382 The Falstone Day- Book. 
persecution of Mr. Humber, the incumbent placed in Clyffe Pypard by the Par- 
liament. Mr. Humber’s known attachment to the Parliament’s cause induced 
divers of his neighbours to procure a decree from Oxford empowering Sir John 
Penruddocke, the Sheriff, to eject Mr. Humber from his parsonage and install 
Mr. Buckeridge aforesaid. From this authority Mr. Humber appealed to that 
of the Wilts Committee; but before further action could be taken he found 
himself a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, who carried him off to Winchester 
and shut him up in the Castle, where he remained for six months, till released 
by the good offices of another of his neighbours named Thomas Morse, of 
Bushton; who in his turn experienced the like penalty of imprisonment and 
pillage. The parish registers of Clyffe Pypard, it is true, make no mention of any 
Humber ministering there at this time; but the narrative is too circumstantial 
to be disturbed by an omission of that nature, easily to be accounted for by the 
disorder of the times. Moreover there are no entries in the registers for the 
years 1646 and 1647.] 
In the case of Thomas Spackman it was averred inter alia that he was the 
inventor of a gun which would shoot off three times with only one charge ; which 
instrument he presented to the King, and shot it off three several times in his 
presence, exclaiming at each discharge, “ Now, have at the Roundheads.” 
[About a dozen years later a weapon of far more miraculous capacity is 
recorded in a French ballad as having been exhibited before Charles II. when an 
exile in Holland, shortly before his restoration. (Reference mislaid.) 
“ Jeudi, sa dite Majesté 
Vit Vincroyable nouveauté 
D’un certain canon ou machine, 
D’invention subtile et fine, 
Qui, sans le charger qu’une fois, 
Et non quatre, ni deux, ni trois, 
Tire cinquante coups de suite, 
Tant elle est rarement construite ; 
Et memement dix d’un seul coup, 
Chose qu'il admira beaucoup, 
Et par un obligeant langage 
Loua l’ouvrier et l’ouvrage. 
Et cet ouvrier est, ma foi, 
Le Couvreux, armurier du Roi.’’] 
1647. 2nd January. William Legg, of Bulford, is tenant to the State for a 
tenement at Bulford, of Mr. George Duke’s, a delinquent, at forty shillings a 
quarter, the first payment to be made at Lady-Day next, exclusive of all payments, 
ordinary or extraordinary.—(Subsequent entry.) Upon payment whereof the 
sequestration is to be taken off, the said George Duke offering to make oath that 
he is well known not to be worth £200, having also made it appear to this 
Committee that he hath taken the Covenant and the Negative Oath ; and there- 
upon is discharged of this sequestration. 
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