The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642-1651) Part 8

The wall itself was six feet thick, and the whole was surrounded by a moat twenty-four feet across and six feet deep; a palisade between the walls and the water provided a further defence. On the wall were nine towers upon each of which were planted six guns, three turned one way and three the other, and in the centre of the building was a higher tower called the Eagle Tower. The gate house, which was a strong and lofty building, stood at the entrance to the first court.

On Sat.u.r.day, February 24, 1644, it was decided at a meeting of the Committee at Manchester that Colonels a.s.sheton, Rigby and Moore should undertake the siege of Lathom House.[125] News of this came to Lathom on Sunday, and the Countess of Derby at once sent out to obtain information from a friend which she had in the enemy's camp, while hastening on the reinforcement and provisioning of the garrison. The messenger returned on the following day with the news that the Parliamentarian troops had already marched as far as Bolton, Wigan and Standish. On Tuesday, February 27, they had taken up their quarters round the house at a distance of from one to three miles from it. The rest of the week was spent in negotiations. A formal summons of surrender was first brought on Wednesday by Captain Markland from Sir Thomas Fairfax, who further promised that he would use his influence with Parliament if the Earl of Derby would submit himself to their mercy. Lady Derby asked for a week's delay in which she might send a message to the Earl to know his opinion.

This was refused, and Fairfax then requested her to come in her coach to New Park, a house about a quarter of a mile from Lathom, in order to have a personal interview with himself and his Colonels. But the Countess remembering her birth, returned a haughty refusal, "conceiving it more knightly that Sir Thomas Fairfax should wait upon her than she upon him." After two more days of messages a.s.sheton and Rigby entered Lathom with propositions, which as might have been expected were severe.

The House and all arms and ammunition were to be delivered up, the garrison having leave to depart to Chester or elsewhere; Lady Derby was to reside at Knowsley, being allowed 20 musketeers for her protection, or she was to join the Earl in the Isle of Man. These conditions were refused "as in part dishonourable in part uncertain." On Monday, March 4, a.s.sheton came again alone in order to receive the royalist proposals.

These required a month's delay for the removal of Lady Derby and her family to the Isle of Man, during which time the royalist garrison was to be kept at Lathom; but afterwards none of the arms were to be employed against the Parliament. After her departure none of the tenants of the Earl were to be molested. It was evident, however, that all negotiations were useless. On their own confession the royalists did not believe that Fairfax's promises were genuine, nor did they intend to keep their own. The Parliament referred to in their proposals was understood by them to mean the King's Parliament at Oxford. The only object of allowing negotiations at all was in order to gain time to put the House into a better state for defence. The besiegers, however, made one final offer which was brought by Colonel Morgan, the a.s.sistant engineer, "a little man short and peremptory";[126] they allowed the time which had been asked for to evacuate Lathom, but the cannon were to be left for its defence and not removed with the rest of the arms and goods. By 10 o'clock the following day all the royalist garrison was to be disbanded and 40 Parliament soldiers to be received as a guard. The royalists, however, seeing that there was now no more time to be gained, formally broke off all negotiations. The defiant answer was at length given which had been kept in the background for a week. The Countess of Derby refused all their articles, and declared "That though a woman and a stranger, divorced from her friends, and robbed of her estate, she was ready to receive their utmost violence trusting in G.o.d both for protection and deliverance."

Seacome states that at some point in the negotiations Sir Thomas Fairfax himself visited the House, and that Lady Derby drew up all her garrison in an imposing array, from the main guard in the first court to the great Hall where she herself received him. This ruse had its desired effect; so impressed was Fairfax with the strength of the garrison that he dissuaded the other leaders from making an immediate attack, which was just what the garrison most feared.[127] The besiegers now moved their lines nearer to the walls. But even now all treaty was not at an end. Nothing much was done during the rest of the week; but on Sunday, March 10, a deputation of tenants was persuaded to enter Lathom to plead with Lady Derby to surrender; but once inside the gates their royalism was apparent and the pleading was not very powerful. Yet once more, however, on the day following (Monday, March 11) Captain John Ashhurst, whom the royalists praise for his courtesy, came in with a last proposal from Fairfax. All former conditions were to be waived; the Countess, all the garrison and all the household were to have liberty to depart wherever they pleased with all their arms, ordnance and goods, yielding up the house to Sir Thomas Fairfax. The arms, however, were never to be employed against the Parliament; and everyone must leave the house at once excepting a hundred people who might remain ten days. This was of course refused, and all negotiations were now at an end.

The siege now began to be pressed with more vigour. The royalist garrison consisted of 300 men. Lady Derby was called Commander-in-Chief, with Mr. Farington as her chief adviser; and the Captains were Farmer, Ogle, Molyneux, Radcliffe, Chisenhale, Rawsthorne, Charnock, and Fox.

Farmer, who was made Major of the House, was a Scotchman who had seen service in the Low countries. He was afterwards killed at Marston Moor.

Rawsthorne, then Colonel, was in chief command during the second siege.

The garrison was divided equally among all the Captains, who had therefore not quite half a company each. Half the garrison was on duty every night, and 16 marksmen from the whole number kept watch all day on the Towers.

The Parliamentarian soldiers before Lathom were drawn out of each Hundred by turns, their whole number being between 2,000 and 3,000. At first the troops seemed to have come from South Lancashire, those from the Fylde being called up at the end of a fortnight. The soldiers were on duty every third day and night, their provision and pay being levied on the towns in which the companies were raised.[128] Sir Thomas Fairfax, who conducted the negotiations, left the siege early in March, and after his departure the chief command seems to have devolved upon Colonel Rigby, who stayed at Ormskirk, three miles away, and came over daily to the siege.

The first advance of the Parliamentarians drove out the royalists from the Stand in the Park which they had occupied; but the besiegers seem at first to have greatly underrated the difficulty of their task, not because they expected to take the House by storm, but thinking it was so poorly provisioned that it might be easily starved into surrender. As a matter of fact, however, Lathom was well stocked with food, and for a time at least the blockade was so incomplete that supplies could easily be brought in. Moreover the difficulty of the ground for siege operations soon became apparent, and the nearer the lines were drawn to the walls the more danger was incurred from the marksmen on the Towers.

The garrison was not content merely to look on at the attack but soon began to make sorties which greatly hara.s.sed the besieging force. On Tuesday, March 12, Captain Farmer led out 100 foot and the 12 horse which was all the garrison possessed, attacked the besiegers' works, and slew several of them, taking six prisoners. The following Sunday night, Captain Chisenhale sallied out from the rear gate with 30 men, and put the Parliamentarians to ignominious flight. The accounts of these sorties are probably exaggerated, and the number of the besiegers who were killed is certainly placed much too high; but the attack was not pressed with very much resolution. Much of the firing against the House was wild, and large amounts of ammunition were wasted;[129] though it is evident that a good deal of damage was done to the buildings by cannon shots. The besiegers' most successful weapon was a large mortar which was loaded with grenades or with eight pound stone bullets and did considerable execution. One shot falling into an old court destroyed most of the buildings which surrounded it; and another struck one of the Towers and broke down a large clock.

Towards the end of March a message came from the Earl of Derby to Sir Thomas Fairfax, desiring free pa.s.sage for his Lady and children from the House; but the garrison realising that Lord Derby knew nothing of the provision which had been made for a siege, or of the successful defence which was being carried on, resolved to take no notice of it. A formal acknowledgment was sent to Sir Thomas Fairfax, and a messenger was sent to Lord Derby who was then at Chester, to acquaint him more exactly with the state of things in Lancashire.

The besiegers still continued their bombardment of the House but without much effect; and the garrison continued to have much the best of the sorties. On the morning of Wednesday, April 11, Captain Farmer and Captain Radcliffe led out about half the garrison from a postern gate and drove the Parliamentarians from most of their works, which had now been formed all round the walls, Radcliffe showing especial bravery. The retreat was secured by Captain Ogle and Captain Chisenhale. The royalists declared that they had spiked all the besiegers' guns, but as the bombardment continued after this without any intermission the statement must be false. They were evidently obliged to take great precautions against the cannon shot, and men were constantly on the watch with damp cloths to prevent the buildings from catching fire.

Towards the middle of April a chance shot entered the window of Lady Derby's room "but was too weak to fright her from the lodging"; ten days afterwards, however, two larger cannon bullets broke into the room, and she was obliged to remove to another part of the building. The royalists were most in fear of the large mortar piece; and their next expedition was made with the object of effecting its capture. About 4 a.m. on April 26th,[130] a sortie in force was made. The walls and gates were well guarded, and a reserve told off to a.s.sist a retreat if necessary; Captain Chisenhale then issued from the eastern gate, surprised the besiegers and after severe fighting drove them from their trenches. The great cannon was placed upon a sledge which had been kept in readiness and drawn within the walls. The Parliamentarians must have suffered considerably in this skirmish, and they lost still more in prestige.

Inside Lathom there were extravagant expressions of joy at the capture of the dreaded mortar; and the royalists boasted that the very day of its capture Rigby had invited a number of his friends to witness the surrender of the House. The besiegers were proportionately discouraged by its loss; and many of their other guns were now removed in order to prevent their capture.

The Parliamentarians now endeavoured to cut off the water supply from Lathom and to drain the moat. The first was impossible, as the springs that supplied the well inside Lathom were drawn from higher ground east of the House. A trench was begun in order to empty the moat, but it does not seem to have been proceeded with. The country people of the neighbourhood were pressed into service, and many weeks' work was spent in vain. The fidelity of the chief engineer, whose name was Brown, was by no means above suspicion, and he was at any rate incompetent if not treacherous. In one of the sorties by the garrison an a.s.sistant engineer was taken prisoner, and he explained the design of the trench.

Colonel a.s.sheton had been called away from the siege early in April.

After the sortie of April 26, the discouragement of the Parliamentarian troops was great, and Rigby wrote in much depression to the Committee at Manchester. "We are obliged to repel them five or six times in a night. These constant alarms, the numbers of the garrison, and our great losses, compel our men to mount guard every other night and even two nights in succession. For my part I am spent with anxiety and fatigue."[131] It is therefore surprising to find that summonses for surrender were still being sent into Lathom. The very day before the capture of the mortar a demand was sent to the Countess "to yield up Lathom House, all the persons, goods and arms within it to receive the mercy of the Parliament, and to return her final answer the next day before 2 o'clock." It was to this summons which Lady Derby returned her famous answer--

"Tell that insolent rebel, he shall neither have persons, goods nor house; when our strength and provision is spent, we shall find a fire more merciful than Rigby, and then if the providence of G.o.d prevent it not my goods and house shall burn in his sight; myself, children and soldiers rather than fall into his hands, will seal our religion and loyalty in the same flame."

This heroic declaration roused the garrison to wild enthusiasm, and they broke out into loud exclamations "we will die for His Majesty and your honour. G.o.d save the King."[132]

After this very little was done before Lathom for some weeks, though skirmishing continued at intervals with varying success. The Parliamentarians now confined themselves to a blockade of the House, and even this was not very effective. For five or six weeks before the end of the siege there seems to have been practically no fighting. The besiegers continued at work in their trenches, but a heavy fall of rain which caused some of the earth to fall in and killed three men, interfered with this undertaking. The royalists stated, and probably with some truth, that the besiegers were so disheartened that they could not prevent their men from deserting in large numbers.

At a meeting of the Committee in Manchester on April 23rd, it was resolved to raise additional troops for the siege at Lathom, and to a.s.sess a weekly amount of 4,627/6/4 on the whole county, except Lonsdale Hundred and Garstang Parish, which were already being taxed to maintain the siege of Greenhalgh Castle.[133] It is improbable, however, that these resolutions were carried into effect, for the attack showed no more vigour than before; and it had little prospect of success long before the approach of Prince Rupert effected a complete change in the position of affairs. It was not till towards the end of May that news came of Rupert's march, and Colonel Rigby again sent a summons to Lathom to surrender. This was of course refused; and the same day a messenger arrived from the Earl of Derby with news of the Prince's approach. This was, as a matter of fact, only two days before Rupert crossed the Mersey, and as soon as this was ascertained, the Parliamentarian troops marched away from Lathom with all haste. (May 27.) The royalists claimed that the besiegers had lost 500 men during the siege.[134]

NOTE ON THE SITE OF LATHOM HOUSE.

Almost incredible as it seems, not only has old Lathom House completely disappeared but it is impossible to decide with any certainty where it stood. The present house is not large and was evidently all planned at the time it was built, which was early in the eighteenth century. It is said that it stands on a part of the former site, and certain parts of it, of darker stone than the rest, are supposed to have come from the former building; moreover a hundred yards or so before the house (which faces south) and drawn round it for about three hundred yards is a shallow depression which is said to be the old moat. This has been filled in at the back of the present house to make a garden. Excavations near the present site are said to have discovered human remains.

All this may sound conclusive, but it is impossible to reconcile the surroundings of the present house with the exact description given by Seacome. In spite of his usual inaccuracy in recording events it seems impossible that such a description as he gives, evidently that of an eye witness, can be incorrect except perhaps in one or two details. His exact words may be quoted:--

"As to the situation of Lathom House it stands upon a flat, upon a moorish springy and spumous ground, and was encompa.s.sed with a strong wall of two yards thick; upon the walls were nine towers flanking each other and in every tower were six pieces of ordnance that played three one way and three the other; without the wall was a moat eight yards wide and two yards deep; upon the back of the moat between the wall and the graff was a strong row of palisades around. Besides all these, there was a high strong tower, called the Eagle Tower, in the midst of the house surmounting all the rest; and the gate house had also two high and strong buildings with a strong tower on each side of it.... Besides all that has. .h.i.therto been said of the walls, towers, moat, etc., there is something so particular and romantic in the general situation of this house as if nature herself had formed it for a stronghold or place of security; for before the house to the south and south-west is a rising ground so near it as to overlook the top of it, from which it falls so quick that nothing planted against it on those sides can touch it further than the front wall; and on the north and east sides there is another rising ground, even to the edge of the moat, and then falls away so quick, that you can scarce, at the distance of a carbine shot, see the house over that height; so that all the batteries placed there are so far below it as to be of little service against it: and let us observe by the way that the uncommon situation of it may be compared to the palm of a man's hand, flat in the middle, and covered with a rising round about it, and so near to it that the enemy, during the siege, were never able to raise a battery against it, so as to make a breach in the wall practicable to enter the house by way of storm." ("House of Stanley," p. 90.)

Either Seacome invented all the above, or the present Lathom House is not only not on the old site, but it is not anywhere near to it. For it is impossible to suppose that the nature of the ground can have changed so entirely. The soil round the present Lathom House is not marshy but sandy, and it is not hilly but flat. There is a very slight slope away from the front of the house to the south, and also to the north, but on no side is there any place which can possibly be supposed to answer to Seacome's description. Moreover the so-called moat is by no means convincing. It is conceivable that a moat may have been considerably filled in since the seventeenth century, but the wall which now supports the bank is not high and the stone looks new; Seacome's eight yards wide and two yards deep could hardly have so shrunk.

In the woods recently planted, which began about half a mile south of the present house, is an evidently artificial ditch, some 250 yards in length, bending slightly in the middle and running roughly E. and W. and N.E. and S.W. This is known as Cromwell's Trench, and the tradition is said to be an ancient one; there is also at some distance a large block of stone containing on its upper surface two hollows which are said to have been used for casting bullets; this is locally known as Cromwell's Stone. It may be noted that Roby's reference to the site, though he evidently visited it, is not quite accurate. He says "It is said that the camp of the besiegers was in a woody dell near what is now called the 'Round O Quarry' about half a mile from Lathom. This dell is still called 'Cromwell's Trench'; and a large and remarkable stone, having two circular hollows or holes on its upper surface, evidently once containing nodules of iron, is called 'Cromwell's Stone,' the country people supposing these holes were used as moulds for casting bullets during the siege." ("Traditions of Lancashire," 5th ed., 1811, vol. i, p. 315.)

Actually the trench is rather more than half a mile from Lathom but the Stone is a quarter of a mile from the Trench, and the Quarry is at least a mile further off again. But Roby evidently thought that the old house was at a considerable distance from the present one, for his imaginary view[135] is taken "from a hill above the valley or trench where it is said the main army of the besiegers was encamped." The present house cannot be seen from the edge of the woods.

Roby's view seems to the present writer to give approximately the site of the old House. Accepting the Trench tradition as correct, it fixes the position of the House somewhere in the immediate vicinity, for 17th century siege guns were so poor that the besiegers' camp must have been quite close to the walls. It is of course possible that the Trench is that made during the second siege which the "Discourse" says was a good distance from the walls, but even so there would be no point at all in having it more than half a mile away. Moreover the character of the ground at this point is both hilly and marshy just as in Seacome's description. It seems, therefore, most reasonable to suppose that the site of old Lathom House was somewhere in the woods, but on account of the undergrowth it is not possible to determine its exact position.[136]

In the gardens at Lathom are many pieces of cut stone which have come from the old building, and in one place has been pieced together the upper tracery of a large window, perhaps from the chapel.

FOOTNOTES:

[111] Newspapers in "C.W.T.," pp. 152, 153.

[112] "Portland MSS.," Vol. 1, p. 717. T. Stockdale to Wm. Lenthall.

This is a very minute description of the battle.

[113] "A Declaration and Summons sent by the Earl of Newcastle, etc."

("C.W.T.," p. 143): "I cannot but wonder while you fight against the King and his authority, you should so boldly offer to Professe yourselves for King and Parliament, and most ignominously scandalize this army with the t.i.tle of Papists, when we ventured our Lives and Fortunes for the true Protestant Religion, established in this Kingdom."

The Lancashire letter to Lenthall is in the "Tanner MSS.," Vol. 62. fol.

152.

[114] Newspapers: Rosworm's "Good Service" ("C.W.T.," pp. 146, 147, 228). The border of Lancashire and Yorkshire about Blackstone Edge is formed by high moors. The main road over the Edge is 1,269 feet above sea level; and the summit of the moor 1,553 feet. The next summit to the south, Bleakedgate Moor, is 1,663 feet; Rosworm says that this too was fortified. The descent on the Lancashire side is rather steeper than that into Yorkshire, but the latter is steep enough to make attack very difficult. Blackstone Edge is 18 miles from Manchester, 6 from Rochdale, and 11 from Halifax; Rosworm calls Halifax "distant about 16 mile from us"; but actually it is 28 miles by the nearest way, and over Blackstone Edge 29. In spite of the fortification of the border, it was thought advisable to send away the royalist prisoners at Manchester to some more distant place ("C.W.T.," p. 146).

[115] During these operations the Parliamentarian troops were supported out of sequestered estates, the Order for Sequestrations being now for the first time put into force. Tyldesley's estate at Myerscough was sequestered in October, the first in Amounderness Hundred ("Discourse,"

p. 44).

[116] "L.J.," Vol. 6, p. 279. Order for pressing 3,000 soldiers in Lancashire, with so many gunners, trumpeters, and surgeons, as the Committee may think fit.

[117] Thurland Castle is still of much the same extent as formerly, but the old building only remains in the lower part of the walls. Two pictures in Philips' "Lancashire Halls," 1822-24, show a very dilapidated building. The moat is three or four yards wide and seven feet deep, and is still only crossed by a single bridge.

[118] "Discourse," p. 41. "A True Relation of the great victory, etc."

("C.W.T.," p. 148). "The British Mercury," No. 5, November 27. "The Weekly Account," No. 7, October 18. Rigby's letter to the Speaker was read in the House of Commons, and on November 18 he was formally thanked, and the destruction of Thurland Castle approved ("C.J.," Vol.

3, p. 315). It is evident that in spite of statements to the contrary, the common soldiers on both sides were alike in the matter of plundering. There are two places in Furness named Lindale, one near Cartmel, and one near Dalton. As Rigby says that the royalists were driven into the sea, it must have been the former of these places where the battle was fought.

In some resolutions agreed upon at a meeting of the Deputy-Lieutenants of Lancashire at Preston on October 12, 1643, it was decided that Hornby Castle should be destroyed according to the Order of Parliament; so that the Order had evidently not yet been carried into effect. It was also decided to maintain the garrisons of Warrington and Liverpool ("Hist.

MSS. Com.," Vol. 10, app. 4, pp. 67, 68).

[119] "Discourse," p. 45. Cf. also "Hist. MSS. Comm.," Vol. 10, app. 4, p. 66, where is given a pet.i.tion from the town of Liverpool that Colonel Moore might be Governor in place of Venables, who had been ordered to Ireland (March, 1643-4). Moore was Governor later in the same year when the town was taken by Prince Rupert.

[120] "Carte MSS.," Vol. 7, fol. 287. Bridgeman to Ormonde, _ibid_, Vol.

7, p. 638.

[121] "C.W.T.," pp. 152-154. Colonel Robert Byron to Ormonde, January 9, 1643-4. "Carte MSS.," Vol. 8, fol. 464, 465. Byron says that 800 of the Parliamentarians were killed, and 274 taken prisoners. His own regiment bore the brunt of the fighting, and he himself was wounded.

[122] "Clarendon" (Macray), Vol. 3, p. 315 (bk. 7, par. 401).

[123] Magnalia Dei ("Cheshire Civil War Tracts," C.S. new series 65, p.

97). Great care must be taken in using this volume, as it is exceedingly badly arranged. No notice is taken of the fact that in the seventeenth century March 25 was reckoned as the first day of the year, the Tracts for January, February and March of each year being placed at the beginning of the year, instead of at the end as they ought to be. Cf.

also "C.W.T.," pp. 152-154; "Discourse," pp. 44, 45, and notes.

[124] _Vide_ note at the end of the chapter.