POLITICAL HISTORY 



raised to about 5,000 or 6,000 by the gathering at Nottingham of the forces 

 of the northern midlands for the rescue of the Fairfaxes from Newcastle's 

 ' Popish army.' l Owing chiefly to the conduct of the younger Hotham, 

 who was found to be in correspondence with the Newark garrison, there 

 seems to have been much disorder in the town, and finally, probably by 

 Cromwell's influence, Lord Grey was superseded by Sir John Meldrum a in the 

 command of the associated forces. Sir John Meldrum being called off with 

 the bulk of the Nottinghamshire forces to the relief of Gainsborough in July, 

 1643, t ^ ie town was again in a desperate state, since only a few townsmen 

 remained to guard both town and castle. These Colonel Hutchinson, who 

 had been made governor of the castle the month before, ordered into the castle, 

 since they were not sufficient in number to guard the works round the town, 

 and ordered the fourteen guns upon the works to be brought up also. This 

 action seems to have aroused much opposition, for the townsmen, since ' their 

 houses, families, and estates were exposed, began to envy, then to hate the 

 castle, as grieved that anything should be preserved when all could not.' 

 Finally, out of the whole town and the four companies that remained 

 under Colonel Pierrepoint only about 300 men were found to garrison 

 the castle.' The defenceless state of the town naturally gave an oppor- 

 tunity to the garrison at Newark. They issued out in various parties, 

 and swept the county round up to the very walls of Nottingham. On 

 1 8 September, 1643, Sir Richard Byron effected an entry into the town, 

 and for five days was garrisoned in the old church of St. Nicholas. Failing 

 to make any impression on the castle, he prepared to evacuate, but was 

 attacked by a sally party from the castle. He thereupon retreated to 

 the Trent bridge, and remained entrenched there until, hearing that re- 

 inforcements were on the way to Nottingham, he silently marched back 

 to Newark.* 



The next month brought the reinstatement of Parliament in the north 

 with the defeat of Lord Newcastle by Fairfax, and the taking of Gainsborough 

 by the earl of Manchester. 6 Royalist hopes in the north were failing, the 

 treachery of the Hothams had been unavailing, ' and much about this time 

 (i.e. December, 1563) there fell out another remarkable passage much to His 

 Majesty's dishonour,' since the marquis of Newcastle ' plotted and contrived 

 by one Colonel Dacre to have corrupted and undermined the valiant and most 

 loyal governor of Nottingham Castle.' Colonel Hutchinson himself wrote to 

 Mr. Millington, a member of the House of Commons, that he had three 

 times been tempted to betray the castle, by Sir Richard Byron, by Mr. Sutton, 

 and by the earl of Newcastle. Ten thousand pounds and 'to be made best 



1 Mercurius jiutuus, B.M. Pamphlets, E. 55, 14. Certain Informations, B.M. Pamphlets, E. 55, 4. 

 ' Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters, i, Letter ix. Lord Grey's conduct in failing to meet with the united forces at 

 the appointed rendezvous is here censured by Cromwell. 



3 Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit. p. 155, et seq. The records of the borough for 1643 show the special 

 provisions made for night guard : ' Those wattchmen that are appoynted to wattche the toun nightly for the 

 flanckinge and strengthinge the Gentries and inner gards shalbe sworn to keepe their wattche until fower of the 

 clocke in the morninge, and thatt whoesoever shall depart from his garde or wattche . . . shall pay for his 

 fyne ii s or ells in defalte thereof ... be ymprisoned . . . and xxx tie (are) to be appoynted everie nighte to 

 wattche oute of the severall wardes ' (Rec. of Bora. ofNott. v, 209). 



4 Mrs. Hutchinson, op. cit. pp. 176-180. Captain White and his horse returning from Lincolnshire to 

 Leicester came to the rescue of the governor. 



* B.M. Pamphlets, E. 212. God's Arke overtopping the World's Waves, p. 7 



347 



