A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE of creating votes in the interests of the crown, and the Parliamentary representation was practically set upon the basis which it retained till 1 832."" Lichfield, which had been unrepresented for 200 years, again sent two members in 15523, Mark Wyrley and William Fitzherbert, the county sending to the same Parliament William Devereux and Walter Aston ; Newcastle, Roger Fowke and John Smyth ; and the borough of Stafford, Edward Colborne and Francis Smith. 354 In 1563 Tamworth appears for the first time, and the county in all was represented by ten members. These members sat for a considerable time, as this Parliament was repeatedly prorogued, partly on account of the plague which was then raging in London and Westminster, 265 and partly because under the Tudors it had become customary to resume business in repeated sessions with the same body of members. 256 The Parliament of 1572, to which the county again sent ten members, lasted eleven years. In 1601 a Northamptonshire gentleman, Robert Browne, was one of the members for Lichfield. 267 At the famous Parliament of 1621, which attacked monopolies, impeached Bacon, and entered in the journals of the House a protestation of their privilege to speak freely on all subjects, only to have it torn from the book by the king, Sir William Bowyer and Thomas Crompton represented the county ; William Wingfield and Richard Weston of Rugeley, 268 Lichfield ; Sir John Davis and Edward Kerton, Newcastle ; Matthew Cradock and Richard Dyott, Stafford borough ; Sir Thomas Puckeringe and John Ferrour, ' merchant of London,' Tarn- worth. 259 In February, i 604, the government, alarmed at the result of the tolera- tion they had granted to the Catholics, determined on sterner measures, and the result was the Gunpowder Plot, of which Holbeche House saw one of the closing scenes. The original conspirators, Catesby, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, and John Wright, were no obscure fanatics, but gentlemen of name and blood, and if they had kept the secret to them- selves the House of Lords would probably have been blown up. But they committed the fatal error of having too many accomplices, and determined that arms and men should be ready in the country to commence war as soon as Parliament was destroyed. Tresham betrayed the plot, and even then the conspirators would probably have escaped, but when they fled into the country, leaving Fawkes grimly sticking to his post, they raised open insur- rection. 260 As they rode through the country on the morning of 5 November they found that the zeal of most of their supporters had cooled, and only a few score joined them. What followed may be told in the words of the sheriff of Worcestershire to the council. After describing how the rebellious assembly had broken into Lord Windsor's house at Hewell on 7 November, 'taking there great store of armour and artillery,' he relates how they passed that night into the county of Stafford unto the house of one Stephen Littleton, gentleman, about two miles distant from Stourbridge, ' whither we "' Lane Pool, Hist. Atlas. Notes on Map xxiii ; Gneist, Hist, of Engl. Part. (ed. 3), 232. 154 Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i), 379 ; Shaw, Hist, of Staffs, i, 318. '" Parry, Paris, and Councils of Engl. 216. >M Gneist, Hist, of Engl. Par/, (ed. 3), 241. '" Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i),44O. m Afterwards baron of the Exchequer. '"Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i), 453. M0 Trevelyan, Engl. under the Stuarts, 96. 254
