CHAP. III. 



SIR CORNELIUS VERMUYDKN. 



47 



out of his house, and stabling their horses in the chapel. 

 A bargain was actually made between the Colonel and 

 tlir commoners, by which 2000 acres of Epworth 

 Common were to be assigned to him, on condition of 

 their right being established as to the remainder, and 

 that they were to be held harmless on account of the 

 cruelties which they had perpetrated on the poor 

 settlers of the level. 1 When the injured parties 

 attempted to obtain redress by law, Lilburne, by his 

 influence with the Parliament, the army, and the magis- 

 trates, parried their efforts for eleven years. 2 He was, 

 however, eventually compelled to disgorge; and though 

 the original settlers at length got a decree of the Council 

 of State in their favour, and those of them who survived 

 were again permitted to occupy their holdings, the 

 nature of the case rendered it impossible that they 

 should receive any adequate redress for their losses and 

 sufferings. 3 



In the mean time Sir Cornelius Yermuyden had not 

 been idle. He was as eagerly speculative as ever. 

 Before he had parted with his interest in the reclaimed 

 lands at Hatfield, he was endeavouring to set on foot 

 his scheme for the reclamation of the drowned lands in 

 the Cambridge Fens; for we find the Earl of Bedford, 



1 In the course of the riots not fewer 

 than eighty-two dwelling-houses of 

 the foreign settlers were destroyed, 

 and their chapel at Sandtoft was de- 

 faced, with circumstances which dis- 

 tinctly mark the vulgar and brutal 

 character of the assailants. For ten 

 days the isle-men were in a state of 

 open rebellion. Hunter's ' History of 

 the Deanery of Doncaster,' vol. i. p. 

 166. 



2 Colonel Lilburne attempted an in- 

 effectual defence of himself in the tract 

 entitled ' The Case of the Tenants of 

 the Manor of Epworth truly stated by 

 Col. Jno. Lilburne,' Nov. 18th, 1651. 



3 For a long time after this, indeed, 

 the commoners continued at war with 

 the settlers, and both were perpetually 



resorting to the law of the courts as 

 well as of the strong hand. One 

 Reading, a counsellor, was engaged to 

 defend the rights of the drainers or 

 participants, but his office proved a 

 very dangerous one. The fen-men 

 regarded him as an enemy, and re- 

 peatedly endeavoured to destroy him. 

 Once they had nearly burned him and 

 his family in their beds. Reading 

 died in 1716, at a hundred years 

 old, fifty of which he had passed in 

 constant danger of personal violence, 

 having fought " thirty-one set battles " 

 with the fen-men in defence of the 

 drainers' rights. See the Rev. W. B. 

 Stonehouse's * History and Antiquities 

 of the Isle of Axholme,' 4 to., London, 

 1839. 



