A History of Lancashire

by Henry Fishwick

The town of Bolton had been left with only some 500 men, and taking advantage of this, on February 16 the Earl of Derby and the Major–General marched from Wigan towards it with about 1,000 horse and foot and got within a mile of the place without being discovered by the garrison, which, it seems, was “at prayer in the church.” And now the Earl’s forces made a fatal mistake: instead of making straight for the town, they went round by Great Lever, and in doing so their presence was discovered, and the soldiers were at their posts ready to receive the besiegers. The first assault took place at Bradshaw Gate, where three forts had been erected. The contest was a severe one. The fortification consisted of certain outworks and a mud wall, 2 yards thick, on the inner side of which was an arrangement of chains, which has not been clearly defined. One account says that the invaders, with iron bullets of five or six pounds weight, shot through the mud walls; whilst another faithful narrator scornfully reports that “they played children’s play, for they mortally hit but one lad,” and he, common report said, was one on their own side.[138] The same authority adds that “hither their wittie malice brought a new invented mischievous instrument,” which consisted of “an head about a quarter of a yard long, a staffe two yards long or more put into that head, twelve iron pikes round about and one in the end to stab with. This fierce weapon (to double their scorn) they called a Roundhead.” The Royalists, having forced the outworks, got possession of several houses, to some of which they set fire; they were, however, ultimately driven back and retreated to Wigan, taking along with them, it is said, two or three cartloads of dead bodies.[139] When the fight was over, 1,700 men came from Middleton, Oldham, Rochdale and Manchester to the assistance of the besieged town. The officers in command of the garrison at Bolton were Colonel Ashton, Captain Buckley, of Oldham; Captain Scoffield, of Rochdale; Captain Holt, of Bury; and Captain Ashurst, of Radcliffe Bridge.

The rebels had now got into their hands Manchester, Preston, Lancaster, and Bolton, the Royalists having their headquarters at Warrington and Wigan, whilst most of the other towns (including Liverpool) had as yet not been called upon to take any prominent part in the struggle; but it may be assumed that almost invariably the Roman Catholics, the older gentry, and most of the freeholders, were on the King’s side. About this time an event took place which caused great excitement in the northern part of the county, and which had some influence on the future course of the war in that portion of the county. On March 4 a large Spanish ship appeared in sight, and being driven by the wind into the waters of the Wyre near Rossall Point, the captain, not knowing where he could land, put out his anchor and fired his cannon as a signal of distress; on a pilot boat being sent out, it was discovered that the ship was laden with ammunition intended for the use of the Parliamentary forces. The ship, which was described as being of “a great burden, such a one as was never landed in Wyre watter in any man’s memory,” was forthwith seized by the Royalists and brought into the mouth of the Wyre; whereupon the Earl of Derby with a troop of horse came to Rossall, and finding there in or about the ship Colonel George Dodding, of Conishead Priory, and Mr. Townson, of Lancaster, both Parliamentary men, he took them prisoners and ordered the ship to be burnt, which was accordingly done. The Preston commanders, for whose use this ammunition was no doubt destined, in the meantime got to know what was being done, and despatched four companies of foot towards Rossall; they passed the night at Poulton–le–Fylde, and the next day, sending out scouts, they discovered that the Earl and his men were on Layton Hawes, and not liking to meet his horsemen, they marched on to Rossall, where from the opposite side of the river they witnessed the burning of the Spanish ship; this, as she was probably stranded, was not complete, so that most of the guns which she carried (some being of brass) were not destroyed, and this the Parliamentary officers were not slow to take advantage of, and they forthwith sent up boats and carried away the ordnance down the Lune to Lancaster, where they were stowed away in the castle.

Whilst the Earl was in the Fylde district he was instrumental in raising many more troops for the King’s forces, and after doing so he decided to attack Lancaster, and if possible recover the guns which by his want of forethought had been taken by the enemy. Accordingly on March 18 the Earl (according to his own account) presented himself with a few forces before the town, and the Mayor having refused to surrender, he (the Earl) “made bold to burn the greatest part of the town, and in it many of their souldiers, who defended it sharply for about two hours, but we beat them into the castle, and I seeing the tower clear from all but smoke, spared the remainder of that town and laid siege unto the castle.” This attempt to recover the castle he abandoned; having been informed that Sir John Seaton with a large force was on his way from Preston, he resolved to steal a march on that town, now left almost defenceless. The account of this destruction of Lancaster as given by Major Robinson has a very different aspect; he asserts that there were very few soldiers in the town, except those in the castle, and consequently the firing of the houses was an unnecessary piece of cruelty; in the centre of the town many of the best houses were fired, and in one long street all the houses, barns, with the cattle in their stalls, were entirely burnt.

When the Earl left Lancaster he took with him many prisoners of war, amongst whom was the Mayor of that town. The Earl managed to march to Preston by a different route to the one taken by Colonel Ashton, who commanded the party sent to the relief of Lancaster, and thus on March 22 he reached Fullwood Moor, where he waited until after dark; in the meantime, however, the scouts from Preston had discovered his advance, and had alarmed the garrison. The Friarsgate Bar was strongly guarded, but the nearer the enemy came to it, it is said, the “weaker it waxed, for the townes men were generally disaffected to Parliament.”[140] This is probably true, as after, according to one authority, two hours’ fight[141] the town was regained. The next day many people from the country around Preston came into the town shouting, “God bless the King and the Earl of Derby!”

The Earl seemed now to be bent on recovering all that had heretofore been lost, and within a week of the taking of Preston (on the 27th) Bolton was again attacked, the Royalist force about two o’clock in the afternoon being drawn up on the moor outside the town, and a message sent to demand a surrender: this was refused, and towards dark the “minister of the town prayed with a company of souldiers, most of them townsmen. The end of prayer was the beginning of the fight.”[142] The enemy made several assaults during the night, and at one time got close to the mud wall, but some forces from Bury coming to assist the besieged, the enemy were finally repulsed. There was probably very little loss on either side.

Colonel Ashton only arrived at Lancaster to find the town partially in ruins; he then marched on to the neighbourhood of Whalley. On the road he was followed by the Earl of Derby and his forces, and a slight engagement took place, after which the Royalists took shelter in the abbey, but were afterwards forced to retreat through Langho Green to Ribchester. Colonel Ashton and his men then proceeded to Padiham, where, “having a good minister, some hours were spent in thanksgiving” for their great deliverance.

On April 1, Wigan, one of the headquarters of the Royalists, was stormed and taken after a very short struggle by Colonel Ashton’s forces; but, according to Rosworm, owing to some treachery the place was vacated the same night, the soldiers having first taken some prisoners and much spoil, and having placed “great heaps of woollen cloth of the drapers in the streets.” Wigan was again taken on April 28 by Colonel Ashton, who, having burnt the gates of the town, took an oath from the townsmen never again to bear arms against the King.

Warrington was now garrisoned by the Earl of Derby. It was defended on one side by the river Mersey, which was crossed by a bridge of four arches; over this bridge was a narrow roadway, and on the centre pier stood a watch–house which had formerly been used by the Austin Friars as an oratory. The other sides of the town were defended by mud walls, with gates at the principal entrances; outside these walls outworks had been thrown up. Against this stronghold Sir William Brereton’s forces and a large detachment from Manchester laid siege on April 1 (1643), but they only succeeded in getting possession of Sankey Bridge and “a fayre large house of one Mr. Bridgeman’s.”[143] They withdrew their troops after a three days’ siege and some smart fighting, the reason alleged for this being that the Earl of Derby set fire to the centre of the town, and threatened to burn down the whole place rather than it should be taken.

Lancaster towards the end of April was again taken by the Parliamentary forces, and the pieces of ordnance from the Spanish ship ([see p. 139]) were removed to Manchester, and very shortly afterwards (May 19) Warrington, after withstanding a week’s siege, was obliged to surrender, partly, it is said, because provision ran short. After these various warlike proceedings, it is not astonishing that funds began to fail, and for want of the sinews of war, many preferred to return to their usual occupations, and thus the leaders of both parties were surrounded with difficulties. Whilst the Parliament could and did order the estates of the delinquents to be confiscated, the Royalists could only levy voluntary rates, which fell heaviest on those whose estates had thus been seized. The tide of war seemed now to have turned against the Earl of Derby, who, to add to his other defeats, made an attempt, and failed, to regain the magazine in Liverpool. The Royalists were further disheartened by the removal from their midst of the Earl of Derby, who was ordered by the Queen to betake himself to the Isle of Man, which was then menaced by the enemies of the King; here he landed on June 15, 1643. Shortly after this Hornby Castle[144] was taken by the Parliamentary forces, and there now only remained Thurland Castle and Lathom House in the hands of the Royalists; and as the Earl of Derby, Lord Molyneux, and Colonel Thomas Tyldesley were all out of the county, the enemy began to realize that they were almost in possession of the whole county. Before the departure of these leaders much plundering by the soldiers was reported in the Fylde district, where Lord Molyneux and Colonel Tyldesley were for a time stationed; at Kirkham, Clifton, St. Michael’s and Laton, cattle were taken and houses sacked. About this time Colonel Alexander Rigby (whose name hereafter appears more prominently) came armed with a commission from the Commons to raise forces in the hundreds of Leyland and Amounderness, and to get the soldiers so raised ready for war in the least possible time. His efforts were successful, and in nearly every parish in the district he met with some support. Encouraged by this, he, about midsummer, undertook to take Thurland Castle, which was then held by Sir John Girlington,[145] who had around him “many disperat caviliers;” his castle was well fortified and provisioned. Colonel Rigby was supplied (in addition to the men he had raised) with forces from Salford and Blackburn Hundreds. Alexander Rigby’s own account of this siege is that during the greater part of the conflict, which lasted seven weeks, he was threatened by the forces of Westmorland, which were drawn up within his view; to these forces were added the Royalists from the Cartmel and Furness district. Having decided to deal with these forces before attacking the castle, he took “500 foot, 2 Drakes, and 3 small troops of horse” (part of his army which lay before Thurland), and marched thirty miles “over mountain and sea, sands and water,” and when in sight of the enemy (near Dalton) they “committed themselves to God’s protection and began their worke with publike prayers.” From some cause, which is not recorded, he goes on to state that the enemy, before a blow was struck, began to retreat, and were soon dispersed, throwing away their arms, and leaving their guns and ammunition behind them. Colonel Rigby took some 400 prisoners, including Colonel Huddleston, of Millom. After this exploit the little band of soldiers turned back to Thurland in the best of spirits, and endowed with such enthusiasm that in a very short time Sir John Girlington surrendered, on condition that he and his wife should be allowed free passage into Yorkshire. The castle was at once demolished. A portion of the ancient walls and an entrance doorway are all that now remains of this fortified house of the Tunstall family.

The next step to be taken was, of course, to attack Lathom, which was now the refuge and headquarters of the few Royalists left. This strong fortress was built on the site of an older building in the time of Henry VI., and according to the ballad of “Flodden Field,” “this bright bower of Lathom” had “nine towers on high”: above these rose what was known as the Eagle Tower; it stood on a flat, boggy piece of ground, and was surrounded with a wall some 2 yards thick, on the outside of which was a moat 8 yards wide and 2 yards deep. On each of the nine towers there were six pieces of ordnance. Into this stronghold a few faithful followers of the Earl of Derby (who was now in the Isle of Man) had retreated, and were determined to assist the Countess in maintaining it against all comers; with this in view, they proceeded to garrison it and to procure from the surrounding neighbourhood provisions to enable them to withstand a prolonged siege. These precautions were not taken too soon, for on February 24, 1643–44, a meeting was held in Manchester, when it was resolved that forthwith an attack should be made on Lathom, the conduct of which was given to Colonel Alexander Rigby (a lawyer), Colonel Ashton of Middleton, and Colonel Moore of Bankhall.