210 WEYMOUTH AND THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 



in the course of which he came near Weymouth ; in fact, 

 on the 1st October he quartered at Maiden Newton, staying 

 at the Rectory House, and had " dinner in the field."* 



A ROYALIST CONSPIRACY, 1644. 



Another change was about to take place, and the shadows 

 of war were again shortly to hang over the towns. Sir Lewis 

 Dyve,| who had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 

 Dorsetshire Royalist forces, had received orders from the 

 King, then at Sherborne, for the re-capture of Weymouth 

 and Melcombe. The Roundheads did not expect this. 

 Peter Ince (appointed by the Dorset Standing Committee to 

 be officiating Minister of he Weymouth Garrison), wrote 

 " In the beginning of February " (1644) " we were in as sweet 

 a quiet and security as any Garrison in the Kingdom : no 

 enemy near us but one at Portland, and that not very con- 

 siderable, being but about three or four hundred men." 

 But a conspiracy by some of the townsmen (in conjunction 

 with some in Portland) to betray the towns to the Royalists 

 had by this time been formed, and materially helped Sir 

 Lewis Dyve in his project. This conspiracy and its results 

 formed some of the most interesting and important incidents 

 of the war here. 



I am unaware of any Royalist records containing other 

 than very brief accounts of the siege of Melcombe, and of 

 the events which immediately led up to it. I am therefore 

 mainly indebted for information to Parliamentary sources ; 



* Life of Bertie, Lord Lindsey. 



t Sir Lewis Dyve, of Bromham, Bedford, was connected with some of the 

 principal Royalist families in Dorset. He was taken in August, 1645, with 

 immense booty, at the capture of Sherborne Castle. Being brought to the bar 

 of the House and refusing to kneel, he was compelled by force. He was 

 M.P. for Weymouth 3 Chas I.. 



