Notes and Queries for Worcestershire

by John Noake

Thorn farmhouse, at Inkberrow, also claims the honour of having sheltered the royal head; and there is a farmhouse at Cookhill, in the same parish, in which a portrait of the King remained hidden behind a sliding panel (probably ever since the days of the Commonwealth), and would not have been discovered to the present time but for the decay of a peg on which it was hung, occasioning it to fall with a great noise in the night time some years ago. So large a number of old houses in this county are said to have been temporary resting places for the King or his fugitive son that it is probable one half of these traditions cannot be correct. The King marched from Inkberrow to Droitwich, where he stayed from Sunday till Wednesday, and then went to the siege of Hawkesley House, which was at once surrendered, and set on fire. That night the King lay at Cofton Hall, near Bromsgrove, occupied by Mr. Thomas Jolliffe, who was faithful to his Sovereign to the last, and attended his execution. There is a tradition that when the King was in prison he gave a key to Mr. Jolliffe, to visit him when he pleased; and in Dr. Nash's time there was a picture in the house, representing that gentleman, with a key in his hand, his pistols and sword hanging on a pillar before him. After leaving Cofton Hall the King marched to Himley, then inhabited by Lord Ward.

In June, 1645, was fought the famous battle of Naseby, which crushed the Royal cause. Soon afterwards, the Scotch army was ordered to march from Nottingham to Worcester; and in July, Canon Froome, in Herefordshire, then a garrison of the King's, was taken by the Scotch army with little loss, and Col. Harley, progenitor of the famous Tory minister of Queen Anne and of the Earls of Oxford and Mortimer, was appointed governor of the place. Whether the property at Canon Froome then belonged, as it does now, to a member of the ancient family of Hopton, I have not the means of ascertaining, but it is recorded in the memorials of Whitelock that about this time a Mr. Hopton, with a small band of followers, fell in with, and, after a gallant conflict, destroyed a party of the Royalists in the vicinity of Ledbury.

In August, 1645, the King came with his army from Shipston-on-Stour to Worcester, where they rested several days, the guards lying at Claines. The Worcester Corporation accounts of this period contain numerous items of expense incurred by "the Scots' king," as his Majesty was then somewhat contemptuously termed; and the chamberlains also "pray to be allowed for butter potts and napkins, bottles, &c., sent to the Denary (his Majesty's quarters) and there lost."

Charles again passed through Bewdley, where a skirmish took place with his pursuers, and sixty Royalists were taken prisoners. It is said that he slept for two nights at the Angel Inn, in that town, and that the inhabitants granted the sum of half-a-crown for his entertainment, but there is probably some mistake either in the amount or in the alleged object to which it was applied. Tickenhill Palace was so much damaged during these wars that it was taken down soon afterwards. From Bewdley the King went to Bromyard, and at length the hunted monarch found shelter in the princely halls of Ragland with the Marquis of Worcester. It is recorded that in November of this year divers persons of Worcestershire, under Mr. Dingley—he was an officer who had served in the Low Countries—declared for the Parliament and complained of the "insolence and injuries" of the garrison of Worcester. Probably the clubmen now gave in their adhesion to the only party which was able to protect them, and against which resistance would have been unavailing, for the fortunes of King Charles were rapidly sinking to the lowest ebb. In proof of these "insolences and injuries" a copy of a warrant from Col. Bard (probably Baird), the governor, to the constables who were accustomed to collect the contributions, was laid before the Parliament. It was drawn after the most approved Rupert style:—

"Know that unless you bring into me (at a day and house in Worcester) the monthly contribution for six months, you are to expect an unsanctified troop of horse among you, from whom, if you hide yourselves, they shall fire your houses without mercy, hang up your bodies wherever they find them, and scare your ghosts, &c."

This probably led to the organisation of the Worcestershire Committee of defence and safety, of which mention first occurs immediately after the declaration of Mr. Dingley and others and the representation made by them to the Parliament. Early in December, 1645, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice set out from Worcester with 160 horse in the direction of Oxford. They were obstructed on their march by a party of the "clubmen" under Sir Edward Dingley, the then head of this old Worcestershire family. But these raw levies were no match for the trained cavaliers and their ardent leaders. The Princes and their troop cut their way through Dingley's yeomen, killing and wounding several of them, and so got safely to Oxford.

The unfortunate upholder of "divine right in kings" passed to his account in January, 1649. In 1651, Charles II escaped with his forces out of Scotland, and marching through the northern and midland counties, entered Worcester on the 23rd of August. Major-Generals Lambert and Harrison had despatched some forces to secure the place, lest the King should make it a quarter or garrison. These and the country levies made a brave resistance and beat back the Royalists several times, but the townsmen having laid down their arms, and some of them shooting at the Parliament soldiers out of the windows, they removed their ammunition, while a party of only thirty men kept the enemy at bay. They then retired in good order upon Gloucester, the King's troops being too much fatigued by their long marches from the north to pursue them. Charles was proclaimed King in this city. The result of the disastrous battle of Worcester has been already described by various historians. William Bagnall, then living in Sidbury, being one of the "Chamber," or Corporation, turned out a horse, ready bridled and saddled, for the use of his Majesty, when the latter was so near being captured. Mr. Bagnall died in a year afterwards, but the family would never afterwards receive any consideration for the horse or saddle. In Chambers's "Biographical Illustrations" it is stated that "Sir Charles Wogan is said to have been robbed of the honour of saving King Charles II after the battle of Worcester, as he stopped those who were in chase of his Majesty and Colonel Carless." At Wolverley, in the dell upon the brink of which Lea Castle stands, is still shown the spot over which the King crossed on his way to Kinfare and Boscobel.

On the Bromyard road, some three miles and a half from the city of Worcester (says a writer in the publication called "Notes and Queries"), is Cotheridge Court, the manorial residence of the Berkeleys. The Mr. Berkeley who held it at the date of the battle of Worcester was a stout Royalist, and went to help the fallen fortunes of his King. It so chanced that he had two piebald horses, who were exactly like each other, "specially Sambo," as the niggers say. He made one of these horses his charger, and rode him to the fight. When Cromwell had gained his "crowning merits," Mr. Berkeley escaped to Cotheridge as best he might; and planning a very skilful ruse, left his exhausted charger at one of the farmhouses not far from the court. He then betook himself to bed, and, as he had foreseen, a troop of crop-headed Parliamentarists now made their appearance before his doors and sought admittance. Mr. Berkeley was ill in bed, and could not be seen. Fudge! they must see him. So they go to his bed-side. "So you were fighting against us at Worcester to-day, were you?" say the crop-heads. "Me!" says Mr. Berkeley, faintly and innocently; "why, I am sick, and forced to keep my bed." "All very fine," say the crop-heads, "but you were there, my dear sir, for you rode a piebald charger, and were very conspicuous." "It could not have been me," says the sick man, "for though I certainly do ride a piebald charger when I am in health, yet he has never been out of the stable all day. If you doubt my word, you had better go to the stable and satisfy yourselves." So the crop-heads go to the stable, and there, of course, find piebald No. 2, as fresh as a daisy, and evidently not from Worcester. So they conclude that they had mistaken their man, and leave the sick Mr. Berkeley to get well and laugh at the ruse he had so successfully played upon them.

After his flight from Worcester and concealment at White Ladies, the King appeared as "Will Jones," attired in a leather doublet, with pewter buttons, a pair of old green breeches, a green "jump coat," a pair of stockings with the tops cut off, a pair of stirrup stockings, a pair of shoes cut and slashed to give ease to his feet, an old grey greasy hat without a lining, a "noggen shirt" of the coarsest linen, his hands and face made of a "reechy complexion" with the aid of walnut leaves. He attempted to reach Wales, but got no further than Madeley, being obliged to return, as there were no means of crossing the Severn, without danger. He returned to his shelter in Staffordshire, and quitted his suit for a new grey one, as the holiday attire of a farmer's son, and thus as "Will Jackson" he rode before Mrs. Jane Lane, and ultimately effected his escape.

In Martley church is still, I believe, an inscription to Lettice Lane, sister to the above Mrs. Jane Lane, who rode with Charles II, disguised as her servant, on his retreat to the south-west coast. On the floor of the old church of Knightwick (recently closed) was also a plain stone to Grace Lane, another of the same family. It is said that his Majesty halted at Knightwick, and was glad to turn shoeblack at the Talbot inn, to avoid the suspicion of pursuers. Colonel Lane, of Bentley, Staffordshire, had property at Knightwick, and the young lady, with her royal master, probably rested here on that account. The gold pouncet box given by the King to Mrs. Jane Lane during their journey from Bentley to Bristol, after the battle of Worcester, and a beautiful portrait (a miniature) of Colonel Lane, were exhibited by Miss Yonge, at the Archæological Institute Meeting at Shrewsbury, October, 1855. On the former are engraved, on a lozenge, the arms of the Lane family, with the canton of England granted as an honourable augmentation. These interesting relics were in the possession of Dr. Arden, who married a lady of the Lane family, and they were presented by Miss Arden to their present possessor. In "Colston's Life and Times" is the following interesting allusion to the progress of the royal fugitive:—"At the close of the year, the vessel which conveyed the body of the Lord-Deputy Ireton, who had died of the plague, at Limerick, came into King Road, 'notice of which having been forwarded to the Mayor of Bristol, he sent a boat, covered with black, in which the corpse was brought to the city. When the body was landed, a velvet pall was placed over the coffin, and the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, in their formalities, and the Governor and his officers, with a multitude of citizens, attended the body. On this occasion the great guns were fired from the castle and fort.' Nearly coincident with the above, a horseman, with apparently his mistress seated behind him, on a pillion, entered Bristol at Lawford's Gate. He was unknown, unnoticed; but between him, and the ashes that with gloomy solemnity were paraded, there was a connecting link—connecting yet repulsive. They were the ashes of a fallen foe, the mortal remains of an enemy—of one who had sentenced to a traitor's doom the august sire of the menial who now journeyed through a city, whose allegiance to him and his cause had been severed, where there awaited a thousand arms to deliver him to captivity, perhaps to death. The place is evidently familiar to the rider. He made no inquiries, but conducted his horse unheeded through the streets. He arrives in view of the lofty bulwarks of the castle, its towers and gigantic keep. Their sight may have called forth latent memories, for here the horse was stayed, turned aside, as though the travellers would take a passing survey of the stately pile; but this was all; they halted not to rest at inn or hostelry, nor dismounted to refresh the steed, but quietly and leisurely continued their course, through a narrow gloomy street, over the bridge, and thus in safety passed from out the ancient town, unsuspected, unchallenged, and unknown. How strange are life's vicissitudes, its contrasts! A king, disguised—passing obscurely through a half hostile city! The mortal remains of the son-in-law of the usurper of his kingdom received with military honours and Royal etiquette. In one quarter, pomp and state following the ashes, as would befit a monarch's obsequies; in another, a deserted crownless sovereign, in lowly garb, eludes the pursuit of his enemy, and passes in safety to a less doubtful shelter from the city, of which he was the lawful lord. In after years, all this quaint and gorgeous pomp will be displayed to welcome this fugitive, and he will be escorted triumphantly through its lately hostile bosom."