12 Facts relating to Marlborough. 



day 100 cavaliers came, and behaved so differently that the servants 

 stated that they would rather have 100 cavaliers than 10 roundheads. 



From another letter it appears that on Friday 25th Nov., 1642, 

 Lord Digby summoned the town to surrender, sending a message 

 by "Master Yincent Goddard" which led to some skirmishing, and 

 on Monday Dec. 5th, Lord Wilmot, with 7000 men, and 6 or 7 

 great guns, took the town by assault, carried off from 100 to 120 

 prisoners, and injured the town to the amount of £50,000. Many 

 cannon shot were found, some of 221b, some of 181b, some 151b, 

 "and some we saw" (adds the letter) "of 21b shot, as it seemed 

 from some drake."^ 



In 1643 there seems to have been a sort of Cavalier foray near 

 Marlborough, when some Cavaliers took a load of cloth, 12 horses, 

 and 8 oxen ; and afterwards 12 Cavaliers took 8 oxen more from 

 two men, driving them to London ; which being heard of by the 

 Marlborough townsmen, they with one musket, some forks and 

 halberds, pursued the Cavaliers to Ogbourne, and recovered the 

 cloth and 8 of the oxen, and restored them to their owners.' 



The Fires. 



On the 28th April 1652, there was a great fire at Marlborough; 

 it commenced at the house of Mr. Freeman, a tanner, at the south 

 side of St. Peter's Church, and burnt both sides of the street up to 

 the Market-house and St. Mary's Church, injuring the former to 

 the extent of £1000, and the latter £1600. Four Dutchmen who 

 assisted at the fire were burnt to death, as were a tailor's wife and a 

 postboy. A complete list of the sufferers, with their trades, and the 

 amount of their losses, is still extant in the possession of our local 

 secretary, Mr. T. B. Merriman, including the names of John and 

 Nathaniel Bailey, grocers, £1650 ; Robert Bryant, chandler, £1106 ; 

 Thomas Bayley, silkman, £2399 ; William Gough, goldsmith, 

 £1134 ; John Laurence, the White Hart, £1100 ; there were many 

 other large sums, and the lowest are "old James the cobbler," £1 ; 



1 The word drake often occurs at the time of the Civil Wars, to denote a 

 small cannon. From draco, a dragon, (.Johnson's Diet.) 



2 This statement and the letters which precede it, are in Mr. Merriman's 

 Collections. 



