A tradition has always existed that Rydal Hall was entered and plundered by the soldiers of the Commonwealth; but it is in the account-sheets of Richard Harrison that explicit evidence of the fact has now, and for the first time, been found. The catastrophe would belong wholly to Rydal history, but for a clause in the accounts which concerns Grasmere church.
Dates are difficult to follow in the sheets, but it is clear that the year 1644 marked the turning-point of the war. The hopes of the Royalists had been high when Prince Rupert marched through Lancashire to meet the enemy; but they were crushed by the terrible defeat of Marston Moor on July 1st. The king's forces in these parts were completely scattered, and there was a tremendous exodus of loyalists, who left to join the king's army in the south. The band was led by Sir Francis Howard, and it included the young heir of Rydal. The exodus is marked in the account-sheets by the numerous sums borrowed from the Rydal chests by various people, beginning with the chief himself. Even the loyal parsons borrowed, and small sums were lent about this time to two of the Cumberland curates, who possibly went off on king's business too. Henry Wilson, the rector of Grasmere, was a noted Royalist, and apparently acted as an emissary in the cause. The following entry records one of the many loans to him, at a time when he too was leaving the country:—
| li | s | d | |
| Lent parson wilson upon his note by & with the consent of Mr. Phillipson & Mr. Willm. wch. makes that he hath lately lent 8 li wch. he will either repay or els giue satisfaction that it may allow when he comes & serues the cure at Gressmire Church lent him this the 13 July | 5 | 10 | 0 |
It is clear that in this year, 1644, the hall and its inmates shared in the general sufferings. Friendly messengers rode by night to give warning when another hall was sacked. Hostile soldiers were quartered on the premises, and some pillaging of horses and other things was done, for which Harrison tried to obtain restitution. He also sought protection—if it might be granted by wire-pulling and bribery—from Colonels Bellingham and Briggs, who commanded the Scots troops in Westmorland. It is possible that the new glass required both for the hall and for the choir of Grasmere church, "which was broken," may have been the result of some hostile demonstration.
But the actual raid upon the hall was made at Eastertide, 1645. The soldiers of "Captaine Orfer & Collonell Lawson" entered it, searched for money and took all they could find (which was little) and carried off Richard Harrison to prison, where he remained till Pentecost.
Further mischief is recorded in another paragraph of the sheets, when the sum of £2 4s. 8d. is set down at Easter, 1645, as "pd. for bread and wine twice at Gresmire Church in regard it was once plundered by Lawson's souldiers."
Now this provision for the Easter communion, which the tithe-holder was bound to make, was a special provision, always accounted for separately, and probably delivered direct to the church from the wine merchant, whose name is occasionally mentioned. So in this case, the church itself was presumably entered with violence, and by the same troop that visited Rydal Hall.
It was a Cumberland troop that did the mischief, as is evident from the names of the officers. Colonel Wilfred Lawson of the Isell family was an ardent fighter for the Parliament. Captain Orfeur was doubtless a member of the stock of Plumbland Hall.[108]