POLITICAL HISTORY 



1 63 1, 1 made it in little humour to meet the fresh burden of ship-money. By the 

 levy of 1635 the county was assessed at 3,509, of which 200 was due from 

 Nottingham, >T 1 20 from Newark, and 30 from Retford.* At the assess- 

 ment no one seems to have been refractory except Gervase Markham, 3 who 

 wrote to the sheriff taxing him with favouritism in the assessment, and com- 

 plaining of the great and intolerable oppression, and stating that ' if he had 

 been commanded to present to him his head he would as willingly have done 

 it.' * However, when the sheriff came to gather in the money there were 

 few that would pay without distraint, yet though it was ' much to his 

 trouble,' he got the money at last. 6 In March, 1636, 3,200 of the 3, 500 

 charged on the county was paid over by the sheriff,* and the remainder, it was 

 thought, would be paid by the end of September. 7 However, in January, 

 1637, the under-sheriff wrote that the late sheriff was 'fourscore years of age, 

 and little able to go through such a weighty business as ship-money.' Only 

 30 then remained in arrear, and of this, Newark, he stated, was 'behind 20, 

 whereof the earl of Berkshire, as the late mayor telleth me, should pay 10, 

 and the town is poor.' 8 In the assessment of 1637 the hundreds of Newark, 

 Hatfield, South Clay and North Clay were more heavily assessed than those of 

 the north division, and complained that the sheriff, Sir Francis Thornhaugh, 

 had favoured the part of the county in which he lived. This he disclaimed, 

 contending that if, as the complainants asserted, the king's service should suffer 

 in this matter it would be by their unjust interruption, and not by his assess- 

 ment. 9 In March, 1638, he wrote to Secretary Nicholas that 650 had been 

 sent to the treasurer of the Navy, and that he hoped to send more about May 

 or Whitsuntide, but ' money is scarce in the county, and you know how I 

 have [been] troubled about the assessment. I have neither spared care nor 

 pains since I came down into the country. There is nobody denies, but only 

 desires a little more time.' 10 Arrears for 1637 were still not paid by 1639. 

 In the May of that year Sir Francis reported that Ambrose Wade, one of the 

 chief constables of the hundred of Broxton, had retained 39 i6s., part of 

 the 250 6j. $d. charged on that hundred, and that the town of Newark was 

 in arrear i I, being part of the 80 charged on the town. The mayor of 

 Newark and Ambrose Wade were therefore ordered to pay the said sums 

 within eight days or appear before the council. 11 For the levy of 1638 the 

 sheriff Lord Chaworth reported the payment of 700 towards the full sum 

 required from the county, and begged that the council should suggest some 

 mode of procedure in cases where he had been bidden to get the ship-money 



1 Thus in December, 1630, many parts of the county were 'so extremely visited in the plague' that the 

 musters could not be taken with safety (Cal. S.P. Dom. 1629-31, 414). 



1 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1635-6, 253. 



1 The Markham family seems to have been generally recalcitrant. Thus in July, 1635, Thomas Markham, 

 a cousin of Gervase, was accused of being in the company of a John Bensford and others the day after a 

 training of the horses of the county at Newark, when certain disloyal words, overheard and reported by a beggar 

 woman, had been spoken concerning the king. Markham was examined by the bishop of York, but denied 

 that such words were spoken, protesting that he himself was ready to spend his life in His Majesty's defence 

 (Ibid. 1635, 272). A further letter of February, 1536, states that Mr. Gervase Markham was the only person 

 in the county who was refractory (Ibid. 216). In the next month he was suing for pardon ' in humblest 

 manner that his heart can devise or a delinquent poor prisoner . . . express himself.' (Ibid. 16356, 290). 



4 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1635-6, II. 6 Ibid. p. 190. ' Ibid. 268. 



7 Ibid. 1636, 92. ' ' Ibid. p. 1 86. 



9 Ibid. 1637-8, 43, 159, 184. 10 Ibid. 327. 



" Ibid. 1639, 241. However, in 1640, the sheriff for that year signified that Ambrose Wade was 'dead 

 intestate and of small estate.' Ibid. 1640,244. 



341 



