Soon after which the country people gave private notice to the King, that on a certain day the quarter-master, General Dalbier, Lieutenant-Colonel Charleton, Colonel Allured, Colonel Barkley, and some other officers of Essex’s army were to dine at the Lord Mohun’s house, not far from Lestwithell.
At the day appointed the King dispatched a party of horse, and by surprise took them all prisoners (except Dalbier, who made his escape) and brought them all prisoners to Leskeard, where soon after Prince Rupert arrived at the King’s army, which gave great hopes of a notable victory over Essex; and, in order to give him battle, the King soon after drew forth his army from Leskeard, and marched west to Bradock Downs in this parish, opposite to St. Winnow and Boconnock Downs, where Essex lay encamped, on the east side of Lestwithell town, and there pitched his camp and standard, he himself, Prince Rupert, and Grenville quartering at the Lord Mohun’s house; from whence he sent a letter August 16th, as he had sent another before from Leskeard by the Lord Beauchamp’s nephew, to Essex, for a treaty of peace, to which he received no answer; then he sent another letter to him in the name of the officers of his army, to which Essex sent a negative answer directed to the Earl of Forth, purporting that he had received a letter from his lordship, and other commanders of the King’s army, by which a treaty with him was desired for a general peace, which he could not admit of without a breach of the trust reposed in him by the Parliament, having no power by his commission to treat in a matter of such importance.
Whereupon happened several skirmishes between the cavaliers and parliament troops; and in particular that challenge and sharp charge between Colonel Straughan’s for the Parliament and Colonel Digby’s for the King, was most remarkable. Straughan’s troop consisted of a hundred young men from sixteen to twenty years of age, on whose faces, as was said, never razor had past in order to shave their beards, all double, if not treble armed for this encounter. This troop of Straughan’s was led forth by himself on Bradock and St. Winnow Downs, having nothing on his head but a hat, and on the trunk of his body nought but a white linen shift, where they braved it for
some time as was said before, giving defiance to a like number of the King’s party in sight of the King and both armies; whereupon soon after dislodged the Lord Digby’s troop for the King, to accept and fight this challenge of Straughan’s, who with great resolution and bravery advanced towards him, and gave the first onset or charge, but firing their pistols at too great distance, it did little harm to his adversary, whilst instantly Straughan, like a firebrand of hell, with a led horse by his side, had before commanded his boys, as he called them, to take their adversary’s fire, which they then did with unspeakable hardiness, and rushed on to the very horse heads of Digby’s troopers, that before had spent their shot, himself leading the fore front to the very points of their swords, when he discharged his double-barrelled pistols, and was in like manner seconded by his troopers, who had all the same sort of pistols, and most of them laden with three or four bullets each, which proved so fatal and disastrous a blow to Digby’s troopers, that the one half of them were slain on the spot or mortally wounded; and it was further observable, that scarce horse or man that escaped went not off without some hurt or damage, as I was told by one Mr. William Maye, a gentleman that was one of Digby’s troop, and sorely wounded in this battle, the marks of which through his hands, arms, and legs were visible, though cured to a large degree, till his dying day, 1672; and much the like account I had of this battle or combat from Mr. William Upcott, of Truro, and Mr. Joseph Upcott, of Morval, brothers, that were parcel of Straughan’s troop, who there took some of the King’s horses alive, their riders being slain, upon whose furniture was his proper arms, the star and the letters C. R.
But, alas! notwithstanding this success of Straughan’s troop, the King with his army had so hemmed in or surrounded Essex in his head quarters at Lestwithell, that he could not long subsist or have relief for his soldiers, for the Lord Goring and Sir Thomas Basset, Knt. stopped all provision with a great body of horse, that was coming to him by way of St. Blazey from the west, as Sir Richard Grenville did the like by way of St. Colomb, Bodmin, and Lanhydrock from the north; whereupon it was resolved by Essex’s council, that he should desert his army, and privately by night in a boat go down the river to Fowey, and from thence take ship for Plymouth, which expedient
was accordingly put in execution, and the General Essex, the Lord Robartes, and some others the next day got into Plymouth, being the 31st of August 1644. On the same day Sir William Balfour with two thousand five hundred of the Parliament horse, with divers officers, viz. Colonel Nicholas Boscawen, his Lieutenant-Colonel James Hals, of Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet’s in Lanyvet, Colonel John Seyntaubyn, of Clowans, and his Lieutenant Colonel Braddon, Colonel Carter, and several other officers and gentlemen of quality, early in the morning forced their passage over St. Winnow, Boconnock, and Bradock Downs, though the body of the King’s army, which lay encamped on the heath in those places, maugre all opposition to the contrary; from thence they rode to Leskeard, from thence to Saltash Passage, and from thence to Plymouth safely the same day, amidst their own garrison and confederates.
Notwithstanding this desertion of the general and other officers as aforesaid, Major General Skippon (a Londoner), like a good commander, resolved to live and die with his soldiers; and in order to their preservation, being at least twelve thousand men, he led them down the banks of the river on the west side thereof towards Foye, in order to transport them over the passage or river to Lanteglos, or ship them from thence for Plymouth, all other roads and high ways being stopped up by the King’s army as aforesaid, during which march Skippon’s men were sorely distressed in the rear by the King’s soldiers, so that five of their field pieces were taken in the lanes, whereupon the next morning his men made a stand, and with a brigade of horse that never deserted the infantry, charged the King’s troops with great courage and animosity, and beat them out of the field which they had lost the day before, with some loss; whereupon immediately the King sent Captain Brett with the Queen’s troop to attack them, who in the King’s sight charged Skippon’s brigade with that fury and violence as forced them to retire from the field aforesaid, whereby not only he regained the ground that was lost, but got some other fields from his party, and then returned in good order, having lost only four men, himself being shot in the arm, for which brave adventure the King knighted him on the spot. After which the Parliament soldiers were so dispirited that they could hardly be
brought to stand to their arms; upon which dismay Colonel Butler and a trumpeter came to desire a parley with the King, which was forthwith granted, and a treaty followed on the first of September, when the Commissioners on the King’s part were Prince Maurice and the Earl of Bramford, for Essex’s soldiers Major-General Philip Skippon, Colonel Christopher Whichcott, and others, by whom a cessation of hostility was agreed upon in these terms —