The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 48
“FOR HIS EXCELLENCY SIR THOMAS FAIRFAX, GENERAL OF THE PARLIAMENTS ARMY: THESE”
Sir,—Hearing the Garrison of Hull is most distracted in the present government, and that the most faithful and honest Officers have no disposition to serve there any longer under the present Governor; and that it is their earnest desires, with all the trusty and faithful inhabitants of the Town, to have Colonel Overton sent to them to be your Excellency’s Deputy over them,—I do humbly offer to your Excellency, Whether it might not be convenient that Colonel Overton be speedily sent down; that so that Garrison may be settled in safe hands. And that your Excellency would be pleased to send for Colonel Overton, and confer with him about it. That either the Regiment “now” in the Town may be so regulated as your Excellency may be confident that the Garrison may be secured by them; or otherwise it may be drawn out, and his own Regiment in the Army be sent down thither with him—But I conceive, if the Regiment in Hull can be made serviceable to your Excellency, and included in the Establishment, it will be better to continue it there, than to bury a Regiment of your Army in the Garrison.
Sir, the eapedient will be very necessary, in regard of the present distractions here. This I thought fit to offer to your Excellency’s consideration. I shall humbly take leave to subscribe myself, your Excellency’s humble “and faithful servant,
After Hotham’s defection and execution, the Lord Ferdinando Fairfax, who had valiantly defended the place, was appointed Governor of Hull; which office had subsequently been conferred on the Generalissimo Sir Thomas, his Son; and was continued to him, on the readjustment of all Garrisons in the Spring of this same year.[2] Sir Thomas therefore was express Governor of Hull at this time. Who the Substitute or Deputy under him was, I do not know. Some Presbyterian man; unfit for the stringent times that had arrived, when no algebraic formula, but only direct vision of the relations of things would suffice a man.
Colonel Overton was actually appointed Governor of Hull: there is a long Letter from the Hull people about Colonel Overton’s laying free billet upon them, a Complaint to Fairfax on the subject, next year.[3] He continued long in that capacity; zealously loyal to Cromwell and his cause,[4] till the Protectorship came on. His troubles afterwards, and confused destinies, may again concern us a little.
This Letter is written only three weeks before the King took his flight from Hampton Court. One spark illuminating (very faintly) that huge dark world, big with such results, in the Army’s quarters about Putney, and elsewhere!
- ↑ Sloane Mss. 1519, fol. 82:—Signature, and all after ‘humble,’ is torn off. The Letter is not an autograph; it has been dictated, apparently in great haste.
- ↑ 13th March 1646-7 (Commons Journals, v, 111).
- ↑ 4th March 1647-8 (Rushworth, vii. 1020).
- ↑ Sir James Turner’s Memoirs. Milton State-Papers (London, 1743), pp. 10, 24, 161,—where the Editor calls him Colonel Richard Overton; his name was Robert: ‘Richard Overton’ is a ‘Leveller,’ unconnected with him; ‘Colonel Richard Overton’ is a non-existence.