POLITICAL HISTORY 



hend all suspicious persons, and to the justices of the peace to make diligent 

 inquiries what persons had been absent from their habitations within the 

 space of ten days past. He sent to Cromwell, a few days later, from Taunton, 

 a list of the prisoners.^ Out of a total of 109 names twenty-four came from 

 Dorset. Nineteen of these were imprisoned at Exeter, and five at Taunton. 

 Only three 'gentlemen' appear in the list, namely Thomas Fitzjames 

 of 'Henley' (Sixpenny Handley), James Huish of Kimmeridge, and Oxen- 

 bridge Fowell of Cerne Abbas. The rest are a very representative list of 

 tradesmen (two clothiers, a tailor, a tanner, two weavers, a tapster, a miller, 

 a cooper, two feltmakers, a baker, a chapman, and a currier), with a gardener, 

 three husbandmen, and a warrener. 



The spring circuit had been interrupted at Salisbury. The assizes were 

 to have been held at Dorchester 15 March. It appears that they were 

 omitted altogether that spring; but the prisoners were proceeded against by a 

 regular commission of oyer and terminer, and by no extraordinary court. 

 The court was to sit at New Sarum i i April, at Exeter on the i8th, and at 

 Chard on the 2 3rd.^ Some of the commissioners and the Attorney-General 

 did go to Dorchester, but it was merely to rest over Sunday on their way to 

 Exeter. On the return journey they stopped at Chard, and returned thence 

 to London. Practically all the prisoners came from north-east Dorset, 

 mostly from the Blandford and Sherborne district. One, however, came from 

 Kimmeridge, and one from Cerne Abbas. St. Loe, though wrongly described 

 in the indictment as of Salisbury, was a Dorset man. He had been taken 

 up to London at once on his capture. On his examination' he implicated 

 also Captain Twyne, who lived near Blandford, and Captain Kirles of Wood- 

 yates. Arthur Collens of the Isle of Purbeck, who had been servant to 

 Sir Joseph Wagstaffe, was also examined in London.* The Attorney-General 

 was Edmund Prideaux, member for Lyme, and a friend of Ludlow's. The 

 first junior counsel for the Government was Roger, who had been member 

 for Bridport in 1645. ^^ ^he Dorset prisoners tried at Salisbury William 

 Willoughby was the most interesting.^ An old man, he had had no hand in 

 the plot, such as it was ; but friendship had caused him to try to rescue one 

 of the Royalists, and he was apprehended with the rest. 



After the trials at Salisbury, the court, on its way to Exeter, stopped at 

 Dorchester, spending Sunday, 15 April, there. Prideaux wrote to Thurloe 

 that day : ' I will give you a little account of some passages this day at 

 church. Mr. Gower in his prayer after sermon blessed God for suppressing 

 these people, and prayed the Lord to direct the judges that justice might be 

 done. Mr. Bence (Benn ?) in his prayers in the afternoon said that a treason 

 was plotted, but blessed the Lord that nothing came to execution but the 

 traitors.' ' 



The Dorset prisoners tried at Exeter were Thomas Fitzjames of Handley, 

 and Robert Harris of Blandford, who were pronounced guilty by verdict ; 

 William Wake of Blandford, Charles Haviland of Langton, and Nicholas 

 (Richard .?) Broadgate of Blandford Forum all three confessed to the 



' IVilts. Arch. Mag. xxxviii, 139. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, pp. 90, 91, 97, 112, 114. 



' Thurhe Papers, iii, 314. IVilts. Arch. Mag. xxxviii, 147. 



* Perfect Diurnall, 26 March to 2 April, 1654-5. 



' Coker's Fisitation of Dorset (Harl. Soc), xx, 99, 100. ' Thurloe Papers, iii, 379 



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