Colonel Dodding then joined Sir John Meldrum, who reached Preston late on Friday, August 16th, and quartered there on the following Saturday and Sunday. On August 17th Goring joined the other royalists who were encamped about Lytham and Kirkham, plundering greatly; they now numbered about 2,700, nearly all cavalry. A rendezvous was appointed on Freckleton Marsh on Monday, August 18th; and on the same day Meldrum drew up his forces on Penwortham Moor, south of Preston, intending to attack them. But he seems to have been ignorant of the country. Intending to cross the Ribble below Preston, he found the passage impracticable on account of the tide; and having wasted much time he was forced to return to Preston and to march along the north bank of the Ribble by way of Greaves Town and Lea Hall. From the latter place the royalists were discovered across Freckleton Marsh crossing the river some three miles away. Meldrum at once gave chase as fast as possible, the horsemen each taking up a musketeer behind him for greater speed; but when they reached the water the tide had again risen too high for them to cross, and they were only in time to send a parting shot or two after the royalists. Meldrum waited for the rest of his foot, and the same night returned to Preston. Next day (Aug. 19th) he again set out in pursuit, marching south-westward; and in the evening he encountered the royalists near Ormskirk. They had been forced to make a detour on reaching the southern bank of the Ribble in order to avoid Colonel Assheton who lay with some troops near Hesketh Bank, and so had been unable to escape further. Though it was 8 o'clock in the evening when Meldrum came up with the royalists, he at once ordered an attack. Colonel Booth's foot regiment opened fire and the royalists made very little resistance; their defeat was completed by a charge of cavalry who pursued as long as the light would allow. The royalists were quite scattered. Their chief men managed to escape, but most of the officers and 300 men were taken prisoners. The few who escaped fled southwards and over Hale Ford into Cheshire. Prince Rupert was said to be on the southern bank of the Mersey waiting for a chance to invade Lancashire again; but this defeat made it impossible for him to do so.[160]
FOOTNOTES:
[137] "Cambridge Modern History," Vol. 4, pp. 320, 321; "C.S.P.," pp. 35, 39.
[138] Derby to Rupert, Chester, March 7, 1643‑4: "I have received many advertisements from my wife of her great distress and imminent danger, unless she be relieved by your Highness, on whom she doth more rely than any other whatever, and all of us consider well she hath chief reason so to do" ("Rupert MSS.," Add. MSS. 18980, fol. 81). Derby's information was that there were only 50 men each in the towns of Liverpool and Warrington, the garrisons having been withdrawn to the siege of Lathom.
Sir John Byron to Rupert, Apr. 7, describes Lathom as in danger of being lost: "The constant intelligence from that county every day is that if your Highness only appear there, the greatest part of the rebels' forces will desert them and join you, and that county being once reduced, all this part of England will presently be clear." "Rupert MSS.," fol. 137; "Clarendon" (Macray), Vol. 3, p. 339 (book 8, par. 17).
[139] Assheton to Moore, March 18 (Stewart MSS., "Hist. MSS. Com.," rep. 10, app. 4, p. 71). He has heard that the Princes are joined, and fears that their objective may be Lancashire by way of Hale Ford or Liverpool. In the meantime Derby continued to address urgent appeals to Rupert. He has not been able to raise the regiments which the Prince had required in order to raise the siege, "and the time is now past, for the enemy is so close to the House that it is impossible for that design to take effect which might have been some relieving of a distressed woman whose only hope, next to Almighty God, is in your Highness's help." ("Hist MSS. Com.," report 9, app. 2, p. 437.)
[140] Newspapers in "C.W.T.," 187; "C.S.P.," 173, 174.
[141] "C.S.P.," 1644, pp. 206, 207. They urged that there were only two ways for Rupert to go, either through Warrington or Stockport; and that both should be well guarded.
[142] Lancashire Committee to the Earl of Denbigh, May 16: "They profess willingness to send some troops, but that if the older soldiers are withdrawn the new recruits are not to be trusted" ("C.S.P.," 1644, p. 164). The regiments intended for Denbigh were Holland's and Booth's (ibid., pp. 111, 123). Cf. also H. L. Calendar, "Hist. MSS. Com.," report 6, p. 13.