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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
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“Volunteers,” p. 38.—The origin of the volunteer system was not at Bristol. It was in the pleasant environs of the town of Shrewsbury that volunteers first came forward in favour of the King and Parliament, and they were immediately sanctioned by an ordinance of the two Houses. This seems to have been the earliest notice that was taken of them, although Messieurs Blake way and Owen appear not to have met with it. The example was followed in several other places. In some they were suppressed by the Royalist authorities: in others they were established by Parliamentary influence: Bristol was one of these. At first there was only one company there; and, considering the population of the city, it is an intimation that a great part of them were Royalists. The captain of the first company was appointed by the celebrated Mr. Denzil Holies, who was Lieutenant of the county of Bristol; but it is uncertain whether the lot fell upon Birch. A second was afterwards appointed, as will appear. The preamble of the ordinance in question, the first and basis of many others, is conceived in a mild and soothing style. “Whereas divers well-affected Persons, of the Town of Shrewsbury, in the county of Salop, have of themselves, as Volunteers, under the Leading of Thomas Hunt, Esquire, one of the Aldermen of the said Town, exercised themselves in the Use of their Arms, by peaceable Training and Marching in the Fields, near the said Town, the better to enable and prepare themselves for the Service and Defence of his Majesty and the Kingdom, when they shall be lawfully called thereunto;” then follows the approbation and the permissive authority of both Houses of Parliament.
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- Military Memoir of Colonel John Birch
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- Camden New Series , Volume 7: Military Memoir of Colonel John Birch, sometime governor of Hereford in the civil war between Charles I, and the parliament; Written by Roe, his secretary; with an historical and critical commentary, notes and appendix, by the late Rev. John Webb , April 1874 , pp. 161 - 199
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1874
References
page 161 note 1 C. J., July 18, Aug. 17, 1642, Clarendon, vi.
page 161 note 2 The Vicar of Bray.
page 162 note 1 Defoe, Military History, ii.
page 162 note 2 We hear that the rebels of London are packing up their goods away for New England and other foreign parts; their own dissensions increasing daily amongst themselves.—Mr. Sec. Nicholas to M. of Ormonde; Carte's Ormonde, iii. 179.
page 162 note 3 Sept. 5, 1643.
page 162 note 4 “A strange and terrible sight,” &c.—London, 1643.
page 163 note 1 Waller himself assisted in recruiting his fresh army (Weekly Intelligencer, July 31, 1643). He came to the Artillery Ground. His regiment of foot guards was then complete. Many listed for horsemen (Tuesday, Aug. 8). He went to Butchers' Hall near Newgate, and enlisted many butchers to serve under him (Merc. Civicus, Aug. 3 to 11). They beat up for recruits also among the watermen on the Thames. [This note properly belongs to p. 57; but was inadvertently omitted there.]
page 163 note 2 Mercur. Rust. 223. [See Appendix II.]
page 163 note 3 Carte's Original Letters, i. 15.
page 163 note 4 Merc. Rust. 228, 12 Dec. 1642.
page 163 note 5 [In his Vindication, however (p. 29), with singular inconsistency, not umningled perhaps with unavowed compunction, he inveighs sharply against the permitted abominations of the New Model, little more decorous than the followers of Essex already referred to.]
page 164 note 1 Expedition, ii. 18.
page 164 note 2 Whitelocke, Memorials, 69, and Swedish Embassy.
page 165 note 1 Expedition, ii. 22.
page 165 note 2 Carlyle, i. 226, 227; iii. 307.
page 165 note 3 Sprigge, 80.
page 165 note 4 Vicars, 223. Brecknocks—qu. Brecknock? Both of them resided on the Surrey side of the Thames. Brecknocks in Southwark; Baines in Horsleydown.
page 166 note 1 MSS. penes me. J. W.
page 166 note 2 Lansdowne MSS. Cromwell Letters, i. 22, Brit. Mus.
page 167 note 1 Men are often as culpable from the effects of misguided affection as from those of evil intentions.—J. W.
page 167 note 2 [A spy, taken by the Parliament soldiers at Reading, was tortured into confession by “having lighted matches put to his fingers.”—Whitelocke, 114.]
page 167 note 3 Merc. Aul. Thursday, January 26, 1642.
page 167 note 4 Walker, MSS. Harl. C. a. 117.
page 167 note 5 Appendix IV.
page 168 note 1 Warburton, ii. 4, note 1.
page 168 note 2 Rupert's Correspondence, i. 100.
page 168 note 3 Sequestration Papers, Ser. 1, xcviii. 355.
page 168 note 4 Nov. 27, 1643.—Rushworth. Hobbes sarcastically declines to offer his opinion as to the legality of this.—History, 133.
page 168 note 5 Oct. 18, 1645. Perfect Occurrences.
page 168 note 6 Merc. Brit. No. 67.
page 168 note 7 June 1644. Notebook, Egerton MSS. 785, 27 b.
page 168 note 8 Nov. 1645. Scottish Dove.
page 168 note 9 Carte, MS. Letters, Bibl. Bodl. EE, f. 310.
page 169 note 1 Luke, MS. Notebook, 28 b.
page 169 note 2 MS. Letter-book of Sif W. Brereton (Brit. Mus.) i. 306.
page 169 note 3 Clarendon, vi.; Cary, Memorials, i. 351.
page 169 note 4 Fairfax Correspondence, i. 185.
page 169 note 5 Appendix V.
page 170 note 1 Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 57, et alibi.
page 170 note 2 Memoirs, i. 108.
page 170 note 3 Ludlow and Hutchinson, Memoirs: Drake, Eboracum: Lady B. Harley, Letters. See an article on this subject in Bibl. Glouc. cxliv.
page 170 note 4 Life, 44.
page 171 note 1 Appendix VI.
page 171 note 2 Lithgow, Somers Tracts, 502, 534.
page 171 note 3 Bulstrode, 122.
page 171 note 4 Memoirs, 4to. 159.
page 171 note 5 Military Discipline, 3.
page 171 note 6 Rainsford's Young Soldier, 8.
page 171 note 7 Warwick, Memoirs, 257.
page 171 note 8 [At the battle of Edge-hill, Whitelocke says, “the generals of both armies performed their parts with great courage and gallantry, leading on their forces with pikes in their hands, but were advised to change that posture, as fitter for a private soldier than for a general.”]
page 172 note 1 Expedition, ii. 192.
page 172 note 2 Rapin, ii. 483.
page 172 note 3 Vindication, 216.
page 172 note 4 They crossed the Bound-Rod from Berwick, in detachments, Jan. 18, 19, 1643–4, almost knee-deep in snow.—Rushworth.
page 173 note 1 [See, however, an amusing instance of pillage by a Scotch officer, in Fairfax Correspondence, ii. 14; a consciousness of some cases of this kind may have been the cause of the apologetic expressions in the vaunt. The following extract from Burnet (Own Time, i. 38) affords an interesting comment on the whole passage:—“The Scots marched with a very sorry equipage; every soldier carried a week's provision of oatmeal, and they had a drove of cattel with them for their food. They had also an invention of guns of white iron, tinned and done about with leather, and chorded so that they could serve for two or three discharges. These were light, and were carried on horses. And when they came to Hewburn the English army that defended the ford was surprised with a discharge of artillery. Some thought it magick; and all were put in such disorder that the whole army did run with so great precipitation that Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had a command in it, did not stick to own that till he passed the Tees his legs trembled under him.”]
page 173 note 2 The Scotch Intelligencer, Oct. 19 to 25, 1643.
page 173 note 3 Vicars, God in the Mount, 158.
page 174 note 1 Diary, Camden Soc. 141.—An anecdote of contempt of death, which in the mind of the reader, according as it is disposed, may be productive of admiration or awe.—J. W.
page 174 note 2 Brief Instructions, &c. by J. B. London, 1661, relating chiefly to Cavalry, 17 et seq. They were regularly provided with instruments, medicaments, and military chests. A surgeon's chest at the beginning of hostilities was worth 25l.—C J. May 17, 1642. [Many were taken in the retreat after the first battle of Newbury. Merc. Aul. Sept. 21, 1643.]
page 174 note 3 MSS. Harl. 6804, 90.
page 174 note 4 Harte, Hist, of Gustavus Adolphus, Essay, &c. xxxv. ed. 1807.
page 175 note 1 Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley (Camd. Soc.) passim.
page 176 note 1 Warwick, Memoirs, 241.
page 176 note 2 Instances of persons being conveyed from the battle of Edge-hill to a London Hospital occur in the Diary of a Surgeon, Ellis, Original Letters, Scries 2, iii. 305.
page 176 note 3 Diary, 69.
page 177 note 1 He had been at Winchester and Chichester in 1642.
page 177 note 2 [He served in Ireland with Mynne.—Carte's Ormonde.]
page 178 note 1 More severe than could be put in practice—boring the tongue through with a red-hot iron. [Yet it is said to have been resorted to, with other measures of the like severity, in the Parliament's army.—Perf. Occurr. Jan. 13, 1645–6.]
page 178 note 2 His Majesties Declaration, &c. to all his soldiers, in the head of his army at Southam, Oct. 21, 1642. London: printed for Wm. Gay, 6.
page 178 note 3 Life, 47.
page 178 note 4 Hargreave, ut supra.
page 178 note 5 Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 126.
page 179 note 1 Carlyle, i. 192.
page 179 note 2 Cromwelliana, 5.
page 179 note 3 Archseologia, xxxv. 313 et seqq.
page 179 note 4 Rushworth, 3, ii. 666.
page 179 note 5 Baker's Chronicle, 498.
page 179 note 6 Corbet, Milit. Government, lxxxvi.
page 180 note 1 Introduction to the late Petition to the King, Jan. 10, 1642. Parl. Hist. xii. 19.—England's Third Alarm to War, 1643.
page 180 note 2 Holies, Memoirs, 27.
page 180 note 3 There were horse cuirassiers in the service of the Belgic States before 1625, as well as harquebusiers on horseback. [It appears from Sir E. Walker's Papers that the King attempted to oppose the Parliament with a similar force. On May 2, 1644, a troop of 100 cuirassiers was ordered to be raised for Col. Blagge: they are not, however, subsequently mentioned. (MSS. Harl. 6,802, 126.) In 1642 William Legge had been captain of a troop of cuirassiers in Prince Rupert's regiment.—Collins's Peerage, ii. 644.]
page 180 note 4 Clarendon, viii. [Hopton had complained in the previous September of the unarmed condition of his horse; and in December of their decrease.—Warburton's Rupert, ii. 291, 333.]
page 181 note 1 Some Brief Instructions, &c. by J. B.: London, 1661.
page 181 note 2 Clarendon, viii.
page 181 note 3 Rushworth, 3, ii. 655.
page 182 note 1 Memorials, 12mo. 1699, 58. [Those who are acquainted with the party-vehemence of Vicars will not wonder that he has been guilty of a gross misrepresentation here.]
page 182 note 2 Memoirs, p. 11.
page 182 note 3 Holies, Memoirs, 139.
page 182 note 4 Ludlow, Memoirs, i. 112.
page 182 note 5 Scobell, 40, April 25, 1643.
page 182 note 6 Holies, Memoirs, 27, 136.
page 182 note 7 Rushworth, 3, ii. 735.—His experience in that branch of service was brought into play long after, and his employment at a season of great difficulty and apprehension ensuing the death of Charles I. will be seen by the following order:—“The Councell taking into consideration the great waste and spoyle that hath been made of horses in England during the late troubles, and the great want there is like to be of them for the future for publique service in England and Ireland, have thought fit that all care be taken for preventing the inconvenience that may come thereby, doe hereby order that it be recommended to Sir Arthur Heselreige to take speciall care to prevent the carrying of horses out of England by the northern parts.”—Council of State Order Books, Feb. 24, 1648, i. 17.—J. W.
page 183 note 1 Memoirs, i. 50.
page 183 note 2 Expedition, i. 45.
page 183 note 3 Historic of Philip de Commines, translated by Danett, 332.
page 184 note 1 [He was Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Rivers, whose regiment, about 200 foot and 25 horse, with 4 pieces of cannon, formed the garrison. He was knighted by the King Oct. 22, 1644.—Symonds' Diary.]
page 184 note 2 Chronicle, i. 100.
page 185 note 1 Clarendon, viii. [It was surrendered April I, 1646.]
page 186 note 1 MSS. Collections.
page 186 note 2 MSS. Collections.
page 186 note 3 He recollects when the Henley road to the famous University of Oxford was traversed in coaches through wintry mire, only by faggots thrown down to stop the holes.
page 187 note 1 MSS. Harl. 885, 2, 10.
page 187 note 2 Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer, April 8, 1645.
page 188 note 1 Bailey's Diet. v. Rattoon. Qu. Racoon?
page 188 note 2 Civil War, i. 83.
page 188 note 3 Lady of Latham, 86, 93.
page 188 note 4 Cary, ii. 45.
page 189 note 1 Somers Tracts, Collect. 4, x. 155.
page 189 note 2 Bibl. Glouc. cxvi. cxvii.
page 189 note 3 Aubrey, Letters from the Bodleian, Lives of Eminent Men, 2. ii. 465.
page 189 note 4 [He was knighted by Richard Cromwell, Nov. 26, 1658.]
page 189 note 5 Blount's MS. of Herefordshire.
page 189 note 6 “If your petitioner had stayed four dayes longer at York without going into Scotland to joyne with the Generall his Lordship had been in very great danger.” Petition of Sir Thomas Morgan to King Charles II.
page 190 note 1 MS. Letter-book, 66a.
page 191 note 1 Biblioth. Gloucest. 285, et seqq.
page 191 note 2 [An ordinance was passed for the suppresion of duels June 29, 1654.]
page 192 note 1 MS. Letter-book of Sir W. Brereton, iii. 119.
page 193 note 1 Account of Hereford, 1796, 46.
page 194 note 1 [Cruso, in his “Order of Military Watches,” 1642, thus describes the duty of the Sergeant Major in the morning: “In places of danger he openeth the wicket onely, and sends out some men a pretty distance, to discover whether there be not some Embuscado or the like, and finding all safe, opens the great gate.” 65.]
page 195 note 1 By the size of balls there found of 8 lbs. the piece of ordnance seems to have been a saker.
page 195 note 2 Fosbroke's Ariconensia, 91.
page 195 note 3 [Merc. Aul. says he had been on three sides in less tha n two years. Nov. 23, 1644.]
page 191 note 4 This was not the only instance in Herefordshire, according to Symonds. (Walter) “Baskervile of Canon Peawne, small estate, (jure ux.) first for the Parliament, then for the King, then theirs, then taken prisoner by us, and (with) much adce gott his pardon, and now pro Rege, God wott.”—Diary, 196.
page 196 note 1 Heath, Excursion down the Wye.
page 196 note 2 We may accept the confession of one of the coolest judges upon the subject, when, as to the real worth of the military towards the conclusion of these miseries, he told Sir Philip Warwick, who went to visit him (Sir T. Fairfax) after the surrender of Oxford, that the best common soldiers he had came out of the Royal army, and from the garrisons he had taken in: “so (sayes he) I found you had made them good soldiers, and I have made them good men.”—Memoirs, 253.
page 197 note 1 [The following letter from Col. Venn at Northampton to the Committee of both Kingdoms, dated April 11, 1646, gives a curious insight into the state of the Parliamentary levies at that time: “Most countries press the Scum of all their Inhabitants, the King's Soldiers, Men taken out of prison, Tinkers, Pedlars, and Vagrants that have no dwelling, and such of whom no account can be given, it is no marvel if such run away” (desert).—L. J. See Waller's Vindication, 120, for a remarkable statement as to the number of Royalist soldiers included in the newly-modelled army].
page 198 note 1 One of the most irreproachable and impartial of neighbours.—J. W.
page 198 note 2 An amusing specimen of this occurs in a letter to Harley, in which he speaks of “the claws of ys Greedy Harpye who notwithstandinge all that I have giuen him would yet scratch my eyes out could he find the least piece of Gold undr them. God forgive him and deliver me from him. Amen.” It is however due to the Bishop to state that in a subsequent letter to the arbitrator he offers an excuse for his expressions.