der Cambridge, generally to plunder and ravage in this region; as Prince Rupert has cruelly done in Gloucestershire, and is now cruelly doing in Wilts and Hants. Colonel Cromwell, the soul of the whole business, must have had some bestirring o. himself; some swift riding and resolving, now here, now there. Some 12,000 men,' however, or say even ‘23,000 men' (for rumour runs very high!), from the Associated Counties, are now at last got together about Cambridge, and Lord Capel has seen good to vanish again. He was the first man that rose this Parliament;' he, while still Herts: but they have made a · to complain of Grievances, in Lord Capel has vanished; and the 12,000 zealous Volunteers of the Association are dismissed to their counties, with monition to be ready when called for again. Moreover, to avoid like perils in future, it is now resolved to make a Garrison of Cambridge; to add new works to the Castle, and fortify the Town itself. This is now going on in the early spring days of 1643; and Colonel Cromwell and all hands are busy!-Here is a small Document, incidentally preserved to us, which becomes significant if well read. Fen Drayton is a small Village on the Eastern edge of Cambridgeshire, between St. Ives and Cambridge,—well known to Oliver. In the small Church of Fen Drayton, after divine service on Sunday the 12th of March 1642-3, the following Warrant, delivered to the Churchwardings' (by one Mr. Norris, a Constable, who spells very ill), and by them to the Curate is read to a rustic congregation,-who sit, somewhat agape, 1 apprehend, and uncertain what to do about it. COM. CANT. (CAMBRIDGESHIRE TO WIT'). To all and every the Inhabitants of Fen Drayton in the WHEREAS We have been enforced, by apparent grounds ot approaching danger, to begin to fortify the Town of Cambridge, for preventing the Enemy's inroad, and the better to maintain the peace of this County: * Vicars; Newspapers, 6th-15th March (in Cromwelliana, p. 2) VOL. I. I Having in part seen your good affections to the Cause, and now standing in need of your further assistance to the perfecting of the said Fortifications, which will cost at least Two-thousand pounds, We are encouraged as well as necessitated to desire a Freewill Offering of a Liberal Contribution from you, for the better enabling of us to attain our desired ends,-viz. the Preservation of our County;-knowing that every honest and well-affected man, considering the vast expenses we have already been at, and our willingness to do according to our ability, will be ready to contribute his best assistance to a work of so high concernment and so good an end. We do therefore desire that what shall be by you freely given and collected may with all convenient speed be sent to the Commissioners at Cambridge, to be employed to the use aforesaid. And so you shall further engage us to be yours ready to serve, Cambridge, this 8th of March 1642. OLIVER CROMWELL. THOMAS MARTYN.* The Thomas Martyn, Sir Thomas, and Six others whom we suppress, are all of the Cambridge Committees of those times ;3 zealous Puritan men, not known to us otherwise. Norris did not raise much at Fen Drayton; only 1l. 19s. 2d., 'subscribed by Fifteen persons,' according to his Endorsement ;— the general public at Fen Drayton, and probably in other such places, hesitates a little to draw its purse as yet! One way or other, however, the work of fortifying Cambridge was got done. A regular Force lies henceforth in Cambridge: Captains Fleetwood, Desborow, Whalley, new soldiers who will become veterans and known to us, are on service here. Of course the Academic stillness is much fluttered by the war-drum, and many a confused brabble springs up between Gown and Gar *Cooper's Annals of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1845), iii. 340. 3 Husbands' Second Collection (London, 1646), p. 329; Commons Fournais, 153; &c. Reported complete, 15th July 1643 (Cooper's Annals, iii. 350). son; college tippets, and on occasion still more venerable objects, getting torn by the business! The truth is, though Cambridge is not so Malignant as Oxford, the Surplices at Allhallowtide have still much sway there; and various Heads of Houses are by no means what one could wish : of whom accordingly Oliver has had, and still occasionally has, to send,—by instalments as the cases ripen,—a select batch up to Parliament: Reverend Dr. This and then also Reverend Dr. That ; who are lodged in the Tower, in Ely House, in Lambeth or elsewhere, in a tragic manner, and pass very troublous years.5 Cambridge continues henceforth the Bulwark and Metropolis of the Association; where the Committees sit, where the centre of all business is. 'Colonel Cook,' I think, is Captain of the Garrison; but the soul of the Garrison, and of the Association generally, is probably another Colonel. Now here, now swiftly there, wherever danger is to be fronted, or prompt work is to be done :—for example, off to Norwich just now, on important businesses; and, as is too usual, very ill supplied with money. LETTER V. OF Captain Nelson I know nothing; seem to see an uncertain shadow of him turn up again, after years of industrious fighting under Irish Inchiquin and others, still a mere Captain, still terribly in arrear even as to pay. It's pity a Gentleman of his affections should be discouraged!' The Deputy Lieutenants,' Suffolk Committee, could be named, if there were room.7 The business for Norfolk' we guess to be, as usual, Delinquents, symptoms of delinquent Royalists getting to a head. To my honoured Friends the Deputy Lieutenants for the County of Suffolk. GENTLEMEN, Cambridge, 10th March 1642. I am sorry I should so often trouble you about the business of money: it's no pleasant subject to be 5 Querela Cantabrigiensis, &c. &c. in Cooper, ubi suprà. 6 Commons Journals, v. 524, 530. 7 Husbands, ii. 171, 193. too frequent upon. But such is Captain Nelson's occasion, for want thereof, that he hath not wherewith to satisfy for the billet of his soldiers; and so this Business for Norfolk, so hopeful to set all right there, may fail. Truly he hath borrowed from me, else he could not have paid to discharge this Town at his departure. It's pity a Gentleman of his affections should be discouraged! Wherefore I earnestly beseech you to consider him and the Cause. It's honourable that you do so.—What you can help him to, be pleased to send into Norfolk; he hath not wherewith to pay a Troop one day, as he tells me. Let your return be speedy,—to Norwich. Gentlemen, command your servant, OLIVER CROMWELL. 'P.S.' I hope to serve you in my return: with your conjunction, we shall quickly put an end to these businesses, the Lord assisting.* By certain official docketings on this same Letter, it appears that Captain Nelson did receive his 100l. ; touched it promptly on the morrow, 'IIth March ;-I say received: JOHN NELSON.' How the Norfolk businesses proceeded, and what end they came to in Suffolk itself, we shall now see. LOWESTOFF. THE Colonel has already had experience in such Delinquent matters; has, by vigilance, by gentle address, by swift audacity if needful, extinguished more than one incipient conflagration. Here is one such instance,—coming to its sad maturity, and bearing fruit at Westminster in these very hours. On Monday 13th March 1642-3, Thomas Conisby, Esquire, High Sheriff of Herts, appears visibly before the House of Commons, to give account of a certain 'Pretended Commis Autograph, in the possession of C. Meadows, Esq., Great Bealing, Woodbridge, Suffolk. sion of Array,' which he had been attempting to execute one Market-day, some time since, at St. Albans in that county.1 Such King's Writ, or Pretended Commission of Array, the said High Sheriff had, with a great Posse Comitatus round him, been executing one Market-day at St. Albans (date irrecoverably lost),—when Cromwell's Dragoons dashed suddenly in upon him; laid him fast,—not without difficulty: he was first seized by 'six troopers,' but rescued by his royalist multitude; then 'twenty troopers' again seized him; 'barricadoed the innyard;' conveyed him off to London to give what account of the matter he could. There he is giving account of it,—a very lame and withal an 'insolent' one, as seems to the Honourable House; which accordingly sends him to the Tower, where he had to lie for several years. Commissions of Array are not handy to execute in the Eastern Association at present! Here is another instance; general result of this ride into Norfolk,'end of these businesses,' in fact. The Meeting at Laystoff,' or Lowestoff in Suffolk, is mentioned in all the old Books; but John Cory, Merchant Burgess of Norwich, shall first bring us face to face with it. Assiduous Sir Symond got a copy of Mr. Cory's Letter, one of the thousand Letters which Honourable Members listened to in those mornings; and here now is a copy of it for the reader, -news all fresh and fresh, after waiting two hundred and two years. Colonel Cromwell is in Norwich: old Norwich becomes visible and audible, the vanished moments buzzing again with old life, -if the reader will read well. Potts, we should premise, and Palgrave, were lately appointed Deputy Lieutenants of Norwich City; Cory I reckon to be almost a kind of Quasi-Mayor, the real Mayor having lately been seized for Royalism; Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe we shall perhaps transiently meet again. The other royalist gentlemen also are known to antiquaries of that region, and what their seats' and connexions were: but our reader here can without damage consider merely that they were Sons of Adam, furnished in general with due seats and equipments; and read the best he can : 1 Commons Journals, ii. 1000-1. 2 Vicars, p. 246; May's History of the Long Parliament (Guizot's French Trans lation), ii. 196. 3 D'Ewes MSS. f. 1139; Transcript, p. 378. |