Memorials of old Cheshire

by Unknown

Soldiers

Cheshire men have always been good fighters. They have played their part bravely on many a battlefield at home and abroad, and honour shall first be done to the soldiers of the shire. In civil war there was little unity amongst the gentlemen of Cheshire. They fought with, or against, each other as party faction or inclination dictated; but against the enemies of England they were formidable foes. The great Civil War that raged between King and Parliament brought most of these Cheshire soldiers into prominence, and most of the names on our list of warriors are connected with that period.

In the wars with France when the third King Edward reigned, Cheshire men showed well the stuff they were made of, their valour and bravery in arms. Foremost amongst their number in this group of early warriors stands Sir Thomas Danyers, who fought gallantly in the battle of Crecy under the banner of the Black Prince. He plunged into the thickest of the fight, and when the King bade his son “win his spurs and the honour of the day for himself,” Sir Thomas “relieved the banner of his Earl and took prisoner the Chamberlain of France, de Tankerville.” For this gallant feat of arms the Prince rewarded the Cheshire knight with a goodly sum of money, and the promise of the grant of an estate in his native county. This promise was not fulfilled until after the warrior’s death, when the fair lands of Lyme were bestowed upon his daughter, who had married Sir Piers Legh; and thus the famous family of the Leighs of Lyme began their existence, and happily the connection still survives after the lapse of many centuries.

Another brave soldier of the period was Sir John Delves, who with his companions in arms contributed greatly to the glorious victory of Poictiers. That fight was memorable for Cheshire men. The gallant James, Lord Audley, a native of the shire, though he lived in Staffordshire, had for his four squires, John Delves, Dutton of Dutton, Foulshurst of Crewe, and Hawkeston of Wrine Hall, a Cheshire man though residing in Staffordshire. When the battle day dawned Audley vowed to be foremost in the field and lead the attack, and “with the ayde of his four scuyers dyd marvels in arms, and foughte always in the cheyfe of the batyle; y^t day he never toke prisoner, but always foughte and wente on his enemyes.” He was sorely wounded, and was borne from the field by his faithful squires. For his bravery the Prince made him a grant of five hundred marks a year for ever. This reward the good knight handed over to his squires, saying that they had deserved it as much as he, and had more need of it. So the Prince gave him a second grant of a like amount. Audley, as a further reward to his squires, ordered that they should bear on their coats of arms his own proper achievement, gules a fret, d’or. Sir John Delves purchased Doddington, near Nantwich, where he erected a goodly mansion in 1364, and where the statues of himself and his brave companions, carved in later times, could be seen. There is an alabaster effigy of Sir Robert Foulshurst, one of the gallant squires, in Barthomley Church.

Sir Hugh Calveley’s Tomb, Bunbury Church.

Sir Hugh Calveley sleeps at Bunbury, a mighty hero of the French wars who fought under the brave leader Sir John Chandos. You can see his fine alabaster tomb, a lion couching at his feet, and his crest, a calf’s head, which he bore on many a foreign battlefield. Fuller says of him: “Tradition makes him a man of teeth and hands, who would feed as much as two, and fight as much as ten men; his quick and strong appetite could digest anything but an injury, so that the killing a man is reported the cause of his quitting this country, making hence for London and France. Here he became a most eminent soldier.” It were vain to tell of all his exploits. He fought in Brittany in 1357, at Auray in 1364, Navarete in 1367, in Brittany again with Sir John Arundell in 1380, when the expedition was almost entirely destroyed by a storm and 20,000 men perished. Many of these warriors lived a wild and turbulent life during the wars, and Sir Hugh, perhaps repenting of his deeds, in his old age converted the Parish Church of Bunbury into a collegiate church, with a master and six chaplains to pray for his soul. One of his companions in arms was Sir Robert Knowles, born of mean parentage in Cheshire, but brave and valiant. He fought with Sir Hugh Calveley in Brittany in 1351, when thirty Englishmen encountered the like number of Bretons and were sorely worsted. The ruined castles that he left behind him in France were termed “Knowles’s Mitres.” His last service to his country was the suppression of Wat Tyler’s rebellion.

The Wars of the Roses claimed some Cheshire victims. On the bloody field of Blore Heath, when the Earl of Salisbury defeated Lord Audley and the Yorkists on September 25, 1459, fell Sir Robert Booth, the ancestor of the Booth family of Dunham Massey. His brass memorial, with that of his wife, the heiress of that estate, is in the church at Wilmslow. Sir William Stanley, second son of the first Lord Stanley, in the time of Henry VII. held Ridley, being Chamberlain of Cheshire. He distinguished himself at the battle of Bosworth, rescuing Henry from great peril and saving his life. He was the first to set the crown of England on King Henry’s head, after it had been found on the battlefield trampled under the feet of the fighters. A gratified monarch bestowed upon him wealth and honour, but he was accused of favouring the design of Perkin Warbeck, and perished on the scaffold. His manor of Ridley was forfeited to the Crown and given to another distinguished soldier, Sir Ralph Egerton, who fought bravely at the battle of the Spurs, and at the siege of Terouenne and Tournay, capturing the standard of the French. He also fought at Flodden Field, and was appointed royal standard-bearer of England, a high distinction nobly earned. He lies in the church at Bunbury, and from him descended the lines of the Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater.

Of the brave men of Elizabethan times we may mention the Cheshire warrior Sir Uryan Legh, of the Leghs of Adlington, who, present at the taking of Cadiz under the leadership of the Earl of Essex in 1590, was knighted for his gallantry, and in the time of James I. became Sheriff of Cheshire. You can see his portrait at Bramall Hall attired in Spanish dress, in which, according to an old ballad, he wrought mischief in the heart of a fair Spanish lady who made violent love to him, and could only be deterred by the somewhat lately imparted knowledge that Sir Uryan had already a wife. Sir George Beeston, another gallant soldier, lies at Bunbury, where a fine monument records his memory. He was one of those who, though advanced in years, took an active part in defeating the Spanish Armada, and fought valiantly at the siege of Boulogne.

Fiercely did the great Civil War rage in Cheshire, and fiercely did the Cestrians fight. Foremost among them was Sir William Brereton, the great Cheshire leader of the Parliamentary army, and commander-in-chief of the Cheshire forces. The story of his fights is the history of the Civil War in this and the neighbouring counties, and cannot be told here. His relative Lord Brereton, the owner of the seat Brereton, one of the finest mansions in the county, was a brave supporter of the Royalist cause. Sir William lived to see the Restoration, and died at the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, which had been granted to him by the Parliament. Lord Brereton returned to his goodly house, but families, alas! become extinct, and the name once so famous in Cheshire history now no longer exists save in memory.

Colonel Edward Massey, of the ancient family of the Masseys of Coddington, was a soldier of fortune who fought on both sides in the war. He, however, threw in his lot with the enemies of the King, and was made Governor of Gloucester. He held the city during the siege; but on the triumph of the Independents his career was chequered, and he found his way back to the King, and became Major-general in the Royal army. History tells not when he died.

Another Parliamentary leader was Colonel Robert Dukinfield, of Dukinfield, who came of an ancient Cheshire family. He defended Stockport Bridge against Prince Rupert, laid siege to and captured Whiltenshaw, became Governor of Chester, took part in the disgraceful court-martial of the Earl of Derby, who was judicially murdered at Bolton, and obtained the surrender by the Countess of the Derby estates in the Isle of Man. He wrote a delightful letter to Cromwell, in which he tells the Protector that he firmly believes that the root of the tree of piety is alive in him, though the leaves thereof, through the abundance of temptations and flatterers, seemed to the writer to be withered much of late, yet he hoped time and experience would have a good influence upon his lordship, Deo juvante. This letter, and other outspoken words, did not endear Dukinfield to the Protector’s followers, who showed their distrust of him. However, he crushed the abortive rising of Sir George Booth, and received the thanks of the Parliament and a reward for his services. He did not escape persecution at the Restoration, but the Royalists admired the staunch old Colonel, and the King made his son a baronet.

This Sir George Booth, who before the return of Charles II. was appointed commander-in-chief of the King’s forces in Cheshire, Lancashire, and North Wales, and headed an abortive attempt to restore his Majesty to the throne, was well rewarded for his services. After his defeat he escaped in a woman’s habit, riding on a pillion behind one of his grooms. But his sex was detected by the landlord of an inn where he sojourned, and he was captured and sent to the Tower. In 1660 the House of Commons voted him £10,000 for his services in effecting the Restoration. He was created Baron Delamere of Dunham Massey, and was appointed Custos Rotulorum for the county. He died at Dunham Massey, and was buried at Bowdon in 1673. In his attempt to regain the throne for Charles II. he was greatly assisted by Roger Grosvenor, ancestor of the Dukes of Westminster, who have always “stood by their pious principles of faith and loyalty,” as Randle Holme truly testifies. His son, Sir Thomas, commanded a troop in the Earl of Shrewsbury’s regiment of horse in 1685, which encamped at Hounslow Heath, and he was offered a peerage by James II. for his answer to the repeal of the Test Acts, a bribe which he had the courage to resist. He was M.P. for Chester, Mayor of the city, and Sheriff of the county.

The Astons were unfortunate Royalists. Sir Thomas was defeated by Sir William Brereton at Middlewich, and Sir Arthur, after being Governor of Reading, and earning the praise of his sovereign, who deemed that “there was not a man in his army of greater reputation, or one of whom the enemy had greater dread,” lost his leg and then his life in the slaughter of the garrison of Tredagh, in Ireland. Two other gallant Royalists must be mentioned, Sir Francis Gamul, of Buerton, who watched from the Phœnix Tower with the King the fatal fight of Rowton Heath, and helped him to escape from his enemies; and Sir Geoffrey Shakerley, who performed many deeds of daring during the war; and at Rowton Heath, in order to convey a message to the King, crossed the Dee in a tub, holding the bridle of his horse, which was swimming at the side. He was a good friend and servant of the King, Governor of the Castle of Chester, and lies beneath his fine monument at Nether Peover Church.

Henry Booth, Earl of Warrington and Baron Delamere, second son of Baron Delamere before mentioned, played as distinguished a part in the Revolution and in establishing William III. on the English throne as his father had done for Charles II. A brave assertor of his country’s rights, and a defender of the Protestant religion, he fell foul of James II., and was tried on a groundless charge of high treason, the notorious Jefferies being his accuser. He escaped that peril, and soon raised an army in Cheshire and Lancashire to aid Dutch William. To him fell the duty of telling the last Stuart king that he must leave Whitehall, treating the fallen monarch with a respect and deference that touched his Majesty. Many honours were heaped upon him, including the Earldom of Warrington and a pension of £2000 a year; but he did not long enjoy his dignity, as death summoned him at the early age of forty-two years in 1693–4.

Colonel, and afterwards General, Werden risked his life and fortune for King Charles, had to fly from the country, and continued with the royal family until the Restoration, after which he was appointed to several offices of trust, and was comptroller of the royal household. His son John was created a baronet, and held many important posts.

Sir Roger Mostyn, of Mostyn, Baronet, was a gallant soldier who raised 1500 men for the King’s service, captured Hawarden Castle, was Governor of Flint Castle, which he maintained until the death of the King’s cause. His house of Mostyn was plundered, and he was imprisoned in Conway Castle; at the Restoration a baronetcy was the reward of his services.

Doubtless Cheshire had many other brave soldiers, but this list must now suffice.