[125] This case does not belong to the seventeenth century, but it is inserted here as bearing upon the subject, and only occurred four years before the century began.
[126] “The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the County of Lancaster, with the arraignment and trial of nineteene notorious Witches, etc., etc.; London, 1613.” Reprinted by the Chetham Soc., vol. vi., old series.
[127] See Lanc., and Ches. Ant. Soc., x. 215.
[128] Some of these tracts are now very scarce.
[129] One of these was found near Rochdale a few years ago. (See “History of Rochdale,” p. 535.)
[130] Satirical poem, Hopkinson’s MSS., xxxiv. 85.
[131] “Nicholas Assheton’s Journal,” Chetham Soc., xiv.
[132] Liverpool Municipal Records.
[133] The Chetham Society, vols. ii., xlii., and lxvi., contained full details of the Civil War in Lancashire. From this source many of the following particulars are taken.
[134] In a tract dated July 5, 1642, entitled “The Beginning of the Civil Warres in England, or Terrible News from the North,” Lord Strange is reported to have approached Manchester with a considerable armed force on July 5, and drawing up at a little distance from the town, demanded that the inhabitants should deliver up their magazines. On their refusal to give them up, he marched against the town, outside of which he was met by “ten small companies set in a faire battalion,” and a skirmish took place, which lasted several hours, and resulted in the withdrawal of the Royalist forces with the loss of twenty–seven men. The tract then states “that this is the beginning of the Civill Warre, being the first stroke that hath been struck, and the first bullet that hath been shot.” There is much reason to doubt the correctness of this reported fight, as no mention of it is made by contemporary authorities.