A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



to join the townspeople for the defence of the town of Nottingham. l Those 

 who would not threw themselves into Newark, where preparations for a 

 strong defence were being made. Works were also begun round Notting- 

 ham, and from this time the progress of the Civil War in the county was to 

 resolve itself into a struggle between the two rival garrisons of Nottingham 

 and Newark. Nottingham was as important to Parliament as ' a considerable 

 pass to the north ' as Newark was to the king, yet early in 1 643 the ' coldness ' 

 of Colonel Pierrepoint, and the growing ' disaffection ' of the town, made it 

 seem as though it could only with difficulty be preserved for Parliament. 

 However, in February, 16423, the garrison decided to join with Lincoln 

 and Derby and attack Newark, since ' it would be easier to prevent Newark 

 from being made a fortified garrison than to take it when it was so.' * The 

 forces from Nottingham and Derby were to advance on one side, those of 

 Lincoln on the other. According to the parliamentary version Newark 

 would have been forced to surrender had it not been for the treachery of the 

 Lincolnshire commander, John Ballard, who, ' decayed in his family,' and 

 owing his education to many of the royalist gentry within Newark, determined 

 to cast aside the Parliament cause ' rather than ruin his old benefactors.' 8 He 

 refused to attack the town at the right time, and probably betrayed the 

 enemy's movements to the Newarkers, so that they prepared an ambuscade to 

 intercept them. When the forces of Nottingham and Derby had come, 

 being 1,000 strong, horse, foot, and dragoons, they attacked the town on one 

 side, beat the Newarkers from the works, and entrenched themselves. 

 Captain King, of the Lincolnshire forces, attacked the other side of the town, 

 and had ' taken a street, cut up a chain, and placed a " drake " in a house,' 

 when Ballard ordered him to retreat, and thereupon the whole force of 

 Newark fell on the entrenched Nottingham and Derby forces. The latter 

 fought bravely until a Lincolnshire trooper, sent by Ballard, came and bade 

 them fly for their lives, or else they were lost men.'* The royalist version 

 tells how the Nottingham and Derby regiments ' discharged against the 

 towne from eleven of the clocke at noone untill six at night, but with more 

 courage than successe.' The attack on the other side of the works failed 

 completely, and the enemy retired, whereupon the governor attacked the 

 Nottingham and Derby forces, and dislodged the enemy. * There were 

 killed of the king's side in this brave repulse but one man onely, a common 

 souldier of the garrison, and not many hurt. But of the rebels were slaine no 

 fewer than 200 men and many wounded, whereof the chiefe was Colonel 

 Ballard, and no meane one neither.' 6 



For the next few months Nottingham seems to have felt the effect of 

 the general royalist victories throughout the north and west. Sir Richard 

 Byron, the new governor of Newark, brought all the zealous loyalty of his 

 family to the help of the Newark garrison ; Lord Chaworth, the earl of 

 Chesterfield, and others had left Newark, and fortified their several houses 

 in the royalist cause. The forces at Nottingham only numbered about 

 1,000 men, 'but at Whitsuntide they were reinforced, and the numbers 



1 Rec. of the Bora. ofNott. v, 207. * Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit. p. 143. * Ibid. p. 144. 



4 Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit. p. 1435. 



' A Brief Relation of the Remarkable Occurrences In the Northern Parts (B.M. Pamphlets, E. 73). 

 * The queen wrote to Charles from Newark that ' all the force Parliament had in those parts was only 

 1 ,000 men in Nottingham.' 



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