The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/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 Commission 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 inn-yard’;[2] 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,[3] 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;[4] 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
‘To Sir John Potts, Knight Baronet, of Mannington, Norfolk: These. Laus Deo
‘Right honourable and worthy Sir,—I hope you came in due time to the end of your journey in health and safety; which I shall rejoice to hear. Sir, I might spare my labour in now writing; for I suppose you are better informed from other hands; only to testify my respects:
‘Those sent out on Monday morning, the 13th, returned that night, with old Mr. Castle of Raveningham, and some arms of his, and of Mr. Loudon’s of Alby, and of Captain Hamond’s with his leading staff-ensign and drum. Mr. Castle is secured at Sheriff Greenwood’s. That night letters from Yarmouth informed the Colonel,[6] That they had that day, that day, made stay of Sir John Wentworth, and of one Captain Allen from Lowestoff, who had come thither to change dollars; both of whom are yet secured;—and further, That the Town of Lowestoff had received-in divers strangers, and was fortifying itself.
‘The Colonel advised no man might enter in or out the gates “of Norwich,” that night. And the next morning, between five and six, with his five troops, with Captain Fountain’s, Captain Rich’s, and eight of our Norwich Volunteers, he marched towards Lowestoff; where he was to meet with the Yarmouth Volunteers, who brought four or five pieces of ordnance. The Town “of Lowestoff” had blocked themselves up; all except where they had placed their ordnance, which were three pieces; before which a chain was drawn to keep off the horse.
‘The Colonel summoned the Town, and demanded, If they would deliver-up their strangers, the Town and their army?—promising them then favour, if so; if not, none. They yielded to deliver-up their strangers, but not to the rest. Whereupon our Norwich dragoons crept under the chain before mentioned; and came within pistol-shot of their ordnance; proffering to fire upon their cannoneer,—who fled: so they gained the two pieces of ordnance, and broke the chain; and they and the horse entered the Town without more resistance. Where presently eighteen strangers yielded themselves; among whom were, of Suffolk men: Sir T. Barker, Sir John Pettus;—of Norfolk, Mr. Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe, “whom we are to meet again”; Mr. Richard Catelyn’s Son,—some say his Father too was there in the morning; Mr. F. Cory, my unfortunate cousin, who I wish would have been better persuaded.
‘Mr. Brooke, the sometime minister of Yarmouth, and some others, escaped, over the river. There was good store of pistols, and other arms: I hear, above fifty cases of pistols. The Colonel stayed there Tuesday and Wednesday night. I think Sir John Palgrave and Mr. Smith went yesterday to Berks. It is rumoured Sir Robert Kemp had yielded to Sir John Palgrave; how true it is I know not, for I spoke not Sir John yesterday as he came through Town. I did your message to Captain Sherwood. Not to trouble you further, I crave leave; and am ever your Worship’s at command, John Cory.
‘Postscriptum, 20th March 1642.—Right worthy Sir, The abovesaid, on Friday, was unhappily left behind; for which I am sorry; as also that I utterly forgot to send your plate. On Friday night the Colonel brought in hither with him the prisoners taken at Lowestoff, and Mr. Trott of Beccles. On Saturday night, with one troop, they sent all the prisoners to Cambridge. Sir John Wentworth is come off with the payment of 1000l. On Saturday, Dr. Corbett of Norwich, and Mr. Henry Cooke[7] the Parliament-man, and our old “Alderman” Daniell were taken in Suffolk. Last night, several troops went out; some to Lynn-ward, it’s thought; others to Thetford-ward, it’s supposed,—because they had a prisoner with them. Sir, I am in great haste, and remember nothing else at present. John Cory.’
Cory still adds: ‘Sir Richard Berney sent to me, last night, and showed and gave me the Colonel’s Note to testify he had paid him the 50l.’—a forced contribution levied by the Association Committee upon poor Berney, who had shown himself ‘backward’: let him be quiet henceforth, and study to conform.
This was the last attempt at Royalism in the Association where Cromwell served. The other ‘Associations, no man duly forward to risk himself being present in them, had already fallen, or were fast falling, to ruin; their Counties had to undergo the chance of War as it came. Huntingdon County soon joined itself with this Eastern Association.[8] Cromwell’s next operations, as we shall perceive, were to deliver Lincolnshire, and give it the power of joining, which in September next took effect.[9] Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Herts, Hunts: these are thenceforth the ‘Seven Associated Counties,’ called often the ‘Association’ simply, which make a great figure in the old Books,—and kept the War wholly out of their own borders, having had a man of due forwardness among them.
- ↑ Commons Journals, ii, 1000-1.
- ↑ Vicars, p. 246; May’s History of the Long Parliament (Guizot’s French Translation), ii. 196.
- ↑ D’Ewes MSS. f. 1139 Transcript, p. 378.
- ↑ Commons Journals, 10th December 1642.
- ↑ Means 1643 of our Style, There are yet seven days of the Old Year to run.
- ↑ ‘viz. Cromwell,’ adds D’Ewes
- ↑ Corbett is or was ‘Chancellor of Norwich Diocese’; Henry Cooke is Son of Coke upon Lyttleton,—has left his place in Parliament, and got into dangerous courses.
- ↑ 26th May,—Husbands, ii, 183.
- ↑ Ibid. p. 327