A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE 



of creating votes in the interests of the crown, and the Parliamentary 

 representation was practically set upon the basis which it retained till 

 1 832."" 



Lichfield, which had been unrepresented for 200 years, again sent two 

 members in 15523, Mark Wyrley and William Fitzherbert, the county 

 sending to the same Parliament William Devereux and Walter Aston ; 

 Newcastle, Roger Fowke and John Smyth ; and the borough of Stafford, 

 Edward Colborne and Francis Smith. 354 In 1563 Tamworth appears for the 

 first time, and the county in all was represented by ten members. 



These members sat for a considerable time, as this Parliament was 

 repeatedly prorogued, partly on account of the plague which was then raging 

 in London and Westminster, 265 and partly because under the Tudors it had 

 become customary to resume business in repeated sessions with the same body 

 of members. 256 The Parliament of 1572, to which the county again sent ten 

 members, lasted eleven years. In 1601 a Northamptonshire gentleman, 

 Robert Browne, was one of the members for Lichfield. 267 At the famous 

 Parliament of 1621, which attacked monopolies, impeached Bacon, and entered 

 in the journals of the House a protestation of their privilege to speak freely 

 on all subjects, only to have it torn from the book by the king, Sir William 

 Bowyer and Thomas Crompton represented the county ; William Wingfield 

 and Richard Weston of Rugeley, 268 Lichfield ; Sir John Davis and Edward 

 Kerton, Newcastle ; Matthew Cradock and Richard Dyott, Stafford borough ; 

 Sir Thomas Puckeringe and John Ferrour, ' merchant of London,' Tarn- 

 worth. 259 



In February, i 604, the government, alarmed at the result of the tolera- 

 tion they had granted to the Catholics, determined on sterner measures, and 

 the result was the Gunpowder Plot, of which Holbeche House saw one of 

 the closing scenes. The original conspirators, Catesby, Thomas Percy, 

 Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, and John Wright, were no obscure fanatics, 

 but gentlemen of name and blood, and if they had kept the secret to them- 

 selves the House of Lords would probably have been blown up. But they 

 committed the fatal error of having too many accomplices, and determined 

 that arms and men should be ready in the country to commence war as soon 

 as Parliament was destroyed. Tresham betrayed the plot, and even then the 

 conspirators would probably have escaped, but when they fled into the 

 country, leaving Fawkes grimly sticking to his post, they raised open insur- 

 rection. 260 As they rode through the country on the morning of 5 November 

 they found that the zeal of most of their supporters had cooled, and 

 only a few score joined them. What followed may be told in the words of 

 the sheriff of Worcestershire to the council. After describing how the 

 rebellious assembly had broken into Lord Windsor's house at Hewell on 

 7 November, 'taking there great store of armour and artillery,' he relates how 

 they passed that night into the county of Stafford unto the house of one Stephen 

 Littleton, gentleman, about two miles distant from Stourbridge, ' whither we 



"' Lane Pool, Hist. Atlas. Notes on Map xxiii ; Gneist, Hist, of Engl. Part. (ed. 3), 232. 



154 Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i), 379 ; Shaw, Hist, of Staffs, i, 318. 



'" Parry, Paris, and Councils of Engl. 216. 



>M Gneist, Hist, of Engl. Par/, (ed. 3), 241. '" Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i),44O. 



m Afterwards baron of the Exchequer. '"Par/. Accts. and Pap. Ixii (i), 453. 



M0 Trevelyan, Engl. under the Stuarts, 96. 



254 



