning a new Parliament, on the re- admission of the excluded members was elected one of the Council of State, and in the Conven- tion Parliament of 1660 was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. In this capacity it fell to Grimston's lot to answer the King's letter of April 14th to wait upon him at Breda, and upon the King's triumphal return to London to enter- tain his Majesty. How thoroughly he played his part on the occasion the reader may judge by thefoUowingextractfromSir Harbottle'sflattering speech deUvered before, and addressed to, his Majesty Charles II. in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, May 29th, 1660 :— " Most gracious and dread Sovereign. If all the reason and eloquence that is disposed in or among the several heads and tongues as are in the whole world were conveyed into my brain and united in my tongue, yet I should want sufficiency to discharge that great task 1 am now enjoined." Continuing his speech, he said his Majesty's restoration to his native right of sovereignty and the deUverance of his people from bondage and slavery had been brought about by a miraculous way of Divine Providence beyond and above the reach of their under- standing. God had been pleased to train his Majesty up in the school of affliction where he had learned that excellent lesson so well of faith and patience. For this his Majesty's name was registered in the records of heaven, as one of those martyrs of whom it is recorded that they through faith in Christ and patience in their sufierings have converted their very tormentors and conquered those barbarous bloody tyrants under whom they have suffered. " Your con- quest is incomparable ; no story can instance the like, or furnish us an example to parallel it withal. Romans in their triumphs wore laurels for conquering the bodies, your Majesty hath conquered the souls of men ; they conquered for themselves, but your Majesty hath conquered for the honour of God and of his people ; they con- quered with force but your Majesty hath conquered with faith," &c., &c. However well he had acted the part of a moderate man, chiefly for Parliament, during the strife, the Restoration evidently set an active tongue loose, as in his jerky oratorical humour 152 HERTFOEDSHIEB DUIlINa THE eEBAT CIVIL WAR. we hear him denouncing the actors in the late struggle as " monsters who had been guilty of blood ; precious blood, precious Eoyal blood ! " He became Master of the Rolls, and was one of those who sat in trial upon the Regicides. Wood has described him as "a just judge ; very slow, and ready to hear everything that was offered, without passion or partiality. He gave yearly great sums in charity, discharged many prisoners by paying their debts * * * very pious and a devout man * * * much sharpened against Popery, but had always a tenderness of Dissenters, though he himself con- tinued in the communion of ,the Church." [Athence Oxonienses, vol. iii, p. 28.] His blunt speech against the Roman Catholics, as when he described a lenient measure against Catholic Priests by saying " you might as soon make a good fan out of a pig's tail, as a good bill out of this " — lost him some of the favour he had enjoyed. By his first wife, for whom he had returned to his law books, he had six sons and two daughters. " Upon the death of Sir Thomas Meautys [of Gorhambury] Sir Harbottle Grim- ston married his widow, and purchased of Sir Henry Moautys his interest in Gorhambury, which would have devolved upon him after the death of Lady Grimston." [^History of Gorham- hury by Miss Charlotte Grimston.] Being thus installed in the home of the great Lord Chancellor Bacon, from whom Gorhambury had descended, Sir Harbottle became a Hertford- shire man ; was made Chief Steward of the Borough of St. Albans, under the charter granted in 1664. He died in 1683 at the great age of 90 years, and was buried in the Chancel of St, l\Iichaers Chm-ch, St. Albans. Gorhambury is still in the family of the Grim- stons upon whom the title of Earl of Verulam was bestowed in 1790. In 1873 the Earl of Yerulam presented to the National Portrait Gallery a portrait, by Sir Peter Lely, of the famous Harbottle, who, like Whittington and the Lord Mayoralty of London,- wooed and won his bride and built up a distinguished career by returning to those law-books from which he would fain have fled, and who moreover, by entering into the home of the great Philospher and Judge, Francis Bacon, laid the foundation of one of our noble Hertfordshire families which, like that of the Capels. bridges over the centuries which in- tervene between the great upheaval of the Civil War and the happier present. Isaac Puller was a most energetic member of the Herts County Committees, and his zeal and services for the Parliament as the demands^ of the War increased were recognised by his being called to serve upon the Grand Council sitting at Cambridge. In 1645 when, on the eve of the battle of Naseby, Cromwell's vigorous recruiting about Hitchin, Royston, and Cambridge resulted in that response of the " three score men out of one poor petty village in Cambridgeshire," Isaac Puller was one of those sitting at Cambridge who with Cromwell put their hands to an eloquent appeal for forces to meet the emergency in the expected battle with the King's Army. Again in 1648 it was Isaac Puller (with the then Mayor of Hertford, William Plomer), who in- terested himself in finding guides for Col. Scroop in the pursuit of the Cavaliers to the battle of St. Neots, and sent ofi^ that letter to Parliament, dated from Hertford " past five in the morning 11th July, 1648," giving particulars of the fight at St. Neots. Sir Thomas Dacres, of Cheshunt, member''of Parliament for the County, threw himself into the service of Parliament hj rousing the enthu- siasm of the Hertfordshire people to fighting pitch ; and, as we have seen, by his eloquence inspired the soldiers in that midnight march to Hertford to resist the expected attack upon the town by the Cavaliers under Sir John Watts, of Mardocks, when the War was brewing in August, 1642. He did frequent duty for Parliament by his presence and speeches to the County people whenever their flagging zeal needed stimulus, but like some other Hertfordshire men was not favourable to the proposals of the Army Council at St. Albans, and got excluded from attendance in the House when Cob Pride's " Purge " was reducing the adverse majority of votes in the House. William Leman, member for the Borough of Hertford, was, like Sir Thomas Dacres, a man whose services were in frequent demand by Parliament, and was one of those selected to go and take up the Essex organization in the time when the Committee of that County got im- prisoned in the Siege of Colchester in the second Civil War. Viscount Cranborne, eldest son of the Earl of Salisbury, was on the side of Parliament from the beginning, and to the duties of a member of the Herts County Committee he for a time added those of Lord Lieutenant of the County in place of his father. He also commanded the County HEETFOEDSHIEE DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAB. 153 forces within, and sometimes without, the County, but as the struggle proceeded he, hke his father, drifted into the Council Chamber rather than the field, and was a regular atten- dant at the Committee sitting at Derby House, in London. The Lyttons, of Knebworth, the friends of Hampden, were also on the side of Parliament, and Sir William Lytton sat in Parliament for Hertfordshire in place of Lord Capel upon his elevation to the peerage at the beginning of the struggle. Sir Wilham was also upon the Herts County Committee. Among others of note connected with the County of Hertford was Sir Henry Iilildmay, the owner of an estate at Sawbridgeworth. Sir Henry was member of Parliament for Maldon. Essex ; and became one of those who sat in trial upon the King. He is described by the Royalists in the " Mystery of the good old Cause " as the '' Prodigy of ingratitude who * * most im- pudently had the face to appear and sit as one of his gracious sovereign's judges. He is a shallow fellow, by some surnamed Sir AVhimsay Mildmay, a pestilential Republican and a rampant Rumper." From which the im- partial reader may infer that he was a Parlia- ment man. It is said that as the King turned to leave the Court at "Westminster Hall at his trial he looked at the table on which lay the sword, the mace, and the parchment charge, and said '■ I do not fear that," and then noticing Sir Henry Mild- may, who had formerly held the post of keeper of the Jewel-House to his Majesty, seated among the Commissioners, he looked him ' in the face and said, " Oh ! You area precious jewel ! " The fact was that though Sir Henry was among the Commissioners who tried the King, he did not vote and he did not sign the death sentence, yet he was one of those who had to take their trial for the King's execution. His fate was perhaps even worse than that of Axtell, for he. Lord Monson, and Robert Wallop were dragged on a hurdle with ropes round their necks to the gallows at Tyburn and back to the Tower. Their sentence involved the further penalty of being thus pubhcly drawn to Tyburn and back every 30th January till their death ; and, even if this was not carried out, they dragged out a miserable existence in the Tower. SQUEEZING THE EOYALISTS-LORD HUNSDON AND THE HERTS COMMITTEE — WALLER THE POET. Come drawers, some wine, Or we'll pull down your sign, For we are all jolly Compounders ! We'll make the house ring With health to the King ! And confusion unto his impounders. The Compounders' Song. In the foregoing chapters reference has been made to the principal men of action in Hertford- shire on either side in the great struggle. But, as the reader may suppose, there were a great many others who did not fight who found them- selves still under the ban of Parliament, either for making contributions to the King or for re- fusing those levied by Parliament. These individuals obtained the name of " delinquents," and the manner in which Parliament dealt with them for their deUnqueucy, and their personal behaviour in misfortune, form a chapter of scarcely less interest than that of the fighting men of the party. Before noticing the misfor- tunes of some Hertfordshire men of this type who had to "compound " for their delinquency it is necessary to briefly glance at the system under which this squeezing of the Royalists by the triumphant party in the county was carried out. Raising the sinews of war in the first instance began on the voluntary principle, on both sides. As the struggle progressed and the demands for increased contributions became pressing, it was found that, like the operation of a modern voluntary rate, while the few ardent partisans were making a conscience of their work, contri- buting largely and denying themselves for the purpose, a great many of the freeholders of the county who went up in those imposing cavalcades to lay their grievances before Parliament were paying nothing at all for either side. Parliament stepped in with its long, wordy succession of ordinances, at first asking for a loan at 8 per cent, interest, which soon became a regular assessment, with penal consequences for default. The raising of money by these assessments was the business of the Committee for the Advance of Money ; the application of the money to the purposes of the War was the business of the Committee for Both Kingdoms, and the punishment, and distraints upon the estates, of defaulters was the work of the Seques- 20 154 HEHTPOEDSHIEE DUKING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. tration Committee. These different -authorities were reflected in the county of Hertford in the Committee for the safety of the County, and the Sequestration Committee, both of which reported to the Committees in London. "When the Committee for the Advance of Money was formed in November, 1642, many persons liad made advances for the service of Parliament, and the Committee's business was to obtain what was in effect a forced loan from all alike without distinction of party. The Committee was appointed upon an order of Parliament that the Public Faith of the King- dom should be given for re-payments, with 8 per cent, interest, on all loans of money advanced for the public service. The " public faith " certificate for re-payment was granted on condition that the contribution was made within ten days after the assessment was made, and in case of failure orders were issued for the seizure and sale of goods, and for holding estates until paid. Eventually the need became press- ing and the force behind the demand so rigorous that the " public faith " grew beautifully less as a security for re-payment. The first operation in the county was to see that all estates were assessed. The ratio of this capital assessment was ifoth of the real estate and ith of the personal estate. The exemptions were those Eoyalists who were in arms for the King, whose estates were already taken over by the County Committee and the rents and profits handed over to Parliament, and those whose total property did not exceed £100 in value. Besides this claim to a j)ortion of estates, there were the weekly and other special assessments levied from time to time upon the counties, hundreds, and parishes through the head and petty constables and overseers. The method of dealing with defaulters was, for the original assessment, carrying them off to prison till they paid or gave security for pay- ment, and for the current weekly assessments summary distraint by the collector and constable, backed up by the Train-Bands if necessary. Many of the original assessments remained unpaid either through indisposition or inability ; some endeavoured to evade payment by conveying away their goods, and some by absenting them- selves from their houses and putting the collectors to great trouble and expense, t t The effect of this process of imprisonment and distraint was that sometimes county men who had taken no part in the War got carried off to prison and have } ad their names handed down to posterity aa if they had " fought for the King." Besides these imprisonments The system of sequestrating and farming lands by the County Committee had been complained of because the Committee were inclined to be over-indulgent to their Royalist neighbours and letting off friends on easy terms, protecting their own friends and oppressing their enemies ; the infrequency of their meetings and the neglect of their duties of sequestration. On the other hand the County Committee complained of being crippled by the opposition of Royahsts in the county. The Herts Committee employed a sequestration agent at 4s. a day and commission, and a clerk at 2s. 6d. a day. The Committee met in different towns, though frequently at Hertford and St. Albans. In the later years of their work abuses crept in, and in 1650 the Herts Committee were fined £20 each for not giving in a perfect account, t The following was the Committee for the Sequestration of Delinquents' Estates, in the County of Herts, appointed by Parliament, June 1st, 1643, viz. :— EdVd Atkins, Sergeant-at-law, John Kinge, doctor in physic, Henry Mewtis, senr., Thomas Tookee, Gabriel Barber, Toby Combes, John Pemberton, Litton Faircloth, John Scroggs, and Thomas Sadler, Esquires, the Mayor of Hert- ford for the time being [Joseph Dalton was Mayor for that year], John Maesh, Isaac Puller, Thomas Meade, William Carter (of Offley), and John Hum- berston, sen., many of whom sat on the General County Committee. there was a constant stream of traffic in carts laden with goods seized in distress in the counties and con- veyed to the Guildhall in London, where the sale of these eflfects took place. These sales made a rare harvest for the dealers, who bought up valuable heir- looms "dirt cheap." The goods were "sold by the candle," and some of the more crafty ones got near enough the elbow of the auctioneer to control the flame. A large buyer named Fletcher was accused that he stood " so near the candle that it goes out at the casting up of his hand, or the wind of his mouth at his last bidding, when others would have bidden more."— [Reports of the Committee for the Advance of Money], The reference is, of course, to the old fashion of burn- ing a piece of candle and knocking down to the last bidder before the flame expired. t In Cambridgeshire the agent to the Committee played into the hands of the Royalists, and Francis Russell, member for the County, complained of the payment of £80 a year for the small amount of work then required, paid to a man who employed persons to act for him who "were not friends to the Common- wealth." John Tey, one of the Herts Committee, got into the custody of the Sergeant-at-Aims for contempt of the orders of the London Committee, but on giving in his account of the sale of wood from North Mimms Com mon, got his discharge upon security to appear again. nEETFOEBSHIEE DUEING THE GEHiT CIVIL W.VR. 155 At first the Royalists were allowed to com- pound for their sequestrated estates by the payment of heavy fines in proportion to what the Parliament considered the gravity of their offence, but when the relationship between the adherents of the opposing parties became more embittered, and the struggle became one almost of King or no King, still heavier fines were imposed, and in this way the Royalists were made the means through their private and family interests of contributing to the defeat of their own cause, at the same time lessening the biu-den upon those who were loyal to Parliament. It was a tremendous power to wield, and the Parliamentary cause was advanced as much by the use and by the dread of it as the Royalists in the field were checked by Cromwell's Ironsides. Either from indisposition of some of the members, or the unpopularity of the task of making the repeated levies upon the inhabitants of the county, it was sometimes a matter of complaint that Hertfordshire and the other counties did not get their weekly assessments and contributions put in motion so speedily as the necessities of the Army required, and so the principle of devolution had to be extended and names of residents in additional local centres added to the Committee. In this way a net-work of official responsibility for the success of the Parliamentary cause was extended to almost every parish, or group of parishes, and an intelligence department was at the same time secured which it was practically impossible for a Royalist sympathiser to pass unsuspected. The Parliamentary party could thus bring into play the overwhelming instrument of the civil power to exact from their enemies the very means of defeating them. The defects of it, and often the terror and harshness of it, lay in its local application where it came in violent contact with all the closer ties of blood relationship, and the old and conservative associations of good neighbourhood in country parishes. It was here that there was a terrible temptation, either of abuse by excess of power for revenge, when in the hands of unscrupulous men, or of compara- tive failure when in the hands of more generous and peaceably disposed neighbours. The execu- tive was, however, so widely and wisely chosen as to play off such opposite elements against each other and to secure the end in view, but not without an inevitable strain upon all the ordinary ties of life which, in spite of the pressure of the times, did not unfrequently assert themselves, proving in our more modern as well as in Pagan times, as Sophocles makes Antigone so bravely declare that : — No ordinance of man shall nver-ride The settled laws of Nature and of Jove ; Not written these in pages of a book, Nor were they framed to-day nor yesterday ; We know not whence they are, but this we know That they from all eternity have been, And shall to all eternity endure. But the times could brook no yielding even to the ties of family life, or the ardent sighs of parted lovers, and in the history of many families of note it was a terrible process of the survival of the fittest, in which the younger sons of many an old Cavalier who had spent his means generously among his friends went to the wall. The policy of appointing sequestrators in the locality where persons of Royalist sympathies lived, and who consequently had a much better chance of judging the attitude of a suspected neighbour than Parliament could have had, was sometimes made apparent when dealing with the less pronounced of Hertfordshire Royalists. For instance. Lord Hunsdon got suspected by the sequestrators, and they proceeded so far as to sequester his rents and goods, and it was reported to the House of Lords that " some persons do take away his goods at Hunsdon." The House of Lords discredited their own Committee sitting at Hertford by ordering that the Committee was not to sequester his Lordship's goods, and that the parties who took them avray should be sent for to show by what warrant they did it. Thomas Howe, Thomas Lawrence, and Henry Beane were brought before the House and charged by Lord Hunsdon with being informers against him for the searching of his house at Hunsdon, and upon this their Lordships gave them an admonition to " carry themselves more dutiful to his Lordship for the time to come, and to make their submission to his Lordship," and they were then discharged. But the Herts Committee and the people about Ware knew their man and what had happened at Hunsdon better than their Lordships could do, and a short time after the above incident, in June, 1644, the matter came again before the House of Lords, and this time upon the affidavits of Robert Qraygoose and John "Wilson, both of Hunsdon, who made oath that — " On Thursday, the 4th of June, 1644, about six of the clock in the afternoon there came to Hunsdon House, Gabriell Odingsells, 156 HEETFOEDSHIEB DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAK. sequestrator, Mr. Barber, second son to Mr. Gabriell Barber [member of the Herts Committee], Edward Heath, Edward Chandler, and Richard Brittayne, all of Ware, and other servants with them, and entered the said House [Hunsdon House] in all or the most part of the particular rooms thereof, breaking open such doors, trunks, &c., as had no keys, and inventoried and valued all the goods therein, leaving charge with divers to see that none of them should be removed out of the said house but by order from the Committee." The absence of any contrary order or reproof from Parliament this time seems to indicate that the Committee knew more about Lord Hunsdon's doings than Parliament did. Very shortly afterwards the House of Lords made this entry in its journals : — A message was brought from the House of Commons by Mr. Jephson, who said " he was commanded by the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses assembled in Parliament to accuse in their name, and in the names of all the Commons of England, and did accuse, John, Lord Hunsdon, of high treason, for adhering to the enemies of the King and Parliament, and they did desire their Lordships to sequester him from Parliament, and to secure his person in safe custody." Whatever his offence, he had the courage of his convictions, for Lord Hunsdon was present when the accusation was made, and, having obtained leave to speak a few words, humbly desired that there might be a speedy proceeding in this business, " that so his innocency might the sooner appear." The House then committed Lord Hunsdon to the "safe custody of the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, until the further pleasure of this House," and he was sequestered from Parliament. Meanwhile the enterprising people about Ware could not resist the temptation to " realize " upon his Lordship's valuable goods at Hunsdon House, much to the alarm and distress of his wife and children. His Lordship in a petition to the Lords pleads eloquently, " that since your petitioner's sad misfortune of falling into your displeasure, he is certainly informed that the Committee for Sequestrations in Hertfordshire do intend to seize upon the goods and household stuff at Hunsdon, which if not speedily prevented will prove to the utter ruin and undoing of your p3titioner, his wife and children, and upon this he prays for the protection of Parliament, both of his things at Hunsdon and in London, during his imi^risonment." The Lords granted this pro- tection until his case had been heard. But their Lordships did not hurry the matter, and Lord Hunsdon in another petition submits the heavy charge of his imprisonment "which is so un- supportable to him in respect of his weak estate," that this alone will ruin him without further punishment unless a speedy trial is afforded him. Another petition from his Lordship pleaded that he might be enlarged on bail " because his weak state was not able to support him at the charge he is now under." The Lords sent the petition to the Commons asking them to hasten the articles and trial against him, and thinking it fit to admit the Lord Hunsdon to be bailed. The Sequestra- tion Committee at Hertford were busy giving directions for the sale of his Lordship's goods, and were again restrained by order of Parlia- ment, and his Lordship must wait with such patience as is possible ! There are many other things of greater moment to think of. What are the goods of a Hertfordshire nobleman, and the articles of impeachment of an individual who is safe in bond, compared with Naseby fights and " crowning mercies " in the field in which a whole nation is concerned ? After another twelve months of weary sus- pense, on the 20th Sept., 1645, the House of Lords has at least the sense of fairness to try to put an end to this unjust delay. A rather peremptory message goes to the Commons that the Lord Hunsdon having been accused of high treason by the Commons in July, 1644, and no particular charge brought against him, they find they cannot injustice detain him from his place in their House without naore particular matter against him, and that they propose to receive him into his place as a member of that House on Saturday, 27th of September, unless before that time they shall receive from the Commons further cause to the contrary. But the Commons had something to say to the contrary, and the Lords agreed to a postpone- ment for a fortnight, but his Lordship is destined to more weary waiting yet. In July and August, 1647, when the Houses of Parliament were under the rule of that " horrid force " of City Apprentices ; when the old Speakers could no longer attend, and a part of the Lords held that informal meeting at Hatfield House, Lord Hunsdon had a brief respite and actually got elected Speaker over the Lords that remained. A few weeks afterwards, when the Army had restored the Parhament and the old Speakers had returned to their former place, the HEETFOEDSHrEE DUniNG TEE GHEAT CIVIL WAR. 157 affairs of Lord Hunsdon were again reported upon [Sept., 1647], when tlie House of Commons ordered that " Sir John Evelyn, of Wiltes, do, by the command of this House, at the bar of the Lords' House, in the name of the Oommons of England impeach the lords aforesaid," among the number mentioned being that " John Lord Hunsdon shall be impeached of higia trason for levying war against the King, Parliament and Kingdom." At last his Lordship, after years of waiting and suspense, had the satisfaction, when his case did come to an issue — in June, 1648, when Capel and other Hertfordshire men were commencing that desperate struggle of endurance at Colchester — of finding the decision thus recorded : — " That this House win proceed no further upon the impeach- ment against John Lord Hunsdon." One of the most profitable of the Delinquents to the Herts Parliamentary Committee, as well as the weakest of Hertfordshire Royalists, was Edmund Waller, the "rich, witty and licentious " poet and Cavalier. A cousin of Hampden, he was born at Coleshill, a curious little piece of Hertfordshire, a hamlet of Amersham, entirely surrounded by Bucks. He entered Parliament at the early age of 16 ; at first as member for Amersham, and later for Wycombe ; and from 1629 to 1640, when Parliaments were not, he spent his time in retirement at Beaconsfield, bemoaning the loss of his wife, and writing amorous verses to Lady Dorothy Sidney, eldest daughter of the Earl of Leicester, in "strains that moved all hearts but hers he wished to move," who rejected his addresses with scorn. In the Parhaments of 1640 he represented a weak reflection of the principles of his famous cousin Hampden, but when Parhament took the field he left the party of rugged principles, and of his wealth sent " a thousand broad pieces " to the King on his setting up his standard at Not- tingham in 1042, but remained at Westminster rather than fight. From this time his principal achievement was the abortive " Waller's plot " for executing the King's Commission of Array and raising forces in the City. But in conjunction with Mr. Tompkins, his brother-in-law, and an agent named Chaloner, they used their tongues too freely in the hearingofaservant concealed behind the hangings, and before the Commission of Array, carried by the beautiful Lady Daubigny in her bosom from Oxford, could be executed, Waller and his con- federates were an-ested ; Tompkins was hung before his own house in Holborn, and Chaloner in Cornhill. Waller, being a rich man, paid Parliament very well for keeping him alive ; and so, after an eloquent speech at the bar of the House, he was sent to prison, where he remained until Parliament was in sore straits for paying its soldiers, and thought of Waller and his wealth. In 1644 he was offered a pardon upon paying a fine of £10,000 and quitting the country, which was promptly accepted. After a gay life in Paris, he was allowed through the good offices of Colonel Scroop (who had married his sister) to return to England, and lived upon his estate at Beacons- field. After this he did two things characteristic of his nature — he wrote a fulsome panegyric on Cromwell and his advent to power, and another he addressed to King Charles II. on his restoration. . When the King reminded Waller in a gentle rebuke that he had written a better poem over Cromwell than on himself. Waller replied with ready wit, " Sir, we poets never succeed so well in writing truth as fiction." Remarking that " a stag when it is hunted and near spent always returns home," he expressed a wish to breathe his last at Coleshill ; but he was seized with dropsy while at Beaconsfield, where he died in 1687, and was buried in the Churchyard there and a handsome monument was erected to his memory. MORE " DELINQUENTS."— THEIR FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES. The humours and the occasional sharp practices of the Parliamentary Sequestration Committee, and the ingenious shifts and excuses of some of the characters with whom they had to deal, give us some glimpses of human nature very like human nature all the world over and at all times. The Royalists were often reduced by their sacrifices for the King on the one hand, and the sequestration of their estates by Parliament on the other, to such straits that one can appreciate the force as well as ingenuity of the plea made by John Pigott, of Abington Pigotts, near Royston, that " he went over to the King at Oxford to escape from his creditors," and that of the old soldier, Capt. Bourne, of Thriplow, that after being a soldier in foreign service he refused to take up arms again on either side ; but, being, treated by Parliament as a malignant, he was " forced to leave his home and take refuge in Oxford, where he confesses he bore arms." The case of Sir Henry Anderson, of Pendley, near Tring, affords a curious illustration of the 158 HEETEOEDSHIEE DTJEINff THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. lengths the Parliamentary Committee of the County sometimes went in the fine art of squeez- ing the Royalists' pockets when once they got them in their grip. Being informed against for being in arms against the Parliament, Sir Henry, in 1645, asked to be allowed to compound, stated that he had not acted against Parliament, and only went into the King's quarters where a great part of his estate was. At first Parliament fined him £3,170, but afterwards reduced it to £1,730. As the fine was not forthcoming he was com- mitted to the Tower, and Parliament allowed him out of his estate £4 a week for his present main- tenance. The fact was Sir Henry had more than his own proper difficulties to account for, and was the victim of a sort of debt-collecting machinery set to work by the Committee. Thus, when Sir Henry was called upon for his own fine he had also to pay £1,000 which he owed to an old lady, a recusant, who being anxious to compound and pay her fine, had got the Sequestrating Committee on to Sir Henry to get the debt out of him to pay it with ! Finding one delinquent inclined to purge his offence, but having no money, but having a debt due from another delinquent, the Committee would thus get in the debt and pocket it for the impecunious one's fine. But a more extraordinary move than this was directed against Sir Henry in respect to a relation, a young Oxford undergraduate, WilUam Anderson, of Balliol College, who had been declared a delinquent, but had died in arms against the Parliament. Sir Henry had owed this young man £1,500 (a legacy left him by his father, Sir Richard Anderson), and after the young man's death Sir Henry was summoned to show cause why he should not pay over the £ 1 ,500 to Parliament. The matter was compromised by some charge upon Sir Henry's estate, but it shows that it was considered possible to attach the young scholar's money after his death for his acts while living ! However, Sir Henry got through it all, paid his fines, and was pardoned 10th June, 1647, the day on which the Army was frightening the City from its head- quarters at Royston. The Royalist cause has often been painted as the cause of the adventurer, and no doubt did draw many young men of a roving habit and few family settlements into the fray without any very strong convictions. Thomas Brugis [or Bridges ? ], of Rickmans- worth, Herts, being apparently fond of adventure, and a young doctor, gave up such patients as he may have had at Rickmansworth, and went into the King's quarters as a physician and surgeon. Finding it a hard life, and iJrobably often with no pay, his thoughts went back to the patients he had left behind. In 1646, after the King's cause was lost, Brugis settled down at Rickmansworth. But his original offence of deserting his Hertford- shire patients for the King's service could only be purged through the medium of Goldsmith's Hall, where he, in May, 1653, was fined £42 13s. 4d. His fresh start in business at Rickmansworth, however, could not have been very successful, if, as I suppose, the following entry refers to the same man, and evidently he did not raise enough to pay his fine. In 1651 the Herts Sequestration Committee, sitting then at Berkhamsted, reported that " the estate of Thomas Bridges, of Rickmans- worth, is very small, only £3 10s., which we have secured ; he had given over housekeeping before your order, and had only a few old things left." So the adventurous doctor found himself with nothing in the world (but a small interest in some land at Ivinghoe), and no King left to serve, even had he been disposed to renew his adven- turous life, t Sometimes the Royalist, at the impoverished end of his career, found himself declared a delinquent, and yet practically had no estate to compound for and purge himself. Then, to find a wife with a small estate and willing to sacrifice a part on the altar of love was a god-send indeed, as when unfortunate young John Jacklin, of Cambridge, confessed that he had taken up arms for the King, but laid them down again, that he had no estate but a horse which was sold for the benefit of the Commonwealth, but he had now married and expected to get an estate. A fine of £40 was placed upon the married couple. Men of small estates did not escape, where- ever there was anything to lay hold of. Thus, in 1 646 we find the Committee for Compounding engaged upon the case of John Clark, of St. Albans, who begged to compound for his t Another example of adventurous Royalists is supplied by the career of William Tabor, of Cambridge, whose father, Nioh. Tabor, had got himself into prison for calling John Lowry, member for Cambridge, an " ass and a fool," and for speaking contemptuously of the Parliament. His son, Wm. Tabor, pleaded that "being a younger son without a fortune, he was misled into the King's Army where he stayed three months and then went into the Parliament's service for two years. He then informed against a gentleman who had been in the King's Army, whose estate brought £400 a year to the State, besides £2,000 in stock ; and then this gentle- man informed against Tabor, who, to purge himself of his original three months' Eoyalism, was afterwards fined £66. HEETFOEDSHIEB DTOING THE GEEAT CIVIL "VVAE. 159 delinquency, which was that of being in arms against the Parhament. A fine of £25 was accepted. Though there was nominally a minimum of £100 value in estate below which the County Committee did not generally interfere — as shown by the case of Thomas Hassell, clerk of Amwell " whose assessment being under £100 he be respited" — yet when the need for money was pressing no such limit was observed, and the Sequestrating Committee went for the smaller fry till even the Royalist who had only his hat to throw up for the King had his wearing apparel assessed ! There are cases in the Committee's own reports where they exacted £1 from Royalists having only their wearing apparel of the value of £6 6s. 8d. It must not be supposed that every Royalist or person imprisoned by Parliament was im- prisoned for actually fighting for the King and against the Parhament. Take the case of Sir WiUiam Cowper and his son, ancestors of the present Earl Cowper, K.G., of Paushanger. Here it is as recorded in the Reports of the Com- mittee for the Advance of Money : — " 17th Feb., 1643, Sir William Cooper, of the Insurance Office, Hertford Castle. Order for apprehending him and his son and bring them up in custody to the Inner Court of Wards, West- minster to be examined." " 4th Sept., 1643. Sir William Cooper's stock and dividend in the East India Company to be detained in the Company's hands for non-pay- ment of his assessment." " 2nd Dec, 1643. Order that Sir WiUiam pay his whole assessment, or that it be levied on his estate." "16th Feb., 1644. Having paid half his assess- ment and given security for the rest, a certificate to be sent to the Committee of Examinations to release him from prison." " 20th Feb., 1644. His assessment being paid, the distress and seisure of his stock in the East India Company to be taken oif." " 29th Nov., 1644. Again assessed at .£1,000." " 16th Dec, 1644. To be discharged on pay- ment of £50 ; having paid £450 on a former assessment, and £500 being his proportion on oath." It is evident, therefore, that Sir William Cooper, or Cowper, was taken from Hertford Castle and imprisoned for twelve months, not for active loyalty to the King, as inferred by Chauncy and others, but for refusing to pay the assessmeut placed upon him by Parliament, in which refusal, having the means to pay, he evidently acted from principle. John, the son of Sir William, who was imprisoned at Ely House, Holborn, at the same time as his father, died in confinement. Sir William returned to Hertford Castle, and Uved in good repute amongst his neighbours, t When the Hertfordshire Royalists had no longer a King to fight for, and Parliament and its Council of State were all powerful, those who had not already done so, were anxious to get rid of the millstone of the County Sequestration Committee, and their agent, from ofi' their impoverished estates, which being let for Parlia- ment in yearly tenancies, had too often got into a deplorable condition. They frankly owned their part in the War in order to get the matter settled, and some, in the spirit of the tender of " conscience money " to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, fearing that their action might be questioned, came forward and asked for their conduct to be compounded for once for all. Of this type was one William Cole, of Shenley, who, " on his own discovery, doubting he is liable to sequestration for delinquency in the first War," came forward and asked to be allowed to com- pound, and the Committee of Goldsmith's Hall marked their sense of such magnanimous conduct by letting him ofi' with a small fine of £18. Here are a few other " compounders " : — " Captain Kingsley, of St. Albans. Informa- tion that he has been in arms and aided the King against the Parliament. County Commissioners to take examination, and in case of dehnquency to secure his estate." " Sir Thomas Hyde, of Albury, Co., Herts. Information that he very much importuned an M.P. to desert his trust and go to the King at Oxford, and furnished him with £1,500 to raise arms and forces for the King. That he gave the King £100 while at Oxford, and furnished four horses for his service ; that he forsook his own house and went into the King's quarters, and that he has paid nothing in proportion to his estate ; that he is a grievous oppressor and depopulator, and evaded the law by great bribes ; also that he is simoniacal, and sells presentations to livings." Sir Thomas was summoned to appear and give an account of himself, when he furnished infor- t At this time Panshanffer, the present seat of Lord Cowper, was in the hands of John Slaney. 160 HEETFOEDSHIEB DTJEINe THE GEEAI CIVIL WAE. mation that he owed persons £6,000 mortgage upon his estate. " Richard (or Wilham) Dagnall, of Tring. In- formation that he was a confederate with one, "NYilliam Smith, once M.P., who deserted Parlia- ment and went to Oxford ; that he privately conveyed away one. Mat. Spicer, contrary to an ordinance that he was to be punished as a spy." " Capt. Nich. Luke, alias , Smith, of Riokmans- worth. Information that he was at Oxford, and also at Newbury fight, in arms many months, and active against the Parliament." "20th Aug., 1647. James Saltonstall, Bark- way, Herts. Begs to compound on Ludlow Articles for delinquency — in arms against Par- liament." "14th June, 1647. Fined at J =£226. 26th same month, sequestration suspended, he having paid and secured the fine." Sir Francis Crawley, of Luton, who got his holiday from the House of Lords at Christmas time, 1642, and went to the King at Oxford instead of returning, had not been forgotten, but had to pay a fine of £958. His relative, John Crawley, was also there, and Reuben Brown, of Luton, his attendant, for waiting upon his master, John Crawley, in the garrison at Oxford, got his estate sequestered also. A heavy fine for assisting the forces against Parliament was that of Michael Grigge, of Dun- stable, Beds, who was pardoned upon a fine of £1,060. Sir Thomas Soame, Alderman of the City of London, who married the daughter of Ralph Freeman, of Aspenden, and bought the manor of Throcking, was disabled from sitting in Parlia- ment for his loyalty to the King. Sir Charles Herbert, of Rickmansworth, was assessed rather heavily by the Parliament, and was reported to have a great personal estate, besides £1,000 a year in lands in co. Herts. He failed to pay his assessment, and the mansion and gardens at Rickmansworth were let by Parliament to a Mr. Pester, of London, at first for £50 a year, and afterwards for £60 a year, having been seized by Parliament from Sir Charles Herbert, for non-payment of the assess- ment. A distinguished member of the Fotherley's, of Rickmansworth, may fairly be classed as a Royalist. This was John Fotherley, son of Sir Thomas Fotherley, Gentleman of the Privy Chamber of King Charles I. He was made High Sheriif of Herts in 1652, and in 1657 was so far a friend to the Royal cause that he lent Charles II. money during his exile in the Low Countries, of which the following was the King's acknow- ledgment : — "I doe acknowledge to have receaved the summe of one hundred pounds'sterling of J. F., which I doe promis to repay as soone as I am able. — Bruges, 21 Decern., 1657, Charles, R." Mitigation in the recovery of the original assessments for the War, from non-combatants, was sometimes made for family reasons or for services rendered ; and the man who could com- mand a friend on the County Committee to speak for him was fortunate. Sir John Read, of Hatfield, was a ease in point. He had been on the original County Committee, and when it came to the payment of his own assessment, this is what is considerately spoken of him by Mr. Edward Barber, a fellow Committee-man of Hertford : — " Though Sir John Read is a baronet, he is a very poor one, and can hardly pay his expenses ; his wife's jointure being in Oxfordshire under the King's command. He has received nothing from it these two or three years. He lives in a park, and has a few deer, but the show is more than the substance, for he has a poor stock, and only a little money which his father sends him. Yet he has paid his k in the War, and is grieved to be unable to make loans. He is a rightly. Godly man, very active at Committee, and is a J. P. in suppressing alehouses. I wish all our Knights were as cordial ; I commend him to you." I suspect Mr. Barber had dined with Sir John and made up that touching appeal with Sir John's approval. It was sent in on March 24th, 1646, and in April order is made by the Committee for the Advance of Money that Sir John's assessment be respited, " his estate lying in Oxfordshire, and he being one of the Commissioners for Herts." Alexander Weld, of Ware, a County Committee-man, got off his assessment on account of previous service, and so did Thomas Mead, of Ware parsonage, who, being one of the County Committee and having voluntarily lent £42, was " left to his voluntary contribution." Even among those who, by their repre- sentative position as members of one or other of the Houses of Parliament, were almost bound to take sides in the struggle, there were HEETFOEDSHIEE DUEING THE GREAT CIVIL WAIt. 161 not a few who very cautiously did their duty, and were anxious to plead any ordinary excuse for absence, and especially when they were required to swallow that tough morsel of the Covenant. Thus, on the 16th Oct., 1643, we find Lord Dacre and the Earl of Bridgewater amongst others sending in letters of excuse for not attending the House of Lords to take the Covenant, the Earl of Bridgewater " desiring excuse for his ill-health." But this answer would not do and the Earl was put in a corner from which it required all his ingenuity to escape with a clear conscience. For, in the month of November of the same year we find from the Journals of the House of Lords " the Clerk of the Parliament made report to this House, that according to their lordships' commands he attended the Earl of Bridgewater to know his pleasure concerning the taking of the Covenant ; and his lordship, after reading it, said ' There were many things in it as his heart went along with ; but there were other things which he did not understand, and was doubtful of ' ; therefore he desires time to consider and satisfy himself of them." The House ordered the noble Earl's attendance and on the 22nd January following he writes to the Speaker an excuse for not attending as ordered. Eventually circumstances were too strong for dissimulation for on the 7th February the House of Lords sent two of its number — Earls Rutland and Bohngbroke— to "again repair to the Earl of Bridgewater on Friday next ; at which time if he did not take and subscribe the Covenant this House will under- stand it to be a refusal ; and this the Lords in Parliament think fit to acquaint his lordship with in the meantime that thereby the said Earl may take his resolution in this particular accordingly." This had the desired effect, and the noble Earl, overcoming his scruples, was reported to the House three days afterwards to have " taken and subscribed the Covenant." There were men of influence and position in the county who continued through all the turmoil to steer an even course, and among these was Kalph Freeman, of Aspenden (High Sherilf 1636), whose father, the Lord Mayor of London in 1633, had entertained the King and Queen at a magnificent banquet at Merchant Taylors' Hall " with all the grand masquers of the Inns of Court in glorious apparel." There at Aspenden, Ralph Freeman, whom C'hauncy makes into a sort of merry little practical fat grey man, " did quit all public employment, affected a retired life and pleased himself with the conversation of his chUdreu, made his house neat, his garden pleasant, his groves delicious, his children cheerful, his servants easy, and kept excellent order in his family." A wise man, whose only offence leaned to virtue's side, for his only action against Parliament was extending his hospitality to young Seth Ward, the Buntingford Free School boy, when the latter got into trouble at Cambridge. Seth Ward had gone from the Buntingford School to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and in 1643 he and other collegians, with the Master of the College, were removed to a prison in St. John's College. Their loyalty to the King was apparently of an academic kind, for young Ward and two others had produced a treatise against the Covenant. As soon as he got released Seth Ward returned to Aspenden, was hospitably entertained by Ralph Freeman, and soon after- wards advanced along that career of promotion which ended in his being Bishop of Salisbury. Others there were,hke good old Ralph Jermyn, " the faithful worthy patriot of Anstey," who, after living 55 years in happy wedlock, passed away within a few months of his wife's death, in the year 1646— too old in the flesh to wield his sword he was yet with the Royahsts in spirit, and passed away in the illusive gloaming of a stormy day, spared to see the end of the worst of the fighting, laying down his Ufe in a lull of the storm amid the respect and affection of his neighbours and friends Rest now in silence, you have )?ot the bays, Tou have fought the tight and finished your dayes, Belov'd of country, towne and freends, Of all respected, houour'd to your ends. 21 PART THE THIRD. EFFECTS OF THE WAR UPON RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL A]^D DOMESTIC LIFE. CONDUCT OF SOME OP THE HERTFOED- SHIEE CLERGY. So, incomplete by his being's law, The marvellous preacher had his flaw ; With step unequal and lame with faults His shade on the path of" history halts. Whitlier. In the third and concluding division of these chapters it is proposed to give some account of the effects of the Great Civil War upon the religious, social, and domestic life of the people of Hertfordshire. In the great struggle which for years tore the country in halves, there were really two kinds of warfare — the civil and the ecclesiastical, and the presence of a strong Puritan element in the con- flict, emphasized by the religious cast which Cromwell's example threw over every formal act, whether military or civil — rocked the cradle of the odium theologicum to a degree which made each man's shibboleth of more importance than his politics. Considering the temper of the times, therefore, and the large extent to which the doctrinal aspect of rehgion was made a matter of open controversy, it is not surprising that the clergy were, by the necessity of their position, brought into a prominence which made it hard for them to avoid committing themselves in their sermons and provoldng some of their parishioners to retaliate. Hence the pro- portion of clerical sequestrations in Hertfordshire was much greater than those among laymen. You have only to look through almost any parish register, or list of incumbents in a parish during the twenty years 1640-60, to see the significance of the many gaps in the regular order of parochial clergy, or the frequent changes from one name to another, to realize what an ordeal it was both for incumbent and parishioners. In some cases those changes mean that the incumbent was in the Fleet prison, or was living in his parish under the necessity of standing by while some valiant Independent held forth in his pulpit. In many cases the clergyman often found his pulpit occupied when he was entitled to be there himself, or his dis- course was openly challenged in not the most edifying manner before the whole congregation. It is not surprising therefore to find that the more impulsive of the clergy were sometimes led to utter things which brought them into open conflict with the Parliament, to say anything against the authority of which was almost an unpardonable sin. On the other hand, the conduct of many of the clergy had been largely responsible for the acute stage which the religious side of the controversy had reached when the War began, and it was not without reason that those of the clergy having leanings towards Puritanism were opposed to the ex- tremes being introduced into the Church which, on the one hand elevated formalism into a religion, and on the other had secularised the Sabbath by the acceptance of the Book of Sports. It is not fiecessary to regard the conduct of the clergy through the highly-coloured spectacles of the Parliamentary chroniclers to see that there was much in that conduct in many parishes which was not only out of harmony with, but entirely opposed to, the strong Puritan sentiment which prevailed in many parts of Hertfordshire. The fatal mistake, at such a time, of the Stuart Kings, James and Charles, in throwing, by means of the Book of Sports, the weight and authority of the Throne into the down grade, in regard to HEETPOEDSHIEE BUEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 163 the Sabbath, andtheHighChurchpohoy of Laud, were two forces reflected so strongly in many parishes in the county that the Puritans, shocked on the one hand by the whittling away of the hold of the Sabbath as a religious institution, and on the other by acts of sacerdotalism within the Church, found it impossible, with their views of religious life and doctrine, to refrain from open conflict with many of the clergy whose secular or Romanising tendency was equally ofiensive to them. The general character given to the extreme men among that large part of the clergy who openly impugned the authority of Parliament, and took sides with the King, the Cavaliers, and the ritualism of Laud, has been placed on record by a Hertfordshire man, John White, of Bushey, a man whose name is well known to students of the Uterary annals of the time. John White's portraits, in the Century of Malignant Priests, t of the more notable of the Eoyalist clergy may perhaps be considered too highly coloured to be regarded as serious history. At the same time they were not the result of personal slander and recriminating gossip, of which there was no end in every parish ; but, being issued by authority of Parliament, they show us the Parliamentary point of view, and, as that estimate must have been derived from information supplied by the clergyman's own parishioners, or from some of them, we may at least take advantage of White's account as an indication of what was the unfortunate state of the parishes in which such things happened, remembering in fairness that they did not represent the bulk of the clergy of the county, many of whom were loyal to their sacred calling. The conduct of the clergy who suffered the loss of their hvings for their loyalty to the King may, I suppose, be judged some- where between the two extremes of White's Century and Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, but in order to understand the grounds alleged for so large an interference with the clergy of f "The first Century of Scandalona Malignant Priests, made and admitted into benefices by the Prelates in whose hands the ordination of ministers and the government of the Uhuroh hath been ; or a narration of the causes for which the Parliament hath ordered the sequestration of the benefices of several ministers complained of before them, for vitiousnesse of life, errors in doctrines contrary to the articles of our religion, and for practising and pressing superstitious innovations against the law, and for malignancy against the Parliament. Ordered to be printed by the Committee of the House of Commons, Nov., 1643." the county as we shall see presently, it will be necessary to give some extracts from the Century, by the side of Walker's testimony where that is available and to the point. I take the accounts of the Hertfordshire " malignants " from White in the order in which they stand in the book : — "The benefice of Philip Leigh, vicar of the parish Church of Eedbourn, in the county of Hertford, is sequestered for that he is a common drunkard and haunter of alehouses, usually drinking healths, and pressing others thereunto ; a common swearer and quarreller, and hath expressed much malignancy against the Parlia- ment." Walker says he was turned out about August, 1643. " The benefice of John Gorsuch, doctor of divinity, rector of the Parish Church of Walkern, in the county of Hertford, is sequestered for that he is a common haunter of alehouses and taverns, and often drunke, and oft sitteth gaming whole nights together, and is seldome in the pulpit preaching scarce one quarter ; and hath often denied many of his parishioners the sacrament of the Lord's Supper * * and refused to administer it to such as would not come up to the railes, and endeavoured to hire one Joanes to ride a troop horse for Prince Rupert to serve under him against Parliament, saying withall, he had a snotty-nosed jade to send to the Parliament to poison the whole band, and hath published a wicked libel against the Parliament that some of the lords, whom he named, were fooles, bastards, and cuokhoulds." There is another story which states that Dr. Gorsuch was smothered in a hay-mow ; that " Pairclough, of Weston, acting rascall under Manchester, sent a body of rebels to seize and eject Gorsuch for Smeath, vicar of Weston ; Gorsuch betook himself to a hay-mow and there lost his life." Another account, however, shows him resisting the sequestration by carrying off the corn from the glebe land " to the great prejudice " of Mr. Ward, to whom the Vicarage had been sequestrated, but Mr. Ward was able to withhold i;20, the fifth due to Dr. Gorsuch's wife." Walker says the charge against Dr. Gorsuch was " the hackney one of drunkenness and gaming," and admits that he may have used the language attributed to him, and in that respect does not defend him ; but says " that which carrieth the greatest venom in it, is that he had 164 HEETFOBDSHIEE DTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. endeavoured to hire one Jones to ride a troop horse for Prince Rupert, to serve under him against the ParHament." " The benefice of Joseph Soane, vicar of Aldenham, is sequestered for that he is a common gamester, a common alehouse haunter and frequently drunke, and a common quarreller, and hath called the Parliament soldiers under the command of his Excellency, the Earl of Essex, ' Parliament doggs.' " Walker {Sufferings of the Clergy) says Soane was " a very prudent, pious, and learned man," but we shall meet him again presently in more impartial company, and the reader must judge. " The benefice of James Mountford, of the parish of Tewin, in the county of Hertford, is sequestered for that he hath refused to deliver the sacrament to his parishioners, not coming up to the railes, though some of them begged it with tears ; and openly reviled them for not conform- ing to that superstitious innovation, calling them doggs, rogues, and beggars, and presented them to the Commissaries Court for the same to their great damage and vexation ; and hath publislied in his Church the Book of Sports, on the Lord's day, and commended the same, and hath publicly in his sermons af&rmed that preaching is not necessary for the sanctification of the Sabbath, and that the Sabbath was made for ministers to rest in as well as for the people. * * * And the railes being removed he placed formes instead of them, making the people kneele at them to receive the Lord's Supper. And hath preached that if the King set up ilat idolatry we should all submit and not take up armes as some do now." Walker says he was brother of John Mount- ford, of Anstey and Therfield, and that " he is also put into the Century to keep his brother company, and that he was charged with the notorious crimes of obedience to the rules and orders of the Church, and refusing to aid in the rebellion." When the living was sequestered in favour of Mr. Dixe, it was ordered that £13 6s. 8d. be set aside from the profits of the Rectory for the maintenance of Dr. Montford's wife and family. " Griffith Roberts, vicar of Ridge * * neg- lected the public fast, employed neighbours to carry home wood for him on fast day, and openly declared * * * whoever sent horses, money, or plate to the Parliament were traitours, and that this land was governed by children and fooles, and that the ParUament had done that that they must die for, even the best of them, if ever the laws were settled." He was also accused of being ''a tipler in alehouses, a drinker of healths, quarrelling with them that will not pledge him therein." "TIae benefice of John Mountford, D.D. [brother of James Montford, D.D., of Tewin, and both sons of a. D.D., former vicar of Tewin], Rector of the Parish Church of Anstie, in the county of Hertford, is sequestei-ed for that he hath introduced into his said Church, and other Churches, a turning of the communion table altar- wise, and having a great crucifix and picture of the Virgin Mary in the east window over the said table ; used liowings and cringings before the said table, and crucifix altar-wise, and caused the said table to be railed in, and the Jesuit's badge to be set upon the carpet there, compelled the people to come up to the railes, there to kneel to receive the Sacrament, teaching that God was always present at the altar by the presence of His grace, and was therefore to be bowed unto." Parliament ordered the picture to be pulled down, but" Dr. Montford, who with his ritualism also combined an advocacy of the Book of Sports, " did arrest the Churchwardens of the said parish, and the glazier for pulling down the said scandalous pictures in the said window, in obedience to the orders of Parliament ; " and further he " usually inveighed against those who went out from his said Parish Church to hear sermons when they had none at home ; and hath preached against praying extempore as unlawful, and hath in his absence substituted a very scandalous curate, very superstitious in his practices, who preached that the conscience was never made quiet that could not be content with one sermon a day on the Lord's day." He was also accused of calling his parishioners " rebells," and Dr. Montford, the rector, "upheld him against the parishioners." Walker says he was sequestered from Anstey in September, 164.3. But Dr. John Montford's principal cure was at Therfield, held under the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. Prom this he was sequestered in August, 1643, in favour of Marmaduke Tennant. The living was not, however, very readily given up, and notwithstanding the order of the Sequestration Committee, passed by the House of Commons, Dr. Montford still made a claim for the tithes, and sued some of the inhabitants of the parish in the Court of Queen's Bench for them, and laid claim to the Rectory. He was nEKTFOKDSHIUE BTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. 165 acoordiugly summoned before the Committee for Plundered Ministers for liis contempt. Tiie matters in dispute were referred to counsel on either side to determine, and the parishioners, Matthew Frost, Edward Preist, Lawrence Sell, and Wilham Brown, were ordered to pay their tithes to Mr. Marmaduke Tennant, to whom the Rectory had been sequestered. In April, 1643, Dr. Montford had petitioned the Committee for raising money, that being assessed at iiSvlO, or above others of his rank and ability, he had been sent to prison, that nine horses with arms, &c., value iilOO, and his library, value .£1,000 at least, had all been taken for this assessment of £300. He begged for his liberty " on which depends the fortune of his family and of divers other fatherless children committed to his charge by their deceased parents." The Committee made order that as sufficient had been taken as security for his assessment " Dr. Moutfort be not further molested, in person or goods till further order." On the other hand, it is said that the cause of his sequestration was his zeal for the Church of England ; that his sequestration from Therfield was made at a time when it was a peculiar hard- ship to him — that " they just permitted him to build the parsonage house, new almcst from the ground, and then turned him out without suffering him to sleep one night in it (or but one at most) though it cost him a thousand pounds." t " The benefice of Henry Hancocke, of Fornax Pelham, is sequestered for that he preached that it is as lawful for a woman if she dislike her husband to leave him and take another as for one to go out of his parish to hear another minister, and that to go to another church was as the sinne of witchcraft and idolatry ; called his parishioners, who were religiously affected, Puritans and Roundheads, and after the fight at Edgehill, said in his sermon that he was over- joyed to thinke that God should put it into the heart of the King to fight the Lord's battell on the Lord's day to uphould the ould autient Cathohc Faith ; and fearing the pulhng up ol the railes about the communion table, he walked with his sword about the Churchyard in the night saying he would rather lose his life than suffer them to be pul'd up, and that if the Bishops should command him to wear a kittle upon his head he would doe it.'' Then there follows the stereotyped charge f Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy. that he was a " common tipler and haunter of alehouses, and a prophane swearer of bloudy oathes." Walker says he was placed in White's Century " because he urged the duty of Parochial Com- munion, preached against the Puritans, and prevented the profanation of his communion table, and rejoiced in his Majesty's victory at Egehill, after which followed the hackney accusa- tion of tippling and swearing." The Minutes of the Committee for Plundered Ministers [Add. JISS., Brit. Mus.] show that an allowance was made to Mr. Hancocke's wife. Christopher Webb, vicar of Sawbridge worth, was accused of being a common drunkard, of neglecting his cure and not suffering others to preach when he would not preach himself, and " hath expressed much malignancy against Parliament, afl&rming among other things, that he hoped in God, he should see the confusion of ParUament." Referring to the accusations of drunkenness and neglecting his cure. Walker says, " but un- doubtedly the true cause of his sequestration was his having said he hoped to see the confusion of Parliament." Christopher Webb was also rector of Gilston, and was sequestered from that living by Parlia- ment, and Mr. Thomas Mockett, M.A., was appointed in his place. At the Restoration Christopher Webb was restored to both livings, and at Gilston there was a characteristic scene when he came down on a Sunday to publish in the Church the order for securing him the tithes, etc. Mr. Mockett, the Commonwealth minister, refused to allow it to be read, Mr. Webb called in a magistrate (Mr. Humphrey Gore) who caused it to be read, when Mrs. i\Iockett came to her husband's aid by snatching the document from the magistrate's hands and detaining it. Richard Taylor, of Buntingford, Westmill, and Aspenden, is alleged to have mixed up sacred and secular things somewhat freely, setting up a cross upon the font and bowing to it upon every approach, " urged some of his parishioners to make auricular confession to him, affirming that he could forgive them ; used to hire servants to ride journeys to buy wood, and send hopps to market on the Lord's day, and upon the dissolu- tion of the late Parliament said if he were the King he would never have a Parliament more while he lived ; there was no need of a Parlia- ment, and that the last Parliament was the weakest that ever sate." 166 HEETFOItDSHIEE DTJETIfG THE SREAT CIVIL WAK. John Syddall, vicar of Kensworth, Herts, is presented in eacii of the two following lights : — " The benefice of John Sydall, vicar of the parish Church of Kensworth, is sequestered for that he is a common frequenter of alehouses and commonly drunk ; and hath several times refused to administer the sacrament to such as would not come up to the rails to receive the same. And when the rails were taken away he said it was the beginning of the abomination of desolation, and that whoremongers and drunkards are as excusable as those that goe from their own parish to hear sermons, and that Papists were better subjects than Puritans." [White's Century of Malignant Priests^ " After his sequestration he offered to officiate in his church bat was dragged out of it by the parishioners, and at length driven out of his house likewise and died in two months after, hastened to his grave, as all believed, by his sufferings. Soon after his Vicarage was supplied successively by a weaver and two ploughmen." [Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy.'] Between these two accounts — the martyr and the drunkard — there was probably something against Mr. Syddall ; and, as White adds " malignancy against the Parliament," the greatest of all sins just now, Mr. Sydall has to go and 'Master Harrison," the great dema- gogue and Baptist, takes his place. Herbert Thorndike, rector of Barley, got sequesti'ated from his living for his adherence to the King, and the authorship of several works in defence of his cause. It happened that Thorn- dike "was a candidate for the Mastership of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. While the election was proceeding and it looked like Thorndike getting tlie majority of votes, a band of soldiers rushed in upon them and forcibly carried away one of the Fellows, who was voting for Thorndike, and this left the number for Mr. Mynshall, including his own vote, equal to those of Thorndike. The King heard of the affair at Oxford, and sent for an account of the proceed- ings, and eventually Mynshall was installed in the Mastership upon paying the charges incurred by Thorndike and the Fellows who supported him. HERTFOEDSHIEE CLERGY AT THE BAE, AND IS PBISON. Some of the most notable scenes which disturbed the peace of Hertfordshire villages and centred around the conduct of Royalist clergy were those which occurred at Aldenham, Herts where the Vicar, Joseph Sone, Soane, or Some — for the name is spelt in many ways — spoke bis mind about the " Parliament dogs." On the 6th day of May, 1643, he stands there visiblj'- at the bar of the House of Lords to answer the charges against him. " The charge was read, his answer was de- manded, and he pleaded he was not guilty of the misdemeanors. Hereupon this House proceeded to hear the witnesses to prove the particulars. Witnesses to prove that he is a common gamester and quarreler — Thomas Abbott, Rich'd Downer, Zacheus Gould. To prove he is a com- mon alehouse haunter — Zacheus Gould. To prove that he called the Parliament soldiers ' Parliament Dogs ' — Edward Feudal and Eoger Carter." f The result was that Mr. Sone was sequestered in favour of John Gilpin, Master of Arts. But the House of Lords was destined to hear more of Mr. Sone. One of the first acts of Mr. Gilpin, the minister appointed by Parliament to super- sede Mr. Sone. was to hold a baptismal service. This was on Whit-Monday, 1643, and a great crowd of people assembled. Mr. Sone, in defiance of Parliament, with his supporters was able to prevent Mr. Gilpin from getting through the service, and the child had to be carried away unbaptised. Then there was a sort of indigna- tion meeting of Mr. Sone's supporters held in the church, when the " multitude cried out they would have the said Soane to be their minister still," and there is a glimpse of one Mr. Edmund Roiden, of St. Stephen's parish, who '' animated the said Soane on the premises." Upon the affidavit of Richard Axtell, Parliament ordered Joseph Sone and his supporters in this affair to be sent for as " delinquents," and on 30th of May, 1643, a few days after Whitsuntide, Mr. Sone appears again at the bar of the House of Lords, when Richard Axtell, Joseph Harris, and Henry Edwards proved " that Soane caused a mutiny and disturbance in the Church of Aldenham, whereby a child could not be christened ; and that he challenged a man in the churchyard to fight, and would not suffer the minister ap- pointed by the Parliament to officiate there, to preach." The House thereupon ordered Mr. Sone off to the Fleet prison "there to remain until he petition this Hovise and promise never to do the Uke again." t Lords' Journals. nERTFORBSHIRE DTTRING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR, 167 Mr. Sone found the Fleet prison too muoli for him, and after a fortnight's confinement, on June 13th we find the House of Lords considering " the humble petition of Joseph Sone. It is order'd that he shall be released from his imprisonment, promising to perform and obey the judgment of this House." Mr. Sone had no sooner got back to Aldenham, however, than he defied the Herts Sequestration Committee by refasing to give up the Vicarage house and the glebe, and, again upon the affidavit of Richard Axtell, he was sent for once more to the bar of the House of Lords to answer his contempt, and the Com- mittee at Hertford was directed to put Mr. Gilpin in possession. But Parliament had to deal with both the parson and the squire, and there was to be no peace at Aldenham for some time. If ever Mr. Gilpin got possession, he was immediately re- placed by a Mr. Eandall, who was frequently called to account for not allowing to Mrs. Sone, wife of the sequestered Vicar, her fifth of the emoluments according to the rule laid down in such cases. The dispute was further complicated by the action of Sir Job Harby, lord of the manor, who, being prevented from getting Mr. Sone in again, set up his own nominee, against the one of Parliament, in Mr. Thomas Horwood, who was represented to Parliament as " malignant, scandalous, and very unfitting for the place ; the parish being very great and wide, and near a 1,000 communicants, and very ignorant. " Against Mr. Horwood it was further alleged that he "hath hved in the King's quarters duringe the differ betwixt King and Parlyment," that " he had been very active to withdraw men's harts and affections from the Parhment to syde with the King's partye, and so went up and downe to pswade men ; " that he had often called " the honourable Parhment, Eebells and Traitors ; " that he had " caried himselfe verry supstitiously amongst us in Kneeling, downe to his devotion upon the staires leading up to the pulpit when hee went up to preach in the time of publique dutye." As to Sir Job Harby, it was alleged that he was a "discorrager of those Godly ministers which the honourable Parliment hath placed amongst us in not paying their dues, and will shew them no countenance ; " that he had been very urgent to have the Common Prayer read ; a great countenancer of malignant ministers which the Parliament had cast out ; and " was the verry cause of Mr. Horwood, whose malignancy would appear, being placed amongst them." Eventually the parishioners appeared to have thought that they might go further and fare worse, and so the former " malignant " vicar, Joseph Sone, found his way back as Vicar of Aldenham, and thus got his own again long before the King, or rather the King's son, got his. So the game of King and Parliament was played out on a small scale in the village of Aldenham. Walker, in referring to the accusations against Mr. Sone, says ' ' that which made him both ' gamester ' and ' drunkard ' was his calling the Earl of Essex's soldiers 'Parliament dogs,' " and adds that several in the parish could testify that he was a " prudent, pious, and learned man." Mr. Sone remained Vicar of Aldenham for forty years after the above scenes were enacted, until he died in 1683, having in 1665 addressed to his parishioners some earnest lines upon the awful visitation of the plague : — Reader whatever thoa art, rich or poore Rouse up thyself'e for Death stands at the door, His very breath is so infected growne He poisons everyone he breathes upon. Seven years sence a lettell plaug God sent, He shoke bis rod to move us to repent. Not long before that time a dearth of corne Was sent to us to see if we would turns ; * * * * Grasse was soe short and small that it was told Hay for fower pound a load was dajly soald. * * 51, * Let all infected houses be thy text And make this use that thine may be ye next. * * » * The watchman that attends the house of sorrow He may attend upon thy house to-morrow. The parish of Watton, overshadowed by the Royalist family of the Butlers, was another parish which had its vicar carried off' to the House of Lords and to prison. William Ingoldsby, the vicar of Watton, confessed at the bar of the House of Lords that he preached that " those that have taken the Protestation, and do fight against the King, they were forsworn ; but denied that he ever spake anything against the Parliament." " Then these witnesses were pro- duced " — says the record — "Edward Miles, Thomas Waight, Thomas Heath, John Teereman, and John Myles. A printed book of his making was produced, full of malignant expressions and imputations upon the proceedings in Parliament. The said Mr. Ingoldsby being called in and asked whether he will own the said book, he confessed he published the said book." 168 HEUTFOEBSHIEE DTTEm& THE GEEAT CIVIL TVAE. So Mr. Ingoldsby is marched off to the Fleet Prison, and a Mr. Wells is installed in his place at Watton. The usual term of imprisonment in such case was for so long as it took the offender to humble himself, petition Parliament, and promise not to do the like again, and this Mr. Ingoldsby did a short time afterwards, t The minister appointed by Parliament to succeed the sequestered Vicar did not find a bed of roses — did not always get his tithes, some of the parishioners withholding them on principle and others from less creditable motives, and yet the Parliament minister had to comply with the standing ordinance of Parliament to pay over one-fifth of the emoluments to the displaced Vicar's wife and children. The parish of Kimpton afforded an instance of the difficulties which sometimes arose and of the trying experience of residence in a country village in those distracting times. Thomas Faucette, who was vicar of Kimpton when the "War began, happened to be brother of Colonel Faucette, his Majesty's Governor of Woodstock, and in 1643, after a short incumbency of three years, was sequestered and got himself twice imprisoned, once at St. Albans. Walker says he was " a bold man, and utterly refused to pay the wicked taxes laid on him and other loyalists to carry on the Eebellion, until the King did in a manner give him order to do it by saying to Col. Faucette, ' Why should your brother ruin himself when he can do me no service by it ? ' His sequestration at Kimpton had something very peculiar in it ; which is, that in truth it was rather an act of favour than cruelty to dis- miss him, for his wife made it appear before the Committee sitting at Hertford that when all the taxes and impositions laid on her husband were paid he had not £10 a year left, out of which also he was to quarter four men and three Jiorses." The same authority says that Mr. Faucette's successor, John Starr, " had the grace never to pay one farthing or so much as the fifth to the late rector." Parliament did generally see that the incoming minister paid over the " fifth " to the deprived vicar's family, but in other cases besides that of Kimpton there was very little out of which to pay it, or for that matter for the new minister to t Twelve months afterwards we find one Rich'd Kncham allowed, on petition to Parliament, "to take his remedy at law against the Rectory and Parsonage of Watton for recovery of hie just debt owing him by Wm. Ingoldsby, clerk." live upon. Thus, in 1645 the Committee sitting at Hertford had before them the claim of Mrs. Newman, wife of the ejected vicar of Datch- worth, and they decided that Mr. Peck, the Parliament minister, should be released from making any payment to the support of Mrs. Newman and her children, as the said Mr. Peck had nine children of his own to maintain, and Mr. Newman, the ejected vicar, had also been turned out of a living in another county, from which (though it is not stated) his wife and family may have been receiving their " fifths." When Parliament sequestered the Royalist clergyman and appointed its own minister, the latter sometimes quailed before the ordeal of a clamorously divided congregation. The seques- tration of the rectory of Little Berkhamstead, Herts, for instance, was attended by a good deal of trouble of this kind. The sequestration was from Mr. Falthrop to Mr. Cradock. But Mr. Falthrop did not mean to be sequestered, and made it unpleasant for Mr. Cradock, and the Committee made a special order for Mr. Falthrop to give up the parsonage house to Mr. Cradock. The old rector, however, stuck so tight to hia parsonage that Mr. Cradock either could not, or was not disposed to, press the matter, and was called to account himself for not officiating as minister. In fact, Mr. Cradock gave up his hopeless task and another minister was tried in Mr. Abraham Bush, Master of Arts, " a godly and orthodox divine," who was ordered to officiate and to " preach diligently to the parishioners," in return for which he was to have for his pains the glebe and parsonage house. But Mr. Falthrop still had something to say and stuck to his attitude of no surrender. After a great deal of documentary warfare, the Committee sitting at Hertford was put on to the business of getting Mr. Falthrop out, and to " settle the sequestra- tion of the rectorie of Little Berkhamstead in possession of the parsonage house and glebe, and to call to their assistance all constables, trained bands, and other officers they shall think meet ; and the Sargeant-at-Arms or his deputies are to take and keep the said Mr. Falthrop in safe custody." This energetic measure had the desired effect, Mr. Falthrop was marched off to prison, and in a few days he relented, petitioned for his release, and was ' ' discharged from imprisonment, paying his fees." Mr. Falthrop was also accused of trying to induce young men of Little Berkham- stead not to serve in the ParUamentary Army. HEETFOEDSHIEE BUEING THE GEEAT CITIL TVAE. 169 "Walker says that the chief article against him was that he dissuaded persons from the service of Parliament, whereas " the only proof was that the only son of a parishioner named Hill was resolved to go as a Volunteer into the Parlia- ment's Army, and the old man came to the Vicar to dissuade him from the project." Robert Parey, or Porey, rector of Thorley, Herts, was another thorn in the side of Parliament, both in his theology and his practice. As to the former he attacked the prevalent Calvinism, and " endeavoured to corrupt his parishioners with the leaven of Arminian doctrines, and preached that Christ died for all," and that " the ground of our election was in ourselves and not in God." More than this, it was alleged that " he inveigheth against strictness in religion, affirming all Puritans to be a limb of the devil, abusing our brother Soots by affirming them to be d rogues * * and hath preached that he was as much bound in conscience to read such things in Church as the Bishops sent to him to be read, as he was bound to read the Lord's Prayer, and that he received them both with equal authority." But a worse offence than this was that Mr. Porey " expressed malignancy against the Parliament's proceedings," refused to read the Parliamentary ordinances in his Church ; and when Parliament got someone else to go into his Church and publicly read its declarations, Mr. Porey " slung out of the Church, calling such as he met to come out with him and not ' stay to hear all kinds of bibble- babble, and things to no purpose at all.' " The result was that Mr. Porey found his living sequestrated and a successor in John Halsiter put in his place by the following parishioners : — Nicholas Humphrey, Henry Ciodfrey, Edward Willey, Robt. Osborne, Matthew Barnard, John Brett, Henry Taylor, and Edward Warner, t John Clark, vicar of North Mimms— the parish from which Mr. Coningsby, the High Sheriff, set out so bravely, only to come into disastrous conflict with Cromwell in St. Albans market — was dispossessed of his Uving for following the example of the Squire, and was banished to one of the Carribean Islands. Isaac Craven, vicar of "Ware, was, says AValker, a great sufferer and was several times imprisoned, and his family were reduced so low that his widow had to seek charity. He adds •f Lords' Journals, vol. v, p. 090. that Mr. Craven was a person of " great piety, learning, and loyalty." Dr. Seaton, rector of Bushey, who figured with Mr. Coningsby in St. Albans market, was called to the bar of the House of Lords for his conduct in deserting his cure and betaking himself to the Cavaliers, to which he replied that his cure was supplied constantly by an able minister, and that " he had resigned his living for the payment of his debts." Peter Hansted, rector of Hadham, was se- questered and found a congenial sphere as Chaplain to the Royalist troops, but died in the siege of Banbury Castle. His successor, Daniel Dyke, affords a curious illustration of the turn- ing of the times. Mr. Dyke was a Baptist and made Chaplain in ordinary to the Protector, and in 1653 was appointed one of the Triers of Ministers. John Barwick, who was appointed rector of the parish of Therfield and Dean of St. Paul's for his unwearied services to the Royal cause, was the inventor of the cipher by means of which the correspondence and negotiations over the King's attempt at escape from Carisbrooke Castle in the Isle of Wight were carried on, and in which Col. Titus played such a con- spicuous part. As to the rest of the Clergy who were more quietly dispossessed and forgotten in the din of arms until the Restoration brought them back, in many cases, to their parishes, many would, I suppose, have answered to the record left in marble of the Rev. Richard Way, rector of WiUian. For a copy of the Latin inscription, and the following translation into English verse, I am indebted to the Hon. and Rev. L. W. Denman, rector of Willian. Beneath this marble slab in peace reclines, What little mortal part there still remains, Of Bichard Way, skilled in theology. Who, when with civil strife the land did blaze, And laws were silent midst the din of arms. Remained a secret son of King and Church, Faithful in their misfortunes unto each ; But justice came at length to this our land. And all who had been banish'd, now returned ; Amongst the rest the Willian pastor came. Though patron he, and Vicar of his (Jhurch, Of exile sixteen years he had endured, But now re-visiting his wandering flock, llestored to office as to benefice — Flis antient rights he did possess again, But wearied out by cares of this short life (Albeit he seemed to love it and enjoy). Lest he again by fortune should be scorned, Migrated gladly to a better clime ! Died, April 13th, A.D. 1673; aged 62 years. 22 170 HEETFOEBSHIEE DTTBINe THE GEEAT CIVIL VAE. Altogether the clergy of about sixty Hertford- shire parishes, or nearly half the parishes in the county, lost their livings through their loyalty to the King, and chiefly during the first year of the War in 1643. Among the remaining clergy there were, no doubt, some who, like Josias Byrd, the old rector of Baldock, were in sympathy with the King, but had the tact and good sense to keep the discharge of their ministerial duties free from any very pronounced leanings to either side. There must have been many who stood faithfully by their charge, and, resisting all temptations — pressing and strong temptations they must have been — from either side, deserve to be mentioned with all honour as the devoted servants of the King of Kings, whose banner they carried untarnished through all the clamour and strife raging around them to the dividing of family and parish life. That they were left by Parliament and the County Sequestration Com- mittee in the enjoyment of their cures is the best proof of their fidelity. For, so long as an incumbent kept himself clear of the crowning offence of seeking to influence his parishioners against the Parliament, and of extreme points of ceremonial, he was respected and left undis- turbed by Parliament in the exercise of his ministry. It is to the credit of many a sorely tried parish minister that he remained at his post through all the changing scenes. A few instances are worth recording : — John King, of Abbots Langley, remained in- cumbent from 1626 to 1662 ; Nicholas Trench, of Sandon, 1623-68 ; Esdras Marshall, Eushden, 1629-63 ; Thomas Juice, King's Langley, 1634- 70 ; Thomas Gardiner, of Cottered, 1627-63 ; Alexander Strange, the kindly old man, little in stature but great in mind, who presided over Layston parish, for 44 years " instructing the people and in making peace between disputants," left a Chapel of Ease in Bvmtingford as a monu- ment of his labour ; and, last, but not least, Josias Byrd, the old rector of Baldock , who though drinking the King's health in that picturesque fashion in 1647, exercised a quiet, and apparently acceptable ministry over the long period of 53 years— 1613-66. HOW THE PULPITS WERE FILLED.-A THEOLOGICAL BATTLE GROUND AT HEMEL HEMPSTEAD. Having emptied the pulpits in the Hertford- shire Churches of the more pronounced of the RoyaUst Clergy, Parliament took measures not only for filling them, but also for maintaining them on Puritan lines, and on the whole its nominees were men of repute, both in theology and morals ; though there were some exceptions on the former point which caused much trouble. Perhaps the most notable disturber of the ecclesiastical orders in Hertfordshire was one Mr. Baldwin. In February, 1644, his case was carried to the House of Lords by Dr. Burges and Dr. Whincop, of the Assembly of Divines, upon a letter or petition written "from divers ministers and other persons of credit in the County of Hertford," which affords us an in- teresting glimpse of a theological battle ground at Hemel Hempstead, such as few other places even in those times could present. To under- stand the remarkable commotion in the town which raged round the Parish Church, it is necessary to glance back and see how Baldwin came upon the scene. The Vicar of Hemel Hempstead, the Rev. John Taylor, was, in the Parliamentary language of the day, sequestered by Parliament " for divers foul misdemeanours," and, according to the usual practice. Parliament appointed a minister of their own for the parish. But George Kendall, the minister appointed in his place, was not altogether a Parliamentary Boanerges. He was one who took affairs pretty much into his own hands, and when it was not convenient to occupy the pulpit himself improved upon the Parliament's expedient for deputies by placing deputies of his own in the pulpit. It was under these circumstances that the parish of Hemel Hempstead was taken in hand by the Westminster Assembly of Divines and the House of Lords. The letter written by " divers ministers and persons of credit " was to the following effect : — "An information of divers erroneous points delivered in a sermon lately at Hempstead by one Mr. Baldwin ; and the sermon being ended, the said Baldwin sat himself down in the pulpit, to see who would answer his opinions ; and nobody undertaking to answer him, he stood up and made a challenge to maintain his opinions against any on that day fortnight afterwards ; whereupon a tumult was likely to be." Upon this the Westminster Assembly of Divines, afraid of the effects of an orator who could deliver himself of erroneous points and coolly sit down to see if anybody dare contradict him, suggested for the weighty consideration of the House of Lords the importance of sending down to Hemel Hempstead, on the expiration of HEETFOEDSHIEB BtrBING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 171 the fortnight, some able minister to preach at Hempstead, who would be a match for the dangerous Baldwin, "whereby the people may be settled in their opinions, and tumults prevented." Some such antidote was the more necessary as the controversial Baldwin had been delivering himself in similar fashion at Hatfield, and an information " of divers erroneous opinions " delivered there by the said Baldwin, was also submitted to the House of Lords. This informa- tion set forth the propositions " delivered by Baldwin in Hatfield Church, on Thursday, 8th day of Feb., 11-43 (44)." Many of this long string of propositions were of a doctrinal character too common at the time, and it is only necessary here to give one or two. This ecclesiastical socialist and anarchist had declared to the Hatfield people the astounding doctrine even for those days " that he prayed neither for the King, Parhament nor Synod, but absolutely prayed against all authority." Other propositions were against infant baptism ; that their Churches were as idolatrous as the Temple of Diana ; that catechising by the priest was papistical, but that for questioning the minister by the congregation there should be free hberty." The information as to Hatfield concludes : — " That these things were uttered by him, we whose names are under written do declare and testify. Eob't Winchester, cler. Onslow Tudder. Kich'd Wikinson, cler. Francis Hare. Henry Agkerayde, John Longstart. Fulke Tydder." The House of lords made the following order for dealing with and counteracting the teaching of Baldwin : — " Upon information this day received of great disorders committed by one Baldwin (pretending to be a preacher) in the Church of Hempstead in the County of Hertford, tending to sedition : It is ordered * * that the Assembly of Divines be requested to send some able preacher to preach in that Church upon Thursday, the last of this instant February, and truly to inform the people of the integrity and care of both Houses of Parliament for setthng of matters of religion according to the word of God * * and that for the future some grave, learned and discreet ministers be requested to perform that lecture tiU further order can be taken, and that the Churchwardens of Hempstead do take care that none but such as are known to be ministers in orders be permitted to preach at any time there." Meanwhile, the people of Hemel Hempstead were in a quandary. Those who supported Parhament did not like to see its credit dragged in the mire, and yet were unable to meet the challenge of the turbulent Mr. deputy Baldwin. A number of the clergy in the district took the matter up and attended Hempstead Church to hear Baldwin for themselves. The result was a joint representation to the Assembly of Divines to the effect that : — " Coming on this present Thursday, being the 15th day of February instant, to hear a sermon at Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, in the ordinary course of the lecture there, we heard one Mr. Baldwin, who having formerly preached there (as we are in- formed) to like purpose, amongst other things which we conceived heterodox " — and then after enumerating the points they proceed — " and in the close of his sermon challenged anyone in the congregation to make use of their privilege, which is (as he said) freely to bring their allega- tions against anything that he had tauglit ; and if no man objected, he should presume that they were taken for truths ; and no man able to reply." Then commenced a high debate in the Church, for the eight clergy present add, "we were forced to oppose those errors instantly upon the close of the sermon." But whether from the want of a moderator or the division of feeling, the debate was not very orderly, and the visiting clergy add — "But satisfaction not being given, and the people seeming to be much distracted, he, the said Mr. Baldwin, made further challenge to answer him, to any of those points especially that of baptising infants, the fourteenth day after, which will be the last of this present February." The debate being thus practically adjourned, the next fortnight's lecture was looked forward to with some anxiety by the clergy, and with lively curiosity by the careless. These eight clergy conclude their petition to Dr. Burges and the Westminster Assembly as follows :— " Sir, we are in some streight ; we partly doubt whether it be fit to entertain such a challenge, yea or nay, and desire your advice in it, and (if you think it convenient to be requested) the sense of the Assembly also, and that with all convenient speed." 172 HEETFOEDSHIRE DUETNG THE GEEAT CIVIL 'WAE. This document is signed by the following: — John Jemmatt, Wm. Bann, Kaph. Kotherham, Wm. Micklethwayte, John Turner, Eichard Symonda, Nathanell Debanck, Jeremy King. Evidently the best course was for the gi'eat Dr. Burges himself to go down to Hemel Hempstead to the theological trysting place ; and so he went, and gives the following report to the House of Lords of his visit : — " According to their lordships' directions he hath preached at Hampstead * * and he finds the people there much possessed with Anabaptism and Antinomianism and other sects ; that unless some speedy course be taken the mischief will hardly be prevented. The minister of the town, Rlr. Kendall, refused to 5me to him whereby he might acquaint him with the order of Parliament. This Mr. Kendall, being set in there by both Houses of Parhament, hath been a chief promoter of all the distractions there ; he refuseth to baptise any infants ; he hath openly maintained the Church of England to be no Church * * it is generally conceived that ao long as he is per- mitted there it will never be better with the people but rather worse, and that there is labour- ing in that town against the taking of the Covenant." "That there are divers ministers of that county who have promised to preach the Thurs- day lecture at Hempstead * * but by reason of the great distraction in those parts, and the boldness of Anabaptists and other sectarists thereabouts, the ministers dare not enter upon this service unlesa they be ordered by their several names to perform it." The names of these ministers were : — Mr. Gladman, Mr. Goodwin, Mr. King, Mr. Jemmatt, Mr. Puttee [Tutty ?], Mr. Leviston, Mr. Barton. Mr. Woolfall, Mr. Simnes, Mr. Juice, Mr. Eotherham, Mr. Newton, Mr. Carre, Mr, Buckley, and Mr. Debanke. A certificate was also read from inhabitants of Hempstead, stating that Mr. Kendall had refused to baptise their infants when they had earnestly desired it. This was signed by — Tho. Walker, the elder, Wm. Arnot, Tho. Walker, Wm. Gregory, and Nathaniell Miles." In this state of affairs. Parliament summoned Mr. Kendall, their own nominee, to appear before them to answer the said offences, and meanwhile appointed the fifteen ministers named above to lecture at Hempstead in their turns. So much for Mr. Kendall, the Parliament's deputy ; now for Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Kendall's dejjuty. He is now already at the Bar of the House of Lords on the same day as the Kendall complaints were made, to answer for stirring up the people with his seditious opinions. It then appeared that the pugnacious Mr. Baldwin had sought a theological encounter with Mr. Tutty, a local minister, and a letter on the subject of this challenge was read, in which Baldwin taunts his would-be antagonist with wishing the points of debate to be settled beforehand so that he might " study upon them," upon which Baldwin insinuates that a man who poses as a teacher should be ready, and apt to maintain his own doctrine and practice, and to answer the gain- aayer without study, " but," he sarcastically adds, " I take you not for a gospel teacher, and therefore allow you (as you have need) study to fit yourself, being not otherwise fitted. Raise then two propositions out of my doctrine and practice ; study thence to confute me." After settling the doctrinal points for debate, this champion of extempore speaking concludes — " The place for the dispute requisite to be in Mimms Steeple House [shade of Thomas Coningsby, now lying in the Tower ! ] in so much as our difference arose from what were there delivered. The time to be the sixth day of the first month, being the fourth day of the week. Anno. 1643. Per me, Eob't Baldwin." On this letter was endorsed : — "This paper was delivered to me by Mr. Baldwin with his own hand at Eidge, in Hert- fordshire, on Tuesday last, 27th February, 1643. Per me, Wm. Tutty." After the production of the letter Baldwin acknowledged at the Bar of the House that he had written it, and " hereupon," says the record in the Parliamentary Journal of the time, " this House taking this business into consideration, for the present ordered that the said Eobt. Baldwin, for endeavouring to stir up sedition, shall stand committed to the Prison of the Gatehouse in Westminster, and there to remain until the pleasure of this House be further known, and that the keeper of the Prison shall take special care that no company resort unto him, nor that he be permitted to preach, whereby to disperse his sedition, and this command to obey as he will answer the contrary at his peril." HEETFOBDSHIRE DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 173 The next to appear before the bar of the House was Mr. Kendall, the man whom Parlia- ment had put in place of the Vicar. The charges against him were taken one by one, and he was allowed to make answer to their Lord- ships upon them. The first charge was that he had refused to baptise infants born in the parish of Hempstead for sundry months last past, though he had been earnestly requested and did at his first coming baptise infants. Kendall made answer that things being not determined by the Parliament concerning ceremonies, he was not resolved about some ceremonies and forebore to use them. It was next proved by Thomas Walker, the elder, and Wm Gregory — " That he hath refused to administer the Lord's Supper to the parishioners, by all the time of his being there, and bitterly inveighed against such as had received the Sacrament from the hands of another, the first day that he preached there, saying they had no more right to it than dogs, or to that effect, to the great grief and scandal of the people." Kendall's excuse was that he conceived that those who were there were not Christians and had no right to it, and also because there were great divisions in the parish. He confessed that he had not taken the communion himself since he came there. The same two witnesses proved that Mr. Kendall had been a great means of division and distractions amongst the people who lived together in good accord before his coming among them. They also stated that he admitted divers men (as Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Erbury) to preach against baptising of infants, against Parliament and the Assembly. It was alleged that he had refused to take or administer the Covenant. Kendall denied this, but when asked by the House if he would take the Covenant he adroitly answered when it waa offered him he would do as God directed him. Their Lordships ordered " that for the present the said Kendall shall stand committed to the prison of Newgate, during the pleasure of this House, for endeavouring to sow sedition amongst the people, and that his keeper shall not permit any person to come, but to keep him in safe custody. And because the said Kendall was put into the cure of Hempstead by ordinance of both Houses of ParUament by way of sequestration, it was ordered that he be put out of the cure and that for the future none might be put into any cures by sequestration but such as were approved by the Westminster Assembly of Divines as being fit and able." The Gatehouse Prison confinement proved too much for Mr. Baldwin, who in a, short time petitioned Parliament for greater liberty, and the House ordered '' that he have the liberty of the prison, provided he be not permitted to disperse or preach any of his opinions." After nearly six months Mr. Baldwin was released from his con- finement on the, for him, very hard condition that he do not commit the same offence again, " if he does he must expect to be more severely punished. " Mr. Kendal after only a month's con- finement, had made terms with Parliament, and got released from Newgate, " giving sufficient security in a bond of five hundred pounds not to publish any of his opinions, either in the prison or elsewhere contrary to the doctrine of the Church of England." For whatever was likely to influence the people against itself, whether from a Royalist justice or from a parish clergyman. Parliament had its antidotes, and, whether by force of arms or by the power of eloquence, generally so directed them as to bring them to bear in the most public manner, and on occasions when the people were assembled together. For this purpose the weekly lecture, I suspect, became both u'ied and abused. It was open to the parishioners of any parish to petition ParHament for a weekly lecture by an outsider, and Parliament if it saw fit would in these times appoint one, or several in turn, of its most eloquent preacliers and controversialists to the town or parish to occupy the vicar's pulpit on market day, and the weekly lecture thus became a powerful agency. As an instance it may be mentioned that just at the critical point in the month of July (19th), 1642, a month before the actual commencement of the War, the Hitchin market people were provided with a weekly discourse by champions of the Parliamentary cause, the order for which runs as follows : — " Upon reading of the humble petition of divers freeholders and chief inhabitants of the parish of Hitchin, in the County of Herts, it is ordered that : Dr. Lindall (Hitchin), Dr. Chester (Stevenage), Mr. Herbert Palmer (Ashwell), Mr. Eotheram (Ickleford), Mr. Denne (Pirton), Mr. Symes (Bumpstead, Essex), Mr. Aspin (Offley), Mr. King (Flampstead), Mr. Eeles (Harpenden), Mr. Sedgwicke (Ely), Mr. Cummin (Albury), Mr. Tomlins (Northaw), Mr. Trayherne (Stapleford), Mr. Young (Kimpton), and Mr. Bedford (Willian), orthodox divines shall be recommended by this 174 HEETrOEDSHTEE DTTEIJfG THE GEEAT CITIL VAE. House to he lecturers to preach in the parish Church of Hifcchin by their turns every Tuesday being market day * * and the parson or vicar of the said parish is hereby required to permit the said ministers to preach in the said parish Church every Tuesday without molestation or interruption." Among these men were some of the most powerful preachers of the time, and they were, no doubt, selected for this reason. When the inhabitants of any parish were allowed by Parliament to set up a weekly lecture t in the Parish Church on a week-day, usually on a market day, it not unfrequently happened that the Vicar of the parish objected to the pro- ceeding and petitions went up to Parliament to uphold their orders. A notable instance of this occurred at Brosbourne, where the Vicar, Mr. Parlett, locked up the church and kept the keys, refusing to allow the parish-appointed Mr. Evans to preach without direct order from Parliament, when the House ordered him to allow Mr. Evans, the appointed lecturer, to preach. Perhaps no part in the Puritan Revolution has been more frequently denounced than the iconoclasm of the Long Parliament which ordered all " altars and tables of stone " to be removed out of Churches ; " superstitious pictures," images and inscriptions to be removed and "utterly demolished." The wording of the orders of Parliament (printed in extenso in the House of Lords' Journals) show that Parliament may not have been quite so black as it has sometimes been painted. Still, its ordinances were wide enough, when in unscrupulous hands, to cover a wanton iconoclasm which had little respect for art, if it only served to clothe a suspiciously worded sentiment ; and thus, not f The weekly lecture as a Puritan institution had been generally suppressed by Archbishop Land, but was revived by the Long Parliament. It was a voluntary institution intended in the iirst instance to supplement the ministrations of the Vicar of the parish, and not necessarily in opposition to him, though in the great struggle it probably was. and Parliament made order that the Vicar was to suffer and not to hinder the weekly lecturer from occupying his pulpit. It was worked pretty much on the lines of a modern Methodist local preachers' "plan," with the exception that the lecturers were ministers from the surrounding parishes approved by Parliament. The " plan " in this case — or the programme showing the order in which the lecturers were to preach and take their turn — was called a " catalogue for the lectures." and in old accounts for market towns of the period, items for making them out occur. In the Mayor's accounts for the Borough of St. Albans there are such entries. only images and pictures, but expressions offen- sive to Puritan ideas and dogmas, were demolished by " the man that came to take off the Popish sentiments from the graves and windows," as the St. Albans (St. Peter's Parish) Churchwardens' Accounts still testify. We know that Dr. Montford, of Anstey, had his great picture of the Virgin Mary taken down, and that in a moment of wrath he arrested the churchwardens and the glazier for their pains ; and also that Lord Salisbury was fearful of his stained glass windows in the chapel at Hatfield House. But sometimes this outburst of Puritan fanaticism of the Long Parliament gets credited with the destruction of monuments and inscrip- tions which in reality was the work of other hands following the Reformation. The whole- sale removal of tombstones in more recent times and their desecration by being used for paving neighbouring public-houses and bakers' ovens [see the parish of Aldenham in Cussans' Histoi-y of Hertfordshire] should remind us that the Puritan, regarding his work as part of that Herculean task upon the Augean stable to which he had set his hand t had at least a motive, whatever we may think of it, which is more than could be claimed for the degrading apathy which two hundred years later first neglected and then applied memorials of the dead to such revolting uses. JOHN BUNYAN AND THE "MECHANICAL MEN." -SOME FAMOUS HERTFOBDSHIEE PREACHERS. We who think of the name of John Bunyan in connection with one of the crowning glories of our literature, can hardly realize the contempt with which Parliament regarded the unlicensed amateur preachers and " mechanical men " who took upon themselves to instruct the people in those weighty matters which Parliament had made so much its own. In truth, the unsettling process had spread much further than Parliament had intended, and there was a sort of free-trade in preaching which brought all sorts and con- ditions of men into the field of theological war- fare, which raged with as much bitterness of tongueas the civil conflict had done with keenness t It must not be supposed that the churches and their services were neglected because the Puritans demolished " superstitious images." At Baesingbourn, near Royston, a new set of bells was provided, all bearing the date of 1651. HEETFOEDSHIRE DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL 'WAE. 175 of the sword. Sixty -three of the clergy of Hert- fordshire entered their protest against this un- licensed preaching, and in their petition they stated that they " cannot but be sensible * * of the pernicious growth and spreading of per- nicious errors, heresies, and schisms ; the daring impudenoy of mechanics rending our con- gregations by private meetings in time of public worship." t The divisions became so great and so multipUed that the number of Sects, or Sectaries as they were called, might now seem almost in- credible. For their character and number the student of the curious in religious history has again to go to the pages of a Hertfordshire writer, Thomas Edwards, who had been curate of All Saints, Hertford, and whose writings, though tainted with the controversial partisan- ship of the period, throw an interesting light upon the religious life of the county. In the pages of the famous Oangrcena ; a Catalogue and discovery of many errours of the Sectaries, Edwards classified the Sectaries under the following sixteen heads : — Independents, Brown- ists, Chihasts or Millenaries, Antinomians, Anabaptists, Manifestarians or Arminians, Libertines, Formalists, Enthusiasts, Seekers and Waiters, Perfectists, Sooinians, Arians, Anti- trinitarians, Antiscripturists, Scepticks, and Questionists. He then goes into a detailed catalogue of their " errours " or doctrines to the number of 176 — the strangest medley of beliefs that could ever enter into the heart of man, set forth in an over-zealous and coarse fashion which weakens the author's claim to impartial writing and makes it a not very congenial field of study. The references to Hertfordshire and its Sectaries and their "errours," are sufficiently numerous in the Gangrcena to make it necessary to glance briefly at Edwards's work, which has frequently a local colouring. Edwards is chiefly interesting when speaking of local persons and practices. Of the Sectaries he says, " All kinds of Sectaries and mechanic preachers from London from the Army, preach and corrupt the people, and of those practices there are manie sad examples in Hartfordshire and Essex, and that in some great market townes as Chesham where thousands of souls are." In addition to the mechanic preachers— smiths, tailors, shoemakers. + The names of iheae clergy are given in Noncon- formity in Herts, by the Rev. W. Urwick, M. A. ; a work of much wider historical research in general county history than the title might seem to suggest. weavers, pedlars, &o., he says that in Hertford- shire there were also some women preachers, who " took upon them at meetings to expound the Scriptures in houses." John Bunyan — afterwards arraigned before Francis Wingate, the Bedfordshire justice at Harlington House, a relative of Captain Wingate already noticed, from which modest local scene was to arise a religious force of immortal vigour — was not the only " mechanic " whose preaching roused the Hertfordshire people. Bunyan preached iu some of the Hertfordshire villages, and there was an active band of other preachers, each one a very Boanerges in his work, though only a despised mechanic. Of such men were those spoken of by Edwards : — " There are four famous preachers in Hartford- shire (as I have it from sure hands), one Heath, the collar-maker of Watton ; one Rice, the tinker of Aston ; one Field, the bodies-maker, of Hart- ford ; one Crew, the tailor of Stevenage. * * * Besides these there are some other preachers who sometime were ministers in the Church of England, but now great Sectaries, as Master Feake, at All Saints Church, in Hartford ; one Master Harrison, about St. Albans side [or Kensworth, and " a great demagogue,"] and some others of whose strange preachings, practices, of the complaint to the judges at the Assize of Master Feake, I shall hereafter give the reader an account." He also mentions one Carter, having but one eye, a Sectary at Watton and a great preacher, "who keeps conventicles on the Lord's Day, there being a great resort to him, never coming to the public assemblies." Evidently, this Carter with the one eye was a sort of Hertford- shire Christmas Evans, painting in vivid colours the final outcome of his dogmatic theology, but without the free play of imagination which, realizing the glory as well as the terror of the day of doom, caught the " hwyl " among the Welsh mountains in a later day. The proceedings of Master Christopher Feake, the Parliament mini.ster at All Saints' Church, Hertford, to whom Edwards referred as a great Sectary, caused something of a scene at the Hertford Assizes. The County Committee dissatisfied with Mr. Feake's '' preaching many strange things," brought some articles against him before the Judges on the Bench, and apparently by Mr. Packer. Master Feake attempted to explain away the points in his preaching which were objected to 176 HERTFOBBSHrRE DTJEIH"e THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. before the Judges, and while he "was doing this he had some friends in the Court. " As he was speaking some turbulent fellows and sectaries clambered up by the Bench and cried out ' My lord ! my lord ! Mr. Pr. [Mr. Packer ?] doth it in malice ; we will maintain our minister with our blood,' whereupon the Judge threw away the paper and said he would hear no more of it, though he had before commanded Master Eldred to read openly all those heterodoxies." According to the same authority Master Feake had his turn on the next Lord's day following, when, " in a great auditory,'' he endeavoured in the pulpit to answer ail the articles put up against him to the Judges. A man who dared to call Cromwell " the man of sin, the old dragon," was evidently a man who did not pay much regard to Parliaments, and it is not surprising that he eventually got inside a prison, but even there he found an opportunity of addressing his followers in a letter to " his little flock," dated from " my watch tower in this house of bondage which is called Windsor Caetle," where he was then imprisoned. One of the bitterest of the theological pills for Parliament was the Anabaptist. Even Cromwell made it a point of credit with his soldiers that, they were " no Anabaptists but honest sober Christians," and yet Anabaptism as a name only meant re-baptism ; or the baptising again of those who had received infant baptism, though it involved the substitution of adult immersion for infant baptism ; and, for anything I know, that struggle over Anabaptism at Hemel Hempstead Church may have been one of the beginnings of the Baptist congregations of Hertfordshire to- day, t Having had some experience of the waywardness of some of its nominees, who replaced the seques- tered clergy. Parliament finding a contmuanoe of " divers scandalous and insufficient ministers f So bitter was the conflict with the Anabaptists or Baptists under the Long Parliament that tlenry Denne, who had been vicar of Pirton, and was one of Parliament's weekly lectureis at Hitchin on Market- day, was sent to prison by the Cambridge County Com- mittee for preaching against infant baptism. At a later date before the Kestoration, as well as after, the Quakers in the north of the county at Royston, Baldock, and also at Bertford were imprisoned. If it should be thought strange that two denominations which in our time command general respect should be persecuted under Cromwell, it must be borne in mind that the manner of propagating their tenets at that time was often enough to provoke the civil power whether of King or Parliament. and schoolmasters in many churches, chappels, and pubUque schools within this nation," decided upon a remedy which went a little further than selecting the theology of the parson, and provided an eflfective local machinery for selecting the parson himself This was a county examining board, or public " triers " of the fitness of any "publique preacher, lecturer, or other persons formerly called parsons," with power to call such before them, and any such minister or school- master " shall be accounted ignorant and in- sufficient as shall be so declared and adjudged by the Commissioners." The principal Commission- ers or " Triers " were laymen, but with clerical assistants. The following were the Commissioners for the county of Hertford : — Henry Lawrence (president of the Council), Sir John Wittewrong, Lord Fiennes, John Marsh, Francis White, Isaac Puller, William Turner (of Hertford), Alban Cox, Master Combes the younger (of Hempstead), Colonel Washington, Thomas NichoU, William Leman, Ralph Gladman, William Packer, and William Hickman. The ministers appointed to assist them were the following : — Mr. Philip Goodwyn (vicar of Wafford), Mr. John Warren (rector of Hemel Hempstead), Dr. John Light- foot (Munden Magna), Mr. Samuel Tomlin (of Northawe), Mr. Thomas Mockett (of Gilston), Mr. Thomas Halseter, Mr. John Young (of Ware), Mr. Isaac Bedford (of Willian), Mr. Nathaniel Eeles (of Harpenden), Mr. Tutty (of Totteridge), Mr. (or Dr.) Slater (of Barnet\ Mr. John Pointer, Mr. Daniel Dike (of Hadham' Magna), and Mr. Lee (of Hatfield). The Westminster Assembly of Divines, a kind of theological department of the State charged with the duty of drawing up and maintaining a Confession of Faith, a Catechism and a Directory for public worship, had upon it a strong repre- sentation of Hertfordshire men. Of these the first and foremost was Cornelius Burges, D.D., vicar of Watford, and afterwards lecturer in St. Paul's Cathedral. Dr. Burges, vicar of Watford from 1618, had been made a chaplain in ordinary to Charles 1. in 1627. That he spoke his mind freely and had a great influence with others is shown by the emphatic way in which the Watford people set an example to the county in volunteering for the Parliament at the beginning of the War. Dr. Burges was made chaplain to the regiments of the Earl of Essex, and in 1C43 was appointed one of the assessors to the Westminster Assembly of Divines ; and afterwards Sunday evening HBETFOEBSHIEE DtTRING THE SEEAT CIVIL WAR. 177 lecturer at St. Paul's Cathedral with a stipend of £400 a year and the deanery to live in ; Philip Goodwin, of St. Andrew's, Hertford, taking his place at Watford. Dr. Surges frequently preached before Parlia- ment, and figured prominently in City banquets in honour of Parliamentary victories. It is said of him that " being looked upon as a doughty champion for the holy cause and a zealous Covenanter, 'twas usual with him and with Venn to lead up the tumults of the city to the Parliament doors to see that the godly party in the House might not be out-voted, and then turning back and beholding the rabble would say ' these are my band-dogs I can set them on and I can take them ofi' again.'" [Wood's Athena.'} It is doubtful, however, whether he deserved all the obloquy that was bestowed upon him by some of the more scurrilous pens of the time. At any rate, he stood out against the idea of the execution of the King, and in the same year he gave up his appointments ; but, buying up alienated Church land, brought upon himself unsparing criticism, to which he replied in the literary fashion of the period in a pamphlet entitled " No sacrilege or ain to alienate or purchase the lands of Bishops whose of&ce is abohshed." He received a half (£200) of his stipend from St. Paul's down to 1655, when " on account of the merritt and ability of ye said Dr. Surges, being in ye beginning of ye troubles very serviceable to ye Parliament and the cause by them mayntayued against the common enemy " the pension was increased to £280. At the Eestoration he lost everything, and the lands he had acquired were restored to their former owners; and the former Parliamentary champion came back to his old parish of Watford and there hved five years in poverty and want ; and, eaten up with " cancer in his neck and cheek," he died in 1665, and was buried in the nave of Watford Church. It is said that he was reduced to such penury that "he was obliged to sell his hbrary to purchase the necessaries of hfe with," but, how- ever that may be, he drew the line at his famous collection of editions of the Book of Common Prayer, some of which he bequeathed to the Univeraity of Oxford ; one of his last acts being to write in one of the volumes these pathetic lines :— " I, Cornelius Surges, being by my dear and honoured mother the University of Oxford made Doctor of Divinity in 1627, and much grieved that I am able to do nothing worthy of her, yet I humbly ofier all that I have * * * all these I most humbly and thankfully give to my said honourable mother of Oxford, I being ready to die, beseeching her to account of these four small mites as our Lord and blessed Saviour did of the poor widow's two mites, that by casting in that, cast in all she had. Cornelius Surges." Thus ended a notable career which had been closely associated for so many years with the town of Watford, had roused its volunteer spirit to resist the influence of Lord Capel and the first acts of the Royalists in the county, had figured largely in the learned discussion of theological problems which occupied the Westminster Assembly of Divines ; and, as an author, in the never-ending controversies of the age — the career of one who was perhaps the most abused member of the AVestminster Assembly, but whose faults, judged by the standard of the times, cannot quite set aside the charitable exercise of that common humanity to which, as in many other individuals of that unhappy time, such a sudden reversal and pathetic end must appeal. Next in order may be placed Herbert Palmer, S.D., rector of Ashwell, son of Sir Thomas Palmer, and Master of Queen's College, Cam- bridge ; the great little man, and French scholar, whose appearance in the pulpit elicited the remark " what should this child say to us ? " and afforded such answer by his powerful and exemplary preaching that it is said the ill-fated Archbishop Laud, who had presented him to Ashwell, pleaded this act as one of his good deeds, t He also became one of the Assessors to the Assembly, and both for his "trumpet- tongued addresses" and work as "the best catechist in England," he was a man of some considerable fame. He was actually a teetotaller two centuries before the name was known, and was, it appears, the author of the Christian Paradoxes, which have been attributed to the great Lord Bacon, besides many other works. Other Hertfordshire members of the Assembly were Humphrey Hard wick, M.A., of Hadham Magna, to whom that living had been sequestrated from Dr. Paske ; John Lightfoot, D.D., to whom the living of Munden Magna was sequestrated ; Peter Smith, D.D. (Barkway), Thomas Westfield D.D. (St. Albans), Eichard Vines, M.A. t According to Holies' Memoirs, Mr. Herbert Palmer was one of those " well-meaning men of the Assembly," who, when the panic arose over the Army's threatened march on London in 1647, was " persuadin)? to peace." 23 178 HEETPOEBSHIEE DTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. (Watton), Edmund Staunton, S.T.P. (Bushey), and John Whincop, D.D., of Clothall, whose identity is rather puzzling from the fact of there having been three brothers all D.D.'s, and Fellows of the same College, and the sons of a Dr. Whincop. To these nine clerical members, Hertfordshire added four lay members of the Assembly, viz., William Earl of Salisbury, Sir Thomas Barring- ton (Flampstead), John Maynard, of St. Albans, and John White, of Bushey, better known to the student of Puritan literature as " Century AVhite " — the author of the " Century of Malignant Priests," already referred to— and member of Parliament for Southwark. With all the hard things that have been said of White's utterances against some of the " Malignant Priests," he gained so much respect that when he died in 1645, the members of the House of Commons attended his funeral, and upon his tombstone in the Temple an inscription states ; — Here lies a John, a burning shining light, Whose name, life, aotiona, all alike were White, f Some of the clergy, and not the least eminent, like some of the laymen, distinguished themselves by an opportunism which enabled them to run with the dominant party, with little regard to consistency. Among these was the learned Dr. Lightfoot, of Great Munden, who spoke of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, in fulsome style as one " whom the Lord hath placed over us, and raised up a healer and deliverer in the needful time," and, in the course of seven years, wrote this to Charles II. " how would I commemorate thee thovi best of princes, greatest Charles. What praises or what expressions shall I use to celebrate or set forth so great clemency, com- miseration and goodness let England glory in such a Prince .... Triumph Csesar, triumph in that brave spirit of yours, as you well may. You are Charles, and you conquer ! " But a more notable instance was afforded by the Eector of Hatfield, Mr. Richard Lee, who took such a prominent part with Hugh Peters in the fasting services before General Monk and his Army in St. Albans Abbey, when Monk was marching to London on the eve of the Restora- tion. Unlike Hugh Peters, Mr. Lee carefully attended to the swing of the pendulum, and got t To White belongs the honour also of being the grandfather of Susannah Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley. down on the right side of the fence when the change came ; for which and his numerous acts of time-serving, the following lines were put into his mouth : — Three times already I have turned my coat, Three times already I have changed my note. * ^ * * * From Hatfield to St. Albans I did ride, The Army called for me to be their guide, There I so spur'd her that I made her fling Not only dirt, but blood upon my King. My Leicester sins, my Hatfield sins are many, But my St. Albans sins more red than any. In 1663, Mr. Lee, then a D.D., preached a sermon in St. Paul's Cathedral entitled "A broken and a contrite heart," in which he delivered himself against the Solemn League and Covenant, the death of the late King, &c. He remained rector of Hatfield for 24 years after the Restoration, until his death in 1684. In taking leave of the religious aspect of the struggle it is fair to observe that though the up- setting of ecclesiastical authority in religion opened a way to the multiplicity of sects, many of which were unquestionably of a fanatical type, yet the Puritan Clergy of Hertfordshire were for the most part men of sterling worth, both those who remained faithful at their post, true to the higher dictates of their calling, through all the trouble and the strife, and also, those in- stalled by Parliament — men of sterling Christian piety and zeal, which should redeem them from that caricature of history which has been not unfrequently fixed upon the old Puritan stock. OMENS, SIGNS AND WONDERS.— WHAT THE WAR MEANT FOR HERT- FORDSHIRE. It may help us to understand what was the effect of the Civil War upon the public, social, and domestic life of the people of Hertfordshire if we bear in mind the manner in which the conflict presented itself to them — how it appealed to their imagination, their sympathy, and their interests, as well as what it eventually required of them in the way of sacrifice and service. In an age when omens, witchcraft, and the powers of the unseen world were ever present to men's minds, it is not at all surprising that every unusual appearance in the heavens above, or phenomenon in the natural world around them, would easily be read by the people at such a time as an omen of coming HEETPOEDSHIEE DURING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAB. 179 woe. There are many records of such super- natural manifestations during the opening years of the Civil War, and among the most remarkable are those reported from the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk, and Hertford. In nearly all of these omens the description attributes to them a ^^'ar- like significance. How far the excited imagination of the people may have affected the record is, of course, a question ; but at least one such record comes from an observer of historical repute, and it runs thus : — "1643 March 10: I must not forget what amazed us in the night before, viz., a shining cloud in the air, in shape resembling a sword the point reaching to the north ; it was bright as the moon, the rest of the sky being very serene. It began about 11 at night, and vanished not till about one, being seen by all the South of England." [Evelyn.] This characteristic entry in Evelyn's Diary is of additional interest from the fact that when he wrote it he had just arrived at " Hartingford berry to visit my cousin Keightly,'' and conse- quently what was seen by the famous diarist must have been seen by all Hertfordshire people. It is also interesting from the fact that " Cousin Keightly "was, like some other peaceably disposed folk in the county of Hertford, just then packing up to go abroad out of reach of the strife. After that farewell meeting of Mr. Keightly and Mr. Evelyn, the diarist, at Hertingfordbury, beneath the vision of the flaming sword in the heavens above, there occurs this other interesting foot- print of Cousin Keightly :— "16 March, 1642 (.3), "William Keightly to have a warrant to pass into France. " As to other visions in the air, on the 21st of May, 1643, it is on record that about Newmarket " there were seen by divers honest, sober, and civil persons and men of good credit, three men in the ayre striving, struggling, and tugging together, one of them having a drawn sword in his hand. * * * Betwixt Newmarket and Thetford a pillar of cloud ascended from the earth with a bright hilt of a sword towards the bottom of it, and there descended also out of the sky the form of a pike or lance with a very sharp point to encounter with." These forms ascended and descended towards each other " about an hour and a half " At Comberton, near Cam- bridge, where the Train -Bands had mustered " the form of a spire or steeple with swords set round about it" appeared in the sky. At Brandon were seen resemblances of a " fleet or navy of ships in the ayre swiftly passing under sail with flags and streamers * * as if they were ready to give encounter." It is further added that " in all these places, there was very great thunder with rain and hailstones of extraordinary biggnesse." f When the sword of Damocles, hanging over the land, was reflected in the heavens above, it is not hard to realise that such omens should burn themselves into the very heart and imagination of the people, or that the spirit of prophecy should manifest itself on every hand. \ Hard-handed men who wrought in leather or at the forge, or who made candles in Hertford, or malt in the villages ; Puritan dames who made possets, simples, and metheglin for the household, spoke of fastings and humiliations, of the comingofthe King of Kings to purge his threshing floor, of the battle of Armageddon, the overthrow of Anti- Christ, of the end of all things and of the wrath to come ! The dreadful weight of all these fore- bodings of the evil times coming upon the hearts of little children has been too insignificant a matter to have got into history — which is so strangely silent about the children of all ages — yet how terrible must have been this lurid picture to their excited imaginations, and in the visions of their dreams, till they became accustomed to the sight of armed men passing to and fro in the land ! Upon all who, either from temperament or circumstances, could take no part in the struggle, a feeling of despair settled down like a dark cloud over their lives, and in all the correspondence of the period there is scarcely a letter which does not contain the oft-recurring phrase of " our unhappy country," and expressions of a yearning for " a well-grounded and lasting peace." During the winter of 1643-4, when this utter weariness of war had for some time weighed f Signes from Heaven, or several apparitions seen and heard in the Ayre in the counties of Cambridge and Norfolk, 2fUt May, 1643. — King's Pamphlets, Brit. Mus. X The astrologers drew terrible pictures of things to come, and one "Doomsday Sedgewick," as he was afterwards called, made his way to the house of Francis Kussell in Cambridgeshire, and finding several gentle- men there playing at bowls, called upon them to prepare for their dissolution, telling them that he had lately received a revelation that Doomsday would be .some day the week following." Witchcraft was exceedingly pre- valent, and amid the din of arms in 1644, in Essex 29 witches were hung ; 20 the next year in Norfolk, and in 1649 John Palmer and Elizabeth Knott, " two notorious witches," were hung at St. Albans ; while in 1645 a woman 'at (Cambridge was hung for keeping a tame frog which was " eworn to be her imp." 180 HEETFOEBSHIEE BTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. heavily upon their minds, the people of Hert- fordshire passed through a time of trial "which aggravated the burden upon the social side of life. For when hostilities had ceased for the winter there was no respite from burdens. The great army of the Earl of Essex settled down in Hertfordshire for their winter quarters, and the non-combatants of the county found the truce even worse than war. They had still the sight and the burden of soldiers everywhere — in their towns, their villages, and in their houses, with occasional mutinies when pay was not forthcom- ing, and at last the dread resort of " free- quarter." From the month of December, when the Earl of Essex, after a mutiny in St. Albans market, made that pathetic appeal to Parliament that if pay were not forthcoming he would not be able to stay among them " to hear the crying necessity of the hungry soldiers " — for about four months. Parliament being unable to respond to the appeal, the vast army of 15,000 was dis- tributed over the several hundreds in the county, taking free quarter from the county people at a cost of about £25,000 in money, and little prospect of re-payment, to say nothing of other discomforts. The foregoing was one of the " chances of war " which the county of Hertford had to bear as a result of its situation ; but this was not the only element which seriously affected the county. Reference has been made in an earlier chapter (p. 56) to the peculiar pressure which fell upon the county by reason of its situation as a kind of buffer between the Metropolis and the Royalist Army, and of how Pai-liament took advantage of this to the great loss of the county ; but there was another side of this geographical pressure which increased the burdens of the county. Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire were frontier counties which shut in the famous Parliamentary recruiting ground of East Anglia, or the Eastern Association, which formed so im- portant an element in the Civil War. As every move of the Royalist Army from Oxford across Buckinghamshire was directed either towards the Associated Counties or London, the county of Hertford was always the first that was threatened. There was a general understanding in the Councils of the Association that when these two frontier counties of Herts and Cambs, and through them the Association, were threatened, it was to be treated as a matter of urgency, and that every available man was to be put into the field without reference to the respective liability of each county in the Asso- ciation ; and that the apportionment of the cost of such defensive measures was to be settled afterwards. In the special efforts thus suddenly called for Hertfordshire strained every nerve, armed every available man and advanced its money freely, and was well supported with men, but not so well with money, by the sister county of Cambridge, only to find that the other counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, when the threatened danger had been met by Herts and Cambs, and had passed away, sometimes forgot all about the apxJortionment of the charges incurred. These, however, were in a sense local charges which the Hertfordshire folk had no option but to meet from motives of self-protection ; and besides the levies of men and the assessments in money for service in the general operations of the War, there was a sort of geographical area of liability settled by Parliament itself for the maintenance of garrisons which were of im- portance as outpost defences for the Associated Counties. Thus the Hertfordshire people were held to have an interest in, and were called upon for substantial contributions to maintain, the garrisons of Aylesbury, Newport Pagnell, and even for the holding of King's Lynn. Aylesbury garrison at one time in the War cost Hertford- shire £200 a week ; and when the people of King's Lynn in September, 1643, declared them- selves against the Parliament a special levy from that quarter was made upon Hertfordshire for £450 a week. But Newport Pagnell was the great strategic outpost of the Associated Counties, and here again the situation of Hert- fordshire gave some colour to the plea, which was frequently urged by Parliament and tacitly acknowledged by the Associated Counties, that the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire people had a special duty in regard to it, and by these two counties the place was chiefly garrisoned at an enormous cost. The non-combatants of Hertford- shire endured a strain upon their resources of men and money which even the comparative wealth of the county, the stability of its ordinary industrial life, and the revenue from Royalists' estates, were hardly sufficient to save them from ruin. That I have not overstated the case will be seen from the following official documents and despatches, which, relating especially to what the county had to bear on the financial side, may very well be inserted here. " Di: John King to William Lenthall. 1643, September 19, Hertford.—Th.^ Committee of Parliament for the county, having received a HERTFOEDSHIEE DTJRINO THE GREAT CIVIL "WAR. 181 ■warrant from his Excellency for the speedy- raising of 100 horse for a troop of arquebusiers have commanded me to ask the deferring the execution of this warrant for some time, inas- much they are now raising 300 light horse to be under the Earl of Manchester's command, and the County has recruited Colonel Middleton's regiment twice, and other companies under his Excellency, and has lately furnished Sir W. Waller with many horse, and the Earl Denby's (Denbigh) officers swept away many men's horses when they went through the county, and the county hath furnished at least 1,000 or 1,200 horse, for the most part at their own charge, and now they are speedily to raise 1 20 horse for Dragoons to be sent to the Earl of Manchester. " " Sir John Wittewmng, Sir John Garrard, and others to William Lenthall. 1644, Kovemher 30, St. Alhans.—Th^ letter of the House dated October 28th, represents there hath been a great negligence on our part for the supply of Newport garrison. We are very sorry we should be so misunderstood in declaring the pressures of our county as that in desiring relief, we should be rendered neglectful of our duty. Since receipt of your letter we have sent to Newport ioOO, which we borrowed, and ap- pointed two of our Committee to go with it, and take an account out of the Treasurer's books, there, what we have paid and what other the Associated Counties have paid. We find we have paid for that garrison more than all the Association as appears by the enclosed account. Our humble suit to the House is that our county may be reUeved of its insupportable burdens, which are as follows : — " First, the county hath been set at above half in many ordinances with Essex when they ought not to have been above one third, and yet they have conformed in aU obedience to pay their rates. " Secondly, the great weekly disproportion of the ordinance for the Earl of Manchester for the maintaining of the associated forces, which amounteth in this county to £112 10s. weekly above their just proportion with Essex, which hath been continued now near 12 months, which in the whole year amounteth to £5,400. " Thirdly, the great and insupportable burthen of the free quarter during His Excellency's army the last winter on them, amounting in only two hundreds to £10,760. The other three not being yet cast up, besides the great damage that befell them during that quarter. " Fourthly, the heavy burthen to the county in the passing and re-passing of the Parliament's forces, for the most part on free quarter. Besides all this the county bath sent out upon the commands of the Committee of Both Kingdoms their own domesticall forces, which have cost them over £9,000, besides the great hindrance that hath accrued to them by the miss of their men. Many more are the pressures, which we forbear to mention. We therefore humbly pray that the county may be relieved in their former disproportions, and freed from that disproportion that is and hath continued on them in the Earl of Manchester's ordinance, and specially that that great and grievous charge of the quartering of the army may be speedily repaid, and other the Associated Counties may be brought up to equalise them in Newport garrison. The county is no way able to bear such charge as they now are under, it having cost them £3,800 a month the last year, besides the free quarter, the excise, the fifth and twentieth part. "Postscript. — We desire that the Committee or any two of them may be given power to make distress on all persons who disobey their warrants in paying the levies laid on them for the use of the armies as they pass and repass, for the charge of our imprest soldiers, and for such like services, as are of necessity to be done upon any emergency. Signed. Annexed is the following account : — £ s. d. " Nov. 2d., 1643. Received out of Hertfordsliire 2ii0 00 00 20. Received out of Hertfordshire 200 00 00 Jan. 27. Received out of Hertfordshire 300 00 00 March 26., 1644. Keceived from Cambridge ... 300 00 00 Aug. 2d. Received of Norfolk 250(0 00 Received of Suffolk 250 00 00 Essex 250 00 00 Received of Huntingdon 090 00 00 Received of Cambridge 112 00 00 Nov. 8. Received of Hertfordshire ... 500 00 00 TIiiB account we received from the Treasurer of Newport, written with his own hand. Teste, William Love, William Dany. So it appeareth Hertfordshire have paid more £ s. d. than either Essex, Norfolk, or Suffolk, by 0950 00 00 Besides we paid Colonel Ayloffe out of the Treasury at Hertford, while he lay at Newport with bis forces to help keep that garrison :— 4 January, 1643 0117 18 U 29 January, 0145 14 10 22 February 0040 00 00 And more we sent to Cambridge to pay Colonel Ayloffe's forces while he lay at Newport of the money raised upon Newport Ordinance 0900 00 00 £2153 T3~9 182 HEETFOEDSHIEE BUEINff THE GEEAT dTTL WAE. " So it appeareth that though any of those counties be valued at three timea as much as Hertford in magnitude yet taxed but equal to us, they of that tax imposed are short of U8." + Sir John Garrard, the High Sheriff of the covmty, was in command of the Herts forces at Newport Pagnell during part of this year, and had exceptional opportunities of estimating the part taken by Hertfordshire and the other counties. Nor were these heavy charges confined to the year quoted above. In 164.5 the Hertfordshire people were required to pay £2,432 10.5. per month towards the Scotch Army, and in the same year Joseph Dalton, mayor of Hertford, and other members of the Herts Committee were again pleading the extraordinary charges which fell upon the county. A point of similar interest and importance was that of the number of Hertfordshire men under arms, in proportion to the ordinary population. The late Professor Thorold Rogers estimated that in 1650 the population of England and Wales was about 4,000,000 persons, or about one-seventh of the present population. From returns of individual parishes which have come under my notice for a few years later, and allowing for the substantial wealth and industry of the county, I should be inclined to put the population of Hertfordshire, at the time of the Civil War, a little higher than this, or about one-sixth of the present population. This basis would give about 36,000 as the population at that time, and from this figure we may see about how many would be fit to bear arms. Deducting the female half of the population we should get 18,000 males. Of this number those under sixteen and above sixty years of age — the extreme limits of Parliamentary recruiting — would take away nearly another half, or say 8,000, which would leave 10,000. The Royalists and their recruits who were drawn away from the county would scarcely in Hertfordshire number more than one-fifth of these, or 2,000, and allowing another 1,000 for the clergy, and for the gentry who with their servants left the country, there would be but 7,000 men of all ranks of fighting age from which Parliament could obtain its recruits, and there would still be a good number of others who by office or incapacity would be exempt from serving in the Army. During the summer of 1C44 Hertfordshire sent into the field, in the service of Parliament, apparently from four to five thousand men ; and, as the ■f Historical MSS. Commission Reports on MSS. at Welbeok Abbey. balance of men of fighting age left behind would be the exemptions already referred to, and those well-to-do or engaged in the trade of the county, we thus arrive, by a rough process it is true, at the interesting conclusion that practically the whole of the labouring men of Hertfordshire between the ages of sixteen and sixty were under arms at some time during that critical summer of 1644, when the King's Army was causing such a consternation in the north of the county. For the necessary labour of cultivating the soil and of making its malt, the county had thus to depend upon the old men and boys, too old and too young to wield a sword, and upon the women. No wonder that the Magistrates in Quarter Sessions begged for the return of their labom-ers (p. 55) when the corn was ripen- ing unto harvest, or that the partially armed multitude of yeomen, old men and boys, who rose to defend their homes around Hitchin, ran away from the sight of the Royalists' cavalry ! Happily this state of things did not last long, and, in regard to armed men, tlie county had no other such a crisis to meet. COLLECTING MONEY AND MEN.— EFFECTS OF THE WAE UPON INDUSTRIAL LIFE. Your crests are fallen down. And now your journeys to the market town, Are not to sell your pease, your oats, your wheat But of nine horses stolen from yoa to entreat. But one to be restored ; and this you do To a buffed Captain, or perhaps unto His surly Corporal. The arrangement for collecting and raising such enormous sums of money and levies of men as the County of Hertford had to meet, were, on the side of Parliament, provided for down to the smallest detail, with instructions for the guidance and pay of each parochial officer, as precise as any machinery of local government in the present day. For getting in the money the modus operandi was something of this kind. The Herts Comtnittee had, in the first instance, power to meet in each hundred of the County, if necessary, and to call before them such persons as they thought fit, and to empower them to assess all persons in their locality, according to their estate, the amount required of them towards the County contribution for the War, and this civil- military proceeding was of the same dual character in respect to collecting the money. The HEETFOEBSHIEE DTJEHTG THE GBEAT CIVIL WAE. 183 County Committee, being responsible to Parlia- ment for the money, were directed to appoint collectors in each hundred. These collectors were the Ovei-seers and Petty Constables in each parish, who were responsible to the Chief Con- stable of the hundred, or to a Chief Collector for one or more hundreds, and he in his turn as the Treasurer of his hundred, or hundreds, was responsible to the County Committee, and paid over the money to the County Treasurer, who paid it over to the Treasurer of the Parlia- mentary Army at the Guildhall, London. '■ And for the better encouragement of the Collectors in this said service," says the ordinance of Parlia- ment, " threepence in the pound shall be allowed for every sum of money which shall be collected and paid to the said Treasurer, or Keceivers, twopence whereof shall be allowed to the Collectors, and the residue to such other persons as shall be employed in the same service." Twopence in the pound was not a handsome commission for the Overseerand Parish Constable to receive, considering the task and the risk of violence to which they were exposed, and the difficulty of getting in the assessment. But in case a person refused to pay, the Overseer or Constable had power to levy a distress, and if the defaulter resisted, the parish oflicers could call in the !Mihtia or Volunteers to their aid. As a sot-off against the risk of collusion between Mr. Bumble and a semi-Royalist, there was the serious respon- sibility incurred by the Collector of being liable to be sent for himself as a delinquent and placed under arrest if he failed either to collect or pay in the assessment, t In the opening months of 1643 a batch of Collectors were sent for, but, appreciating the difficulties of their work, the House ordered that musqueteers should assist them in their collec- tions, while the Speaker was to issue warrants for apprehending those in arrear. In the •f Sometimes the Parish Collectors had to travel a considerable distance to pay over their moneys to the Chief Collector, and although the highways of the county were fairly well protected by the presence of Parliamentary soldiers, the journey from the outlyinp; parishes must have been one of some risk. On the western borders of the county the parishes of Frithsden, Nettleden, &o., around Ashridge, almost as much Hertfordshire as Buckinghamshire parishes, were in the nnfortunate position of having to carry their money all the way to the George Inn at Aylesbury, to pay it in to a Collector appointed for three hundreds of the county of Bucks, and the journey in this case was across a piece of country frequently in the grip of the rival armies. critical months of November and December, 1643, and January to March, 1644, when the county of Hertford was suffering from the presence of the Army of the Earl of Essex on free quarter, the Parish Constables and Over- seers were earning their twopenny commission under such extraordinary difficulties as no tax- collector, from the time of the Poll- Tax and Wat Tyler, had probably ever experienced, and P.arliament found it necessary to give the Collectors and Treasurers a stimulus to renewed exertions by doubling the commission for the collection. But while the Parliament was thus able to put in force the existing official machinery of the county, and hand over the funds obtained to the County Treasurer, to be applied by a County Committee under the orders of Parlia- ment, the Royalists on the other hand had a much less roundabout method of bringing their men and means into the field, though it was much less systematic and equitable than the pro rata assessment of Parliament. The Royalists' levies were the more effectual in the early stages of the "War, because all local contributions went direct to the Generals in the field, where they were needed, instead of going through the hands of County Committees and being a part of the county finance. The Royalists had therefore a more effective means of exacting contributions levied by men who saw and felt the need of it in the field and were independent of local influences of a civil kind. It was this dififereuce of method, as well as their conduct, which gave to the Royalists the character for '■ plundering" when their contributions failed, t An amusing story on the subject of raising money for the King is told by Clarendon, which, as it concerns a Hertfordshire leader, may be worth giving here. In the first year t But it was not only the equipment of an Army for fighting that cast such a burden upon the county. Just as at the present time, when it costs on an average £1,000 to kill a soldier in war, the country has to find 8d. a day more or less for the widow while it is being done ; so in those less scientific days of old it was necessary to provide for maimed soldiers and for the widows and children of soldiers killed in the War. This had to be provided out of sequestrated estates of Royalists, and is fre- quently mentioned in the orders for Hertfordshire. At a pinch when the contributions were not adequate, the surplices were taken ofi" the clergy and applied to this purpose, and ministers were ordered " not to wear them during divine service." — Commons^ Journals, 3rd Oct., 1643. 184 KEETFOEBSHIEE DTJEING THE GEEAI CIVIL WAE. of the War, whatever it may have been after- wards, the raising of money, arms, and men for the rival armies meant a good deal of calling upon and personal canvassing the gentry and leading families for contributions of money or arms, and not a little tact. Lord Capel and Ashburnham were sent to two great, but rather miserly men, living near Nottingham — the Earl of Kingston and Lord Dencourt— and each was armed with a letter from the King to borrow ten or five thousand pounds. Capel was sent to the Earl of Kingston, and Ashburnham to Lord Dencourt. Capel was very civilly received and entertained by the Earl, who, however, adroitly expressed the " great trouble he sustained in not being able to comply with His Majesty's commands," and tlie fact that it was a matter of common knowledge that as he was frequently buying land, he could not have money by him for such a purpose, but ventured to suggest that he had a neighbour, the Lord Dencourt, who lived within a few miles of him, who " was good for nothing and lived like a hog, not allowing him- self necessaries, and who could not have so little as twenty thousand pounds in the scurvy house in which he lived." The Earl advised that Lord Dencourt might be sent to, and said that "he could not deny having the money." While this was happening to Capel, Ashburnham was pressing the King's letter and claims upon the attention of Lord Dencourt, but he got rather uncivilly treated, and " after an ill supper he was shewed an indifferent bed." Next morning the old Lord with a more cheerful face said that "though he had no money himself, but was in extreme want of it, he would tell him where he might have money enough ; that he had a neigh- bour who lived within four or five miles, the Earl of Kingston, that never did good to any- body, and loved nobody but himself, had a world of money, and could furnish the King with as much as he had need of, * * * and that he was so ill beloved, and had so few friends that no- body would care how the King used him." But Capel succeeded best after all, for though at the time he could get only fair words, the old Earl came out for the King, and was killed in his service, whereas Lord Dencovut was equally close-fisted with the Parliamentary party, and when his estate was sequestrated, made his tenants keep him as well as pay rent to Parhament. To complete this little comedy, Capel and Ashburnham both returned to the King with their curiously identical reports at the same time, so that " he who came first had not given his account to the King before the other entered into his presence." The work of the recruiting sergeant for Parlia- ment during the Civil War did not differ materially from the system which prevailed down to the later Georgian era. The constable and overseer in each parish made out a list of persons between the ages of eighteen and sixty (■' being of ability of body ") or of sixteen and sixty in times of emergency. If the levy of men could be made without pressing, well ; if not, then they were impressed. The parish oflicers also had to include in their return to the deputy lieutenants all horses and mares above four years of age and the names of the owners, and of all arms and guns or other useful weapons for the War, with the names of the owners of them. The deputy lieutenants had power to " charge carts, carriages, and horses for the necessary service of Parliament," and allowed " for every cart with five horses twelvepence per mile outward only and ratably for more or fewer horses." The demand when made was imperative, and if a farmer refused his horses and carts he could be imprisoned at once, or ordered to pay a fine not exceeding ^10 ; though his harvesting of hay or corn, or conveyance of corn or malt to market had to wait. The manner in which the industrial life of the county was afi'ected was as much due to the conditions under which the War was carried on as to the War itself. The absence of any stand- ing army properly equipped for a winter campaign such as would be available in modern warfare, coupled with the almost impassable state of the roads in winter time, brought about a lull in the conflict as the winter months came round. The County Militia returned to their homes, and the regiments of regular soldiers that did remain in arms usually went into some sort of winter quarters, at least during the first years of the War, there to remain in comparative in- action until the return of spring made a renewal of operations possible. Besides the burden which thus fell upon the inhabitants of a county in which the Army passed the winter months, there was this unfortunate effect in the labour market, that the Volunteers returned to their homes just when there was least for them to do, and they were again taking up arms when the operations of husbandry or other callings re- quired their services. As to the nature of Hertfordshire industrial life, there is no doubt that the whole of the HEETFOUDSHIRE BTIEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 185 county was very well described by Taylor, the poet, whose lines (though somewhat overdrawn) I have quoted above, as one which " surpasseth all countries and counties for making excellent malt," — and also " for kind men, women faire and honest and of anything that is necessary * * a plentiful store." But, however that may be, the prevalence of the malting industry was at the time of the Civil War especially notable in the whole of the northern and eastern half of the county ; to which it may be interesting to add that hops were also cultivated in the county. It was not therefore the yeoman alone that was crippled on his land for horses and labour just when both were most needed, but the effect of the War generally operated very frequently against this great malting industry which existed around Hertford, Ware, Stortford, Hitchin, and Royston, and was of vital interest to the people in those days. The manufacture of malt for the enormous consumption of malt hquor, when such luxuries as tea, coffee, and cocoa had not found their way on to the breakfast table, was carried on under totally different conditions from those which prevail iu the same parts of the county to-day. It was then an industry in which almost every class in the community had a pecuniary interest. Just as the spinning wheels of our great grand- mothers of the 18th century narrowed down from a universal employment to huge cotton mills, so the Hertfordshire industry of malt-making as we now see it carried on in Ware, Stortford, and other places, by a few large manufacturers, has come down to us from a widely-spread industry in which even the wage-earning class then had an interest. Maltings, some of them on a very sma,ll scale and of very humble construction, were iu active operation in almost every village in the north of Hertfordshire and adjoining parts of Cambs and Essex, as such names as " mal ting-yard," &c., in many of the villages stiU testify. Not only the well-to-do, but the small trades- man, the mechanic, and even the domestic servant found malting barley a convenient, safe, and profitable investment when country banks were not. Everyone who could buy a quarter of barley did so, and sent it to one of the small maltings close at hand to get it converted into malt — for whicti there was- a ready sale both in the market and for the use of private families- just as the cottager in the present century has got his grist ground at the mill, as the spinner sold her yarn, or later the straw plaiter her plait, t What this old Hertfordshire malting in- dustry was, just on the eve of the great Civil War, is shown in the clearest possible manner by the State Papers of the reign of Charles I. (Domestic Series), from which the following is extracted : — " Most of the maltsters in the county are of mean ability and are chiefly employed by gentle- men and others who send their barleys to be malted for the provision of their houses ; also widows, and the portion of orphans, servants who have some little stock, and others who like not to put their money to usury, buy barley and hire the malting of it by the quarter." The same authority further states concerning the persons who did the malting : — " These poor maltsters are very useful to the county, pay good rents, and have borne all taxes, * * * So iu the villages many petty maltsters make malt for themselves and supply the markets. Many mechanics and men of small trades employ their wives and children and servants in malt making while they themselves followed other callings." It is clear from this that the number of persons then having an interest beyond the mere receipt of wages, in one of the two great indus- tries of the county, was many times greater than it is now, and that it was an economical advan- tage to the people and to the county is evident from the State Papers themselves, where the doiugs of these thriving village maltsters and the yeomen may occasionally be found recorded side by side. We thus see that the evolution of most of our present great industries — great maltings, great farms, and great mills — has proceeded in each case upon similar lines. Each in its turn ^ annihilating the little maltsters, the yeomen's holdings, and the hand-spinning in the cottages ; draining away that community of interest and margin of earnings over the bare wages of the day labourer, which prevailed when the industrial life of our Hertfordshire villages bound up all classes to a degree in striking contrast with the labour and social problems in the country f This universal interest in barley and malt is re- flected in the wills of deceased persons, who then left BO many quarters of barley to relatives as often as persons now leave their money. 24 186 HEKTPORDSHIEE DURING THE GSEA.T CIVIL 'WAK. now, when politicians of all parties are standing on the brink of the gulf between the great employer and the workman's bare wage, m'ging the Legislature to fiud a Quintus Curtius to jump into the chasm— if it can. It is easy to understand that with an industry such as this of malt-makiug, a great deal of carting was required, and it was here that the demands of the War broke in upon both the yeoman and the maltster with imperious demands for horses and wagons for transport, and for men as wagoners, when horses and men were most needed. The great corn market at Eoyston still maintained its supremacy as a mart which had called forth the boast of its fame from Queen Elizabeth, t and the traffic of corn and malting carts and wagons along the Ermine Street between Eoyston and Buntingford, and between Bunting- ford and Ware, was so incessant and heavy that this great thoroughfare, like many others in the 17th century, was so literally cut to pieces as to become utterly impassable for wheel traffic in the winter months. The King in Council, finding that he wanted to come that way occasionally himself, to his houses at Eoyston and Newmarket, called upon the justices sitting at Buntingford and also at Ware to prohibit all wheel traffic during the winter months between Eoyston, Buntingford, and Ware, to give the highway a rest. This the justices did, at any rate, up to within a short time of the commencement of the War, and during those months all the malting traffic that could be carried was carried on horses' backs ; and even when the rule was sometimes relaxed the heavy malting wagons were still forbidden, and per- mission was only extended to the passage of " carts with two wheels drawn by not more than five ho7'ses." Occasionally some venturesome carter ran the gauntlet of the constables, but only to find himself hauled up before the Eoyston, Buntingford, or Ware justices for driving his cart along the road during " close time." J ■f- It is said that when the remark was made to Queen Elizabeth that "ye Spaniard would restrains their sacks [wines] from us," she made answer, " a figge for Spaine, so long as Royston will afford such plentieof good malts." Barl. MSS., 6,768, Brit. Mus. X The Juslices were required to make a monthly return of their business — of commitments for crime, punishment of vagrants, apprenticing of boys and girls, and the maintenance of the highways — to the Privy Council, and in one of these returns preserved in the State Papers of the Reign of Charles I. in the Public Record Office, signed by Robert Chester (Royston), John Cfflsar, and Arttiur Capel (Lord Capel, of Hadham), it is stated that " our highwaies are not at When the approach of spring set the wheels of industry free, and the yeoman got on to his land, the Earl of Essex at St. Albans, or some other commander with regiments of soldiers quartered in the county, was also on the move to march away to meet the King's forces around Oxford or elsewhere, and down came the constable to press the much-needed wagons and horses for the service of Parliament, while the Train -bands of the county got into armour again to back up the constable if necessary in his demand. One very notable fact which presents itself in a study of the causes of the War on the civil side, is the condition of the labourer as a factor in the struggle. By his social up-bringing and absence of political training he was not in a position to regard the matters about which the King and Parliament were fighting as any affair of his ; though as we have seen he had in Hertfordshire, in one respect, a community of interest with other classes not eujoyed by the labourer of to-day. There is some truth in the remark that the labourer fought for whichever side happened to get hold of him, and often witli very inadequate training and with no very great heart in the business, compared with Cromwell's select middle class men who, " having some conscience in their work," were destined to turn the scale of the War. The opinion that Cromwell showed littlesympathy with the labourer in the struggle is, however, a little beside the mark. The issue was not one of this or that class, but of fundamental principles of government, which, if only set free, would of themselves act beneficially for all classes. Though the labourer may have cared little for either King or Parliament, there was a rallying point at which, wherever Puritanism was dominant, as in Herts, Beds, and Cambs, the labourer could be aroused. For the yeomen and the middle-class the original grievance was but the modern demand that " taxation and representation should go together," and for the labourer there was the stereotyped cry of " no popery," which could be urged with all the more effect that many old men then living remembered the Gunpowder Plot and had heard their fathers speak of the fires of Smithfield. But if the labourer had nothing to be assessed for the War but his sinews and his life, he suffered in the excise upon all his food which reduced the purchasing power of his wages. The Hertford- shire Quarter Sessions had proceeded, secundum this time, so sufBoiently repayred as when time serves, wee will cause them to be." In fact, as this return was made in March (1637) the probability is that the roads were all but impassable. HEETFOEDSHIEE BTTRnSTG THE GBEAT CITIL WAE. 187 artem, to lay down the amount of wages the labourer in the county was to receive. In ordinary times this could not be broken through ; but immediately the stress of another factor was felt, the artiiicial barrier was broken down, the labour market was subject to the economic law of supply and demand, and the Hertfordshire labourer, whose employer was only allowed to pay him about lOd. a day, suddenly found his value so enhanced that the Parlia- mentary Army offered him half-a-crown a day as a wagoner, for which there was necessarily a great demand for nine months in the year, and many no doubt accepted the terms with the risk of life and limb to which the transport service was liable. As a necessary consequence it is more than hkely that the Quarter Sessions wage standard in many cases fell through during the AVar, even with the farmers and others, in the face of such a powerful factor. If so, the young and the old men not under arms must have benefited all round, excepting in winter months, when the ordinary rule would be more observed, as the Army being then practically idle would cease to compete for the labourer's services, many of the armed men would have returned, and the suffering in the labourer's home must have been very keen. LAND, TITHES AND TAXES. - SOLDIERS, WOMEN, AND WAR — CIVIL MAEEIAGES. The effect of sequestrations upon the tenure of land was very sweeping. Owing to the number of large landowners whose estates were se- questered by Parhament, the Committee sitting at Hertford, whose names I have given, were for the time being practically the landlords of a very large portion .of the land in the county. Where the Royalist landowner happened to have any of his land in his own hands, a perplexing state of things would sometimes arise. When the general estate was sequestrated, this portion might be under growing crops of com, and Parliament took over for the time being not only the rent- collecting from the tenants of the other parts, but the farming and harvesting of these crops. The steward or bailiff of the offending Royalist could not, of course, be trusted to farm his master's land for the benefit of the enemy, and give an impartial account of his stewardship, and so Parliament appointed someone else. Thus, while the County Committee was responsible for sequestrating the profits of the general estate, Parliament, by an over-riding order, in this instance placed the unfortunate contractor for the harvesting between two authorities, and the result was sometimes rather confusing. For instance, when Balls Park, Hertford, was sequestered from Sir John Harrison, the cultiva- tion of the estate for the benefit of Parliament was let to Thomas NiohoUs, who appears to have had a hand in a good deal of the work of the Committee at Hertford. When harvest came (August, 1644) the Committee's general order for selling the crops of delinquents was made " by some few members of the Committee " to cover NichoUs' crops as well ; upon which he bitterly complains in a petition to Parliament, and states that " after spending his service in the cause of Parliament, he, his wife, and seven children, are like to be ruined by the Parliament's own Com- mittee." So the Parliament could not do less than protect him. Another disturbing effect fell upon the owner- ship and transfer of land. Many of the Royalists, with their estates impoverished, found it necessary to sell one part of an estate to redeem the other. A curious instance of the complica- tions which sometimes arose in this way is afforded by the experience of a man named Francis Patten, of Barley, Herts, who had. the misfortune to purchase a farm of one Curtis, a Royalist, of Bassingbourn, near Royston. It transpired that Curtis paid half his fine and gave security on the land for the other half, and Patten bought the estate, and " knew not but that it was absolutely discharged of the seques- tration." But the Cambs County Committee took away his (Patten's) cattle for non-payment of the second half of Curtis' fine ! The petitioner begged to have, and apparently got, his cattle back, paid a deposit towards Curtis' debt, and the remainder of the fine was paid "with interest " in the following year. Among the more public sequestrations was the manor of Hitohin with all dues and fees, tolls for stallage at fairs and markets, &c., as held under lease from " Henrietta Maria ye rehct and late Queen to Charles Stuart, late Kinge of England." There was under this sequestration acquired a multitude of suits and services, such as that of John Hurst, who paid twopence a year for the sign post " at ye Sunne." In order to reaUze a lump sum upon the long list of small revenues due to the lord, Parliament sold them in 1650 to one Samuel Chidley for £1,874 14s. Gd., but Samuel Chidley had only ten years of fees, suits, and services, and market tolls to collect, for at the Restoration, when all leases made by Parlia- HEKIFOEBSHIEE DTTKINe THE GEEAT CIVIL 'WAE. ment of Crown lands became null and void, the manor was restored to the Crown, and Samuel Chidley had to make the best of a bad bargain. Of the draining of many a Royalist estate in the county, a silent but none the less eloquent tale is told by the number of Hertfordshire manors which — either during the struggle or so soon after as to be probably due to its effects — passed into the hands of City Aldermen and other wealthy Londoners who had grown fat upon the famine prices and incessant demand for leather, iron, steel, arms, and ammunition, and other necessary provisions for the War. What- ever truth there may be in the general state- ment of Burke [ Vicissitudes of Great Families] and others — that the more distant a county is from London the more lasting are its old families, and that nearer to the Metropolis the merchants' and manufacturers' gold tends to displace the ancient aristocracy — however this may be as a general economic factor, there is little doubt that it had a very marked operation in Hertfordshire at the time of the Revolution. To Royalists with large families, or a generous expenditure of means, the Restoration could not restore to them the practical enjoyment of their lands, and among the forced sales from this cause was that of the manor of Stanstead Abbotts by Sir Ralph Baesh, who, plunging himself into debt by reason of his loyalty to the King in the time of his troubles, obtained an Act of Parlia- ment to sell part of the manor, sufficient to raise £300 per annum. Other instances were those of the Newports, of Brent Pelham and Furneaux Pelham, who, being much impoverished by their adherence to the cause of the King, about twenty years after the Restoration, ceased to hold the position of landowners in the county, and their land came into the hands of the Calverts. Sir John Bellasize was obliged to sell the manor of Sacombe, and Basil More, descendant of Sir Thomas More, the author of Utopia, was obliged to sell what interest remained to him in the estate of More Hall, North Mimms, through the expense of his attachment to the Royal cause. The hand of the mortgagee held many other county families in its grip. Nor were the demands on the side of Parliament without their effect in this direction, for even the St. Albans Corporation were obliged to pawn the Corpora- tion plate, upon which one Abraham Cowley held two bills of sale for £30 advanced at six per cent, t t St. Albans Mayor's Accounts. But if the pressure of the times was bad for the landowner, it was for the tenant farmer so much the worse by the many interruptions of the work of the farm upon which he lived, and the discontent in this quarter discloses a widespread agrarian difficulty, which the unsettling of affairs in the Church helped to concentrate upon the one question of tithes. So, following the precedent of these troublous years, the farmers carried their burdens to Parliament. On the 5th of May, 1646, one of those imposing cavalcades of mounted freeholders which asserted the original grievances of the counties, marched up from Hertfordshire and from Buckinghamshire, forming a deputation of upwards of two thousand persons, and there at the bar of the House of Commons as many of them as could squeeze inside " did prefer a petition against the payment of tithes." The reception they met with was much less conciliatory than that usually shown to petitioners on other subjects ; for, instead of meeting with any supporter in the House, they were somewhat rudely informed by the Speaker, by direction of the House, " that they were ignorant of the laws both of God and the Kingdom, and that they must go home and obey them," and some members of the House observed, with a foresight of the agrarian difficulty which was brewing in Hertfordshire, that " tenants who wanted to be quit of tithes would soon want to be quit of rent. Nine- tenths were due to the landlord on the same ground that one-tenth was due to the minister." But the Hertfordshire farmers were not in a mood to bear this slight in silence, and next year there was organized a monster petition together with a voluminous statement of their case which was publishedtotheworldinl647ina remarkable document entitled " The Husbandman's Plea against Tithes." f This remarkable document, signed by five thou.sand farmers and others, must have enlisted a good deal of sympathy, and was certainly not confined to those directly connected with the land, or to the county of Hertford, as the limits of population would tend to show. But it was essentially a farmers' document, directed as much against the system of land tenure as against the Church and its tithes, with a variety of practical illustrations which might haveemanated from a modern farmers' club met to consider a t " The Hushan(J man's Plea against Tithes; or Two Petitions presented unto the House of Commons assemhled in Parliament, by divers Freemen of the County of Hert- ford, with the parts adjacent, for the taking away of Tithes, published by some of the said petitioners, 1647. HEUTFORDSHIEE DUKKTa THE OEEAT CIVIL Wkli. 189 grievance upon charging a tenant rent upon his own improvements. To this point the arguments, cast in the old Puritan mould, are largely directed. Tithes, they contended, encouraged the landlord to convert his arable land to pastiu'e, which would bring him more rent for grazing than the husbandman could give him to plough it, and so the landlord neglected or pulled down his houses, and caused the depopulation of many villages. Then they put it in this form : — " Suppose the husbandman's stock, with his labour and diligent care, should increase yearly at the rate of 10 per cent., how stands it with the moral law of God and the law of nature, or sound natural reason, that another man should carry away every year all his increase ? * * The husbandman's labour is envied him, and others, by a State policy, live upon his labour. * * Is there no year of Jubilee for us that our natural inheritance should return to us again 1 or are our eares beared that we and our children should be slaves to the impropriator and his children for ever ? " The drafting of protestations and the muster- ing of aggrieved persons in their thousands about the doors of Parliament was, however, not so much a demand to which an immediate response was expected as a means of bringing to bear such public opinion as there was, when newspapers and leading articles were practically unknown, and as a sort of leading article this Husbandman's Plea was, in itself, a rather re- markable performance, but destined to end, as other petitions had done before it, in the Hert- fordshire men going back to their burdens. It is an interesting fact, and one which is probably explained by what has been said of the situation of the county of Hertford in regard to the Metropolis, that during the struggle between King and Parliament more petitions stand on record in the Journals of Parliament as coming from the county of Hertford than from any other county. One reason for this was, of course, that it was more convenient for the gentlemen and freeholders of Hertfordshire to travel up to Westminster than for those living in the more distant counties, and there was also a special reason in the fact that the people of Hertfordshire had more than their share of the burdens of the Army. The presenting of petitions and the response to them was pretty much of a sameness.t The petitioners in order to get any hearing for their bitter complaint (and their grievances were often terribly real) found it necessary to start their story with a rigmarole of complimentary plati- tude, flattering to the Parliament, before putting the screw on. The whole formality was like the presentation of a sugar-coated pill, and Parlia- ment, well schooled in the work, deftly took oft' all the sugar, magnified the " good affection to ParUament " beyond its intrinsic worth, and — well, so skilfully minimised the remainder as to make the petitioners feel for the moment that they had got almost all they wanted, until they got home and could give but very little en- couragement to their hard-pressed neighbours who had been unable to afibrd the expense of joining in the dignified but not very profitable excursion. One of the most unpleasant experiences on the domestic side was the quartering of soldiers everywhere in private houses ; some of the large houses of the county having to accommodate as many as fifty or more, " rushing in at aU hours of the day and night." It is some testimony to the discipline maintained that there are com- paratively few instances recorded of personal violence or incivility ; though if the soldiers suspected their host of not being " well affected to Parliament " his goods and chattels were liable to seizure by the county sequestration oflacial.J Sometimes the inactivity of a troop pressed hardly upon a parish in which it was quartered, as in the case of Hemel Hempstead, which sent a deputation to Parliament represent- f It is surprising: to the modern mind that Parlia- ment tolerated this eternal petitioning of noisy crowds of country folk and London citizens about its doors. Probably no Parliament in history was ever inundated with so many petitions and noisy claimants as the Long Parliament, and certainly no ParUament could have ever got rid of them more cheaply or with more skilful diplomacy. The right of personal petition was, how- ever, too highly valued to be interfered with. I Many a Hertfordshire family, to avoid the exactions of the times, concealed their valuables in all sorts of out of the way places ; as did Lady Sussex at Gorhambury. Having concealed her plate she packs up her " hangings and best stuffs " and hides them away in one of the round turrets over her bed chamber and walled it up. At the same time, having the care of Sir Balph Verney's things pending his quitting the country to avoid the necessity of taking the Covenant, she writes to know if she shall fasten up any of his things, but afterwards writes: — '' 1 hid none of your stuff in this hole I am making up for I dare not adventure your hangings and carpets, being out of trunks. All your other things are sewed up in bundles and trunks." 190 HERTPOUDSHIEE DrEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. ing that Capt. Colman's troop of horse had lain there seven weeks, " whereby the county was burdened and the service neglected." It is marvellous how the women folk passed their time, often in a state of siege, and yet — like the women folk of all ages — concerned not with the issues of the War so much as with those more precious details to the feminine mind — the petty jealousies, household arrangements, vanities, &c. So completely was this the case that where their letters are left they often con- tain no mention of the War, but are full of feminine gossip, with only on rare occasions such expressions as that in the Verney MSS. where one woman brusquely laments that " if these times last there will be no men left for women." Yet the women who had to suffer, and bear in suspense the burden of separations, had ever to hear, in imagination, if not in fact, the tale of woe coming to them — * * in the pauses of the cannon's roar O'er fields of corn by fiery sickles reaped, And left dry ashes : over trenches heaped With nameless dead ; o'er cities starving slow, Under a rain of fire ; through wards of woe Down which a groaning diapason runs, From tortured brothers, husbands, lovers, sons. What all this meant for the "desolate women in their far-off homes, waiting to hear the step that never comes," is impossible to realize. But it bad to be borne under domestic worries which must indeed have made England for the time an " unhappy country " to all those having no share in the stimulus to high endeavour which actual fighting afforded. There was the dead weight of the tax gatherer, as well as the collector of war money. Every time a butcher killed a bullock, calf, sheep, lamb or pig, there was a tax to pay ; for it was ordered that " all beefs, muttons, veals, porks, lambs and other butcher's meat, to be killed for provision of victuals, shall pay one shilling in every twenty shillings value of the beast when he is living." The butcher who did not render a just account of all his killings every week, and pay the excise for the same, incurred a penalty of double the duty, and was restrained from carrying on the business for a whole year ! The poulterer had to pay a tax of a halfpenny each on a rabbit, and a penny a dozen on pigeons, under similar penalties ; and the householder killing anything for consumption was also bound to make return and pay duty for the same. The collection of taxes was " farmed " by con- tractors with the Government as in much later times. The contractors for Hertfordshire in 1659 were :— WiUiam Gardiner, John Gape, Hump. Taylor, and William Eance. Most of the " farmers " were hopelessly in arrear, and were called to account. Hertfordshire stood better than any county in England, the "farmers" only owing £500 and their security was for £2,000. Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex owed about the same amount as their security, some of the Western Counties owed double their security, and the Beds, Hunts, and Cambs " farmers " owed Government £2,500 and no security. The House ordered the apprehension of the defaulters as debtors to the State. To the burden of the taxes there came the terrible famine years of 1648-9, when wheat sold at the highest price ever reached in England, excepting in the famine year of 1597 and at the end of the 18th century. The difliculty of obtaining bare food was aggravated in Hertford- shire by the demands of London, at a time when all local markets were ruled by local conditions to an extent which is now impossible ; for when supplies for the Metropolis could be more readily obtained from the nearer than from the more distant counties, the drain upon Hertfordshire and other home counties by the Metropolis must have made it go hard for the poor people of the county, who, working for lOd. a day, had to pay 10s. a bushel for wheat. If we take as a com parison the relation between wages and the price of wheat, we find that the Hertfordshire labourer, in the famineyears 1648-9, was receiving less than half the present rate of wages and had to pay nearly three times as much for his bread. In other words, where the labourer of that time could purchase one pound of bread, the labourer of to-day can purchase six. Sugar was 13s. 4o?. a pound, but, as the labourer had neither tea nor coffee to sweeten, that was of Httle consequence to him. To the terrible distress of famine were added frequent outbreaks of the plague in Hertford- shire t during the years of the War ; and in the year of 1648 it rained almost continuously and ruined the crops. But amidst all the misery and suffering there went on the old old story of the young folks marrying and being given in mar- riage ; and young Ralph and Penelope, and t At Whitsuntide on May 22nd, 1643, when the scenes with Mr. Sone were occurring at Aldenham, there is this little glimpse of another parish when " Henry Horsley, of the towne of Eastwiclr, took his child to be baptised at Hunsdon, the towne of Eastwick being infected with the plague." HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 191 Mephibosheth t and Mercy, were made one under the authority of a Magistrate, and often by the pubhcation of banns in the open market-place. The Hertford All Saints' Parish registers con- tain a number of such marriages performed by Mr. Isaac Puller, a justice of the peace, of which two may be given : — 1655. August 18th. John Essard, of Bayford, and Ellen Wallis, of Weston, published in the Market-place. 1656. AugustOth. Edmonde Larkine, of Staple- ford, yeo., aud Grace ^Marshall, of the same, pub. in the Market-place, three several market days. Similar entries occur in the Ware Parish Registers, one of the publications of banns reading : — Joseph Godfrie "l of Munden Parva 1 in ye Market Marie Cherrie ) of Munden Magna ) Place. The parish of Sarratt also gives similar records where the parties appear to have gone before a Magistrate at St. Albans to be married. In such cases a parchment certificate could be obtained from the justices' clerk for the sum of twelve pence. Marrying before witnesses is referred to in the following case at Hadham in August, 1656 : — " Edward Missleton, of Little Hadham, a poore auntient widdower, and Thomasine Serjeant, of Much Hadham, in Hertfordshire, an auncient widow, marryed before Priscilla, wife of John Lavender, and John Brown and others, according to the Act for marriage." The parochial registrar under the Common- wealth has often come in for some hard knocks from the antiquary. Here is a specimen which may have been an extreme case. At Abington Pigotts, near Koyston, John Ward, a labourer, came before a justice in 1653 and took his oath " well and truly to execute the office of Registrar for the aforesaid parish of Abington for so long as he shall stay in the sayd office, according to the Act of Parliament, set forth and provided." In fact, parochial offices, as well as those of more consideration, got strangely upset in the distractions of the times, and rough and ready expedients had to be resorted to. At St. Albans, when the hangman was wanted to hang an old man aud apparently was not to be found, the Mayor credits himself with a shilling " paid to a boy of Barnet who supplied the place of hangman for an old man." t In the Ware Parish Eegisters the old-world and eometimea fantastic names of the Puritan folk were outdone by an individual bearing the strange name ol "Humiliation Soratoher." CAMP-FOLLOWERS AND DRINKING-. CROMWELL AND " LOCAL OPTION."— THE PURITAN SUNDAY.— CONCLUSION. The fortunes of war, and the roving disposition induced thereby, not only unsettled the labour market, or rather the labour Statutes, but also those old-world regulations for trade enjoyed under the privileges of the freemen of cities or towns. At St. Albans, for instance, the arrival of the great Parliamentary Army, which was so frequently near, must have brought with it an influx of strangers like the rush to a modern gold diggings, bringing a population five or six times that of the borough in ordinary times, including a supply of itinerant traders of every conceivable variety, amongst whom vendors of pamphlets and news-letters were of course to the fore. When the Army moved away some stayed behind and competed with the duly enfranchised traders of the borough. About ten days after that great Army of nearly 20,000 which marched with their ultimatum from Royston in 1 647 had left St. Albans for Berkhamsted, a Court was held at St. Albans at which the Burgesses had complaints before them that many strangers and foreigners were received into the Borough to inhabit, and were entertained, " to serve freemen and others and to pursue their callings," and it was ordered that in future " no stranger, be he journeyman or servant, single or married," should remain in the Borough longer than six days without giving an account of himself to the Mayor. The officers of the Borough were directed to apprehend strangers and bring them before the l\layor, to be sent back to the place of their abode, or procure sureties to prevent the Borough becoming chargeable for them ; and it was made penal for a townsman to lodge a stranger for more than six days.t If this was so while the soldiers were still under arms, it must have been even worse when the War was over. That regular and sternly disciplined force, the famous Ironsides of the Parliamentary Army, have earned the testimony of history to the readiness with which they went back to their trades and became absorbed into the industrial life of the people. But there were, necessarily, a great many roving characters of less repute, whose irregular military service on the one side or the other had unfitted them for a life of industry, and whose share in the t Records of St. Albans by A. B. Gibbs, p. 73. 192 HBETFOEDSHHIE BTJEINe THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. lawlessness of an unsettled time had made them a dangerous element. There is in the Library of the British Museum an interesting printed broadsheet which shows how the Hertfordshire magistrates dealt with such characters during the Commonwealth. It is an order issued by the Hertfordshire Court of Quarter Sessions held on the 14th and 16th of July, 1656, and is signed by Edward Hide, clerls of the Peace. t By virtue of this order it was the duty of the parish constable when a rogue or " vagabond " turned up in his parish to punish him and then convey him to the next parish, the constable of which had to pay the first-named constable 2s. for his trouble, which was charged to the parish account ; the constable of the second parish thus had a motive apart from his duty in hand- ing on the " rogue " to another parish and getting 2s. for himself in a similar way. Thus from parish to parish the social pariah got handed tiU he reached his place of birth or recognised place of abode. The name " rogue," in the estimation of the Hertfordshire justices, had rather a wide meaning, and the above order of the Quarter Sessions lays down particular definitions as to the persons who were deemed to be " rogues." In the rather sweeping blacli; list were included " scholars going about begging ; " sea-faring men " pretending they had lost their ships " ; idle persons using any subtle craft, feigning " a knowledge of phisiognomy, palmes- try, or other like crafty sciences ; pretending that they can tell destinies, fortunes, or such other phantastical imaginations " ; also all fencers, bear- wards, wandering minstrels, jug- glers, tinkers, ballad singers, common labourers refusing to work at the Quarter Sessions wage ; also all persons pretending to be or wearing the habit of Egyptians (gipsies), and " all persons wandering up and down iihe country to sell glasses." If the constable failed in his duty to such rogues found begging or practising their crafts, he was liable to a penalty of 20.s. for not punish- ing them and of £5 for not conveying them to the next parish. There was also a penalty against private persons knowing of such rogues begging if they did not disclose the fact to the parish officials ; and a reward of 2s. for every " rogue " which a private individual brought to the parish constable to be punished. In this way, by one means or another, the '■ rogues " of various sorts found themselves shifted from t Declarations, Letters, &c., 190, G. 13 (105), Brit. Mas. Lib. pillar to post, and the whipping posts and stocks were in frequent demand. In an age when the drinking of prodigious quantities of sack and malt liquor was almost a virtue, the part played by innkeepers on the great thoroughfares along which rolled the stormy current of the War must have been one of great profit and of peculiar interest. Through Watford, St. Albans, Ware, and Royston there went a never ending stream of transport wagons, soldiers on the march ; and, over and above these, petitioners carrying their grievances to Parliament, an almost incredible number of individuals who for some rash act done or hasty word spoken were "sent for" to Parliament, together with their witnesses to be heard, besides friends of imprisoned Royalists going up with heavy bribes to get a petition presented. The traffic through Hertford- shire and within an area of 30 miles of London must have been enormous, and the landlord of a roadside inn had cause to hail with fair-spoken phrase both Parliamentarian and Eoyalist way- farer, for he, at least so long as the billeting was not too often, had no such reason to lament the War as was ever present to the farmer and especially the small yeoman class. When the War was over the heavy drinking along the great highways of life left behind a mischievous crop of tippling in all the numerous village alehouses, of which Cromwell was obliged to take serious note. As a result the alehouses of Hertfordshire became subject to regulations such as the advanced temperance reformers are still contending for to-day. This was reflected in the following order passed in July, 1656 : — " At the General Quarter Sessions of the Publick Peace of the County of Hertford, holden at Hertford, for the coimty aforesaid, on Monday next after the feast of the Translation of St. Thomas the Martyr, that is to say, the fourteenth and sixteenth dayes of July in the year of our Lord one thousand, six hundred, fifty and six.'' " Forasmuch as his Highness, the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, etc., hath taken special notice of the mischiefs and the great disorders which daily happen and are committed in Taverns, Innes, and Ale-houses, which are extreamly multiplied in this nation, and of the great prophaneness that is so spread, and the many outrageous practices and wickednesses that are from time to time committed in such houses, and that very many of the keepers of such houses, as well as the HEETEOEDSniEE DTJEING IHE GEEAT CITIL WAE. 193 resorters to sucii houses, are lewd, evil-disposed, and debauched persons and disaffected to the present Government ; which misdoings do much tend to the dishonour of Almighty God, and are a scandal to religion ; therefore it is thought fit, and accordingly ordered by the Bench this present session, that no person whatsoever hving in any house within this county shall from henceforth be licensed to keep any Ale-house or VictualUng-house unless his house be in the common road or open street, and not standing alone ; and in such places no greater number than necessity requires ; and that such persons so to be licensed be of honest life and conversa- tion and of good ability, having conveniency for entertainment of travellers and passengers ; well affected to the present Government, and of persons who have not adhered to the late King and his party. * * * If a greater number of Ale-houses have been licensed in this county than are of absolute necessity, or whose houses are not convenient, or the persons not so qualified as is above expressed, that their licenses be called in and they suppressed, f Justices of the Peace are enjoined to take special care for the effectual suppressing of all such Alehouse-keepers as are or shall be convicted of the prophanation of the Lord's Day by receiving ' into their houses any company, or of swearing, drunkenness, suffering disorders, tippUng, gaming, or playing at Tables, Billiard-table, Shovel-board, Cards, Dice, Nine- pins, Pigeon-holes, Trunks, or keeping a Bowl- ing- Alley, or Bowling Green, or any of them or of any other games." J This order, which is signed by Edward Hide, Clerk of the Peace, and was issued as a printed broad-sheet also provided that each licensed person should have a sign over his door ; that no fellow innkeeper or brewer was to be accepted as surety for the performance of the conditions of the recognizance of the publican ; and that if he had a lodger in his house on a Sunday he was to take him to a place of divine worship. The typical Sunday of a Hertfordshire village at the beginning of the Civil "War presented a strange compound of rituahsm, public games, and Puritanical principles. Inside the Church many of the clergy out-Lauded Laud in their ritualism + At Berkhamsted thia Cromwellian local option found expression in 1659 in the order that "there shall not be more than six alehouses lycensed to draw or sell beare or ale within the burroughe, without the consent of the major part of the whole company." I Declarations and Letters, etc., 190, G, 13 (106), Brit. Mus. Lib. and out-did the King in commending Sunday afternoon sports. The assembhng for public worship had become a strange feature of country life. The ritual of the one service in the Parish Church drove many of the parishioners away to some distant parish to hear a Puritan hold forth for hours together two or three times in the day. This irritated the deserted Vicar, who treated his small congregation to a denunciation of those who had gone away, on horseback or on foot, to the distant conventicle, until Puritans and " Parliament doggs " got mixed in his sermon ; and, while delighting the old Cavalier squire of his parish who was too infirm to buckle on his sword, he thus played into the hands of those who were waiting to report his doings to the County Committee. For the young folks present the sermon finished with the welcome reference to the Bang's Book of Sports. The afternoon found the minister stepping down from his high pedestal among altars and images, and encouraging with his applause the younger por- tion of his flock as they played football, wrestled, danced round the May-pole, or shot their arrows, on the village green. But each village was as a house divided against itself, including the opposite extremes, on the one hand of Puritan attachment to preaching of long sermons and travelling long distances to hear some favourite preacher — whether from college or the forge — and, on the other hand, that sanction of authority which enabled a clergyman to stand as in the holy of holies in the chancel of his Church on the Sunday morning, and to indulge in public games outside in the afternoon. There was quite enough Puritanism in Hert- fordshire to account for the former characteristic, while the latter was the heritage of King James I, whose pedantry and sport had puzzled all orders of theological men, and found employment for many hawkers and gamekeepers in Hertford- shire, more especially about Eoyston and Theobalds. The Book of Sports, with which some of the Royalist clergy of Hertfordshire wound up their one sermon on Sunday, was not a book at all, but a Eoyal proclamation issued by James I., and renewed by Charles I. In this proclamation the King refers to "the complaints of our people that they were barred from all lawful recreation and exercise on the Sunday afternoon, after the ending of all divine service," and he proceeds to ask — ■ " When shall the common people have leave to exercise if not upon the Sundays and holy dales, seeing they must apply their labour and win their living in all working dales ? Our express 25 194 HERTFOEDSHIEB BUEING THE GREAT CIVIL TTAE. pleasure therefore is that * * no lawful recreation shall be barred to our good people which shall not tend to the breach of our aforesaid lawes and canons of our Church * * * and our pleasure is that after the end of divine service our good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation, such as dancing, either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other harmless recreation ; or from having of May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris-dances, and other sports therewith used, so as the same be had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of Divine service, and that women, shall have leave to carry rushes to Church for decorating it according to their old custom." There was added a proviso rather difficult for the parochial Dogberry to administer, I imagine, that no one was to indulge in any of the recreations specified who had not attended Divine service beforehand. Under this pro- clamation, which had to be read in Parish Churches, and was renewed by Charles I., and com- mended by Hertfordshire clergymen, there was a licence wide enough to shock the Puritan folk as they returned home on a Sunday evening from hearing long drawn sermons from such men as Heath, the collar-maker of Watton ; Crew, the tailor of Stevenage ; Carter, of the one eye, or even of John Bunyan himself ; only to hear as they neared their village the merry-making of the dancers, the football players and archers, pledging each other at the village ale-house. In the end, however, the Puritans of Hertford- shire, when they once got hold of the handle, made a clean sweep of what, to them, was as distasteful as the preaching of any tinker to the old Eoyalist and Cavalier clergyman could be. The village Sunday was stripped of its " heathen- ish vanities," May-poles were pviUed down, and all the diversions sanctioned by the Book of Sports were forbidden upon pain of five shillings or a sentence of three hours in the stocks. Even the little children were forbidden to be merry on Sunday, and the parent or guardian was fined a shilling for each child that played any of the forbidden games on the Sabbath. The pro- fessional tramp, "rogue, vagabond or beggar," who has cut his Bohemian figure on every page of history, had to be bundled off to Church by the Parish Constable, and had to " remain there soberly and orderly during the time of Divine worship. " But the orders of Parliament in this, as in other matters, were framed with some regard to exceptional circumstances. While most trades- men and shopkeepers were forbidden to show or cry their wares on the Sabbath, the milkman was allowed to go his round on Sunday morning before nine, and in the afternoon after four o'clock, in winter, and before eight o'clock and after five in the summer half-year, that is, from March to Sej3tember. Exception was also made for the dressing and sale of victuals "in a moderate way in Inns and victualling houses for the use of such as cannot otherwise be provided for." As for the King's Book of Sports, that had to be publicly burnt by the Justices of the Peace, as it was burnt by the common hangman in London. The temporary triumph of extreme measures must ever be fatal to stability of government, and the great Commonwealth period was no exception, but rather a signal illustration of the rule. Commencing with a splendid protest — a sturdy " no " thundering in the ears of all men — which carried Hertfordshire and other counties up to the doors of Parliament in the year 1641, the struggle for civil and religious rights and Parliamentary privileges was at that time over- whelmingly against the King. The county of Hertford was so unanimous that at first it had only one of its leading men — Mr. Thomas Coningsby, the rigorous levier of Ship-money — on the side of the King, and yet the same county, when it came to sacrificing the King, could only produce one man. Colonel Axtell, who dared to boldly stand up for this extreme measure. Whether the Eoyalists, in supporting the right Divine of Kings to govern wrong, had a greater constitutional sanction for their conduct than could be claimed by those who were contending for another fundamental principle of constitutional government — whether one set of men who sufiered were martyrs and the other only rebels, are questions of political casuistry which need not be discussed here. It is enough to know that Hertfordshire men suffered by both extremes in the ups and downs of a changeful time. When the King lost his head Lord Capel lost his ; when the violent re-action at the Restoration brought the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton out of their tombs at Westminster to the gallows at Tyburn, it placed the head of Daniel Axtell, of Berkhamsted, upon Westminster Hall. As the return of Monarchial rule proceeded with its revelry and dissipation it seemed as if all the work of the tragic hurly-burly was to be undone, and amidst the terrors of the plague, in HEKTFOEBSHIEE BTJKING THE GEEAT CITIL TVAE. 195 which Hertfordshire people shared, thoughtful men might well have asked themselves what was to be the end of all these ''unhappy times"; whether, after all the sacrifices, the latter end of their hfe was not likely to be worse than the first ! But to those who lived to obtain a glimpse of the true proportion of things, after the smoke of battle had cleared away, it became evident that a leaven of sterner stuff had been left behind in a considerable portion of the English people ; a leaven which had further work to do in the subsequent stages of the struggle for religious liberty. There had been such an object lesson placed before the English people in regard to the im- possibiUty of governing them without due regard to a workable equilibrium in the relationship of royal prerogative and the popular voice, as was destined to last for centuries. Cromwell's party, with aU their faults, and the vagaries of some of their followers, were fighting for the salt in the family cupboard— for character, reality, and earnestness in national affairs. For this string- ing up of the moral fibre of our national life, and for no small share of that heritage of solid respect for the name of England abroad, England still owes a debt to the Huntingdonshire farmer. The facts that a Stuart King lost his head at Whitehall and that Cromwell's bones were gibbeted at Tyburn, are but the expression of men's passions, swayed by the extreme ten- dencies of the conflict. In the one case a King, otherwise amiable, took the risk of trifling with great constitutional principles, and in the other a man of mettle dared to handle a two-edged sword, and both were overtaken by the risk. Yet the principle which the one lightly ignored and the other so sternly justified was never more active than in our public life of to-day. It may be said that those old Hertfordshire clergy who defied even their own parishioners to the extent of seeing the altar rails pulled down, were, at least on the ecclesiastical side of their of&ce, standing up for a system that was destined to prevail in the end, and for a system which has been I suppose, almost uniformly adopted in the same Hertfordshire Churches in later times ; but, as Professor Gardiner has said, "the result was only finally obtained by the total abandonment of Laud's methods. What had been impossible to effect in a Church to the worship of which every person in the land was obliged to conform, became possible in a Church which anyone who pleased was at liberty to abandon.'' Not only did it become possible, but it was destined to become much more acceptable and operative by the freedom to choose which ultimately prevailed. The experience of Hertfordshire during the Civil War, however imperfectly it may have been presented to the reader in these pages, has, I think, this historical value : that, without hav- ing felt very much of the edge of the sword among its people, it does, nevertheless, help us, more than that of most counties, to understand how it was that the sword became the political arbiter. It shows us a Parliament, often hope- lessly divided in itself, seeking to be supreme in the field, yet acting through a multiplicity of local authorities — civil, military, and ecclesiasti- cal — and placing even its commanders at their mercy, till the professional soldier, discontented, and often minus his pay, lost all respect for the mere Parliamentary machine ; and, still profess- ing his faith in "the good old cause," took into his own hands what appeared to be the immediate and pressing necessities of the case which a divided and vacil- lating Parliament, largely under the influence of the City of London, had failed to grasp. It was this, even more than the valour of the Iron- sides, it was this as much as the military genius of Cromwell, which ultimately handed over the government of the country so completely to the power and control of the Army. How far the King himself was to blame for the drastic solu- tion which, beginning in St. Albans Abbey, cost him his head at Whitehall, can never be determined, but that it was reached by the fatal process of drifting rather than by a deliberate intention from the beginning, there is enough in the survey of one county to show. But however that may be, it may, I think, in conclusion be claimed that the part played by the county of Hertford and its people was not without its points of special interest ; depending not so much upon the effect of the sword, which left its scars on other fields, as upon its connec- tion with the events affecting the King, his fate and his followers ; and upon the substantial contribution made by the people of Hertford- shire to this rugged chapter of the old, old story which tells that Freedom's battle once begun Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son Though baffled oft is ever won. APPENDIX. SUPPLEMENTARY. In those anxious months of 1643 when the county of Hertford was filled with alarmiag rumours of plundering by Prince Rupert on the Western borders of the county, and Lady Sussex was arming her servants at Gorhambury with " caribens and twenty ponde poder" ; when Lord Grey, of Wark, was marching through Hertford- shire with his 4,000 foot and 1,500 horse — on that occasion a notable instance of the troubles of taking county forces out of their county occurred at Watford, where they were coming in rather close quarters with the Royalists. A large part of the Parliamentary force had been drawn from Essex, and this communication goes to the Deputy- Lieutenants of that county : — " 1643, April 17th. Watford. — On our march out of Essex by the directions of Lord Grey, of Warke, we, as far as we could, obeyed all hia orders, and we are now quartered at Watford on the edge of Hertfordshire, out of which neither officer or soldier is willing to move, being out of the Association, without some special and authentic order, and such accommodation as may relieve them in their marches, and secure them from the enemy. They expect, and I doubt not resolve with alacrity and courage, suddenly to fall upon the enemy, but the want of the necessaries I shall propound is a main stop and hindrance to their better resolutions " Then follows a list of things wanted — waggons for transport, a surgeon, an able religious teacher to apply and administer comfort and courage to the soldiers, and a larger supply of ammunition, etc., etc. * * * 1645. Of the friction caused in Hertfordshire when soldiering ceased to be a county affair and new officers were put in command under the New Model (p. 57), Denzill Holies, after- wards Lord Holies, of Aldenham, Herts, in his Memoirs, wrote strongly : — " Some of the horse who had served under my Lord Essex were a little stiff, and made some show of standing out in Hertfordshire, which our violent, bloody new Modellers would have made advantage of presently to have fallen on them and put them to the sword, but Parliament followed more moderate counsels, by sending down some of their old Officers, who disposed them to sub- mission." He further alleges that, notwith- standing this conciliatory course of Parliament, Mr. St. John wrote a letter under hand to the Committee of Hertfordshire, that they should raise the country and fall upon these men and put all into blood, contrary to the desire and endeavour of Parliament ; " a villainy never to be forgotten nor forgiven of any man, much less in a man of the law." Of that interesting march of King Charles I. and his forces, after the defeat at the battle of Naseby, which brought the King to Huntingdon for the entry to which he had to fight, in August, 1645, the following additional particulars are given in a letter from Mr. Lowry, the member for Cambridge : — " 1645, August 27th. Cambridge.— The King beat our forces at Huntingdon, and took Major Gibbs and some 60 prisoners, being all common soldiers, which are sent to Cambridge in exchange of some of our prisoners, and not above five killed in the fight. We have had strong alarms within four miles of our town. We stood upon our guard and summoned all the counties to come in, which accordingly came in to our assistance — only Essex — not a man of which came in, not- withstanding letters sent unto them divers times of our dangers. The last answer I had from them was that our town and castle was taken, and so thought not fit to come. I have been drawing all our forces these three nights into the fields, taking no posts, which I beheve standing upon our guard both in town and field hath hindered the King of his design. Por the present our fears are somewhat blown over. HESTFORDSHIEE DIJKING THE GREAT CIVIL WAE. 197 The King marched from Huntingdon yesterday unto St. Eoatea (? St. Neots), and this morning we hear that he is at Bedford, and they are very much affrighted as appears by some prisoners we have taken. "We have sent six troops of our horse in the pursuit of the King this morning. " Postscript. — Since the sealing of my letter our six troops of horse are retreated where they were, ten miles from us, and they report that the enemy was there with a strong party. But how true I know not, which hath put us into new fears, yet however are resolved to stand to it for the safeguard of the town." t The Earl of Warwick, in a despatch of a few days later, states that " Upon this alarm of the enemy's coming to Huntingdon I drew up all the forces of Essex, being 6,000 foot and 900 horse, and 500 dragoons, towards Cambridge, as also 4,000 foot and 500 horse came out of Suffolk for the guard of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely. And upon the retreat of the enemy I dismissed them according to the order of the Committee of both Kingdoms." { His Majesty's movements upon this occasion are thus chronicled by Heath : — " Being at liberty to go whither he would, but of no strength to make use of and enjoy it ; like con- sumptive bodies whose legs do last of all fail them, * * his marches were so volatile, un- certain, and swift that no resistance could be made ; so that he mastered where'er he came, alarming his enemies everywhere. * * In this manner he surprised Huntingdon-Town, which he entered on Sunday afternoon in service time, with some httle opposition made against him at the Bridge, where he slew the Captain and Lieutenant that maintained it with most of the souldiers and put the town to ransome. * * From thence he marched and * * faced the town and University of Cambridge ; but out of his favourable regard to that place departed as suddenly, but yet the fright of his coming had driven the most factious out of the coUedges in the town ; while his Majesty contented him- self with casting a benevolent look upon that nursery that had been planet-struck with the astonishing seizures of the Rebellion. * * His next stage was Oubum [Woburn, Beds], having by the way fined St. Ives in .£500." {Chronicle of the Civil War.'] ■^ # * * lg46. — A fresh source of information has come t Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. on MSS. at Welbeck Abbey. X Ibid. under my notice since writing the account on pp. 61-2 of the pathetic journey of the King through Herts in disguise, with only two attendants, in 1646 ; and also another reference to the same event which had escaped my observation. As the incident is one of peculiar interest I may perhaps briefly refer to them here. In the " Confessions and Examinations " of Michael Hudson, the " plain dealing chaplain," who was one of the King's two attendants, there is this statement — "About 2 of the clocke we tooke a guide towards Barnet resolving to crosse the roads into Essex ; but after we were passed Harrow upon-the-Hill I told the King if he were not knowne much in S. Albons Road it was much the nearer way to go through S. Albons and thence towards Royston ; which he approved of. And soe we passed through S. Albons, where one old man, with an halberd, asked us whence we came ? I told him from Parliament, and threw him 6rf., and soe passed." He then gives an account of the scene with the drunken horseman described on p. 61, and, proceeding, says — " His Majestie lodged at "Whisthamstede, but he was commanded by his Majestie not to reveal the place where his Majestie lodged." t In another statement he said : " The first night when they wente from Oxford and lay at Withamstede the King held out well" ; and further that " the King lay in a grande chamber and Mr. Ashbiu'nham and Hay together." t All this points to the probability of the King seeking shelter at Lamer Park ; the only state- ment to the contrary being the remark by Hudson, in another part of his confessions, that " the King stayed at noe gentleman's house on his journey but at Mr. Cave's at Stamford " ; and even this may have been designed to throw suspicion off Sir John Garrard, whose action the King may have wished to conceal. To the imaginative reader there may, perhaps, be a peculiar interest in that glimpse of the old man with his halberd, pacing backwards and forwards on sentry duty at the Fort which guarded the Holywell Hill entrance to St. Albans, which at that time was fortified ; for, had the old man not picked up that sixpence or had doubted the magic words " from ParUa- ment," and so called other assistance to stay the f Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, Lib. vi. X Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. HERTrOEDSHIEE DtTEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. weary horsemen in their march, it may be that tlie history of England would have been some- what different. * * * It is alleged in Holies' Memoirs that the cry of "justice, justice" raised by the soldiers at Thriplow Heath in reply to the votes of Parlia- ment " was a note that Cromwell and Ireton had taught them ; " but though Cromwell's leaning towards the use of the Army as a political agent may seem to date from the Thriplow and Royston incidents, Holies' testimony in this and other matters is not quite unbiassed, because he happened to have been one of the eleven members whose impeachment was demanded by the Army upon their arrival from Royston at St. Albans. * * * 1648.— The scene of the Battle of St. Neots, described on pp. 84-5, may, I think, be fixed with a little more precision than is there observed. There appears to be good reason for supposing that the old inn with its back to the river, in which the Earl of Holland was captured while the Cavaliers were being put to the sword in the yard, or chased through the Ouse, was the inn still known as the " Half-Moon." Of the engagement itself Col. Scroop, in his own despatch, says : " The enemy when we entered the town were drawn up into three bodies, which my forlorn hope charged and routed before the rest of my Horse entered, but when the rest came up the dispute was quickly at an end, for then they got out at all the passes and ran for it, but divers of them fell and some of the chief ones. I had marched all day Saturday and all night that my horse were unable to pursue further than Huntingdon." * * * The feeling which prompted the fight in the Market Place, at Royston, " to revenge the blood of the late King," in the summer of 1649, and the disturbances in other parts of Hertfordshire, had not quite died out two years afterwards, and helped to account for local efforts in support of the claims of Charles II. In the " several examinations and confessions of Thomas Coke, Esquire," preserved in the MSS. at Welbeck Abbey, there is this local record : — " 1651, April 3. — I employed one Major Hall att Royston, to sollicite the people in those partes tojoyne with the King, if there were occasion. He hath layne there and sometimes in towne here ever since I came over, and assured mee hee could have one thousand men in those partes att three dayes' warning, t They only want armes and ammunition, whereof they have little, especially of the latter. The designe is to seize upon the publique magazines on occasion att Hartford and Cambridge ; but the countrey people have very many armes in their houses. Hee was to bee made a Lieutenant-Colonell to Mr. Ayliffe, I mentioned yesterday. There is one Squire CKsar, Mr. Gulston, Mr. Randall, and others I cannot now call to mind, will bee ready to assist in those partes. One Charles Baxton, an inn-keeper in Royston, that is active in stirring up the people to that purpose, and one Thomas Turner, living likewise in that towne, goes up and down the countrey to that end." * * * Capcl. — There is reason to believe that Capell was the correct spelling of this nobleman's name. The Seventeenth Century was not, however, a time when spelling was a fixed quantity even in proper names, and as most of the authorities re- ferred to in this book, from the Journals of Parliament to modern writers, have the name with the single I., I have adopted this form rather than puzzle the reader with frequent contra- dictions where quotations had to be made. The late Earl of Essex adopted the older form of Capell, which the present Earl also bears, but other members of the family still adhere to the form of Capel. FalUand. — It is stated in Mr. Money's Tioo Battles of Newhury that on the morning after the 1st Battle of Newbury in 1643 in which Lord Falkland fell (p. 113), that the following letter was sent by Prince Rupert to the Earl of Esses : — " Wee desire to know from the Earl of Essex whether he have the Viscount Falkland, Capt. Burtue [Bertie] and Sergt. -Major Wilshire prisoners, or whether he have their dead bodies, and if he have that liberty may be granted to their servants to fetch them away. Given under my hand at Newbury this 21st September, 1643. —Rupert." The body of Falkland having been recovered on the battlefield, it was placed across the back of one of the Royal chargers and mournfully escorted down the hill by a detachment of the King's own troops and gently laid in the Town Hall. Lord Falkland had, three months before t This Major Hall was apparently a son of a former Master of Posts under King James and King Cbarles who lived on the site of the old Hospital of St. James and St. John in Baldock Street, near the Cross, and, if so, was a likely man for the business referred to. HEETFOKDSHIEE DtrEDSTG THE GEEA.T CIVIL WAR. 199 the Battle of Newbury, in which he was killed, made his will (at Oxford, 12 June, 1643), by which he left all his personal estates to his " dearly beloved wife Lettioe, Viscountess Falk- land, whom I appoint my ex'trix, she to have the education of my three sons, Lucius, Henry, and Lorenzo." The portrait of Lord Falkland by Vandyke shows an almost boyish face for one so eminent, though with a pathetic far-away look in the eyes indicative of the philosophic spirit of the man. * * * Axtell. — In the Thurloe State Papers there are some minor references to Col. Axtell's giving up his commission in Ireland. These did not seem to be necessary to go in the sketch of his career, which appears elsewhere. In one of them he is evidently in some trouble with the Government. In another he is recommended to the Protector for foreign service, only a few weeks before Cromwell's death, and in another, a long letter from Cromwell's son Henry, the Lord-Deputy, the sudden resigning of their commissions by Axtell and other officers, is described. " Finding themselves of late not to have bin made use of they could not with satisfaction to their con- science receive pay from the publique without doeing service for it ; and that they had upon solemn seekinge of God and serious deliberations with themselves, represented to his Highness their resolutions to quitt their commands." * * * It is of some interest to notice that when the Commonwealth had lost the man who made it, and had got into a moribund stage, Eichard Cromwell, the Protector's son, who became only Protector in name, made his home in Hert- fordshire at Theobalds, the old home of the Stuart Kings. Several descendants of Cromwell, though not in a direct line, have kept up a connection with Hertfordshire into the present century, and to the present time, amongst whom may be mentioned the Butler family of Royston. A direct lineal descendant of Cromwell in the female Une connected with Cheshunt, it has been recently stated, is the Rev. Thomas Cromwell Bush, who, by the death of his great aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Oliveria Presoott, at the advanced age of 92, becomes the possessor of Cheshunt Park. Of his descent the following particulars were recently given in a Cornish newspaper : — Eichard Cromwell, who succeeded his father in the Protectorate, and left three daughters only, none of whom appear to have had issue, was Oliver's third son, but he had a younger brother, Henry Cromwell, Lord-Deputy of Ireland. The great-great-grandson of this latter, Oliver by name, inherited the estate of Richard at Theobalds under the joint will of his three childless cousins. Oliver died in 1821, and his only surviving daughter, Elizabeth Oliveria, took the estate into the family of the Russells, of Cheshunt, having married Mr. Thomas Artemi- dorus Russell, in 1801. Her eldest son left a daughter as his sole representative, and that lady, by her marriage with the Rev. Paul Bush, at present hon. canon of Truro and Rector of Duloe, near Liskeard, became the mother of the present owner of the Cheshunt property, which had, however, passed to the late Mrs. Prescott and her sister, Mrs. Warner, jointly, as the sur- vivors of a large family. The Rev. Thomas Cromwell Bush, son of Canon Bush, of Duloe, is an Oxford man, having taken his degree at Hertford College in 1876. * * * The chapters on social and domestic life may perhaps be supplemented by one or two matters which were omitted elsewhere. In the confusion of the years 1643-4 it was as much as the Parish Constable and the Justice of the Peace could do to keep their heads above water ; and even the Judges could not go their circuits. In 1643 both the Spring and Summer Assizes for the county had to be put off, under stress of war, but by the end of 1645-6 the Assize business was carried on as usual. The constable's " hue and cry " went forward again as heretofore, as appears by a " Baldoake " pro- clamation of thieves who had broken into a " taylor's shopp," at Buntingford, and carried off " stufi-lace, buttons, silck, Unin, cloth, sathan, canvis, and other things." Amidst all the tur- moil there were men who cultivated their tastes and their hobbies as men do now. Thomas Duckett, of Steeple Morden, near Royston, an influential man in Cambridgeshire, posed as an "inventor of new secrets for the im- provement of land and leather " and a "practi- tioner in Physick." Mr. Duckett petitioned Parliament to appoint him a convenient house in the suburbs of London and Westminster " for the better preparation of his designs and demonstrations." Though this ancient farmers' friend professed to be able to " clear land speedily of thistles, docks, and rushes " and to " prevent rotten diseases in sheepe," Parliament, I believe, turned a deaf ear to his petition. The modern schemes for draining Hertford- shire of its water supply for the benefit of 200 HE-RTrOEDSHlEE DtJfilNO THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. London had already commenced ; for in 1641 a scheme was proposed for carrying water from the neighbourhood of Rickmansworth to London, and a rival scheme was proposed in the same year for the same purpose from Hoddesdon. Among the more pathetic footprints, now almost obUterated, of the actors in the great drama are the passes for bereaved famiUes ; such as that granted in 1643, recorded in the following — " That four servants of Sir Job Harbies' shall be permitted to attend the corps of a son of Job Harbies from Oxford to Aldenham in the county of Hertford, with a hearse and six horses ; and after the solemnization there performed, the said servants are to return to London without stay or trouble." There is this little brighter gUmpse of Hert- fordshire high Ufe from the pen of George Gerrard, written to Conway on the eve of the War, in 1640. " As soon as the Dog-days began I left London and retired to one of my mansion houses, Hatfield, where I continually saw the handsomest lady I ever saw, the Countess of Devonshire ; her mother, she and I often talk of you."t * * * As to dress and manners, a close-cropped head was no doubt a convenience to roistering London apprentices — the real original " Roundheads "^ who so frequently got up a rumpus in the streets of London, but it would be unsafe to assume that, because Hertfordshire went pretty solid for Parliament, those " Knights, gentlemen and free- holders," who so frequently travelled up to West- minster with the grievances of the county, were a band of surly-mannered men in uncouth dress and close-cut hair. A Hertfordshire Justice of the Peace was no more likely to cut off' his flowing locks because he disagreed with the King and inclined to Parliament than was John Milton ; and I suspect that the difference in "Cavalier and Roundhead " in this matter of dress was not in t This lady was the wife of the unfortunate Bar] of Devonshire for whom Lord Salisbury (father of the beautiful Countess) had to pay down that £5,000 to get him out of the clutches of the Parliamentary sequestra- tors, [p. 148.] civil hfe so extreme as is sometimes represented. For the non-combatants the chief sources of interest were the claims of the tax collector and the circulation of news ; and for the latter the writers of the old News-letters knew how to make their wares attractive in the matter of head-lines. Generally the head-line was something in this style : " Joyful newes from Norwich," " Very joyful newes from Hull," " Horrible newes from Portsmouth," " Exceedingly joyful newes from Portsmouth," "Bloody newes from Maidstone," &c. ; while the " Terrible newes from Hartford," to which reference has been made, outdoes the modern journals in one respect. The entry in the British Museum Catalogue of this particular " Newes-Letter," takes up almost as much type 1 as the brief description of the alarming fire itself which so upset the Hertfordshire people about their Powder Magazine [p. 17] when the War began. But the inhabitants of the county of Hertford did not depend upon casual News- letters by the morning post which came every morning from London. Besides these the London Dmrnals and Mercuries were brought into the country by the mounted newsman, who signalled his approach by the blowing of his horn, the very sound of which was full of great possi- bihties of victory or defeat, and eagerly awaited by curious groups around the old wooden piles of the Shire Hall, at Hertford, the old Eleanor Cross, St. Albans, or at the old cross-ways in other towns. What a picture those old men of the forge, the malting, the chandler's shop, and the tavern, would have made, intently hsteuing to the tale of Marston Moor, a Naseby fight, or of the flight of the yeoman at Hitchin, from the pen of a Defoe or a modern Archibald Porbes ! The language of the time also — its bold metaphor and imagery, its figures of speech and Old Testament phraseology — heightens for us the colour and force of the old historic drama. " A day of terror ; a day of wonders ; a day never to be obliterated from the tables of England's memory," is the language of some of the contem- porary pamphleteers. On pp. 52 and 56 the reference to the " Red White, and Blue Regiments" is, perhaps, too literal ; for, though the colour of the coats worn varied greatly, the reference may have been to the colours borne by the Regiments. HERTFOEDSHIEE DUEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAR. 201 II. HERTFOEDSHIEE LETTEES TO CEOMWELL. Capt. Silas Titus to the Protector. May it please your Highness. I should not have taken this confidence, upon that little knowledge your Highness hath had of me, to have made any immediate addresses to your Highness had I not been encouraged to it by the favours which I have heard your Highness hath been pleased to grant to others in my condition upon the like applications ; and likewise been persuaded by others that, in this particular, what I should signify myself would give your Highness more .satisfaction concerning me than the representa- tions of other men. My humble request to your Highness is that by your Highness's favour and permission I may return to live in my own country, from whence by the prosecution of that course which my engagements and relations lead me, I have so long been banished. I cannot expect nor do desire that this favour should be granted to me but upon such assurances as I am able to give of my living peaceably under your Highness, and acting nothing to the disturbance of that Government from which I am to receive protection. I am very ready to take that engagement upon me, and hope that what dis- advantages soever my following the dictates of that small understanding God hath been pleased to afford me hath laid upon me, yet that none of my actions will be found to accuse me of any unfaithfulness to my professions, or that can render my integrity in that kind liable to any just suspicions. I shall give your Highness no further trouble in a business of so small moment and importance to you ; only shall do myself the honour of subscribing myself your Highness most humble servant.— S. Titus. Breda, 20th Nov., 1654." t This letter (which I have given in modern spelling) had no effect, and on Jan. 5th, 1656, Capt. Titus, writing still from Breda, appeals to Major-General Browne, and says :— " It is now a great while since I made use of such endeavours, as I was advised to by my friends, for the obtain- ing of my liberty to returne into my owne country." He then asked General Browne, who has " aocesse to the lord protector, to mind his Highness of me and of the request I have made. t Thurloe State Papers, ii, 720. I am not conscious myself of any carriage that should make me dispaire of finding friends that will be content to engage for my peacible living ; for though my owne relations have assisted my enemies to wast and ruine my small fortune in my absence, yet I doe not thinke myselfe so destitute but that I have something left me in the opinions of many honest men which it must be my faults, and not misfortvme that can take from me. For my much honoured friend, Major- Geueral Browne, at his house in White-fryars in London." t A little more than twelve months after this, Cromwell's secretary, Thurloe, is writing thus to Henry Cromwell, in Ireland : — " There is lately a very vile booke dispersed abroad called Killing no Murder. The scope is to stirre up men to assassinate his highness. I have made search after it, but could not finde out the spring-head thereof. " Had Capt. Titus tired of waiting for Crom- well's favour of allowing him to return to England ? His connection with the pamphlet is strengthened by the fact that it was believed to have come over from Holland, and at the house of a waterman near St. Catharine's Docks seven bundles of the pamphlet, 200 copies in each bundle, were found, a discovery which led to no end of examination of witnesses, but not to much light being thrown upon the subject. * * * " The Comjiissioxers for Hertfordshire to THE Protector. May it please your Highness to accept this humble earnest of affection and a duty from us, who by virtue of particular letters received from Major Packer intimating your Highness pleasure that wee meete at convenient tyme and place for the putting execution certaine your orders and instructions for secureing the peace of the Com- monwealth and particularly of this county ; wherein we have amongst others the honour by you to be nominated commissioners. That in order hereto we have now twice mett and heard read the severall commissions of your Highness herein constituting and appoynting the Lord Fleetwood (deputy of Ireland) Major-General of this county, a person so acceptable and well pleasing to and amongst us that we do unfaincdly profess there could none have been nominated more welcome or received with greater affection and goodwill. And uppon the readeing of t Mi. iv, 347-8. 26 202 HERTFORDSHIRE DURING THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. the severall commissions with the instructions and directions hereunto apperteyning (from your Highness to him and us directed) wee must needs acknowledge (and bless God for) your Highness greate zeale and unfailing care, very eminently tending to the support of godliness, and indeed the only means (that we can discerne) left for the securing the (much ma- ligned) peace of this Commonwealth. And doe in all sincerity profess that in our stations and places wee looke uppon it as a duty much in- cumbent uppon us to bee assisting to your Highness that you neither faint nor wax weary in your very greate and important undertakings, but may continue steady and strong, upon the discomfiture of all God's enemys who, either abroade or within this Commonwealth, shall oppose the power of godliness, or design the breach of our present peace, and further, at present we dare not be troublesome, only we Ijeseeoh God that His mercy and kindnes may still environ you ; and wee continue to bee, your Highness most humble servants, John King, John Edlyn, Alexander "Weld, John Eeade, Anthony Spinage, Ad. Washington, John Kensey, Richard Combe, Thomas Empson, Daniel NicoU, John Brograve, William Packer, William Disher, Henry Blount, Joen Haiman, Coxe, William Turner, William Marsh, John Marsh, William Eeeve, Francis White, R. Gladman, William Cox, J. Gladman, William Hickman. Hertford, this 3rd day of March, 1655." This document is of interest as showing that many of the most active Hertfordshire Parlia- mentarians had remained consistent supporters of what they called the " good old cause," for which Parliament took up arms, however much some of them may have differed over the execu- tion of the King. * * * " Major-General Packer to the Protector. May it please your Highness. I had yester- day a meeting with coll. Cox and coll. Marsh in order to what you were pleased to propound of raysing a regiment in this county, and I find since my last speakeing with coll. Marsh hee is in his resolutions, wholy altered as to the ac- ceptance of the imployment as collonell, yet professeth it is upon noe other ground but the indisposition of his body, hee being old and much weakened by several distempers ; and he doth assure your highnes that he will further the worke in the hands of others, what he is able, to the uttermost hee haveing his heart much engaged therein ; and I am confident he will. It is likewise judged by them, that coll. Washington will not in many respects bee fitt for that worke, although a very honest hearted man ; soe that for a coll. I think your highnes must pitch either upon coll. Cox or Sir Richard Combes. Coll. Cox desires that Sir Richard Combes may have the command, and he resolves to rayse a company under him ; yet I have thought that coll. Cox will be very fitt with respect to his haveing been in the service ; the other, although otherwise fitt, yett young and inexperienced, he never yet being called out in the condition of a soldier ; and if you shall please to give coll. Cox command, I am confident he will rayse a good company under him ; but I doe humbly submitt the choyse to your highnes. I have here enclosed the list of tenn names, that, if they will engage, are by us judged persons very fitt ; and if your highnes shall be pleased to appoint one of them collonell, we shall then consider of such persons of them as are fitt for field officers ; but at present I dare not desire your highnes to put these names into Com- missions the business not having been yet com- municated unto them ; but I have taken order for several meetings in the countrey, in order thereunto, but if your highnes will please, by the bearer, to send down a commission to one of the two forenamed persons to be collonell, and a commission to the other to rayse a company, these two companies will be quickly raysed and I shall take care for armes for them. And, if it be not too great a trust, if your highnes will please to sende down blanke commissions, I shall fill them with the advice of the persons, with whom I have thus far advised about this work, and shall be as faithful to you therein as to my owne life. I have ordered coll. Cox to take into his custody the armes and amunition that shall be found in the magazines of this county ; by which I hope we shall furnish most of the men to be raysed. I doe humbly beg your highnes leave to stay in the county until Tuesday next in order to this and other publique business already appointed. The Lord of Heaven bless your highnes, relieve you in all your strayts, shew you your way, deliver you from evill, and preserve you to His heavenly kingdom. This is and shall bee the hearty prayer of him, that is Your highnes most faithful, humble and thankfull servant. Sept. 12, 1656 Will. Packer. HEETFOEDSHIEE BTJEING THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. 203 " If your highnes pleases you may rayse a good regiment in Buckinghamshire, and I believe there are armes almost enough to arms them. Coll. Fletcher and Major Browne and Major Theed are persons of good * * " Both this and the preceding letter are given in the Thwloe Papers, and in another copy of that from the Herts Commissioners, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the missing Christain name of Alban Cox is supplied. Major General Packer occupied an influential position in the county of Hertford during the Commonwealth, and apparently had served as a colonel at an earher period of the struggle, and had the available references to him been more connected, he might very well have been placed with the more prominent leaders for Parliament. He was not, however, always to be depended upon, and in February 1657 (8) he, with five captains, got into trouble with the Protector. There had been " some discoursings about the present Government," and some protestations about the " good old cause." The Protector had asked them what they meant by the " good old cause," and if they could give one instance in which he had departed from it. They were then dismissed from their office as Anabaptists, t in. A LIST OF THE DEPRIVED EOTALIST CLERGY. From the Journals of Parliament, State Papers, and other sources, and the lists of incumbents and the dates of their institution as given in the County Histories and in Urwick's Nonconformity, it is possible to compile an approximate fist of those Hertfordshire parishes in which there was an intervention by Parlia- ment for the sequestration of " malignant " or Eoyalist clergy and the substitution of ministers favourable to Parliament ; or in which the incumbent resigned his living. These cases do not, however, tell the whole of the effects of the Civil War upon the parish churches in Hertford- shire. There were probably others among the clergy for whom some allowance must be made ; who, while they remained undisturbed by Parlia- ment, were probably inclined to what had been the settled order of things, and consequently to sympathise with the cause of the King as the head of the nation and of the Church, and yet. f Thurloe Papers. serving under a Puritan patron it may be, or having too high an estimate of the Christian ministry, thought it worth while to refrain from active participation in the bitter controversies of the time. In the following list only those parishes are given in which there was an actual removal of the clergyman by Parliament, or in two or three cases where there was a resignation probably due to the pressure of the times. Aldhury. — The living of this parish was se- questered from its rector, Thomas Gilpin, in favour of James Forty, a Scotchman, in 1647. At the Restoration it was restored to Thomas Gilpin, the old rector. Aldenham. — The living of this pariah was se- questered in 164.3 from the notorious Joseph Sone [p. 166] to John Gilpin, who was followed by Matthew Randall ; but it was a troublesome cure, and by 1650 John Travers had succeeded them, and at the Restoration he had to make way for Mr. Joseph Sone. Anstey. — This living was, in 1643, sequestered from Dr. John Montford [see Therfield], whose great picture of the Virgin Mary and other pro- ceedings had brought him into conflict with ParUament. He was replaced by James Stand- field. Ayot St. Lawrence — Thomas Reid was de- prived of this living in 1643, and was followed by William Janeway, who afterwards went to Kels- hall and died there. Barley. — Herbert Thorndike was removed by Parliament and Henry Prime took his place, and three others came in before the Restoration, when Thorndike came back. Barnet. — John Goodwin, rector of East Barnet, was deprived in 1643 and gave so much trouble that three others followed him in the space of two years, and he was back again in 1650. Berkhamsted. — This living was sequestered from John Napier, and George Phippon, his suc- cessor, was followed by four others before Napier was reinstated at the Restoration. BramAeld. — Edward Boughton was deprived in 1643 and the living given to Thomas Owen ; and at the Restoration Edward Boughton returned. Braugliing. — William Archer was sequestered by Parliament in favour of Samuel Coe. Broxhourne. — Edward Parlett, who at first efused his pulpit to the weekly lecturer, appointed with the sanction of Parliament was deprived in favour of John Payuo. 204 HEEirOKDSHIRE DUEIIfG THE GEEAT CIVIL WAE. Biishey. — Dr. Seaton, the noted Royalist rector of Bushey, was carried off to prison with Mr. Coningsby, the High Sheriff, and the hving was sequestered to Marmaduke Brown. Galdecote. — This rectory was sequestered from Thomas Marshall to Mr. Hale, and the old Rector's wife and children had to appeal to the Committee fur Plundered Ministers for their " fifths " of the emoluments. Datchworth. — Mr. Newman was removed in favour of Mr. Simon Peck, but was restored in 1660. EastKwk. — Sequestered from John Hill to Daniel Dyke, who was followed by Joshua Kirby ; and the Committee sitting at Hertford had be- fore them Mrs. Hill and her children on a petition for their "fifths." Essendon. — Richard Pooley, jun., was deprived and George Stallybrasse was appointed, and remained till 1660, when Richard Pooley was restored. Oaddesden, Little. — In 1644 Barnabas Hollo- way, the rector, was sequestered in favour of Thomas Gray, but Mr. HoUoway, the old rector, and his wife had to repeatedly bring their claims to Mrs. HoUoway's " fifths " of the emoluments before the Committee at St. Albans, and eventually the Committee for Plundered Ministers had to sequester the Parliamentary minister himself for his default here, and put Mr. Adamson in his place. Oraveley. — This living was either sequestered or voluntarily given up by Mr. Brockett, and Mr. Edmund Goodwin was appointed. OUstoii. — Christopher Webb, who made him- self famous here and at Sawbridgeworth, had to give place to Thomas Mockett, who and his wife made some resistance upon the return of Mr. Webb at the Restoration. [See Sawbridge- worth.] Hatfield. — This was hardly a sequestration, but Heury Rainsford, who held the living at Hat- field, and also of Great Stanmore, Middlesex, was called upon in 1646 to give up one of them, and eventually was ordered to give up Hatfield, where he was followed by the more famous Richard Lee. Hemel Hempstead. — John Taylor, the vicar was deprived of his living. The appointment of Mr. Kendall in his place, and the appearance of the notorious Mr. Baldwin, have already been recorded. Hertjord. — All Saints' Parish Church, which the Royalist Humphrey Tabor was alleged to have neglected and threatened the parishioners to " put them to a dry nurse," was sequestered to Francis Pecke, who soon made way for Benjamin Bourne, and the more famous Christopher Feake, of Edwards' Oangrcena. — St. Andrew's was sequestered from Edward Baynes to William Bull, and two others during the Commonwealth. Hertingfordhury. — Edward Baynes (of All Saints, Hertford) was deprived of this living also in 1644. Hitchin. — Dr. Lindall, vicar of Hitchin, re- signed in 1643, and was followed by three others in five years. Ickleford. — The vicar of this parish and Pirton, Thomas Atwood Rotheram, resigned in 1642. Ippollitts. — Francis Wilsforde was deprived in 1643, and was succeeded by Thomas Whatton. Kensworth. — John Syddall (one of White's " Century ") was deprived, and was followed by Edward Harrison, a famous Baptist preacher, who ruffied the studious John Geree, of St. Albans, and was called " a great demagogue " for his pains. Kimpton. — Thomas Fawcette, brother of the Governor of Woodstock, was deprived and suc- ceeded by John Starr and two others, but re- turned at the Restoration. Letchv:orth. — Mr. Yardley, who was too poor to pay Ship-money, got sequestered here, and was succeeded by John Wright. Little Berkhamstead. — Thomas Falthrop, who was accused of dissuading his parishioners from fighting for Parliament, was deprived in favour of Samuel Cradock. ihich Hadham. — Peter Hanstead, D.D., the rector here, died in the siege of Banbury Castle in 1645, and was succeeded by Thomas Packe, D.D., Master of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Ilunden Magna. — Samuel Ward, who as Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, got into trouble for sending the College plate to the King, was succeeded by a learned man in John Lightfoot, who became a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, an oflice which Samuel Ward had also filled. Munden Parva. — Richard Thornton lost his living here, and was succeeded by John Bate- man. heetfobiishirt; dtjeinq the geeat civil wak. 205 Xorth ilimms. — John Clark, who. Walker says, was banished into the Carribean Islands, was succeeded by Thomas Andrewes and John Lloyd, and gained his own again at the Restoration. Ojjiey. — Thomas Eeid, the vicar here, also rector of Ayot St. Lawrence, is said to have " deserted " his living, and Thomas Whottou was appointed in his place. Pelham, Furneaux. — Henry Hancock, the vicar who walked up and down the Churchyard in the night time with his sword [p. 165], was replaced by Thomas Vaughan. Pirton. — The notorious Henry Denne, the vicar here, who preached at the visitation at Baldock some strange things about the Church and its clergy, became an Anabaptist or Baptist, and defended John Bunyan, got imprisoned by the Cambridgeshire Committee for preaching against infant baptism, and was followed by Mr. Eotherham. i?ec?6oM/-;!.— Philip Leigh, included in White's Century of Malignant Priests, was replaced by Ralph Rotherham. Eickmansivorth. — The venerable vicar of this parish, William Edmonds, was sequestered in 164.3, when he had held the living apparently 54 years, and, if the records may be trusted, was the same who was restored by the King in 1660, about 70 years after his first appointment. Mr. Urwick reminds me that the sequestered vicar may have been a son of the above. Bidge. — In this parish, where lived the philosopher and traveller. Sir Henry Blunt, who attributed his long life to drinking nothing but water, the vicar, Griffith Roberts, according to White's " Century," made up for his wealthy neighbour's abstinence [p. 164], and was replaced by Joseph Gastrell. St. Albans.— At the Abbey Church, John Browne was deprived in favour of George Newton, who had fled from the siege of Taunton during the War, and soon returned. At St. Michael's Abraham Spencer, of Elstree, was sequestered and restored in 1660. St. Peter's was sequestered from Anthony Smith, and William Retchford was appointed. At St. Stephen's there was also a sequestration or a lapse of the living. St. Paul's Walden.— Daniel Damley resigned the Kving here, and was followed by Samuel Turley. Sandridge. — This living was resigned during the second year of the War, in 1643. Sawbridgeworth. — This living was sequestered from Christopher Webb to John Eldred, who had so much trouble over the tithes that he was soon succeeded by John Payne. Standon. — John Ben was sequestered and followed by John Needham and others. Teioin. — James Montford, D.D. in favour of Mr. Dixe. sequestered Therfield. —Sequestered from Dr. Montford to Marmaduke Tenant. [See also Anstey.] Thorley. — Robert Porey sequestered in favour of John Halsiter. Tring. — Andrew Harwood, holding another Uving in Essex, had to give up this living. Wallington. — The rectory was sequestered from John Bowles, and Walker says that he " had this peculiarity in his sufferings that he was ejected by his own nephew, a zealous Parlia- mentarian and a captain in the rebel army " ; and that, when he was restored in 1660, " one Sherwin who made £300 per annum of the living had the mortification to let go that fat morsel from between his teeth." Walkern. — Dr. Gorsuch lost this living for his conduct (p. Ili3], and Nathaniel Ward took his place, upon which Dr. Gorsuch carried off the corn from the glebe, and his wife lost her " fifths " for his contempt. Ware. — Isaac Craven was a great sufferer according to Walker, but if so he had got back to his living by 1650. Watton. — William Ingoldsby was sent to the Fleet Prison, and John Wells succeeded him. West mill. — Richard Taylor was sequestered in favour of Josias Slader. WilUan. — Richard Way was turned out of this living about 1644 and brought back in 1660. [p. 169.] The character of the men whom Parliament appointed in place of the Royalist clergy has sometimes been attacked, but one does not find evidence to warrant the supposition that reason- able care was not exercised in securing men of learning and repute. Most of them are de- scribed as Masters of Arts, and, beyond an exceptional case here and there of erratic theology, there are few cases in which parishioners made any charge against them. INDEX. Abbotts Langley, 170. Abington Pigotts, 157, 191. Albury, 159. Aldbury, 203, Prince Rupert at, 24. Aldenham, 113, 164, 174, 190. ,, Falkland Memorials at, 114. „ Scenes with the Yicar at, 166, 167. ,, Sequestration of, 203. Alehouses and games in Herts, 193. Amersham, 157. AmweU, 159. Anderson, Sir Henry, 5, 157. „ His Fine and Pardon, 158. „ Wmiam, 158. Anstey, 164 ; Sequestration of, 203. Ashridge House, 134. ,, Plundering of, 36. Ashwell, 177. Aspenden, 165. Atkins, Edward, 28. Aylesbury, 5, 44 ; Great Eendezvous at, 47. Ayot St. Lawrence, 203. Axtell, Anne, 140. „ Col. Daniel, 82, 103, 199. „ ,, At the King's Trial, 90. ,, „ His Life, Trial and Execution, 133. ,, ,, Eemarkable Scene at his Execu- tion, 138. ,, ,, His Speech to the People, 139. ,, ,, Home of, at Berkhamsted, 140. ,, ,, Wife and Children of, 137, 138. „ EUsha, 136. ,, Eev. J., jun., 140. ,, Miss, 140. „ Timothy, 140. „ "William, 134. Baesh, Sir Ealph, 188. Baldock, King Charles I. at, 62, 71. ,, Market at, 95, 170. Baldwin, Mr., 170, 171, 172, 173. Balls Park, Hertford, 123, 187. Barber, Gabriel, 16, 28 ; Edward, 160. Barkway, 160. Barley, 166, 187 ; Sequestration of, 203. Bamet, 51, 99, 100, 197, 203. Barrington, Judith, 39. Barwick, John, 126, 169. Bassingbourn, 71, 187. Beacon Fires, 43. Beaconsfield, 167. Beauments, 141 ; CromweU at, 143. Bedford, Earl of, 44. Bedfordshire, Eoyalist Invasion of, 40, 41, 48. ,, Burdens upon, 180. Belasize, Col., 131. Berkhamsted, 3, 4, 35, 52, 91, 158, 193, 203. ,, Fairfax's Array at, 73, 74. ,, Eestoration Rejoicings at, 101. ,, Eoyalist Prisoners iu Church of, 87. Biggleswade, 27. Bishop Stortford, 64, 65. Blount, Sir Henry, 96, 132, 205. Blunt, Sir Henry, see Blount. Book of Sports, The, 193, 194. Bramfield, 203. Braughiug, 203. Brentford, Battle of, 23. Bridgeman, Sir Orlando, 136. Bridges, Thomas, and his Adventures, 158. Bridgewater, F.arl of, 35, 46, 161. Broadwater Ilundred, Scenes in, 6. Brockett, Captain, 6. Bromley, George, 81 ; His Fine, 132. Browne, Major-General, 50. Broxbourne, 131, 204. Buckinghamshire, 8, 9. Buntingford, 16, 33, 105, 161, 170, 186, 199. Bunyan, John, 58, 175. Burges, Dr., Yicar of Watford, 14, 81, 170, 171, 176; his Career, 177. Bushey, 33, 169, 203. Butler, Noel, 97. ,, Lady Jane, 131. ,, Sir Francis, 131. ,, Sir George, 131. „ Sir John, of Watton, Woodhall, 6, 7, 15; his Sequestration and Fine, 130, 131. „ Sir Philip, 131. ,, Sir Ealph, 131. „ Sir William, killed, 53. Byrd, Josias, Rector of Baldock, 71, 170, C'Eesar, Sir Charles, 4. Caldecote, 204. Cambridge, 26, 196, 197; Cavaliers at, 41. Cambridgeshire, Committee of, 154, 187. ,, Cromwell recruiting in, 58. Capel, Lord Arthur, of Hadham, 3, 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 24, 26, 29, 30, 75, 80, 81, 82, 85, 91, 94, 184. 208 rN"BEX. Capel, Lord Arthur, Bibliography of, 110. Ciomwell's Testimony to, 107. His Character, 110. His Estates, 111. His heart preserved at Cassiobury, 109. His Letters to his Wife, 107. His Life and Career, 103. Prisoner at Colchester, 86. Scene at his Execution, 108. Arther, the younger. 111, 112. Lady Elizabeth, her Horses taken, 35. ,, Intercedes for her Husband, 106, 107, 111. Carey, Ernestus, 132; Lyonell, 132. ,, Lord, 73, 132; Sir Henry, 132. ,, Lucius, sec Viscount Falkland. Cassiobury, 35, HI. Cecil, Eobert, 5, 11, 28, 143, 145. Charles I. at Baldock, 71; at Cambridge, 11, 66; at Hatfield House, 72; at Huntingdon, 11, 59 ; at Eoyston, 11, 70, 71 ; at St. Albans, 61, 62, 72; at Ware, 9; at "Wheathampstead, 61, 62: at Woburn, 60, 74 ; his Flight through Herts in disguise, 61, 62, and in Appendix; his Marches into Herts and Beds, 48, 49, 50 ; his Proclamation read at St. Albans, 31 ; his Trial and Execution, 90, 91, 93, 94, 100, 102. Charles II. (as Prince Charles), his Letter from Eoyston, 11; his Proclamation from Breda, 149. Chipping, 34. Chishill, Great and Little, 64. Clark, John, 158, 169. Colchester, Siege of, 86. Coleshill, 167. Combes, Toby, or Tobias, 28. Coningsby, Thomas, the Royalist High Sheriff, 4, 7, 8, 13, 15, 24. „ Capture of, by CromTreU, 30. Career of, 114, 115. ,, Death of, 95. ,, His Estates, 116. Cooper, Sir William, see Cowper. Cottered. 170. County Committee, see Herts. Covenant, Solemn League of, 45. Cowper, Sir William, 159. „ John, 159. Cox, Alban, 15, 27, 42, 82, 91, 92. ,, Cromwell's Letters to, 141. ,, His Career, 141. „ His Generosity to Royalists, 142, see also Appendix. Cranbome, Yiscount, 5, 11, 15, 28, 32, 33, 40, 82, 143, 145, 146, 152, 153. Craven, Isaac, 169, and in Appendix. Crawley, Sir Francis, 29, 160. Cromwell, Oliver, 5, 11, 26, 27, 29, 34, 58, 76, 77 ; at Eoyston, 67 ; at Saffron Walden, 64, 65 ; at St. Albans, 32 ; at Ware, 78. Cromwell, Oliver, his Death, 95, 102 ; his Descendants in Herts, 199 ; Cromwell and Anabaptists, 176 ; and " Local Option," 192. Dacre, Lord, 161. Dacres, Sir Thomas, 5, 17, 28, 36, 41, 57, 75, 80, 90 ; his Career, 152. Datchworth, 168, 204. Delinquents, The, 153. Denne, Henry, Anabaptist, 205. Devonshire, Earl of, 148. „ The Beautiful Countess of, 200. Dormer, Lord Eobert, 132. Drayton, Fen, 35. Dunstable, 19, 40, 52, 83, 84, 160 ; Eoyalists at, 48 ; Cavaliers Shooting at the Parson at, 49. Duxford, 64. Eastern Counties Association, 3, 27, 36, 40, 51, 54, 59, 65 ; Defence of, .180 ; Men Furnished by, 60 ; Money Furnished by, 181. Eastwick, 204. Elstree, 61. „ Fighting at, 82. Essendon, 204. Essex, Committee of, Imprisoned, 81. „ Forces of, 60, 51,62, 53, 81. ,, Earl of, at St. Albans, 20, 41, 47. „ „ Death of, 63. ,, George, Earl of, 109. Faircloth, Lytton, 28. Fairfax, Lady, 136, 137. ,, Sir Thomas, at Ware, 79. ,, ,, His Defence regarding Capel, 106. Falkland, Viscount, 5, 40, 198, 199. ,, His Life and Career, 112. ,, Memorial of, at Newbury, 113. Falthrop, Thomas, 168, 204. Famine, Tears of, 190. Fanshawe, Sir Eichard and Lady, 117; their Fare- well to Charles I., 119; their Strange Adventures, 120 ; Lady Fanshawe's Heroism, 120, 121. ,, Simeon, 122. ,, Sir Thomas, 5, 15, 17, 81, 96, 97, 117, 122. Fawcette, Thomas, 168, 204. Flamstead, 49. Fotherley, John, 160. Freeman, Ealph, 28, 29, 160, 161. Gape, Francis, 131. „ Henry, 131. ,, John, 131, 190. Gardener, Thomas, 170. Garrard, Lady Jane, 149. ,, Sir John, 28, 40, 52, 66, 62, 145, 181, 182 ; his supposed Hospitality to Charles I., 149, 197 ; his Career, 148, 149. Geree, John, 91, 204. Gilpin, John, 166. INDEX. 209 Gilston, 165, 204. Gorhambury, 14, 24, 34, 67, 189. ,, Protection of, 22. Gorsuch, John, 163, 205. Graveley, 62, 204. Grimston, Sir Harbottle, 6, 8, 67, 90, 149. and Cromwell, 151. Chosen Speaker, 151. His Speech at the Restoration, 151. His Career, 150, 151, 153. The Family of, 152. Hacker, Colonel, 138, 140. Hadham, 24, 75, 109, 111, 169. ,, Hall, 13 ; Arms at, 18. Hampden, John, 4, 8, 37. Hanstead, Peter, 169. Hancock, Henry, 165, 205. Harley, Sir Job, 132, 200. ,, Sir John, 132, 167, 200. Harpenden, 49. Harrison, Anne, see Fanshawe. „ Edward, a " Great Demagogue," 166, 204. „ Sir John, 3, 5, 11, 28, 143, 187 ; his Family at Oxford, 44 ; his Fine and Composi- tion, 123 ; his Life and Career, 122. „ William, 5, 122. Harrow- on -the -Hill, 61, 82. Hatfield, 160, 171, 200. ,, " Dangerous Words " Spoken at, 95. „ Li-ring of, 204. ,, House, Cecils of, 145. ,, ,, Defence of, 145. ,, The King at, 72, 147. ,, ,, Lords Meet at, 74. Hemel Hempstead, 7. ,, Scenes in the Church of, 170. ,, Sequestration of, 204. Troops at, 189. Herbert, Sir Charles, 160. Hertford, Castle at, 159. ,, Civil Marriages at, 191. ,, Colonel Scroop arrives at, 83. ,, Mayor of. Imprisoned, 15, 16. ,, Nif;ht Surprise at, 17. Plot to Kill Cromwell at, 76. ,, Proclaiming the Protector at, 95. ,_ Powder Magazine at, 16. ,\ Rejoicings at the Restoration at, 101. ,, Sequestrations at, 204. ,, Taking ilown the King's Arms at, 94. , "Terrible Newes" from, 16. ,, Toluuteers at, 15. Hertfordshire, Army Quartered in, 180, 181, 182. ,, Assizes in, 94, 199. ,, Character of Clergy of, 162. ,, Chasing the Royalists through, 83. Clerical Sequestrations in, 162. Clergy and Churches of, 195, 203, 201, 205. CoDecting Money and Men in, 183. Hertfordshire, Committees for, 28, 29, 40, 42, 47, 51, 65, 74, 82, 111, 164, 158, 167. ,, Commission of Militia for, 97. ,, Commissioners, Letters from, 201. ,, Crisis in, 60, 61. ,, Famous Preachers in, 175. ,, Forces of, 48, 51, 52, 63, 60, 74, 82 ; at Marston Muor, 54 ; at Siege of Green- land House, 54 ; at Nasehy, 58 ; at Newbury, 66. ,, Free Quarter in, 79. ,, Industrial Life of, 185 ; its Situation and its Burdens, 56. ,, Its Maltsters and Yeomen, 133. „ "Local Optim" in, 193, 199. ,, Maltmaking in, 185. ,, Mutiny in, 57. „ Petitions of, 10, 26, 30, 46, 69, 79, 98. ,, Plundering in, 35. „ Protestation of, 8. ,, Quarter Sessions of, 192, 193. ,, Raising Forces in, 23, 184. ,, Resents the Execution of the King, 91, 92, 93. ,, Rival Proclamations in, 14. ,, Royalist Invasion of, 40. ,, Royalist Prisoners in, 59 ; in Churches of, 87. ,, Scene at Assizes of, 175, 176. ,, Sectaries in, 176. ,, State of Things in, 186. ,, Temper of the People of, 2. ,, The King's Flight through, 70, 71, 72, 197. ,, The " Good old Cause " in, 96. ,, The "Husbandman's Plea" of, 188, 189. ,, "Triers " of Jlmisters for, 176. Hertingfordbury, 179, 204. Heydon, John, 28. Hinxtnn, 64. Hitchin, 52, 58, 64, 84, 122, 187, 204. ,, Muster of Trained Bands at, 41. ,, Rising of Yeomen near, 49, 50. ,, Weekly Lecture at, 173. Hoddesdon, 7, 56, 129. Holland, Earl of, 84. Holies, Denzil, 196. Hooker, Captain Harry, 130. Horwood, Thomas, 167. Humberston, John, 28, 73. Himsdon, Lord, his Impeachment, 156 ; his Dis- charge, 167. Hunsdon House, the Search of, 166. Huntingdon, The King at, 59, 196, 197. Hyde, Sir Thomas, 159. Ickleford, 204. Ickleton, 5. Ingoldsby, William, 167. ,, His Imprisonment, 168. ,, His Sequestration for Watton, 205. Ippollits, 204. Jacklin, John, 168. 27 210 James I. and Eoyston, 93. Jennings, Sir John, 5, 7. ,, Eichard, 5, 7, 28. Jermyn, Ealph, 161. Juice, Thomas, 170. Keeling or Keyling, Mr., 13, 28. ,, His Imprisonment, 132. Keightley, William, 179. Kendall, George, 170, 204. Kensworth, 49, 166, 204. " Killing no Murder," 128, 201. Kimpton, 49, 168, 204. King, Dr. John, 16, 28, 92, 94, 180. „ Eev., 170. ,, William, 55. King's Langley, 170. King's Walden, Soldiers in the Church at, 6. Kuebworth House, 37. Lahourer, The, and the War, 186, 187. Lamer Park, 148, 149. ,, King Cbarles I. at, 62, 197. Layston, 170. Lecture, The Weekly, 174. Lee, Eichard, Eector of Hatfield, 99, 178, 204. Leigh, Philip, 163. Leighton Buzzard, Plundering of, 48. Leman, William, 5, 28, 40, 75, 82, 152. Letchworth, 204. Leventhorpe, Sir Thomas, 97. Lightfoot, Dr. John, 177, 204. Lilburn, " Freeborn John," 64, 78. ,, Eobert, 77. Lilley, 6. Lisle, Sir George, Execution of, 105. Little Berkhampstead, 168, 204. Little Gaddeaden, 204. Lowry, John, 5. Lucas, Sir Charles, Execution of, 105. Lucy, Sir John, 18. ,, Sir Richard, 5, 28. Luke, Sir Oliver, 5. ,, Sir Samuel, 90. Luton, 29, 42, 160. ,, Skirmishing at, 83. Lytton, Sir William, 5, 37, 80, 1.53. Manners and Customs, 200. Markyate Street, 83. Marsh, John, \o, 28, 40. Marshall, Esdras, 170. Mead, Thomas, 28, 160. Mewtys, Henry, 28, 29. MUdmay, Sir llenry, 5. ,, His Sentence, 153. Money, how raisid, 160. ,, Committee for advance of, 153. Monk, General, 98, 99. Monson, Sir John, 131. Montford, John, see Mountford. Mountford, Dr. James, D.D., 164, 205. ,, John, D.D., 164, 165, 205. Much Hadham, 204. Munden Magna, 204. „ Parva, 205. Newe, William, 15, 16, 31. Newport, John, 132. Newport PagneU, 42. ,, Maintaining Garrison at, 180, 181, 182. Newbury, Lord Falkland killed at, 113. North Mimms, 30, 169, 172, 188. ,, Eiots on the Common at, 116. ,, Sequestration of, 204. North, Sir Dudley, 6. Offley, 205. Omens and Wonders, 179. Owen, Sir John, Trial of, 106. Oxford, King's Proclamation to Hertfordshire from, 31, 32. ,, Hertfordshire Families in, 44. ,, The King's Flight from, 61. Packer, Mr., 175, 176. ,, Major-General, 202, 203. Palmer, Andrew, Mayor of Hertford, 13, 15, 16. Palmer, Herbert, D.D., of Ashwell, 177. Panshanger, 159. Papworth, 35. Parliament, Petitioning of, 189. ,, Forces of, see Herts, Pelham, Furneaux, 132, 165, 205. Pemberton, John, 28, ,, Ealph, 4, 16, 28. Pendley, 157. Peters, Hugh, 69, 75, 90, 99, 138. Pigott, John, 157. Pirton, 176, 205. Plague, The, 190. Plomer, William, 85. Porey, Eobert, 169. Porter, Eichard, 28, 40. Potton, Beds, 37. Pride's Purge, 90. Priestly, William, 28. Puller, Isaac, 15, 28, 84. ,, His Career, 152. Puritans, Strange Names of, 191. Puritan Sunday, The, 193, 194. Quakers, Persecution of, 176. Queen, The journey of, 37. ,, And Lord Capel, 104. INDEX. 211 Rawdon, Col. Marmaduke, 55. „ His defence of Bassing House, 129. ,, Thomas, 129. Read, Sir John, 28, 160. Reading, Herts Forces at, 36. Redbourn, 19, 49, 83, 98, 162, 205. Remonstrance, The Great, 88. Eictmansworth, 7, 158, 160, 205. Ridge, 96, 164, 205. Roberts, Griffith, 164, 205. Rogues and Vagabonds, 192. Rothamsted, 150. Royalist Army in Herts and Beds, 148. ,, Collecting Money for, 183, 184. Royalists, their Fortunes and Misfortunes, 157. ,, Sequestering their Estates, 155, 187. Royston, 3, 7, 16, 19, 29, 33, 39, 43, 57, 58, 61, 62, 65, 66, 69, 94, 198. ,, Cromwell's tjltimatum from, 67. ,, Fairfax and his Army at, 67, 68. ,, Fighting over the Execution of the King at, 92. 93. ,, Major Hall and Eoyalists at, 198. Malt and Com Market at, 186. ,, The King at, 11, 70, 71. Rupert, Prince, in Herts and Beds, 41. Rnshden, 170. Saddler, Thomas, 28. Saffron Walden, 26. Fairfax's Army at, 63. Council of Officers in the Church of, 63, 64, 65. Salisbury, Earl of, 5, 13, 15, 44, 72, 82, 83, 90. ,, His Entertainment of the King at Hatfield House, 147. ,, His Career as Parliamentarian, 145. Proposal to make him a Marquis, 146. The " Violent Puritan," 147. Sir Thomas, 133. Saltonstall, James, 160. Sandon, 170. Sandridge, 83, 205. Sarratt, 191, Sawbridgeworth, 97, 165, 205. Scott and Robinson, 98. Scroggs, John, 28. Scroop, Colonel, 84, 138. Shenley, 169. " Signs from Heaven," 197. Skeffington, Sir Richard, 131. Skinner, John, 122. SUngsby, Nathaniel, 132. „ Sir Henry, o. Soame, Sir Thomas, 160. ,,•„,. Sone Joseph, 164 ; his Contempt for the Parha- ' ment Dogs," 166 ; his Imprisonment, 166, 167. St Albans, 8, 19, 21, 44, 61, 52, 53, 57, 59, 80, 83, 86, 87, 92, 94, 98, 99, 102, 186, 197. Camp Followers at, 191. St. Albans, Corporation Plate Pawned, 188. „ Cromwell Captures the Sheriff at, 30, 31, 33. ,, Earl of Essex's Army at, 19, 41. ,, Fairfax's Army at, 68, 69. ,, Fairfax and Council of Officers meet in the Abbey at, 88, 89. ,, Fortification of, 38. ,, King Charles I. at, 61, 62, 197. ,, Mayor of. Imprisoned, 16, 16. ,, Monk, General, at, 98, 99. ,, Mutiny at, 43. , , Parliamentary Army at, 47, 48. ,, Powder Magazine at, 16. ,, Proclaiming the Protector at, 95. ,, Rejoicings at the Restoration at, 101. ,, Sequestrations at, 206. ,, Volunteers of, 15. ,, Witches Hung at, 179. St. Neots, 43. ,, Battle of, 84, 198. St. Paul's Walden, 205. Standon, 205. Steeple Morden, 199. Stevenage, 62. Strafford, Earl of, 8. Sti'ange, Alexander, 170. Studham, 132. Sussex, Lady, 10, 12, 14, 20, 22, 23, 25, 33, 34, 37, 57, 189. ,, Her Four Husbands, 24. ,, Lord, Death of, 37. SyddaU, John, 166. Taxes on Food, 190. Taylor, John, 170. ,, Richard, 165. Tewin, 164, 205. Theobalds, 9. Therfield, 126, 164, 169, 206. ,, Beacon at, 19. Thorley, 169, 205. Thorndike, Herbert, 166. Thriplow Heath, Army at, 66, 198. Tippling, Punishment of , 192. Tilus, Colonel Silas, 66, 66, 95, 102. „ His Estates, 129. ,, His Letter to Alban Cox, 125. „ His Letters to Cromwell, 201. ,, His Romantic Career, 124. „ Letters from Charles I. to, 125, 126. ,, Remembered by Charles IL, 127, 128. Tooke, John, 28/ „ Thomas, 28. Totternhoe, 48, 52. Trench, Nicholas, 170. Tring, 62, 157, 160, 205. Verney, Lady Margaret, 122. ,, Sir Henry, 148. 212 IKDEX. Verney, Sir Ealph, 10, 24, 122, 148. Volunteers, 13. Walkem, 163, 205. ■Waller, Edmund, 157. Wallington, 205. ■Waltham Cross, 102. "Ward, Seth, 161. Ware, 3, 9, 24, 33, 57, 160, 169. „ CItiI Marriages at, 191. „ Malt-making at, 185, 186. ,, Mutiny in Corkbush-field, 76. ,, Proclamation at, 18. ,, Park, Arms found at, 18. Washington, Adam, 28. Watford, 8, 52, 57, 79, 176. ,, CaTaliers taken at, 23. ,, Essex County Forces at, 196. ,, Its Volunteers for Parliament, 14. ,, Parliamentary zeal of, 39. Watton-at- Stone, 131, 167, 205. ,, Woodhall, 130. Watts, Sir John, 10, 15, 17, 81. ,, His Career, 130. Watts, Sir John, His Commission of Array, 18, 30. Way, fiichard, 169. Webb, Christopher, 165, 204. Weld, Alexander, 28, see Wilde. WestmUl, 165, 205. Westminster Assembly, 176. ,, Herts Members of, 177, 178. Weston, 163. Wheathampstead, 148, 149, 197. „ King Charles 1. at, 61, 62. Whincop, Dr., 170. White, John, " Century White," 178. Wilde, Alexander, 28, 160. William, 169, 205. Wimpole Hall, Cambs, 5. Wingate, Capt. Edward, 5, 11, 28, 69. „ His Career, 143, 144, 145. „ His Wife, 143, 144. Wittewrong, Sir John, 28, 40, 51, 91, 181. ,, His Parliamentary Career, 149, 150. ,, His Eothamsted Experiments, 150. Woburn, Beds, 197. ,, Plundered by Cavaliers, 60. Women and the War, 190. ERRATA. Page 15, line 23, for Copel, read Cople. ,, 88, ,, 40, for Valambrosia, read Vallombrosa.