100 The Wiltshire Compounders. 
Her ladyship now prayed to be admitted to compound for the 
jointure which she held by her former husband; from which it is 
clear that she was made to suffer for the “delinquency ” of her 
second husband. She acknowledged in petition that her present 
husband, William Ashburnham, had been actively engaged in this 
unhappy war against the Parliament ; He was now abroad, and she 
had long been looking out for his return, that he might prosecute a 
composition, but his infirmities of health preventing him, she was 
compelled by her own necessities to make her addresses unto the 
committee. Her jointure was worth £521 per annum for her life, 
derivable from a freehold in the manor of South Tidworth, lands in 
North Tidworth, a coppice in Chute Forest, and lands called Sandy- 
haven, in Pembrokeshire, where, however, the mansion and mill 
were burnt down. Her personal estate at Tidworth had suffered 
damage to the extent of £20,000, and to divers persons she owed 
£2000. The committee rated her fine at one year’s value as for 
life, £521; and ordered the same to be reported to both Houses 
before she be required to pay it, Lords’ Journals, ix., 590, which 
looks as though there was some reluctance to exact anything from 
her; but eventually the full penalty was demanded. 
Simultaneously with her own affair, her sister, Lady Ellen Drake, 
was giving evidence in the committee rooms against Lord Pawlet, 
for his treatment of the Drake household ; and as Lady Marlborough 
had been resident in Exeter at the time, as above narrated, it was 
deemed advisable to obtain her testimony. This drew from her the 
following singular declaration :—that when young Mr. Drake was 
brought in prisoner to Exeter, she made personal application to the 
Prince Maurice to procure his enlargement; but the Prince replied 
that he could not do it, for said he, “ the Parliament’s forces are 
now on their march towards this city ; and if your nephew were to 
recover his liberty just now, the result would be that the Lord 
Pawlet’s house would be immediately destroyed ; for I have been 
told that your nephew has given out that he will certainly get it to 
be fired in revenge for the burning of his own house at Ashe.” 
This was all Lady Marlborough had to state; and being unwell she 
hoped that her personal attendance in the court would not be required. 
