POLITICAL HISTORY 



and Wilts,^ In Dorset it was serious and widcsprcading ; although it had 

 seen no pitched battle of importance, the county had borne the brunt of the 

 war, being constantly occupied by both parties ' ; and many marches to or 

 from Devon were deflected into the county owing to the necessity of 

 attacking or preserving communication with its seaports. Determination to 

 declare neutrality and support it by force of arms was thus the original and 

 ostensible cause of the rise of this third party. One of their banners bore 

 the words : 



If you offer to plunder, or take our cattel, 

 Be assured we will bid you battel.' 



The regulations which they drew up to govern their own conduct* show 

 that the rank and file of the Clubmen were simple unlettered countrymen ; but 

 their leaders were not of the same stamp. They fall into two classes. The 

 typical ' younger brother out of means,' ^ with everything to win and nothing 

 to lose, was drawn for the most part from a social stratum between that of 

 the gentry, who were mainly Royalist, and the shop-keeping classes. The 

 latter, having a shrewd political judgement, and a financial stake in the 

 county, yet little sense of family, tended towards Parliamentarianism. There 

 were also present certain avowedly Royalist divines,' who, among an uneducated 

 rabble, would necessarily have some authority. But though the bona fides of 

 the mass of Clubmen was undoubted, their aim was higher than to enforce 

 the neutrality of certain districts. They wished to 'give a law to either 

 side,' ^ and desired that the garrisons of Dorset and Wiltshire should be 

 put into their hands 'till the King and Parliament agreed about their disposal.' 

 They further sent a petition to the king* begging him to ' lend his most 

 favourable ear ' to renewed peace proposals, when he should be invited 

 thereto by both Houses, ' for which Proposalls the Petitioners have made 

 their addresses unto them.' 



Such a force was, however, bound to become the tool of one of the 

 existing parties. Circumstances contributed early to throw the Dorset and 

 Wiltshire Clubmen into the arms of the Royalists. 



In Dorset there was no Royalist army under Goring to plunder the homesteads of the 

 people : and the garrisons, being commanded by the gentry of the county, . . . were not 

 likely to commit outrages, as long as the contributions for their support were regularly paid.' 



The initial vague tolerance of the Parliament^" was outweighed by a disastrous 

 affray at Sturminster Newton (29 June, 1645) with Massey's men, and by 

 the encouragement of the immediate advisers of the king." In July the Club- 

 men made a hostile attack on the garrison of Lyme. ^^ On Fairfax's arrival at 

 Dorchester (3 July) with the New Model, after Naseby,^' he was met by a 



' See Clarendon MSS. 1894, and Perfect Occurrences, 30 June, 164.5; also Gardiner, Hist. Gt. Civil ff^ar, 

 ii, 264-5. 



'' 'The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of Dorset ... 8 July, 1645.' Oxford, 1645. 



^ Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 89. 



* ' The Desires and Resolutions of the Clubmen of the Counties of Dorset and Wilts ' ; B.M. King's 

 Pamphlets, 102, 47. 



' 'A List of the Country Gentlemen called the Leaders of the Clubmen for Dorset,' 1645. 



^ Sprigge, jinglia Rediviva, 64. ' Ibid. 65. 



' ' The Humble Petition,' &c. vide supra. 



' G.irdiner, Hist. Gt. Civil War, ii, 305. '° Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, 7. 



" Clarendon, op. cit. v, 196-7, 199 ; Sprigge, op. cit. 63, 90. 



" Whitelocke, Memorials, 131, and ii, 156. " Sprigge, op. cit. xi. 



159 



