206 WEYMOUTH AND THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 

 WEYMOUTH AND MELCOMBE FOR THE PARLIAMENT. 



We naturally enquire whether the Weymouth and Mel- 

 combe people were mainly on the side of the Royalists or on 

 that of the Parliament. Like the neighbouring towns of 

 Poole, Dorchester, and Lyme Regis, they were for the most 

 part decidedly in favour of the Parliament. In fact, the towns- 

 folk throughout the South and East of England were to a great 

 extent disaffected. As regards Weymouth and Melcombe, 

 it is suggestive that, almost immediately on the outbreak of 

 the war, and apparently without fighting, the towns fell into 

 the hands of the Parliamentary forces, commanded by Sir 

 Walter Erie and Sir Thomas Trenchard, who garrisoned and 

 fortified them.* The Parliament also took possession, about 

 the <.'ame time, of the coast towns of Lyme Regis and Poole, 

 also of Portland and Dorchester. This was in August and 

 September, 1642. Colonel William Sydenham, son-in-law 

 of John Trenchard, of Warmwell, was appointed Governor of 

 I the towns of Weymouth and Melcombe. He was a leading 

 figure in the subsequent contests. f 



Both Weymouth and Melcombe were (as I am about to 

 relate), subsequently taken and retaken several times by the 

 opposing forces, the fate of the towns generally depending on 

 that of Portland, the " Gibraltar of Wessex." 



BOTH TOWNS SEIZED BY THE ROYALISTS, AUGUST, 1643. 



Weymouth and Melcombe having remained in the hands 

 of the Parliament for about a year, the Earl of Carnarvon 

 (who had taken Bristol on behalf of the King, and was making 



* 2 Hut. Hist. Dors., Ed. 3, 423. 



f The Governor's residence was on or near the site of Steward's Court, in 

 Melcombe Regis. The lane in which the Court is situate is still known as 

 " Governor's Lane." 



