Page:VCH Sussex 1.djvu/617

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POLITICAL HISTORY amongst whom William Marlett' and John Shelley of Sullington' are mentioned, were dispersed and fined, and the original suggestion of raising two troops of horse and a company of dragoons in the county to suppress the rising was negatived as unnecessary/ In August, however, a plot to seize Chichester was discovered, and the committee were warned to be vigilant ;* and about the same time Major Anthony Norton raised some sixty horse and foot and endeavoured to seize the magazine of Rye and to oppose the entrance of Major Gibbons by barricading Blackwel! Wall/ Gibbons however secured the town and obtained an increase of his garrison/ Livesay's regiment after the taking of Horsham caused great dis- satisfaction by their ' disorders and plunderings without distinction of friend or enemy," and next year, being again quartered in the county though ordered for service in Ireland, proved a great burden ' both by their free quarter and their disorderly carriage/' The grievance of free quarter was abolished by Cromwell, and in March 1652 we find ^2^ paid to Anne Denny, wife of George Goring, for three months' rent of Goring House for quartering soldiers,' but the disorders were an almost unavoidable accompaniment of the war, the principal sufferers being the loyal clergy/" In September 1650 militia commissions for the county were issued for three captains of horse and eleven of foot, including one for Chichester," and in August 1651, when Charles II. was marching southwards with the Scottish army, the Sussex militia were ordered to Oxford, two troops only being left in the county to preserve the peace/^ On 3 September 1651 was fought the decisive battle of Worcester, as a result of which Charles had to fly for his life. After a month spent in hiding and in slow journeys in disguise, the king, finding it impossible to obtain a boat at Bristol, determined to try the Sussex coast. Accordingly on 7 October Lord Wilmot came to Racton to arrange with Colonel Counter for the king's escape. The colonel after considerable difficulty arranged with a Brighton skipper. Captain Tettersell, to carry the king, in the character of a man who had got into trouble over a duel, across to France. On Monday, 13 October, Colonel Counter and his cousin and Lord Wilmot went coursing upon the Downs, and there met the king with Colonel Philips. The night was spent at Hambledon with Counter's married sister, whose husband, Thomas Symonds, mistook Charles for a Roundhead, he having had his hair cropped for purposes of disguise. Next day they rode on, and as they were above Arundel met the governor, Captain Morley, while

  • Cal. of Com. for Advance of Money, p. 1329. ° Ibid. p. 1238.

3 Ho. of Lords MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vii. 34.

  • Cal. S.P. Dom. Chas. I. dxvi. 81. = C^l. of Com. for Adv. of Money, p. 1351.

8 Cal. S.P. Dom. Chas. I. dxv. 81. ' Ibid. p. 70. 8 Cal. S.P. Dom. Interregnum, i. 32. » Ibid. p. 592. 10 See Suss. Arch. Coll. v. 73-9. Also the case of John Lewknor of West Dean, aged 19, who was robbed, stripped of his clothes and threatened with wounds by some parliamentary soldiers merely be- cause some of his name were fighting on the king's side {Cal. of Com. for Comfoundtng, p. 1215). " Cal. S.P. Dom. Interregnum, i. 511. '^ Ibid. xvi. 30, 33. 527