96 Local Documents, Berwick, by Mr John Scott. 



and incitements that drew that confluence to this town, was the traitorous and 

 rebellious and seditious sermons preached in our church and other private 

 conventicles, which wee to the best of our understanding doe neither know nor 

 approve of. Be pleased therefore in answer to take notice, that our care and 

 diligence hath been such towards the furtherance of his Ma'te service, that we 

 always were, now are, and ever shall hereafter be, ready and willing to 

 further the same, and it is well known that upon complaint to us, we have 

 taken such persons as have taken his Ma'te's pay, run from their colors and 

 come unto this town for refuge and safetie, and delivered them to such 

 persons as then came and demanded them. And God assisting to our utmost 

 endeavours, hereafter shall doe the like, and therefore would wish you had no ' 

 other opinions of us but that wee are loyall and good subjects to his Ma'te. 

 You seerne in the conclusion of your lettre to threaten, that if you have not 

 your desires you will seek to remedie yourselves some other way. We have 

 expressed our loyaltie herein to our Soveraign, and therefore hopeing you 

 will continue your good opinion of us, with remembrance of our best affections 

 to you, wee rest, 



Dated, 17th March, 164f . Your very loving friends, 



Signed by Mr Maior, Sir Robert Jackson, 

 Andrew Moore, Wm. Orde, John Saltonstall, Wm. 

 Rosden, Robt. Morton, Elias Pratt, Stephen Jackson, 



John Burrell." 



The direction thereof was this — 



" To the Rt. -Wor'll and our truly loving friends, Gilbert Swinhoe, High 

 Sheriff of Northumberland, Sir John Clavering, Knight, and those of his 

 Ma'te officers, and com'rs on the North parte, at Wooler and elsewhere, 

 These presents." — [Extracted from the Bit. Guild Books by John Scott.) 



Mr Scott, in a letter, thus sketches the sequence of events, at this moment- 

 ous period, as they concerned Berwick ; and I subjoin a few other notices, 

 which, finding no place in the general historian, help to fill up a blank in the 

 local annals. " Sir David Hume, of Wedderburn, was sent from Scotland to 

 Berwick, in March, 1643, (the same March in which the answer of the 

 authorities of Berwick to the king's officers was sent) to see how the people 

 in Berwick were affected. He took their answer back to Scotland, not 

 certainly as yet for the king or parliament, at least not openly declared. 

 Still, they were stubbornly opposed to any relaxation of their coolness to- 

 wards the royal cause. They would not, in February, 1643, even allow the 

 royalists to beat a drum in Berwick for soldiers. This liberty they absolutely 

 refused to Sir George Muschampe, of Barmoor, commissioned by the Earl of 

 Newcastle." [" Sir George Muschampe, Knt., who has a commission from 

 the Earl of Newcastle to raise a regiment of foot in the north parts by beating 

 of a drum, wishes to beat his drum in this borough, which is not included in 

 his commission. Ordered that he shall not have the liberty." Berwick 

 Guild Book, 6 Feb. 1642— apud Raine's North Durham, p. 267.] "After 

 Swinhoe' s party got back the answer above given, the same party tried to 

 harass Berwick by stopping all provisions from coming to Berwick from the 

 south, and threatened them with plundering. But the burgesses braved 



