If our dramatist had any warrant for this representation, of which I have no doubt, the town of Bridgnorth must have witnessed on this occasion a fine military muster, and have had the privilege of receiving into its Castle one who has been ranked among the greatest of England’s heroes—Henry, Prince of Wales. He was just at that time beginning to emerge from the state of wild and thoughtless profligacy in which he had wasted his early years, and was about to exhibit those qualities, which have since made his name so illustrious in English History. The battle of Shrewsbury, at which he did some service, was very decisive; and the confederate army of the rebels, under Glendwyr, Hotspur, and Douglas, was completely routed. Nevertheless our county continued for years after to be ravaged by the Welsh insurgents, nor was it till the reign of Henry V., when the death of Glendwyr took place, that there was any security for life and property in the Borders.

In the succeeding reign of Henry VI. commenced that most destructive series of Civil Wars, known by the name of the Wars of the Roses, between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, which laid waste for many years the fairest provinces of the land. “It was not finished in less than a course of thirty years: was signalized by twelve pitched battles: opened a scene of extraordinary violence: is computed to have cost the lives of eighty Princes of the blood, and to have almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England.”—History of Shrewsbury, Vol. 1, p. 166.

Shropshire was necessarily embroiled in these contests, and I have lighted upon one fact, which shows, I think, that Bridgnorth, as well as the neighbouring town of Shrewsbury, assumed the badge of the White Rose, espousing the cause of the house of York. The fact referred to, though a trifling one in itself, seems to me to connect Bridgnorth with the great leader of that party—Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. This nobleman, who had doubtless a clearer title to the crown of England than the reigning monarch, held the Castle of Ludlow, and was naturally very anxious to associate the people of Shrewsbury with his party, and to make them his adherents. He therefore entered into communication with them; and on one occasion, when a matter of some consequence was to be considered, the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury appointed a gentleman of Bridgnorth, the representative of this Borough, in company with others, to treat with the Duke at his castle of Ludlow. The following extract from the accounts of the Bailiffs of Shrewsbury, a.d. 1457, refers to this fact:—“Paid for a breakfast to Thomas Acton and Thomas Hoord, for their good council, touching the return of a precept to the Duke of York, directed to the Bailiffs for surety of the peace.” Again. “Money paid for the expenses of Thomas Hoord, and William Lyster, riding to the Lord Duke of York at Ludlow, to get the said precept dissolved.” (History of Shrewsbury, Vol. 1, p. 224.) This Thomas Acton was of Aldenham, and ancestor to the present baronet of that name; and Thomas Hoord was of Hoord Park, now called Park Farm, adjacent to our town, a gentleman of ancient lineage. He was member of Parliament for our Borough, and therefore it is not likely that he would have engaged himself to treat with the Duke of York, if he had not been aware that his constituents at Bridgnorth were well affected to his party, which was now growing formidable.

I have not had access to any records which shew whether our town took any very active part, or in what measure they suffered in consequence, in this fatal and disastrous strife; but it is scarcely possible that such great battles should have been fought in this and the adjoining counties, as Mortimer’s Cross, Tewksbury, and Ludlow, without Bridgnorth being more or less affected by them. I have little doubt that the state of decay and ruin, in which parts of the town were found some years afterwards, is to be traced to these civil contests. This is noticed in an Act of Parliament, passed in the year 1535. It recites that “many houses, messuages, and tenements of habitation, in the town of Bridgnorth, now are, and have of a long time been, in great ruin and decay, and specially in the principal and chief streets there being; in the which chief streets in time passed have been beautiful dwelling houses there, well inhabited, which at this day much part thereof is desolate and void grounds, with pits, cellars, and vaults lying open and uncovered, very perilous for people to go by in the night, without jeopardy of life, which things are to the great impoverishing and hindrance of the said town.” (History of Shrewsbury, Vol. 1, p. 318.)

These wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, which spread such ruin over the land, did not cease till after the battle of Bosworth Field, and the accession of the house of Tudor to the throne, in the person of Henry VII; and with this latter event, a very important one in English history, Bridgnorth was accidentally connected.

The Duke of Buckingham was the chief instrument of raising the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII, to the throne of England, and this was occasioned, the historian Hall relates,[39] by a casual circumstance which occurred in the neighbourhood of our town. This Duke had large estates in Shropshire, in consequence of his being the representative of the ancient family of Corbet, and among these he had certain tenements in Bridgnorth. (Dukes’ Antiquities of Shropshire, p. 31.) His possession of this property was perhaps the cause of his visiting our town, in the summer of 1483. It was just at this time that he was plotting the overthrow of the government of Richard III, but feeling uncertain as to the person whom he should endeavour to make sovereign in his stead, when riding one day between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster, he accidentally met the Countess of Richmond, better known by the name of the Lady Margaret. This casual interview suggested to his mind the young and enterprising Earl of Richmond, as the fittest heir to the English throne; and he immediately set himself to raise an insurrection in these, and other parts of the kingdom, in his favour. The insurrection succeeded, though Buckingham himself perished in the enterprise; and the Earl of Richmond, became Henry VII, king of England. On so accidental a circumstance depended the accession of the house of Tudor to the English throne, and the consequences, which followed it, so important to the interests of this great empire.

It was during the sovereignty of the house of Tudor that one of the most important events in the history of our country took place, viz., the Reformation, commencing in the reign of Henry VIII., and being completed in that of Elizabeth. I greatly regret not having been able to collect any information respecting our town during this eventful and interesting period. One would like to know how it was affected by the great movement which was then taking place, and whether the pulpits of St. Mary’s and St. Leonard’s were late or early in announcing those glorious truths, which at that time began to stir the depths of people’s minds, and caused such a mighty revolution in the land—whether here, as well as elsewhere, there were men who stood up as fearless defenders of the truth, ready to seal their advocacy of it with their blood. We have no details on the subject; but we learn that the spirit of reformation was awakened in Shropshire as far back as the fourteenth century. A very remarkable Poem of that date, entitled “The Visions of Piers the Ploughman,” whose uncouth rhymes seem to have produced a wonderful effect on the popular mind, was written by an inhabitant of the neighbouring town of Cleobury Mortimer. (History of Salop, p. 202, note 1.) We also know that our county town had a courageous advocate of the cause in the reign of Henry IV in William Thorpe; who ascending the pulpit of Saint Chad’s, vehemently denounced the errors of the Church of Rome, and in consequence suffered imprisonment. It is not likely that such things should have gone on in the neighbourhood of Bridgnorth without our townspeople being more or less affected by them; but we have no particulars—none, I mean, that my very limited search could discover—respecting the progress which the Reformation made among them.

There is one document, however, which shews that the accession of Queen Mary was received by the inhabitants of Bridgnorth and its neighbourhood with great demonstrations of joy; but it is of course doubtful whether this resulted from their loyalty to the person of one whom they rightly regarded as the heir to the throne, or from attachment to those religious opinions of which she was known to be a patron. The document I refer to is an extract from the Register of Sir Thomas Boteler, Vicar of Much Wenlock, beginning November 26th, 1538, ending September 20th, 1562. “1553 Memorandum. That as some say King Edward VI, by the grace of God, &c., died the 6th day of this instant month of July, in the year of our Lord God as it is above written, and as some say he died on the 4th of May last proceeding in the same year of our Lord; and upon Mary Magdalene’s day, which is the 22nd day of this instant month, at Bridgnorth in the fair there was proclaimed Lady Mary, Queen of England, &c., after which proclamation finished, the people made great joy, casting up their caps and hats, lauding, thanking, and praising God Almighty, with ringing of bells, and making of bonfires in every street. And so was she proclaimed Queen on the same day, and at the Battle field in the same evening, with the like joy of the people, and triumphal solemnity made in Shrewsbury, and also in this Borough of Much Wenlock.”

The Act for the dissolution of Monasteries and other Religious Houses took effect here of course, and consequently the Friary and the Hospitals of St. John and St. James were all suppressed, and their property confiscated. The Brethren of Grey Friars seem at that time to have been in very reduced circumstances, so that the spoils obtained from them were hardly worth the seizure. The King’s Commissioners came here on the 5th of August, 1538, and the following note, which was signed by the Bailiffs of the town, shows the indigent condition in which this religious establishment was found—a plain proof of what little hold at that time the orders of monks and friars had upon the affections of the people. “Memorandum. This V daye of Auguste, in ye XXX yeare of Kynge Henry the VIIJth, that Rycharde bysehope of Dovor, and vesytor under the Lorde Prevy Seale for ye Kynge’s grace, was in Bryggenorthe, wher that the warden and heys Bredren in the presens of Master Thomas Hall, and Master Randolphe Rodes, Balys of the sayd towne gave the howse, with all the purtenans into the vesytores handdes to the Kynge’s use; for sayd warden and brethren sayd that they war not abull to live, for the charyte off the pepulle was so small, that in IIJ yeares they had not receyvyd in almes in redy mony to the sum of Xs. by yere, but only leve by a serves that they had in the town in a chapell[40] on the bryge. Thus the sayd vesytor receyveyd the sayd howse, with the purtenans to the kynge’s use, and by indentures delyveryd yt to us the sayd Balys to kepe to the kynge’s use, till the kynges plesur was further known. Thys wyttenes we the sayd balys with other.