Memorials of Old Lincolnshire

by Unknown

On receiving this letter Cromwell withdrew his cavalry from Stamford, and made Peterborough his headquarters; but he stationed some companies of foot at Spalding as a support to Boston. Lincoln was very soon occupied by the Cavaliers, who appointed Sir William Widdrington of Blankney governor, and made Richard Somerby mayor in place of Marshall. The troopers are said to have plundered the city, and tried to seize Mr. Reyner, the Sunday lecturer in St. Peter at Arches, but he escaped by the vestry window.

At this juncture, if Newcastle could have thrown his whole force upon the Associated Counties in concert with an advance of the King from the West after the capture of Bristol (July 26), the issue of the war might have been different. But his Yorkshire levies objected to leaving Hull unsubdued in their rear. So, after dallying unaccountably during August, he laid siege to that town on September 2—a fatal error, for it was impossible to reduce it by blockade, as the Parliament commanded the sea. On land, however, they were in woeful plight. The town of King’s Lynn, in the very heart of the Association, revolted against them in August; and the Earl of Manchester, newly appointed General of the Eastern Army, laid siege to it and took it on September 16. But all the commanders were in dire straits for money; and the reasons for adding Lincolnshire to the six Associated Counties by an ordinance of September 20 were probably in part financial. The weekly assessment for the county was fixed at £812, 10s., though in the following year this was raised to £1218. The cruelty of such a tax upon Royalists, who were perhaps secretly supplying the King with funds and yet had to pay this tax or suffer sequestration of their estates, is evident enough. Those landlords who were absent with the King did not escape, for the money was exacted from their tenants who were to deduct it from the rent. The ordinance was to be administered by a county committee sitting either at Lincoln or Boston, and consisting at first of 70, afterwards of 105 members. But the practical work was done by a “standing committee,” which might meet anywhere—five to be a quorum and fresh members to be summoned every fortnight.

At the date of this ordinance the hold of Parliament on the county was most insecure. But a change was at hand. News had come from Hull that the cavalry of Sir Thomas Fairfax was useless within the walls, and that their horses were dying from the brackish water. It was determined to bring this body of twenty-one troops across the Humber into Lincolnshire; and Cromwell, with Lord Willoughby, executed a daring march through the Wolds, then infested with Newarkers, to Barton, whither some of the cavalry were transported on September 18. But it seems to have been thought inadvisable to bring across the whole body in full view of the besieging army. On the 23rd both commanders were in Hull, bringing powder and provision for the garrison; and on the 26th the greater part of the cavalry were put on shipboard and landed, apparently the same evening, at Saltfleet Haven. At this old-world seaport there still stands a manor-house, then the property of Lord Lindsey, but somehow—by sequestration or otherwise—at the disposal of his kinsman of Parham, where Cromwell and Fairfax passed the night with their host. It is full of ancient furniture, and “Cromwell’s bed” is still pointed out to the credulous. With the dawn the troops were on the move, and had some difficulty in eluding a force of 5000 Cavaliers, who endeavoured to intercept them. At Louth, where Cromwell is said to have slept on the 27th, he would be joined by the contingent from Barton; and here, perhaps, a few troops were detached with Fairfax for scouting purposes round Horncastle. On the 28th Cromwell was in Boston, “weeping” that there was no money for his soldiers, and pushed on to Lynn to hasten the advance of Manchester and his infantry.

On Monday, October 9, that commander drew out from Boston; and his advanced guard of foot, under Major Knight, summoned Bolingbroke Castle, but received for answer that “bugbear words must not win castles and should not make them quit the place.” That night the foot was quartered in three detachments at Stickney, Stickford, and Bolingbroke; and in the morning preparations were made to mount a mortar on Bolingbroke church tower, which would have rendered the castle untenable. During the day its defenders fired upon their assailants to some purpose, for some of the latter were killed, and Quartermaster Vermuyden, son of the famous Dutch engineer, was bruised by a shot. The cavalry, whose troops were scattered throughout the neighbouring villages, were ordered by Manchester to rendezvous at Horncastle; but Fairfax, who commanded that way, had his outposts at Thimbleby and Edlington driven in. The former troop tried to get into Horncastle, but found it barricaded by the Royalists; and on their joining Fairfax at Kirkby, whither Manchester rode that day, the first order was countermanded, and the rendezvous fixed at Kirkby and Bolingbroke. On Wednesday the 11th, the foot was drawn up at the latter place; but the horse under Fairfax and Cromwell—who was unwilling to fight on account of the hard duty of the last few days—advanced two miles through Asgarby to the higher ground at Winceby, five miles south-east of Horncastle. The Cavaliers, under Sir John Henderson, arrived at the same point from Horncastle by the hill road through High Toynton, their object being the relief of the besieged castle; and it is said that neither party expected to meet its opponents so soon. The King’s troops had seventy-four colours of horse and twenty-one of dragoons, with some infantry in the rear; and the “rebel” horse were as numerous, though their companies were fewer. The passwords for the two sides are variously given as for the King “Cavendish” and “Newcastle,” and for the Parliament “Religion” and “Truth and Peace.”[125] The armies met on a high plateau—one of the highest points of the Southern Wolds; on the north-east was a deep ravine, now called the Ramshaw, which prevented the free manœuvring of the Royalist cavalry. A strategist like Cromwell would see his advantage at a glance; and about midday, with the vanguard singing their battle-psalm, he charged the Royalist left wing under Henderson, after their dragoons had fired the first volley. He was received, however, with a second, which killed the horse under him; and as he rose to his feet he was knocked down by Sir Ingram Hopton,[126] who called to him to yield. But his assailant was speedily killed in the rush, while he himself secured another horse from a trooper. The fight had lasted about half-an-hour, when the Royalist right and centre under Sir W. Saville were seized with panic at a charge from Fairfax, and broke in flight. The disadvantage of the ground was now apparent. The Royalist horse were driven back upon the foot, which had no room to deploy and let them pass; and tradition says that at the boundary between Winceby and Scrafield—along what is still known as “Slash Lane”—a closed gate intercepted their headlong flight, and here the Roundhead troopers, pressing upon the confused multitude, did terrible execution. Their victory was complete; and the pursuit was continued, in spite of the tired horses, beyond Horncastle. Eight hundred prisoners were taken, and the number of the dead, some of whom were drowned in crossing the fens, is variously placed between 500 and 1000. The Parliament’s loss was trifling, and included but a single officer. The affair was entirely a cavalry action, for Manchester’s foot was not engaged, and the Royalist infantry seem to have run away without striking a blow. If the scythes now displayed on the walls of Horncastle Church were carried, as tradition says, by some of the foot at Winceby, it seems that many of them were peasant levies, indifferently armed.

The consequences of the victory, for the moment at least, were far-reaching. A Puritan chronicler[127] could truthfully exclaim: “Yorkshire is discouraged, Lincolnshire is delivered, Cambridge is secured.” On the very day of Winceby some of Newcastle’s forts at Hull were captured by the garrison; and the following day he raised the siege and retreated to York. On the 20th Lincoln capitulated to Manchester, who soon after laid siege to Gainsborough.[128] Manchester did his best by persuasion to win back the county to Parliament; and a number of Royalist gentry changed sides from a rumour that the King was bringing over an army of native Irish. The scare of “Popery” was always the Parliament’s strongest card. Their own alliance at this time with the equally foreign Scots, which really changed the fortune of the war, aroused no such feeling. Late in the year a force of 800 Danes, sent by the King’s uncle, Christian IV., landed on the Lincolnshire coast, and met with a warmer reception than their pirate forefathers. The trained bands were called out, and killed about fifty of them, forcing the rest back upon their ships. Winter set in early, and there was much snow in November. The force besieging Gainsborough suffered much privation; and an Essex officer among them writes:[129] “Our lying in the field hath lost us more men than have been taken away either by the sword or bullet.” He adds that at the time of writing he had only two shillings, and his troop was without money, even for shoeing their horses, repairing saddles, &c. The perseverance of Fairfax, who was in command, was at length rewarded by the surrender of the town on December 20.

In the following month (January 1644), the Newark people addressed a “remonstrance” to the King on the condition of Lincolnshire. They represented that the whole county “is now in possession of the Rebels,” mentioning in particular “that seditious town of Boston,” and urged that, unless a diversion was made by his Majesty’s troops elsewhere, the whole force of the county, which was “above 5000 foot and twenty troops of horse,” would be “poured down” upon them. About the same time a hot dispute arose in Parliament about the Lincolnshire command. Lord Willoughby had much resented his supersession by the Earl of Manchester, which in his opinion lacked the authority of Parliament. Cromwell, as usual, was ready with the first blow. He moved that Lord Willoughby cease to be Major-General in Lincolnshire, as he had abandoned Gainsborough and Lincoln in the summer without necessity, and had permitted loose and profane conduct among his soldiers. These charges caused much ill-feeling. Sir Christopher Wray warmly defended Willoughby, who challenged Manchester to a duel; and three of Wray’s sons went so far as to cudgel one of the Earl’s officers. Cromwell’s motion, however, was carried; and with much difficulty Willoughby was induced to serve under Manchester. With the Lincolnshire levies he appears to have taken part in the siege of Newark in March; and, according to Mrs. Hutchinson, the brilliant feat of Prince Rupert in relieving the place and capturing most of the besieging force (March 22), was only rendered possible by the cowardly flight of the Lincoln men. This exploit caused such a panic that within three days Lincoln, Sleaford, and even distant Crowland were abandoned by their garrisons, and the defences of Gainsborough were dismantled. In his remonstrance to the House of Lords on April 8 the Earl of Essex himself used the words—“Lincolnshire is lost.” Two days before, however, Crowland had been recovered; and in three weeks Manchester and Cromwell were advancing against Lincoln. On May 3, with his army drawn up at Canwick, Manchester summoned the city by trumpet, and, on being denied, sent two regiments of foot against it, while Cromwell with 2000 cavalry held in check a relieving force. The garrison were expelled from the lower town and retreated into the Castle, after attempting to set fire to many houses. The assault on the Castle, which was delayed two days by heavy rain, took place on Monday, the 6th; and the infantry came on with such ardour that, despite the slippery state of the hill, the works were taken in a quarter of an hour. The Royalist loss was 900 in killed and prisoners—the latter including the governor, Sir Francis Fane, and Sir Charles Dalison. The upper town, having been taken by storm, was given over to the soldiers for pillage. It was on this occasion that the Cathedral suffered most at the hands of Puritanism. Pleading a recent ordinance of Parliament, the troopers tore up all the sepulchral brasses, damaged the carvings, and smashed the painted windows. If we are to believe “Aulicus,” the Oxford newswriter, whose statements are disputed, they even stabled their horses in the nave. Other churches were much injured in the assault. St. Swithin’s was destroyed by fire; St. Martin’s and St. Michael’s were much damaged by cannon; and St. Botolph’s fell down two years later through the injuries which it now received. Two extra-mural churches, St. Nicholas’ and St. Peter’s Eastgate, had already been demolished by Lord Willoughby’s order as interfering with the city’s defences.

The whole county had now been reoccupied for the Parliament; and Manchester, throwing a bridge across the Trent at Gainsborough, marched with the army of the Eastern Association to besiege Newcastle in York. The victory of Marston Moor on July 2 decided the fate of the North and East of England. But in the next few weeks the King gained marked successes in the West; and on the return of Manchester to Lincoln on August 6, there were divided counsels among the Parliamentary commanders, which developed later into an open breach between Cromwell and Manchester. For four weeks the latter lay inactive at Lincoln, though Cromwell vehemently urged him to besiege Newark. When at length he moved southwards on September 4, the Newark garrison resumed their activity, and appeared before Sir Robert Carr’s fortified house at Sleaford, the defenders of which had to retire upon Lincoln. On October 5 a force of 500 Cavaliers captured and taxed Stamford; and perhaps it was part of the same band which, a day or two later, once more occupied Crowland for the King. This daring move brought the Fen men out in strength, though at the time the pay of the Boston garrison was four months in arrear; and by October 12 a force of 4000 men of the trained bands, under Sir T. Fairfax and Fleetwood, had assembled to block up the watery citadel. But rain fell in torrents, and most of the besiegers had to be sent back to their counties, although the approaches to Crowland were carefully guarded. On October 29, the water having subsided, a closer investment became possible; and a body of horse under Colonel Hacker was detached to confront a relieving force from Newark. The two bodies came into collision at Denton, when, in Colonel Hacker’s words, his men “shouted as if the skies would have fallen” and fell upon the enemy, who fled, leaving 400 prisoners. Three weeks later another attempt at relief was frustrated by a Royalist repulse near Grantham; and on November 6 an ordinance of Parliament provided for the erection of three forts against Crowland at a cost of £600. In the first week of December the famished garrison of 275 men, whose besiegers had been subsisting comfortably on fish and wild fowl, were allowed to march off to Newark without their arms.

The campaign of 1645 was almost wholly unfavourable to the King. When the two armies faced each other at Naseby on June 14, for the decisive struggle, Colonel Rossiter, with the Lincolnshire troops, arrived just in time to take part in Cromwell’s charge on the Royalist left wing. The King retreated eastward after his defeat; but in August he was again approaching the Associated Counties with an army of about 3000 men. In that month the Newarkers made two raids upon Stamford, and carried off some of their opponents; and on the 23rd the King himself passed through the town. But his cause was declining rapidly; and on April 27, 1646, he left Oxford in disguise to take refuge with the Scots before Newark. The night of May 3—his last as a free man—he passed at Stamford in the house of Mr. Wolph; and with the surrender of Newark by his command on May 6, two days after he reached the Scots, the first Civil War ended.