LIFE OF LORD SCUDAMORE. 77 
his Lordship’s maintenance in London. Some short time after however, the order obtained by Sir 
William Waller was set aside, and the Gloucester estate was sequestrated. 
There is another letter written by her Ladyship to Mr. Sheppard, a Lawyer in Gloucester, 
which is too curious to omit. It shows that it was sometimes necessary for her to take care of 
herself and that she was equal to the occasion. It is as follows : 
“Mr. Sheppard, 
I am verrie sensable of your efforts, which shall not be forgotten by me, and now I shall present you with a passage from 
the Governor of Hereford, that hee was pleased to send a petition of four gentlemen, Mr. Herbert of Coldbrooke, Mr. Baker, 
and Mr. Morgan and one other, unto me with a letter which his Lieutenant would not suffer me to keepe; with an order 
from the Governor under this petition of the aforesaid gentlemen that I must urgentlie lay down ^60 which my brother the 
late Governor of Hereford borrowed of them, as they say, without any hand for it. My nature was never to dispute with 
gentlemen, but to believe them, that I should give satisfaction unto them; which is the manner I did to Captaine Baskett, that I 
did not know why I should be answerable for the debtes of my Lord’s brother ; who had but an annuitie of ^50 a year during his 
life, which he had taken at Michallmas last; yet, to render the Governor a sevill answer, I did ashower Mr. Baker, one of the 
aforenamed gentlemen, with the same Captaine Baskett, that I considered myself to be under the honble Committee of 
Glocester and Hereford; and begged that he would be pleased to let the said demands rest untill the Committee of the said 
parties come hither, and what they please upon a right examination I will submitt unto. Yet notwithstanding these 
sevillities on my part and my patience, I was the onlie woman that had goodes in towne not to be compounded for by any 
meanes as I could make. Yet this day I received a message from him, if hee did not receive the money, 'hee must fall foul 
upon me. I shall beseeche the Committee to take it into their consideration, to take their due and favour 
Horn Lacie, Your affectionat ffriend, 
this 26th of January, 1645. Elizabeth Scudamore. 
And then comes the postscript which shews that my Lady was a little afraid of refusing the 
demand, and would rather pay it unjustly than give any offence. 
“ I doe desire you that little which I have heare might be reserved for the bennefite of those gentlemen who have power 
over it, and an order to forward it for them.” 
\ 
The Mayor of Hereford for that year, was William Cater, and it is right his name should be 
given, since it is extremely doubtful if he got the money. He might have had the opportunity 
however of getting it legitimately later on in the year. 
The real siege of Hereford took place the same autumn. The Earl of Leven, with 8,000 
foot and 4,000 horse besieged the city, from July 31st, to September 2nd, 1645, when it was 
successfully defended by Col. Barnabas Scudamore, Lord Scudamore’s only brother, and Col. 
Coningsby. 
Lord Leven’s army was badly paid, and badly fed. The men were compelled to eat the yet 
green corn from the fields, and the unripe apples and pears from the surrounding orchards, and were 
in consequence much affected by illness, from which many of them died. Dr. Beale 1 states it in this 
way : “ The Scottish soldiery made themselves ill with eating apples, to them an unwonted luxury.” 
The King himself visited Hereford on September 4th, 1645, but the Scotch had notice of his 
approach, and withdrew from the city two days before his arrival. He knighted Col. Scudamore, and 
1 The author of “Herefordshire Orchards a Pattern for all England ” (1724) in his “ Letters ” to Samuel Hartlib, Esq. 
