A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



they would otherwise have enjoyed. The edict was a definite insult to 

 Lancashire Puritanism, and alienated from the king's side all serious-minded 

 men. Such was the heritage of factious trouble King James bequeathed to 

 Lancashire and of which his son Charles was to reap the unhappy conse- 

 quences. 



Charles I succeeded his father in March, 1625. He at once put the 

 loyalty and goodwill of the county to trial by demands both for men and 

 money. After raising a body of 300 men, who were embarked at Hull on 

 foreign service," William, earl of Derby, as lord-lieutenant, was required to 

 raise a loan in the county for the crown. In October he wrote to the 

 council that the state of the gentry was much impaired, but that he hoped to 

 raise a loan far exceeding any former loan of this kind. Thereupon the 

 deputy lieutenants were instructed to forward lists of the most able men of 

 good personal estate and of rich tradesmen. Every knight was taxed twenty 

 marks and every esquire £10. Probably for purposes of getting money by 

 fines a ready ear was lent to informers against the recusants. Sir Thomas 

 Gerard among others was accused of treasonable speeches," and Sir William 

 Norris of having some years before sent over money and arms to the late king's 

 enemies abroad." The recusants were further accused of having held meetings 

 in Wharmer Forest." 



In 1626 the earl of Derby and his deputy lieutenants were much occu- 

 pied in making military musters and in reviewing the trained bands, for whose 

 calling together, however, they complain they have no power of levying 

 money.'* Next year men were again summoned for foreign service," and the 

 loan commissioners forwarded ^(^4,418 igs. iiJ. from the county with the 

 pleasing report that ' no man denied.'" 



The income from the recusants must have been considerable, as many of 

 them compounded by a yearly payment for their fines ; thus Sir Cuthbert 

 Clifton of Lytham is mentioned as compounding in jTioo per annum, and Sir 

 William Norris of Speke in ^(^60 per annum." With the famous Went- 

 worth (afterwards Lord Strafford), now made president of the Council of the 

 North, which still, as in Elizabeth's time, acted as the Northern Star 

 Chamber, this Council and the equally detested High Commission Court 

 gave little rest to either recusants or Puritans. 



In 1629 the earl of Derby forwarded the Muster Rolls of the county to 

 the king in council." 



Finding other sources of income insufficient and having dissolved Parlia- 

 ment without receiving any supplies, the king had recourse to extraordinary 

 measures for raising money. The Forest Laws, particularly obnoxious in the 

 north, where so much land might come under the title of forest," were 

 revived, and the areas of the royal parks and forests were defined anew. 

 Irritating laws were also passed against the sale of venison and game and 

 fowl,*" and the punishment of such offences was relegated to justices of 

 assize.*^ 



•' 31 May, 14 June, 1625. Cal. S.P. Dom. 1625-6, pp. 31, 36, 44. 



I jbid. p 161. " Ibid. p. 304. » Ibid. p. 161. '^ Ibid. pp. 3,4, 326, 387, 43,. 



" IbiJ. 1627, pp. 133, 336. 7. Ibid. ^^^^ J' ' ^ /' « 



• Ib.d. 1629-31, p 428 ; cf. also 1663-4, P- 3+8- The total amount raised in Lancashire by the 

 compositions was about ^^2,500 a year. 



" Ibid. 1629-31, p. .08. " See below, p. 262. " Ca/. S.P. Dm. 1635-6, p. 247. " Ibid. 



230 



