A HISTORY OF DORSET 



fact upon their arraignment. All five were condemned to death.^ Various 

 persons sympathetic to the rebellion were examined at Maiden Newton in 

 July.* Apparently there had been some vague idea of seizing the town of 

 Poole, for in May the justices of the peace were ordered to take bail of such 

 as were taken upon this design.' The finances of the Monthly Assessment 

 Commissioner were thrown into confusion by the seizure, during the insurrec- 

 tion, of £i2 assessment money from Blandford, Sherborne, and other places.* 

 There is ample material for ascertaining the working of the civil 

 administration during this period, for the minute books of the Dorset 

 Standing Committee have now been printed.* They are the only records of 

 such a county committee now available. The committee grew out of the 

 ordinance of 31 May, 1643, for the appointment of county committees to 

 sequestrate the estates of delinquents. It was placed upon a working basis 

 and its powers defined 19 August, 1643. Since the preceding March it had 

 had a more or less informal existence, its sole object having then been to 

 raise money. ^ It consisted of seventeen members for the county, among 

 whom were the M.P.'s for Dorchester, Lyme, and Melcombe (Denis Bond, 

 Richard Rose, and William Sydenham), of eight members for the town and 

 county of Poole (the mayor and seven aldermen), and of three for the town 

 of Dorchester (the mayor and ex officio two aldermen). The committee 

 had assessed the county in a weekly sum on 3 August.'^ A month later the 

 powers of county committees were extended by the Commons to the exami- 

 nation of witnesses against ' scandalous ministers ' and those who had left 

 their cures and joined the king's troops.* The following year (i July, 

 1644) the committee was invested with comprehensive powers. It was now 

 empowered to administer the ordinances' for the taking of the covenant, for 

 the payment of fifths and twentieths, for sequestrations, for weekly assess- 

 ments, and for the general maintenance of order and of freedom from 

 plunder. Meanwhile the personnel was slightly different from that of the 

 former committee, the Earls of Gloucester and Elgin having been added, and, 

 while all the prominent members of the old committee had been retained, 

 the numbers had been increased, but a few aldermen had dropped out, and 

 Dorchester was no longer officially represented. 



The Association Ordinance for the Five Western Counties was passed 

 19 August, 1644 ; by it, to the committee of i July were added the Earls of 

 Northumberland and Pembroke, John Lord Roberts, and Thomas Lord Bruce, 

 and the members of Parliament for the county and for each borough. The 

 county was assessed by the committee (18 October) for the relief of the 

 army in Ireland at a weekly sum of ^"ji 6s. %d., while the contribution of 

 Poole was fixed at i 6j. 8^. But by the following summer (26 August, 1645) 

 the committee decided to put in force a weekly assessment for six months of 

 only /43 js. lod'. from the county and £^ from Poole.'" 



' An Act for the Better Ordering and Managing the Estates of Papists 

 and Delinquents' was passed 25 January, 1649—50, which" resulted in a 



' If'Uts. Arch. Mag. xxx\iii, 25;, 299. ' Cal. S.P. Dom. 1655, p. 249. ' Ibid. 162. 



' Ibid. 1655-6, 26 Sept. ' By Canon Mayo. 



'' Scobell, Coll. of Jets and Ordinances, 1658, xriiii ; Lords Jcurn. v, 632 ; Husband, Coll. of PubRc Orders, 

 1646, p. 9. ' Husband, op. cit. App. 4. " Ibid. 311; Walker, bufferings of the Cler^, i, 74. 



' Lords Jcurn. vi, 61 2 ; Husband, op. cit. 514. 

 '" Husband, op. cit. 563. " Scobell, op. cit. 101. 



164 



