173 



but having repaired the Castle of Broncroft, and committed it to the care of Lord 

 Calvin, a Scottish nobleman, on the following day they summoned Stokesay to 

 surrender, which, after a first refusal, was yielded up by the Governor, Captain 

 Dauret, or Dannet, and perhaps one of the Dannets of Bosbury, county Hereford, 

 in view of an impending storm. Woodhouse, the Governor of Ludlow, forseeing 

 the disadvantage that must result to his command, assembled a force from all the 

 garrisons within forty miles, Monmouth, Hereford, Worcester, Hartlebury, and 

 others, making up in all 1,500 or 2,000 men, and marched by Broncroft, which the 

 Roundheads abandoned, to Stokesay." 



In this neighbourhood the Royalists encountered the enemy, who were 

 waiting at Wistanstow, on the high road between Ludlow and Shrewsbury, for 

 reinforcements, and after an hour's fighting were entirely defeated, with the loss 

 of nearly 60 officers, and 300 soldiers captured, as well as all the ordnance and 

 baggage. 



Walker attributes the overthrow to disagreement among the Commanders, 

 a case of all captains and no corporals !— which is not improbable, as Woodhouse, 

 Lunsford, Sandys, and Scudamore were all there with most of the gallantry of 

 Herefordshire. Woodhouse and Lunsford escaped with difficulty, Woodhouse 

 without his horse ; but the loss, which threw the rest into insi>,'nificance, was that 

 already mentioned in "the words of Vicars 'Sir William Croft the best head- 

 piece and activest man in that county was slain in the place' " But says my late 

 friend, Mr. Webb (to whom I had the pleasure of giving such assistance as lay in 

 my power in the compilation of his work " The Civil Wars of Herefordshire ") in 

 a note on page 195, Vol. 2. " Vicars must be wrong, for the tradition of the 

 neighbourhood, not yet extinct, points out a spot in the boundary of Croft Park 

 called Sir William's wicket, where he was shot by one or two pursuei-s, some say 

 as he was getting over the park wall ; and a very old tree called ' Sir William's 

 Ash' three or four yards off was only blown down a few years ago. The keenness 

 of the pursuit may be estimated from the fact that this wicket must be nearly ten 

 miles in a straight line from the field of battle. Various sites liave l)een assigned 

 for the battle, which in Price's history of Leominster (published 1795) is placed 

 near the forgotten town of Boitanc, under Richards' Castle, a few miles north 

 of Leominster. The Royalists, under Sir Thomas Lundesford, Sir Michael 

 Woodhouse, and others, were encamped on the declivity of the hill, near to 

 Richards' Castle, which was then in ruins, and not having thrown up any works 

 to secure themselves against any suiiden attack, but confiding too much in their 

 own force, near 2,000 men, drawn chiefly from the adjacent towns, were surprised 

 during the night by the enemy, who had concealed themselves in the extensive 

 woods, (of the Moor) which lie contiguous, and entirely defeated by a number 

 far inferior to them. Sir William Croft, previous to the engagement, riding 

 privately by night through the woods from his Castle of Croft with a few 

 attendants was unfortunately surprised and barbarously murdered, but Vicars' 

 statement, which is also that of Symonds and at least five of the journals, is 

 established by the entry of burial in the register of Croft parish, where it runs 

 ' near Stokesay Castle. ' " 



