Read Ebook: The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII from November MDXXIX to December MDXXXII by Nicolas Nicholas Harris Sir

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 4233 lines and 235856 words, and 85 pages

PAGE

Preface ix

Authorities xi

Introduction 1

Index 205

MAPS AND PLANS

PLANS IN TEXT.

PREFACE There has not hitherto been a separate History of the Civil War in Lancashire, and I venture to think that the present study, by a native of the County, may suitably find a place in the publications of the University of Manchester. It is merely intended to be an account of the Civil War within the borders of the County, religious and social questions and the general course of the war being touched on only so much as is necessary to make the narrative intelligible. The principal sources of information are detailed below, and need not be further referred to here. It only remains to be said that some care has been taken with topography, and above all I have tried to give an impartial narrative of the events. Contemporary writers on both sides naturally display much prejudice, and it is often difficult to arrive at an exact knowledge of the facts.

The plan of Manchester is taken from the Owens College Historical Essays and my acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Longman & Co. for permission to reproduce it here. The plan of Liverpool is reprinted from Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Session 6, 1853-4, vol. 6, p. 4. The map of Lancashire, and the other plans, have been specially prepared for the present volume, but the plan of the Preston Campaign in 1648 is based on that given in Gardiner's "Great Civil War," vol. 3, p. 431.

I take this opportunity of thanking the authorities at Lathom House, Hornby Castle, Thurland Castle, and elsewhere, for their courtesy in allowing a personal inspection of those places to be made. My sincere thanks are due to Professor T. F. Tout and Professor James Tait of Manchester, for constant assistance. I share the gratitude felt by so many of their old pupils for their keen and practical interest in the work to which their teaching was the first incentive. Professor Tout's advice has been of great service in preparing this book for the press.

But especially I am indebted to Professor C. H. Firth of Oxford. It was really at his suggestion that the present work was begun nearly four years ago, and he has at all times since been ready to give invaluable help with the utmost kindness. Without his suggestion and help the task would probably not have been accomplished.

ERNEST BROXAP.

There has hitherto been no separate account of the Civil War in Lancashire. The two best accounts in more general works are in Edward Baines' "History of Lancashire" and in Halley's "Lancashire Puritanism and Nonconformity." Baines is a capable historian of sound judgment, but there are now available sources of information which he could not use, and which subsequent editors could not very well include; and the latter book is written from a particular standpoint. The last edition of Baines' work was edited by J. Croston in 5 vols. 1889-93. The Civil War is dealt with in vol. i, chap. 15, pp. 283-321. The other histories of Lancashire by Butterworth, Corry, Britton and others are of no value for the present subject. The few pages devoted to the Civil War in the "Victoria County History of Lancashire" are hurried and inaccurate.

The first main source upon which this work is based is the publications of the local antiquarian societies, the Chetham Society, the Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, and the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. The first of the three is the most important; and two books in this series, the "Civil War Tracts" , edited by Mr. Ormerod, and the "Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire" , edited by Mr. Beamont are invaluable. The editing of the Chetham Society books varies considerably, and it is a great advantage that these two are very ably done. Mr. Ormerod's "Civil War Tracts," published more than 60 years ago, is a most exhaustive collection from contemporary pamphlets and newspapers. In the "Discourse" we have a singularly impartial account of the local war, written by one who himself fought in it; and Mr. Beamont's notes to the narrative add greatly to its value. Other volumes of the Chetham Society which contain material for the Civil War are the "Autobiography of Adam Martindale" , the "Moore Rental" , the "Farington Papers" , the "Shuttleworth Accounts" , the "Lancashire Lieutenancy," Part 2 , and the "Stanley Papers," Part 3 ; and some others in a less degree.

All the above numbers refer to the Old Series of the Society's Publications. Where the New Series is mentioned in the following pages the fact is indicated; the later books of the Chetham Society, however, do not contain much material for the purpose.

In the Record Society's Publications are four volumes of extracts from the Composition Papers of the local Royalists. These books contain some valuable details of general information.

The Historic Society Transactions for 1852 give an account of the Siege of Warrington in 1643 by Dr. Kenrick, and the New Series, Volume 5, an article on the Earl of Derby by Mr. F. J. Leslie.

Next come the Public Records, the "Journals of the House of Lords" and the "Journals of the House of Commons," and the "Calendars of Domestic State Papers," which connect the local history with the general course of events. The "Reports of the Historical MSS. Commission" also contain a great deal of very important though scattered information, chiefly in the form of letters. Most valuable are the Denbigh MSS. , Sutherland MSS. , the "Moore Papers" in Capt. Stewart's MSS. and the Portland MSS., vols. 1, 2 and 3. The contemporary Diary of the Siege of Manchester in the Sutherland MSS. is perhaps the best existing account of the Siege. The Kenyon MSS. give much information as to the condition of Lancashire in the 17th century, though not bearing directly on the Civil War.

In the British Museum are some Tracts and Newspapers which escaped Mr. Ormerod's notice. The Tracts are nearly all in the Thomason Collection, which have recently been made much more accessible by the Catalogue in two volumes, issued in 1908. References in the following pages has always been made to the Civil War Tracts where possible, and to the British Museum Catalogue only when the Tract or Newspaper has not been reprinted anywhere. The principal newspapers are the Royalist "Mercurius Aulicus": and "Perfect Diurnall" , "Certaine Informations, Continuation of Certaine Speciall and Remarkable Passages," and "Letters from Scotland," &c. on the other side. The last mentioned, which belongs to 1648 and gives a great deal of local information, is not quoted at all by Mr. Ormerod. None of the Newspapers are very reliable but the "Mercurius Aulicus" is hopelessly inaccurate.

Of MSS. in the British Museum, the Rupert MSS. contain letters referring to the invasion from Ireland, and Prince Rupert's march north in 1644; the Brereton MSS. deal with the relations between Lancashire and Cheshire. They concern us mainly in the Spring and Summer of 1645, when the two counties co-operated against the projected royalist march northwards; and afterwards later in the same year, when Lancashire help was needed to complete the reduction of Chester. The Rupert MSS. are Additional MSS. 18980, 18981: the Brereton MSS. Additional MSS. 11331, 11332, 11333.

Other MSS. Collections are the Tanner MSS. and the Carte MSS. in the Bodleian Library. The former contain some letters of the local parliamentarian committee to the Speaker, and some royalist ones dealing with the campaign of 1651. With these must be mentioned the reprints from the Tanner MSS. in Cary's "Memorials of the Great Civil War" . The Carte MSS. being mostly Ormonde Papers, relate to the landing of troops from Ireland in December, 1643, and the events of the following Spring and Summer; and many letters of the Earl of Derby to Ormonde of later date, throwing light on the royalist leader's retirement in the Isle of Man.

Gardiner's History is always valuable to the student of the period, even in so local a subject as the present. Naturally the references to Lancashire are, however, few, and errors of detail sometimes occur.

The following abbreviations have been used:--

C.J.--Commons' Journals. L.J.--Lords' Journals. C.S.P.--Calendar of State Papers . C.W.T.--Civil War Tracts of Lancashire. Discourse.--The Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire. C.S.--Chetham Society. R.S.--Record Society.

INTRODUCTION

The Civil War in Lancashire is an exceedingly interesting and perhaps the most stirring chapter in the history of the county. It was a real struggle; it is sufficiently complete in itself to be studied as a separate subject; while at the same time it illustrates the leading ideas of the Civil War as a whole, and it had a not unimportant bearing upon the course of the war in the North of England.

In some counties either King or Parliament had a sufficient majority of supporters either to prevent fighting, or where there was fighting to make the result certain; but in Lancashire there was a keen struggle for supremacy between the two parties. Lancashire was one of the first counties to take up arms, as it was one of the last to lay them down; and it was for some time doubtful which side would win.

Geographical conditions were most important and must be described at some length. Lancashire was in the 17th century an isolated, remote, and backward part of England. The eastern counties were then the richest and most populous, and the political centre of England was for long after this in the south. Lancashire lay aside from the main lines of communication. It had no great river and no considerable port, Liverpool being still a very small town. The soil is not fertile, and before the opening up of the coalfields and the development of the cotton trade made Lancashire one of the richest parts of England, it was a poor and thinly populated county. Much of it was and still is barren moorland; much of it was then marsh land which has since been drained. A glance at the map will show that the words 'moor' and 'moss' in place names occur dozens of times. Moreover the natural boundaries are very sharply defined. Lancashire consists roughly of a coast plain divided into two by the estuary of the Ribble, and a higher eastern portion rising toward the border of the county. Its shape can be roughly contained in an acute-angled triangle, the two longer sides being the west and east. The west is coast line, the east is an almost continuous range of hills, forming part of the Pennine Chain. From the Lune valley in the north to the extreme south-east of the county there is only one good natural entrance into Lancashire. This is by the Ribble valley, a smaller break in the hills to the south of the Forest of Pendle joining the Ribble valley lower down. Between the Lune and the Ribble are Burn Moor and Bowland Forest; and south of the Ribble Trawden Forest, the Forest of Rossendale, and Blackstone Edge stretch almost to the south of the county. It was by the Ribble valley that Prince Rupert marched out of Lancashire on his way to York in 1644; and it was by this road that Cromwell entered the county in pursuit of the Scots in 1648. All the moors are fairly high; the eastern border of Lancashire is seldom lower than 1000 feet above sea level, and rising in places to 1700 and 1800 feet. Along the southern and most accessible side of Lancashire the boundary is formed by the river Mersey, which is a considerable stream for much of the border; and the low-lying land to the north of the river was in the 17th century mostly undrained marsh, forming a strong barrier. Thus Lancashire was effectually isolated by its natural boundaries from the neighbouring counties.

The side of the war from which it appears as a class struggle is also illustrated in Lancashire. The head of the local royalists was James Stanley, seventh Earl of Derby, representing the great house of Stanley which had been for generations all-powerful in the north-west of England; the leaders on the other side were the lesser gentry who stood to gain by the weakening of his power, and behind them was the awakening spirit of the towns. The first event of the war in September, 1642, was Derby's unsuccessful siege of Manchester; the hardest fought engagement was the royalist capture of Bolton in 1644; the last scene, seven years later, was Derby's own execution in Bolton market place. These things are significant of the place which the towns were beginning to take. And with the Earl of Derby in 1651 died the last of feudalism in Lancashire.

The geographical conditions had another effect in that as the two parties were divided the Parliament held in this respect the advantage. Their territory was the south and south-east of the county which was the most accessible part of it. Thus the royalists were cut off from the neighbouring counties, and once at least, in August, 1644, when Newcastle had overrun all Yorkshire and sent from Halifax a summons to Manchester, the moorland barrier saved the Lancashire Parliamentarians from having an invasion to face. Blackstone Edge was fortified and the difficulty of the ground was enough to secure the safety of the county.

Yet although the war in Lancashire was mostly fought out locally, the result had a considerable effect on the war in the north of England generally. This has been too much neglected in the general text books. The north-west of England was in 1642 mainly Royalist; so was the neighbouring district of North Wales; and in 1642 Lancashire was mainly royalist too. The King's party thought themselves and their opponents thought them the stronger side. Yet in less than twelve months after Edgehill the Royalist party in Lancashire was completely defeated; and though Prince Rupert's hurricane descent on the county on his way to York in 1644 changed things for a little while, it was only a temporary change, and had no permanent result on the war in Lancashire. This meant much, for it was in the summer of 1643, when the Lancashire Parliamentarians were carrying all before them in their county, that the King's cause generally was at its height; and not only in the south of England but even in Yorkshire and Cheshire. In the spring of 1643 Sir Wm. Brereton was holding his own in Cheshire with difficulty; after Newcastle's victory over the Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor in July all Yorkshire except Hull was royalist territory. If the royalists had kept Lancashire in 1642 as they expected, or had regained it afterwards as they were always hoping to do, the King would have been supreme in the north of England, and the war might have been considerably prolonged.

In mere numbers the royalists in Lancashire were probably at all times equal to their opponents; it may be doubted whether the supporters of the Parliament ever counted a numerical majority in the county. Their success was due partly to the fact that their attention was concentrated on Lancashire, while the royalist leaders were concerned also with other parts of the country. The soldiers first raised by the Earl of Derby were withdrawn to swell the regiments of the royalist army at Edgehill; and several royalist gentlemen raised troops of horse for the King from among their tenants in Lancashire. No Parliamentarian troops were ever marched out of the county until the issue at home was decided. But when this allowance has been made it must be acknowledged that the Parliament's success was due to the greater ability of its supporters. Derby was no leader though personally brave; no one could supersede him on account of his rank, and the conduct of the war in Lancashire for the King demanded far more ability than he possessed. On the other hand it happened that the Parliamentarian leaders, Assheton, Shuttleworth, Moore, Rigby and others were if not brilliant generals at least capable men. And not only had the Parliament the advantage in leaders but in the rank and file. Its soldiers were better led but they were better soldiers also. Clarendon's words on this subject may be quoted:--

"the difference in the temper of the common people of both sides was so great that they who inclined to the Parliament left nothing unperformed that they might advance the cause, and were incredibly vigorous and industrious to cross and hinder whatsoever might provoke the King's; whereas they who wished well to him thought they had performed their duty in doing so, and that they had done enough for him that they had done nothing against him."

This judgment of the relative zeal of the two parties is true at any rate of Lancashire.

FOOTNOTES:

"A Copy of Lord Strange's Warrant," 669, f. 3 .

Clarendon , Vol. 2, p. 472 .

Preliminaries.--Petitions.--Seizure of Magazines.--The Array and the Militia.--First Skirmish at Manchester.

The actual fighting of the civil war was preceded by some months during which both parties attempted to seize stores of arms and to win over the local troops; this again followed a long series of proclamations by the King and by Parliament. Many petitions and memorials were presented to both from different parts of the country. A number of these petitions came from Lancashire. The first was presented to the Houses of Parliament in February 1641-2, and represents the wishes of their supporters in the county. It praises the work already done in the reform of civil government and the church, the disposal of the Militia, and in other ways. As far as Lancashire is concerned it is asked that recusants be disarmed and the number of 'preaching ministers' increased, also that provision should be made for the crowds of destitute refugees from Ireland who were daily arriving in the county; and that a fleet of small ships be sent for the defence of the coast. As evidence of the natural but exaggerated fear produced by the Irish rebellion the petitioners described themselves as "seated in the mouth of danger," and evidently expected an invasion from the other side of the channel. This petition was presented to the House of Commons on February 10th, 1642, and the House promised to take it into consideration.

Two petitions were also sent to the King at York in April and May respectively. The first merely urged his return to Parliament, but the other which is much longer and more elaborate, was drawn up by Richard Heyrick, warden of the Collegiate Church at Manchester, and contained nearly 8,000 names. It professes great loyalty to the King's person, and gives him credit for the reforms which had already been carried through; but asks him to find out some way for an accommodation with the Parliament. The signatories of this petition afterwards became the Presbyterian party in the county and five years later they presented the petition to the Parliament for the establishment of Presbyterianism in Lancashire.

A few months after this the Recusants in Lancashire petitioned Charles for permission to take up arms for their own safety, which was very readily given. Recusants were, however, as yet forbidden to serve in the Royal armies.

The next step was the raising of the local trained bands, the winning over of men of influence, and seizing magazines of arms which had been collected in various places in view of the rebellion in Ireland. The famous Militia Ordinance, which was the first exercise of Parliament's claim to legislate without the King's consent, was made on March 5, 1641-2; the King's proclamation forbidding any of the trained bands of the kingdom to obey the Ordinance was dated at York, May 27th, 1642. Parliament replied on the following day with their Order beginning "Whereas it appears that the King seduced by wicked Councell intends to make War against the Parliament." The King's Commissions of Array were sent out early in June, and afterwards the raising of troops was pushed forward by either side. Parliament had early in the year appointed its own list of Lords Lieutenant of all the counties in England, the King also naming his own representatives. In the list presented to the House of Commons on February 10, 1641-2 Lord Wharton is put in for Lancashire in place of Lord Strange who had previously been Lord Lieutenant; but curiously enough Lord Strange was nominated by the Houses for Cheshire. On March 18, however, Sir William Brereton informed the Commons that his lordship desired to be excused, and the desire being repeated a week later his name was removed and that of Lord Say substituted. Lord Strange was made Lord Lieutenant of both Lancashire and Cheshire by the King. Parliament also appointed a long list of Deputy-Lieutenants for Lancashire which was afterwards added to during the ensuing month.

During the summer Commissions of Array were voted to be illegal, and the House of Lords appointed a Committee to devise means to prevent their going out; 9000 copies of a Declaration to this effect were printed and circulated, and the Judges on circuit were each given a copy and ordered to publish it.

In the preceding month the Lancashire members of Parliament had been sent down to form with the Deputy Lieutenants a county Committee for putting the Militia Ordinance into operation. Their instructions were to put the Ordinance in force, to collect trained bands, to publish the Declarations of both Houses, to disarm recusants and see that they confined themselves to their own houses. It was expressly stated that no evil was intended to the King, whose greatest danger lay in separating himself from his Parliament. Active preparations now began on both sides in Lancashire as in other parts of the country. It is rather surprising and testifies to the extreme reluctance to begin a war of which no man could see the end, that the Militia and the Array did not come to blows before they did. The royalists were the first to move. Lord Strange returning from a visit to the Court at York called a meeting of his supporters on Fulwood Moor near Preston in accordance with a letter from the King to Sir John Girlington, High Sheriff; the ostensible purpose being to hear read Charles' two Declarations and his answer to the Lancashire petition. This gathering though by no means so large as the corresponding royalist demonstration on Heworth Moor, near York, nevertheless numbered about 5000 people; but if the Parliamentarians are to be believed it was not at all unanimous in favour of the King. Rigby and the elder Shuttleworth hearing of the summons on their way to Lancashire hastened on towards Preston, hindering as many people as possible from obeying it as they went. At Standish they deprived the Constable of his warrant, which had that day been published by the Vicar in church. Reaching Preston the same night they attempted though without success to prevent the meeting being held; and the following day they attended the meeting themselves. Lord Strange was accompanied by his eldest son Charles, a boy of 14, Lord Molyneux, Sir George Middleton, Sir Alexander Radcliffe, Mr. Tyldesley of Myerscough, Mr. Farington of Worden, and other prominent Lancashire royalists. The King's Declarations were read by the Sheriff, the Under Sheriff and others in different parts of the crowd, and most of the people dispersed. Rigby, however, attempted to read the Votes of Parliament in answer to the King and demanded Girlington to deliver up his Commission of Array; whereupon 400 of the more ardent royalists rode up and down the moor shouting, 'For the King, For the King.' The remainder stayed and shouted 'For King and Parliament,' and Rigby declared that the royalists could only count on the support of a small minority of those present and that they had in reality lost more than they had gained by the demonstration. On hearing of the occurrence Parliament summoned Sir John Girlington, Sir George Middleton, and Sir Edward Fitton to attend as delinquents. Meanwhile under cover of the excitement on the Moor a servant of Mr. Farington's, William Sumpner, seized part of the magazine in the town of Preston, conveying it away secretly on packhorses as ordinary merchandise. The magazine, which consisted of 13 barrels of powder and some match, had been mostly collected by Farington and stored in a private house. Early next morning the remainder was removed by order of the Sheriff. Rigby hearing of what had taken place again protested, but to no purpose; and he was not in a position to use force. This was part of a royalist plan for securing all the ammunition in the county. Considerable stores had been established by Lord Strange when Lord Lieutenant, the principal centres being Preston, Warrington, Liverpool and Manchester. Warrington was royalist in sympathy and that also was seized by the King. Strange in person secured most if not all of the powder at Liverpool. Rigby, however, warned Mr. Assheton of Middleton in time to save the magazine at Manchester. When the royalist design became known in Manchester a petition was addressed to the Committee asking them if necessary to remove the magazine to a more secure place. The answer refers to great levies of money made by Lord Strange, much of which had been spent in providing ammunition in various places. But there were in Manchester only 10 barrels of powder and a few bundles of match; they were kept in the then disused College of the Church which had been granted to the Earl of Derby by the Crown. This building was afterwards purchased by the executors of Humphrey Chetham from Charles, eighth Earl of Derby, and is still the Chetham College. The royalist Commissioners of Array, Sir Alexander Radcliffe and Mr. Prestwich, with Mr. Nicholas Mosley and Thomas Danson, the Under Sheriff, endeavoured to seize these stores as they had seized the others; but Assheton and Sir Thomas Stanley, another Deputy Lieutenant, prevented them. Judging, however, that the powder was not safe on Lord Strange's property, it was removed to other parts of the town. Lord Strange was very angry at the rebuff and threatened to attack the town. He collected troops at Bury and more than 1000 armed volunteers came in for the defence of Manchester. These outnumbered the royalists, and negotiations were thereupon entered into for the disposal of the magazine. Two or three Deputy Lieutenants visited Lord Strange at Bury; but his offer to replace the magazine in the College in the joint keeping of the Parliament men and of Robert Holt, one of his own Deputy Lieutenants, was refused. Next day the forces were dismissed; but Lord Strange, having received fresh instructions from York, called a second muster at Bury and caused an order to be published at Manchester Cross for the removal of the magazine, part to Rochdale and part to Bury, only a small part to be left in Manchester.

It was now evident that actual hostilities could not be long delayed. The Parliamentarians sent to London for help from Lord Wharton. Lord Strange was required to redeliver that part of the county magazine which he had seized. On Saturday, June 25, Sir William Brereton was in Manchester, and reported to the Speaker that he found the townsmen "up in arms in defence of their magazine," and most of the shops shut. A Journal, of the first week in July, by a Preston man who accompanied Rigby to Manchester, relates that 7000 or 8000 militia armed with muskets and pikes were being daily trained there. On the other hand reports were brought of royalist musters numbering 4000 at Preston, and 600 on Knutsford Heath in Cheshire. A letter about royalist movements from Sir Edward Fitton to Sir Thomas Aston at York was intercepted and sent to London. News came of the King's siege of Hull. But no one was anxious to strike the first blow in Lancashire, and relations were not yet so strained between the leaders but that Rigby, going to see Sir Gilbert Hoghton about a letter of his which had been seized, could not be asked to stay to dinner. While he was there a Mr. Dawton who was a recusant came in, and Rigby with characteristic rudeness told his host that "he should like him better if he were not so familiar with Papists." In royalist Preston, however, it needed a report that Lord Wharton was on his march with 20,000 men to make it possible for "honest men to go through the streets without scoffing at them and calling them Roundheads." And a man who directed the Sergeant coming to deliver a message from Parliament to Lord Strange's house had his head broken by the royalists.

A week later the first actual bloodshed of the war in Lancashire took place at Manchester , the occasion being a visit of Lord Strange and some of his supporters to the town. There is an account of a previous skirmish on July 4, when it is stated that Lord Strange attempted to force his way into the town and was repulsed with loss; but this is usually thought to be false. Lord Strange's visit on July 15 was in response to an invitation. Apparently negotiations were still in progress about the Manchester magazine, and some of his lordship's supporters, of whom there were a good many in the town, wished to entertain him at a banquet in the house of Mr. Alexander Green, in order that the negotiations might be completed. Green was a vintner and lived on the Conduit, now the bottom of Market Street.

The condition was made that Strange should come peaceably with his own attendance; but in the excited state of affairs it was almost impossible that the occasion should end peaceably, especially as Lord Strange had earlier on the same day called a muster of troops at Bury which was attended by about 2000 men from the immediate neighbourhood of Manchester. There are several accounts of what happened, and as may be expected the two sides give very different views. The royalists describe the expression of joy by the inhabitants, "continued acclamations, bonfires, the streets strewed with flowers, &c.," as Lord Strange entered Manchester in his coach with his ordinary attendants only; the other side represent him as coming in a warlike manner attended by many horsemen, "with cocked pistols and shouts that the town was their own." The local militia under Captain Birch and Captain Holcroft was, however, in Manchester, and the surprising thing is not that an affray occurred, but that it was not a great deal more serious than it turned out to be. Hardly had the Royalists sat down to dinner when word was brought that Birch and Holcroft accompanied by Sir Thomas Stanley of Bickerstaffe were marching their men about the streets. The Sheriff immediately ran downstairs, mounted Lord Strange's horse, and near the Cross met Holcroft, whose men he endeavoured unsuccessfully to disperse. Alarmed at Girlington's non-return Strange himself followed him, and missing his horse pushed his way on foot through the crowd to the end of the street. The attitude of the townspeople was very threatening and Lord Strange was several times fired at from houses. As he and the Sheriff were returning they met Birch who ordered his men to fire, but the rain put out their matches. To avoid a general skirmish the royalists decided to leave the town. In the mel?e, however, a royalist gentleman was knocked off his horse and the assailant was shot; this was Richard Perceval, a linen weaver of Kirkmanshulme; he was buried at the Parish Church on July 18. Lord Strange proceeded for the night to Sir Alexander Radcliffe's house at Ordsall Hall; and he never entered Manchester again. Next morning, twenty-five gentlemen of the town, including Green and Nicholas Mosley, the Boroughreeve, waited on him at Ordsall to apologize for what had taken place, and declared Stanley, Holcroft and Birch to be disturbers of the peace; but that they did not speak for a majority of the townsmen subsequent events were to show.

It has been very commonly stated that this July 15th skirmish was the first bloodshed of the whole Civil War; the statement is made by Mr. Gardiner and is repeated in so recent a work as the "Cambridge Modern History," but is almost certainly incorrect. It is not of course the fact that Lancashire was before any other county in hostile preparations. In the months of June and July 1642, the two factions in arms were facing each other all over England and it was really an accident rather than otherwise in which county the first blow was struck. On June 4, the King wrote to Lord Willoughby of Parham forbidding him to raise the trained bands of Lincolnshire, and in the same week the Earl of Warwick put the Militia Ordinance into force in Essex. In Leicestershire a fortnight later bloodshed was narrowly averted. On June 21, Mr. Hastings, son of the Earl of Huntingdon, who was a royalist, arrived at Loughborough and marched on Leicester; but finding a superior force under the Earl of Stamford in possession, he retreated and most of his men were disarmed. There was an affray in Dorsetshire in August at which some lives were lost. It would seem, however, that actually the first blood of the war was shed at Hull. The King in person was present at the siege of that town which began on July 4. His troops were not close to the walls but in the following week there had been three or four skirmishes, one of which lasted for several hours and some lives must have been lost. It is fitting that the war should begin at Hull, for that was the city which was first seized for the Parliament and which first offered defiance to Charles.

It might have been expected that the affray in Manchester would be followed by further hostilities; but this was not the case, and two months elapsed before fighting really began in Lancashire. The intervening time was spent in active preparations by both sides; of the two the royalists at first appeared to have the advantage. Manchester had declared for the Parliament, but there was not much of the county which that party could rely upon, and even Manchester was not unanimous. Perhaps the majority of the crowd in the streets on July 15 were not anti-royalists. The immediate outcome of the affray was that proceedings were begun against Mr. Tyldesley, who was reported to have killed Perceval, and by the other side against Stanley, Birch and Holcroft. Parliament stopped both actions. It was Birch who reported the affair to the House of Commons, and the committee named to deal with Commissions of Array was asked to consider it.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet