The town was taken by storm in 1644–5, under the command of Colonels Mytton and Bowyer, of the parliamentary army, the inhabitants experiencing all the vicissitudes of a siege, in the plunder of their goods and destruction of property. An attempt was made, in 1654, to surprise it, in favour of the restoration of monarchy, by Sir Thomas Harries, but the scheme, although deeply planned, was frustrated.
James II. in the month of August, 1687, kept his Court at the Council House, and was attended by many of the nobility and gentry of the county, on which occasion, it is said, “the conduits ran with wine,” and other most liberal entertainments and rejoicings welcomed the royal guest. At the same time he graciously received a purse of one hundred guineas, which was presented to him by the munificence of the corporation.
The inhabitants on many occasions have been thus foremost to testify loyalty to their sovereign.
In 1715 their adherence to the House of Hanover was strongly manifested by voluntarily raising a body of horse and foot for the protection of the town, and placing the walls and gates (then entire) in a position of defence.
At the time also apprehensions were entertained of the Pretender and the Scottish invasion in 1745, a regiment of foot was raised here for the service of government; and, subsequently, a militia and cavalry have been embodied.
In the year 1832, the most lively enthusiasm was displayed on the entrance into Shrewsbury of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, heir presumptive to the British throne.
From the foregoing cursory glance given to the leading events of our ancient history, it may be necessary to remark that it would have been less difficult to the writer could he have extended his observations as to particular occurrences; but the nature of the work being a notice of the present rather than of the past state of the place, brevity of description in this, as in some other portions, will be indispensible.
But the numerous features of historical and antiquarian interest which the town affords, its British and Saxon state, the destiny of its Norman Earls, its Siege by Stephen, the Union of Wales to the English Crown, the Formation of Parliaments, the Battle of Shrewsbury and Fall of Hotspur, the numerous Visits of Royalty, the Entrance and Proclamation of Henry VII. the Commencement of the Civil War in the Time of Charles I. and Meetings of the Council of the Marches of Wales, while forming constituent parts of our national story, are especially connected with this town, and will be found amply detailed in the valuable History of Shrewsbury published by the late Reverend Messrs. Owen and Blakeway, where everything difficult in civil and ecclesiastical localities is explained in a scientific and masterly manner, and with the greatest discrimination.
THE CASTLE.
“But time * * *
Has seen this ruin’d pile complete,
Big with the vanity of state.”Dyer.