SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



the earl of Carnarvon went to the king at Gloucester and laid down his 



commission.^'* 



To take an instance of a town which held out gallantly for the king, 

 Corfe ; the destruction of property and individual ruination were terrible. 

 Those tradesmen who favoured the Parliamentary cause were pillaged by the 

 garrison. To illustrate this, the petition survives of a certain Henry Browne 

 that satisfaction may be granted him out of the estate of Lady Bankes for the 

 ^200 worth of goods which the garrison had taken from him, and for two 

 houses which had been pulled down to furnish stones to discharge upon the 

 besiegers.''" On the other hand those tradesmen who survived the extensive 

 requirements of their own garrison, being Royalists, were ruined when the 

 town fell into the hands of Parliament. Writing to Sir Ralph Bankes in 

 1660, Edward Harvey, a Corfe tradesman, adds — 



What Colonel Bingham had of yours I know not ; but lam sure that his soldiers had all 

 my shop goods. I did write to Mr. Culliford whilst in London to advise me whether I should 

 not have any satisfaction, and he advised me in the negative, that the Act would quit all 

 men of all such actions.''^ 



This apparently was the case : the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion required 

 that Mr. Harvey should forget his shop goods. 



Even Lyme, which held out successfully, expended jT 17,45 8 in keeping 

 up the garrison. ^'^ Afterwards a sum of ^200 per annum was allotted them 

 out of Lord Paulet's estate ; "' with the curious addition of 2,000 oaks from 

 his woods to rebuild their houses,^'' a fact which explains the frequent and 

 devastating fires of those times. Considering the total destruction of the 

 shipping and the general blow to trade, such inadequate remuneration was 

 scarcely calculated to restore Lyme to the rank of a prosperous town. At the 

 same time individuals were most conscientiously considered, even if it amounted 

 to nothing beyond theory. A merchant named Alford had expended jr4,200 

 on the garrison, either in money or provisions ; the ' Dorset Standing Com- 

 mittee ' engaged the public faith of the kingdom to repay the sum, with 8 per 

 cent, interest. ^^° In short one of the principal functions of this committee was to 

 apportion sequestered estates among the towns which had been devastated in, 

 and the individuals who had suffered for, the Parliamentary cause. A definite 

 sum, generally one-fifth of the property, was settled upon the wife and children 

 of the culprit, but in the case of great wealth a smaller proportion was held 

 sufficient.'" 



The Puritan spirit in local government was by no means confined to the 

 immediate years of the Puritan revolution, but at Melcombe there seems to have 

 been an access of zeal to enforce industry and sobriety between the years 

 1642 and 1658. An ale-house licence issued in 1642 adds to the usual 

 restrictions placed on licensed victuallers a clause forbidding the landlord to 

 allow ' haunting of the Alehouse on the Sabath Dale or festivall dales,' and 

 four years later all the late town officers were presented for neglect in making 

 presentments and considering abuses. In i 647 it was asserted that Constable 



"* Clarendon, Hist, of the Rebellion, y\\, 192. "' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. vi, App. 84. 



'" Bankes, Hist, of Corfe Castle, 249. "' Roberts, Hist, of Lyme Regis, 69. 



'" Ibid, but Rushworth, Collections (abridged ed.), v, 339, says j^ 1,000 per annum, which alters the 

 question somewhat. '" Rushworth, Collections, v, 339. 



•" Mayo, Minutes of the Dorset Standing Com. 165. "' Ibid. 48. 



253 



