186 



^11 €yi$ok of tljc ^xtixt ^efeUion. 



By John Harding. 



pHE original of the following paper, relating to the sacrifices 

 and sufferings of a Wiltshire clergyman, Thomas Hickman, 

 who, durmg the troubles of the 17th century, actively espoused the 

 Royalist cause, was for a long period in the possession of my family, 

 but is now lost. However it was copied by me when a boy at 

 school at Mere, under the supervision of the master, Mr. — after- 

 wards the Rev. — W. Barnes, the Dorsetshire poet, whose schoolroom 

 was at that time the upper story, called the " Cross Loft," of the 

 ancient Market House at Mere, long since pulled down, and from 

 this copy the following is transcribed : — 



To the King's most Excellent Majesty. 



The humble Petition of Nathaniel Hickman of West Knoyle in the 

 County of Wilts most humbly sheweth 



Dread Sovereign 



That in the time of the late Usurpation your Majesty's poor Petitioner's 

 Father Thomas Hickman • was invested of a Parsonage at Upton Lovell in 

 the County aforesaid and during the same did wholly employ himself at his 

 own proper charges in providing Horses and Arms and sending forth his Sons 

 & Servants in Vindication of your Majesty's Sacred Father of Blessed Memory 

 and in Restoration of your Majesty's Sacred Person, for which your poor 

 Petitioners' Father was thrown out of his Parsonage worth one hundred & 

 twenty pounds p annum Plundered of his Goods and Divers Times and in 

 several Places imprisoned ; and constrained to purchase his Life at Great 

 Cost, & to borrow a Hundred Pounds to satisfy avaricious Committee : All 

 which losses amounting to one Thousand Eight Hundred Pounds & upwards 

 and your Petitioner's Father after fourteen years Expulsion from his Living 

 departed this miserable Life leaving your poor petitioner Two Hundred 

 Pounds Indebted and hardly anything wherewithal to subsist. Your 

 Petitioner Humbly prays your sacred Majesty's Commisseration of his sad 



' " His eldest son he took from the university his name being Samuel and 

 made him a Captain over a Troop of Horse which was all maintained at his own 

 proper charge. He was killed at Newberry first fight by a Cannon Ball as he 

 was waiting on the King's person, &c." 



