Memorials of old Derbyshire

by Unknown

Among the great store of county muniments at Derby, there are few papers that bring before the mind the incidents of the great civil strife more vividly than the petitions from maimed soldiers addressed to the Quarter Sessions for relief. Thus, in 1649, John Matthew, of Loscoe, stated:—

“that yor petitioner was a soldier under the Comand of Captaine Bagshaw at Wingfield Mannour, & was there plundered by the Cavileirs of all the goods he had, since which it pleased God to strike yr petitioner with lamenesse, that he is not able to help himselfe further than hee is carried. That hee hath two small children & his wife, & have sould theire Cow & all theire household goods & apparell to buy them bread & other sustenance etc.”

The petitioner obtained a pension of 12d. a week, which seems to have been the usual rate. After the Restoration the old Parliamentary pensioners were discarded, and their place taken by those who had fought on the other side.

Notwithstanding the Parliamentary convictions of the majority of the inhabitants of Derbyshire, it is scarcely to be wondered that the county returned with some eagerness to the monarchical faith at the time of the Restoration, for its experiences of the evils of civil warfare had been so peculiarly bitter. The Bill of Indemnity dealt fairly generously with the large majority of those who had been in arms against the late King, or active in the administration of the Commonwealth. No one can be surprised that the extreme penalty of the law was exacted on all those who had sat in judgment on Charles I., and who had not fled the country. It is, however, specially revolting to remember that the bodies of the three leading men among the “regicides”—Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton—were dragged from their graves, hung at the three corners of the gallows erected to grace the anniversary of Charles’ death, cut down and beheaded in the evening, and the heads spiked in front of Westminster Hall. The last two of these distinguished men were of good Derbyshire families.

It is difficult to know at what point to bring this historic sketch to a close when dealing with the memorials of old Derbyshire; nor can more than a few more pages be spared for such a purpose. It may, perhaps, be of some interest and permissible to chronicle with brevity three more incidents of importance in connection with the history of the shire, namely, (1) the Revolution of 1688, (2) the invasion of Derbyshire by Prince Charles in 1745, and (3) the “Pentrich insurrection,” as it has been absurdly termed, of 1817.

Derbyshire, in the person of William Cavendish, fourth Earl and first Duke of Devonshire, may be said to have probably taken the most prominent part in the driving of James II. from his throne, and in the bringing to this country as his successor William of Orange. There can be no doubt that Cavendish eventually became thoroughly and conscientiously convinced as to the true patriotism of the course that he took; but it would be idle to pretend that this distinguished nobleman indulged in his first dislike of James for other than personal motives. William Cavendish was one of the four young noblemen who carried the train of Charles II. at his coronation in 1661. In that year he was returned to Parliament for Derby, and remained a member of the Commons until his father’s death in 1684. He was a man of hasty and most vehement temper; becoming embroiled in a threatened duel in 1675, he was committed to the Tower by the majority of the House for a short period for having broken privilege. From that moment Cavendish took an active part against the court party, and advocated the exclusion from the succession of the Duke of York. After James II.’s accession, the Earl had the bad grace to give way to his fiery temper just outside the King’s Presence Chamber, when he felled to the ground one Colonel Colepepper, who was said to have previously insulted him. For this offence Cavendish was brought before the King’s Bench, when he was fined in the gigantic sum of £30,000, being committed to prison until payment was made. It is said that his mother, the Countess, brought to James II. bonds of Charles I. for double that amount, lent to him by the Derbyshire Cavendishes during the Civil War. The King, however, refused to interfere, but the Earl managed to escape, and fled to his house at Chatsworth. So powerful was Cavendish’s influence over his tenantry, that when the High Sheriff and his posse arrived to arrest him, the Earl coolly turned the tables upon them, imprisoned the whole force at Chatsworth, and held them there until he had arranged for his liberty by giving a bond for the gradual payment of this fine.

The earl used his retirement in Derbyshire in furthering the plots for placing William of Orange on the throne, dispatching an agent in May, 1687, to make a direct offer to William on behalf of himself and other malcontent noblemen. The conspiracy came to a head in this county, the leaders choosing for their place of meeting a room in a small hostelry on the edge of Whittington Moor, near Chesterfield, still known as the Plotting Parlour. The name of this humble inn was changed, after William and Mary came to the throne, from the “Cock and Pynot” to “Revolution” Inn; its restored remnants are now named Revolution House. The original scheme was that William was to land in the north, when Cavendish was at once to seize Nottingham. But these plans were changed, and when the news reached the Midlands that William had landed at Torbay on 5th November, 1688, the Earl of Devonshire put himself at the head of 800 armed friends and retainers, and entered Derby on the 21st of November, when he declared for the Prince of Orange. He obtained some support, but the mayor (John Cheshire) refused to sanction the billeting of the earl’s troops. Thereupon Cavendish proceeded to Nottingham, where he met with more general support, and issued a proclamation justifying the raising and drilling of troops. The new sovereign naturally lavished his favours on his chief supporter. The earl was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire in May, 1689, in place of the deposed Earl of Huntingdon, and in 1694 he was created Duke of Devonshire and Marquis of Hartington.

Revolution House at Whittington.

(From “Gentleman’s Magazine,” vol. lxxx, part 2, page 609.)