The property of Sir William Whitmore, like that of other Royalists, was forfeited, and became the spoil of the Parliamentary party: all his personal goods and chattels were sequestrated, and sold for the benefit of the State, for the sum of £583 3s. 2d. His estates were siezed, and he was afterwards allowed to compound for them by paying the sum of £5,000.[65] This was the common lot of such, as in those troubled times stood for the defence of their King, and were loyal to the last. Their personal property was put into the hands of Parliamentary sequestrators, and sold as forfeit to the State; and their landed estates were bought back by their rightful owners at a considerable sacrifice. A register was kept, and afterwards published, of the names of those who thus suffered in the cause of loyalty, with the sum, for which they compounded, affixed to each. It is entitled, “A Catalogue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen, that have compounded for their Estates. London, printed 1655.”[66] In it are to be found the familiar Shropshire names of Whitmore, Wolwryche, Acton, Corbett, Ottley, Billingsley, Littleton, Eyton, Newport, Weld, Pigot, &c.; and certainly it detracts nothing from the honour which belongs to these ancient families, that their names are inscribed in this “black legend,” as it was very fitly termed. On the blank leaf of the copy which I have seen is the following entry in manuscript:—

“Total Fines£1,275,667
Value of Annuities, at 10 years  90,000
Amount of Money at the period of exaction1,365,667
Equal in money of the present period,  £5,462,668
1842, to four times the amount

But under the government of Cromwell, not only laymen who drew the sword in defence of the crown, but clergymen who maintained and taught the principles of loyalty, and who were too honest to abandon them when they became unpopular, were deprived of their revenues. It is computed that the number of ministers in the Church, who were ejected from their livings on this account, were above 9000; and the sufferings which many of them underwent, in consequence, form materials for the most deeply affecting narratives.[67] I am sorry to say that the minister of Saint Leonard’s was not found among those who were faithful to their principles. While Shiffnal, and Wellington, and Chetton, and Sidbury, and Kemberton, and Cleobury, and Highley, and others could boast of pastors, who willingly endured persecution for conscience sake, Gilbert Walden, Minister of Saint Leonard’s, Bridgnorth, was found unfaithful in the day of trial, and seems to have sacrificed his principles to his interest. His name is found in the Parish Register as minister, within a year of the date of the siege, when the town was in the hands of the Royalists; then it disappears from it, when it was evident that the fortunes of that party were declining; and then appears again, when the town was in possession of the Parliamentary party. So that it is to be feared that he professed allegiance to the King and Church when he thought their cause likely to prosper, but when it declined he attached himself to the Roundheads.

Indeed this is scarcely a mere matter of inference, as the reader may judge for himself from an entry, still remaining in the books of the Corporation. It is as follows:—Bridgnorth. Aᵒ Dⁿⁱ 1644. “At the Court Leete held in the said Town of Bridgnorth, the VIIᵗʰ day of May. Aᵒ Caroli Augᵗ XXº Richard Synge and Willᵐ Bradley, gent, being Bayliffs. At this Leete it was moted by the Bayliffs and others, That forsomuch as Mr. Gilbert Walden, the late publiq Preacher of the said Town, is recesste and gon out of the said Town, and hath deserted his place ever sithence aboute a moneth before Easter last. That one Mr. Thomas Laughton, Master of Artes, a Preacher (who is recommended to the place by Sʳ Lewis Kirke, Knight, Governoʳ of the said Towne, and whoe hath supplyed the place since Mr. Walden’s goeing away) shold be accepted by the Town in the said Mr. Walden’s place, to be publiq Preacher of the said Town, wᵗʰ the profitte and allowance thereunto belonginge; unto wh. all that were here present at this Leete agree, and nominate him, the said Mr. Laughton, publiq Preacher of the said Town, with all such proffits and allowance as the said Mr. Walden had of the Town’s allowance in that behalfe, Soe as he preach two Sundayes at the High Church, and the third at the Low Church, as Mr. Walden did. And this to be further confirmed at a Common Hall, yf it be desired.” The Parliament were not unmindful of Gilbert Walden, but in reward for his desertion of the Royalists, placed him again in his office as Minister of Saint Leonard’s, and restored to him all its emoluments. But far happier were they who stood firm in the evil day, and had the Christian courage to brave the consequences—and with such sainted men as Hall, and Usher, and Hammond, and Jeremy Taylor, submitted to the penalties of sequestration, poverty, imprisonment, and exile, rather than desert what they believed the cause of God and of His Truth.

But it must not be supposed, from anything that I have said on this subject, that I regard as evil-minded, and unprincipled men, all the Ministers of religion, who in those difficult and trying times sided with Cromwell and the Parliamentary party. This would not only be a most uncharitable opinion, but one formed in direct opposition to the plainest historical evidence. There were men of deep piety and extensive learning, who unhappily lent their countenance to the usurpation of Cromwell—men who afterwards suffered persecution themselves for conscience sake, and whose Christian worth was such, that we may safely say of them, what Dr. Johnson says of Watts—that they were to be imitated in everything except in their nonconformity. Nothing indeed can be said in justification of the line of conduct which they pursued, but they were prompted to it by pure and not by corrupt motives, and so far they are to be respected. Among the great and good men who were allied to the Parliamentary party, I should especially name one, on account of his connection with Bridgnorth, namely, Richard Baxter. It appears that he began his ministry in this town, in the Church of St. Leonard’s; but left it after some time, with, I am sorry to say, a very unfavourable impression as to the character of our townsmen of that day. It is said that on leaving them he shook off the dust of his feet against them, and declared that their hearts were harder than the rock on which their town was built. But his disappointment at the want of success in his ministry here did not estrange his mind from the inhabitants of a place, where he had commenced his course; but he felt, after years of absence, the strongest desires for their welfare. A very pleasing proof we have of this, in an old edition of his work, entitled “The Saint’s Rest” (A. D. 1654); for there we find the following dedication to the people of Bridgnorth:—

TO MY DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS
THE INHABITANTS OF
BRIDGNORTH,
BOTH MAGISTRATES AND PEOPLE,

RICHARD BAXTER

DEVOTETH THIS PART OF THIS TREATISE,
IN TESTIMONY OF HIS UNFEIGNED LOVE TO
THEM, WHO WERE THE FIRST TO WHOM HE
WAS SENT (AS FIXED) TO PUBLISH THE
GOSPEL; AND IN THANKFULNESS TO THE
DIVINE MAJESTY, WHO THERE PRIVILEGED
AND PROTECTED HIM.

It has been already stated that the fire, which took place during the siege of the Castle, entirely destroyed the High Town, and left it a heap of ruins. A few houses indeed survived the general destruction.[68] One of these, which is still standing, deserves a passing notice, as being the birthplace of Dr. Percy, Bishop of Dromore, the well known author of “The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.”[69] It stands at the bottom of the Cartway, adjoining Underhill Street, and is conspicuous among the dwellings which surround it, not only from its size, but from its picturesque appearance, being ornamented with several pointed gables, and being constructed partly of solid beams of oak, in some places curiously carved, and partly of masonry. It was built in the latter end of the sixteenth century, as the following embossed inscription in the entrance hall informs us:—

“Except the Lord BViLD the OWSE,
The Labourers thereof evail nothing.
Erected by R. For [Qy Foster] 1580.”