CHAPTER X.
SALTASH
Old Town Hall demolished--Nicholas Tyack--Borough of Esh--Charters--Albert Bridge--Harbour dues--Contested elections--Continued contests--Situation of Saltash--Old houses--The Porter family--The Bonds of Earth--The boatwomen--Ann Glanville--In the Civil War--Sentences of the court--Chapel of the Guildhall--Silver cup--Trematon Castle--Riot at Saltash--Modern Guildhall--Maces--Old shop.
"Just three weeks too late."
That was the answer I received on reaching Saltash and inquiring after the old Town Hall. It had been pulled down and carted away, and now a hole in a range of buildings, like that in the jaw produced by the extraction of a tooth, shows where the old Town Hall had been.
It is a pity it is gone.
MACES AND SEAL OF SALTASH
Beside it stood an ancient house that had been occupied during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles II. by Nicholas Tyack, the mayor. Nicholas Tyack was a turncoat, but somehow, whichever way he turned his coat he always turned it to his advantage.
Under the Commonwealth he was not only mayor, but a great Presbyterian luminary. He harangued and expounded Revelation always in favour of the Commonwealth and Presbyterianism, and against the Crown and the Mitre. But no sooner did Charles II. land than he swung completely round. All his political and religious views changed, and he declared that the great horn was Old Noll and the little horn was Dickon. By this means Nicholas Tyack secured his position, and remained mayor of Saltash. He had been high-handed in his proceedings before; he became more high-handed under the Restoration. He wanted to apprentice his son in London; so he took the youth to town, lived well whilst there, and on his return charged the expenses to the town.