The First Book 31 



federate places in th3 eastern parts of the kingdom) to form 

 a considerable party to annoy and disturb the forces raised 

 by my Lord in Lincolnshire, and left there for the protection 

 of that county ; where the enemy being drawn together in 

 a body, fought my Lord's forces in his absence, and got the 

 honour of the day near Hornby Castle in that, county 1 ; 

 which loss, caused partly by their own rashness, forced my 

 Lord to leave his design upon Hull, and to march back with 

 his army to York, which was in October 1643, where the 

 remained but a few days to refresh his army ; and receiving 

 intelligence that the enemy was got into Derbyshire, and 

 did grow numerous there, and busy in seducing the people, 

 that country being under my Lord's command, he resolved 

 to direct his March thither in the beginning of November 

 1643, to suppress their further growth ; and to that end 

 quartered his army at Chesterfield and in all the parts there- 

 about, for a certain time 2 . 



Immediately after his departure from York to Pomfret, 

 in his said march into Derb}'shire, the city of York sent to 

 my Lord to inform him of their intention to choose another 

 Mayor for the year following, desiring his pleasure about it. 

 My Lord, who knew that the Mayor for the } r ear before was 



1 The battle of Winceby, or Horncastle, fought on October n (Rushworth III, ii, 

 281 ; Vicar's God's Ark, pp. 43-8 ; and Fairfax Correspondence, Memorials of the Civil 

 War, i, p. 62). When the siege of Hull commenced, the Earl of Manchester, with the 

 armv of the Eastern Association, was occupied in the siege of Lynn. Its surrender, 

 on September 16, enabled him to despatch his horse under Cromwell into Lincolnshire, 

 to join Sir Thomas Fairfax with the horse of the garrison of Hull, and Lord Willoughby 

 with the local levies of Lincolnshire. The union of Fairfax and Cromwell took place 

 on September 26. Manchester also sent 500 men, under Sir John Meldrum, into Hull, 

 which they entered on October 5 ; and he himself, with his foot, joined Fairfax and 

 Cromwell at Kirby in Lincolnshire on October 10. In the battle the Royalists lost 

 1000 prisoners and 35 colours. ' We have in a manner totally lost our foot and dragoons 

 that were there, being near 800 horse, extremely dissevered but no great number cut 

 off ' reports Sir William Widdington to Newcastle. The consequences of the battle 

 were the evacuation of Gainsborough by the Royalists, the capture of Lincoln, and 

 the blockade of Newark. The Duchess omits to mention the successful sally made 

 by the garrison of Hull on October 11, in which many of Newcastle's guns were taken, 

 and some of his works destroyed {Portland MSS., i, 138). This defeat, not that at Winceby 

 alone, obliged Newcastle to raise the siege of Hull. 



2 Mercurius Aulicus for Jan. 1, 1644 contains the following: 'The first day of this 

 year brought us in good news from the Lord Marquis of Newcastle, who, as we are adver- 

 tised lately, put in execution the commission of array at Chesterfield in Derbyshire ; 

 where he was met with the greatest concourse of people that hath been seen in those 

 parts these many years. And (as it was for certain advertised) his Excellency had 

 then gathered up above 2300 stout Derbyshire volunteers, resolved to venture their 

 lives for their King and country against this rebellion ; whereof Sir John Gell, by his 

 meekness and humanity, hath made them very sensible. And as a further testimony 

 of the people's loyalty, 'that noble knight, Sir John Harpur, had received very fair con- 

 tributions of that county for the maintenance of those forces.' An account of the 

 proceedings of Newcastle's forces in Derbyshire is given in a contemporary pamphlet, 

 reprinted in Appendix vi. 



