158 Records of the Rising in the West, A.D. 1655. 



On the same subjects Mr. Roger Hill, one of the junior counsel, 

 wrote to Thurloe. 1 



"We find in this place a great and full appearance, besides the Lord Com- 

 missioner Lysle, the Lcrd Chief Justice Rolle, Baron Nicholas, Justice 

 "Wyndham, Mr. Serjeant Glyn, and Mr. Serjeant Steele, there are of Hampshire, 

 Wiltshire, and Dorsetshire, Commissioners of Oyer and terminer about twelve 

 or thirteene. Here appeared about twentie justices of the peace of this Countie ; 

 three and thirty gentlemen, that were returned of the grand jury ; three and 

 twenty of them were sworne." 



He then proceeds to lament that the gallant show was thrown away. 



"I doe heartily wish that we had found here some of those that are 

 accompted the most considerable persons, that appeared in the late insurrection, 

 this being the place, where they shewed themselves." 



Never can Salisbury have seen such an assize. It would pass our 

 comprehension where all the worthies, commissioners, justices, 

 jurymen, and witnesses found quarters, did we not remember, that 

 those were male bed-fellow days. The same couch which held an 

 embryo Protector and Saxby would hold at least a jury. We must 

 not forget the soldiers — Boteler was there in good force; Crook 

 and his troopers at the special orders of the Government ; Horsington 

 and the Salisbury party, Major Ludlow 3 and the Wilts militia ; not 

 to mention Major Wansey. Truly a vast assembly ! 



The principal Commissioners were, for the most part, men of mark, 

 and four of them, Lisle, Rolle, Nicholas and Wyndham, connected 

 with the west country both by birth and association. John Lisle, 

 one of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, was a very de- 

 voted adherent of Cromwell. So much so that though he was 

 not far from him in point of age (born about 1606), and though he 

 had been blessed with all the freedom that Magdalen Hall, Oxford, 

 (admitted 1622, B.A. 1625-6,) and the Temple could give, yet he 

 was little more than a satellite. In course of time he had become 

 M.P. for Winchester. He took a prominent part in the King's 

 trial, a thing never forgotten by his enemies. For notwithstanding 

 his casting vote as President of the High Court of Justice, in favour 

 of Mordaunt, some years after the present trials, he perished within 



*3 Th., 365. 



2 Ibid, 376. 



