A HISTORY OF DORSET 



only ^^99 1 in arrear,"" but in October there was a new ship-money writ, a 

 new sheriff,^" and a different story. Freke may have been less persuasive 

 than Trenchard or, more probably, the tide of resistance was rising ; at any 

 rate he found much more trouble, and began by distraining on his son to set 

 a good example. He reported that the poorer people paid their money ' like 

 drops of blood,' for to do it some were compelled to sell their only cow and 

 come on the parish. ^^^ In the latest assessments Weymouth and Melcombe 

 were rated for £S^, Dorchester >C45, Lyme and Corfe ^^40 each, Poole £2/\., 

 and Bridport ;C2o.-'* 



The difficultv of collection grew greater with every month ; in Septem- 

 ber, 1637, the sheriff, Richard Rogers, distrained on Sir Walter Erie and 

 others of the county gentry in order to frighten those lower in the social scale, 

 but Dorset was still j^i,200 in arrear on the last writ."" The fourth writ was 

 not issued until January, 1639, and then the assessments were much reduced, 

 Weymouth and Melcombe being put down for ^(^15, Poole >r 12, Wareham 

 jTio, Lyme £17, and Bridport £S.^^^ By this time it was too late for any 

 modifications to soften the universal spirit of opposition ; the sheriff of 1640, 

 William Churchill, wrote to the Council in April that he had distrained on 

 Lady Ann Ashley, but that her servants had rescued the horses, and that when 

 an attempt was again made in Dorchester to seize them the same result 

 followed ; this, he thought, would be a bad example."' A month later he 

 wrote that he was still levying under distress warrants but that there were no 

 buyers for anything taken ; "'^ by August he reported that he had levied ;^200 

 at a cost of_^50 to himself, that the country people rescued by force the 

 cattle seized, and that the constables were refusing to make returns or to assist 

 the bailiffs. ^^^ Only half the assessments had been collected, and he sent up 

 the names both of those who refused payment and of those who were active 

 in the rescues. But now the Long Parliament was sitting and sheriffs were 

 to count for little in the immediate future. 



Along the south coast the resistance to ship-money must have been 

 intensified by the fact that while it was being paid, and while the pretentious 

 lieets equipped with it were cruising uselessly, the Algerines and Saleemen 

 were, as has been noticed, almost stopping Channel trade. Thus all the more 

 considerable English ports, the worst sufferers from Charles's inefScient naval 

 administration, stood by the Parliament even in Royalist counties. Poole and 

 Lyme were ardently Parliamentarian, as were also Dorchester, Portland, and 

 Wareham ; Weymouth and Melcombe were of a more divided allegiance, 

 but with a majority adverse to the king. Early in the Civil War the county 

 came under the control of the Royalists, only Poole and Lyme remaining 

 throughout in the hands of Parliamentary garrisons. The siege of Lyme is 

 famous in local and national annals. As in the case of Plymouth, the Parlia- 

 ment was only able to keep its hold on the town in virtue of having the com- 

 mand of the sea, a supreme advantage to which, in its momentous influence in 

 bringing about the final issue of the Civil War, no historian has yet done full 

 justice. The siege commenced on 20 April, 1644; on 27 April the Ad- 



'" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxviii, No. 29. **' John Freke, vke Sir Thomas Trenchard. 



"" S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxxxiii, No. 4. '" Ibid, cccli, No. 81. 



'*' Ibid, ccclxvii, No. 2 ; ccclxx, No. 74. '" Ibid, cccci, No. 38. 



''' Ibid, ccccli. No. 13. **' Ibid, cccclv. No. 7. 

 '^ Ibid, cclxiii, No. 26. 



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