SOMERSETSHIRE SEQUESTRATION8. 71 



was one of those presented to Parllament frora various 

 parts of the kingdoin, deprecating the sanguinary contesta 

 which were going on between the King and the Parliament, 

 and pi'aying for peaceable accommodatlon. 



The Wednesday fast, which Mr. Richardson ueglected 

 in favoiir of that on Friday, as being more in accordance 

 with the ancient discipline of the church, originated in tlie 

 projected Irish massacre and conspiracy, in 1640,* as a 

 memorial of which, the King, at the request of the Par- 

 liament, appointed a fast to be observed on the last 

 Wednesday of every month, as long as the calamities of the 

 nation should continue. After the commencement of the 

 war, the two Houses of Parliament passed an ordinance 

 for the more strict observance of the new fast, and all 

 preachers wei'e commanded to exhort their hearers to a 

 solemn observance of it. Business and pleasure were 

 completely put aside, and from nine in the morning until 

 four in the afternoon the religious Services continued, with 

 little or no interruption. 



CoL Edward Phelipps who is here mentioned, was the son 

 of that Sir Robert Phelipps, of Montacute, or Mountague, 

 as it was sometimes then called, who for bis integrity and 

 unflinching boldness in assisting the constitutional rights 

 of the people in Parliament, was styled " the old Roman." 

 In the reign of James, he had succeeded bis father, Sir 

 Edward Phelipps, M.P., the founder of Montacute House, 

 as one of the members for this county. In Charles's reign 

 he was again in the Parliament summoned in 1625, but 

 rendered himself so obnoxious to the Crown, that he 

 was excluded in the next, which met in February 1626, 

 being pricked for SherifF. He was, however, a third time 

 returned meniber for the county in 1628, and was loud in 



* Ncal's History of the Puritans, p. 563. 



