POLITICAL HISTORY 



county ordered public rejoicings at the king's escape, 1 and the poor of 

 Ipswich received a dole of bread, while Dr. Samuel Ward, the town preacher, 

 published a picture in which he commemorated this grand blessing of God to 

 the nation. The immediate result of the plot was an increased distrust of 

 the Papists. 



The excitement of the Spanish marriage seems to have run high as early 

 as 1617, and stout Protestants like 2 Sir John Heigham proposed to buy off 

 James I. He wrote to the justices of the peace asking them to use their 

 influence to get a liberal contribution voted in the county and to test the 

 disposition of the principal gentlemen. Dr. Willett was imprisoned for 

 sounding the county on the same extraordinary proposal. This exhibition of 

 feeling did not deter James from pushing on the marriage in 1622, with the 

 result that recusants were more leniently treated and Mr. Ward 3 of 

 Ipswich was inhibited from preaching. The Spanish fear was only super- 

 seded by the French one, and the county was alarmed at the attitude 

 of the Papists, who were said to be holding secret meetings, among others 

 at the houses of one 4 Benefield in Redlingfield, and one Gage. In spite, 

 however, of their fears, the county refused to pay a muster-master, and 

 it was so bare of money that none was to be had to pay the garrison in 

 Landguard Fort. A loan was hurried on, and a list of persons able to 

 subscribe 10 was sent up to the council. It is significant that the subsidy 

 in Suffolk under James I only produced 2,137, as against 6,828 in 

 Elizabeth's time. All the money was absorbed in general war expenses ; 

 nothing was spent on the county, and at the summer assizes at Bury in 1626 

 the people raised a great clamour against the duke of Buckingham's careless 

 neglect of their coasts. 5 They complained bitterly that their ships were taken 

 and fired by pirates in their very havens before their eyes, and Suffolk boats 

 hardly dared venture a bow out of port. Buckingham could not afford to 

 withdraw the loan, though everywhere the people were refractory, and the 

 attitude of a certain attorney, Valentine Coppin of Halesworth, 6 was typical. 

 He said he had no intention of lending money to His Majesty nor had he 

 authorized anyone to subscribe for him ; in fact, he knew nothing about 

 a subscription. There were at the same time disputes in the county about 

 the provision for the king's household. The petition of the inhabitants 

 of Woodbridge 7 shows what a constant drain there was at this time on all 

 purses. They were charged for the king's provisions for his household, 

 the repairing and watching of beacons, the provision of powder and match 

 and bullets, the wages of soldiers in the bands for every five weeks' training, 

 the carts, pioneers' tools, and nags ; the charge of 3,000 men to march into 

 Kent on any alarm, and 5,000 men on the coasts, and 4,000 men to march 

 to Yarmouth, as well as all county charges. To these they were asked to 

 add, with the rest of the county, a moiety of the expenses of the two ships 

 demanded from Ipswich for the war with Spain. The water was so low in 

 the well that the county sent a remonstrance to the council demonstrating 

 their impotency to contribute. The men pressed for service mutinied at 

 Harwich, and many fled through the county and were concealed by the 



1 Bacon, dnnals of Ipswich, 10 Nov. 1605. 



' Cal. S. P. Dom. 161 1-18, p. 505. * Ibid. 1619-23, p. 399. 4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 102. 



4 Ibid. 1625-6, p. 409. * Ibid. 1627-8, p. 29. ' Ibid. p. 72. 



