A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



The Dutch war diverted men's minds. The militia was ordered in the 

 autumn of 1665 to be in readiness to defend their coast at the shortest notice, 

 and men were so needed for the navy that in Aldeburgh and Ipswich the 

 news that an English frigate had been sighted was heralded by the spectacle 

 of forty or fifty able-bodied seamen fleeing out of the town into safe hiding. 

 Dutch prisoners simply swarmed at Ipswich and Sudbury. Landguard Fort 

 was strongly garrisoned by Colonel Darell with 1,000 men, while Sir Charles 

 Littleton and Colonel Legge's foot companies camped on the hill behind it. 

 Lord Oxford's troop lay at Woodbridge. During the summer of 1666 the 

 whole county was under arms, but it was not till the next summer, when 

 negotiations for peace were going on at Breda, that the Dutch actually 

 landed their men. On 2 July eight Dutch ships came into the Rolling 

 Grounds, and under cover of their guns landed a party of men at Felixstowe. 1 

 The harbour was protected by a line of ships, which were to be blown up and 

 sunk on an occasion such as this, but for some unknown reason this move- 

 ment did not come off. Two or three thousand men landed at Felixstowe, 

 of which the larger party attacked the fort with scaling ladders and pikes and 

 grenadoes. Twice they came on and twice were repulsed, so that they had 

 to return to their boats. In the meantime the rest of the landing-party 

 were holding their own well in the fields and lanes against the county forces 

 under the earl of Suffolk, who not being able to use his horse could only 

 press them back by slow inches. All through the afternoon they fought 

 till the evening, when by 9 o'clock the unsuccessful scaling party rejoined 

 them. By this time the tide had left their boats high and dry, and there 

 was nothing for it but to keep up the fight till the tide served. This they 

 did with great coolness from eleven till two in the morning, the earl's men 

 pressing them hard all through the night. By dawn they were afloat and 

 aboard, and by six o'clock they were under sail. The English loss was 

 trifling, and the Dutch hardly greater, but, adds Silas Taylor the Harwich 

 store-keeper, the Dutch had an aching tooth. Peace was concluded 2 1 July 

 and the militia disbanded. Next year the king surveyed the scene of the 

 fight, living in his yacht, the Henrietta^ moored in the estuary of the Orwell. 

 He sailed round the coast to Aldeburgh, and thence rode to Ipswich to dine 

 with Lord Hertford, who commanded the forces there. 



Peace brought back the religious difficulty, and conventicles increased in 

 number and boldness daily, 2 so much so that the king caused the lord- 

 lieutenant to inquire concerning the frequent and scandalous meetings under 

 pretence of religion. In 1672, however, an extraordinary number of 

 licences for Nonconformist meeting - houses and ministers were issued. 

 The temper of the county was shown in next year's election, when 

 Mr. Samuel Barnardiston, the candidate of the commonality and the 

 Nonconformists, Lord Huntingtower being that of the gentry, was elected 

 amid great excitement. The indulgence of 1672 was withdrawn in 1675, 

 and the danger in the county, as Sir John Pettus wrote, was that the 

 Dissenters and Papists should be forced ' to skip for shelter into the same 

 scale to make it mount beyond the level.' 3 'No popery,' was the cry, 

 however, and had Monmouth been successful in the west * the county would 



l Cal. ofS.P. Dom. 1667, p. 263. 'Ibid. 1667-8, p. 522. 'Ibid. 1673-5, P- 553- 



4 There is little doubt that Sir Samuel Barnardiston was one of those who financed his expedition. 



194 



