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Hampshire Chapter 1 | THE Civil War in Hampshire (1642-45) AND THE STORY OF BASING HOUSE BY REV. G. N. GODWIN, B.D.Chapter XXIX - Cromwell and his Brigade - Colonels Hammond, Fleetwood and Harrsion - Hugh Peters - Cromwell summons Winchester - The Castle Besieged - Bishop Curle - Siege Operations - Bombardment - Parley and Surrender - Booty and Spoil - Hugh Peters at westminster - Troubles at Winchester(use "control F" to search text) We have before referred to the surrender of Bristol on September ii, I645, and noted the despatch of Cromwell at the head of his brigade of three regiments of foot and 2000 horse, with a view to the reduction of certain Royalist garrisons, of which Basing, if not the chief, was by no means the least important. The character of Cromwell we need not discuss. Leave we Carlyle and others to that task. A portrait of " Old Noll " hangs at Hackwood House, not far from that of his gallant foe the Marquis, wherefrom all beholders may see what manner of man he was. Sir Philip Warwick thus describes his personal appearance in November 1640, some five years before this time: " I came into the House one morning well clad, and perceived a gentleman speaking whom I knew not, very ordinarily apparelled, for it was a plain cloth suit that seemed to have been made by an ill country tailor. His linen was very plain, and not very clean, and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band (a linen tippet, properly the shirt-collar of those days), which was not much larger than his collar ; his hat was without a hat band, his stature was of a good size, his sword stuck close to his side, his countenance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and untuneable, and his eloquence full of fervour." Mr. Hyde, afterwards Lord Clarendon, when Chairman of a Committee of the House saw another phase of his character : " His whole carriage was so tempestuous, and his behaviour so insolent, that the Chairman found himself obliged to reprehend him, and to tell him that if he (Mr. Cromwell) proceeded in the same manner he (Mr. Hyde) would pre- sently adjourn the Committee and the next morning complain to the House of him." A stern man, unyielding, and cast in iron mould, as the " merciless assault of Basing " and the storming of Drogheda give proof; yet, as we would fain believe, a man of personal piety, and courteous to an enemy in defeat, as the following anecdote clearly shows : " As the garrison of Hillesdon House, near Newport Pagnell, were evacuating it after the surrender, one of the soldiers snatched off Sir William Smyth's hat. He immediately complained to Cromwell of the man's insolence and breach of the capitulation. ' Sir,' said Cromwell, ' if you can point out the man or I can dis- cover him, I promise you he shall not go unpunished. In the meantime,' taking off a new beaver which he had on his own head, * be pleased to accept of this hat instead of your own.' " "The tears of Cromwell appear to have been very constitutional, and must have produced a marvellous contrast on his rough-featured and heavy countenance ! " " This brave commander, by reason of his resolution and gallantry in his charges, is called by the King's soldiers Ironsides." So Winstanley, in his "Worthies," says. " One thing that made his brigade so invincible was his arming them so well, as whilst they assured themselves they could not be overcome, it assured them to over- come their enemies. He himself, as they called him Ironsides, needed not to be ashamed of a nickname that so often saved his life. Heath also calls him by that name, and not his troop." " In the beginning of November 1642, the regiment had reached the number of 1000 picked men. Whitelocke thus describes them : * He had a brave regiment of horse of his countrymen, most of them freeholders and freeholders' sons, and who upon matter of conscience engaged in this quarrel and under Cromwell, and thus, being well armed within by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and without by good iron arms, they would as one man charge firmly and fight desperately.' In May 1643 a newspaper writer says, 'As for Colonel Cromwell, he hath 2000 more brave men, well disciplined. No man swears but he pays his I2d. ; if he be drunk, he is set in the stocks or worse ; if one calls the other " Roundhead," he is cashiered ; insomuch that the countries where they come leap for joy of them, and come in and ioin with them. How happy would it be if all the forces were thus disciplined ! ' " "A colonel of foot received £1 l0s. the day ; a lieutenant-colonel, 15s. the day ; a sergeant-major (the present Major), 9s. the day; a captain, 15s. the day; a colonel of horse, £1 l0s. the day, and for six horses £1 1s. the day; a captain of horse, £1i 4s. the day, and for six horses £1 1s. the day." Field officers drew the pay of a captain in addition to their own, besides other perquisites. Cromwell's own regiment was steel-clad, back and breast, with headpieces. Each man had a brace of pistols, the officers more, and each troop was 100 strong. Its officers were, Lieutenant-General Cromwell, Major Huntingdon, Captains Jenkins, Middleton, John Reynolds, and Blackwell. The three regiments of foot under Crom- well's command were those of Colonels Pickering, Montagu, and Sir Hardress Waller. These regiments had been long together, and had seen much service in company. At Marston Moor " on the left was drawn up the Earl of Manchester's army from the Associated Counties under the general command of Lieut.-General Cromwell, consisting of three brigades of foot commanded severally by Colonels Montagu, Russell, and Pickering." In a fiery charge by Rupert both on front and flank " the brigades of Colonels Montagu, Russell, and Pickering especially distinguished themselves, standing when charged like a wall of brass, and letting fly small shot like hail upon the Royalists, and yet, as an old account assures us, not a man of their brigades was slain." This brigade sustained a severe check at the second battle of Newbury on October 27 1644, but on Naseby Field the Lord General's, Montagu's, and Pickering's regiments formed the right centre. Skippon's, Sir Hardress Waller's, and Pride's regiments formed the left centre. During the fight Sir H. Waller's regiment was broken by Prince Rupert. At the siege of Bridgewater, in July 1645, ^^e regiments of Cromwell, Pickering, Montagu, Waller, Hammond and others attacked on the Somersetshire side, Lieut. -Colonel Hewson, of Pickering's, leading a forlorn hope. At Bristol, in the following September, the same regiments were to storm on both sides of Lawford Gate, and during the rest of the month they had simply marched from victory to victory. Colonel Montagu had raised his own regiment in 1643, took part in the storming of Lincoln, and distinguished himself at Marston Moor and Naseby. He is better known as the Earl of Sandwich, who brought over King Charles to England, and perished at the battle of Solebay in 1672. The officers of his regiment in 1647 were Lieut.-Colonel Grimes, Major Kelsey (since Major Rogers), Captains Blethen, Munney, Biscoe, Rogers, Wilks (slain at Basing, now Captain Cadwell), Thomas Disney, and Sanders. He was much influenced by Colonel Pickering in favour of the numerous lay preachers of his day, but changed his opinion on this point after Colonel Pickering's death. He disapproved of the King's execu- tion, but held several important offices under the Commonwealth. In " A Narrative of the late Parliament (so-called) " we read as follows of Colonel Montagu and several others who played a prominent part at Basing : "Colonel Montagu, as one of the Council, £1000 per annum ; Commissioner of the Treasury, £1000 as General-at-Sea, £1095 in all, £3095 per annum. "Sir Gilbert Pickering, as one of the Council, £1000 per annum : Chamberlain at Court, and Steward at Westminster. Lord Lisle, as one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal, £1000 per annum. Sir Hardress Waller, as Major-General of the Army, £365; Colonel of Foot, £365 ; in all, £730 per annum, besides other advantages." In a list of " Persons not thought meet to be in command, though they much desire it, and are of such poor principles and so unfit to make rulers of that they would not have been set with the dogs of the flock, as Job speaks in another case (Job XXX. i), if the Army and others who pretended to be honest had kept iclose to their former good and honest principles," mention is made of " Colonel Jephson, a man of better principles than the former, but for his good service in voting for a King (Cromwell), is lately sent Ambassador to Sweden." * Colonel John Pickering was a man of small stature, "but of a great courage." The celebrated Hewson was his Lieut.-Colonel, The other officers of this regiment were, in 1647, Major Jubbs, Captains Axtel, Husbands (now Captain Grimes), Toppington, Carter, Silverwood, and Price. Of Colonel Pickering, Sir Samuel Luke, so satirised in Hudibras, thus writes to the Earl of Essex after the storming of Hillesdon House : " We had no officer killed or hurt, save only Colonel Pickering, and that only a little struck under the chin with a musket ball. But, thanks be to God, he was dressed before I came away, and was very merry and cheerful." Sprigge has an anagram — " In God I reckon happines — Johannes Pickering," together with some bad verses on the death of Colonel Pickering, which was caused by an epidemic which scourged Fairfax's army at the close of the year 1645. Colonel Pickering was reckoned one of the bravest and best officers in the army, and his death was very generally deplored. Sir Hardress Waller, a cousin of Sir William, was concerned in the publication of the Army Manifesto in 1647, and two years later was one of the Regicides. At the Restoration he was brought to trial, and received sentence of death, but was not executed, and died in prison at Mont Orgueil Castle, Jersey, in 1666. The officers of his regiment were Lieut.-Colonel Cottes worth. Major Smith, Captains Howard, Wade, Ashe, Gorges, Clark, Thomas and Hodden. The three cavalry regiments were those of Colonels Hammond, Fleetwood, and Sheffield. Colonel Robert Hammond was the second son of Robert Hammond, Esq., of Chertsey, in Surrey, and was born in 162 1. He spent three years at Oxford, but left without a degree. He has been well described as being " the nephew of two uncles," one of whom, Dr. Henry Hammond, was the favourite chaplain of the King, while the other, Thomas Hammond, had formerly commanded the 40th troop of horse, was now in 1645 Lieut.-General of the Ordnance in the service of the Parliament, and was after- wards one of the Regicides. Influenced by these two relatives, and by his wife, who was a daughter of John Hampden, Hammond's views were somewhat undecided. His uncle, Thomas Hammond, induced him to serve the Parliament in 1642, and obtained for him commissions, first as captain, and afterwards as major, under Colonel Edward Massie at the siege of Gloucester. He here killed Major Gray for giving him the lie, but was acquitted by a Council of War in the Lord General's army. He was wounded at the first battle of Newbury, and was " shot with a brace of bullets in the arm " at Bristol, in September 1645. He also took part in the second battle of Newbury, and greatly distinguished himself at Bristol. We shall hear more of hira at Basing. Cromwell used to write to him as " Dear Robin." The officers of his regiment were, in 1647, Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Eure, Major Sanders, Captains Disney, Charn, Smith, John Boyce, Puckle, Stratton, and Rolfe. Colonel Charles Fleetwood was the son of Sir William Fleetwood, cupbearer to Charles I., and comptroller of Woodstock Park. He was appointed Governor of Bristol after its surrender to Fairfax, in 1645, did good service as Lieut.-General of horse at Worcester fight, on September 3, 165 1, commanded in Ireland, and married Ireton's widow. He aided the Restoration, and died in 1692. When he became Governor of Bristol, Major Harrison succeeded him in command of his regiment, every trooper in which was armed with pistols. The other officers were, in 1647, Captains Coleman, Laughton, Zanchy, and Howard. Here is a picture of Harrison and his troop in 1648: "Another troop of horse was in good order drawn up between Alresford and Farnham, by which His Majesty passed. It was to bring up the rear. In the head of it was the captain gallantly mounted and armed ; a velvet monteir (cap) was on his head, a new buff coat upon his back, and a crimson silk scarf about his waist, richly fringed, who, as the King passed him by an easy pace as delighted to see men well horsed and armed, the captain gave the King a bow with his head all a soldade, which His Majesty requited." Asking who the officer was, and being informed that he was Major Harrison, " the King immediately turned round, and looked at him so long, and so attentively, that the major, confused, retired behind the troops to avoid his scrutiny. * That man, said Charles, * looks like a true soldier, I have some judgment on faces, and feel I have harboured wrong thoughts of him.' " Harrison escorted the King through Farnham and Bagshot to Windsor. He was afterwards one of the Regicides, and on April 20, 1653, said to Speaker Lenthall : " Sir, I will lend you a hand " to leave the chair at the dissolution of the Rump Parliament, being as he was in command of " twenty or thirty " grim musketeers. A member of the Council of State, on November i of the same year, he was the leader of the Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy men. Imprisoned by Cromwell, he was put to death at the Restoration. " Several times he cried out, as he was drawn along, that he suffered in the most glorious cause in the world ; " and when a low wretch asked him " Where's your good old cause now ? he replied " Here it is ! " clapping his hand on his heart, " and I am going to seal it with my blood ! " He was cut down alive, his bowels torn out whilst he was alive, and then his quivering heart held up to the people ! An heroic man in truth ! Colonel Thomas Sheffield was a younger son of the Earl of Mulgrave. His regi- ment was in 1644 composed as follpws : Colonel Sheffield's troop, 11 officers and 84 troopers; Captain Sheffield's, 10 officers and 70 troopers ; Captain Hagle's, 10 officers and 70 troopers; Captain Fynne's troop, 11 officers and 71 troopers; Captain Robot- ham's, 9 officers and 63 troopers; Captain Wogone's troop, 10 officers and 53 troopers. In all, 61 officers and 414 troopers. The officers of this regiment in 1647 were Colonel Thomas Sheffield, Major Findler, and Captains Robotham, Rainsborough, Martin, and Evelyn. Colonel Sheffield's standard bore the device of an armed horse- man, with the motto " Deo Duce, Nil Desperandum." Colonel Sheffield died in October 1646. Captain Richard Deane, who was afterwards killed in a naval engagement against the Dutch, was Comptroller of the Ordnance. (See his "Life," Longmans & Co. 1870). "Master Hugh Peters, Chaplain to the Train of Artillery," must not be forgotten. He was " a man concerning whom," says Carlyle, " the reader has heard so many falsehoods." Born at Fowey, in Cornwall, he was publicly whipped and expelled from the University of Cambridge, and was obliged to leave England, having been prosecuted by a butcher in St. Sepulchre's parish for supplanting him in the affections of his wife. After some years spent in Holland and America, he returned to London in 1641, and became chaplain to Lord Brooke's regiment. He was the very pontiff of burlesque pulpiteers, and was indefatigable in stirring up the hatred of the soldiers against the King, whom he styled " Barabbas," comparing the army to Christ ! In Ireland " he led a brigade against the rebels, and came off with honour and victory." He counselled the destruction of Stonehenge, said that the sword contained all the laws of England, and at Naseby rode from rank to rank " with a Bible in one hand and a pistol in the other," exhorting the men to do their duty. At the siege of Bridgewater he ** improved the Sunday as much by Mars as Mercury." Clarendon calls him " the ungodly confessor," who contrived " the woeful tragedy " of the two Hothams. He was constantly employed to carry despatches announcing various victories. The Royalists called him " the ecclesiastical newsmonger." He had a few days before received ;^50 for bringing " the good news " of the surrender of Winchester. Here is a specimen of one of his sermons : " He took for his text, * Bind your Kings with chains, and your nobles in fetters of iron.' Beloved, said he, this is the last Psalm but one, and the next Psalm hath six verses and twelve Halle- lujahs — praise ye the Lord. And for what ? Look into my text ! There you have the reason for it. Because the Kings were bound in chains ! " Such were the pulpit utterances of an Army Chaplain of the first class two centuries ago ! Peters was one of the chief instigators of the execution of the King, which afterwards cost him his head on October 16, 1660. Some have said that he was one of the masked executioners of Charles I. The following epigram shows what the Cavaliers thought of him. Dunn was the public executioner. Behold, the last and best edition But Dr. Gardiner speaks highly of Master Hugh. After suppressing the Clubmen near Winchester, Colonels Norton and Harrison joined Cromwell's brigade, and now let " Perfect Passages " of October i speak : " Lieutenant-General Cromwell came before Winchester on the last Lord's Day at night, and with him a party of horse and foot, viz., of horse his own regiment. Colonel Sheffield's regiment, Colonel Fleetwood's, and Colonel Norton's regiments, with some horse taken out of several other regiments to make them complete, 2000 horse ; and of foot, Colonel Montague's regiment. Colonel Pickering's, and Colonel Waller's. Three regiments of foot." Some of Colonel Okey's Dragoons were amongst the horse taken from other regiments. They had done the Parliament good service by lining Lantford hedges at Naseby Fight. Their officers were Colonel Okey, Major Moore, Captains Mercer, Abbotts, Farre, Bridge, Woggan, Shirmager, Captain Turpin (since Captain Neale). Colonel Okey was afterwards surrendered to the English Government, and executed in a most barbarous manner, the principal witness against him being a former chaplain to his regiment, named Downing. Cromwell writes as follows "To the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Fairfax, General of the Parliament's Army, these : " Winchester, 6th October, 1645. " Sr, — I came to Winchester on the Lord's Day, the 28th of September, with Colonel Pickering, commanding his own, Colonel Montague's, and Sir Hardress Waller's regiments. After some dispute with the Governor, we entered the town." As soon as he arrived, Cromwell wrote to Mr. William Longland, the Mayor, demanding admission into the city, and received a speedy answer ; " Sir, — I come not to this city but with a full resolution to save it and the Inhabi- tants thereof from ruine. I have comaunded the Souldyers upon payne of death that noe wrong bee done, wch I shall strictly observe, only I expect you give me entrance into the City, wthout necessitateing mee to force my way, wich yf I doe, then it will not be in my power to save you or it. I expect yor answeare wth in halfe an houre, and rest " Your servant, "Sept. 28th, 1645. "Oliver Cromwell. " Five o'clock at night. To the Mayor of the City of Winchester." The answer to the said letter : " Sr, — I have received yor Letter by yor Trumpett, and in the behalf of the Citizens and Inhabitants return you hearty thanks for yor favourable expression therein. But wth all I am to signifie unto you that the delivry up of the City is not in my power, it being under the comand of the right hoble. the Lord Ogle, who hath the military Govermt. thereof. In the mean tyme I shall use ray best endeavour with the Lord Ogle to perform the contents of yor letter concern ing the City, and rest " Your most humble servant, "Winton, Sept. 28, 1645. "Wm. Longland, Mayor," The garrison was prepared for vigorous resistance. The " True Informer " stated on October 4, 1645, "The enemy disputed, the city being fortified as well as the Castle, but the gate being fired our men entered." The " Exact Journal " wrote on October 7, " The city made some opposition, contrary to his expectation, but having fired the bridge he quickly found a means to enter and subdue it." Another writer says, " Wee'l now come to Winchester. When Lieut.-General Cromwell came before it he found the town fortified, and the enemy upon their works. Here was found short dispute before entred, yet not long, but the enemy was driven off, and fled to the Castle, which our men close begirt, and have sunk two mines, and began their batteries." The besiegers entered the city on the morning of Monday, September 29, "with the townsmen's consent we have cooped up in the Castle 120 horse and 400 foot, and all the malignant gentry and clergy of this Hampshire and Sussex, with many Papists and Jesuits. It is hoped the Parliament will give order these great delinquents shall trouble them no more ! " On Wednesday, October 1, 1645, we read, " This day by letters from Winchester we understand that at General Cromwell's first coming against Winchester, having notice that Doctor Kirl, Bishop of that diocese^ was in the city, sent to him, and proffered that in respect to his cloth (if he pleased) he should have liberty to come out of the town, and he would protect him from violence ; which the Bishop not accepting of, our men soon after forced their passage into the city, and the Bishop fled into the Castle, with the souldiers. The next day, when our battery was placed, the Bishop was so far awakened in his judgment by the thundering of the cannon that he sent a message to Lieut.-General Cromwell to this effect, * That the Bishop was sorry that he had not accepted of Lieut.-General Cromwell's former proffer, and being better advised, did now desire the benefit thereof, &c.' Unto which answer was returned that he had refused the former proffer, and was gone with the soldiers into the Castle ; he was not capable of that favour, and in case he were taken in the Castle he was to be esteemed a prisoner of war, and just now (the batteries being raised) be liable to such conditions as the rest of those that were in the Castle should be brought unto ! " The " Parliament's Post " thus moralises on Tuesday, October 7 : " The Bishop, who had before a guard to secure his person (with certain conditions), is now like to partake amongst them in the common distress. There is but little happiness to be expected from late repentance ! " Hugh Peters, Cromwell's chaplain, reports that amongst the prisoners taken at Winchester were " also Dr. Curie, the Bishop of Winchester . . . and his chaplain, who were in their long gowns and cassocks." The Bishop and his clergy were referred to the mercy of the Parliament. Dr. Milner tells us that Bishop Curie retired unmolested, though he lost his whole income. He lived on the charity of friends, more especially that of his sister, at whose house at Soberton he died in 1650. " A reverend prelate, who resided amidst his flock, even in these days of danger and trouble, and quitted not his charge, until he was suffered no longer to continue in it." Winchester Castle stood upon the site of the present barracks, and the County Hall, the pride of the shire, was formerly a portion of it. In the County Hall hangs what is called " Arthur's Round Table," made of stout oak planks and perforated by many bullets, which are said to have been fired by Cromwell's soldiers. The picturesque West Gate is now the principal remnant of the ancient defences of the city, but until 1824 the picturesque ruins of the city wall, intermingled with shrubs and ash trees, claimed the attention of every stranger. Running directly north from the West Gate, it retained in many places its original height, the ruins of several turrets, and its copings of freestone. Beneath this wall was the ditch or fosse, which extended as far as the North Gate, under the palace of Henry XL, and was originally a stew for the King's fish. The entire site is now covered with houses. The weather as we shall presently see, favoured the besiegers, being unusually fine for the time of year. Cromwell writes : " I summoned the Castle ; was denied, where- upon we fell to prepare batteries — which we could not perfect (some of our guns being out of order) until Friday following. Our battery was six guns, which being finished — after firing one round I sent in a second summons for a treaty, which was refused." Lord Ogle says that Cromwell had the best guns in Portsmouth, and that 60-pounder mortars threw sixty granadoes, doing much damage to the Castle. " On Saturday last, October 4, Lieutenant-General Cromwell was in a posture of parlying with Colonel Ogle, for surrender of Winchester Castle, Lieutenant-General Cromwell having planted tiis morter-piece and great cannon against the Castle, and one party at St. Thomas's going to the Minster and another at St. Lawrence, as also good strength on both the battle sides." Hugh Peters says that " at the first Sir William Oagle, Governor of the Castle (lately made a Lord by his Majesty), refused upon summons to accept of any parly at all." The following reply was returned to Cromwell's second summons to surrender : " Sir, — I have received a sad summons, and desire that this enclosed may be conveyed from " Your servant, "Winston Castle, 4th October, 1645. "Ogle." " Sir, — Upon the opening of your sad message by your drum, there was a mistake between your men and mine, for there was a man making an escape from the Castle, at whom your men and mine did shoot, not knowing in the dark who he was, and the man is killed. " Ogle." The besiegers' batteries opened fire on the morning of Saturday, October 4, and ere long Sir Edward Ogle hauled down the red flag which had been hoisted as a token of defiance, "and a treaty was going on for surrender, but just in the nick of time came the convoy into Lieutenant-General Cromwell, from Reading, which the enemy seeing (having had a promise of reliefs) hung out the flag again and would not treat. whereupon Lieut. -General Cromwell prepared to storm. Sir William Waller came to Winchester with the convoy, and was that night with the General." Sunday, October 5, must have been an exciting day in Winchester. Says Hugh Peters : " The Lord's Day we spent in preaching and prayer, whilst our guns were battering." Other accounts say : " Thereupon our forces began to play with the cannon, and played six continually, one after another, as fast as they could charge and discharge, and made 200 cannon shot in one day against the Castle." The garrison were not idle, for, according to Hugh Peters, " The chiefest street of the town the enemy played upon, whereby divers passengers were wounded and some killed ; in which street my quarters being, I have that cause to bless God for my preservation." Either upon the Saturday or the Sunday " a breach was made, the enemy sallied out, and beat us off from our guns, which were soon recovered again." Shell practice was evidently very effective on this eventful Sunday. "The flag was hanged out on Sunday, 5th October instant, the enemy being con- fident that a party was come to relieve them ; we threw granadoes into the House, which broke down the mansion house in many places, cutt off a Commissary of theirs by the thighs, the most austere and wretched instrument in that country, and at last blew up their flag of defiance into the air, and tore the pinnacle in pieces upon which it stood." Hugh Peters' account is: "They threw in granadoes which did very much good execution ; one of them broke into the great hall and killed three men, and another beate the red flag of defiance which the enemy had hung out all to pieces, so that none could discerne what became of it." " Summons was refused. . . . And another summons God sent them in the middle of our battery ; his (Lord Ogle's) Lady (to whom our Lord General had given leave to come forth, and had gone some miles out of the town), died (going to Stoke Charity or Michelmersh probably) ; by whom the Governor had during her life one thousand pounds a year with her, lost by her death." The end of all this artillery practice was that Lieutenant-General Cromwell *' played hard against them with his great ordnance, and battered the House in many places, amongst the rest one breach (near the Black Tower) was so wide that thirty men might go in abreast, and then the enemy cried out, ' A parley, a parley, for the Lord's sake. O for God's sake grant a parley ; articles, articles, O let us have articles, for God's sake ; we will yield to any reasonable articles ; will you not hear us for a parley ? ' Indeed, the guns played so fast, and the business was so well followed, that we could not well hear them, and they, perceiving what a strait they were in, and how the house began to tumble upon their heads, thought that we should presently enter, and that tney snould be all killed." One account says that this request for a parley was made on Monday night, but Cromwell himself says : "We went on with our work, and made a breach in the wall near the Black Tower ; which, after about 200 shot, we thought stormable ; and purposed on Monday morning to attempt it. On Sunday night, about ten of the clock, the Governor beat a parley, desiring to treat." Mr. Francis Baigent, of Winchester, says : "The position of the tower designated the Black Tower is unknown. It could not have been the one at the back of the County Hall, as in an old lease I have seen it mentioned by another name. The Black Tower was probably one near the old drawbridge, or south of it." Mr. W. H. Jacob says that the Black Tower is " presumed to be the great round fort, the foundation of which lies under the earth near the old Friendly Society's offices," and that " the real artillery process was from some trenches at the north-west corner ot the Arbour, where for years they were a noteworthy feature. " Lord Ogle thus requested a parley : " Sir, — I have received formerly a letter from you, wherein you desire to avoid the effusion of Christian blood, to which you received my answer that I was as willing as yourself. But having received no reply (to advance) your desires, I have thought fit to desire a treaty whereby we might pitch up some means, both for the effecting of that, and the preservation of this place. And that I may receive your letter with all convenience, I desire that neither officer or soldier of your party may come off their guards, and I shall take the like course with mine. — Sir, I am, " Your humble servant, " Winton Castle, at eight at night, " Ogle. October 5, 1645." " Mercurius Britannicus," September 29 to October 6, 1645, speaks thus : " The two famous names of Fairfax and Massie united are a sure charm for victory. Put Cromwell in too, and then 'tis infallible. The people of Winchester know it well enough, and therefore they in the Castle cried a parley, and if that end not the difference, the next cry must be quarter." Cromwell hereupon despatched Colonel Hammond and Major Harrison to draw up Articles of Surrender, with Sir Edward Ford, the Royalist High Sheriff of Sussex, Colonel Bennet, and a Major of the garrison (Sir John Paulet says Ogle). The whole night was spent in negotiations, the victors wishing to secure these three negotiators, styling Sir Edward Ford "a great plunderer." The following terms were agreed upon : Lord Ogle was to deliver the Castle with all the ordnance, arms, and ammunition therein to the appointed officers, " without any embezzlement, waste, or spoil," at 3 P.M. on Monday, October 6. That the Governor and other officers should march forth with their arms only. That Lord Ogle should have his own company " with colers flying and drums beating," 100 fixed arms for his own guard, and 100 men to guard them as far as Woodstock. Hostages were to be given for the safe return of this convoy. That all the common soldiers should depart without their arms. Lord Ogle and all commissioned officers to have safe conveyance with horses, arms, and goods as far as Woodstock, six carriages being allowed them. There was to be an escort as far as " Tichburne," and a trumpet and pass afterwards. Dr. Curie, the Bishop of Winchester, and all the Cantory to be referred to the mercy of Parlia- ment. All officers, gentlemen, clergymen, and inhabitants of the city of Winchester, and all officers within the guards, desiring it, may be, at their own time, free from all violence and injury of the Parliament's forces. And the Castle being Sir William Waller's, the Lieutenant-General delivered it into his possession by the Articles of Surrender, bearing date October 5. " What remained of the Castle," says a modern writer, " was conferred by the Parliament upon Sir William Waller, one of their partisans and generals. He was also brother-in-law to Sir Henry Tichborne, its real owner, who was in it during the siege, whose other property as well as this they had previously confiscated. Either this Sir William, or his son of the same name, sold the hall to certain feoffees for the purpose of a public hall for the county of Hants, and the rest of the Castle to the Corporation of Winchester." On one point both Puritans and Cavaliers quite agreed, viz., that the defence was not as vigorous as it might have been. The Castle was " very well garrisoned," says Guthrie. " It surrendered on easy conditions," according to Clarendon. Wood thinks that it "was treacherously given up," and it was "likewise delivered on composition " says " Rusticus." Cromwell writes thus to General Fairfax : " Sir, — This is the addition of another mercy. You see God is not weary in doing you good. I confess, Sir, His favour to you is as visible when He comes by His power upon the hearts of your enemies, making them quit places of strength to you, as when He gives courage to your soldiers to attempt hard things. His goodness in this is much to be acknowledged ; for the Castle was well manned with 680 horse and foot, there being near 200 gentlemen, officers, and their servants, well victualled with 1 5 cwt. of cheese, very great store of wheat and beer, near 20 barrels of powder, seven pieces of cannon ; the works were exceeding good and strong. It's very likely it would have cost much blood to have gained it by storm. We have not lost 10 men. This is repeated to you that God may have all the praise, for it's all His due. Sir, I rest your most humble servant, "Oliver Cromwell. "Winchester, 6th October, 1645." Lord Ogle (Add. MS. 27,402) says that the soldiers and some officers wanted a treaty, and told him that if he would not treat, they would treat without him. Sir John Pawlet told the officers that now news was brought that his lady was dead. Ogle was desperate, and with his unwillingness would sacrifice all their lives. "Thirty City soldiers did run away over the works in one night." Major Robert Clark was sent with fifty soldiers to guard a breach (probably near the Black Tower) : ^* before day above 40 of them ran away." Sir Humphrey Bennett, and all the other officers, except the two Majors Clark, demanded a council, whereat they all, except the two Majors, Robert and Henry Clark, desired a treaty. A request for a treaty was drawn up, which Lord Ogle put in his pocket, on which Sir John Pawlet said, " My Lord, you are too hard for us " ; to which Ogle made reply, " I am in sadness both for the treaty and for my lady's death ! " John Jackman wrote to the Earl of Bath on October 21 : " We have had a strong plot to procure all the garrisons in the King's possession to be betrayed, as diverse are, viz., the Devizes and Winchester, without even a bloody nose. I say nothing of Bristol and the rest." Ogle was exonerated from blame by a court-martial held at the Governor's Lodgings at Oxford on November 12, 1645. Hugh Peters took mental notes of all that passed. He says : " I was forthwith sent into the Castle to take a view of it. . . . Where I found a piece of ground improved to the best advantage, for when we had entered by our battery (or breach) we had six distinct works and a drawbridge to pass through, so that it was doubtless a very strong piece, very well victualled. The Castle was manned with near 700 men, divers of them Reformadoes (officers whose regiments had been disbanded) ; the chief men I saw there were Viscount Ogle . . . Sir John Pawlet, an old souldier ; Sir William Courtney, and Colonel Bennett, also Dr. Curie, the Bishop of Winchester, - . . and his chaplain, who were in their long gowns and cassocks." " There were in the Castle 700 men, officers and common soldiers. There was a great wall where the breach was made, which our forces must have entered, and three works, each higher than the other, before they could have taken the Castle ; and by the judgment of knowing and experienced soldiers, they had made it the strongest architect {i.e., building) for that purpose, that the like is not in England ; we lost not above two men in all the time of the playing so fiercely that day, nor about 12 or 14 in all the siege before it, which is to be lookt upon a great mercy." Cromwell promised 55. to each foot soldier who was at the taking of the Castle. The victors found plenty of ammunition and provisions. They secured " four great pieces of ordnance, three less pieces (eight or nine pieces of cannon), 17 barrels of powder, 2000 lb. weight of musket bullets, 800 cwt. of match, 700 muskets (500 fire- arms), 200 pikes, halberds, and other weapons, 200 pairs of bandoliers, 100 horses, 15,000 lb. weight of cheese, 800 lbs. of butter, either 40 or 148 quarters of wheat and meal, 7000 lbs. of biskets, 30 loads of wood, 40 quarters of charcoal, 30 bushels of sea-coal for the smith, four quarters of beef, ready killed, and much powdered, 38 hogsheads of beef and pork, 14 sheep, great store of (20 bushels) oatmeal, 10 tun (qrs.) of salt, three or four hogsheads of French wines, 112 hogsheads of strong beer, 70 dozen candles, with divers crucifixes and Popish pictures." The surrender was delayed by the revelry of the vanquished Cavaliers. " Our men were to enter at eight of the clock the next morning, but they could not take possession till two in the afternoon, by reason the Governor and some of the officers, being unwilling to leave any wine behind them, had made themselves drunk." " 700 men marched out of the Castle, and Viscount Ogle as drunk as a beggar." Hugh Peters said in the House of Commons : " Mr. Speaker, I cam from Winchester the last night late, but I had come sooner had not my Lord Ogle and his company been so unwilling to part with their sack and strong beer, of which they drank so liberally at their farewell that few of them, as it is their manner, could get up their horses without help, for the agreement was for their marching out at three o'clock, but it proved late through their debauchery." Amongst the " 700 men, divers of them Reformadoes," who marched out of the Castle, were Viscount Ogle, the Governor, Sir John Pawlet, an old soldier. Sir William Courtney, Colonel Bennet, and Dr. Curie, Bishop of Winchester, " who came forth to our quarters in the morning," and with whom Hugh Peters " spent an hour or two, who with tears and much importunity desired the Lieut.-General's favour to excuse his not accepting the offer which he made unto him at his first entering the town ; he desired of me a guard to his lodgings, lest the soldiers should use violence to him and his Chaplain, who were in their long gowns and cassocks, and he was accordingly safely conveyed home." Some of the departing Cavaliers both at Winchester and at Longford House complained of having been plundered by the soldiers, contrary to the articles of surrender. Lord Ogle says that Captain Robotham, of Colonel Sheffield's regiment, commanded the 14 horse who formed the escort, but that all the carriages were " plundered near Worthy village by a strong party of Cromwell's horse, and the Major (Henry Clark, in command of the guard of 100 men) stript of his cloaths." The stolen property was restored to its owners, and six troopers were convicted of the robbery at Blandford. One to whose lot it fell was executed next morning at the head of the army. He died very penitently, and his execution made a deep impression on his comrades. The five others were marched under escort to Oxford, and there handed over to the Governor, Sir Thomas Glemhara, who sent them back, " with an acknowledgment of the Lieut.-General's nobleness." As the prisoners taken at Alton took service under Waller, and fought desperately against their former comrades at Arundel, so Cromwell gained recruits at Winchester. *' There went forth of the Castle, besides officers, 600 common soldiers, most of whom either went to their own homes or took up arms for the Parliament, so that it is thought the Governor will not have above one hundred (200) with him by the time he comes to his place of rendezvous (Woodstock). It did much affect us to see what an enemy we had to deal with, who, themselves being judges, could not choose but say that their God is not as our God." Cromwell at once despatched Mr. Spavin, the Lieut.-General's Secretary, and Hugh Peters, Minister to the Army, with despatches to London. Mr. Spavin, " the messenger that brought the good news, had £50 given him by the Commons. A very good work to reward all men that do service." Intelligence of the surrender reached Fairfax at Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire. On his arrival at Westminster the Commons " forthwith called Mr. Peters into the House, who went in attended with the Serjeant-at-Arms with the mace before him, when the Speaker (Lenthall), giving him thanks for his unwearied labours in the preservation of this kingdom, and assuring him that the House took care for him who had so often brought them good tidings and hazarded himself so much, told him that he had liberty to speak freely what he had in command from the Lieut. -General. Mr. Peters spake in the House," and from his report many of the foregoing details have been gathered. He added : "The fruit of what is already done, amongst the rest what I saw upon the way-: all sorts travelling freely upon their occasions to their own homes with carriages and wains, many inns filled with guests. The former face of things returning upon us in several kinds ; yea, now we may ride with safety from Dover to the middle of Devon- shire." Cromwell had ordered Peters to state certain facts, so "that you should be truly informed concerning the payment of the army, it being generally reported they are completely paid, and that army constantly enjoined to pay their quarters, in which there hath been much care taken, and by which much hath been gained upon the countries. It is most certain that of 21 weeks the horse are 12 weeks behind, and the foot have likewise their proportion of sorrow through want of pay. I know three score in one company lying sick by eating of raw roots and green apples through want of money to buy proper food." Peters wished a committee of each county to attend the army, in order to pay the soldiers from the assessment levied on the several shires. Winchester being the 19th garrison taken that summer by the troops of Fairfax, "The Ecclesiastical Newsmonger" next asked for recruits, complaining that "when we have been promised and expected 4000, we have received but 900, and upon Friday last, when we were promised 3000, and did not expect less, we received but 1500." This latter reinforcement was before mentioned as the convoy brought from Reading to Winchester by Waller. " It may be easily conceived that such an active army needs be a great spender of men by sickness or otherwise, though blessed be God it appears at every siege the enemy's swords cut not off many. At this of Winchester, I know not of above two or three soldiers lost. Your recruits are so chargeable in the bringing to the array, that with half the money the officers would recruit themselves." Peters wished the strength of the army to be raised to 21,000, and spiritual provision to be made for the captured towns. " In this I am the bolder, because of the cries to me of the people in the places where I have been, and some of Winchester at my departure crying for help with them of Macedonia." On October 14 Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Lower, who had so bravely repulsed Goring at Christchurch, was appointed Governor of Winchester while it remained a garrison for the Parliament. Terrible was the havoc committed in Winchester after the surrender. Large portions of the Castle and of the fortifications were blown up, and , according to local tradition, horses were stabled in the Cathedral, whilst soldiers and others completed the destruction begun when Waller and Browne held sway in ancient Winton (pp. 46-50). The Regicide, Nicholas Love, son of Warden Love, and one of the six clerks in Chancery, is said to have done good service to the College during these troublous times, as well as Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, erewhile Captain of the 40th Troop of Horse for the Parliament. Walcott records the gift to the soldiers of Colonel Fiennes, in 1643, of £29 5s. 6d., and he is also said to have placed a guard at the College gate. Warden Harris, who built the Infirmary, and who died on August 11, 1658, was described as being an orthodox divine and a fit person to be consulted by the Parliament about the reformation of Church govern- ment and the Liturgy. Having been ordered to preach before the House of Commons at St. Margaret's, Westminster, he excused himself on the ground of having a weak voice. On October 18, 1645, the House of Commons ordered Waller and the Committee for Hants to consider " of the garrison and Castle of Winchester, and also of Woolsey House, and of Salisbury." They were also to decide upon the best place for a garrison in Hants, and to choose a Governor. The result of their deliberations is unrecorded, but Wolvesey Palace, which Leland describes as being " a castelle or Palace well tow'rd," speedily became the picturesque ruin which it has ever since remained. Who that dwells by Itchen side knows not the great redoubt constructed by Lord Hopton (p. 174), but which bears for evermore the name of the great soldier who made himself master of Winton, " Oliver's Battery." There is a record of the excluded Royalists of the Winchester Corporation in 1648,. and amongst them as delinquents and in arms against the Parliament, Ferdinando Rye, John Harfield, Richard Dennett, John Colson, John Sevior, Alderman Longland, senr.,- Richard Brenton, Thos. South, Roger Corehame. Also in the Soke, John Brown, Wm. Fisher, and Bartholomew Smith were scheduled as Recusants or Roman Catholics (W. H. Jacob). Mr. Jacob also mentions the burial recorded in the St. Maurice register in 1691 of "Captain Wolfran, a trooper," and adds the following interesting particulars from and concerning this register : " Colonel Norton, old ' Noll's ' friend, plundered Winchester, around which were thrown up fortifications,, especially on the western and eastern sides, now obliterated, but which were traceable not many years ago in Oram's Arbour and St. Giles's Hill. The victory at Cheriton (March 29, 1644), disheartened the Royalists, and the works round Winchester were, save the Castle, not carefully watched, so that plundering and incursions of Round- heads were not infrequent, and in one such * war's alarms ' the following tragic incident occurred. It is written in the register of deaths, and become very faint, but is legible ; moreover, some one has attached a transcript, so that the memory of the event may not be lost. The entry reads thus : * Chas. Eburne was shot Deer, ye 9th, 1644, and dyed ye same night at Christopher Hussey's, Alderman of Winton, and also Mr. James Minjam and Richard Shoveler — all three were wounded in ye Soake, near ye East Gate, and were buryed ye next daye out of St. Maurice parishe by me, William Clun, ye rector, 1644.' Then follows an ejaculation not traceable in the original entry, ' vae malum belli civilis,' and well might they bewail the evil of civil war. Of Christopher Hussey there is a memento of his being a parishioner in the baptism of his daughter, Margery, on Sept. 23, 1610, five days after her birth, and in the entry he is described as 'then Major.' He was also Mayor in 1618 and 163 1, and Chamberlain, 1657. Mr. Minjam, or Minjim, was a St. Maurice man, for there is a Jane Minjam in 1607. The year 1644 has also records of the deaths of Robert Wold, soldier ; John Barber, a trooper ; Henry Donnef, a trooper (horse soldier) ; William Okeley, a trooper ; and in 1645 Richard Probert, private soldier, all doubtless of Sir W. Ogle's (Lord Ogle) garrison, with which he surrendered, in Sept. 1645, the Castle to Cromwell in the Mayoralty or Wm. Longland, and, to use Old Noll's expression, ' the addition of another mercy,' and a proof that ' God was not weary of doing good.' " A tombstone in Compton churchyard bears the following inscription : To the memory of Elizabeth and her child, the wife of Barnard Goldfinch, who died 15th September, 1683. The Goldfinch family lived at Compton in the old Manor House for centuries. It is said that after the capture of Winchester in October 1645, some Roundhead troopers were quartered upon them. The visitors consented to spare a cask of ale which had been brewed for a christening, on condition that the expected child should, if a boy, be named Barnard, after the captain of the troop. Barnard Goldfinch might well be a family man in 1683. His initials may be seen in his old home.
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