WEYMOUTH AND THE GREAT CIVIL WAR. 225 



two guards, and had been subjected to the rapine and 

 tyrannous conduct of the soldiery. The total loss of property 

 was estimated at 20,000. What this must have meant to 

 such small and very poor places, dependent almost entirely 

 on fishing, the Newfoundland trade, and the revenue from 

 the harbour, we can scarcely realise. Indeed for a time all 

 was in chaos ; trade wa? well nigh suspended ; the Town 

 Clerk had gone off during the wars, and such was the death- 

 like torpor which prevailed, that the Corporation seem to 

 have met twice only in about two years, and entries in the 

 Parochial Registers of Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials 

 were for long discontinued.* 



* In August, 1645, an Ordinance of Parliament was made, directing the 

 Standing Committee of the County of Dorset to put in force a weekly assessment 

 for six months, for the support of Colonel Edmund Massey's forces. This 

 led to the presentation of a petition by the Weymouth Corporation to the 

 Committee. A copy of this petition is here inserted, as it throws light on the 

 state of the town at the time. 



" The humble Peticon " &c. " sheweth that yor petr* have sustained great 

 losses in their estate to the value of many thousand pounds by occasion of the 

 warre and the late seige against this towne in which divers of their houses 

 were burnt and destroyed & ye Inhabitants of Waymouth plundered of 

 their goods, and before that, much of yor petrs lands wasted and their houses 

 and buildings pulled downe and their goods ymployed for ye better fortifynge 

 of ye Garrison ; & have expended much in free quarteringe of Souldiers & 

 cloansinge ye towne after the seige. And yor Petrs are hitherto at a great 

 charge & trouble for ye maintenance of ye Garrison by quarteringe, Lights 

 for ye Guard, watchinge and bearinge armes at their owne pper costs & 

 charges pforminge that dutie of watchinge in their turnes as often as the 

 souldiers, in wch yor petrs shall, with all readines & cheerefulnes continue as 

 long as God shall enable them. And now yor Petrs are informed by ye Con- 

 stables that aW arrant is granted by you for the raiseing of f ouer pounds weekly 

 upon them wch (by reason of ye pmisses & their extreame poverty for want of 

 trade as in former times) yor petrs are not only unable to pay but are put to 

 hard shifts for ye maintenance of their owne families & the poore amongst 

 them. And therefore yor petrs are necessitated to present their condicon 

 unto y r serious consideracon. Humbly prayinge that they may be freed from 

 the payment of ye said weekly assessment." * Weymouth Corporation 

 Records. 



