A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



Leigh of Leighton, Sir Robert Napier of Luton, Charles Ventris of ShefFord, 

 Sir John Huet of Thurley, Sir Lodovick Dier of Colmworth, Charles Upton 

 of Tempsford, Humphrey Freemonger 6f Stanbridge, Simley of Wootton, 

 Watson of Ampthill, Yarway and Brown of Kempston, and Owen Brett of 

 Southill.'" The list of decimations of 1655 adds George Blundel of Carding- 

 ton, Richard Farmer of Westoning, Fettiplace of Little Barford, Hilsden of 

 Hockley (HocklifFe), Audley of Biggleswade."" But though this seems a 

 considerable list, so little support could they look for in their own county that 

 few or none of them exerted themselves there ; Sir Lewis Dyve alone appears 

 to have made any effort to awaken a Royalist party, and he was quite unsuc- 

 cessful. The king had not there ' any visible party or one fixed quarter.' *" 



The leading men in the county who voted or fought on the other side 

 were the Earl of Kent of Wrest Park, who continued to sit in the House of 

 Lords throughout the war,"** and the Earl of Bolingbroke, who died in 1646,"* 

 having already lost his eldest son, Oliver Lord St. John of Bletsoe, at Edge- 

 hill in 1642."° The Earl of Elgin (to use his Scottish title) continued to 

 reside at Ampthill, and sat in the House of Lords as Lord Bruce.'" Besides 

 these the Lukes of Haynes and Cople, Sir Beauchamp St. John of Bletsoe, the 

 Alstons of Odell, the Cockaynes of Hatley, the Burgoynes of Potton, and the 

 great majority of the county, appear to have sided with the Parliament. 



Bedfordshire was united in the Midland Association with the counties 

 of Leicester, Derby, Nottingham, Rutland, Northampton, Buckingham, 

 and Huntingdon, under the command of Lord Grey of Groby, Lord Stam- 

 ford's son ; and the ordinance under which they were associated was 

 passed on 15 December 1642,'" five days before that which authorized the 

 formation of the more celebrated Eastern Association of Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire.'" The original members of the 

 Bedfordshire Committee were Sir Beauchamp St. John, Sir John Burgoyne, 

 Sir Thomas Alston, Sir Oliver Luke, Sir Samuel Luke, Sir Roger Burgoyne ; 

 Thomas Rolt, William Duncombe, James Beverley, Thomas Sadler, Samuel 

 Browne, Humphrey Monoux, John Vaux, Robert Stanton, esquires, and 

 Mr. Cator of Kempston. 



The first act of hostility occurred in July 1642, when Sir Samuel 

 Luke assisted the messenger sent by Parliament to apprehend Sir Lewis 

 Dyve, who was trying to remedy the weakness of the Royalist party in the 

 county, at Bromham Hall, which lies close to the south bank of the Ouse, 

 some two miles west of Bedford. The arrest was resisted ; Luke received 

 several wounds, and Dyve escaped by swimming the river, whereupon his 

 house was so thoroughly plundered that nothing but a store of grain could be 

 found in it upon a later visit. It was reported that Dyve had had 500 

 bullets cast, and came into the town of Bedford saying, ' Now, you Round- 

 heads, I have provided for you.' "* He was wounded in the first skirmish of 

 the war, at Powicke Bridge, near Worcester, 23 September,'" and does not 

 appear to have fought at Edgehill, 23 October, where Luke commanded a 



'^' Brown, loc. cit. '^ Thurloe, loc. cit. '^ Clarendon, op. cit. vi, 327. 



'*' LorJs' Joum. passim. He died in 1651 ; Dia. Nat. Biog. 

 '"^ Collins, Peerage, iii, 79. "" Clarendon, op. cit. vi, 93. 



*" Lords' J ourn. passim. '" Ibid, v, 493. '" Ibid. 505. 



"* Commons' Joun. ii, s\U ; Lords' Joum. v, 246, 268. See also Gent. Mag. xciii, pt. z, p. 28 ; and 

 Brown, op. cit. 45. "• Clarendon, op. cit. vi, 45. 



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