A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



dismiss their respective armies. From their lack of pikes and firearms 

 these irregular forces were called clubmen. In Hampshire this anti- 

 war movement began about the end of August, and soon spread into 

 Sussex, where one Aylen, a Mr. Peckham, and ' some of the Fords ' 

 were the ringleaders. The movement was warmly taken up in the 

 villages of the south-west, especially round Eastergate and Walberton, 

 and at Midhurst and Petworth. The clubmen to the number of about 

 six hundred met on Runcton Down on Wednesday, \j September, and 

 arranged for a further muster on Bury Hill close to Arundel on the 

 following Monday,^ Instructions were sent to Colonel Norton to march 

 into Sussex, where he was to be reinforced by i,ooo horse and also 

 by the county trained bands, if their fidelity could be relied upon.^ 

 Meanwhile Captain Morley, then governor of Arundel, sent Major 

 Young with a small force to fall upon the clubmen in their headquarters 

 at Walberton, which they did before daybreak on Sunday, 2 i September. 

 This particular force was scattered, two ' malignant ' ministers and a few 

 others captured, and a man who tried to summon aid by ringing the 

 church bell killed.^ But the rising was not so easily quelled, and on 

 26 September Colonel Norton reported that he had put down the 

 Hampshire clubmen successfully, and added : ' I hope this will be a 

 warning to Sussex ; if not we shall be ready to serve them the like 

 trick.' * Yet on i 3 October William Cawley complained that by reason 

 of the clubmen's insurrection it was impossible to raise either men or 

 money for Sir Thomas Fairfax's army, as they would not suffer any to 

 be impressed, ' sending sometimes a constable or tithing-man with the 

 blood running about his ears,' so that out of sixty-seven to be levied in 

 the rape only twenty-seven had been secured and sent to General Crom- 

 well at Winchester, while of ^(^4,000 due less than >rioo had been 

 brought in.^ He therefore requested that powers might be granted for 

 the arrest of the ringleaders and the disarming of all ; the conferring of 

 which powers no doubt terminated the trouble. 



The year 1 648 saw a recrudescence of Royalist activity in Sussex. 

 Early in June a petition of the knights, gentry, clergy and commons of 

 Sussex was presented to the twe Houses, desiring that the king might 

 be treated with, the army paid off and disbanded, and no garrisons main- 

 tained.* The Royalists in the neighbourhood of Horsham supported this 

 by threatening armed reprisals against all who had not joined in this 

 petition, and emphasized their threats by putting a strong guard over 

 the Horsham magazine and refusing to allow its removal to Arundel. 

 By 29 June the Cavaliers at Horsham had begun to arm and collect 

 forces \ but Sir Michael Livesay's regiment of horse was ordered up 

 from Kent and took the town with little trouble.^ The insurgents, 



* A True Relation of the Rising of Clubmen in Sussex, li.M. pressmark E302 (i8). 

 = Cal. S.P. Dom. Chas. I. dx. 128, 139. ^ The True Relation. 



* Hist. MSB. Com. Rep. x. (6), 163. ^ Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i. 289. 



6 Ho. of Lords MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vii. 30. 



7 Portland MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), i. 465. » Ibid. p. 719. 

 » Cal. S.P. Dom. Chas. I. xvi. 60, 61. 



526 



