POLITICAL HISTORY 



high at the time, that even a ' presumption ' was sufficient on which to 

 fine the earl 30,000, and to confine him in the Tower for fifteen years. 

 Northumberland offered his Isleworth estates to the king in payment of 

 the fine, but they were not accepted, and he was forced to remain a 

 prisoner until i62i. 243 



During the reign of Charles I, there was a great deal of opposition in 

 Middlesex to the king's methods of raising money. The committee 

 raised to collect the forced loan of September, 1626, reported in October 

 that John Brookes, Edward Bastwick, and William Webb had contemp- 

 tuously refused to contribute.* 4 * To which the king replied that those 

 who would not serve him with their purses should serve with their 

 persons, and ordered that they should be enrolled forthwith among the 

 soldiers. 8 " Thirteen more persons ' all of reasonable ability ' refused to 

 contribute on the following day, and warrants were issued against them." 5 

 The burden of ship-money 247 was felt all the more severely in Middlesex 

 because the county suffered severely at this time from repeated visits of 

 the plague. The districts round London naturally suffered most both 

 from depopulation and from the interruption to trade. 248 The county 

 had originally been assessed at jCS'5 oo ^ ut tne sum was reduced to 

 ^f 5,ooo. 249 The whole abatement of 500 was taken off the hundred 

 of Ossulstone, upon which there arose great outcry from the hundreds of 

 Elthorne, Spelthorne, and Isleworth, urging that those hundreds had 

 to bear the charges of watch and ward at Hampton Court, as well as 

 the extraordinary carriage for His Majesty's provisions to the Court, 250 

 and that therefore they were as much entitled to share the abatement as 

 was the hundred of Ossulstone. Complaints did not only come from 

 the poverty stricken. In 1636, the inhabitants of Chelsea, a suburb 

 which was then increasing in favour with the well-to-do, discovered that 

 they were taxed at a higher rate than the larger district of Acton. 261 

 The sheriffs replied to their complaints that Chelsea was rated so highly 

 because of the persons of honour and quality who had summer houses 

 there, and who owned land and property elsewhere. 262 In 1639, there was 

 actual resistance to the collectors of ship-money in the hundred of Gore, 

 and no less than forty distresses were taken at Harrow-on-the-Hill alone. 265 



In 1640, the levies for the Scottish War and the demand for coat- 

 and-conduct money were greatly resented, 254 and such was the state of 

 discontent in Middlesex, that in May the trained bands were ordered to 

 be exercised on all holidays, in order to prevent riots. 255 



In January, 1642, some of the Middlesex trained bands were 

 stationed in the new guard-house built by the king at Whitehall, 958 which 



'" Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. vi, 229-31. "* Cal. S.P. Dom. 1625-6, p. 458. 



"> Ibid. 459. ' Ibid. 460. 



147 



William Noy, who discovered ' the precedent for ship-money among the records in the Tower,' 

 lived at Brentford ; Strafforfs Letters, i, 262. He was one of the Commissioners to raise the forced 

 loan of 1626 in Middlesex ; Cal. S.P. Dam. 1625-6, p. 435. 



118 Ibid. 1636-7, pp. 155, 286. * Ibid. 152. 



80 Ibid. 290. * Ibid. 1635-6, p. 344. ^ Ibid. 



*" Ibid. 1639, p. 434. IM Ibid. 1640, pp. 68, 155, 164, 228. 



'" Ibid. 167, 201. " Ibid. 1641-3, p. 241. 



37 



