322 



The Wiltshire Compounders. 



had recently recovered by law at the assizes from Thomas Coleman, 

 but at such a ruinous cost that four years' profit will not reimburse 

 him. Moreover, he stands in fear of his adversary, Coleman, who 

 may possibly bring him into trouble for something said or done 

 against the Parliament. So, on the whole, he thinks it best 

 " voluntarily to discover himself." There is due to him, he admits, 

 £115 from Mr. Philpot, but Mr. Philpot is beyond the seas, anc 

 this debt, he doubts, will prove desperate. Fine, £54 3*. 4^. 



Henry Skilling, of Whiteparish. Endeavours having been made! 

 to prove his recusancy, he procured a counter testimonial in matters!; 

 of religion to the following effect, viz. : — That Henry Skilling 

 having received his education in Whiteparish, and constantly re- 

 siding there, was a frequenter and bearer of the Word, and a goo 

 Protestant; as were also old Mr. Richard Skilling and Margaret 

 his wife. Signed by Richard Page, the minister, Thomas Attwell 

 yeoman; Richard Durman, aged 70; William Morris, maltster 

 Thomas Strugnell, churchwarden ; and Richard Walker, parisi 

 clerk. 



Walter Smyth, of Great Bedwyn, Esq., M.P. for the borough! 

 The delinquency charged against him lay in his having desertec 

 the Parliament at Westminster and sat in the King's Parliament a 

 Oxford. The fact indeed was patent, and he suffered accordingly 

 but the attendant circumstances shew that he suffered in a caus< 

 which he little esteemed. In the first place, when hostilities com 

 menced, he was far advanced in years ; and it may well be conceivec 

 that the increased activities of Parliamentary life at that crisis mad< 

 attendance in the House very irksome to the aged and infirm. Oi 

 the score of ill-health, therefore, he quitted London and repaire< 

 into Wiltshire, but on reaching his house at Bedwyn he found thi 

 premises in possession of " a French captain," who, with a troop o 

 horse, was quartered in the house. [Major Dowett, most likely 

 who harried the county, first in the Parliament's name, afterward 

 in that of the King.] A summons from Oxford now reached hi 

 requiring his attendance in that city. He went, indeed, but he la, 



