THE

ANFALS OF BRISTOL

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

BY
JOHN LATIMER,
Author of
Annals of Bristol in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.'

BRISTOL .
WILLIAM GEORGE'S SONS.
1 900,

YALE

PREFACE.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Demy Suo, TViro 1?„. 6<J. , Large r,q,er, 22b. Cd. net.
THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Demy 8rn, !>,>>,• 1:1s. (W. „<.{ (|org, ,,„,,,,,. imte raj1(,U8(rf)i
THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Tin.; eircu instances which led to the. compilation of tlir
present volume are. within the knowledge of many whr
will peruse its pages, but are too flattering to (lie autho]
to be left without a memorial.
On June 10th, JK'«, soon after the publication of tin
Annals of the Eighteenth Century," a considerable num
ber of gentlemen of literary tastes were pleased to confer
a probably unexampled honour on a writer of local history
It would be unseemly to reproduce any .of the eulogistic
remarks that were made at the complimentary' dinner
given at tho Victoria Rooms. And the grateful feelings
winch the entire proceedings inspired, and continue trj-
mspire, must be left unrecorded. The subject is referred
to as furnishing the compiler's best plea against a reason
able- criticism:-^ Superfluous lags the veteran on the statie.
The chairman of the gathering, Mr. Alderman Fox, was
kind enough to observe that the annals of the city during
nearly two centuries had been so satisfactorily de'alt with
-hnt he and others could not help cherishing- a hope that
-heir guest would brace himself to a further effort, and
fake tip the events of the .Seventeenth Century, so full of
interest lo j mstolians. Much a desire, afterwards re-echocd
by other gentlemen, it would have been ungrateful to
evade. During the long process of eumpilal ion. further
encouragement was received from many quarters: and
within the last few weeks the support and sympathy of
a large body of friends have been tendered wk a muni
ficence that leaves the writer helpless to offer adequate
acknowledgments. l
When Mr Seyer .undertook the local history of (he
Seventeenth Century, upwards of ninety years Jo he was
refused access to the most important source of information
-the records of the Corporation. Most of the State Pa„(.rs
o the period were not arranged, and scanty facilities were

offered for inspecting what could

he seen; the collections

PHEFACE.

in the British Museum were, as compared with those of the
present day, insignificant ; while vast stores of manuscripts
now available were then practically unknown. The author
of the Memoirs of Bristol was consequently compelled to
base his narrative on the printed pamphlets of tho time,
often strongly tinctured with party spirit, and on the
casual jottings of a few local chroniclers, frequently at
variance in their facts aud dates, often ignoring the most
important events of their time, and, as Mr. Seyer was fain
to confess, generally untrustworthy. Later compilers were
more favourably situated, but the pressing engagements of
their professional life left them little leisure for compre
hensive research, and some valuable mines of information
were left unexplored.
The object of the present volume is to give the history of
the century, not by reproducing the imperfect statements
of books already in print, but by extracting the marrow of
official records and contemporary documents of unquestion
able authenticity, but hitherto for the most part unexa
mined. The archives of the Corporation have produced a
vast mass of material throwing a vivid light on the habits,
feelings, passions, ai)C| trials of the community during a
very eventful period. Equally valuable matter has been
disinterred from the voluminous State Papers in the Record
Office and from the minutes of the Privy Council ; for
although the city suffered grievously, and almost constantly,
from the meddlesome dictation and unjust burdens aud
restraints of successive Governments, the astonishing ex
tent of this suffering is now for the first time disclosed.
Supplementary facts of great moment have been obtained
from the immense treasures of the British Museum and the
Bodleian Library, from the numberless letters and papers
recently brought to light by the Historical Manuscripts
Commission, and from the large collections of local anti
quaries that have been generously made available. Some
thing also has been gleaned from the numerous Bristol
manuscripts acquired of late years by the Museum and
Reference Library, the records of the Dean and Chapter,
the, minutes of the parochial vestries, and the local wills at
Someiset House. The chief difficulty in dealing with all
this accumulation of resources has been to compress it into
a moderate compass whilst setting out all tho essential
facts and preserving as far as possible the language and
spirit of tho writers. The results must be left to the judg
ment of the reader.

I'KKKACJK.

As discrepancies will be observed in the spelling of
certain surnames, it may be explained that when the ortho
graphy differed in two documents of equal authority it has
been often impossible to determine the accurate form.
Indifference to precision on the subject was carried so far
that some leading citizens wavered iu the spelling of their
own names. Alderman Gonning often signed " Goninge,"'
Chamberlain Pitt sometimes preferred " Pytt," the unfor
tunate son of Alderman Butcher seems to have adopted
" Bowcher," and almost at tho end of the century Sir John
Duddleston is found spelling his name " Dudelstone."
The compiler has to return grateful thanks to the Clerk
of the Privy Council for permitting a lengthened search of
the records in his custody, and to Mr. Tremayne Lane, the
City Treasurer, whose- courtesy, though severely taxed for
many months, Avas unfaltering throughout. Many inter
esting contributions have been gathered from the extensive
store of Bristol manuscripts and books in the library of
Alderman Fox, whose hospitality has been as generous as
his cheering sympathy. The fine local collections of the
late Mr. Sholto Hare and of Mr. G. E. Weare. of Weston-
super-Mare, have also proved fruitful, and great assistance
was rendered by a much-lamented friend, the late Mr.
William George. Acknowledgments are also due to. the
Rev. R. L. Murchison, vicar of St. Nicholas, the church
wardens of various parishes, Mr. W. W Hughes. Chapter
Clerk, Mr. J. E. Pritchard, F.S.A., Mr. Alfred E. Hudd,
F.S.A., Mr. J. J. Simpson, Clerk to the Corporation of the
I 'nor, Mr. If. II. Bowles, and the Rev. A. E. Beaven, of
Preston. TltlOLAWNV Pr.ACl-I,
J inii', V.tOO.

THE ANNALS OF BBISTOL
IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

In despite of the splendour of the national history during
the later years of Queen Elizabeth, there are many indica
tions that, at the opening of the seventeenth century, the
commerce and industry of Bristol were passing through a
period of depression. The series of victories that followed
the ^destruction of the Armada and broke the power of
Spain, though ultimately promoting a great development of
foreign trade, gravel}'' affected a port whose prosperity had
been long based on its extensive transactions with the
Peninsula. In a petition to the Crown forwarded by the
Corporation in 1595, it was stated that, before the quarrel
with Philip II., some thirty "tall" barks belonging to
Bristolians were engaged in this traffic, but that, through
the war, this fleet had been reduced to " eight or ten small
ships," and tho owners and merchants were " undone." A
largo business had also boen carried on with Ireland, bitt in
Kid) the island had been in revolt for several years, and
commerce was at an end. In the Middle Ages the shipping
of Bristol had been very little inferior iu number to that of
London. But when the Government were making prepara
tions to resist the Armada, and obtained returns from each
port as to the strength of the mercantile marine, London
was found to have 62 ships exceeding 100 tons burden and
23 of between 80 and 100 tons, while the three Western
ports of Bristol, Bridgwater and Minehead put together
could muster only nine vessels of the larger and one of the
smaller class. The decline had been much aggravated by
the impolitic policy of the Crown, which had diverted foreign
trade into the hands of confederacies in the capital by the
concession of chartered monopolies. The Muscovy Company
debarred all outside their pale from traffic with Russia ;

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1600

the Eastland Company enjoyed exclusive dealings with the
Baltic ; the Levant Company permitted no private competi
tion in Turkey, Greece and Asia Minor, while the East
India Company were supreme in China and Hindostan.
Hemmed in by so many barriers, the Merchant Venturers of
Bristol, who had previously been flourishing, had allowed
their privileges to lapse, and many members were driven to
seek for admission into the Spanish Company of London to
preserve the little business that "remained to them. Other
causes led to the decline of the once prosperous clothing trade
of the city. The quality of west-country wool is said to have
deteriorated after the inclosure of the commons, but perhaps
the main cause of decay was the fondness of Elizabeth and
her gay courtiers for the light and gaudy mercery produced
in distant looms. The Government, again, insisted upon
" regulating " domestic industries, more to the injury than
the benefit of those concerned. In 1601 the Statute of
Apprentices, fixing the number to be employed by each
master, the rate of wages, and the hours of work, and de
barring men from exercising any trade to which they had
not been bound for seven years, was made more stringent ;
whilst a system of granting "monopolies," by which the
right of making and selling a number of articles of the first
necessity was established for the benefit of royal nominees,
who sold their rights to the highest bidder, inflicted much
injury on the public at large. From these and other causes,
the price of commodities had greatly increased ; but the
profits were enjoyed by a limited class, whilst wages, as re
presented by the cost of necessaries, had largely diminished,
and the working community, as a consequence,were in a much
worse condition than they had been in a century earlier.
To take a single illustration, the price of sugar had been
raised through a monopoly from the old rate of fourpence
to half a crown per pound, a sum equal to an artisan's wages
for two days and a half. The consequences of such a policy
were seen in the demoralizing Poor Law Act of 1601.
English labour being chiefly devoted to agriculture, the
population of even the most important provincial towns
was, as compared with the present time, exceedingly small.
Weston-super-Mare is a mere village in modern eyes, yet
its inhabitants are more numerous than any English city
could boast of in 1600, with the sole exception of London.
The population of Bristol, one of the largest centres, has
been estimated at 15,000, but there is reason to believe that
the figures are in excess of the truth. Except a handful of

1600]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

merchants, whose wealth was probably inferior to that of
theCanynges, Shipwards andSturmys of an earlier age, but
who nevertheless lived in mansions regarded as sumptuous,
the citizens dwelt in small timber-framed houses, generally
of two stories and a garret, having their gables projecting
over the street. Many of these have been swept away
within living memory, but a typical specimen still stands in
Temple Street (No. 115), bearing the date of 1587 upon its
door-jamb. The general aspect of the town, apart from the
•church towers, must have been that of a mass of cottages,
crushed together in dark, narrow and ill-paved thorough
fares, of which the Maryleport Street of forty years ago
was a much-improved type. In these defiles, the inhabi
tants, mostly of humble means, toiled at their respective
trades, trafficking in little but the common necessaries
of life. The insanitary condition of the community is
sufficiently proved by the repeated ravages of the Plague to
be noted hereafter. The average brevity of life is attested
by the wills enrolled at the Council House, numerous
testators speaking of their offspring as infants, and antici
pating a posthumous addition to the family. Of comfort in
the modern sense there are few indications. The thatched
hovels of the working classes, and even of petty traders,
were destitute of glass windows — always specifically men
tioned, when in existence, in the conveyance of a house ;
the floors of the living rooms were of stone, generally
¦covered with soddened rushes ; the ceilings were of open rafters ;
whilst the furniture embraced little more than a table and
a few wooden stools, benches and trunks. Dinner was
served upon wooden trenchers, unsupplied with forks ; the
only attainable sweetening compound was honey, and,
except in plentiful seasons, household bread wras made of
barley, Avith which pease were mingled in times of dearth.
Soap was so dear that the clothes of the poor were cleansed
by the help of most unsavoury materials. In a word, the
sordid and squalid surroundings of the bulk of the popula
tion would be offensive in the present age to the poorest
agricultural labourer. Evidences of rude well-being were,
of course, visible in the houses of prosperous tradesmen, who
arrayed themselves in stately "gowns," and whose wills
record the possession of jewellery, valuable pieces of plate.
a dinner-service of peAvter, and a plentiful stock of linen',
cushions and bed-curtains ; but chairs Avere a. rare luxury,
and the only " carpet " Avas a covering for the parlour table!
A handsome pair of andirons, to arrange the wooden fuel of

4 THE ANNALS Of BRISTOL [160O
the family hearth, and a "great brass pan," for cooking or
brewing purposes, are frequently bequeathed Avith amusing
solemnity ; but of books, pictures, or household ornaments-
of any kind there is an eloquent and universal silence.
The difference betAveen the Bristol of Ehzabeth and that
of Victoria is perhaps most strikingly exhibited in the
habits of social life. From the time when the burgesses
had purchased from EdAvard III. a concession of municipal
privileges, amounting practically to self-government, free
from the interference and exactions of the county sheriffs-
and other royal officials, the object of the leading ^Anismen
was todofond those franchises from attack by a consolidation
of the community into a united whole and by a rigorous
exclusion of interloping strangers. That such an arrange
ment could not be thoroughly carried out without some
sacrifice of individual freedom of action Avas clearly regarded
as immaterial. As a member of one great family, every one
was expected to give up some amount of personal liberty
for the general good. All being presumed to earn their
liyiug by industry, the mass was subdivided into industrial
companies, in which every man was required to take his-
place according to his avocation. A youth was at liberty
to choose his calling, but a choice once made was irrevocable 'r
after a long apprenticeship he was bound to enter into his-
special fraternity, to obey its regulations, and to support it
by his serA'ices. The laws of the various confederacies Avere
ordained by the Corporation, which rigorously forbade the
encroachment of one company on another. No shopkeeper
could deal in goods made by men of other trades. No car
penter could Avork as a joiner. No butcher could sell cooked
meat. No victualler could bake bread for sale. No one but
a butcher could slaughter even a pig. Besides an infinity
of such restrictions, the hours of work, the rate of Avages,
and the number of journeymen employed by a master Avere
peremptorily fixed ; articles made by suburban craftsmen
and brought in for sale were liable to confiscation ; and the
introduction of "foreigners" from the rural districts to
work as journeymen was interdicted under heavy penalties.
The attempt of any stranger to intrude into the city with
the vieAV of establishing a business Avithout the consent of
the authorities was an unpardonable enormity, punished by
speedy ejection. Perhaps the most striking outcome of the
ancient principles ruling urban life was the right of super
vision claimed by the Corporation over the family and
property of deceased burgesses. The Mayor Avas recognised

1600]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

as the " Father " of all the orphans in the city. On the
death of the head of a family, it Avas the duty of the man's
executors to deposit his assets in the hands of the chief
magistrate and his assistants, Avho undertook to administer
the estate until the offspring came of age, and in the mean
time to. provide for their education and training. Some
resistance having been made against these poAvers, the Privy
Council, in 1589, in a letter to the Mayor expressing Avarm
approval of the custom, gave emphatic orders for its main
tenance, and authorized the commitment of refractory
executors to gaol, " there to remain until they effectually
submit." No effort, in short, Avas spared to maintain
the solidarity of the community ; and though in practice
it must have been impossible to carry out the system in its
integrity, that end was always as far as possible kept in
view, and met Avith general approval. It Avill be found in
subsequent pages that this old-world idea of toAvn life,
intolerable as it seems to modern eyes, had undergone no
sensible relaxation (except as regards orphans) at the end
of the seventeenth century.
Little is recorded in reference to the popular sports and
amusements of the time. They Avere doubtless of the rough
and often barbarous character common to the country at
large, dog-tossing, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, duck-hunting,
and cudgel-playing being especially in favour. Alderman
Whitson, Ave are told, " kept his hawks," and hawking
could be enjoyed by numerous spectators. The Queen, Avho
maintained some bears, and a pack of hounds to bait- them,
allowed thorn to travel from town to town for " entertain
ments " ; and " Harry the bearward " Avas always welcomed,
and rewarded by tho Corporation. Many times a year the
civic dignitaries Avere enlivened by companies of peripatetic
comedians, tho party called tho Queen's players being fre
quent visitors. In John Hort's mayoralty, 15!l!)-16<">0, six
bands of actors, described respectively as the players of
Lord HoAvard, Lord Morley, Lord - Pembroke, the Earl of
Huntingdon, L-rd Chandos and Lord Cromwell, received
donations from the civic purse for their personations, though
in two cases the gift Avas limited to ten shillings. It may be
assumed that the entertainment given before the Mayor
and Corporation on each occasion Avas followed by others for
the inhabitants generally. It Avould be needless to refer
further to indoor amusements but for the then rudimentary
groAvth of a habit that Avas fated to enlist millions of
devotees, to overspread the Avorld, and to yield to tho

8

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1601

Kmg s brother-in-law, afterwards known as the Protector
Somerset. A feAv years later, when the Earl of Leicester
became Queen Elizabeth's "Sweet Robin," he Avas speedily
ottered the same tribute of adulation ; and after his disap
pearance from the scene, the office Avas conferred on her
Majesty s greatest minister, Lord Burghley, who graciously
received £4 per annum as an honorarium for the rest of
his life. His portrait, executed by the Queen's Sergeant
Fainter who received £3 Mr the work, is still in the
Council House. On his death, in 1598, the Corporation,
satisfied with the results of its policy, profferred the dig
nity to Elizabeth's last favourite, the Earl of Essex, and
complimented him by setting up a costly picture of his arms
m their place of meeting. His reckless ambition, however,
soon Avarned the Council of their blunder, and in 1600
be.ore the final catastrophe, they sought to ingratiate
themselves with a new patron, the Lord Treasurer Buck-
liurst, afterwards Earl of Dorset, by sending him a copious
present of the wine for which the city was already famous.
On the 17th February, 1601, immediately after the execu
tion of Essex, the Council ordered that a patent of the
.Lord Stewardship, ornamented with gold and silk and ac
companied with " the accustomed fee," should be forwarded
to the Treasurer " with all convenient speed." The Court
limner was also commissioned to paint the minister's por
trait, which is still to be seen. As will be shoAvn later on,
the citys need of an influential friend at the seat of
government became more urgent than ever after the ac
cession of the Stewarts.
OAving to the enormous price of foreign iron, by which
the English market was chiefly supplied, some attempts
Avere made at this period to produce the metal from local
sources ; but as smelting could be effected only by the use
of charcoal, the enterprise was regarded with much disap
proval. In December, 1600, the Corporation resolved on re
newing an appeal to the Privy Council, made in the pre
vious year, for tho suppression of the " iron mills " set up
at Mangotsfield by Arthur Player and others, it being
alleged that the extensive destruction of the Avoods had
raised the price of timber, to the injury of " poor crafts
men." Another mill was alleged to be working similar
havoc at " Staunton " (Stanton Drew ?). The reply of the
Privy Council is not recorded.
Some references in the corporate minute-books of 1G00-1
to a then infant institution, Queen Elizabeth's Hospital,

1601] IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. t)
cannot be fully understood without a brief glance at the
events of a feAv previous years. John Carr, the founder of
the school, Avas a soapboiler, having works in Bristol and
at Boav, near London, and had acquired great wealth by
means of a secret process of manufacture. He died in
1586, having vested his estate by will in the hands of
trustees, who were directed to sell certain portions Avithin
three years for the payment of mortgages and debts, and
then to retain the profits of the remainder for five years
more, in order to wipe off annuities bequeathed by the
testator and to provide a surplus stock. This being ac
complished, a hospital Avas to be established for the main
tenance and tuition of boys on the pattern of Christ's
Hospital in London. The Corporation were appointed
governors of the projected charity, Mr. Carr expressing a
hope that they Avould provide it Avith a suitable building.
Under the founder's scheme the hospital Avould not have
coineinto existence until 1594 ; but the Corporation were
unAvilling to admit this delay. Immediately after the
death of Mr. Carr, they began to make advances to liqui
date his liabilities, seeking donations for this purpose
from the parish vestries and private persons, induced
creditors to release sums due to them, and imposed local
taxes on lead and iron in aid of the object in view.
-The validity of the Avill Avas disputed by Carr's brother
and heir-at-laAv, but this difficulty Avas also surmounted
by surrendering to him the Woodspring Priory estate,
remitting a debt of £666 which he owed to the tes
tator, and making him a gift of £1,000, Avhich Avas ad
vanced by the Corporation. Having thus cleared the
ground, the Common Council, in March, 1590, less than
four years after Carr's death, obtained a charter from the
CroAvn for the foundation of " Queen Elizabeth's Hospital "
as it Avas styled in compliment to her Majesty ; the letters
patent setting forth that the Corporation had " bestoAved
and laid out some thousands of pounds " in order that the
founder s intentions, should be " more quickly hastened and
performed." The school Avas accordingly opened in or
about September, 1590, the " mansion house " of the former
monks of Gaunt's Hospital being granted to it by the
Council. Some charges, hoAvever, still remained on Carr's
^TqaA i the CorP°ration Avere burdened with a debt of
*.d,auu borrowed to hasten the work ; and to clear off these
liabilities portions of tho estate were sold between 1592 and
15J6, producing over £5,000. The financial position being

10

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1601
at length deemed satisfactory, Carr's trustees, in June,
1596, transferred the estate to the Corporation, who in the
following year obtained an Act of Parliament, Avhich
settled the property, together with the " mansion house,"
on the charity for ever, and apparently precluded further
alienations of the property. Nevertheless, in September,
1600, the Common Council, ignoring their former profes
sions of munificence, appear to have thought themselves
entitled to reclaim the money they had "bestowed" for
hastening Carr's intentions, a resolution being passed that
so much of the school lands should be sold as Avould satisfy
"all debts." The Corporation Avere then tho only
creditors of the charity, and their claim was set down at
£4,000. Accordingly, by September, 1601, sales had been
effected to the value of £3,856. The purchasers Avere mem
bers of the Corporation and their relatives or connections,
and it is significant that, in violation of long-established
custom, two aldermen and a councillor, who acquired a
large part of the land, Avere not described by their titles in
the conveyances. Strange to say, although the alleged
liabilities Avere practically discharged by these alienations,
a memorandum occurs in the corporate audit book of 160b,
to the effect that the charity was still indebted to the
civic body in " £3000 and a more sum." But no action
was taken on this statement, and in December, 1620, the
Council, again posing as great benefactors, ordered that the
schoolboys should wear badges distinguishing the patrons
of the hospital— eight of which were to be in memory ot
Carr, six in honour of the Corporation, ranking the civic
liberality as little less than that of the founder, and ten in
commemoration of various later bequests. A further re
ference to the management of the institution will be found ,
under 1700. For the later story of the alleged "debt re
ference must be made to the Annals of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries. _
The ruinous state of the roads leading to the city Avas a
chronic grievance throughout the century, and somewhat
extraordinary measures were sometimes _ taken in. the vain
hope, of remedying the evil. At a meeting of the Council
in April, 1600, it was ordered that every inhabitant
« scassed " (assessed) for raising the Queen's subsidies should
my U. in the pound on the amount at which he was rated.
The burden was not an onerous one, for only a few
magnates of the city were rated at so much as £8.) Ihe
proceeds were to be employed towards the repair of the

1601]

IN THE. SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

11

«.' decayed" highways in the city suburbs; a-nd every
householder exempt from the subsidy Avas required, when
summoned, to personally work on the roads for one day of
eight hours yearly, providing his oavii pickaxe and shovel.
This ordinance Avas re-enacted in 1605, Avhen those refusing
to pay or work Avere ordered to be imprisoned until they
submitted. The cleansing of the streets was another endless
difficulty. The Corporation appointed a Raker, Avhose
Avages, collected from householders, Avere fixed at ten
shillings a week, horse hire included. Efficient scavenging
was, of course, impossible under these conditions, and as if to
make matters Avorse, many of the inhabitants, in spite of
corporate interdicts, obstinately threw their household refuse
into streets that Avere always rank Avith the garbage of the
open markets. Some even refused to contribute toAvards
the Raker's humble salary, and the Council were compelled
to order in 1605 that defaulters should be committed to gaol
till the money was forthcoming. The Avork of paving the
streets was thrown upon householders, avIio Avere required
to repair the pavement in front of their premises, as far as
the central gutter that ran along each thoroughfare.
Shortly before the beginning of the century, the Corpora
tion munificently rewarded a neAV Pitcher Avith the sura of
twenty shillings "for taking up his abode here until he
pitches all the streets, and will take not aboA-e threehalf-
pence a yard to do his Avork Avell." By a vote of May, 1602,
the Mayor and Aldermen Avere directed to set this official
to Avork when and Avhere they thought fit, and his charges
were ordered to be levied on the occupants of the adjoining
houses, Avho Ave re to be imprisoned in default of payment.
The Corporation, at the period under revieAv, possessed a
singular source of income — namely, Ihe profits arising from
the issue of copper tokens called farthings — a. fact that has
been" somewhat overlooked by local historians. The story
of Bristol farthings begins in the- last quarter of the preArious
century, but a retrospective glance may be permitted to
show the extent of the operations. In December, 1577, the
Corporation, through their Recorder, Thomas Hannam,
represented to the Privy Council that great abuses had
arisen in the city through the stamping and uttering of
farthing tokens by innholders, bakers, breAvers, and other vic
tuallers, who refused to receiA^e them again from the public,
alleging that many had been counterfeited; for remedy
Avhereof , and for tho benefit of the poor, the Recorder recom
mended the use of a general stamp, by which he meant a die

12

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1601

belonging solely to the Corporation. The Privy Council, to
use their own language, « very well allow this, commend the
providence of the citizens, and notify their contentment
tnat the use of these farthings shall continue, provided the
quantity do not exceed the [yearly] value of £30, and that
they may be made current only within the city" The
first issue was accordingly made in 1578, when the Corpora
tion obtained the services of a goldsmith, who provided the
metal and struck the pieces;- receiving one third of the
nominal value for his trouble. The city Chamberlain, as
the treasurer Avas then styled, thereupon got rid of the
tokens at their full value by paying them as wages to the
corporate Ayorkmen and others, a clear profit being made of
T-QQ Asimilar 3SSue was made in 1580, in 1581, and in
lo8d (when a new mould cost Gs. 8d. extra), and probably
m 1?82 and lo84, the audit books of which years are
missing. In course of time the excessive profit derived from
the tokens— a shilling's worth of copper producing a pound's
worth of farthings— excited the cupidity of knavish persons,
and large counterfeit issues made their appearance, to the)
serious loss of the community. In 1587 one Gallwey, a
butcher Avas convicted of coining, and was fined £5; but
his detection failed to deter similar rogues, and in the same
year, by a vote of the Common Council, the Chamberlain
disbursed £13 2s. Wd. " to divers persons, as well of the city
as of the country, for 12,600 false farthings " that had been
palmed off by illicit coiners. In 1594 the Privy Council, in
a letter to the Mayor and Aldermen, stated that it had
come to their knoAvledge that many small tradesmen in the
city had illegally stamped lead and brass farthing tokens
and uttered them to their customers, but refused to accept
them again in payments, whereby grievous inconvenience
Avas caused to the poor. The Mayor and Aldermen Avere
therefore required to suppress such proceedings, and to
compel the fraudulent utterers to change the tokens for
current money. Some further poAvers must have been
obtained from the Government, for the Chamberlain's
accounts for the same year show that he had obtained £40
Avorth of neAV tokens— equal to 38,400 farthings— whilst he
had paid £7 for the Privy Council's Avarrant authorizing
the issue, 3.?. Ad. for a stamp, £6 for stamping, and £2 for
the copper, Avhich, deducting £2 more for himself in com
pensation for his trouble in paying away the tokens, left a
clear gain of £22 16.s\ 8d. The accounts for the next t\vo
years have been lost; but it may be surmised from the

1601]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

13

: 1597 that the issues had proceeded SAvimminglv
ds .-—"Received of Thomas Wall, goldsmith. In

audit book of 1_
The item reads . ,,.- , .. „„„, 4., i:,.„:..:..-,,, ,,,
copper tokens made this year, £13 10,. [equal to 12 960
coins], whereo abated for the stuff, stamping, cutting and
£10 K^' 1 5* ?f" lb'' £3 7»' 6d' So rests oleS
fciu is. bd. In another corporate book is a minute stating
that a new and broader stamp was cut in 1598, doubtless in
preparation for a further coinage. But by that time the
Corporation had so deluged the market that a crash took
fnZZ V TxTfiV^ the 0hamberlain was constrained
fun nSe/t?ri, W^ t0 huy, UP ,n° less than 32>470 toke^ ^
lull piice to a lay the popular clamour. The transaction in
volved an outlay of £33 16*. 6d., wiping away about three
years' profits. In 1600, however, a fresh issue took place!
leaving a gam of £3 ; m 1601 there was a further profit of
31s. U and m 1603-4 upwards of 10,000 tokens were put in
circulation though the net gain was only 29... bd. Th£
appears to have been the last corporate issue of farthings
previous to the Commonwealth, but curious references fo
local tokens will hereafter be found under 1613 and 1?36
So far as is known all the Elizabethan issues Avere square
or diamond-shaped. There are numerous typ J extant
most of them bearing the arms of the city, rudely cut and
tWhT ^ ' °n °ne SMe' and the letters " ^R" on
Vagrancy was a social evil in England throughout the
Middle Ages, and greatly increased during the reigns of the
Tudors, m spite 0f legislative enactments. On the 5th
February, 16.J1 the Common Council resolved tha a spec a
officer should be appointed to search for and apprSiend
rogues, vagrant., idle and disorderly people, and B"
mfestmg the city, and to carry out -the orders of the u tices
concerning these; oifende-rs. A « beadle of the be -gars "
thereupon came mto existence, and orn, officer provhf- un
able to cope Avith the work, a second beadle was1 soonlifter
elected, together W!th a " beadle of the rogues," Cwhose
use whips were provided, and a " cage " was set'up^n NeAv!
gate to incarcerate strollers. Irish beggars esSciaUv
abounded. On one occasion 66 of these tramps Avere 1 ten J
off to Ire and in a drove, the Corporation disburs JTa
slullmg a head for their passage ; and in 1607 the Cm,!
ment, through AldermaS AVldtson, paH £21 18° t the'
transport of o hers, who, if the sameiate of transport con
tinned must have numbered several hundred? £ "in
mates referred to above Avere a peculiarly unhappy da "

;j

14

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1601
They Avere, in fact, Avorkpeople from districts outside the
city, Avho took lodgings in it and strove to earn a living in
contravention of the orders of the civic body, in Avhose eyes
fill strangers Avere "foreigners," and Avho took constant
pams to exterminate them, lest they should gain a " settle
ment '_' under the poor laAvs. Under a corporate ordinance
then in force any tradesman or artificer within the city
who employed a " foreigner," even though the stranger's
family lived elseAvhere, was subjected to a fine of 6s. 8d. per
week so long as he retained the Avorkman, while innkeepers
Avere mulcted in the same penalty if they harboured such
intruders, except during the fairs.
The miserable stipends of the Bristol clergy during the
whole of the seventeenth century will be noticed from time
to time. In 161X1-1 a rate, producing £44 6s. 8d., appears
to have been levied on the inhabitants for the relief of the
incumbents, out of which the vicar of St. Nicholas (\vho re
ceived only £2 13.v. id. yearly out of the parochial estates)
Avas to have £10, the parson of All Saints' £6, and his col
leagues at St. Werburgh's and Christ Church £4 each, the
remainder being doled out to the other clergy in sums of
from £5 to £1. The Corporation, however, had really no
power to impose a tax of this character, and evidence is
wanting that the householders submitted to it. At a meet
ing of the Council in October, 1601, a committee Avas
directed to consider the necessitous circumstances of tAvo
clergymen styled " city preachers," apparently nominated
by the Corporation, though, owing to the loss of most of the
minute-books during Elizabeth's reign, no record exists as
to their appointment, nor is there anything to sIioav Iioav
their stipends of £40 each were raised. The committeo
never reported. This is an early indication of the Puritanic
predilection for sermons and antipathy to the ritual of the
Book of Common Prayer which rapidly increased during
the reign of James I.
The granting of monopolies and licenses Avhich crippled
private manufactures and commerce Avas an unhappy
feature of the later rule of Elizabeth. Bristol merchants,
forbidden to trade Avith India, the Levant, and other
regions, naturally sought compensation by applying for
privileges of a similar character, and brief entries in the
civic records for 1600 show that the Merchant Venturers'
Society had made suit to the CroAvn for a license, overriding
the statute law, giving them permission to export tanned
calf-skins, that such a license Avas granted, by dint of con-

1601]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

15

siderable outlay, in favour of the Corporation, and that it
Avas sold for £45 to one William Lewis, Customs' Searcher,
who possibly acted as agent for the merchants. But in
1601 the Queen, daunted by the protests of the House of
Commons, assented to , an Act for abolishing monopolies,
and the above license sank with the rest. See September,
1614. A general election took place in September, 1601, Avhen
George Snigge, Recorder and Serjeant-at-LaAv, and Alder
man John Hopkins, then retiring from the civic chair, were
elected members for Bristol. The principal event of a very
brief session has just been recorded.
John Hopkins, fishmonger, mayor of the city for the year
ending Michaelmas, 1601, had gained great renoAvn in 1596
for having equipped a ship, which sailed under his own
command and took part in the memorable sack of Cadiz.
On his return, says a local chronicler, " he Avas Avith much
joy met by the citizens on Durdham DoAvn," Avho conducted
him home in triumph, and lighted " all their tallow candles
and a great bonfire at the High Cross, very beautiful to be
hold. "_ In the audit book of his mayoralty there is the
folloAving someAvhat obscure item : — " Paid the Mayor for
the loan of four pieces of ordnance put aboard the Pleasure
of Bristol in the voyage for Cales, £9 5s."
One of the greatest troubles of the magistrates at this
period arose out of the frequent arrivals of troops despatched
by the Government for shipment to Ireland. When
unfavourable Avinds prevailed, the soldiers Avere often
detained for Aveeks in the city, and their chronic unruliness
caused many disorders. On one or two occasions the
Common Council took the singular step of erecting agalloAvs
at the High Cross to strike terror in those, disposed to run
riot. In Hopkins' mayoralty upwards of 1,000 soldiers
were sent to tho city, and his Avorship's exertions to keep
order were of little avail. " They Avere so unruly," says a
chronicler, " that the citizens could not pass the streets in
quiet, especially in the night, so that many frays took
place, though the soldiers had still the Avorst." At last
" they began to draw their Aveapons in the Marsh against
the Mayor " ; but the town bell Avas rung, the citizens fieAV
to arms, and the troopers Avere so thoroughly beaten that
they Avere glad to take refuge in the transport ships.
" Some were sore hurt, and one was killed, and the chiefest
put into prison." Extraordinary burdens were imposed
from time to time on members of the Corporation for the

16

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1601

victualling and shipment of these unwelcome visitors. On
January 1st, 1602, the aldermen and such of the councillors
as had been required to advance money for these purposes
were ordered to bring in their loans. The Mayor was
called on for £100 ; the aldermen had to find £20 each (save
one Avho escaped for £10), and various councillors lent from
£10 to £20. Those Avho failed to pay up were to have as
many soldiers billeted upon them as the Mayor should think
fit. The total sum advanced'- on this occasion was £670,
and a second imposition of the same kind was made four
months later. Occasionally the charge Avas much heavier,
and though the loans were eventually repaid by the
Government, there Avas always delay and the money was
never recovered without a journey to London and many
"tips " to Court officials. One of the Chamberlain's items
during Lord Burghley's treasurership is amusing : — " Paid
one of my Lord Treasurer's secretaries, 10s. for his pains in
examining my account, for it was very much misliked and
evil taken by my Lord Treasurer, the charge Avas so great,
being £1160 8s. 8%d., so that two days Avas spent in trying
of the said account, Avhich thanks be to God could not be
faulted in one half-penny." This money Avas coiweyed
from Whitehall to London by Avater, but how so large a
sum was brought, to Bristol in safety is not stated. The
Chamberlain's journey altogether occupied tAvelve days,
and the modesty of his expenses is worthy of note. The
hire of two horses for himself and servant cost 2s. a daj^,
the man's Avages were bd. a day, and the various innkeepers'
charges for food and lodging, for both the travellers and
their steeds, amounted only to 6s. 8d. daily. •
Another singular burden on the members of the Council
was the provision of armour for the use of the city trained
bands, Avhich were mustered annually. The Corporation
had a large store of muskets, calivers, corslets, etc., for this
purpose ; but each common councillor also furnished a
corslet and a musket, Avhile other wealthy citizens, Avhen
called on by the Mayor, Avere required to engage one or
more soldiers for the training, and to find them coats, under
a penalty of 20s. for each default. Still aD other anomalous
charge may be noted. About this period the Corporation
took up a loan of £500, and payment of the interest Avas
imposed pro rata on the members of the Council !
In September, 1601, the Corporation granted a lease for
90 years to the Merchants Company — a body then, as Avill
presently be sIioavu, in a decayed and almost moribund

1602]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

17

condition — of " all those duties which usually and of right
ought to be taken of all vessels arriving in the port for
anchorage, cannage and plankage." The rent reserved Avas
£3 0s. 8rf. This is the first mention in the records of
cannage and plankage, and anchorage appears to have
been previously an occasional tax imposed only on foreigners.
It is not improbable that all the charges were now laid on
citizens for the first time.
The ordinances of the Weavers' Company, revised and
re-enacted by the Corporation in 1602, indicate the narrow
prejudices of the age. Any citizen sending linen or woollen
yarn to be woven outside the city, or Avho confided it to
any " foreigner " living in Bristol, was to forfeit the goods
and to be fined 13s. 4rf. A " foreigner" desiring admission
into the Company was required to show that he was worth
£40, and to pay an entrance fee of £20. Youths Avere to be
at least 17 years of age when apprenticed, and were to
serve for seven years ; but no one born outside the city could
be apprenticed on any terms unless with the special license
of the Mayor, and any master infringing the latter rule
was to forfeit 40s. The trade Companies Avere at this time
in high reputation, and it was accounted an honourable
privilege to be admitted to membership. For example, it
is entered on the minutes of the Tailors' Company under
June 24th, 1602 :— " The right worshipful William Vawer,
Mayor, received Brother, and Anne, his wife, Sister, and
sworne for term of their lives." Tavo days later the vicar
of St. Nicholas and his Avife received a similar honour, the
reverend gentleman having promised to preach a funeral
sermon at the burial of any Master of the Company that
might dio during his incumbency. The Tailors were an
exceptionally powerful fraternity, and in the middle of the
century they demanded a fine, on tho admission of a
stranger, of no less than £30, a larger sum than was
then imposed on " foreigners " by tho Merchant Venturers'
Society. Early in 1602 a legacy of £1,000 bequeathed by a native
of Bristol, Lady Mary, widow of Alderman Sir Thomas
Ramsey of London, to be laid out in lands for the use of
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, came into the hands of the
Corporation. Shortly afterwards a large estate at Winter-
bourne Avas purchased for £1,400, half of the additional
outlay being advanced by Ann, Avife of Alderman Thomas
Colston (a niece of John Carr, founder of the school), aud
the rest by the Corporation.

18

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1603

Iii spite of her advanced age, Queen Elizabeth made many
gay progresses in the last few years of her reign. The
corporate records sIioav that Bristol Avas promised a second
visit in the summer of 1602 ; and the authorities, in vieAv of
the heaA-y outlay that a fitting reception would entail,
ordered a tax to be levied on the leading inhabitants at
the rate of ten shillings in the pound on the amount they
contributed to the royal subsidy, while three assessors were
appointed for each ward to assess the less wealthy citizens
" as they shall think meet." Recalcitrants were threatened
Avith imprisonment in NeAvgate until their quotas Avere
forthcoming. The Queen, hoAvever, relinquished her
intention, and died in the following March, to the deep
regret of her subjects. In Bristol her birthday continued
to be celebrated by several generations.
A feAv days after Her Majesty's demise, the accession of
her successor, King James of Scotland, Avas proclaimed at
the High Cross with as much lip-reverence as the civic
fathers could muster. A trumpeter Avalked four times
round the edifice sounding mournful strains for the late
monarch, and then pranced four times about it joyfully
for the neAV king, a picture of whom, by some imaginative
artist, had been hoisted upon the Cross for the admiration
of beholders. Genuine enthusiasm for the foreigner was,
of course, out of the question, but his accession stirred up
the Council to a display of mock loyalty, largely at the
expense of other people. On May 3rd it was determined
that presents from the city should be provided and sent to
the King, the Queen, and the neAV Prince of Wales on their
arrival in London, and that for such purpose a Benevolence
should be extracted from the inhabitants. In the Council,
John Barker, perhaps the first local merchant of the time,
gave £20 ; Alderman Whitson, £8 ; two aldermen, ten
marks each ; sixteen other members, £5 each ; and six
contributed smaller sums. The remaining members seem
to have declined to subscribe. Owing to the loss of the
year's audit book, the amount obtained v from the citizens
generally is unknoAvn, but it is unlikely to have been
liberal. Bristolians had, in fact, a subject of much greater gravity
to consider than the coming of a Scottish king. The Plague
made its appearance in London during the spring, and it
Avas only too likely to spread westward. In June the Com
mon Council issued an order that no Londoner should send
wares to the great summer fair, or be admitted to lodge in

1603]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

19

the city, unless he could produce a certificate from the Lord
Mayor that his house had been free from infection during
the previous six weeks. The goods of such certified per
sons were to be thoroughly aired for some days at a place
outside LaAvford's Gate, at the charge of the owners. In
spite of precautions, the pestilence broke out in Marsh
Street even before the fair, and a committee was appointed
to dispose of infected persons and to bury the dead, the
inhabitants being taxed to meet the outlay, and defaulters
being threatened Avith imprisonment. The malady having
wrought unprecedented havoc, the Corporation in September
ordered every wealthy burgess to be taxed to the value of
a royal subsidy, other householders being rated at one tenth
of their rental for the relief of suffering families. This
order Avas repeated in May, 1604, and the Privy Council
soon af terAvards issued a proclamation forbidding Londoners
to resort to the fair. The scourge did not disappear until
February, 1605. A chronicle in the Council House states
that the total number of deaths during this visitation
amounted to 2,956, probably representing about one fourth
of the population.
A local adventure of historical interest marked the year
1603. The best account of it is to be found in " Purchas's
Pilgrims," volume iv., Avhich contains a section headed :—
u A voyage set out from the city of Bristol, at the charge
of _ the chief est merchants and inhabitants, Avith a small
ship and a bark, for the discovery of the north part of
Virginia, under the command of me, Martin Pringe."
This gallant sailor, then only twenty-three years of age,
states that the voyage Avas undertaken through the
"reasonable inducement of Richard Hakluyt, prebendary
of the cathedral church," Avhose fame is stiU high amongst
geographers. The " chief furthercrs " of tho undertaking,
he adds, were Aldermen Akhvorth and Whitson, and alto
gether £1,000 Avere ventured on the enterprise. The ships
under the young explorer's command Avould in modern days
be regarded as absurdly unfitted to confront Atlantic storms.
The SpeedAvell was of fifty tons burden, with a creAV of
thirty-five men. Her companion, the Discoverer, was of
only twenty tons, and carried thirteen men. Pring, how
ever, fearlessly sailed from Kingroad on March 20th, 1603,
and reached the coast of Northern Virginia— the NeAV
England of later days — early in June. He remained nearly
tAvo months in or near the Bay of Massachusetts, lying for
•some time in a harbour to which he gave the name of

20

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1603-4

Whitson, but which was afterwards to become memorable
as the Plymouth at which the Pilgrim Fathers landed
seventeen years later. Having closely surveyed the coast,
discovered several rivers and harbours, and loaded his ships
with sassafras, then a valuable medicinal plant, Pring set
sail homewards, and reached Bristol on October 2nd, when
he reported the iioav land to be " full of God's good bless-^
ings." It may be remarked .that not a single European
settlement then existed on the American continent to tho J
north of the Spanish colonies in Mexico.
James I. had scarcely been seated on his new
throne before he set up that claim of absolute power to
override the privileges of Parliament and the laws of the
realm Avhich Avas fated to lead to an eventful struggle, and
a tragical result to his successor. His first great innova
tion Avas the imposition of Customs duties on almost all
kinds of merchandise, and this was folloAved by illegal
extortions under the form of what were styled compositions
for purveyance, under which merchants were compelled to
pay large sums, on pain, in default, of having their wines
and other goods appropriated for the royal household. As
Bristol was the largest of the provincial ports, the exactions
naturally excited indignation, and on April 26th, 1604, the
compositions grievance Avas brought before the House of
Commons by Mr. Thomas James, who had just been elected
one of the members for the city, in conjunction with Mr.
Serjeant Snigge, Recorder. Demands for a composition for
groceries had been, he stated, made by the King's Customer
by order of the Board of Green Cloth, but they had been
resisted by the Mayor (Aid. Whitson) and other merchants,
who had indicted the Customer for his illegal proceedings,
and the Board had thereupon despatched an angry letter,
which was read to the House. The writers sternly rebuked
the Mayor for his opposition to the King's commission,
alleging that it was a great contempt of the royal preroga
tive and that a warrant for his appearance at Court Ava,s
withheld only because of his official duties during the visi
tation of Plague. Nevertheless, continued the letter, he
must expect to hear further respecting the audacious pro
ceedings of himself and others, unless he gave good satis
faction to the Customer. Mr. James further complained
that his own action in the matter had evoked some insolent
remarks from one. of the members of tho Board. 'Urn House,
after a debate, presented a petition to tho King, .lotiuliug
the gross abuses sanctioned by the Board, one of whom had

1604]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

21

openly boasted that the Commons should have no redress.
As regarded Bristol, the petition stated that large sums_ had
been extorted from merchants, and that those who resisted
payment had been carried up in custody to London, where
some Avere committed to prison, and forced to pay great
sums to pursuivants for fees. The Green Cloth authorities
hoav found it expedient to forward to the House a lengthy
ansAver to the charges, in which they alleged that the com
position was first demanded during the previous reign, and
that the Bristolians had offered no resistance until after
the accession of the King, both Avhich statements Avere
declared in Bristol to be absolutely false. It Avas also con
tended that the Board's prohibition of the action against
the Customer had prevented a great breach of the royal
income from this source. Parliament was angrily prorogued
by the King on July 7th, OAving to the resolute attitude of
the LoAver House, and the abuses in Bristol were at once
revived by a iioav Avarrant from Court, authorizing the col
lection of compositions on wines and groceries. In Novem
ber the Corporation resoh^ed that suit should be made to
the Privy Council for the exemption of the city from
imposts that Avere held to be contrary to the liberties granted
to it by charter. The expenses attending this suit Avere
characteristically evaded by the eiA-ic body, Avhich ordered
that the charge should be borne by merchants and others of
ability, Avho were also to save harmless such persons as
might be prosecuted by the Crown officials. In January,
1 605, the Common Council adopted a petition to the King
praying for relief from the neAV burdens, Alderman James
being nominated to present the appeal, and £50 were voted
to defray his travelling expenses aud to satisfy the greedy
underlings at Court. In May Alderman Whitson was
despatched on a similar errand; and in August Mr. John
Aktevorth, Avho had been summoned to the Privy Council
and imprisoned for refusing to pay the impost, Avas granted
£17 lis. 4rf. toAvards his expenses. Hoav fruitless Avere the
efforts of the Corporation may be judged from the fact that
in tho same year, when the King paid a visit to Woodstock,
his purveyors made a SAvoop on the merchants of Bristol,
and carried off fifty-one hogsheads of claret and ten butts of
sack, the prices promised for which AArere greatly beloAV the
market value. No money being forthcoming — the Avino, in
fact, was not paid for until ten years aftoi-Avards — tho Cor
poration Avere compelled to advance about 41350 on loan to
those Avho had been despoiled. The Council, ho\veArer, re-

22

THE ANNALS OF DRISTOL

[L604-f>

couped themselves, as will shortly be seen, by imposing a
permanent tax upon the commerce of the port.
A suspicion as to the evil consequences likely to arise if
the Bakers' Company Avere permitted to establish a monopoly
in that branch of trade seems to have long weighed on the
local authorities. " Foreigners," hateful in nearly all other
occupations, were at this time allowed to bring in bread
from the country, but the number of intruders was carefully
limited to five. In August, 1604, an additional country
baker was suffered to trade, but, as before, tho " foreign "
bread Avas admitted only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It will
be seen under 1615 that the city bakers, greatly irritated
at this competition, sought to set up a monopoly by the
help of the Crown.
The Chamberlain's accounts for 1604 contain the folloAv-
ing item : — " Paid for the charge of our new Charter and
Commission of Piracy granted by the King, £88 9s. 2d.'r
About £23 more were paid to the Town Clerk and Cham
berlain, Avho had been sent to London to bestoAv the
obligatory " tips," without Avhich no business could be
transacted at Court. The Charter, dated July 12th, 1604,
conferred no new privileges, simply confirming the tAvo
charters granted by Elizabeth, but the Corporation always
deemed it prudent, at the beginning of a neAV reign, to
secure the rights they already possessed. The Commission of
Piracy Avas doubtless obtained to empower the justices to
try buccaneers captured outside the city boundaries, who
Avould otherwise have come under the jurisdiction of the
Admiralty Court.
From the earliest days of the House of Commons, the
Corporation, according to a custom at first universal, paid
" wages " to the members returned to Parliament. The
amount for about three centuries was 2s. per day, and this
rate was continued in Bristol until the early years of
Elizabeth's reign. In 1571 it had risen to 4s. per day, and
subsequently it was increased to 6s. 8d., with a small allow
ance for travelling expenses. In September, 1604, Alder
man James received £31 10s., and George Snigge, Recorder,
£30 5s., for the services they had rendered in the session
already referred to. In October, 1604, Mr. Serjeant Snigge
was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer, but continued to
sit in the Commons until a question arose as to his qualifi
cation, his legal functions requiring frequent attendance in
the Upper House. The Commons resolved that he Avas "not
to be recalled," and in November, 1605, Alderman John

1605]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

ZO

Whitson was elected in his room, and took an active part
in public business.
Sir George Snigge having announced his intention tc
resign the Recordership soon after his elevation to the
Bench, an incident occurred characteristic of the age. The
Earl of Salisbury, then all powerful at Court, wrote to the
Mayor recommending a then obscure barrister, Laurence
Hyde, as a fitting successor, whereupon the ancient civic
ordinance requiring a .Recorder to be a Bencher of one of
tho Inns of Court Avas summarily repealed, and Hyde wan
practically elected before Snigge had resigned. That some
trickery had been employed to bring about the appoint
ment is indicated by the proceedings of the Council a few
Aveeks later, when it was ordered that, whenever a meeting
was to be held for the election of any officer, the Mayor
should, under pain of being fined £100 in default, summon
every member to attend, it being further decreed that any
councillor accepting a bribe, either personally or through
his Avife or child, for giving his vote should forfeit £200,
"unless he should first receive the consent of the Common
Council to receive such bribe." A good understanding with
Mr. Baron Snigge was kept up by means of presents of
wine. A butt of sack was sent to him in 1607, and another
in 1609, and we shall hear of his lordship again.
It Avould appear that sermons were not generally preached
on Sundays in the city churches. Some clergymen held
two livings, and could not afford to keep curates, and others
contented themselves with a liturgical service. The Cor
poration, Avhich had a groAving taste for sermons, were
much dissatisfied, and in NoArember, 1605, the Council
directed the Mayor and Aldermen to Avrite to the President
of St. .John's College, Oxford, requesting his aid in procuring
a learned minister to preach a lecture twice a, Aveek in the
city, at a stipend of £50. The application must Inwe been
unsuccessful, for in October, 1606, two councillors Avere de
puted to wait upon the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford for the
same purpose. No result is recorded in the minutes, but in
January, 1607, the Couucil ordered that Mr. [Edward]
ChetAvynd should have a stipend paid him for the quarter
ending Christinas, in consideration of his expense in re
moving his Avife and family from Oxford. This was followed
in June by another resolution, ordering that Mr. Chetwynd
should preach every Sunday afternoon, aud on holy days,
in a church selected by the Mayor. The stipend Avas fixed
at £52, with a house rent-free, but instead of the salary

2-1

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1605
being furnished by the Corporation, as was originally con
templated, it was determined that the money should be
paid by the churcliAvardens out of the church estates of
their parishes ! Puritanical feeling peeps out in a further
provision that Mr. Chetwynd was not to lecture at the Christ
mas, Easter, and Whitsuntide holidays unless he thought
fit- The preacher gave satisfaction to the corporate body,
and the following curious minute occurs three months
later : — " This day there Avere committees appointed in every
parish to deal with the citizens for the raising of a contri
bution for the maintenance of two preachers in this city,
besides Mr. ChetAvynd, of Avhich two Mr. Yeomans is to be
one." Mr. Yeomans was vicar of St. Philip's, and Avas
held m great esteem by the adherents of Puritanism. In
December of the same year one Mr. Arnold Avas paid b.s. 8d.
for "reading service and prayer in the Council House," but
the item does not occur again. Another preacher was
nominated soon afterAvards, Avith a stipend of £40, which
Avas to be collected from the inhabitants. In Mr. G. E.
Weare's library is a rare pamphlet, printed in London
in 1612, Avith the following title :— " A Diet for a Drunkard;
delivered in tAvo sermons in St. Nicholas' Church in
Bristol. By Thomas Thompson, B.D., one of the public
preachers in that city."
At an interesting and important meeting of the Common
Council on December 31st, 1605, the condition of the Society
of Merchant Venturers underwent grave consideration. As
readers of local history are aware, this Society, Avhich un
questionably developed out of the Merchants' Guild of
Bristol, a body of immemorial antiquity, was established
as an independent corporation under a charter granted by
EdAvarcl VI. in 1552, confirmed by Elizabeth in 1566, Avith
power to choose its own Master and Wardens ; its members
being given an exclusive right to pursue the art of mer
chandise Avithin the city. The Society, hoAvever, fell into
decay during the reign of Elizabeth, and seems to have
been held together at the accession of James I. only by an
alliance with certain merchants in London. The Common
Council hoav resolved that the Society should exempt them
selves from the control of the Londoners trading to Spain
and Portugal, and that there should be established a Com
pany of Merchant Adventurers of Bristol, to be governed
amongst themselves by such orders and conditions as should
be laid doAvn by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Council accord
ing to the charters of the city. Further, that any burgess

1605]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

25

desirous to be of the Company should, if he applied within
a year, be admitted on payment of a fine of 20s., pro
viding that he gave up other avocations and made his
living solely as a merchant. Those applying at a later
period Avere to pay such sum as was paid in London, except
members of the Council, who were never to be charged
more than 20s. Existing members were to pay only 6s. 8d.,
and the same fine was fixed for the admission, at any future
time, of the sons or apprentices of members. Completely
ignoring the charter of Edward VI., the Council Avent on to
appoint Alderman John Hopkins as Master, Aldermen Wil
liam Vawer and John Whitson as Wardens, and Alderman
William Hicks as Treasurer of the Company. " And every
man to bring in his fine before the 15th January next."
The Municipal Corporations Commissioners of 1835, after
recording these facts, observed : — " It deserves to be noticed
that the continuous record of the Society of Merchants
begins from this same December, 1605, and refer to it as
the year in Avhich, after much debate, the Society had been
re-established." The Corporation thenceforth relinquished
its assumed right to appoint the Society's officers, but the
persons elected at Merchants' Hall were expected to present
themselves to the Mayor and Aldermen to receive confirma
tion. This practice was, however, quietly dropped a few
years later.
The civic rulers Avere almost constantly engaged in
strengthening and extending the privileges of the trading
companies. In 1605 the Hoopers' (Coopers') Company were
granted neAV ordinances under Avhich tradesmen were for
bidden to buy "foreign" (that is. country-made) casks or
pads te sell again, ou pain of forfeiting ten shillings, Avhile
any citizen not free of the Company presuming to pack
herrings, etc., in casks was liable to a' penalty of 3s. Ad. per
cask. In March, 1606, a hcav ordinance in favour of the
Innholders' Company forbade butchers to cook victuals for
sale either in their own houses or elsoAvhere. Any one
save an innholder taking money for stabling horses coming
to market, or taking in a horse to graze or livery, Avas to
be fined Is. in the former case, and (is. 8d. in the latter.
The ordinance of the Joiners' Company, issued in the same
year, imposed a heavy fine on persons bringing in joinery
work from outside the city. Any man Avorking as a joiner
not being a member of the Company, was to be fined 40s.!
and a carpenter presuming to work as a joiner Avas mulcted
in 10s. No member Avas alloAved to employ more than tAvo

20

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1605

journeymen. The WhitaAvers (white leather dressers),
'Point-makers, and GloArers Avere at the same time protected
by similar provisions. A " foreigner "caught buying skins
was liable, to a fine of £5 ; no woman was to be permitted
to work at these trades, and a pointmaker making gloves,
or a glover making points, Avas liable to disfranchisement.
By the Smiths' and Cutlers' ordinance of 1607, a joiner or
carpenter undertaking in a contract to supply locks or other
ironmongery Avas to forfeit 40s., and the same amount was
payable by any citizen selling knives, shovels, or carpen
ters' tools. Even the grinding of knives and scissors by
non-members Avas strictly forbidden. Finally, the Felt-
makers' and Haberdashers' ordinance of 1611 graciously
alloAved " foreigners " to sell hats and caps in the city for
one day Aveekly, provided the articles Avere approved by the
Company, which Avas to receive a toll of 3d. per dozen for hats
aud Id. for caps. As a guarantee of good workmanship, a felt-
maker Avas forbidden to set up in trade until he had made
three hats in the house of one of the officers of the Com
pany to that person's satisfaction. The last-named ordi
nance Avas confirmed by the Corporation in 1668, when
trading restrictions Avere still rigorously enforced.
An odd entry occurs in the Chamberlain's accounts for
December, 1605 :— " Paid the Mayor's and Sheriffs' sergeants
and yeomen for that they shall not beg at Christmas, 10s.
each, £4." The item became an annual charge. The eight
men in question constituted the police force of the city, but
were apparently often aged and inefficient, being recruited
from worn-out servants of civic dignitaries. Their salaries
were so small that, on their death, the Council Avere
generally called upon for a donation to bury them.
The manor of Bedminster was purchased in 1605 by Sir
Hugh Smyth, of Long Ashton, from a Mr. Nevill. The
manor had formed part of the great possessions of the Duke
of Buckingham, of Thornbury Castle, judicially murdered
by order of Henry VIIL, and being held of the Crown m
capite, a royal license ought to have been obtained previous
to Nevill's conveyance. The defect was detected some years
afterwards by some legal official with a keen scent for fees,
and Sir Hugh Smyth had to petition King James m 1613
for letters patent confirming his title, which were not
granted Avithout a heavy tine. The Smyths, who maoe a
lar"-e fortune as Bristol merchants, had purchased the manor
of Long Ashton in 1545. It had previously belonged to
Daubeny, Earl of BridgAvater.

1605-6]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

27

Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who has been termed " the Fathe
of English Colonization in North America," came of a family
of good position long seated at Wraxall, near this city
Probably born in 1566, he adopted the profession of arms
and whilst still quite young he had charge of the_ defences
of Plymouth, and generally resided there. In 160o he took
an active part in promoting a voyage made by one George
AVeymouth to the coast of what is noAv the State of Maine
and Avhen the explorer returned to Plymouth iu the same
year, bringing fivo natives of tho country, Gorges receivec
the " Indians " into his own house. Moved by the informa
tion he derived from them, he formed a project for coloniza-
tion, and through his efforts a Virginia Company Avas
established in 1606. By a charter of April in that yeai
James I. authorized the foundation of two separate colonies,
the principal promoters of the northern settlement being
Gorges and Lord Chief Justice Popham, backed by several
West-country gentlemen and merchants. This document,
says the historian Bancroft, Avas " the first colonial charter
under Avhich the English were jjlanted in America." The
projectors Avere naturally solicitous to obtain the support of
Bristolians, and at a meeting of the Common Councilon
March 12th a letter was read from the Lord Chief Justice,
who had been Recorder of the city, desiring the co-operation
of the local merchants. The Council, says the minute-book,
"Avere all of opinion not to adventure anything in that
scheme unless the King undertakes to join in the charge,
and then they Avill be contributory in some reasonable pro
portion " ; and an ansAver to that effect Avas forwarded to
Popham. A few Aveeks later, however, when the terms of
the royal patent becamo knoAvn, a subscription in support
of the' scheme was opened at the Council house for "the
plantation and inhabiting of Virginia," the contributions
to extend over fivo years. Only thirteen merchants, Iioav-
ever, responded to the invitation. The Mayor, Thomas
James, M.P., promised £13 6s. 8d. yearly, and the same sum
Avas offered by John Guy, sheriff, avIio Avill be presently
heard of again in connection Avith colonial enterprise.
Alderman John Hopkins and Mr. Robert AldAvorth offered
£12 lO.v. each. The other subscriptions varied from 10
marks to 50s. Soon afterwards, Sir F. Gorges despatched
a ship from Plymouth on an exploring expedition, and Chief
Justice Popham and the above subscribers equipped another
vessel at Bristol Avith tho same object, of Avhich Thomas
Hannam was commander and Martin Pring master. Tho

28

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1606

latter ship sailed in September or October, but there is little
recorded of its adventures save a brief note by G^g63'
stating that several more harbours Avere explored, and that
Prin"- returned Avith "the most exact discovery of that
coast that ever came to my hands." The adventurers were
at all events so satisfied with the results that m May, lbOf ,
two ships with emigrants were despatched from Plymouth,
and a colony styled St. George was attempted in "Northern
Virginia" (really Noav England), but proved wholly unsuc
cessful, the emigrants returning to England in the following
y It' has been already stated that the exactions of the
CroAvn in the shape of illegal imposts induced the Corpora
tion to devise a neAV method of raising money to defray the
burdens. On May 20th, 1606, the Common Council ordered
that every trader not a free burgess should pay sixpence per
ton on the merchandise he entered or cleared at Bristol,
excepting salt, corn, fish, coals, and goods brought m or
carried away by trows or woodbushes (market- boats), it
was further resolved that Londoners importing or exporting
here should pay the same dues for Aveighage and Ayhartage
as Avere charged on Bristolians in London. As it avouM
have been imprudent to declare the real object of the neAV
tax, it Avas asserted that the money was needed tor tne
reparation of the quays. Soon afterwards doubts arose as
to the poAver of the Corporation to impose the dues and in
February, 1607, the members of Parliament for the city
were instructed to appeal to the King for a confirmation ot
the tax, which Avas now stated to be payable by tree bur
gesses as Avell as strangers. The result is not recorded, but
wharfage from this time became a permanent chargo on
goods, and eventually produced a large revenue.
The real object of the tax is disclosed m the Council
minutes of July 8th, 1606. A considerable sum being still
due to merchants for the wines seized by the royal pur-
vevors, it was resolved that £200 should be raised by loan,
to be distributed amongst them on account The resolution
proceeds:-" And for the full payment of the said King .a
debt due to the merchants there shall be levied a tax ot lid
per ton on ail merchandise brought to this city, except salt
and fish, tar and pitch, tray ne (sic), iron .and ^wool ; the tax
to be continued until the debt be paid either by the King or
this taxation." At a meeting in September it was further
decreed that any one refusing to pay should be discommoned
and regarded as a foreigner.

1606]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

29

In the meantime the abuse of purveyance had beei
exposed in the House of Commons by Alderman James, wh<
took an active part in public business. A conference on th
subject took place between the two Houses, when it wa
stated that the Lord Treasurer had admitted the merchants
complaints to be true, and that the royal officials, like th
Egyptian plague of frogs, leaped into every man's dish. Th
Peers undertook to represent the grievance to the King, bu
Parliament was soon after angrily prorogued, and the pur
veyors lost no time in demanding a fresh composition fo
groceries. In May, 1607, notification Avas received that i
commission for purveyance of wine would also be put ii
execution unless a money composition was offered by thi
city; and Aldermen Whitson and James were earnestly
directed to appeal for relief. The issue is unrecorded, but
it is highly probable that further exactions were made on
the citizens, who were practically defenceless.
Complaints were repeatedly raised about this time as to
the deficient measures used by the Kingswood colliers in
supplying "stone coal" to the inhabitants. In August,
1606, the Chamberlain took the heroic step of riding into
the Chase to measure the miners' bushels, a guide being
employed to conduct him to the pits. By dint of a gift of
a couple of shillings the colliers proved tractable, and the
someAvhat perilous commission into a laAvless region Avas
successfully performed. It may be noted that although
coal Avas used by the inhabitants, the fires at the Council
House were ahvays supplieel with wood or charcoal. Only
twice during the entire century does a small item occur for
stone coal in tho civic accounts.
In September, 1606, the Corporation resolved upon a
perambulation of the city boundaries, a custom that had
been suspended for several years. A little entertainment
took place in the morning, and another, composed of cheese,
cakes, marmalade, conserves, conb'ts, carraAvays, fruit and
beer, occurred later in the day. There Avas also a " drink "
at Jacob's Wells, costing 2s. 6d., and another at Lawford's
Gate, for the small consideration of sixpence. The dinner
of five porters cost only Is. 8d., and the entire outlay Avas
but 50s.
In October the Common Council came to a resolution
that 6Arentually brought about much excitement and ill-
feeling. It Avas ordered that a convenient structure should
be erected in the Cathedral, Avhere tho Mayor, Aldermen
and Councillors, and their Avives might sit and hear " the

30

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1606

sermons " on "Sabbaths" and festival days. Each mem
ber Avas to contribute 40s. (afterwards reduced to 20s.)
toAvards the Avork. The Dean and Chapter, after some
demur, consented to the proposed erection and also to the
removal of the pulpit to a spot fronting the intended seats.
The cost of these operations exceeded the subscription, aud
£9 Avere paid out of the civic fund to "even the account."
The municipal construction is described by a contemporary
chronicler as a fair gallery," curiously wrought, standing
upon pillars, the centre part being reserved for the King or
a-ny noble visitor, Avhile underneath Avere seats for the
Avives of the city rulers. This statement, however, needs
correction on a point Avhich soon proved to be of serious
importance. By the Dean and Chapter's formal grant to
the Corporation it Avas stipulated that the Bishop, and also
the Dean, might take their places in the neAV seats " by the
side of the Mayor at their Avill and pleasure." The fabric
had not been long finished Avhen the Bishop, Dr. Thorn-
borough, avIio Avas also Dean of York, paid a visit to his
•diocese after a lengthy absence, and, taking offence at the
imposing gallery, in which he had not been allowed, or
perhaps not invited, to seat himself, he informed the Arch
bishop of Canterbury that it made the church look like a
playhouse, and induced the Primate to send down orders
for its removal. The Council, greatly incensed, requested
the Bishop to alloAV the seats to remain until an appeal had
been made to the Archbishop, and letters and deputations
Avere sent off in hot haste to his grace and Lord Salisbury
desiring their favour, large sums being disbursed for
travelling expenses. The Bishop, however, Avas obdurate,
treated a corporate deputation Avith contempt, and per
emptorily ordered the gallery to be SAvept aAvay, which
Avas accordingly done. It Avill be observed that the Cor
poration had the seats erected simply to hear " sermons,"
and the objection of the Puritanic section of society to the
liturgical services of the Church had become so deep, and
the party so numerous, that the bells of each church Avere
specially rung to give notice when the sermons Avere about
to be delivered. The chroniclers go on to state that the
Bishop Avas so wrath at the opposition he encountered that
he forbade the parish bells to be rung in this manner, but
that the Primate, on the appeal of the Mayor, gave the
Council permission to have as many sermons as they liked,
and where they chose ; whereupon the Avorshipful body for
sook the Cathedral, and Avent every Sunday to hear the

1606]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

31

sermons at St. Mary Redcliff, a church outside the Bishop's
jurisdiction. One annalist acids that the Corporation found
friends at Court, and that the King, after sharply rebuking
the Bishop, ordered him to replace the gallery, which Avas
forthwith set about, though on a humbler scale. The
latter statement, however, seems at variance Avith the
records in the Council House. In 1613 the Council resolved
that if the Archbishop Avould alloAV the seats to be set up as
first erected, the cost of the Avork should be defrayed by the
Chamberlain, provided the Dean and Chapter Avould make
a neAV grant of them to the civic body, leaving the Bishop
a,nd Dean to seat themselves elsewhere. This Avas not
acceded to, for in 1614 the Council desired the Mayor and
Aldermen to give directions for removing the timber work
for the use of the city, and this Avas immediately done.
Dr. Thornborough — a servile flatterer of King James — Avas
preferred to Worcester a feAv months later. He was still
alloAved to hold the deanery of York, to Avhich Avas attached
the rectory of the large market-toAvn of Pickering. In
1615 the people of the latter place complained to the Privy
Council that for many previous years scarcely a single
sermon had been preached in their church. Thornborough
thereupon impudently offered to get a discourse delivered
once a month, but, being Avarmly rebuked, he doled out
money for a weekly sermon.
" 160(3, November. Paid the bellman for giving warn
ing to hang out candle light, 2s. bd." This entry in the
corporate accounts is the first indication that some modest
illumination of the streets in the winter months had been
approved of by the authorities. The minute-books are
silent on the subject until half a century later; and as there
Avas no ponalty for default, the bellman's summons is not
likely to have boon Avidely complied Avith. The entry,
hoAvever, may have another explanation. From casual
items in the accounts, it Avould appear that the Corporation
had set up lanterns at three, or four busy localities, such as
the High Cross, the Quay, Froom Gate, etc., and in Decem
ber, 1608, a man Avas paid half a crown " for looking to the
lanterns this quarter." But there Avas no outlay for
candles for a long series of years, and it is possible that the
illumination Avas supplied by the neighbouring house
holders according to the bellman's directions.
The civic records afford ample evidence that in the
opinion of the Common Council a slender stock of education

was sufficient for the working classes.

In NoA'ember, 1606,

iiz

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1607

directions Avere given that the boys in Queen Elizabeth's
Hospital should be set to work on the afternoon of every
dajr, "Avhereby they may be better able to get their living."
The order Avas frequently reneAved in subsequent years.
A phenomenal flood tide occurred in the Severn on the
morning of January 20th, 1607, whereby the lowlying
lands on each bank of the river from Gloucester downAvards
were inundated over some hundreds of square miles. The
loss of life was estimated at--600, and a greater number of
people were saAred only by climbing upon trees, haystacks
and roofs of houses. In Bristol the tide, being partially
dammed back by the Bridge, flowed over Redcliff, St,
Thomas and Temple Streets to a depth of several feet. St.
Stephen's Church and the quays were deeply flooded, and
the loss of goods in cellars and warehouses Avas enormous.
The manufacture of pins appears to have been introduced
into the West of England about this time, and led to the
employment of numbers of young children, Avho Avere easily
trained as " headers." (Solid heads were not introduced
until about 1834.) In April, 1607, the Corporation ad
vanced Thomas Nash, pinmaker, a loan of £6, free of
interest, on his undertaking to employ poor children in his
manufactory. In the same month a haulier's sledge delivered at the
Mayor's house, for the delectation of himself and family, a
strange fish just caught at Kingroad. The creature is des
cribed by a veracious chronicler as being five feet in length
by three in breadth, with a huge mouth, tAvo hands and
tAvo feet! What the Mayor did with the prize is not
recorded. An outbreak of Plague in London excited great anxiety
during the summer. All wagons and carriages from the
capital Avere forbidden to enter the city, and their pas
sengers had to submit to a lengthy " airing " before
admission. The alarm subsided in the autumn, but in
May, 1608, the pestilence made its appearance, and a Pest-
house Avas established in the suburbs. Other remarkable
measures to prevent infection were adopted by the Council.
The Guilders' Inn Avas one of the leading hostelries, and
the landlord, Henry Hobson, afterwards served the offices of
sheriff and mayor. But a case of Plague having occurred
in his house, the great gate of the inn Avas boarded up, and
Avatchmen Avere appointed to stand, day and night, at the
front and back doors to prevent ingress or egress. After a
fortnight's isolation the premises Avere alloAved to be re-

1607]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

33

opened, but Hobson Avas ordered to pay £7, half the cost of
his imprisonment. A similar course was adopted Avith the
house of a cutler in St. Thomas' Street, the inmates of
which Avere fed during their incarceration at the expense
of the city. In this case the Corporation attempted to
recover the outlay from the churchwardens of the parish,
but only 28s.. could be extracted from them.
It has been already shown that the authorities were
accustomed to commit burgesses and other inhabitants to
prison on their refusal to pay local taxes arbitrarily im
posed by the Council. The cruelty of forcing such de
faulters to herd Avith thieves and ruffians in NeAvgate
seems to have been at length recognised, and in August,
1607, a house adjoining the prison Avas hired at £4 a year
for the accommodation of those " committed to ward " on
their paying the ordinary gaol fees.
The Mayor, John Barker, died on the 13th September,
two days before the annual civic elections. Following the
precedent of 1543, Avhen the chief magistracy became
vacant under similar circumstances, a meeting took place
on the 14th, when Alderman Richard Smith Avas chosen to
fill the chair until Michaelmas Day. But on the 15th,
Avhen the Council wished to elect the same Alderman for
the ensuing year, his Avorship resisted, and undertook to
pay a fine of £100 on condition that he should be exempted
from the office for life. (Only £40 appear to have been
actually paid.) Mr. Barker's interment took place with
great pomp in St. Werburgh's Church at midnight on
September 21 st. The members of the trading Companies
attended, bearing torches, the interior of the church Avas
covered Avith black cloth, and much destruction was
Avrought by the ra-bblo, Avho crushed into tho building 
probably for nefarious purposes. Barker's stately monu
ment is preserved in the hoav church of St. Wer-
burgh. The extreme narroAvness of the thoroughfare over Bristol
Bridge, Avedged between the houses on each side, made it
unsafe to foot passengers at all times, and highly perilous
on market-days through the influx of conntrv people. On
October 5th the Council gave order that " the chain at the
Bridge End "—clearly an established institution— should
be locked up on every market-day from 8 o'clock in the
morning until 2 in the afternoon, during which time no
hauliers', bre-Avers', or other great carriages Avith drays
(sledges) were to be suffered to cross the bridge. The ordi-

34

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1607

nance Avas re-enacted in 1651, but the interdicted days were
limited to Wednesday and Saturday.
Some irregularity in admissions to the freedom seems to
have been discovered at this time,'- for at the above meeting
of the Council a resolution Avas passed that no person should
be entered on the burgess roll unless he had served a seven
years' apprenticeship to a freeman, or was the son or
daughter of a freeman, or had ^married a freeman's widow
or daughter, or had been admitted by a vote of the Council. ,
A Mayor or Chamberlain acting contrary to this ordinance
Avas to be fined 100 marks.
November 5th, 1607, Avas the second anniversary of the
discovery of the Guy Fawkes Plot, and the records shoAV
that the clay was already celebrated by popular manifesta
tions. The Corporation on this occasion provided an
enormous bonfire, and in many subsequent years, besides
exploding plentiful gunpowder, they lighted up two great
fires, one at the High Cross and another before the chvelling
of the Mayor. The day is sometimes styled in the accounts
" England's Holiday."
The harvest of 1607 having proved extremely disastrous,
the Corporation felt compelled to take energetic measures.
to avert the clanger of famine: They began, it appears, by
ordering a census. One of the old calendars states that " a
view Avas taken in the city to know how many people Avere
in it; and there were found, of all sorts, 10,549 in the
whole. It Avas done because they should knoAV Iioav much
corn would serve the whole by the week." (The popula
tion of the out-parishes of St. James and St. Philip and
of the parish of Clifton, not included in the city, may have
raised the total to about 12,000.) In April, 1608, the Counci I
ordered that 1,000 bushels of wheat, or more, should be
bought at Milford, or "wherever it could be had best
cheap," for the provision of the inhabitants ; and in the
folloAving week £1,000 were directed to be borrowed under
the common seal for buying corn in Holland, certain mer
chants having undertaken to see the Corporation discharged
of this debt. A third order, for £300 worth of Avheat, Avas
sent to Ireland. Much was also done by private enterprise
to mitigate the sufferings of the poor. In the twelve
months ending in July, 1609, sixty ships arrived from
Dantzic and other ports, bringing in what was then deemed
the marvellous quantities of 38,600 bushels of wheat and
barley, and 73,700 bushels of rye, then the chief food of
the labouring classes.

1608]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

35

The office of Lord High SteAvard having become vacant
by the death, on April 19th, 1608, of the Earl of Dorset, it
was conferred exactly a week later on Robert Cecil, Earl of
Salisbury and Lord Treasurer. In the previous September,
during the violent dispute with Bishop Thornborough, a
pipe of wine had been sent to Lord Dorset, in the hope of
securing his assistance ; and although the cost of this pre
sent was practically thrown away through his demise, the
Council, knowing the value of a powerful protector at
Court, not only sent the new minister a finely decorated
patent of office, but accompanied it with a gift of £30 in
hard cash, praying for his countenance and support.
Amongst the local institutions of the age Avere the city
Avaits or musicians, Avho, in return for a modest quarterly
payment from the civic treasury and tips from the sheriffs,
were required to take part in processions and rejoicings.
In August they Avere provided with new instruments at a
cost of £10, it being possibly thought that their fantasias
might cheer up the inhabitants, still suffering from the
effects of both pestilence and dearth. Occasional payments
occur for the reparation of the elegant silver chains worn
by the musicians, still preserved at the Council House. In
1611 there was a further outlay of £4 for a new " sagbutt
for the waits."
The Corporation, Avhose economical administration of the
civic revenue had brought about a flowing exchequer, about
this time began the purchase of landed estates at Portis-
head and North AVoston, including the manor of the for
mer place, l>olonging to the celebrated Hall family, of
Bradford. Tho transactions extended over the following
eight years, and the total outlay appears to have reached
tho then considerable sum of £'i,OOU. It need scarcely be
added that the investments ultimately proved very profit
able. At the civic elections in 1608, a councillor named Hugh
Mttrcott, to escape serving the office of sheriff for life,
consented to pay a fine of £100, Avhich, having regard
to tho heavy expenditure incumbent on the sheriffs, was a
profitable investment. Payments of a similar kind occur
from time to time, and the Council Avas somewhat capricious
in fixing the amount of the fine. In 1612 John Tomlinson
was exempted from the sheriffdom for life in consideration
of £50. In the folloAving year, George White, praying
escape on account of private losses, Avas dismissed from the
Council gratis ; Avhile Alderman Hicks on paving £40 Avas

36

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1608

1609]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

37

freed for life from the office of Mayor. In 1615 Alderman
VaAver obtained the latter favour for the trifling sum of
£20. In the autumn of 1608, the King, having obtained a judg
ment in the Court of Exchequer by which his assumed
right to levy arbitrary Customs duties Avas confirmed by the
abject judges, threAV consternation amongst the merchants
of Bristol by imposing an additional tax upon SAveet Avines,
styling tho charge a. composition in lieu of purveyance.
The peculiar hardship of this impost from a local point of
vieAV lay in the fact that Avines imported into Bristol
already paid a " prisage " to the lessees of the CroAvn of
one tenth of each cargo, and thus Avere taxed double Avhat
was paid at London and Southampton, the other wine ports,
Avhere prisage did not exist. An urgent letter was accord
ingly addressed by the Corporation to the Lord Treasurer,
praying for relief ; and after considerable delay, Lord Salis
bury, by the direction of the Privy Council, requested the
Lord Chief Baron to summon the Purveyors and some of
tho merchants before him, to hear their respective cases,
and to report what was proper to be done for the settlement
of the dispute. A commission was first issued out of
the Exchequer to take evidence on the subject, and on
October 1st the commissioners sat at Bristol, when Robert
Aldworth and other local merchants declared on oath, in
flat contradiction to the assertions of their oppressors, that
purveyance had never been heard of in the city until after
the accession of the King. Wines, they added, were being
landed in Wales to escape the impost, much to the prejudice
of local commerce. Finally, the Chief Baron, calling Mr.
Baron Snigge to his assistance, heard the parties in London,
and in May, 1609, he reported to the Lord Treasurer that
the grievance of the merchants had been attested by
evidence, and that prisage was an exceptional burden on
Bristolians ; but that the merchants, having been admon
ished as to the King's prerogative, had consented to bear
purA'eyance both for wines and groceries Avhenever the
Court came Avithin tAventy miles of the city, provided
they were exempted from it at other times ; which the
two judges considered a reasonable compromise. This
decision appears to have been confirmed by the Privy
Council, but the minutes of the year have perished. The
Corporation, which had presented Sir George Snigge with a
butt of Avine Avhilst the dispute was pending, uoav foi'Avarded
a similar gift to the Lord Chief Baron, besides defraying

heavy legal and other charges. It will be seen under 1622
that the relief was but temporary.
In January, 1609, the city was visited by the Earl of
Sussex's company of players, who received 20s. as a reward
for performing before the Mayor and Aldermen in the
Guildhall. In 1610 " my Lord President's " players
appeared twice in the Guildhall, and received £2 on each
occasion. The same sum was bestoAved on the Queen's
"revellers" in 1612, on the Lady [Princess] Elizabeth's
players in 1613, on the Palgrave's and tho Prince's players
in 1618, and on four companies, including the King's
children players, in 1621. In the last-named year a
tumbler also put in an appearance, but this was too much
for the authorities, and he was paid 20s. " that he should
not play." It seems probable that the comedians, after
exhibiting before the civic dignitaries, Avere allowed to act
for brief periods for the entertainment of the inhabitants.
The poor players, hoAvever, gradually became unpopular.
See 1630.
Some extraordinary proceedings of the Corporation in
reference to the estates bequeathed for the endoAvment of
the Grammar School led to an inquiry in the spring of
1609 by commissioners under the Statute of Charitable
Uses. It appeared that Robert Thome, a Avealthy merchant,
Avho in 1532 obtained a grant from Lord de la Warr of the
estates of St. BartholomeAv's Hospital in Bristol, and also
permission from Henry VIII. to convey them in mortmain
to the Corporation for the maintenance of a free grammar
school, died before the execution of such conveyance,
although the school Avas actually opened. His brother
Nicholas, as heir-at-law, then took possession of the estate ;
but although he survived for many years, no steps were
taken to transfer it to tho Corporation. He appointed, how
ever, tho second schoolmaster, and by his Avill, dated shortly
before his death in 1546, ho directed that the property
should be delivered up by his executors, and bequeathed
some money, his library, and his maps and charts to the
school. OAving, possibly, to his eldest son, Robert, being
under age, the conveyance of the estate was further
delayed, and nothing was done until 1558, Avhen Robert was
dead, leaving a brother Nicholas, aged 18, his heir-at-law.
The Council having at length taken action, Nicholas, in con
sideration of a promise that certain portions of tho estate
should be granted him on loaso for his life, executed a deed
undertaking to carry out the intentions of his undo aud

38

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1609

1609]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY,

39

father ; and three years later he granted the BartholomeAV
lands to the Corporation for ever, to the use of the school,
which was to be opened free to the sons of burgesses on
payment of an admission fee of fourpence. Almost imme
diately afterwards, hoAvever, in professed conformity with
the above promise, the Corporation demised to him, in per
petuity, the entire charity estates acquired by his uncle
from Lord de la Warr (saving=.pnly the hospital buildings
and the school-house), reserving a rent of no more than £30.
Nicholas Thorne thus became again seized of all tho lands
left for the endowment of the school ; and on his death, in
1591, this and other property Avas divided amongst his three
daughters, Avho, by the legal legerdemain of fines and
recoveries, became, in fact, independent oAvners. One of
these ladies, Alice, the Avidow of John Pykes, got for her
share the BartholomeAV lands, subject to the fee farm rent,
and by granting a great number of long leases at low rents
secured large sums from the lessees. The indefensible con
duct of the Corporation, Avhich had rendered this malfeisance
practicable, at length aroused the indignation of the citizens,
and on their appeal to the Crown the aboATe commission of
inquiry was appointed. The facts being undeniable, the
commissioners reported that the demise made to Nicholas
Thorne was a fraud upon the charity. Mrs. Pykes, hoAvever,
clung to the estate, and after some litigation a- second
commission was granted, Avhen the commissioners advised
the Corporation to make terms with her. The Council
accordingly determined that she should be alloAved to retain
the property on paying £41 6s. 8d. yearly, and this
arrangement was confirmed by Lord Chancellor Ellesmere
in 1610. The bargain being unsatisfactory to the citizens,
the Corporation, in 1617, bought up Mrs. Pykes' interest for
£650, and recovered the estates.
The reports made hy Martin Pring and other explorers
as to the climate and resources of North America aroused
a strong desire in Bristol and other ports to promote coloni
zation. In February, 1609, an application was made to the
Privy Council for leave to found a plantation in NeAvfound-
land, in a district uninhabited by Christians, the promoters
being a number of merchants in London and Bristol. The
King in the following year granted a patent to the Earl
of Northampton, Sir Francis Bacon, and a great many
others (the Bristol beneficiaries included Matthew Havi-
land, Thomas Aldworth, William Lewes, John Guy,
Richard Hohvorthy, John Langton, Humphry Hooke,

Philip Guy, William Meredith, Adrian Jennings, and John
Dougnty), establishing an incorporation styled the "Com
pany of Adventurers and Planters of London and Bristol for
the colony or plantation of Newfoundland in the southern
and eastern parts. " John Guy, an eminent local mer
chant, Avas appointed the first governor of this body, and
his heart Avas thoroughly in the enterprise. Three ships
having been equipped, the governor, Avith his brother,
Philip Guy, his brother-in-law, William Colston, and thirty-
nine emigrants of both sexes, embarked, a store of live cattle,
goats, poultry, etc., was put on board, and the vessels left
Bristol early in May, 1610, arriving at their destination in
tAventy-three clays, Avhen a landing Avas made at a little land
locked harbour called Cupids. The emigrants forthwith
began the erection of dwellings, storehouses, Avharves, and a
fort defended by a stockade, while Guy built himself a man
sion, called Sea Forest House. Guy returned to Bristol in the
autumn of 1611, leaving his brother deputy-governor, but
sailed again for the island in the folloAving year, accom
panied by a clergyman and several more emigrants. After
his final return to England, William Colston Avas deputy-
governor in 1613-14. The settlement, however, Avas not a
permanent success. By his Avill, dated in February, 1626,
Mr. Guy left his Sea Forest estate to his four sons, then
under age, but the historians of NeAvfoundland have found
no record of the colony after 1628.
For many previous centuries the burgesses of the cities
and toAvns held in fee-farm under the CroAvn Avere entitled
by iheir charters to import goods into Bristol free from
dues levied by the Corporation, Avhilst Bristolians enjoyed a
similar privilege Avhen they carried merchandise into these
lavoured localities. As an illustration of this system, it is
recorded that in July, 1609, Nicholas Ecolston, Mayor of

Lancaster, having arrived from that toAvn in

a s

hip,

produced before the city authorities the charter granted
by King John to the burgesses of his borough declaring
them free from all duties imposed in other ports. The
claim to exemption Avas at once admitted. The like
privilege Avas accorded about the same period on demands
emanating from Exeter, Stafford, Shrewsbury, and other
toAvns. In 1627 a person living at " Athie, " in Ireland,
claimed immunity as a citizen of London, and six or eight
Irishmen Avere afterAvards granted exemption through
being freemen of Nc.av Ross, Waterford, and Kilkenny.
On the other hand, vexatious restrictions Avere placed on

40

THE ANNALS OP BltlSTOL

[1609-10

persons applying for the freedom in Bristol. In July, 1609,
a painter and also an embroiderer Avere admitted on paying
£5 each, but Avere forbidden to take as an apprentice a boy
not the son of a freeman. Soon after, a virginal maker was
made a freeman for life on payment of £2 4s. 6^., but was
interdicted from exercising any other trade ; while an inn
keeper, though mulcted in £5, had to covenant to forbear
from retail trading and to jsell nothing but what Avas
consumed in his house. Mucli*'jealousy arose upon a haber
dasher from Loudon seeking permission to open a shop.
Several members of the Council demanded that his fine
should be at least £50, but it Avas fixed by a majority at
the still exorbitant sum of £40, then equivalent to the
yearly profits of the average shopkeeper.
Another visitation of the Plague occurred in the autumn,
and continued until the folloAving summer. To defray the
charge of relieA'ing the sick and guarding infected dwell
ings, the justices levied a tax for six months which practi
cally doubled the poor rate. The mortality on this occasion
is not recorded. Another outbreak occurred in 1611, when
a pest-house Avas established in Earls' Mead, and an in
fected family in Corn Street was closely immured till the
disease disappeared. In 1613 the pestilence was raging in
South Wales, and the Council, in alarm, prohibited the
performance of stage plays during St. James's fair. A feAv
cases of Plague were nevertheless reported in Marsh Street
and on the Quay, Avhich were dealt with in the usual strin
gent manner.
An attempt was made by the Corporation in the early
months of 1610 to introduce a new industry into the city.
The initial stages of the scheme are obscurely reported, but
on May 15th the Council ordered that such persons as had
promised and been appointed to come from Colchester, to
set up the trade of " bayes and sayes," should be admitted
as freemen gratis, and that the money spent in engaging
them to come, as well as the cost of bringing them here
with their effects, should be disbursed by the Chamberlain.
The charge amounted to £79. In August it Avas further
ordered that six sums of £50 each should be adAranced on
loan to the baysmakers, whose trade was to be "regu
lated " by the magistrates. The manufactory Avas set up
in the Smiths' Hall (part of the old Dominican friary).
The intrusion of these " foreigners " gave great offence to
the ancient craft of weavers, Avho loudly protested against
any infringement of their long-established privileges, and

1610]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

41

the Council was much exercised to allay the clamour. It
was ultimately ordered that the baysmakers should be
strictly confined to their peculiar calling, and they were
even forbidden to retail their baize in the city. The ex
periment, thus restricted, was, of course, a failure. In 1613
it was resolved that four of the men who had received the
above loans should, on account of their jioverty, have a
remission of half their debts on giving fresh bonds for re
payment of the balance. There is no evidence that any of
the money was ever recovered.
The " wages " of the two members of Parliament for tho
session of this year amounted to £78 4s. Ad. In addition,
Alderman Whitson Avas repaid the cost of a hogshead of
claret, £8 5.s\, which he had presented to the Speaker, doubt
less for what was thought to be a good consideration ; whilst
his colleague, Alderman James, was refunded £11 5s. 8d.,
" spent in the Star Chamber " in resisting one of the
numberless persecutions of the royal officials.
The summer was marked by a great drought. A con
temporary chronicler records Avith amazement that the
price of butter advanced from the ordinary rate of 2d. or
2{d. to bd. per lb., and cheese from 2c?. to bd., while Avheat
sold at 72s. per quarter, causing fearful distress amongst
the poor.
At the annual election of mayor, etc., on September 16th,
the minutes record that George Rychards, a councillor,
used "very undecent and reproachful Avords " to Mr. Abel
Kitchin, for Avhich he Avas fined £5 ; and as he not only
ro fused to pay, but offered unseemly insults to some of the
aldermen, lie Avas at onco "dismissed from the society and
fellowship of tho Common Council."
A curious item occurs in tho Chamberlain's accounts for
November: — "Paid for new gilding and painting of the
picture of tho Kings set up at Lafford's Gate, £2." The
ornamentation Avas bestoAve.d on the ancient statues fixed
on each side of the gate, which, after a somewhat adven
turous career, have recently returned to the custody of the
Corporation. Bristol Marsh (the site of Queen's Square and Prince's
Street) being outside the city AA'alls, and almost surrounded
by the tidal rivers, was at this period the spot to which
the citizens, pent up in the contracted streets, and dreading
the robbers Avho lurked in the suburbs, generally resorted
to breathe fresh air and gaze on green fields. Some attempts
had been made in the previous century to lay out Avalks

42

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1611
a-nd plant trees, but the Corporation nevertheless permitted
all the street refuse, or at least as much as the scavenger
cared to remove, to be cast about the green space, and its
condition at length became a scandal. Public attention
seems to have been called to the matter by a bequest of
one hundred marks made to tho Corporation in 1609, the
interest of which, £4, Avas to be paid to tAvo labourers for
keeping clean the Marsh and the Avalks about it ; and in
June, 1611, a committee Avas appointed for the "decent
keeping and beautifying" of the place and the needful
regulation of the scavenger. The rents paid by butchers
for grazing cattle in the Marsh Avere afterwards left at the
disposition of the committee. Much improvement Avas thus
effected, and the locality became more popular than ever.
In 1622 the city surveyors Avere directed to select a fitting
site on the Marsh " for merchants and gentlemen to recreate
themselves on at boAvles." A space Avas thereupon enclosed
as a boAvling-green, Avhich subsequently brought in a good
rental ; and as a terror to unruly loiterers a pair of stocks
Avas set up in 1631. From an incidental note by a local
chronicler, it appears that a " boAvling-green and cockpit"
existed about this time in the Pithay.
Although many of the regulations of the trade Companies
Avere conceived in a spirit of narroAV selfishness, it is but
fair to state that some at least of the crafts shoAved a desire
to protect the public from dishonest or incapable Avorkman-
ship. As has been already stated, a man could not set up
as a hatter, even after serving his apprenticeship, until he
had passed a severe trial of his capacity. In the same
manner, the Tailors' Guild Avould not permit a member to
exercise his trade until he had proved his ability to do so
Avorthily. Thus, in the minutes of June 17th, 1611, it is
recorded that Anthony Basset had been "tried and alloAved "
for a pair of boddes (stays), a pair of trunk sleeves, and a
farthingale, " which is neAviy used noAV in those days," but
for nothing else, and he received warning that, if he inter
meddled in the making of other garments, he Avould be
fined 20s. for each such offence. In a someAvhat later case,
a young tailor Avas adjudged to be " a perfect Avorkman for
a hosier only."
The Council, in August, 161 1, promulgated some remark
able orders for the regulation of the port. It was decreed
that no ship exceeding sixty tons burden should be allowed
to sail up to Bristol without the license of the justicos,
under a penalty of 40s., such vessels being required to

161 1]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

43

discharge their cargoes into boats at Hungroad. No ship
of thirty tons Avas to pass beyond the loAver penthouse at
the Quay, on pain of a similar fine. A number of old and
unserviceable ships were lying about the quays, and these
were ordered to be forthAvith broken up and removed. As
to the numerous trows and market-boats, it was directed
that such vessels should not come up the Avon until the
head of a post at Pill Avas under Avater, nor sail downwards
until a post at RoAvnham was no longer visible. The minute
ness of the regulations indicates the difficulties attending
tho navigation of the narrow and tortuous river, the strand
ing of ships — small as they then Avere — being of frequent
occurrence. But it Avas easier to make laAvs than to get
them obeyed, and the masters of both large and tiny
craft generally ignored the corporate behests.
The condition of the Castle precincts at this period closely
resembled that of the precincts of the Whitefriars in London,
so graphically described in " Quentin Durward." Being ex
empt from civic jurisdiction, the place was a safe refuge, not
merely for persons in dread of arrest for debt, but for sturdy
beggars, SAvindlers, thieves, highwaymen, and malefactors
of every description, who set the officers of justice at
defiance, and preyed Avith impunity upon the city and
surrounding districts. On the death of the Earl of Leicester
in 1588, Queen Elizabeth had granted the Constableship of
the Castle (Avhich had long been a sinecure office, since the
fortress Avas " tending to ruin " so early as 1480) to Sir
John Stafford, of Thornbury; and that gentleman seems to
have turned the post to account by letting off fragments
of the buildings as hovels for sheltering the outlaw com
munity. In October, 1611, the Corporation, which had
previously petitioned the Privy Council, representing the
extent of the evil and praying for relief, commissioned
Alderman Whitson to apply to the Lord Treasurer for the
purchase of the Castle, for Avhich he Avas empowered to offer
£666. This step must have been taken in consequence of
some hint thrown out at Court of the Government's Avilling-
ness to sell, for Sir John Stafford, having already heard a
report to that effect, had urged the Lord Treasurer not to
dispose of " the castle of the second city of the kingdom."
For some unknown reason, Alderman Whitson met Avith
unexpected difficulties, although the Council resorted to
the usual and generally successful plan of seeking favour,
orders being given for presenting the Lord Treasurer Avith
" a pipe of Canary or a very good butt of Sack," two hogs-

44

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1612

heads of claret, and a number of sugar loaves. The next
document relating to the subject is amongst the State
lapers, and is a summary of "reasons" to induce Lord
Salisbury to sell the Castle to Sir John Stafford, he being,
it was alleged, willing to pay a much larger sum than was
offered by the citizens ! Eventually the Government de
clined both offers, and the western Alsatia was left free
to develop from bad to worse. In 1615 one Sir George
Chaworth Avas appointed Constable for life, and evidence is
given of the state of tho fortress by a royal warrant of
that year, m which a number of old stone walls and decayed
towers witnin the precincts were presented to the new
officer possibly for the repair of the extensive building
(the old State apartments) known as the Military House
Presumably on the death of ChaAvorth, Sir John Stafford
was reinstated m his former office, and the old abuses
became again rampant. In March, 1620, the Corporation
represented to the Privy Council that the Constable had
appointed a mean and unworthy deputy, who suffered
upwards of 2o0 leAvd persons and thieves to harbour with
in the precincts making them a refuge and receptacle of
malefactors. The Lord Treasurer and the Chancellor of the
-kxcliequer were thereupon directed to summon the Con
stable before them and to insist upon an immediate and
thorough reform of the scandal. Sir John, however, was
then very aged, and little or nothing Avas done, for the
Corporation renewed its complaints in successive years
until the Constable's death in 1624.
The Corporation, in April, 1612, came to the help of tho
Merchant Venturers' Company, who, like tradesmen and
artificers in every branch of industry, desired to protect
themselves from competition. It was solemnly " ordained "
that the Society should make an ordinance by virtue of
their charter, forbidding every member from exercising
any other trade but that of a merchant, and prohibiting
any outsider from practising as a merchant until he had
been admitted into the freedom of the Company. Like
many other corporate edicts, this resolution perished still
born, neither the Corporation nor the Society having power
to inflict penalties on its infringement.
Alderman Robert AldAVorth, who Avas at this time one of
the Avealthiest " meer (oversea) merchants " in the city,
and who, in spite of the above ordinance, combined sugar-
refining Avith mercantile trade, rhvelt in the great mansion
fronting St. Peter's churchyard, originally the seat of the

1612]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

45

Norton family, and subsequently, after strange vicissitudes
acquired by the Corporation of the Poor. The house, ir
1612, was being reconstructed by Akhvorth, avIio had his
initials inserted amidst some bizarre carving in the soutl
porch. In September the Corporation granted him, at i
fee-farm rent of £3, the fee of another house in the same
parish. It is probable that this acquisition forms thf
eastern portion of the present building, Avhich the alderman
left unaltered. Aldworth died in 1634, and directed his
body te be buried iu " myno own ile. " in St. Peter's Church.
Avhere his enormous monument is still to be seen. He be
queathed £3 to each of the Avorkmen in his sugar house,
and upAvards of £1,200 for charitable purposes.
The Common Council, on October 1st, made a neAV ordi
nance for the regulation of NeAvgate prison. The gaoler
was required to keep a stock of beer on the premises for
the consumption of the prisoners and visitors, the price of
a " full quart " of single beer being fixed at a halfpenny,
and of double ale at a penny, " and no more." A prisoner
Avho got drunk on those easy terms was to be fined a
shilling towards the relief of his pauper companions who
" lived by the bagg "—that is, on the alms of passers-by ; in
default he Avas to be put in the stocks. A poor prisoner
made drunk by others Avas also relegated to the stocks,
Avhere he Avas to have a dish of cold Avater set before him!
The payment of " garnish " by neAv-comers Avas forbidden.
Debtors Avere clearly alloAved to stroll out during the day
time, for it Avas ordered that the gaoler should not suffer a
prisoner to stray beyond the city boundaries Avithout a
-special warrant, under a penalty of £10. In 1621 the
Council ordered that persons imprisoned for debt or for non
payment of fines should pay a fee of 2.v. on admission, 8d.
a meal for their diet, aud Ad. a, night- for lodging. Poor
debtors and felons, consigned to a dungeon called Traitors'
Ward, Avere to pay 12d. Aveekly " and no more."
In the later months of the year great consternation was
caused in commercial circles by the arrival in the Bristol
Channel of some piratical vessels designing to prey upon
merchantmen. The peril Avas so serious that- tAvo ships
the Concord and True Love, Avere armed and sent out to at
tack the freebooters, a gang of Avhom, twelve in number
were captured, lodged in Newgate, and ultimately sent to
London for trial. Shortly after, another band of the sea
brigands Avas tried and convicted, at Exeter on the evidence
of Bristolians and others. The pirates nevertheless became

46

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL

[1612-13

still more formidable, and in 1613-14 the Merchants'
Society, at a large outlay, fitted out four "ships of Avar"
for their suppression. The Government, after being long
vainly importuned to deal Avith the evil, finally despatched
a man-of-war to cruise in the Channel, when the plunderers
decamped. Sir Thomas Button, the able and vigilant cap
tain of the King's ship, Avas gratefully eutertained in
Bristol, and received a handsome present for his services.
After Button had departed, hoAvever, the pirates reappeared^
and three private vessels Avero engaged to protect naviga
tion, the Council and the Merchants' Society dividing the
expense (£150) in equal shares.
Until 1612 it had been customary for one of the city
sheriffs to be elected by the Council, and the other on the
nomination of the Mayor-elect, and it had not been un
usual for a gentleman to be chosen who Avas not a member
of the Corporation. As both practices Avere in contraven
tion of the charters, they Avere abolished in December. In
the following year the Council abrogated the Mayor's petty
perquisites on imports of fish, oysters, oranges, etc., in com
pensation Avhereof, " and for divers good causes," the
Mayor's yearly salary— then £40— was increased to £52,
or, if he were serving a second time, to £104. It was further
resolved that no one indebted to the Chamber should be
nominated to the office of mayor or sheriff until he had
wiped off his liabilities. (This regulation seems to have
been unpalatable to some of the members, but an attempt
made to revoke it in 1614 was unsuccessful.) By another
ordinance the Masters of the trading Companies were for
bidden to exact a breakfast or other treat from young men
at the end of their apprenticeship, but were to content;
themselves with a fee of 3s. Ad., on pain of forfeiting £10.
Finally, the country butchers permitted to bring meat to
market on Saturdays were forbidden to keep open their
stalls after three o'clock p.m.
A brief item in the corporate minutes, dated February
9th, 1613, directs that a complete survey should be made of
the property "lately purchased" from Mr. George Owen.
In 1553 Dr. George Owen granted to the Corporation cer
tain lands, chiefly in Redcliff, in trust, to jjrovide weekly
doles of Id. each to ten poor men, Avho Avere to be added to
the inmates of Foster's Almshouse. For reasons now in
explicable, the Corporation, at the date of the above minute,
had entered into negotiations with the benefactor's repre
sentative for a re-grant of the same estate, and a deed

1613]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

47

carrying out this object Avas signed in the following June
transferring the property in fee, but containing no mention
ot the charitable uses! Founding their rights on this
second instrument, which the younger Owen appears to
tel^r 67 -ed TiV10^ an^ consideration, the Corporation,
m 1836, claimed the estate as city property; but their pre
tensions were resisted by the newly appointed Charity
Irustees, and set aside by the Court of Chancery. They
were, hoAvever, suffered to retain the enormous sums re
ceived from the charity estates during tho previous two
S- STv!lty TarS' -The Case offers a remarkable
S^f the/d™™e in the value of real property
which has taken place since the Tudor era. In 1553 Dr
Owen estimated the profits of the estate as being simply
adequate to provide 5s. 10rf. a week or ^ £ *P0
for charitable purposes In 1897 the receipts Avere n£riJ
th« ™, T\lth% °f the Pr0Ceeds are now ^voted to
a ZZ T °^ fcS6 Gra™mar Sc^ol, the remainder being
allotted towards the maintenance of Foster's Almshouse.
Tl!lS-4ti1613' an°ther notable local benefactor,
Thomas White D.D a native of Temple parish, executed
a deed m which, after reciting that he had set up te
tenements m Temple Street, to be a hospital for mpotent
ten inmates therein, he incorporated those inmates and
heir successors, under the name of " The Ancient Brother
the Brethren and Sisters of the Temple Hospital " and
Kl1 of in™ " h03Piial i1^1^ f°r eVPr" ^ a™<S
d< u of lbl5, ho gave the hospital certain houses and lands
h the maintenance of the inmates, who were each to re-
f, CV"'->' q'^tor-clay, and m 162U he granted to the,
Co pmation some house property in London, tho rents of
which were to be distributed for certain char table and re
hgious purposes, £6 being allotted to his hospital The
last-named conveyance could not bo effected Avitlion t \
license from the King, to avoid the statutes of mortmain
for which the Corporation Avero heavily mulcted FiSv
by his will, dated in 1622-23, Dr. White, after endoAving his
foundation of Sion College, London, bequeathed toIK ¦
poration a part of the rental of his lands in Essex to be
expended in amending the roads around Bristol, n'givin"
marriage portions of £10 each to four honest mkiden! Tnd
m mam taming two more inmates in Trinity Ho pita
Di. White was an eminent preacher, and acquired wealth
from his numerous preferments, being a prebendary of S

48

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1613
Paul's, a canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and a canon of
Windsor. His " Road-Money Charity " is now chiefly de
voted to the support of the Grammar School.
Sermons Avere still a crying want in the opinion of the
Common Council. At a meeting on April 10th, 1613, any
three of the city clergy were invited to preach on Sundays —
indicating that many spared themselA-os that trouble — and
a lecture Avas also requested every Tuesday. If the clergy
responded to this proposal, a"" convenient" alloAvance Avas
promised for their pains, the money to be collected from
the inhabitants. The ansAver of the incumbents is not
recorded. But in the folloAving month the Council deter
mined that Mr. Yeamans, vicar of St. Philip's, and noted
for the regularity of his preaching, should be granted £25
a year out of the living of Stockland Bristol as soon as it
became vacant, for Avhich he Avas to preach an additional
sermon Aveekly on Avorking days in some city church
appointed by the donors ! The Council, still dissatisfied with
the lack of spiritual provision, unanimously resolved in 1614
that every member should contribute 6s. 8d. yearly to
maintain a lecture or sermon on Tuesday evenings, the
preacher to be reAvarded with 6s. 8d. on each occasion.
The strange resolution in reference to Stockland proved
unAvorkable, for it Avas soon afterwards rescinded, and
Yeamans' stipend Avas ordered to be paid by the Chamber
lain. In April, 1613, the consort of James I. journeyed to Bath
for the recovery of her health, and Bristolians Avere forth-
Avith called upon by the royal purveyors to furnish Avine
and groceries for her Majesty's household, the demands of
Avhich Avere insatiable. In all, 6 tuns, 5 butts, 3 pipes and
50 hogsheads of Avine, making a total of upAvards of 5,200
gallons, were furnished, together Avith over £360 worth of
sugar and other groceries, spices costing £94, and pepper to
the Aralue of £9 6s. 8d. No money was, of course, to be
obtained from the Court, and the Corporation had to relieve
the merchants by advancing upAvards of £1,000. The
loyalty of the inhabitants, however, was unimpaired, and
on learning that the Queen proposed to pay them a visit on
June 4th, the Corporation spared neither labour nor expense
to give her a joyous reception. The first necessit}' Avas to
purify the streets. There Avas a portentous dunghill at St.
Augustine's Back, nearly opposite to her intended lodgings
in the (Treat House, another on tho Quay, and tAvo others
in the lino of streets near the Castle through which her

1613]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

49

Majesty had to pass. These being removed, the roadways,
scarred with ruts and holes, Avere repaired, some of the city
gates were whitewashed, and a prodigious quantity of sand
was brought in to spread over the thoroughfares. Then
the sword of state and the maces were neAvly gilded,
drummers and " phifers " Avere engaged and gaily attired
to supplement the waits, 500 of the trained bands were
so finely apparelled that they looked to a contemporary
annalist more like officers than privates, sixty great guns
were stationed on the Quay to fire salutes, the trading
Companies Avere ordered to turn out in their full strength,
and a wooden form was bought to enable the aldermen to
mount their horses Avith fitting dignity. The great day
having arrived, the members of the Corporation, blazing in
scarlet robes, bestrode their steeds at the Tolzey, each
attended by a page, and proceeded majestically to Lawford's
Gate, where they met the royal train. The Mayor (Abel
Kitchin) thereupon fell on his knees whilst the Recorder
offered the greetings of the city in a flattering oration, after
Avhich the chief magistrate courteously presented her
Majesty with a purse (which had cost £4) containing 100
" units " of gold (that had cost £110 more). The royal
thanks having been graciously tendered, the Mayor and his
legal coadjutor took horse again, accompanied by two
gentlemen ushers, and rode bareheaded before the Queen's
chariot through the crowded streets. Distrustful, perhaps,
of their qualifications to witch the world by their horse
manship, tho Common Council had given orders that no
salutes should be fired until the procession was ended ; but
tho Queen had no sooner entered the Great House than the
cannon thundered from the Quay, whilst the trained bands
stationed on the green before the mansion responded with
feux de joie. A sumptuous entertainment concluded the
day's proceedings. OAving to unfavourable Aveather, the
Queen remained indoors on Saturday ; but on Sunday she
proceeded in state to the Cathedral, the Mayor walking un
covered before her coach, preceded by the aldermen and
councillors, while the ladies of the Court, on horseback, and
a guard of trained bands brought up the rear. Monday
Avitnessed the crowning effort of the citizens. After enter
taining the Court to dinner at his own house, the Mayor
conducted her Majesty to Canons' Marsh, near the confluence
of the Avon and Froom, where a bower of oak boughs,
garnished Avith roses ami plentifully sprinkled Avith per
fumes, Avas prepared for her reception. An imposing sham

50

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1613

fight then commenced, an English ship being attacked by
tAvo Turkish galleys, the crews of Avhich strove to board,
but were finally repulsed Avith great slaughter (six bladders
full of blood being at hand to pour out of the scupper holes).
The carnage resulted, of course, in the flight of the galleys
and the capture of some of the infidels, Avho, much be
grimed Avith smoke and blood, were presented to and
faughingly complimented by ^he delighted Queen, who
declared that they looked like real Turks and that she had
never Avitnessed so exciting a spectacle. The Mayor again
entertained the Court to supper in the evening, when her
Majesty sent him a splendid ring set with diamonds as a
mark of her approval. On Tuesday, after dinner, the Queen
departed for Siston Court, being attended to LaAvford's Gate
with all the pomp that marked her arrival. Her Majesty,
Avho is described by a humorous historian as a princess of
considerable amplitude of figure, massiveness of feature, and
readiness of wit, seems to have been really charmed with
her excursion. On the Mayor kneeling to take leave, the
royal visitor, " with tears in her eyes," promised the city
her protection, declaring that she " never kneAV she Avas a
queen till she came to Bristol." It is needless to add that
her entertainment entailed a very heavy outlay, but so
much was disbursed by the private subscriptions of leading
citizens that the total cannot be discovered. In despite of
this liberality, moreover, the royal purveyors made another
descent upon the merchants, and the Corporation found it
necessary to pay for about 2,200 gallons of wine carried oil
for the Queen's household.
Amongst the State Papers for May in this year is a
document offering "Reasons to prove the necessity for
making small copper coins to avoid the great abuse of leaden
tokens made by the city of Bristol and others." No farth
ings had been coined by the Corporation since the accession
of James, and, so far as numismatists can discover, no speci
men of the alleged leaden tokens now exists. This is the
more extraordinary inasmuch as the celebrated Sir Robert
Cotton made a suggestion to the Government in 160J tor a
legal issue of small coins, alleging that there Avere then
3 000 persons in London, chiefly victuallers and small traders,
and at least as many more in the provinces, who cast yearly
£5 a piece in leaden tokens, " whereof nine-tenths he said,
disappeared in the course of a year. Cotton added that the
CroAvn might gain £10,000 a year by suppressing the abuse ;
but soon after the presentation of the above " Reasons the

1613]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

51

King, besieged by many courtiers for a grant of a profitable
monopoly, conceded to one of them, Lord Harrington, the
sole privilege for three years of coining farthing tokens, and
a royal proclamation Avas issued prohibiting the currency of
tokens issued by tradesmen. In or about 1622 the Corpora
tion of Bristol solicited the Government for a renewal of
their former privilege. In a petition to the Privy Council
it was stated that the Bristol Farthings had formerly been
of great relief and comfort to the poor, a number of the
tokens having been given in alms by charitable people, but
that none had been stamped since his Majesty's accession,
owing to the royal Avarrant not having been reneAved. It
Avas therefore prayed that, in consideration of the great
number of poor in the city, greatly distressed by a recent
dearth and a visitation of sickness, their lordships would be
pleased to revive the warrant for the stamping of tokens.
Tho petition, it Avould appear, remained unansAvered.
At a meeting of the Privy Council on June 6th a singu
lar letter Avas indited to the Mayor of Bristol. The Council
state that they are being constantly advertised, from parts
beyond the seas, and particularly from Spain, that the
masters of Bristol ships do usually carry into Spain and
Portugal such a number of youths and children, of both
sexes, under pretence of learning the language, that this
emigration is much observed, and by experience found to
be corrupting in point of religion and dangerous to the
State, owing to the pernicious doctrines instilled by the
enemies of this country. The Council cannot excuse the
Mayor for his neglect in this matter, and require him
t-he'niiforth to be. vigilant, and to suffer none to pass over
•excei I known merchants and factors and persons licensed
by tie Government. It is somewhat remark-able that no
record of this letter, or of any measures taken to obey its
instr ictions, is to bo found at the, Council House.
The earliest example of a civic pension occurs in the
corporate minutes in July. Muriel, the aged AvidoAV of
Michael Popwall, a former mayor, was voted £4 yearly
" during the good liking of the Common Council." In 1616
tho AvidoAV of John Young, a former sheriff, Avas granted £2
a year out of the funds of Trinity Hospital. Relief of this
kind to impoverished councillors or their relatives sub
sequently became common.
On the death of the Earl of Salisbury, Lord Treasurer,
the Council seems to have been in some perplexity as to the
-choice of a neAV High Steward. After considerable delay,

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1613
the election fell, in August, upon William, Earl Of Pem
broke, Lord Chamberlain. His lordship was presented in
1618 Avith a pipe of Canary, and in 1625 he had a gift of
another pipe, together Avith two hogsheads of claret.
A highly interesting donation to the city Avas offered to
the Council on December 7th. Mr. Robert Redwood, a
Avealthy Bristolian living in St. Leonard's parish, proffered
his "lodge near the Marsh" for conversion into a library
for the benefit of the citizens ; and the gift Avas thankfully
accepted. With one exception — at Norwich — this was the
first public library established in England. The donor had
probably been in correspondence with Dr. Tobias MattheAV,
Archbishop of York, born over the shop of his father on
Bristol Bridge, and may have been induced by his grace to
take the step just recorded. At all events, the Archbishop-
hastened to forward a number of books drawn from his
extensive library, which he desired should be preserved " for
the free use of the merchants and shopkeepers of the city."
In January, 1616, the Council resolved that " 40s. yearly
should be allowed to him that noAv keepeth the new erected
Library." ^ In a feAv years the institution became so popular
as to require extended accommodation, and in April, 1634,
the Corporation determined on its enlargement, " for which
purpose," says the minute, " Mr. Richard Vickris hath freely
given a parcel of ground adjoining the said Library." A
vote of not exceeding £30 Avas then granted " as Avell for
new building the addition to be made as for repairing the
old house," the money being handed over to a gentleman
charged with superintending the work, whose tragic fate
was then undreamt of — "Mr. George Butcher" (or Boucher).
In 1640, when the extension had been completed, an iron
monger was paid £3 17s. bd. " for 15 dozen and a half of
book chains for the Library," a mode of protection against
thieves that, having regard to the portliness of most of the
volumes, seems somewhat superfluous.
On December 12th the Privy Council addressed a letter
to the Mayor and Aldermen of Bristol and other towns, and
to the sheriffs of counties, respecting the observance of
Lent. Notwithstanding the strict orders previously issued
on that subject, the Council found they had been con
temptuously neglected, and their lordships directed that an
account should be taken of non-observers, and that the
magistrates should show a good example in their own
families. A second mandate to the same effect was sent
down a twelvemonth later. It appears from the PriA^y

1614]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

53

Council minutes that many butchers were prosecuted for
selling meat during Lent, Avhile the acting of dramas Avas
suppressed by the threatened imprisonment of the players.
In the spring of 1614, when Parliaments had been dis
pensed with for three years, during which the King had
vainly striven to meet the boundless extravagance of his
expenditure by imposing arbitrary Customs duties, and sell
ing monopolies and baronetcies to the best bidder, legislative
help was found to be indispensable for the liquidation of
tho royal debts. The elections evoked an unparalleled spirit
of opposition against the nominees of the Government, and
the House of Commons met in a state of excitement. The
members for Bristol Avere Alderman Thomas James, Avhose
resistance to the Court has been already noticed, and Alder
man John Whitson, who forthwith displayed an equal zeal
against abuses. On April 18th, during a debate on the
second reading of a Bill " concerning taxes and impositions
on merchants," it Avas shown that only two or three such
impositions Avere in force at the King's accession, while they
noAv numbered nearly eleven hundred. Mr. Whitson de
clared that if he had forty hearts they would be all for the
Bill. No man could Avear a shirt or a band without feeling
a grievance. He Avould rather pay a subsidy every month
than alloAV those imposts to stand. Edward III. once prayed
his subjects to pay an imposition from Candlemas to Whit
suntide ; he Avoiild not have prayed if he had had the
power to demand it. Another great debate took place in
May, when the policy of the Court was again Avarmly
denounced. Some of the Court party having suggested
that tho House should confer Avith the King, Whitson pro
tested against tho manrouvre. In presence of his Majesty,
bo said, none dared speak their thoughts. On the pre
vious day tho King had told some of them that no merchant
was a groat the Avorse for impositions, and no man dared
reply ; yet every merchant felt the smart of the burdens.
Unhappily the Commons soon afterAvards quarrelled with
the Lords on a point of privilege, and the King, seizing this
pretext, ordered a dissolution early in June, and declared all
the proceedings of the session null and void. The Corpora
tion of Bristol Avere so satisfied with the conduct of the city
members that Alderman James was elected mayor in Sep
tember, and Alderman Whitson Avas his successor.
Moved either by intolerance of absentees or by the pres
sure of aspirants to office, the Council, in April, 1614, dealt
summarily with two members Avho were alleged to be un-

"-* THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1614
able to attend and give their advice in the Chamber, and'
were in consequence dismissed. Four seats had previously
become vacant, and eight candidates appear to have sought
for admission. One of those elected Avas Henry Hobson,
host of the Guilders' Inn, already mentioned in connection
with the Plague. Another was Humphrey Hooke, a native
of Chichester, who acquired a great fortune in mercantile
adventures, and eventually purchased Kingsweston and
other large estates. In 1616 another councillor was dis
missed, " for special causes thereunto moving." Whether
the " special causes " Avere represented by the six gentlemen
who sought election to the vacancy is left to conjecture.
At a meeting of the Council in August, 1614, it was
announced that a bequest had been made to the Corporation
by the late Mrs. Katherine Butcher, AvidoAV of Alderman
John Butcher. OAving to the loss of the audit book for the
year, the amount of the legacy is unknown, but it was
resolved that the money should 'be devoted to the purchase
of a silver gilt " skinker," and of a similar " bowle ; to remain
always with the Mayor for the time being." It Avas further
ordered that, in conformity with Mrs. Butcher's will, a-
yearly sum of 6s. 8d. should be disbursed for a sermon on
the day of each Mayor's election ; but this ordinance, like
many others, was rescinded in 1703.
The cool manner in which many corporate bodies pre
sumed to levy illegal taxes for their own profit is a marked
feature of the age. In August the Council directed a letter
to be written to the Mayor of " Lymbrick " and his brethren,
requesting them to restore the money they had unlawfully
taken from a Bristol merchant under the name of Customs.
It was further ordered that if the demand were refused tho
goods of any Limerick man found in Bristol should be
sequestrated to indemnify the person aggrieved, and that
similar reprisals should be taken as regarded other Irish
ports. King James, reckless of the signs of the times, was at
this period inclined to dispense with Parliaments, and to
adopt means of raising money that even the iron govern
ment of Henry VIII. had been forced to abandon. In
August a letter Avas addressed by the Privy Council to the
Mayor and Sheriffs of Bristol, in common with other towns,
demanding a BeneA-olence, or gift of money or plate, to be
presented to the King towards the payment of his ever-
increasing debts. All the inhabitants of ability Avere to
be " moved " to contribute generously, and the names of

1614]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

55

those who refused to subscribe were to be sent up to the
Privy Council. The Corporation appointed a committee in
conformity with the mandate, but the Council made no
contribution on their own account, and there is no evidence
that the wealthy merchants were more liberally disposed.
Similar reluctance Avas displayed in other parts of the king
dom, and, in spite of threats and intimidation, all that could
be collected in three years did not exceed £60,000.
At a meeting of the Council in September, three men,
ono of them a " platemaker," meaning probably a silver
smith, were admitted to the freedom on payment of £2 4s. bd.
each. It was, however, provided that if they, or any others
admitted by fine, should open an ale-house without the
license of the justices, they should be forthwith disfran
chised. At a time Avhen every branch of trade and commerce
was harassed by monopolies conceded to Crown favourites
and wealthy confederacies in London, it was natural that
local merchants should seek to better their condition by
taking part in a system that enriched their rivals. In the
summer of this year they applied to the GoA'ernment for a
revival of the license to export calf-skin leather, Avhich had
been granted and subsequently withdrawn by Queen Eliza
beth (see p. 16), and in September the King, doubtless for a
valuable consideration, issued letters patent to Alderman
Whitson and four other merchants, granting them liberty
to export yearly, for forty years, 1,000 dickers (120,000) of
tanned calf-skins, a Crown rent of £250 being reserA-ed.
For some unexplained reason, this patent was soon after-
Avards set aside, and a new one granted on the same terms
to William Lewis, Customs Searcher, tho patentee of 1600,
who immediately conceded his privilege to the local mer
chants in consideration of a yearly rent. The trade thus
created in contravention of thA statute kvw was exceedingly
profitable for many years. Tho subject Avill turn up again
in 1640. .
Down to this year the only gathering-place for discussing
and transacting mercantile business in the city, as well in
Avinter as in summer, Avas practically the open street. Some
protection against inclement weather being thought desir
able, the Corporation, in December, entered into an agree
ment Avith the vestry of All Saints, by which the latter
granted permission for the building of a merchants' Tolzey
on that part of Corn Street which adjoined the church, the
penthouse to be of the same length and form as the civic

i.n.c AilflAliS U.F JBKISTOL [1014— lb
Tolzey opposite, and to be covered with lead. The Corpora
tion laid out about £44 on the work, to which the Mer
chants' Society also contributed. The new Tolzey Avas
provided, for the conveniency of signing documents and
settling accounts, with several brazen-headed pillars, similar
to those hoav standing before the Exchange.
Abuses respecting the use of proxies at the yearly election
of officers were dealt with by the Common Council in
January, 1615. Certain members having claimed to give
votes for several absentees, it Avas ordered that each person
present at an election should have only one voice in addition
to his own Avhilst representing a friend having reasonable
cause of absence, and that the authority for this second
voice should be in Avriting.
The first mention of a postman in the local annals occurs
. in the spring of 1615, when the Chamberlain paid a trades
man 12s. " for cloth to make Packer, the foot-post, a coat."
In 1616 Packer was sent by the same official to Brewham
to collect rents, and was paid 3s. 8d. for a journey, out and
home, of 60 miles. At the same time there is a record of
" Baker the foot-post," Avho for travelling to London and
back on city business received 13s. Ad. for his pains and ex
penses. At a somewhat later date there was a payment of
£2 2s. "given to the foot-post for his badge." Whether
these men were simply engaged by the Corporation when
there was need of a messenger, or made their living by
offering their services to the public at large, cannot be
determined. No Government postal establishment existed
in the provinces until 1635.
- In the State Papers for July, 1615, is a curious letter, in
the nature of a circular, signed by Sir George Buck, tho
King's Master of the Revels. It sets forth that his Majesty
had been pleased, at the solicitation of the Queen, to appoint
a company of youths to perform plays at Bristol and other
toAvns, under the name of the "Youths of Her Majesty's
Royal Chamber of Bristol." [The Queen had been informed
during her visit by her local entertainers that by ancient
custom the city was entitled to be styled the Queen's
Chamber, just as London Avas called the King's Chamber.]
The license to the above effect was granted to John Daniel
(brother of Samuel, the well-knOAvn poet), who was to bring
up the children properly. In April, 1618, permission was
given by the Privy Council to three men to act plays in
"Bristol and other towns under Daniel's patent, the company
to stay only fourteen days in each place, and "not to play

1615]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

57

during church hours." Tavo months later, these players
arrived at Exeter and offered an entertainment, but were
Summarily suppressed by a puritanical mayor. His wor
ship, in a letter to Under-Secretary Coke, stated that he had
stopped the Bristol players because their patent was only
for children and youths, whereas most of them were men ;
nevertheless, as they were appealing to the Court, he was
willing they should play if such was the pleasure of the
Privy Council, " although those who spend their money on
plays are ordinarily very poor people." In the autumn
following, the Corporation of Bristol gave 21s. to "Ste
George Buck's players," possibly the same party.
In August, 1615, Sir Laurence Hyde resigned the Recb=--
dership, and the Council forthwith appointed his more
celebrated brother, Nicholas, afterwards Chief Justice, as
his successor. The election was informal, as an ancient
ordinance required the Recorder to have been a reader at
one of the Inns of Court: but poAverful influence was
privately exercised, and the rule Avas set aside "for this
time only."
At the same meeting, the Council dealt with a grievous
offender, one Matthew Cable, a member of a family long
resident in St. Thomas's parish. It was ordered that unless
Cable, then a prisoner in Newgate, did in open session
humbly submit himself to the Mayor, and acknowledge his
great fault in uttering lewd Avords against his worship
whilst being carried to prison, he should be indicted and
punished at the next gaol delivery. The assize records
havo unfortunately perished.
It Avould bo tedious to narrate all the vexatious annoy
ances inllieted on merchants through the persecutions of
tho royal purveyors. In the hope of a respite the Corpora
tion offered at this time a gift of £110 to the King's
grocer, on condition of his demanding no purveyance of
grocery for the remainder of his life, and a bargain was
struck to that effect. The relief Avas for freemen only,
"foreigners " being left to the tender mercy of the extor
tioner. The grotesque headgear still worn on State occasions by
the civic SAvordbearer Avas an established institution in 1615,
when it was a somewhat expensive adornment. A neAV
" hat of maintenance" was purchased this year, the fur and
trimmings of which cost £8 6s., equivalent to about £40 in
modern currency, and 17s. were paid for a box to preserve
it. The office of SAvordbearer Avas one of great dignity, and

"•" ' THJS ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1615
the salary attached to it of £20 (exclusive of numerous fees)
equalled that of the Recorder. Occasionally, too, the holder
turned his place into a sinecure by appointing a poorly paid
deputy. The Mayor's head covering was still more costly
than that of his henchman. In 1621 a neAV hat of crimson
velvet with gold lace embroidery, etc., cost £10 9s., but its
box Avas provided for 10s.
An indication of increasing reverence for what Puritan
ism styled the Sabbath is, observable in the minutes of a
Council meeting in October. Previously, the premises of
vintners, victuallers, and ale-house keepers appear to havo
been open throughout Sundays; but it Avas hoav decreed
that no eating or drinking should be permitted in such
places between eight o'clock in the morning and five in tho
evening, except for tAvo hours in the middle of the day ; and
the same restriction Avas imposed on the selling of fruit by
hucksters and boatmen. Some general police regulations
were also resolved upon. No cart or car having wheels
bound Avith iron Avas to be admitted within the walls,
except those Ayhich stood at St. Peter's " plump " and at the
end of Broadmead. Wood for fuel was to come in on drays
(sledges) only. As coal was brought only on the backs of
horses and asses, it escaped supervision. Hay, however, was
a frequent difficulty. In 1617 a payment was made for
letting cIoavu the portcullis at Temple Gate to debar the
entrance of hay Avains ; and as 23s. were spent a feAv weeks
later for repairing the portcullis at Redcliff Gate, it Avas
doubtless made use of for the same purpose.
_ A revolt of the Bakers' Company against the city authori
ties caused much excitement towards the close of the year.
Irritated by the restrictions which the magistrates imposed
upon prices, and by the competition of the country bakers
authorized by the Council (see p. 22), the bakers, by dint of
a heavy bribe sent to Court, obtained from the King a
special grant of incorporation Avith power to frame their
OAvn laws, by Avhich they proposed to set the civic body at
defiance and to establish a lucrative monopoly. The neAV
charter, hoAvever, required the Master of the Company to bo
swTorn in before the Mayor and Aldermen, and on the bench
insisting on certain conditions the Master-elect refused to
take the oath, while his brethren, to support him, threatened
to close their shops. Alderman Whitson, then Mayor, Avas
nevertheless equal to the crisis. Two " foreign " bakers,
one at Wrington and the other at Portbury, received per
mission to bring in as much bread as they chose, and, as

1615]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

59

the twopenny loaf thus supplied Avas half a pound heavier
than that of the Bristol men, the latter Avere compelled to
change their tactics. After an interval, hoAvever, they
again attempted to put their new charter into operation,
whereupon, m 1619, the Corporation instituted a suit against
them in the Star Chamber. The Privy Council then took
the matter in hand, and their lordships resolved, in Novem
ber, that the King's charter Avas against all good policy, the
bakers having avaihd themselves of it to diminish the size
of their bread and to shut out their country competitors,
who had served the city time out of mind. The Attorney-
General Avas therefore ordered to take legal steps to annul
the charter, leaving the bakers to bo governed by tho Cor
poration as in former times. The triumphant city authori
ties next resolved on prosecuting the bakers for their conduct
before the King's charter Avas revoked, but the Privy Coun
cil ordered the judges of assize to stop the proceedings.
The State Papers for July, 1621, contain a petition of the
bakers to the Privy Council, praying for protection, but it
was left nnansAvered. Being at length compelled to capitu
late, the Company Avere granted a new ordinance by the
Common Council in 1623, imposing some strange restric
tions both on themselves and the public. The only kinds
of bread permitted to be made for sale Avere Avhite and
household bread, and biscuits. Buns or cakes, if produced,
wero liable to confiscation, except during Lent, Avhen
cracknells and symnals might also be sold. No baker Avas
to open two shops or to employ a "foreigner" as journey
man. Four "foreign" bakers living at or near Pensford
wortj to be licensed by the Mayor to bring in five horse-
loads of leavened broad twice a Aveek, but Ave re to sell only
at the High Cross, and not to hawk in the streets. Finally,
no innhoider or A'ictualler was alhiAved to bring in country
bread, or even to bake in their oavii houses, under pain of a
heavy fine ! In 1624 the Company resolved that no bread
of any kind should be sold to hucksters to sell again. Of
twenty-two members avIio signed this agreement ten could
not Avritc their oavii names.
The State Papers for 1615 include a document endorsed : —
" The Surveyes of the Forest of Kingswood and Chase of
Fillwood," drawn up by one John Norden, who with others
had been appointed by the King as commissioners to inquire
into the state of those royal possessions. It is evident from
Norden's statements that the Avoods in question, through
the neglect or more probably the suborned apathy of tho

¦irtJS ANNALS OF BHISTOL : [1615
royal officers employed there for a long series of years, had
been practically lost to the Crown and appropriated by
neighbouring landowners. In Plantagenet times the King
was the sole proprietor, and, as records testify, was wont to
grant timber for building purposes to religious houses in
-Bristol. In 1615 the claims put forward by local landlords,
says the report, "swallowed up the whole forest, not alloAv-
nig his Majesty the breadth of a foot," and the profits of
the timber^ soil, coal-mines, etc., were carried off from the
Jiing by those who had usurped his rights. Nothing, in
fact, was left to the Crown but the herbage for the deer%nd
even this was m jeopardy, as every " pretended owner " cut
down and consumed the "vert" at his pleasure, in despite
01 law. * our keepers were maintained, each with a separate
walk but instead of the 2,000 deer that had once roamed
through tho woods, the men admitted that none of them
liad more than about a hundred under his charge. The
keepers had deserted their lodges, the oldest of which was in
rums, while another, in the principal part of the forest, had
been appropriated by Mr. Richard Berkeley, who had con
verted it for his own profit into an alehouse, haunted by
poachers and thieves. Each keeper had 40s. a year, and the
ranger under Sir George Chaworth, Constable of Bristol
Castle and Master of the Game, had a salary of £3 8s lid
which sums were paid by the Sheriffs of Bristol. " Sheep
and goats, most pernicious cattle in a forest, make a far
greater show than his Majesty's game." The goats had
spoiled an infinite number of holly trees, " the chief
browse, by barking them; the colliers had destroyed
many more, using them to support the Avorkings, and largo
spaces had been laid waste by the throwing about of pit
refuse. In former times the keepers used to cut down oak
boughs as food for the deer, but this was now forbidden by
the pretended owners, as was the cutting of bush browse ;
and the herds, from want of nourishment, Avere consuming
aAvay The number of cottages that had been erected far
exceeded the needs of the coal-mines, and the inhabitants,
Avho paid rent to the assumed landlords, committed great
spoil. The value of the coal carried out of the forest was
alleged by Avitnesses to be about £200 yearly, but Norden
S-on * mformed privately that it was worth at least
£dU0. A man named Player farmed the Avhole of the coal
pits, and the report suggested that he should be inhibited
until he proved his pretended rights. Thomas Chester, who
claimed a portion of the Chase, had cut down forty great

1615]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

61

trees, and had lately sold about forty more to a Bristolian,
though the land was said to belong to the King. The
total area of the forest was estimated at 4,297 acres, of
Avhich Chester made claim to 1,380, Lord Berkeley and
Lady NeAvton to 1,350, Sir Henry Billingsley to 810, and
Richard Berkeley to 540. The remainder, about 200 acres,
was alleged to belong to a Mr. Weston, Ralph Sadler, Lady
Stafford, Sir R. Lacy, and one Evans, of Bitton. Turning
to Fillwood Chase, on the south side of the Avon, and an
ciently appurtenant to KingsAvood, Norden Avas unable to
determine its true boundaries, OAvhag to ages of neglect, but
ho believed that Bedminster, Bisford (Bishport), Knowle,
Whitchurch, and Norton Malreward were formerly within
the perambulation, as those places paid, or should pay, 32s.
yearly for Avhat was called wood-lease-silver, supposed to
belong to Bristol Castle in right of the forest, but hoav
chiefly received by one Chester for his master's use. It was
proved on oath that in former times the deer, crossing the
Avon from Kingswood, used to feed freely as far as Dundry
hills, but the bounds had been altered, the old names of
jdaces forgotten, and the King's lands lost. One Hugh
Smyth, uncle of the living Sir Hugh Smyth, once
impaled a park there, but the palings had since been
carried to Ashton. Certain lands, retaining the name
of Fillwood, were 249 acres in extent, and of about
£209 yearly value, and the estimated A-alue of the timber
thereon Avas £1,300. If the entire estate were in the King's
hands it Avas estimated to yield £5,487, exclusiA'e of land
and a common near Whitchurch, Avorth £4,000, which were
probably part of the Chase, though claimed by Sir Hugh
Smyth. There Avas also a common of 200 acres called
Bristleton (Brisliugton) Heath, supposed to be part of the
Chase, Avith coal-mines there ; but the neighbouring land-
OAvners Avere turning tho Avhole to their own profit. The
Government took no action upon this report, and the " pre
tended OAvners " Avere practically left undisturbed until
1661, under Avhich year the subject will be continued. In
tho Record Office are some depositions taken at Bristol
Castlo in September, 1629, the only interesting feature of
which is the evidence of one of the rangers respecting a
singular right of himself and his brother officers. They
were entitled, he swore, by ancient custom, to take a toll
called conducting money, or cheminage, at LaAvford's Gate,
from all passengers bringing in or carrying aAvay goods in
Avains, carts, or jiack-saddles, to or from the great fairs of

THE ANNALS OJ? BHISTOL,

[IDIO

the city, the privilege extending from nine days before St.
Paul's tide to Lady Day (about ten weeks), and from a fort
night before St. James's tide to St. LaAvrence's Day (about
six weeks). The toll Avas fourpence for a Avheeled vehicle
and a penny for a pack-horse.
The year 1616 was singularly uneventful in a local point
of vieAV. In the absence of subjects of serious import, the
citizens resolved upon challenging the merchants and
traders of Exeter to a shooting match, and the details of the
subsequent competition are related Avith someAvhat tedious
minuteness in Avhat is knoAvn as " Adams's Chronicle." In
brief tho story is as follows. The Devonians having ac
cepted the challenge, a party of fifteen Bristol marksmen,
gallantly arrayed, and accompanied by Sheriff Tomlinson,
two captains, and about forty worshipful men, set off on
horseback on May 27th, and arrived next day at their
destination, Avhere they Avere cordially welcomed and
sumptuously feasted. On the 29th the visitors had a private
trial of their muskets, but a spy gave an account of their
skill to the opposite party, and on the 30th, when the match
should have come off, the Exeter men fell to Avrangling, and
nothing Avas done. In the evening the visitors were enter
tained by the Sheriff of Exeter, and so plentifully supplied
Avith burnt sack that " the young wilful heads " spent
nearly all the night in drinking healths, Avhile the Exeter
men stayed soberly at home. The morning bringing much
sickness, fatigue, and reflection, the Bristolians seriously
thought of returning forthwith, but the jeers of their hosts
supplied the needful stimulus, and the match at length
began. In the result, the Exeter men Avere adjudged to be
the victors by " two rounds to one," and the Avager of ono
hundred nobles was consequently awarded them. In other
respects the Bristolians had nothing to complain of. They
Avere not suffered to expend a penny in the city, and they,
in return, distributed £100 amongst the local officers and
poor. On July 1st the Exeter marksmen arrived in Bristol
for the return match, being met four miles off by 300 horse,
escorted to the Bear Inn, and bountifully feasted. Next day
butts were erected in College Green, but on the 3rd, when
the Mayor and Council, knights and gentry, had assembled
to witness the competition, it was not until after a long
delay that the visitors could be induced to present them
selves. Shooting then began during a severe gale, m con
sequence of which, out of fifty-two shots on each side, the
Bristolians made but seven hits and their rivals only five.

1616]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

63

The contest was renewed next morning in calm weather,
when the home team scored three and their opponents
nothing. " So our men were best, second, and third, won
the three rounds, and £100, besides much bets, all of Avhich
was spent upon them (the Exonians), and £100 to double
repay their courtesy ; our captains not suffering them to
give aught to any officer or poor in our city."
At the gaol delivery this year the horrible punishment of
the peine forte et dure was inflicted upon a jDrisoner who
refused to plead to his indictment in proper form, and in
sisted on being tried " by God and Somersetshire." Being
taken back to Newgate, the prisoner Avas placed under the
pressure of heavy weights, which were gradually increased
until life was extinct.
A curious contest for precedency in the Common Council
arose at Michaelmas on the conclusion of Alderman Whit-
son's second mayoralty. Mr. Whitson proposed to resume
his previous place as senior alderman, but Avas Avithstood
by Alderman Thomas James, on the ground that as he
(James) had twice filled the chair before a similar honour Avas
conferred on Whitson, he was entitled to priority ; while
Whitson contended that he was James's senior by four
years in the aldermanic office. The struggle appears to
have ended in a personal conflict, in Avhich Whitson was
worsted. The Court of Aldermen at once took the dispute
into serious consideration, and as the members were divided
in opinion, a case was drawn up for presentation to Garter
King-at-Arms. That official soon afterAvards decided in
favour of Whitson, on the ground that as both the parties
had been twice mayor, precedence must be given to seniority
in the position of magistrate. In August, 1617, the Coun
cil practically carried out this judgment by requesting
James to take rank after his rival until ho could show his
right to the premier position. James's death, a few months
later, put an end to tho contnwersy.
The city treasurer led a somewhat adventurous life at this
period. Some hint having been received from London that
a jiortion of the King's debts for wine and provisions mio-ht
be recovered by due supplication, the chamberlain Avas des
patched to make the needful effort. Two long and Aveary
journeys proved fruitless, but a third had better success.
He credits himself as follows in his accounts :— " My charges
in my journey to London, being out forty days, and for
horse hire, boat hire, diet, and other charges at the Court.
£10 2s. 6d." Certainly a moderate sum for so lengthy a

THIS ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1U17

sojourn. The sum of £417 (less than a third of tho debt)
was, however, recovered, but not without liberal bribing, the
King's cofferers receiving £20 and the Queen's secretary
£11, Avhile many tips Avere exacted by subordinates. En
couraged by this result, the treasurer made t\vo more
journeys in the same economical manner, and got £400 on
one occasion, but only £61 on the other. The latter sum
represented part of the money due for the wines sent to
Woodstock eleven years before. The " gratuities " wrung
from the Chamberlain by Court underlings before the cash
could be received amounted to £26 16s. bd., besides which
Sir Robert Fludd, "for his pains," had a present in gold of
£55 and a barrel of sack, whilst £10 17s. bd. were extorted
by an officer of the Exchequer.
It Avas stated in a jirevious page that the Corporation,
in 1605, flung the Avork of cleansing the streets upon the
inhabitants. For many subsequent years the authorities
washed their hands of the matter, and the state of the
city Avhen the Queen was about to visit it has been already
shoAvn. The filth at last becoming intolerable, the Council,
in April, 1617, adopted " the Raker " as a public servant,
and voted him a salary of £30 a year, in return for which
he was expected to sweep the thoroughfares, remove the
refuse, and keep the entire city in proper order. (See
November, 1629).
Having erected a Tolzey for the mercantile classes, the
Corporation, in 1617, resolved on the reconstruction of the
similar penthouse adjoining the Council House, reserved for
transacting civic business. This building was considerably
increased in height for the admission of five upper lights,
and the outlay amounted to about £150. On the comple
tion of the work an order was given for furnishing the
Council Room and Tolzey with green cloth " carpets " — not
as coverings for the floor, which were then deemed super
fluous, but as drapery for the tables. A few years later
two of the brazen pillars now standing before the Exchange
were presented to the Corporation by tAvo citizens, Thomas
Hobson and George White, and were placed in this Tolzey
as companions to the two others of more ancient date.
Great distress jirevailed amongst the poor during the
closing months of 1617, and continued throughout the
folloAving year. The Corporation advanced £200, and
oponed a house in Temple Street for the employment of
children in the manufacture of "kersey," while additional
rates wore levied for the relief of adults. As Avas the

1618]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

65

invariable fate of corporate industrial enterprises, the
kersey Avorks proved a failure, and Avere soon abandoned.
A singular mode of affording help to the poor crops up in
this and several folloAving years. The Council took no
steps to reduce the high price of bread, but they evinced
much anxiety to provide the commons with cheap butter.
Large purchases were made every year of this article,
which was sold by retail at, and often beloAv, the Avholesale
price, a little loss being apparently deemed unimportant,
provided the community were kept in good humour. An
explanation of this policy Avill be found later on.
One of the many obnoxious monopolies granted by
James I. Avas that excluding merchants generallj-' from
trading to Turkey and the Levant, that priA'ilege being
conceded only to a body of Avealthy Londoners styled the
Levant or Turkey Company, Avho reaped enormous j>rofits
from the jiublic by charging excessive prices for dried fruits
and other eastern merchandise. It may be assumed, though
no positive proof exists of the fact, that the Bristol Society
of Merchants, Avho had vainly claimed the right of free
trading conferred on them by their charter, at length set
the monopolists at defiance by despatching a ship to the
East, and by bringing in a cargo of the prohibited
articles. At all events, they Avere being sued by the
Levant Company in the early months of 1618, and alder
man Whitson, Avith a Avorthy companion, Mr. John Barker,
Avas sent to London to maintain the justice, of their cause
before the Privy Council. On mvestigation, the GoA'ern-
me-nt found that the terms of the charter of EdAvard VI. to
Bristol merchants could not bo Avholly ignored, and the
Slate Papers show that au Order in Council Avas issued in
March, granting the Bristolians permission, "on trial for
three years," to import 200 tons of currants yearly from
the Venetian (Ionian) islands, notwithstanding the LoA'ant
Company's monopoly, they paying the latter body (is. 8d.
per ton on the fruit. The, concession had doubtless been
obtained by financial expedients, then indispensable at
Court, and the expenses of the two deputies Avere very large.
That the Earl of Pembroke, Lord High SteAvard, had
proved a helpful friend is indicated by the present to him
of tAvo pipes of Canary by the Corporation and the mer
chants. No time Avas lost in fitting out a ship, though
but of 160 tons ; and the voyage was so successful that two
vessels sailed in the folloAving year, carrying out. cargoes
¦and money to the then enormous value of £5,1-00. Not-him--

GG

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1618

more is heard for nearly half a century about the three
years' trial, and little note seems to have been taken of the
prescribed maximum of 200 tons. William Colston, the
father of Edward, was carrying on an extensive and lucra
tive traffic Avith the fruit islands, Avhen the Levant Com
pany made a renewed attempt to exclude Bristolians from
the trade. See 1665.
The appetite of the members, of the Corporation for re
ligious lectures seems to haAe been sharpened by Avhat it
fed on. The lectureship maintained at St. Nicholas' Church
out of funds draAvn from the city parishes having become
A^acant in March, 1618, the Council ordered that a learned
man should be jirocured from Oxford or Cambridge to sup
ply the vacancy and to lecture on tAvo days a week. The
stipend Avas £52 a year. A satisfactory candidate was not
found till the autumn of 1619, when Thomas Tucker, B.D.
(haA-ing a certificate of competency from Dr. Laud), Avas-
appointed with the approval of the Bishop. The Council,
to provide the new-comer Avith a house, then increased the
salary by £6, abstracting that sum out of the rental of
the BartholomeAV Lands, held in trust for the Grammar
School !
An early mention of the Penn family occurs in a memo
rial addressed to the Privy Council by the Corporation in
June, 1618, on behalf of Giles and William Penn, local
merchants. The document prayed protection for five years
for the Penns, who had been reduced to ruin through mis
fortunes, and Avho proposed to go oversea, with tho help of
some mercantile friends, to seek the recovery of large debts
clue to them. This project, it was added, Avas being
thwarted by a few of their creditors, Avho refused them
license to embark. The Privy Council, in a reply addressed
to the Mayor, Alderman Doughty, and others, granted the
prayer of the petition, and requested them to call the
objectors before them and move them to more charitable
conduct. If they still Avere refractory their names were to
be sent to the Council, a hint likely to remove all obstacles.
Giles Penn, Avho af terwards became a captain in the Royal
Navy, Avas the father of Admiral Sir William Penn, and
the grandfather of the founder of Pennsylvania.
The northern hmits of the city still extended no further
than St. James's Barton. A deed of 1579, in referring to-
Stokes Croft, describes it as a field containing one little
lodge and a garden ; but there was a footpath through the
ground, and in 1618 the city paviour received sixjience

1618]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

67

from the Chamberlain "for mending holes at Stokes Croft
style." The legal profession does not appear to have been much
esteemed by the Corporation. It Avas ordered in September
that, there being six attorneys practising in the court of
the Guildhall, whereas of ancient time there were only
four, no new election should take place until after the num
ber had been reduced to the old standard. It may be added
that free burgesses were not allowed to raise actions against
each other in the courts at Westminster. In 1617 tAvo
citizens were fined £10 each for this "offence," Avhich was
stated to bo in violation of their burgess oath and of the
charters. An extraordinary ordinance respecting tho manufacture
of soap Avas made by the Council in November. It was
decreed that no soapmaker should thenceforth boil any oil
or stuff other than olive oil, under a penalty of £10, and
that in default of payment he should be committed to gaol
till he paid the money. This outrageous attempt to pro
mote the interests of merchants trading to Southern Europe
evidently aroused indignation. A month later the ordi
nance was repealed, but another was adopted, forbidding
makers of black soap to boil train and rape oil and tallow,
under pain of a fine of £40 for a first offence and of dis
franchisement for a second. After an interval of only five
Aveeks this decree made way for a third, which affirmed, in
bold defiance of the truth, that olive oil had always been
the only oil used by honest makers in producing black soap,
and that tho uso of rape and train oil and tallow had been
devised by evil-disposed and covetous persons to the injury
of the eommoiiAvealth. A penalty of £40 was imposed on
anyone using thoso "noisome and unwholesome" mate
rials, and on any ono buying or selling such " base" soap.
Tho searchers of tho Soapmakers' Company were to have
£4 out of every fine, and the rest Avas to be divided between
the Company and the Corporation. Another ordinance to
tho same effect, but reducing the penalty by two-thirds
was issued iu 1624, indicating that the regulations had beeii
ignored by manufacturers. On this occasion a show of
vigour was thought desirable, and Henry Yate, a Common
Councillor, Avas fined £10 for contemptuously making soap
of rape oil and other base stuff. The ordinance afterwards
became obsolete.
A renewed attempt Avas made in 1618 to further the
colonization of Newfoundland. Some Bristol merchants

GS

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1618-19
obtained a grant of land there from the London and Bristol
Chartered Company (see p. 39), and resolved on the estab
lishment of a settlement, to be called "Bristol Hope,"
apparently not far distant from Guy's little colony at Sea
Forest. Tho project, hoAvever, like its forerunner, Avas ¦
abandoned after a feAv years' trial.
A characteristic defiance of popular feeling on the part of
James I. Avas the issue by his orders, in 1618, of Avhat was
styled the Book of Sports, Avhich the incumbent of every
church Avas required to read from the pulpit and to assist
in carrying into effect. After requiring Romanists and
Puritans to conform to the Church, the royal rescript
enjoined that those Avho attended divine service should not
be disturbed on Sunday afternoons in their laAvful recrea
tions, such as archery, dancing, football, leap-frog, vaulting,
etc ; neither Avere they to be prevented from enjoying May
games around the maypole, Whitsun ales, and morrice
dancing at Christmas. Sunday bear and bull-baiting, and
the playing of interludes, Avere, hoAvever, forbidden, as was
boAvling " by the meaner sort of peojile." The mandate
Avas received with speechless horror by the bulk of religious-
minded people, and unquestionably promoted tho growth of
Puritanism in Bristol and other populous centres. Perhaps
there is no more striking proof of the Avilful blindness of
Charles I. in defying the feelings of the nation than his
republication of this Book of Sports in October, 1633, Avith
an additional and highly offensive clause, permitting the
holding of yearly wakes, or ale drinkings, around parish
churches on the feast of the saint to whom the building
was dedicated. In May, 1643, the detested book Avas
burned by the common hangman, by order of Parliament.
Another device of the Government for arbitrarily extorting
money from the mercantile community aroused much
excitement about this time. One of the crying evils of
James's reign was the constant seizure of merchant vessels
by corsairs sailing out of Algiers, Sallee and Tunis, who
not only plundered the ships, but carried off the creAvs to
lano-uish in slavery for life, unless large sums Avere offered
for & their ransom, the English Government meanwhile
treating these iniquities Avith perfect unconcern. In 1617
the Privy Council, in a letter to the Mayor of Bristol, after
stating that within a feAv years 300 sail of ships, with
many hundreds of English sailors, had been captured by
the Turks, and that the merchants of London had offered
to raise £40,000 to assist the King in suppressing tho evil,

1619]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

69

requested that the hearty support of Bristol should be
given to the movement. For some nnknoAvn reason, this
demand was not followed up for nearly tAvo years. But in
January, 1619, the Privy Council again addressed the Mayor
requiring that the local merchants should be assembled and
asked to subscribe liberally toAvards an intended expedition,
the writers adding that the contribution must not be less
than £2,500, and that half the amount must be forth
coming Avithin two months. (Exeter, Plymouth and
Dartmouth were assessed at £1,000 each, and Hull at £600.)
The mandate excited general dissatisfaction. The ravages
of the pirates were, indeed, incontestable ; the brigands
often SAvarmed at the mouth of the Bristol Channel, and
the city Avas frequently apjoealed to for subscriptions to
redeem captives. But the task of suppressing the robbers
Avas a national one ; and if the Royal Navy Avas incapable
of dealing with it the blame rested with a GoA*ernment
which, Avith double the income enjoyed by Ehzabeth, pro
fligately squandered its resources, and had spurned the
advice of Parliament for nearly eight years. Who could
feel certain, moreover, that the money thus arbitrarily
demanded would not be diverted to some unworthy
purpose ? These objections, of course, could not be
publicly expressed, but Avhen the mandate of the Privy
Council was laid before a meeting of the merchants, they
declared that the sum required was wholly beyond their
capacity ; they had sustained great misfortunes by the loss
of five valuable shijjs, and the utmost they could contri
bute was £600. In replying to the Government, the Mayor,
foreseeing the wrath that would be excited by the response,
stated that he had addressed earnest persuasions to the
leading citizens, and had raised £400 more, which was all
that could be obtained. The Privy Council promptly
expressed surprise at the backAvardness of Bristol when
other and inferior towns were, it was alleged, displaying
zeal. Their lordships added that no part of the assessment
could be remitted, and the Mayor was directed to deal with
the merchants " effectually." Another order followed,
peremptorily requiring a remittance of half the impost, or
the appearance at Court of the Mayor and two aldermen to
answer for their negligence. The Mayor, Alderman
Whitson and Alderman Barker thereupon departed for
London, with £1,000 in hand, while other delegates went
up on behalf of the Merchants' Society. The deputations
specially prayed that the loans made by the city to the

70 THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL [1619
King, still outstanding, together with the large sums
expended in equipping ships to suppress piracy in the
Bristol Channel, should bo taken into account ; and relief
was also sought in consideration of the losses borne by the,
merchants in providing Avine for the King at Woodstock
and the Queen at Bath. These pleas Avere scornfully
rejected, and, strangely enough, the Privy Council even
refused to accept the £1,CX(0 tendered on account, and
dismissed the suppliants to their homes Avith threats as to
future proceedings. The intended expedition Avas after-
Avards postponed for a year. In February, 1620, the
Government renewed its demands, informing the Mayor
that no abatement or further delay could be tolerated.
The merchants then held another meeting,_ and repeated
their previous allegations of poverty and inability, and
the Mayor stamped these statements as truthful, asserting
that the citizens had lost £8,000 in a single year by
shipwrecks and pirates. But the excuses Avere of no avail,
and the Government eventually extracted the full amount
it had imposed. About £1,000 Avas raised on loans, Avhich
were gradually cleared off by levying local dues on shipping
and merchandise. The expedition, which did not sail until
October, 1620, ended, like most of James's enterprises, in
disgraceful failure, through lack of gunpoAvder and pro
visions. The city waits, four in number, have been already
mentioned. In January, 1619, the Council thought that
the band needed strengthening, and resolved to give 26s. 8c/.
a year " to a fifth man, to play with the other musitions
of the city on the saggebutt, to make up a fifth part."
Early in the year, the Earl of Arundel, the premier peer
of the realm and an influential member of the Privy
Council, paid a visit to Bristol, and met with what he
regarded as a cold reception from the authorities. The
latter, getting a hint of his discontent, and knoAving his
influence at Court, gave orders to a comfit maker for a
quantitv of sweetmeats; but his lordship, unappeased by
the tardy compliment, rejected the present, and departed
in dudgeon. Making the best of the rebuff, the Corpora
tion bargained with the confectioner to take his cates back
again on payment of 10s. The Earl's displeasure was but
temporary, for in 1621 the Council bestowed £11 on his
secretary " for painstaking towards the city business."
The Corporation displayed abnormal zeal about this
period in providing the trained bands with arms, ammuni-

1619-20]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

71

tion, and armour. The previous provision Avas for twenty
men, but new corslets, head-pieces, muskets, pikes anc
swords Avere laid in for thirty additional soldiers. Tin
-corslets cost 22s. bd. each, and the muskets from 12s. t<
15s. A new ensign was bought for £8 5s., a drum foi
£2 12s., and half a ton of gunpowder (stored in the ok
Council House at the Guildhall !) at 9|d. per pound.
In July, 1619, James I. made a grant under sign manua
to tho Mayor and Corporation of Bath, permitting them tc
make the Avon navigable from Bristol to their city for the
¦carriage of merchandise, and to receive the profits there
from. Though nothing Avas clone, or apparently attempted.
to carry out tho project, it Avas long a cherished idea of the
Bathonians. (See 1656.)
An odd proposal Avas made by the Privy Council in
December. Writing to the Mayor and Aldermen, their
lordships stated that the King, before granting a Corpora
tion to Waterford, Avas desirous of seeing some additional
Englishmen in the jilace, and directed inquiries to be made
as to the, Avillingness of any Bristolians to settle there and
form part of the hoav corporation. Such persons should be
Avorth £1,000 .each, or £500 at the least, and should be of
good temper, not turbulent or violent, so that they might
take their turns in the magistracy. The reply of the
justices has not been jiresciwed, and there is no record of
any migration.
Alderman MattheAv HaA-iland, one of the Avealthiest of
local merchants, died in March, 1620. By a remarkatee
instruction given in his Avill, he desired that his body,
instead of being interred in his parish church, like those of
other city magnates, should be buried in St. Werburgh's
churchyard, " Avithout a coffin, if I may." Another custom
of the time Avas to give black cloaks to as many poor
persons as represented the age of the deceased ; but Mr.
Haviland ordered that goAvns of russet cloth should be
bestoAved ou only twelve " honest men," Avith 12d. each for
their funeral dinners. If, hoAveA'er, the cloth could not be
had, thirty such men Avere to be clothed in frieze goAvns.
The popular Puritan vicar, Mr. Yeamans, Avas bequeathed
a legacy for preaching a funeral sermon on a text named in
the Avill, and £4 yearly Avere left for preaching tAvel\*e
sermons to the jirisoners in NeAvgate.
The creation by the King of hoav monopolies was of con
stant occurrence. A monopoly of making tobacco pipes
having been sold to a company in London, a royal pro-

72

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1620

clamation Avas issued in May, 1620, forbidding any one from
violating the terms of the patent by manufacturing pipes
or buying from unhnvful makers, and threatening offenders
Avith fine and imprisonment. A feAv months later, a similar
proclamation Avas issued in connection Avith a monopoty
just granted to Londoners for the exclusive making of
starch. Both these industries Avere then largely prosecuted
in Bristol, and the grievance caused by the royal policy
must have been keenly felt. The monopolies continued
until they were dealt Avith by the Long Parliament. By
that time smoking had become so prevalent that the House
of Commons, in July, 1644, passed an Ordinance, imposing
an excise duty on " tobacco pipes of all sorts, to be paid by
the first buyer, for eA-ery grosse four pence."
The first local bookseller of Avhom there is authentic record
is mentioned in the Council minutes for June, 1620. One
Eliazer Edgar petitioned for the freedom, "only for the
using of the trade of binding and selling of books," and he
Avas admitted on payment, of £4.
With a vieAv to employing the prisoners confined in
Bridewell, the Corporation, in September, set up a "Brassil"
[logwood?] mill in the building at a cost of about £45.
Hoav the machine was put in action does not appear.
In October the Corporation granted a new lease for thirty-
one years to the Master and Company of Innholders of a
tenement, containing tAvo chambers, called the Innholders'
Hall, situate in Broad Street, "near the Tennis Court
there " — an interesting reference to a place of amusement
at that spot, of which this is the earliest record, though a
tennis-court had existed near Bell Lane previous to 1558.
In December, 1662, the Corporation, on payment of a fine
of £80, granted a neAV lease of the tennis-court and an
adjoining house for a term of forty-one years at a rent of
£4 (is. 8c/. yearly.
The A^egetable market had up to this period been held
chiefly in High Street ; but a corporate ordinance Avas
issued in October forbidding the sale of carrots, cabbages,
and turnips in that thoroughfare, and requiring dealers to
resort to Wine Street only. As the pillory in the latter
street Avas frequently in requisition, handy missiles were
thus provided for the rabble, Avhich rarely failed to jielt
offenders Avith merciless seA'erity.
The early efforts of Sir Ferdinando Gorges to promote
the colonization of America Avere noticed at page 27. After
some years' inaction, Gorges petitioned for and Avas con-

1620]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

73

ceded, in November, 1620, a new royal patent incorporating
what Avas commonly styled " the Council for Ncav England,"
to Avhich James I. made tho extraordinary grant of the
Avhole of North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
lying between the 40th and 48th degrees of latitude. A
practically free trade with England was conceded to the
colonists, with exclusive rights of fishing on the east coast.
The earliest extant document relating to the incorporation
is a letter of the Privy Council to the Mayors of Bristol and
other Western towns, dated September 18th, 1621, stating
that although the Company had offered every facility to
merchants to partake in their privileges by becoming
members, yet unauthorized persons had intruded in the
trade to New England and fished on the coast, and request
ing the Mayors to give Avarning that future offenders
Avould be severely punished. The Mayor of Bristol for-
Avarded the missive to the Merchants' Society, accompany
ing it with an elaborate document that he had receiA'ed
from Sir F. Gorges (then stajdng Avith Sir Hugh Smyth at
Long Ashton). From the latter paper it appears that the
Comjiany Avished to farm out its privileges to a separate
joint-stock concern, having subsidiary branches at Bristol,
Exeter, etc., the Avhole to be under the supervision of the
NeAV England Council, Avho demanded a share of the profits.
The scheme was regarded by the Bristol merchants, who
invariably shunned joint-stock companies, as unpractical
and tmworkable, and, in spite of an expostulatory letter
from Gorges, foUoAved up by a personal conference Avith
him, he was informed through the Mayor on October 13th
that the Merchants' Company found the details of his plan
so " difficult " that, in the absence from home of several
members, they could arrive at no conclusion until they
received further explanations ; but that they hoped in the
meantime they would be permitted to fish, on undertaking
to pay a proportion of the profits. About the. same date
some leading members of the Merchants' Society wrote to
the members for the city, then in London, stating that
they "in no Avise liked " Gorges' propositions, yet, in con
sequence of the failure of the NeAvfounclland fishery, some
Bristolians were anxious to make a trial of the neAV
grounds, and Gorges had offered to grant a ship the per
petual privilege of fishing for a payment of £10 for each
30 tons burthen, or £50 for a ship of 150 tons. Some being
Avilling to adventure on these terms, the writers desired
that the New England charter might be perused to dis-

coyer whether the Council had really power to restrain
nshmg on the coast. The answer to this letter has not
been preserved. In December, 1622, Sir. F. Gorges and his
colleagues addressed a letter to the Mayor, stating that,
although the Privy Council had just rigorously forbidden
any invasion of the Company's privileges, they were still
Avilling to grant licenses to trade and to fish on reasonable
conditions, and desired the fact might be made known.
Another proposition Avas also forwarded by the Company,
by which every person who adventured £12 10s. in their
settlement was offered a free gift of 200 acres of land in
tee ; while, to defray the cost of transporting the adven
turer s family, he was promised 100 acres for each soul
carried out at a chief rent of only 5s. To promote the
success of the colony, the King, in December, 1623, sent a
letter to the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant of Somer
set and Bristol, and the justices and deputy-lieutenants,
uigmg them to move persons of quality and means to
advance a plantation so especially advantageous to the
trade ol the AY estern counties. A copy of this missive Avas
sent by Lord Pembroke to the Mayor, urging compliance
Avith the royal request; but the mercantile community
seem to have made no response. After the death of Sir
Hugo Smyth, m 1627, Sir Ferdinando Gorges married his
avkIoav, and m right of her jointure became temporary
OAvner of the Great House on St. Augustine's Back. In a
letter Avntten m that mansion on April 6th, 1632, the
gallant knight refers to a sport that is knoAvn to have
been popular amongst the gentry of the time, though never
mentioned by local annalists. He was prevented, he told a
/ n „ ? Lond.on> from travelling to toAvn, having " taken
a fall from Ins horse at a race meeting, and Avas unable to
move. Almost the last mention of Gorges in the State
I apers occurs in a charter granted to him on March 29th,
K>39, Avhen he Avas upwards of seventy years of age, by
Avhich Charles I. conceded to him and his heirs the entire
provmce of Maine, New England, Avith the islands thereto
ajipertaming, with a reservation to the CroAvn of a fifth
part of the gold and silver-mines and of the pearl fishery,
together with a yearly rent of one quarter of wheat.
( The '^ Articles and Decrees " of the Compa-ny of St.
Stephen's Ringers appear to have been drawn up in the
closing months of 1620 ; but it is clear from the tenor of
some of the rules that the Society was even then an ancient
institution. Like the Fraternity of St. Mary of the Bell-

house, who had a chapel and chantry priest in St. Peter's
Church, the Ringers had been probably a pre- Reformation
guild for religions, benevolent, and social purposes. In
1620 the members were still exclusively bell-ringers, and-
the 22nd article of their " Ordinary " indicates the feeling
that survived amongst them. " If any one of the said
Company shall be so rude as to run into the belfry before
he do kneel doAvn and pray, ... he shall pay, for the
first offence, sixpence, and for the second he shall be cast out
of the Company." Each " freeman," or member, on being
admitted gave a breakfast to the brethren, or paid doAvn
3s. Ad., and afterwards contributed a penny per quarter to
the Society's funds. On Michaelmas Day, between five, and
eight o'clock in the morning, the Fraternity Avere required
to meet for the election of a master and two wardens for
the ensuing year. Three members Avere to be put in
nomination for the former, and four for the latter office,
and the man selected as master Avas to contribute two
shillings toAvards a breakfast for those assembled, whilst
the new Avardens Avere to give the master a pint of Avine
apiece. But the great yearly gathering of the Company
was_ fixed, as it continues to be, for November 17th, the
anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth, avIio is
traditionally said to have been charmed by the sweet peals
of the St. Stephen's Ringers on her visit to the city, and to
Avhom they have ahvays rendered exceptional honour. The
early minute-books of the Society have been lost. The
earliest knoAvn master Avas Thomas Atkins, elected in
1681. The Bishop of Bristol, Dr. Searchfield, made an appeal to
the citizens in December on behalf of the parochial clergy,
pointing to their inadequate, stipends, and suggesting that
an application should be made to Parliament for an increase
in their incomes. His action gave offence to the Common
Council, which passed a resolution declaring that similar
attempts had been made on sundry previous occasions, and
that, as the livings had of late increased in value, there
Avas less cause than ever for the course proposed, Avhich
would be vigorously opposed by the Corporation. The,
incumbents thereupon appealed for relief to the Privy
Council, stating that the directions formerly given by their
lordships for an increase of their incomes had not been
acted upon, and praying that they might be repeated. The
petitioners Avere, they alleged, in great poverty, no single
benefice yielding more than £8 or £10 yearly, although "all

7G

TICK ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1620-21
in superstition? times gave a sufficient maintenance to a
learned man The Privy Council, in March, 1621, sent this
petition to the Bishop and tho Mayor, requesting them,
until further orders, to persuade the burgesses and men of
ability to contribute towards the maintenance of the
ministers, ' especially of those who are preachers "—a proof
that some Avere still remiss in their duties. The names
aud abilities of persons refusing to subscribe were to be
sent up to the Council. Notwithstanding tho implied
threat, no evidence is to be found that the order was
obeyed. A general election took place in December, Avhen Alder
man Whitson and Alderman John Guy were returned for
the city The Houses met early in 1621, and the Commons
ost no time m denouncing the trading monopolies granted
by the Kmg several of the more oppressive monopolists
being impeached. Some local bearings of the subject are
not Avithout interest.
About three years before this date the King granted a
patent to two Welshmen, giving them an exclusive right
for twenty-one years, to export from South AVales 67000
kilderkins of butter on payment of one shilling per kilder
kin to the Crown. The patent was forthwith sold to a
London merchant named Henley, who put a stop to the
large and profitable business previously carried on in the
same district by certain Bristolians. The latter then found
it necessary to negotiate with Henley, and, for a ready-
money payment of £400, and an undertaking to pay the
Grown rent, with 2s. per kilderkin more to the patentee
they obtained a concession of two-thirds of the monopoly
The landed interest in Wales, deprived of an open market
for their produce, and seeing great profits made by tho
engrossers, naturally felt aggrieved, and instructed their
representatives to complain to the House of Commons ;
whilst the Bristol merchants, in great alarm, sent pressing-
requests to the city members to support their cause. The
price of butter, it was alleged, had not been unduly en
hanced in England, for through the care taken in supply
ing the Bristol market— a statement throAving a flood of
light on_the curious butter transactions of the Corporation
(see p. 65) — the price had not exceeded Ad. per lb. even in
times of scarcity. Fortunately for the monopolists, the
House of Commons was not allowed time to remedy the
Welsh grievance, and the patent remained in force.
Strangely indifferent to the current of national opinion,

1621]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

77

the Merchants' Society thought the moment a favourable
one for appealing to Parliament for an extension of .their
privileges. They had always claimed an exclusive right to
trade as merchants in the port of Bristol, but the Act
Avhich they obtained in 1566 to enforce that claim Avas
repealed five years later on the petition of the Corporation
and they had been unable to prevent the influx of com
petitors. A new effort to establish a monopoly being now
resolved upon, a Bill was prepared to revive tho Act of
I5I.I,, and tho Common Council, in which tho mercantile
interest had become predominant, published what was
styled a "certificate," for circulation in tho House of
Commons, alleging the urgency of the measure. Beginning
with a flagrantly untruthful assertion that the former Act
had been repealed through the manoeuvring of petty
shopkeepers " the certificate went on to affirm that the
liberty of trading thus secured had tempted inexperienced
retailers, and even mean craftsmen, to forsake their callings
and traffic as merchants, with the result of impoverishing
both themselves and the Society, to the great prejudice of
the city, the decay of navigation, and the diminution of
the King s Customs. Owing to the pressure of public busi
ness, the city members did not introduce the Bill but it
will shortly be heard of again.
The Corporation, in January, 1621, resolved on an
ordinance " for the setting of the Common Watch," of which
we hear for the first time. By this document, " all the
inhabitants, probably meaning all the male householders
were required m turn either to serve as watchmen or to
pay a weekly sum for a substitute. The regulation as to
numbers ,s somewhat unintelligible, but seems to show that
personal service was not anticipated. The sergeants were
to warn "32 persons for the watch every night 5
for Froom Gate, 5 for Newgate, 5 for Reddiff Gate 5
for Temple Gate, and 4 for Pithay Gate "-a total of
only twenty-four,-" and shall reLn six of the -pay
tellman " l T,nS Tld-rmUellffht' aud two P»y» A* tL
bellman Ihe sheriffs were to see the watch sworn in
nightly for one month, and then tAvo councillors, '• as "hey
are in antiquity," Avere to perform the same duty for each
following mon h throughout the year. I„ July, 16*8 Jhe
Council ordered that the above "Act" should be revved-
a plain admission that the new institution had Sen
objected to by the householders, and had been suffered to
become extinct. By the revived ordinance b rgSe we e

7S

TUB ANNALS OF BRISTOL,

[1621

required to Avatch in person, a decree which wealthy men
were not likely to obey.
Another ordinance of January, 1621, relates to certain
" good gifts heretofore given to the city which cannot uoav
be restored to the uses intended by the donors," — clearly
referring to pre-Reformation bequests left to the Corpora '-
tion for superstitious services. It Avas decreed that £60
jier annum arising from such, gifts should be bestowed on
placing (apprenticing) poor burgesses' children, and that
£10 more should be spent in the purchase of coals for tho
poor. Subsequently a third of the former amount was
diverted to the maintenance of poor children sent to Avork
in the House of Correction. These payments came to an
end during the financial embarrassments caused by the
Civil War, Avhen the capital of the above benefactions dis
appeared. Early in the year, the Privy Council addressed a letter
to the Mayor requesting the contributions of the citizens
in the King's name for the recovery of the Palatinate,
"his children's patrimony." The Prince Palatine's misfor
tunes had excited intense sympathy amongst Englishmen,
and the citizens appear to have responded liberally. In the
Council every member save one (Henry Gibbes) added his
name to the subscription list, the donations varying from
20s. to £5. Shortly afterwards, however, the Palatinate
AAras hopelessly lost, mainly through the besotted policy of
James I., and the Bristol fund remained in hand. In 1623
the Council ordered that the amount should be paid over to
the Chamberlain, and that £150 should be disbursed for
ransoming upwards of forty Bristolians held in slavery at
Algiers. The Privy Council seems to have forgotten tho
matter until eight years later, when an informer brought
the facts under its notice, and a demand for an explanation
Avas instantly forAvarded. Strange to say the subject was
again allowed to go to sleep, and nothing more is heard of
it until 1637, when the Attorney-General filed an informa
tion against the Chamberlain, to which the latter pleaded
that all the money, Avith the approval of the subscribers,
had been expended in the ransom of slaves. As tho
Government had obviously no right to the contributions,
the prosecution Avas quietly dropped.
Another instance of aristocratic interference in civic
affairs took place in March, 1621. The aged and much
respected tOAvn clerk, Hierom Ham, having intimated his
intention to resign office, one James Dyer, a young laAv

16211

IN TOE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

71>

student in London, procured a "letter of recommendation"
from the Earl of Arundel to the Common Council, and the
ancient laAv requiring the clerk to be a barrister — a very
necessary qualification, seeing that the officer presided at
quarter sessions, and was legal adviser to the magistrates
and Corporation — having been dispensed with "for this
time only," the Earl's nominee was at once elected.
Thomas Cecill, one of the sheriffs appointed in. 1618, was
accused in August, 1621, of a discreditable offence. During
hi.s shrievalty he had tho nomination of ono of tho sheriffs
sergeants, and appointed a man who had promised him a
bribe of £3, secured on a bond for double the amount. By
an ancient ordinance the penalty for such a misdemeanour
was £200, but on Cecill making an apology, the Council
merely ordered him to deliver up the bond and pay a fine
of £3.
A curious imbroglio in reference to the Rectory of Portis-
head occurred at this time. The manor having been
purchased by the Corporation, they claimed the patronage
of the living, and Mr. Tucker, the lecturer already men
tioned, Avas preferred on the incumbency becoming vacant.
The right to do this was, however, disputed, the King
nominating one candidate, whilst a Mr. Bond, the heirs of
Lord Latimer, and Lord Berkeley severally claimed the
right of patronage. Eventually Bond obtained £350 from
tho Corporation for withdrawing his pretensions, and the
other claims having been abandoned, the Council sold
tho next presentation to Tucker for £160. Upwards
of eleven years later Bond raised a fresh claim, alleging
that he had paid a large sum to get rid of the King^s
nominee, and tho disgusted Corporation had to give him
two hogsheads of claret and a butt of sack to silence his
demands. _ The clucking of female scolds, an ancient English institu
tion, emerges from obscurity in the summer of 1621, Avhen
by order of the magistrates, a neAV cucking-stool was
erected on the north bank of the Froom, near the AVeir. A
trial of the apparatus took place a few Aveeks later, Avhen a
vixenish woman from Redcliff Avas set in the stool, whirled
over the river, and ducked three times by the city' beadles
who received tAvo shillings for their " pains." The shrew j
nevertheless, offended again, and underwent duckino- a
second time, but the beadles' fee Avas reduced to Is. bd. ; and
in 1624 they Avere alloAved only 8</., though they had to
deal Avith two women " washed " together. Another function

.80

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1621-22

of these officers is noted by the Chamberlain about the
same time: "Paid the beadles for cutting off pigs' tails
that Avent about the streets, Id." A prodigious number of
pigs appears to have been kept in the city throughout the
century. The Mayor, in September, 1621, received a letter from
the Privy Council, requesting that an experienced man of
business should be sent up to London to offer them sug
gestions as to the obvious decay of the national trade and
the scarcity of coin. Alderman Guy accordingly presented
himself at Court, and alleged on behalf of his brother
merchants that the decline in trade Avas owing to the
taxes levied on merchandise, the restraints on commerce
imposed at the outports, especially on the export of corn,
the frauds of cloth manufacturers, the depredations of
pirates, the decay of the NeAvfoundland fishery, foreign
Avars, etc. With reference to the scarcity of money, Mr.
Guy adduced as its primary cause " the extraordinary im
portation and use of tobacco," a surprising complaint in
the mouth of a Bristolian. (Tobacco, hoAvever, Avas still a
costly article. Although the Customs duty Avas insignifi
cant, the Corporation in 1624 paid 3s. for a quarter of a
pound presented to one Sir Richard Hill.) Contributory
causes, added Mr. Guy, were the export of coin to the East
Indies, the prohibition of grain exports, and the excessive
use of gold, silver, silk and velvet in the dress of the ujiper
classes. Some of the alderman's statements must have
been far from palatable to the Government, which Avas at its
Avits' end for money, and he was politely dismissed. Every
source of revenue that could be " farmed " Avas disposed of
about this time. Even the penalties on profane cursing
and SAvearing were let to a farmer. An attempt made to
induce Bristolians to farm the Customs of the port was,
however, declined Avith thanks, the CroAvn demanding a
sum in excess of previous receipts. According to an
official return in the Record Office, tho average annual
amount received at the local Custom House during the
seven years ending 1620 was only £3,706.
The head mastership of the Grammar School becoming
vacant in 1622 a corporate deputation Avas dispatched to
Oxford in search of a fitting successor. The expenses of
two gentlemen and a servant, Avith three horses, " being
out five, days," amounted to £4 5s. bd. The result was the
appointment of Richard Cheynie, at the usual salary of
£26 13s. Ad. As the sons of freemen had a free education,

1622]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

81

the scholars were doubtless numerous, and the Council, to
augment the stipend, permitted the master to take tAventy
" foreign " boys, half of whom he was alloAved " to table "
(as boarders). In 1629 the Council increased the fixed
salary to £40, and dismissed the usher, Avhose negligence or
incapacity was said to have caused many lads to be sent to
schools outside the city. The man Avas, hoAvever, given
£50 OAving to his poverty. A new usher was then ap
pointed, and the previous salary of £13 6s. 8d. was increased
to £30.
During the year 1622 a curious tract Avas printed in
London by one Nathaniel Butter, bearing the folloAving
lengthy title : — " A Relation strange and true of a ship of
Bristol named the Jacob, of 120 tons, which Avas about the
end of October last, 1621, taken by the Turkish jjirates of
Argier, And hoAV within five days after, four English
youths did valiantly overcome thirteen of the said Turks, and
brought the ship to St. Lucar, in Spain, where they sold
nine of the Turks for Galley Slaves." The narrator states
that after the capture of the Jacob the four Bristol youths
were left on board, together with thirteen Turks charged
to carry the vessel to Algiers. During a heavy storm,
the Bristolians set upon and killed the cajDtain and three
Turks, another leaping overboard to escape them. The
rest of the corsairs, many of Avhom had been wounded in
attacking the Jacob, were below deck Avhen the lads reA'olted,
and Avere kejit prisoners there until the ship reached Spain,
with the result recorded in the title-page. A cojyy of this
very rare tract is in the collection of Mr. G. E. Weare.
A someAvhat curious letter from the Privy Council was
rcceiA'cd in July by tho Mayor and Aldermen. Their
lordships stated they had been informed by John Scott, of
Bristol, that he had for forty years refined silver out of
lead, and made such lead into sheets and pipes, but was
now molested and troubled by indictments raised against
him for such work. Scott being hoav in the King's mines
royal, tho Council thought him more Avorthy of encourage
ment than interruption, and requested the justices to protect
him for the future.
Amongst the civic officials of the age were two men
charged Avith the duty of " tasting " the ale breAved for
jiublic consumption and of informing against knavish
breAvers. Their united salaries, 53s. Ad., Averein September,
1622, reduced to 40s. On the other hand, the two coroners,
who had previously received a very meagre stipend, Avero
o

82

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1622-23
gratified Avith 40s. each yearly, " to encourage them to dis
charge their office." (See 1651.)
NotAvithstanding the settlement of the purveyance dis
pute by the Lord Chief Baron in 1609 (see p. 36), the
Government in November, 1622, revived its former claim,
and sent down orders to the Customs officers to levy the
same composition for groceries in Bristol as was paid in
London. Local merchants, of course, made a strong protest
against this arbitrary abrogation of a solemn legal decision,
but Avhen Alderman Guy, as their deputy, appealed to the
Lord Treasurer, that minister coolly declared that the Chief
Baron's judgment was of no effect, as he had been unduly
influenced by his Bristolian colleague, Mr. Baron Snigge.
Ultimately, hoAvever, the Treasurer consented to accept
such dues as were paid in 1601. But on examination it
was found that no clues for purveyance had been paid until
1603, when the Customs officers levied certain sums, for
Avhich illegality they were arraigned and convicted in the
Mayor's Court. Mr. Guy Avas thereupon instructed by the
merchants to stand out stoutly, but if he thought the
matter could be ended by a " thankful acknowledgement "
to the Lord Treasurer and one of his colleagues in the
shape of a present not exceeding £100 (in addition to a
like sum already given) the money Avould be forthcoming.
The merchants had a just appreciation of the persons they
had to deal Avith. In February, 1623, the Customs staff
received orders to forbear levying the dues in ready money,
and to accept bonds for the same, payable on demand — an
expedient Avhich enabled the Government to withdraAV
their claims Avithout loss of dignity.
Thomas Cecill, the discredited ex-sheriff already referred
to, made another indecorous appearance before the Council
in January, 1623. The minute is as folloAvs :—" Ordered
that Mr. Thomas Cecill, for his opprobrious and ttndecent
speeches used against Mr. Mayor in saying that he cared
not a  for him, nor yet for Doughtie, meaning Mr.
Alderman Doughtie, as also for his loose carriage and
behaviour, having often been seen drunk within this city,
shall be expelled and dismissed." The unabashed offender
soon after applied to the Court of King's Bench for a
mandamus requiring his restoration, but before the Council
shoAvecl cause against the Avrit, Mr. Alderman Guy, desirous
of avoiding litigation, informed his colleagues that Cecill
had sought his intercession, and undertaken to submit on
such terms as he (the Alderman) could obtain. It Avas

1623]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

83

therefore ordered, Avith Guy's approval, that the culprit
should ask pardon, acknowledge the justice of his sentence,
and pay a fine of £100 for re-admission. Cecill Avas then
brought m, but although he confessed his promise to Mr.
Guy, he refused to submit to the terms. Nothing is heard
•of him again until January, 1624, when he attended a
meeting of the Council, professing abundant sorrow for his
misdeeds, apologising to everybody, and begging for kindly
¦consideration. The fine being thereupon reduced to £50
he 'thankfully accepted" the judgment, paid the money
and resumed his seat. J
The inexpediency of holding an extensive corn market in
™,°Pen s,treets dawned upon the Council in February
1Wd> bu* the, adopted remedy substituted a perpetual for
an occasional inconvenience. Although Wine Street was
then only about half its present width, the Corporation
resolved on building a market-house eighty feet in length
and twelve m breadth in the centre of the thoroughfare
Wing only a narrow alley on each side. A well Avas'
sunk and the long-celebrated Wine Street Pump erected
at the same time, The ground thus occupied having
previously been let for booths during the fairs, the sheriff!
were granted a yearly sum of 2s. 6d. for every foot appro
priated. The ugly building soon afterwards constructed was
a nuisance from the outset, and was demolished in 1727
1 he to Is during its existence appear to have been collected
in kind. The Council, m December, 1628, gave orders that
the ancient -oil on gram brought to market, "a pint upon
•every sack," and the. toll on meal, taken time out of mind
«|«iai, itify not stated), should be collected from allcomers'
and that those refusing to pay should be distrained or
prosecuted. The whole of the corn from the surrounding
•districts must have been brought m by pack-horses, the
entry of carts being forbidden. '
1 « S16+iPriC! °f Jbef w1as1IonS ^ed by the magistrates. In
IbAi the standard Avholesale price Avas 8». per barrel or
shghtly more than 2-Ul. per gallon. One BarLs, a brewer
was committed for trial m March, charged on his own
-confession with having demanded £10 for twenty barrels
shipped for Wa es. In October the justices fixed the
number of Appiers," licensed to sell victuals also, at 126
St. Stephens parish being allotted twenty, and the other
populous parishes twelve each. " Tipplers," it will be seen
were not drinkers, but publicans ; on the other hand, smokers
were then styled " tobacconists." ' bmoiverb

84

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1623-
In an age Avhen medical charities Avere unknoAvn a slight
but kindly provision for the sick poor was made by the
Council in August. It was resolved that "Mr. Doctor
Chapped should be paid £ L quarterly so long as he should
continue to reside in the city and give advice in his pro
fession to such poor people as should repair to him
In March, 1623, Dr. Robert Wright was consecrated
Bishop of Bristol in the place of Dr. Searchfield, deceased,
and appears to have at once endeavoured to close the breach
between the Corporation and the cathedral authorities so
rudely opened by Bishop Thornborough. In November the
Council appointed a committee to confer Avith him in
reference to a proposal he had made to the Mayor for the
re-erection of tho corporate seats in the cathedral for the
hearing of sermons. At the same time, a "good" butt
of sack and two hogsheads of claret Avere ordered to be
sent to his lordship " as a token of the city's love," and
a lew weeks later he was presented with the freedom.
Ihe neAV seats, of which a lease in perpetuity was granted
7 X , - Dea? a.nd ChaPter, were erected in 1624, at a cost
ot £4o, exclusive of 15s. paid for a gilt " branch " for the
State sword, Avhich was fated to be the origin of another
bitter quarrel. The seats occupied a large space on both
sides of the choir, the members of the Council occupying
one side and their wives the other. Ten pounds were
afterwards presented to " Mr. Doctor Hussie," Chancellor of
the diocese, who had jirobably supervised the work.
Owing to the complaints of the inhabitants as to the
increased price of Kingswood coal, the Council, in July
appointed a committee to confer with a Mr. Player, Avho
" farmed " all the collieries in the Chase, with the view of
obtaining an abatement. The negotiation appears to have
been fruitless, for the Corporation soon afterwards addressed
a jietition to the Privy Council, setting forth that the poor
had been accustomed to buy coal at the rate of 3-^d. per
bushel, delivered in horse loads, but that Arthur Player
after engrossing all the pits, with greedy designs, had
diminished the size of the coal sacks by one half, charging
the old price for half the quantity. Relief Avas prayed for
this grievance, but there is no record of the result.
A hoav plan for providing employment for the poor was
started by the Council in November. A purchase was made
of a garden adjoining the House of Correction (BrideAvell),
and thai, building Avas enlarged to provide a Avorkhouse
for the unemployed. A master was next appointed, and

1623-24]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

85

furnished with £200 to lay in a " stock," apparently of
flax and hemp, and such persons Avere sent in to make nets
and pick " occombe " as the magistrates thought fit. Some
boys were also employed in making pins, the Corporation
advancing £100 to one Tilsley to set up the industry. As
usual, the latter experiment failed, and Tilsley became
insolvent. The c>. dition of the working classes became
much worse in 1624, and an ordinance was passed in Sep
tember declaring that the great increase of poverty Avas
duo to the creeping in of strangers and the groAvth of mendi
cancy ; though it Avas in fact mainly attributable to a bad
harvest and the general crippling of trade caused by the
system of monopolies. Funds Avere ordered to be raised in
each parish for providing Avork, vagabonds and " inmates "
Avere to be rigorously expelled, begging was noAvhere to be
suffered, and all offenders were to be incarcerated in the
House of Correction. Large quantities of Avheat and rye
Avere purchased for relieving the distress, and the Council,
as usual, provided a bountiful supply of butter.
At the general election, in January, 1624, the members
returned for Bristol Avere tAvo prominent citizens, Alderman
Guy and Mr. John Barker. The latter, educated at Oxford,
and an able and energetic politician, laid before the Com
mons the grievances suffered by his fellow-merchants from
the local Customs officials, Avho had enormously increased
the legal scale of fees. He also exposed the arbitrary de
mands made on the city in reference to the prisage of Avines.
In both cases the Commons resolved that the grieArances
had been established, and their action Avas so menacing
that the Customs stall hurried to make an agreement Avith
ihe Bristol merchants, by Avhich the fees were reduced to
the small sums paid forty years previously. (See 1633, Avhen
this concession Avas repudiated.) As the House refused to
grant the money demanded by the Government until
grievances Avere redressed, the session came to a premature
end. A characteristic display of kingly arrogance followed
in October. His Majesty declared in a Avrit of Privy Seal
that he had, iu 1621, ordered the wine duties to be doubled,
but had soon afterwards Avithdrawn that mandate, and
issued another, requiring that a duty of 20s. a tun in Lon
don, aud 13s. Ad. at the otttports, in excess of the legal Cus
toms, should be levied on Avines for the maintenance of his
daughter, the Princess Palatine, This tax, he added, had
been suspended in April in the expectation that other means
Avould be provided for the same purpose, but as Parliament

SG

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1G24

had not A'oted him a convenient supply he ordered the re
vival of the above duties from Michaelmas Day; any person
refusing payment to forfeit his Avines, and to undergo such
" corporal punishment " as his contempt deserved.
The groAving influence of Bishop Laud appears to be
indicated by the renewed attempts of the Privy Council to-
secure a rigorous observance of Lent. The city treasurer
in 1624, paid £5 18s. to the Butchers' Company. " by order
of the Mayor and Aldermen, towards the relief of the poor
of that Company in timo of Lent, to keep them from selling
flesh." Some idea of the character of the country roads around
the city may be gained from a resolution of the Court of
Aldermen iu June. It Avas ordered that these "causeAvays"
should in future be made six feet in breadth, " and no
more " ; and Dr. White's gift (see p. 47) Avas to be cleA-oted
to pitching them. Nearly £60 Avas spent in 1626 in setting
up posts along the higliAvay and the causeway at Kings-
Avood, for the guidance of travellers, the tracks being then
unenclosed. Some remains of the pack-horse roads are still
to be found. The best preserved is the old causeway from
Brislington to the city, via Knowle. " Hollybush Lane,"
on the north-western side of Durdham Down, Avas the only
road to Shirehampton until the construction of turimikes.
The corjDorate purchases of land at Portishead had by this
time become so considerable that it was determined in Sep
tember to reAnve the Manor Court there. The function was
celebrated Avith fitting pomp. The Mayor, aldermen, and
councillors, with their Avives and divers in An ted persons,
Avere roAved down in boats, and the procession folloAving the
disembarkation, headed by the SAVord-bearer and his mighty
Aveapon, the waits, and the civic officials, must have some
what astonished the secluded villagers. A feast, of course,
Avotind up the manorial proceedings, and the expenses alto
gether amounted to £27 8s. Id.
Another novelty also came into favour — the purchase of
the portraits of city benefactors. Pictures of Robert and
Nicholas Thorne Avere borrowed from a family in Wiltshire,
and copies Avere made for the Council House by some artist,
Avho received £2 4s. for his pains. A few weeks later a
payment of the same amount was made to "a Dutch
painter" for tAvo more copies, which Avere hung up in the
Grammar School. In 1(525 "John the painter" received
an order to draAv Dr. White's portrait, for which he re
ceived 30s. A blunder seems to have been made in the

1624]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

87

next commission, for the Chamberlain enters in his ac
counts :— " Paid for Sir Thomas White's picture that Avas
sent from Coventry hither, instead of Mr. Thomas White's
pictnre that I sent for, he being a worthy benefactor to
this city, £2 16s." In 1630 the Council gave a large order,
which the Chamberlain deals with as follows : — " Paid the
painter for making the pictures of benefactors to hang up
m the Council House, £15." The accounts of Queen Eliza
beth's Hospital for the same year contain the folloAving
item: — "Paid for making of Mr. John Carr's picture, at the
Gattnts, £2."
Some curious letters concerning John Digby, first Earl
of Bristol, are amongst the State Papers of 1624. Digby,
one of the King's favourites, Avas sent to Madrid to further
the notorious Spanish marriage project, and was created an
earl in 1622, to increase his influence in the negotiations.
But he subsequently quarrelled Avith the Duke of Bucking
ham, then supreme at Court, and, of course, fell into dis
grace. On September 23rd, 1624, he wrote to Secretary
Conway, stating that he intended to settle his family at
Bristol, and wished to go there to buy a house, but thought
it advisable to ask Avhether the King Avould be displeased
Avith the journey. In October the Secretary, Avriting to a
friend on various matters, incidentally remarked that the
Earl had been refused leave to live in Bristol. Yet a month
later ConAvay informed Bristol himself that His Majesty
was Avell pleased he should settle Avith his family as he pro
posed. There is no record that his lordship eA7er Ansited the
i 'ity, or had any family connection with it. Possibly the
death of the King caused him to change his purpose.
The heaviness of tho burden knoAvn as prisage, exclu
sively borne, by Avine importers in Bristol — those of other
ports being exempt — is exemplified by au agreement made
in November by tho local merchants Avith the "prisage
masters "—that is, tho persons to Avhom the imjiost had been
sublet by the Waller family, the patentees under the
CroAvn. (The lessees Avere a few wealthy Bristolians who
had combined for self-protection.) It Avas arranged that,
to aAroid the privilege of tasting and selecting previously
exorcised before one-tenth of a cargo Avas carried off, the.
merchants should pay £25 for each jirisage tun of claret,
£14 for each tun of Canary, Madeira, Malaga, or sack, and
as much for " Coniack or sherant "' as the best brought in
the market.
In tho minutes of the PriA-*y Council for January 1th,

ss

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1625
1625, is a copy of a letter addressed to the Mayor and Alder
men of Bristol, of a somewhat interesting character. Their
lordships write: — " Hearing that you propose to make a new
dock for the use of ships, of which we much approve, so that
it be further extended for his Majesty's service, which will
not cause muoh increased charge, We recommend that it be
made 100 feet within the Apron, and 34 feet broad at high
Avater, by which it will serve as well for the King's as for
private ships. By which,'und building larger ships, you
Avill do yourselves honour." Strangely enough, the cor
porate records contain no reference of any kind to the
alleged undertaking, and it Avould seem that the letter re
fers to an enterpriso of Alderman Robert Aldworth, who
had, in fact, already made in the Marsh what was called a
dock— namely, a berth in which a couple of ships could lie
at Ioav water Avithout danger of being upset— and was
proposing to construct another. A civic minute of July
20th, 1626, reads:—" Whereas Alderman Aldworth hath a
grant . . . for a term of four score years ... of a
dwelling house, storehouse, and neAV clock lately erected by
him in the Marsh . . . Agreed that in consideration
of_his making a sufficient dry dock (albeit it may cost him
£500) in the place Avhere the great dock hoav is, and of his
freely giving the same . . . . to the Merchants' Com
pany, there shall be a grant in feoffment made to him for
ever, of the said dwelling house, storehouse, and small (sic)
dock already made, at a rent of 12d." Mr. AldAvorth did
not accept this proposal, but carried out his previous inten
tion of excavating another inlet for the berthing of a ship.
A local annalist, noting his death in 1634, records that " ho
made two docks for shipping, Avhich came to nothing." In
September, 1637, the Corporation granted his heir, Giles
Elbridge, a lease for ninety-nine years of the dAvelling,
storehouse, neAV buildings, " and the little neAV dock lately
made by Alderman Aldworth, lying in a corner of the
Marsh adjoining the Froom," at a rent of £3, some arrears
being remitted, and " all former agreements touching the
premises discharged." The excavations, the site of which
is indicated by Alderskey (Aldsworth's Quay) Lane, at the
north end of Prince's Street, were filled up about 1687.
Evidence as to the decreasing value of money occurs in
January, 1 625. In Avills made at the beginning of the cen
tury it was not unusual for testators to direct their execu
tors to invest, money at 10 per cent, interest, and up to the
period uoav arrived at the- Corporation had never been able

1625]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

89

to raise loans at a lower rate than 6 per cent. The Council
now resolved that the maximum interest payable on bonds
should not exceed 5 per cent. A revulsion took jilace dur
ing the Civil War, when lenders often demanded 8 per
cent. The accession of Charles I. was proclaimed at the High
Cross on April 1st with the accustomed ceremony. The
civic expenses on the occasion Avere notably moderate, 18s. 6d.
in all being paid to a trumpeter, a drummer, two "phifers,"
and tho waits. The young King promptly gave the citi
zens a taste of the polity he had determined to pursue.
Before tho end of the month he issued a Privy Seal, order
ing that all the Customs duties levied in his father's reign,
many of Avhich had never been sanctioned by Parliament,
Avhilst others had become invalid by the late King's demise,
should continue in force, and that any person refusing to
nay them should be committed to prison until he submitted.
The arbitrary extra tax on Avines, ordained in the previous
year, had expired on the death of James, but on May 6th
the new monarch, by another warrant, directed the Lord
Treasurer to demand the tax on such wines as had since
arrived, and to continue its collection for the future, recu
sants being threatened Avith corporal punishment and the
confiscation of their imports. The claim of immunity
for Bristol, doubly taxed by paying prisage, was silently
ignored. At the general election in May Alderman Whitson and
Nicholas Hyde, the Recorder, Avere returned as burgesses.
A distrust of the King Avas soon perceptible in the House of
Commons, and, Avhilst various grieA^auces were being venti
lated, the Bristol merchants sent up a petition against the
arbitrary impost on Avines, from Avhich, they alleged, they
had suffered heavy losses, and the continuance of Avhich
Avould force them to Avithdraw from trade. An address to
the King on the subject was adopted, but His Majesty re
plied that he marvelled the Commons should press such a
matter, since the receipts from the impost Avere applied to
the maintenance of his sister. The management of the
Avar against France Avas also criticised, and Alderman Whit
son complained strongly of the neglect of the royal officers.
As the House persisted in discussing grievances prior to
granting supplies, Parliament Avas soon aftenvards dis
solved. Great alarm Avas excited during the spring by the out
break of Plague in London. In June the Corporation,

so

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1625
with the assent of the Privy Council, forbade Londoners
from attending the great summer fair, and goods from the
capital Avere required before entering to be " aired " for
a month outside LaAvford's Gate. Any citizen returning
from London had to undergo a similar purification before
being re-admitted. Watchmen were on guard day and
night at all the city gates to debar the entrance of sus
pected strangers. The precautions, Avhich entailed an
outlay of £250, proved effectual, though a few cases of
disease Avere reported outside LaAvford's Gate, amongst tho
numerous Londoners and others gathered there. The
pestilence, having raged violently at Bath, Bridgwater, and
Exeter, a subscription Avas raised for the relief of those
towns, out of gratitude for the city's escape.
_ The depraved inhabitants of the Castle Precincts con
tinued to set laAv and order at defiance. The Corporation
m May resolved on a petition to the King, praying him to
make the place part and parcel of the city, so that the
magistrates might have jurisdiction over it. The Town
Clerk Avas also directed to ascertain on Avhat terms the farm
of the Castle might be purchased as Avell from the King as
from the Earl of Arundel, the latter being the holder in
reversion of a patent granted to Sir George ChaAvorth.
Ultimately a bargain of some- kind was struck, for in
September, 162b, Alderman Doughty Avas repaid £5, a
bribe that he had given to the " Master of the Requests,
for getting the King's hand to the reversion of the Castle."
(The document is iioav missing from the civic archives.)
Tins, hoAvever, Avas only a prospective advantage, and the
Council soon besought the Court afresh. In March, 1(529, a
petition to the King recounted the old grievances, adding
as a seasonable hint that Avhen the Government demanded
impressments of men, many able persons fled into the
Castle as a safe refuge, and thus escaped the King's service.
Instead of forAvarcling this appeal direct, the Council des
patched it to the Queen, reminding her that Bristol Avas
Her Majesty's Chamber, and formed part of her jointure,
and praying her favour and recommendation. This adroit
manoeuvre proved successful. Reference having been made
to the Chief Justices, avIio apprcrved of the city's request,
Charles I. granted a charter, dated April 13th, 1629, which,
after reciting the county jurisdiction conferred on Bristol
by Echvard III., the exceptional liberties of the Castle
Precincts, and the resort there of thieves and other male
factors, ordained that, for the benefit of faithful subjects

1625]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

91

and at the request of the Queen, the Castle and its apjiur-
tenances should thenceforth be separated from Gloucester
shire, and be made part and parcel of the city, sole
jurisdiction being conferred on the local justices and
corporate officers. A final clause required that the holiest
residents in the precincts should be reputed as citizens, and
thirty-seven such persons were accordingly admitted as
freemen. The charter cost the Corporation £143, exclusive
of £(! for a Persian carpet given to the Lord Chief Baron,
to whom £20 Avere ordered to be presented " in Avine or any
thing else." One Sir John Tunstall had been previously
promised £100 if he would promote the affair, and though
the payment does not appear in the audit book, the pledge
Avas doubtless fulfilled.
The preparations for the Duke of Buckingham's in
glorious attack ou Cadiz having occasioned a demand for
soldiers, the Corporation received an order to impress fifty
Bristolians to take part in the expedition. The capture of
the men and their despatch to Plymouth cost the city £61.
Tho same number of men Avere pressed for the still more
disastrous attempt on the Isle of Rhe in 1627, at an ex
pense to the Council of £97.
Another item in the Chamberlain's accounts for 1625
shoAvs that the punishment of the ducking-stool had threat
ened to result in a fatality :—" Paid for cords and aqua vitir
for the Avomen that Avere cuckte, Id." A more formidable
instrument of the law, brought into use after nearly even-
assizes, needed frequent repairs. A iioav " double-ladder for
tho gallows " Avas bought this year, but the cost is included
iu other expenses. One side of the ladder Avas for the
criminal and the other for the hangman, rendering a cart
unnecessary; and, to save expense, the convict Avas required
to Avalk to his doom. An annalist, records that seven
criminals Avere executed in 1621— two of them for Avitch-
craft. Turkish corsairs again swarmed on the coast in the
autumn of 1625. The Corporation wrote in great alarm
to tho Government that a pirate had threatened to burn
Ilfracombe, and begged that a ship of Avar should be sent
to protect the trade Avith Ireland and the fleet nearly due
from Newfoundland.
Trade monopolies conceded by the CroAvn increased the
peril of the situation. Iu October the Privy Council received
a petition from the merchants and shipoAvn'ors of Bristol stat
ing that, having sustained great losses at sea by sending out

92

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1625

small barks, they had now built sundry large ships fit to cope
Avith the enemy, but could not obtain either ammunition or
guns except at excessive prices. They therefore prayed
permission to manufacture about 500 barrels of gunpoAvder
and forty cannon yearly — the latter to be made at Cardiff,
where the best iron was available. The first request Avas
granted, but the second Avas evaded. The gunpowder
monopolists, however, raised $, protest against the decision,
and proved so influential that the Privy Council, in a letter
to the Mayor, forbade the use of domestic saltpetre in pro
ducing the poAvder, limiting the makers to the more ex
pensive foreign articlo. In April, 1626, tho Corporation
ordered that thirty barrels of gunpoAvder and half a ton of
musket bullets should be provided as a store.
Mr. EArans, in his Chronological History, asserts that the
Corporation, in 1(525, purchased Brandon Hill, and tho
statement has been reproduced by several later Avriters.
As a matter of fact, the hill (saving a plot on the summit,
once belonging to Tewkesbury Abbej-*, and sometimes
occupied by a hermit) was ancient city property. In or
about 1533 the Corporation granted a lease of the hill, for
sixty years, to John Northall, afterwards Mayor, avIio was
required to permit the free passage of pedestrians, and to
suffer all persons to dry clothes there ; Avhich disposes of
the. legend that the latter right was conferred by Queen
Elizabeth. In 1564 another lease in reversion for the same
term Avas granted to William Read, many years ToAvn
Clerk, Avho probably bought up Northall's interest, as he
built a windmill on the site of the old hermitage. The fact
that four acres of the summit were abbey property Avas
OArer looked when Tewkesbury Avas despoiled, doubtless
because the ground produced no rent. But the circum
stance came to the ears of two of the informers Avho earned
an execrable living by prowling about in search of " con
cealed lands," Avhich they obtained on easy terms from the
CroAvn, and then levied blackmail on the existing possessors.
In 1581 Queen Elizabeth granted the jdot in fee to these
men at a rent of 5s., and within a feAv months the land was
sold to the Corporation for £30. This transaction having
vitiated Read's title to the site of the windmill, he Avas
granted a new reversionary lease for sixty years in 1584 at
the old rent of 26s. 8d., Avith 5s. additional for the Crown
fee- farm. After passing through several hands, the in
terest, iu tliis lease Avas transferred to Anthony Hodges, of
Clifton, in 1611, and what the Corporation purchased in

1625]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

93

1625 was simply the unexpired term of about twenty-eight
years which the lease had still to run. The Aviudmill
seems to have then disappeared. In March, 1626, the
Common Council determined that tho yearly profits of
Brandon Hill should be enjoyed in moieties by the Mayor
and the Sheriffs, the grantees paying the old rent of
26s. 8d. and permitting the drying of clothes according to
custom. From an item in the civic account-book for 1630
it appears that the royal fee-farm rent of 5s. had been
granted by Queen Elizabeth to a privato person, Avho
omitted to demand it for twenty-nine years. The Corpora
tion at first refused to pay the arrears, but finding tho
claim to bo incontestable, the debt was discharged, tho
recipient being further mollified by a gift of a shilling's
Avorth of wine.
The first corps of Bristol Volunteers was established at
this time. At a meeting of the Privy Council on October
22nd, a jietition was read from the captains, trained men,
and other young men of the city, praying for permission to
set up an artillery yard, where they might learn the use of
arms, offensive and defensive, at their own charge. The
ajiplication was approved, and permission Avas given to
carry the project into effect. Though it is not so stated
in the minutes, their lordships granted the corps the.
use of part of the Castle yard as an exercise ground, and a
house Avas soon afterwards budt there for the accommoda
tion of the men and the storage of their Aveapons. The
force, Avhich appears to have been popular, held an annual
festival, attended by the neighbouring county gentry.
The dissensions arising out of political troubles probably
broke up the association about, 1(542.
A remarkable resolution of the Council appears in an
ordinance dated November Sfh, 1(525. It Avas "ordained
that, according to ancient aud laudable custom, Avhene\*er
a writ for the election of knights, citizens, or burgesses for
the Parliament shall come to the Sheriffs, the election shall
be made by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council,
and by tho freeholders resident Avithin the city and liberties,
and none others." In despite of this recital of "ancient
and laudable custom," it may be safely asserted that the
Corporation were, iu fact, seeking to narrow the electoral
body by excluding the free burgesses from a right they had
always onjoycd. The usurpation Avas repeated in 1640.
The Earl of Denbigh, one of the commanders in the
futile expedition to Cadiz, arrived Avith his ship at- King-

V4

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1625-26

road about the end of the year, Avhen the Corporation
hastened to send him a present of fresh provisions. Tho
prices of the chief articles aro of interest. " Tavo muttons
and a half " cost 3Ss. ; three turkeys, lis. ; six capons and
liens, 9s. ; sixteen gallons of Avino, 45s. 9d. ; aud seventy-
two gallons of double beer, 20s.
For some unexplained cause, the Kingswood colliers
refused during the winter to supply the city Avith coal. To
relieve tho suffering of the poor, a quantity of fuel Avas
obtained from SAvansea, and distributed at slightly under
cost, the loss being borne by the Corporation. Tavo cargoes
of corn and a goodly supply of butter Avere disposed of in
the same manner.
Another general election took place in January, 1626,
Avhen Alderman Whitson and Alderman John Doughty
Avere returned to a short but memorable Parliament. At
an early sitting of the Commons, the extra tax of Avine
imposed by the King, falling Avith exceptional severity on
Bristol, was voted to be a grievance, and supplies Avere
postponed until this and other complaints had been re
dressed. The King, setting the House at defiance, dissolved
Parliament in June. Each of the city members received
£6 for traA^elling expenses, £29 for his " Avages " at 4s. a
day, and £1 (is. 8c-?. for the carriage up and cIoavii of his
trunk. A naval campaign against Spain Avas resolved upon by
the Government in the spring, and was attended for some
time Avith much success. Having regard to the excitement
that must have been created in Bristol by the arrival of
many rich prizes, tho silence of the annalists on the subject
is inexplicable. Much information is to be found in the
State Papers. In May, Mr. Willett, the local Collector of
Customs, informed Secretary Nicholas that a Brazilian ship
had been brought in Avith 300 chests of sugar ; in June the
capture Avas announced of another sugar ship, with a cargo
valued at £5,000 ; in July the ship Charles, of 300 tons and
30 guns, launched in Bristol six months earlier, and com
manded by Mali :n Pring, brought in a Hamburgher; in
September a rich prize laden with oil and sugar was re
ported, Avhile Pring sent in an English ship captured by
the Turks and retaken by himself ; and this was followed
Avithin ten days by a third prize. "Bristol," wrote the
exultant Collector, " Avill be one of the Duke's best ports for
profits " (Buckingham, as Lord Admiral, Avas entitled to a
tenth of each capture) ; and Willett dares to offer his grace

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

95

1626]
£1,000, and Nicholas £200, for a tenth of only one of the
prizes'. In October Nicholas received an account of the
cargoes of three more ships brought into Bristol. Pring
was stated to have taken a Dunkirker, and tAvo additional
prizes were announced a few days later. By this time Avar
had been declared against France. Bristolians soon after
equipped seventeen privateers, and it Avould be tedious to
describe the numerous valuable captures that Avere reported
in 1627. The last of that year Avas announced by Alderman
Whitson to a Government agent on December 17th. The
Charles, he wrote, had just brought in a Spanish man-of-
Avar of 30 or 40 guns, having on board an English pilot
accounted an arch-traitor ; and Whitson Avas persuaded that
if the fellow were brought to the torture he Avould confess
many great things. The man was sent up to London, but
his fate is nnknoAvn.
Returning to the summer of 1626, we find the first local
intimation of the Government's demand for ship money.
Tho Parliament, then just dissolved, having refused to vote
the King four subsidies, the Privy Council in June addressed
letters to the ports and the maritime counties, setting forth
the need for ships, and requesting that an amount equiA'a-
lent to the subsidies should be furnished as a token of
sympathy with the CroAvn. The sum demanded from
Bristol was £2,400, for the hire and equipment of three
ships of 200 tons and 12 guns each, but the city peti
tioned so earnestly for relief that the PriA'y Council, in
July, admitting the decay of trade and the recent great
losses of the citizens, fixed the contribution at £1,600, or
two ships. The two adjoining counties were required to
supply the other vessel, or £800, in equal moieties. An
impost of this kind Avas not without precedent iu earlier
reigns, and those liable to the burden contented themselves
Avith seeking to lighten their own shoulders by shifting the
load on others. The citizens represented to the Privy
Council that they were unfairly weighted in proportion to
their country neighbours, and that the tax was more than
they could bear, seeing that they had recently lost fifty
ships through captures and wrecks, and Avere impoverished
by the suspension of the Spanish trade. The county
justices, on the other hand, protested that the claim made
upon them was unreasonably large, and that Bristol, "a
rich and wealthy city," might Avell pay a larger sum. No
relief could be obtained, and the sum assessed on the citizens
was expended in hiring and equipping the tAvo ships, which

9G

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1626

lay idly in the harbour until their three months' stock of
provisions Avas consumed, when the Corporation declined to
re-victual them, informing the Duko of Buckingham that
the outlay incurred Avas already equal to four subsidies, and
that the county contributions Avere still withheld. The
ships eventually sailed to guard the Irish coast. Rendered
the more rapacious by success, the Government in December
demanded that the city should hire and equip a third ship,
but the Corporation refused to- make any further effort, and
though the mandate Avas twice repeated it remained in
effectual. Following an ancient- custom obserA'ed at the beginning
of every reign, a charter Avas obtained from Charles I. in
August, 162(5, confirming the liberties conferred on the city
by previous mouarchs. The cost of the instrument Avas
£139. chiefly spent in fees to Court officials.
A shocking attempt to murder Alderman Whitson oc
curred on November 7th. The Alderman, in conjunction
with a Avorthy colleague, Alderman Guy, Avas holding a
court, by order of a decree in Chancery, to arbitrate upon a
long-standing dispute between tAvo Bristolians — William
Tresham and Christopher Callowhill. After a full hearing,
the two justices decided that Callowhill OAved his ojiponent
£48, but, OAving to the debtor's " Aveak estate," they ad
judged him to pay only £20. On the announcement of this
decision, Callowhill pulled out a knife, rushed upon Whitson,
and dealt him a violent stab in the face, penetrating through
the cheek and nose into the mouth. The Avretch was, of
course, immediately seized and committed to jirison, where
he remained, heavily ironed, until his trial ; but the
annalists strangely omitted to record his punishment.
Whitson. avIio Avas upAvards of seventy years of age, re-
covered from his wound, and bequeathed a legacy to St.
Nicholas's church for an annual sermon to commemorate
his escape.
In December the Corporation resolved upon reviving and
rendering more effectual the old restraints on the sale of
imports belonging to " strangers." An ordinance was
accordingly issued, reciting that by local laws passed in
the previous century no bargains for the purchase of
'• foreigners' " merchandise could be made until the goods
had been taken to the Back Hall ; but that disorderly
persons had of late disobeyed this injunction through the
smaliness of tho fine imposed on offenders (20s.). It Avas
therefore decreed that any one infringing the law should in

1627]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

97

future pay a penalty equal to one-sixth of the value of the
goods. Moreover, any jierson bargaining for such mer
chandise to the value of £20, even after it Avas lodged in
the Hall, without first acquainting the Mayor and Aldermen
— " who are to dispose of one-half of such goods for the use
and benefit of the inhabitants as anciently hath been
accustomed " — was made liable to a penalty equal to one-
tenth of the value !
During its numerous troubles with the Privy Council,
the Corporation found a powerful advocate in the Lord
High Steward, the Earl of Pembroke. In return, he was
the recipient of large presents of wine, and in the spring
his portrait was obtained from a " picture maker " for £3
13s. Ad. Immediately afterAvards, on his declining an in
vitation to visit the city, a present was forwarded to him
Avhilst at Bath. The gift was characteristic of the age. A
chest of dry " succades " (comfits) cost £5 10s. ; half a
hundredweight of loaf sugar at 20d. per lb., £4 13s. Ad. ; a
hundredweight of oranges and lemons, 16s. 8d. ; two boxes
of marmalade, two boxes of prunes, a jar of olives, four
rundlets of sack, and tAvo barrels of claret, £9 10s. Ad.
Minor presents Avere also made to other useful courtiers.
Lord Grandison, Privy Councillor, had a gift of 24 lb. of
sugar at 18d. per lb, and 35 gallons of sack at 4s. 6d. A
silver basin and ewer, costing £21 10s., were sent to Mr.
Clark, groom of the bedchamber. One of the clerks of the
Privy Council had £5 5s. in " money and entertainment,"
and was subsequently voted a pension of £20 yearly for
life, having doubtless promised to render permanent services.
Finally, Lord Chief Justice Hyde, the Recorder, having
brought down his wife at the gaol delivery, the lady had a
present of sugar loaves, comfits, and prunes to the A^alue of
£3 18s. lOJrf.
Sir Charles Gerard, grandson and co-heir of Henry
Brayne, to whom the estates of St. James's Priory were
granted by Henry VIII., made proposals to the Corporation
in 1622 for the alienation of part of the property, but no
bargain Avas effected for some years, owing to the vendor's
reluctance to incur the exjiense of procuring the indispens
able license from the Crown, the estate being held in capite.
In April, 1627, hoAvever, the civic body acquired from him
the advowsons of St. James, St. Peter, Christ Church, St.
EAven, St. Michael, and St. Philip, the prisage of wine
imported during the Whitsitu-Aveek of every alternate year,
and a number of small chief rents, the purchase money for
H

9S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1627

the whole being only £450. As a sample of the strange
system of book-keeping then in corporate favour— a system
which now plunges many matters m hopeless mystery— it
may be stated that no payment to Gerard is to be found m
the accounts ; the only reference to the purchase being a
small payment to a lawyer for " levying a fine to assure
the title. . . . ,
Having vainly endeavoured to raise money by Avhat
•was speciously called a Benevolence, the King's advisers,
in April, resolved upon levying a forced loan, and orders
Avere forwarded to the Mayor to apply to the citizens, and
send up the names of contributors. The demand Avas
openly resisted in many districts, and, so far as local records
show, the members of the Council offered no subscriptions.
In October, however, Sir John Drake, one of Buckingham s
creatures, wrote to Secretary Nicholas from Bristol, stating
that he had remitted £1,650, and would speedily send the
remainder. The Dean of Bristol, he added, should have
paid £500, " but, like a minister, pays a month after the
Attention has been drawn, to the inexplicable silence of
contemporary chroniclers in reference to the exciting local
events of 1626, arising out of the war with France and
Spain When search is made into the State Papers ot the
tAvo following years, the dumbness of the annalists becomes
simoly astounding ; for the documents afford indisputable
nrcof that the wealth and enterprise of Bristol at this
period advanced by leaps and bounds. When England was
threatened Avith destruction by the Spanish Armada, the
city was able to furnish only three small ships and a
pinnace for the national defence. Between 1626 and 1628,
when there was practically no danger at all, Bristol mer
chants obtained permission from the Government to fit out
upwards of sixty vessels with letters of marque, to jirey
upon the enemy's commerce. The following list, compiled
from the Government records, gives the names and tonnage
of the ships, and the names of their chief owners. (Ihe
owners marked with an * commanded their own vessels.)
White Ansel, 150, G. Elbridge.
Fortune, 30, do.
Mary Fortune, 100, do.
Deliverance, 70, G. Lyndsay.*
Hercules, 150, And. Bevan.*
Joseph, 150, John Barker, etc.
Bon Esperance, 100, J. Gomnng.ete.
Fortune, 200, T. Cole,* etc.

Charles, 300 tons, John Barker, etc.
Mary Bose, 150, Wm. Pitt, etc.
Porcupigge, 100, Ric. Gough,* etc.
Content, 120, Wm. Wyatt, etc.
George, 300, Hum. Browne, etc.
Abraham, 200, Hum. Hooke.
Patience, 190, Nic. Gatonby*
Angel Gabriel, 800, G. Elbridge.

1627-28]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

99

'Comfort," K>0, J. Woodson.*
¦George, 200, C. Driver.*
Recovery, — do.
Elizabeth, 200, W. Ellis.
Porcupine, 50, T. Wright.
Mary, GO, Tlios. Colston.
Falcon, 80, J. Mynnes,* etc.
Mary Rose, 200, J. Barker,* etc.
Thunder, 70, J. Taylor, etc.
Gilbert, 140, Wm. Ofield.*
Eagle, 140, II. Hooks, etc.
Falcon, -10, do.
Thomas, 00, T. Wright.*
¦Sarah, 100, Michael Wright.*
Hwiftsure, 100, do.
Martha, 100, do.*
Primrose, 40, do.
Bristol Merchant,250, T. Colston,etc.
.Supply, 200, Wm. Pitt, etc.
Renew, 80, T. Barker.
St. George, 30, G. Elbridge, etc.
James, 1 00, Hum. Hooke, etc.
Hope, 100, T. Wilde, etc.

Friendship, 50, T. Wilde.
.Neptune, 120, C. Driver, etc.
(unnamed), 40, do.
(unnamed), 40, do.
Amity, 100, E. Peters, etc.
Endeavour, 50, J. Tomlinson, etc.
Rosemary, 100, W. Ellis, etc.
Falcon, 100, T. Wilde, etc.
Mayflower, 50, T. Wilde, elc.
Mary, 80, Peter White,* etc.
Dolphin, 150, J. Mynnes,* etc.
Thomas, 100, B. Elliott,* etc.
(unnamed), 40, do.
Little Charles, 80, H. Hooke, etc.
Dragon, 200, Thos. James,* etc.
Greyhound, 100, J. Reeves,* etc.
Hercules, 70, H. Hawley * etc.
Marigold, 70, W. Ellis, etc.
Lion, 220, J. Gonning, etc.
Lion's Whelp, 50, do.
Flying Hart, 25, Wm. Pitt, etc.
Scout, 15, Hum. Hooke.
Several small pinnaces.

The Collector of Customs continued to send tidings of
¦captures to Secretary Nicholas, but the number of prizes in
1628 did not equal that of the previous year. To take the
two principal successes, he reported in April the arriAral of
a Brazilian, taken by the Mary, Avith a cargo valued at
£10,000 ; and less than a week later he noted the capture
by the Comfort of another Brazilian, " the best prize come
to Bristol since letters of marque were granted." In
November a small French war vessel grounded at Penarth,
and was taken by Captain Ofield, of the Gilbert, who
carried her off in spite of the protests of the vicar of Pen
arth, Avho claimed her " in right of his church " !
In the above list Avill be found the name of the Angel
Gabriel, the valour of Avhose creAV against great odds was
long an exultant theme amongst Bristol sailors. In the
British Museum is a black-letter broadside jirinted about
this date, entitled : — " The Honour of Bristol. Showing
hoAV the Angel Gabriel, of Bristol fought Avith three ships,
Avhich boarded us many times, Avherein we cleared our
decks, and killed five hundred of their men, and Avounded
many more, and made them fly into Cales [Cadiz], where
we lost but three men to the Honotu' of tin Angel Gabriel
of Bristol." This vigorous ballad — as heart-stirring as the
Battle of Chevy Chase — is printed in Seyer's " Memoirs of
Bristol," vol. ii. p. 287. The poet styles the ship's captain
Nethewey, and Thomas NethoAvay Avas the commander

100

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1G28
certified in the Go\-emment letter of marque. That the
Spanish admiral's "lustiest" vessel had forty-eight big
guns, Avhilst the Angol Gabriel carried only tweuty, and
that 500 were killed " outright " on one side and only three
on the other during a desperate conflict for seven hours, we
knoAv only on the authority of the song-writer. It is satis
factory to read his final statement that the owner of the
Gabriel, Giles Elbridge, presented the gallant crew of forty
men Avith " two hundred pounds in gold and plate," as a
reward for their achievement.
A number of documents relating to St. Peter's parish,
dated in and about 1628, and preserved in the collection of
the late Mr. Sholto Hare, throAV much light on tho system
of poor-laAV administration then everywhere in vogue.
Under the old laAv of settlement the poor Avere jealously
penned into the parish where they were born, and un
ceasing vigilance Avas displayed by parochial officers, and
indeed by parishioners generally, to debar the intrusion
of strangers in search of work, who, by abiding amongst
them for a twelvemonth, Avould thus be enabled to relieve
their native parish of the burden of their maintenance
Avhen m distress. Thus when a trader in St. Peter's parish
took an apprentice or a domestic servant from outside the
parochial bounds, a veto Avas forthwith pronounced by the
overseers, and the interloper Avas required to find sub
stantial sureties that he or she would never claim a settle
ment by virtue of residence. In the same Avay a small
shopkeeper or mechanic, intending to remove from another
part of the city with his family, had in the first place to
giA^e similar guarantees, and if he failed to do so Avas shut
out ; Avhilst an incessant search Avas made for " inmates "
(lodgers), seeking to earn an honest livelihood. In spite of
these precautions, endless litigation respecting settlements
Avas waged between parishes seeking to repudiate their
liabilities, and no small portion of the national poor-rates
Avas squandered amongst lawyers.
_ Preparations Avere made early in 1628 for another expedi
tion against France. A naval agent, writing to the Duke
of Buckingham from Bristol in February and March,
stated that he had fulfilled orders in impressing ten ships,
and also ten barks intended for fire-boats, but that some of
the OAvners of privateers, especially three of the wealthiest,
John Barker, Giles Elbridge, and Humphrey Hooke, refused
his request to lit out their ships, and ought to be comjielled
to do so. They Avere in consequence summoned to London

1628]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

101

by the Privy Council, but the result is unrecorded. The
above agent incidentally reports that a man-of-war Avas
thon lying at Bristol,, whose crew 'had received no Avages
for sixteen months.
The, poverty of the Government compelled the King to
summon another Parliament in March, 1628. Alderman
Doughty and Mr. John Barker, the members elected for
Bristol, carried up with them another petition of the mer
chants against the illegal wine duties, the complaint being
on this occasion the more pressing inasmuch as some of the
victims had been arrested by royal messengers, and im
prisoned in default of payment. The city members, after
tho prorogation, laid before the Common Council six books
" containing the arguments used in Parliament concerning
the liberty of the subject." It will be remembered that
the Petition of Eight, by which arbitrary taxes and
imprisonment were solemnly condemned, was the great
Avork of the session.
The Council, in April, ordered the distribution of £30
amongst poor clothiers, traders and householders " against
this good time of Easter." Hobday sports, however, Avere
not held m much favour. The Chamberlain, in the same
month, disbursed sixpence " for taking down a Maypole."
Archery Avas one of the King's predilections, and His
Majesty appointed a Commission to quicken the execution
of an Act of Henry VIII. for the encouragement of that
sport ; but the proceedings of the commissioners were so
unpopular that their poAvers were rescinded in 1631.
In spite of the increased strength of the royal navy and
of the large fleet of local privateers, commerce was fre
quently jeopardized by the enemy's cruisers. In June, 1628
the Privy Council informed the Duke of Buckingham that
in consequence of divers French Avarships committino- daily
ravages m the Severn, the city of Bristol was willing to
bear the charge of setting out two ships for securing the
Channel. He Avas therefore directed, as Lord Admiral to
treat Avith the citizens, letting them knoAv that £1 000 of
the charge would be repaid out of the subsidies voted by
.Parliament. The Corporation informed the Duke, a few
days later, that the two ships would be ready to sail' on the
arrival of his commission, but the fifty barrels of enn-
poAvder promised by the Government had not come to hand
five weeks later when Mr. Barker, M.P., informed Secre
tary Nicholas that French ships were still committing
spoil. Ihe- equipment of the ships cost the Corporation

102 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1628-291
£1,357. The Treasury eventually paid £983 of this
amount, but not until the Chamberlain had spent nearly
six weeks in London OArer the business, and been Avell
plucked by Court underlings, a present being even found
necessary for the wife of Secretary Nicholas.
On August 22nd the Mayor informed the Privy Council
by letter that he had provided transport for 700 soldiers
sent to Bristol for shipment to Ireland, but Avho were
delayed by adA'erse Avinds. Their voyage would cost £175,
and his Avorship had already disbursed £140 out of purse
for their victualling. Other documents sIioav that the
Government, in sending the troops to the city, made no
provision Avhatever for their maintenance and shipment.
On the day the above letter was Avritten, the Council Avere
informed by the regimental officers that the Mayor's
advance was exhausted and that the men Avere Avithout
food. As rioting might be immediately expected, the
Chamberlain Avas ordered to disburse sixpence per head
daily for food, until a change of Avind. The incident was
repeated in the f olloAving November, Avhen 200 soldiers, with
out officers, Avere detained in the city for several Aveeks
through stormy weather, and were very unruly.
> A succession of bad harvests began in 1628, and con
tinued for three years. Large quantities of grain and
seAreral tons of butter Avere purchased each winter by the
Corporation, and sold at cost price to the poor. The distress
was much aggravated, in 1631, by a Government proclama
tion forbidding the purchase of corn in Devon and other
counties, the real object being to extort money for licenses
to buy there, the cost of Avhich further enhanced the price
of grain.
The distress of the time was widesjiread. On January
1st, 1629, the Mayor and Aldermen, in petitioning the Privy
Council for leave to export grain to Ireland, stated that the
dearth there was so extreme that the famishing Irish poor
Avere croAvding to this country, and were causing great
trouble. The invasion of beggars at length assumed such
proportions that the Corporation were compelled to act
Avith vigour. Seven ships were hired to carry back the
mendicants, and upwards of 1,200 Avere shipped off. About
two shillings a head Avas paid as passage money, and
upwards of £30 was laid out for their food. Similar, but
less numerous, transportations were made in subsequent
years. Alderman John Whitson, one of the wealthiest mer-

1629]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

103

chants of the city, died on February 25th, aged seventy-five,
in consequence of an accident caused by the stumbling of
his horse. His remains Avere interred in the cryjit of St
Nicholas's church on March iJth with every mark of public
respect, the trained bands, of which he Avas a cajitain,
rendering him military honours. The details of the
funeral expenses, which have been preserved, present a
singular collocation of items : — "Epitaph, 10s. ; Mustard, Id. ;
Making 75 gowns for the poor, 75s. ; "Wine from the
Bull, £5 17s. 6d. ; Making a coffin, 14s. ; Baking of pies,
7s. 6d. ; To Mr. Paimer for making the verses on the monu
ment, 20s." OAving to a vast sum laid out for mourning,
the total expenses of the ceremony amounted to £418. As
many inaccuracies have been published respecting Whitson's
early life in Bristol, it may be Avell to state that he
migrated when young from his birthplace in the Forest of
Dean, and after receiving some education in Bristol was
apprenticed, in September, 1570, for eight years to Nicholas
Cutt, Avine merchant, and Bridget his Avife, a youthful
coujile, both of aldermanic parentage, who had been married
only a feAv months. Whether Whitson remained with his
master after the end of the apprenticeship in 1578 is un
certain ; but soon after Cutt's death, about tAvo years later,
he Avas in the employment of the Avidow, for Avhom he
managed the profitable business that had been bequeathed
to her, together with all his property, by her late husband.
About the same time, by the death of her father, Alderman
Saxey, Mrs. Cutt, an only child, inherited another consider
able estate. What is said to ha\-e happened under these
circumstances is told by the Wiltshire antiquary, John
Aubrey, avIio Avas a grandson of Whitson's third wife, and
a godson of Whitson himself, but who erroneously styles
the lady Vawr instead of Cutt. " He [Whitson] was a
handsome young felloAV, and his old master being dead, Ins
mistress one day called him into the Avine cellar, and bade
him broach the best butt in the cellar for her. . . . His
mistress afterAvards married him. This story will last
perhaps as long as Bristol is a city." The wedding took
place on April 12th, 1585, when Whitson was over thirty
years of age, and the bride thirty-eight. A daughter was
born to them in 1586. The union appears to have been
approved by the lady's family, for in the latter year her
mother transferred to Whitson and his wife several houses
in various parts of the city (including property then
standing on the site of the curious timber house at the corner

104

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1G29

of Wine and High Street) in consideration of a small life
annuity ; Avhile a few years later John Cutt, a nephew of
Nicholas, conveyed the manor of Burnet, Somerset, to
trustees, for the benefit of the same parties. Entering
upon a mercantile career under these advantages, Whitson
soon attained a high position, and eventually became the
most prominent and influential citizen of his time. As
has been already sIioavii, he was fiA'e times elected one of
the members of Parliament for Bristol, and seems to have
avoii much repute m the House of Commons for intelligence
and ability. "He kept," says Aubrey, "a noble house,
and did entertain the peers and great persons that came to
the city He kept his haAvks. I remember five [youths!
that had been bred up under him, but not one of them came
to good ; they lived so luxuriously. He Avas charitable in
breeding up of poor scholars. ... He had a fair house
m St. Nicholas Street [on the site of Stuckey's Bank]
where is the stateliest dining-room in the city. His only
daughter dying, Richard Wheeler, his nepheAV, Avho was
bred a merchant under him, Avas his heir, but he proving a
sot and a coxcomb, he settled all his estate upon the city
for pious uses." Wheeler's tmworthiness is attested by one
of the codicils to Whitson's will, but it must be admitted
that the old alderman, like some other philanthropists, in
his desire to Avin lasting fame for munificent charity, treated
his near relatives Avith slender consideration. Eight years
before his death he had enfeoffed nearly the whole of his
real estate on trustees, to uses to be defined by his Avill, and
by a testament made in 1627 almost the whole Avas ordered
to be transferred to the Corporation, avIio Avere to apply
the profits to benevolent purposes, chief of Avhich was the
foundation of a hospital for the maintenance and training
of forty girls, daughters of freemen, "to go and be
apparelled in red cloth." The residue of his personal
estate, after the payment of a great number of small
legacies, was to devolve, as to tAvo-thirds (about £3,000) on
the Corporation for charities, and as to one-third on his two
sisters and their children. The latter beneficiaries were
to be entirely disinherited if they sought to upset
the testator's arrangements. They nevertheless filed a
Bill in Chancery, disputing the validity of the will, and
a long and costly litigation foUoAved ; but though the Court
finally decided against them, and uphold Whitson's bequests,
their third of the residue Avas not Avithheld.
Iu the State Papers for June, 1629, is a remarkable peti-

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

105

1629]
tion presented by Captain Charles Driver, of Bristol, to the
Lords of the Admiralty. It sets forth that, in conformity
Avith the commission of the late Lord Admiral, two Bristol
merchants, Humphrey Hooke and Humphrey Browne, had
sent out two ships in command of the petitioner and another
man, who had captured a Sallee corsair, brought it into
Bristol, and had it condemned as lawful prize. Whereujjon,
on the complaint of some London merchants, the petitioner
had been summoned before the Privy Council for having
acted illegally, and noAv prayed relief. It is shown by
another document that, although the people of Sallee
practically lived by piracy, and though hosts of Englishmen
had languished there in slavery, the Londoners avIio raised
the above complaint had established a trading settlement
amongst the bandits, had turned over £50,000 in their
traffic there during the previous year, and were anxious
that the freebooters should not be interfered with, lest " they
should take example by Algiers," Avhere the impudent
complainants had a similar settlement, and where thev
alleged they had lost £8,500, in reprisal for the " wrongs "
committed by Captain Driver and others ! The issue of
this scandalous affair has unfortunately perished.
Much ingenuity was displayed by the King's advisers in
inventing neAV devices for raising money in contravention
of the statute laAv. On June 23rd, doubtless in considera
tion of a handsome payment, His Majesty granted to Robert
Wright, of Bristol, and his sons Erasmus and Thomas, for
their lives, license to keep a tavern or wine-cellar in the
mansion house in Avhich they chvelt in the city, and therein
to sell good Avme, notwithstanding the provisions of an Act
of James T. .for regulating licenses. The grant Avas to be
held to date from June, 1628, and any penalties for acts
committed after that time Avere pardoned. Subsequently
the privilege of issuing those illegal licenses Avas sold to
Lord Goring, and amongst an immense number conceded
hy that nobleman Avas one dated October 8th, 1633 to
Henry and Charles Whitaker, for their lives, permitting
them to keep a tavern or Avine-cellar in their mansion in
the town or village of Clifton, Gloucestershire, paying 20*.
yearly. In the folloAving year, in consideration of&£l<>
and yearly payments of the same sum, Goring -ranted
two similar licenses to Walter Stcevens and Richard
vrardmor, ol Bristol.
Tho earliest mention of the Bristol Hot Well as a resort
ot aristocratic invalids occurs in a letter dated July 22nd

100

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL,

[1629
preserved in the State Papers. Lord Poulett, writing from
his bomerset seat at Hinton to Secretary Lord Dorchester
announces his return home after having left his wife at
' the Wells at Bristol. The well-known Bulstrode White-
•°°i ^oo '^ards ^e,?«i-der of the city, had visited the spring
in 1 W8, and noted that it Avas famous for the cure of leprosy
In the same year Thomas Vernier, M.D., published a treatise
on Ihe Baths of Bath," to which he added a "Censure "
meaning a criticism, "concerning the Avater of St. Vincent's
Rock, near Bristol (urbs piddira et emporium cehbre), Avhich
begins to grow in great request and use against the Stone."
Ihe learned writer, Avhose dogmatism is not a little amus
ing, asserts that the medical efficacy of the water arose
from the presence of sulphur and nitre, and possibly of
other good minerals. " The water is frequented for no
other use but for the drinking of it against the Stone," yet
he immediately adds that in consequence of this peculiar
virtue people of all sorts repaired to the place, and so
abundantly glutted themselves at the sprint that but few
were benefitted and many hurt, seeing that they weakened
the stomach, subverted the liver, annoyed the head, occa
sioned cramps and pain of the joints, and bred crudities,
rhumes, coughs, dropsy, and consumption ! After draAving
this appalling picture, the doctor lays down ten voluminous
rules for the guidance of visitors, who are nevertheless
Avamed to obtain the advice of a local physician. Especial
care was to be taken not to give the water to children or
to aged persons, as it Avould " abbreviate their life by ex
tinguishing their innate heat." " Some perilous accidents
may happen oftentimes in the use of the water "if it were
rashly taken, but its "virtues will be better known if peoplo
make a right and good use thereof." About tAvo years after
the publication of this pompous drivel, in March, 1630, one
John Brucksh aw addressed a petition to the King, in which
he had the effrontery to assert that at great labour and
expense he had discovered the spring (described 150 years
before by William Worcester). It lay, he said, between
high-water and Ioav- water mark, and cured many diseases,
far beyond any knoAvn bath in the kingdom. On June 5th|
in the same year, Charles I. granted permission to the im
postor to enclose the spring for forty years, with power to
take in adjoining ground "from the sea " for making baths
and budding a house, to which visitors could resort ; and
Avith further poAver to dig in the rocks for gold, silver, and
crystal, on paying to the Crown a yearly rent of 20s. The

1629]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

107

lords of the manor of Clifton being doubtless on the alert,
Mr. Bruckshaw's impudent manoeuvres proved abortive.
In 1632 another Bath physician, Edward Jordan, in a
treatise on mineral waters, speaks of the spring as ranking
with the chalybeate Avaters of Spa and Tunbridge : while
Fuller, in his " Book of Worthies " (1662), extols the Avell as
' sovereign for sores and sicknesses," and alleges that beer
brewed therewith was "wholesome against the spleen."
iMirthcr evidence as to tho extensive reputation of the Hot
Well will be given in 1634. The above facts dispose of a
legend originally printed in 1754 by Dr. Randolph, of
Bristol, that the medicinal virtues of the spring were first
made knoAvn in 1668, by the case of James Gagg, a baker,
m Castle Street, whose repeated dreams that he Avould he
cured of a painful disease by drinking the water were ful
filled, to the amazement of the public.
The Corporation resolved in 1629 to bear the yearly ex
pense of entertaining the judges and Recorder during the
assizes and gaol delivery. Lord Chief Justice Hyde, who
was also Recorder, paid one visit in the spring and another
in the autumn, when he was invited to take up his quarters
m tho houses of Alderman Rogers and Alderman Pitt, the
J?™?! he/nS afterwards paid £13 10s. and the latter
s^b lUs. tor the outlay they had incurred. His lordship
also received £10 as travelling expenses to the assizes, be
sides his usual fee of £26 13s. Ad. as Recorder. The liber
ality Avas probably inspired by the anxiety of the Council
to retain the Chief Justice's services in the civic office.
Alderman Robert Rogers, mentioned above, was a mem
ber ol a family of soapmakers, which acquired great wealth
m the later years of Elizabeth, and lived in some magnifi
cence in the mansion known as the Great House on the
Bridge but which really stood at- the end of Redcliff Street-
After his death in Hi,33, the Great House became un
tenanted, and subsequently Avas for some time converted
mto an inn. Towards the end of the century it was pur
chased by Sir Thomas Day of Sir Edward Fust, and again
became a private residence.
Contemptuously trampling upon the decision of the Court
ot Exchequer twenty years before (see p. 36), the demands
of the Board of Green Cloth for a composition in lieu of
ZTo.r7eyT6 W6re revived tllis year aSaillsfc ^ Bristol
mei chants. A corporate deputation was vainly sent up to
the Government to protest against the extortion, and an
action Avas raised by the King's patentee in the Court of

lOS

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1629

Exchequer. At the trial, however, the judgment of 1609
Avas j>roduced by the defendants, Avhen the patentee was
non-suited, and forbidden to further molest them. In the
meantime the Board of Green Cloth made a fresh claim for
a composition for purveyance of groceries, spices, and oils,
against which the merchants made a strong remonstrance
to the Privy Council ; and the latter body, after muoh dis
cussion, gave up the claim as regarded groceries, except
Avhen the Court Avas near Bristol, but insisted on an entirely
novel imposition on sweet (Levant) oils, and rejected a com
position offered by the merchants, about sixty of Avhom
were interested in the trade. A bargain Avas, hoAvever,
struck in April, 1630, between the Green Cloth officials and
two delegates of the Corporation, Humphrey Hooke and
Thomas Colston, it being agreed that the royal claims
should bo dropped on the merchants paying £100 for
" arrerages," and 100 marks yearly for the future. " For
eigners " or non-freemen Avere excluded from this arrange
ment, and were victimised at the caprice of the purveyance
collectors. Before the negotiation was concluded the Privy
Council demanded a loan from the city on behalf of the
King ; but the Common Council ordered that a "fair letter"
should be forwarded to the Lord Treasurer stating inability
to comply with the request, and directing attention to the
large sums already clue to the Corporation from the Ex
chequer. The Government temporarily withdrew its re
quest, but so far as can be inferred from an extremely
obscure civic minute of December, 1630, the loan had been
then again demanded, with a promise of early repayment.
A subscription Avas started in the Council Chamber, and
produced a total of £680. The subscriptions varied from
£5(1 to £10, but nine members refused to contribute.
The abominable, foulness of the streets, caused by the
parsimony of the authorities, was the subject of much de
bate in the Council about this time, a committee being at
length appointed to effect a reform. That body reported
that the Raker had stated that it Avas impossible to cleanse
all the city thoroughfares for the £30 yearly allowed to
him, and prayed to bo freed from the employment or better
jiaid. They therefore recommended that, to avoid noisome
stenches, preserve the public health, and maintain the
credit of the, city, the alloAvance should be increased to £70
a year, the additional sum to bo assessed upon the inhabi
tants. Tho report avus confirmed by the Council in De
cember, 1629, it being stipulated that, in addition to the

1629]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

109

streets usually cleansed, the scavenger should attend to the
Pithay, Broadmead, St. James's Back, Lewin's Mead, and
Christmas Street, that had previously been wholly neg
lected. Examples have been already given of the singular
manner in which corporate ordinances, after having long
fallen into disuse, were suddenly revived. The Council, in
December, seemingly annoyed by the disregard of pomp
that characterized some of its members, disinterred an
obsoleto ordinance, passed about sixty years before, requir
ing aldermen and councillors, ou certain holidays, to array
themselves in scarlet, and ordered this to be thenceforth
"continued," a fine of 6s. 8d. being imposed on any one
appearing in church on such days without his scarlet,
whether attending the Mayor or not. It Avas further or
dained that on ordinary Sundays every member attending
church, either for prayer or sermon, should Avear a black
gown, or pay the same fine. Any past sheriff neglecting
to provide himself Avith a gown lined with fur was to be
mulcted 40s. All the corporate officials, great and small,
had gowns provided yearly out of the civic purse. In 1634
order Avas given that any of the sheriffs' yeomen neglecting
to wear their coats, basket-hilted swords and daggers, Avere
to be immediately dismissed.
Many of the Bristol privateers mentioned in the previous
list obtained renewed letters of marque in 1629, and were
reinforced by four others, Avhose names and OAvners Avere as
folloAVS : — ¦

Pho-niv, 200 Ions, U. Hull, etc..
Willing Min. I, a>0, J I. Straugivay.ete.

Endeavour, RO, R. -Strangwav, etc.
Painty, SO, Ii. Headland, etc"

The reports of prizes are less numerous than in 1628.
The Collector of Customs, Avriting to Secretary Nicholas in
April, 1630, announces the arrival of "a great prize"
brought in by the Eagle, and also of tAvo others, adding
that he had forwarded in a box a mermaid's hand and rib,
said to be good to mako rings for the cramp, and to stoj>
blood, Avith other virtues. The same writer, in December,
reporls the return of the Eagle Avith another rich prize,
adding that the chief owner of tho privateer, Humphrey
Hooko, is regarded as "tho only happy man that Avay," the
prizes taken by tho Eagle being worth not less than £40,000.
Tho OAvners, he added, Avere fearful becauso this last prize
Avas taken so near the conclusion of jieace. and Avould dis
charge at once without acquainting the Admiralty. "A

110

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1630

letter from the Lords for that presumption would beget tAvo
or three chests of sugar " — a hint that Avas not likely to fall
on deaf ears. The accounts of the Auditor of the Exchequer
in 1632 state that the net value of the prizes brought into
Bristol, Weymouth, Lyme, and Minehead during the Avar
amounted to £134,500, of which one-tenth was received by
the Admiralty ; but the figures are almost certainly inaccu
rate. In the State Papers for November, 1635, is a petition
to the King from the merchants and shipoAvners of Bristol,
alleging that the Admiralty tenth, jiaid on prizes entering
the port, had amounted to £20,000, and that an equal sum
had been paid to the CroAvn in Customs on tho merchandise,
in spite of Avhich the local Customer, DoAvle, was persecuting
the OAvners of privateers by an Exchequer Commission, and
making groundless charges of fraud. The evidence taken
in Bristol by this commission, which Avas directed to the
Bishop and others, is also in the Record Office, and attests
the malignity of DoAvle, who could produce nothing in
support of his allegations. The only interesting fact dis
closed Avas a statement of the Vice- Admiral's deputy in
Bristol, to the effect that during the three years he Avas
employed there were " three score and odd " prizes brought
into the port. Willett, he added, on one occasion accepted
a gift of a chest of sugar, to hasten the passing of a jirize
-cargo. Some light is thrown on the habits of the cathedral
dignitaries of the jieriod by a letter which Bishop Wright
addressed to Archbishop Abbot and Bishop Laud in Feb
ruary, 1630. His recent ordination, he wrote, had Avanted
nothing in solemnity save the presence of the Dean or
Canons, or some of them, to assist in the imposition of
hands. In their absence, he had been fain to use singing
men and others, who should not approach so high.
On April 1st the Lords of the Admiralty directed Sir
Thomas Button to repair with two ships of Avar to the coast
of Ireland and the Severn for the protection of such mer
chants as traded to the fairs at Bristol held at St. James's
and St. Paul's tide — which indicates the importance of
those great marts. H.M.S. Convertine, then lying at Hung
road, probably received similar instructions, for the com
mander, Captain Plumley, writing to the Admiralty on
April 22nd, narrates the difficulties he had encountered in
leaving the Avon. He set sail, the Avind being in the east,
Avith the help of eight great tow-boats and sixty yokes of
oxen, but the ship Avas nevertheless in much hazard of

1630]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Ill

being lost, and he "never kneAV what hearty fear meant
till then." In July the Bristol Customer informed Secretary
Nicholas that the Fifth Whelp Avarship Avas at Waterford
to Avaft over vessels to Bristol fair, but that many Irish and
English barks had been taken by the " Biscayners," Avho
Avere a terror to traders. In August, 1633, the commander
of a King's ship wrote to Secretary Nicholas that he had
convoyed fifty barks in safety from Ireland to Bristol fair,
though they sighted " a villain " that lay in wait for them.
Tidings of the birth of the Prince of Wales on May 29th
reached Bristol three days later, and were hailed Avith de
monstrations of joy. The Corporation reared a prodigious
bonfire in the evening near the High Cross, and similar
fires blazed, says a chronicler, in every street, " that the like
Avas never seen."
So early as 1604 the jiroceedings of one Morgan, a land-
OAvner at Pill, in interfering Avith the navigation of the
Avon, had given the Corporation much trouble. He Avas
prosecuted for nuisances, convicted, and imprisoned during
the reign of James I., but the punishment seems to have
had little effect, for his name repeatedly crops up in the
corporate records, though in too vague a manner to be
Avorth reproduction. Before 1630 he had been succeeded by
a son, Avhose conduct Avas more intolerable than that of his
father, and the irritated Corporation resolved on contain
ing of his malpractices to the Government, and of sparing
no exjiense in putting an end to them. In June, 1630, a
petition Avas laid before the Privy Council, setting forth
that Morgan had not only prevented the use of certain
posts set up at Pill for tho mooring of ships, but had erected
a. house ou tho river bank, directly in front of an ancient
tree, Avhich for time out of mind had been used for mooring
purposes, besides committing other abuses tending to the
ruin of tho citizens. EAridenco having been adduced in
supjjort of these charges, the Privy Council expressed itself
convinced of the damage caused by Morgan's exorbitant
jiroceedings, ordered him to demolish the house, and to
suffer neiv posts to be erected, the magistrates being em
powered, on his refusal, to commit him to prison until he
submitted. By some means, however, the culprit obtained
a rehearing of the case, and it Avould appear that the
Government determined on sending two influential and
impartial personages to visit the place, and report upon the
matters in dispute. A feAv Aveeks later, the Archbishop of
York, and subsequently the Chief Justice of the Common

112 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1630
Pleas, arrived for this purpose in Bristol, and, after being
sumptuously entertained by the Corporation, were severally
conducted to Pill, in boats stored with roast _ beef, pies,
sweetmeats, cakes, and wine, an enormous quantity of gun
powder being spent in firing salutes. The report of the
judge is not to bo found ; but that of the Archbishop de
nounces Morgan's conduct in vigorous terms. Tho tree
and posts, wrote his grace, were so indispensable to sldpping
that no poAver of man without them could prevent wrecks
and loss of life in bad Aveather; and tho port might bo
utterly overthrown if other riparian landlords followed a
similar course. But this Avas not all. Morgan's perversity
had induced him to set up a sconce (fort), Avhich, whilst
impeding commerce, Avas destroying the morals and spirit
of seafaring men ; for it was a sconce fortified with eleven
great ordnance, namely, strong pothouses or tap-houses, dis
charging, not powder and shot, but [tobacco] smoke and
strong beer, defiling the people with drunkenness, filthiness,
and robbery of their masters' goods — all Avhich should be
totally and finally eradicated. The Archbishop concluded
with a glowing ettlogium on Bristol, asserting that for
orderly government, care of religion and the poor, advance
ment of the King's customs, and heartiness to do him
service, he knew no city worthy to be preferred to it ; whilst
for good treatment of the clergy it surpassed all. With
this report before them, the Privy Council, on October 29th,
re-affirmed the previous order, requiring the occupier of the
pothouse in front of the old tree to demolish his dAyelling
forthwith, or to appear before them to answer for his con
tempt. If he resisted, the Corporation (who had offered
him £30 towards building another house) Avere empowered
to remove the nuisance. The Council at the same time
directed tho Chief Justice of the Common Pleas to give
proper instructions to the judges of assize for the holding
of an inquiry " into the erecting of a little toAvn, as they
call it, consisting all of alehouses at Crockern Pill, and to
give orders for remedying the abuse." The civic digni
taries Avho had been sent up to Court returned home in
triumph, but the affair had entailed an infinity of "grati
fications." A gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, the
clerks of the Privy Council, the clerks' men, the door
keepers, the doorkeepers' men, tho Lord Treasurer's sec
retary and his doorkeeper, tho porters of the Privy Seal,
the Archbishop's secretary, and various minor underlings
received gratuities. A buck Avas presented to the Arch-

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

113

1630]
bishop, and a handsome gift of wine, sugar, etc., costing
£20 14s. 8d., was forwarded to him at York. Six sugar
loaves, value £4 6s. 6d., and wine to the value of £16 9s. 8d.,
were sent to the Lord Chief Justice. The £30 promised to
the alehouse keeper were paid, and the building was de
molished. Morgan, however, was not yet disposed of, and
will turn ttj> again.
Concurrently with the above proceedings, the Corpora
tion worn carrying on a negotiation with tho Government
for the purchase of Bristol Castle. On July 1st the Council
petitioned the King on the subject, stating that they had
expended £759 for billeting soldiers and transporting them
to Ireland. His Majesty having lately granted a lease of
the Castle to one Brewster, for three lives, at a rent of
£100, the petitioners jirayed that, in consideration of the
above outlay, they might be granted the fortress in fee-
farm at a rent of £40. The memorial was referred to Sir
Thomas FanshaAV, who reported that on an inspection
made in 1625 he found the ruins of the Castle exceeding-
great, and the precincts covered with little cottages piled
on the head of one another, and used as a sanctuary from
arrests. As the only profit derived by the Crown Avas the
rent of £100, which Avas not likely to be maintained, he
thought a grant to the Corporation would not be prejudicial.
The Lord Treasurer thereupon directed the grant to be pre
pared, but an additional sum of £200 Avas first Avrung from
the Corporation. Numerous as had been the' tips required
in the Pill case, they were insignificant Avhen compared
Avith those extorted during the Castle business. The
Attorney-General and his staff demanded over £27. A
secretary, for procuring the King's signature, got nearly
£1.2, and nearly £18 Avere paid to the Privy Seal officials.
Tho Great Seal cost £17 Lis. A Mr. Gibbons received
£80; his man, £3; Sir Tobias Matthew, £20; and Sir
Thomas FanshaAV, £10, " all gratuities." The Lord
Treasurer had a gift of 98 ounces of double gilt silver
j<late ; Mr. Noy (about to become Attorney-General)
accepted similar jtlate weighing 45 ounces ; the Lord Privy
Seal had a hogshead of Avine ; and " one of the King's bed
chamber, for his favour," a large consignment of Avine, oil,
and sugar. Gifts to clerks and underlings Avere made by
tho city delegates in London, to which tho Chamberlain
made three journeys, and Avhere he remained nearly half a
year. Brewster's rent of £1(H) Avas henceforth received by
the- Corporation ; but ho profited largely from the rentals

114

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1G30

paid by the occupiers of the precincts, besides enjoying the
occupation of the great mansion known as the Military
House, Avith its extensive gardens. As was perhaps natural,
the two parties concerned in the property were soon on bad
terms. In April, 1632, BreAvster, in a petition to the Privy
Council, complained that though he had been at great
charge in repairing the place — which probably means that
he had been striving to increase his tenants and his rentals
— he had been much wronged and hindered by the magis
trates. Their lordships thereupon instructed the Bishop,
the Mayor, the Sheriff of Gloucestershire, and Sir Ferdi-
nando Gorges to meet and hold an inquiry into tho facts,
and to report the result. No report is now to be found, but
the Corporation doubtless found it desirable to get rid of an
inconvenient tenant, aud in 1634 Brewster's outstanding
interest was acquired for the sum of £520 10s.
Lord Chief Justice Hyde resigned the Recordership in
June, 1630, owing to the impossibility of reconciling the
duties of his dual offices. It appears that the Attorney-
General had applied for a Quo warranto against the Corpora
tion (though the civic records afford no information on the
matter except that the writ was ultimately stayed on Jiay-
ment of £10), and the judgment of the Chief Justice on the
case, whatever it might be, would not have been seemly if
it had come from the mouth of the Recorder. He therefore
Avithdrew, and declined to recommend a successor, though,
if the Council desired his opinion, he would " name Mr.
William Noy, a man of great note, hardly to be matched."
Noy was forthwith elected ; but on being apprised of his
appointment, he at once wrote to the Mayor, desiring to be
excused, "for reasons best known to himself." He Avas, in
fact, appointed Attorney-General in the following October.
On his refusal, John Glanvdle, afterwards Serjeant-at-Law
and Speaker of the House of Commons, was elected Re
corder. The office of Lord. High Steward became vacant in July
by the death of the Earl of Pembroke. Faithful to the
custom of securing support in high places, the Council, in
August, elected to the vacancy the Lord Treasurer, Lord
Weston, af terAvards Earl of Portland, an abject flatterer and
pliant tool of the then despotic King, and notorious for his
insolence and arrogance towards others.
After tho death of James I,, the custom amongst tho
nobility of permitting a company of travelling actors to
aisurao the name of their patron went out of fashion, and

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IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

115

dramatic entertainments in Bristol, except possibly at the
great fairs, became very rare. In the summer of 1630 the
" King's players " performed before the Corporation for
the first time, with one exception, during five years, and
received the usual gift of £2. But in September, Avhen
another troop made their appearance, they Avere ordered
out of the city Avith a dole of 20s. ; and the King's players
Avere similarly treated in 1631, though the gift Avas doubled.
In 1633 tho Mayor gave another company 20.v. " to be, rid of
thorn," and his successor, in 1631, bestowed 30s. on a party
"to rid them out of toAvn." Later in tho same year a com
pany received £2, and may, perhaps, have performed; but
in 1635 the same sum is stated to have been disbursed to a
band " because they should not play," and also to " a
player," probably a conjuror, " for that he should not use
his skill here." A tumbler, armed Avith a license from the
Master of the Revels, had the munificent gift of half a
crOAvn from the Chamberlain. Dramatic and other amuse
ments thenceforth disajipear from the city accounts for a "*
quarter of a century.
In anticijiation of the usual muster of the trained bands,
the Corporation, in September, presented two of the three
captains, Richard AldAvorth and Giles Elbridge, with new
" antients " (colours), Avhich cost nearly £30. The yearly
marshalling of the hands Avas occasionally enlivened by the
presence of a nobleman of distinction. The Earl of Arundel
came down in 1634, and the Corporation, mindful of a
former oversight, not only hastened to present him Avith
wine, sugar, conserves, jirunes, and other delicacies, but
invited his son, Lord Maltravers, Avho had inspected the
troopers, to a sumptuous dinner in the great mansion of the
Gresvvick family, iu Small Street.
In the State Papers for November, 1630, is an account of
the troubles of Derrick Popley, one of tho Sheriffs of Bristol,
then in custody, by order of the Privy Council, charged
Avith engrossing salt. Mr. Popley explained in a petition
for relief that he yearly imported 5,000 bushels of foreign
salt, but that, having a ship bound on a fishing voyage, he
had sent an agent to tho Somerset ports, avIio had bought
up 700 tons, for Avhich he and his agent had been arrested
and carried to London. One Windham, the informer,
alleged before the Privy Council that Popley's purchases
at Watchet and other places had raised the local price of
salt from 4s. 8d. to 15s. a bushel. The issue is not recorded.
In the following year, at the election of Mayor, the ex-

11G

TUB ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1631

Sheriff Avas fined £10 for contemptuously neglecting to be
present in the Chamber.
In January, 1631, the King issued a proclamation by
which Bristol merchants were prohibited from pursuing one
of the most important branches of their commerce. The
mandate, after asserting that, notAvithstanding previous
royal decrees, great quantities of tobacco continued to be
planted in several parts of England, whilst an incredible
quantity Avas imported secretly, forbado the cultivation of tho
plant at homo, or its importation from tho plantations into
any port save London. Tho quantity to be admitted Avas to-
be fixed at the King's discretion, His Majesty disapproving
of an immeasurable outlay on so vain and needless a com
modity. Notwithstanding this emphatic expression of the
royal displeasure, the culture of tobacco in Gloucestershire
became so prevalent in the following summer that the
Privy Council sent cIoavii a peremptory order to the Sheriff'
to cut doAvn the plantations, apparently with little effect.
The above proclamation was re-issued in May, 1634, and in
January, 1638. It is probable that the restriction of the
foreign trade to London was devised to extort money for
licenses to import into Bristol, and it Avill be shown under
1641 that such licenses Avere occasionally obtained. In the
meantime a jealous Avatch was kept upon local merchants.
In April, 1635, when a ship laden with tobacco was driven
into this port through stress of weather, a petition was sent
to the Government praying that she might be discharged
here ; but the Lords of the Treasury sneeringly expressed.
doubts as to the cause of the ship's change of course, and
peremptordy ordered her to London.
The year 1631 Avas locally notable for an attempt made
by Bristol enterprise to realize the long-cherished dream of
navigators — the discovery of a North- West Passage to
India and the far East. The King having taken some
interest in the problem, and directed one of his ablest
servants, Sir Thomas Roe, to equip a royal ship for an
expedition, some leading Bristol merchants applied to Sir
Thomas through Captain Thomas James, an experienced
Bristol mariner, to bo allowed to take jiart in the adven
ture, expressing Avillingness to fit out a ship under James's
comm and . Roe cord i ally responded to the appeal , inf ormin g
the Mayor, John Tomlinson, Avho had married his sister,
that tho Lord Treasurer, "being beholden to you for your
love in choosing him SteAvard of your city,'_' proposed to
»ive the Bristol undertakers an equal share in all the ad-

1G31]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

117

vantages expected to be derived from the discovery. The
King Avas accustomed to grant audiences at an early hour
on Sunday mornings, and Avhen the Lord Treasurer's
promises had been confirmed, Captain James Avas permitted
to pay his respects to His Majesty. The Bristol adventurers,
of whom Humphrey Hooke, AndreAv Charlton, Miles
Jackson, ,and Thomas Cole were the chiefs, thereupon
procured a ship of eighty tons burden, which, in honour of
tho Queen, Avhose assistance in tho business of tho Castle,
Avas gratefully remembered, they named the Henrietta
Maria. The crew Avas composed of tiventy-tivo able
seamen, and a large sum Avas spent in equipment. The
vessel set sail on May 3rd, steered by Avay of Greenland to
Hudson's Strait, the weather throughout being extremely
unfavourable ; and on September 3rd entered a bay, still
named James's Bay in honour of its discoverer. A month
later, the explorers reached a place they called Charlton,
after the Bristolian mentioned above, and there they Avere
compelled to remain. The ship being unable to approach
Avithin three miles of the shore, it Avas deemed advisable to
sink her, to jirevent injury from " bunqping," the creAV
seeking such shelter as could be found on land. After
experiencing a Avinter of terrible severity, the crew, in the
following May, dug the ice out of the ship, got her afloat
again, and soon after sailed for England, arriving at Bristol
after a stormy voyage on October 22nd. By that time the
vessel Avas so shattered that the safe return Avas regarded
as miraculous. The London adventure, led by a seaman
named Fox, Avas of an inglorious character, his ship being
brought home after a desultory cruise of six months in
regions already avc.11 known. The intrepidity of James thus
became the more conspicuous, and Avon the admiration of
the Court. On his presenting himself at Whitehall with a
chart of his voyage, the King Aveleomcd him heartily, held
him in conversation for tAvo hours, and requested him to
attend again and give further details. The nobility foUoAved
the royal example, and James, to use a modern phrase, Avas
the lion of the season. A spirited account of his Arctic
adventures Avas published iu 1633, and proves the com
mander to have been a skilful and scientific navigator. In
the same year he Avas appointed captain of a Avarship,
Avhich cruised in the Bristol Channel for the, suppression of
piracy. Some remarkable coincidences of thought and
expression have been remarked in the narrative of the
above voyage and in the " Rime of the Ancient Mariner,"

118

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1631

from which it has been inferred that Coleridge had read
and been impressed by James's story.
Another Government shift for wringing money from the
public was put in force during the summer, and produced a
good harvest. The case of Bristol illustrates what went
on in every county and borough throughout the kingdom.
On June 29th a royal commission Avas addressed to the
Bishop of Bristol, the Mayor* and others, directing that
they should call before them such inhabitants as, by their
position in life, could be forced to take up the title of
knights, and to fix the composition that should be paid for
refusing it. It is clear from a minute of the Council of
three Aveeks earlier date that the intention of the Govern
ment Avas knoAvn in the city, and that the Mayor and some
of the Avealthy aldermen had hastened to make personal
compositions privately, for the purpose of getting them
selves appointed as commissioners through the favour of
the Lord Treasurer. In addition to those voluntary victims,
there were no less than forty-four persons in the city
qualified for knighthood, all of whom shunned the honour
of a title, and were accordingly assessed according to their
assumed means. The names of those gentlemen have been
fortunately preserved amongst the State Papers, and are
now published for the first time. They are of great
interest, as they doubtless embrace the whole upper-class
population of the city, with the exception of the royal
commissioners, and indicate the presumed wealth of each
individual. Alexander James, a Common Councillor, headed
the list, and was required to pay £41 6s. 8d. Then follow
Alderman Robert Rogers, the wealthiest of the soapmakers,
Avho paid £30 ; Alderman Christopher Whitson, £25, and
Richard Holworthy, CC, £23 6s. 8d. ; Alderman Abel
Kitchin, Henry Hobson, innkeeper, CC, Nicholas Heale,
gentleman, Alderman Henry Gibbes, Henry Yate, soap-
maker, CC, and George Gibbes, brewer, paid £8 13s. Ad.
each. Alderman William Young, Thomas Lloyd, brewer,
William Jones, merchant, G.G., Richard Ballman, brewer,
Oliver Smith, mercer, Ezekiel Wallis, mercer, CC, and
¦ Knir1" ' * ' ' " ' "' T " '"¦"

George

?ht, mercer, CC, £14 each; Walter Ellis,

merchant, CC, William Sage, tanner, Anthony Prewett,
draper, and Francis CresAvick, merchant, CO., £13 6s. 8d.
each; Nicholas Meredith, merchant, Matthew Warren,
clothier, CO., Edward Peters, merchant, William Lysett,
grocer, CC, and William Snigg, gentleman, £12 each;
Richard Baugli, brewer, £11. 13s. 4c/.; Richard Johnson,

1631]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

119

smith, Richard Jackson, clothier, EdAvard Batten, gentle
man, Miles Callowhill, mercer, John Lock, merchant, CC,
William Wyatt, merchant, and Francis Derrick, merchant,
£11 each ; John Pearce, draper, George Reece, gentleman,
Robert Osborne, brewer, Robert Kitchin, merchant, John
Baber, tailor, William Hayman, mariner, and Robert Black-
borow, brewer, £10. The only person assessed under the
last-named sum was William Colston, a young man, just
beginning a mercantile career, who was assessed at £6 13s.
Ad. The figures appended to the name of Alderman John
Harrington, brewer, are illegible. One Thurston Harris,
baker, Avas ordered to pay £12, but the item was afterAvards
struck out. The total amount netted by the process Avas
£626, and as the compositions recorded above amount to
£54S, it is clear that the Mayor (John Tomlinson) and the
aldermanic commissioners showed conspiouous lenity in
assessing themselves. The royal mandate required the
whole of the money to be brought in within ten days of
the hearing.
Amongst the many monopolies created about this time
by Charles I. was one concerning saltpetre. In 1627 a
commission was issued to the Duke of Buckingham and
another nobleman, empowering them to dig for saltpetre in
the houses, etc., of any of the King's subjects, the purchase
of this article being forbidden to all save the royal licensees.
In September, 1631, on the information of the justices at
Chippenham, tAvo Bristol men, named Cossley and Baber,
were dragged before the Privy Council charged with
fraudulently buying the King's saltpetre and converting
it into gunpowder. It is evident that the charge could not
be proved against them, for two months later they petitioned
lor release from prison, having never been called on to
answer their prosecutors. They Avere probably liberated on
payment of a fine. In December, 1637, John DoAvell, or
Dowle, the local Customer, avIio devoted himself for many
years to the persecution of Bristol merchants, sent infor
mation to Sir Henry Vane, probably the royal patentee,
that large quantities of contraband gunpowder were stored
in the city, and that forty-six persons were retailing
without a license. The Lords of the Admiralty thereupon
wrote to the Mayor, alleging that, iu defiance of the King's
mandate, gunpowder Avas still largely made in Bristol,
Baber being mentioned as a conspicuous offender, and
peremptory orders Avere given for the suppression of all the
mills. The Mayor replied soon afterwards, assert-in- that

120

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1631
tAvo mills had been discovered and the implements confis
cated. In November, 1638, hoAvever, Dowell reported that
Baber had a mill in the suburbs, and was making two cwt.
a Aveek, whilst much Avas covertly smuggled into the city,
and a feAv weeks later the "commissioners for gunpowder "
sent down orders to the Mayor to seize Baber's mills, break
his utensils, and commit him and every other local maker
to prison if they presumed to continue the trade. It is
somewhat amusing to find that, after all this rough treat
ment, Baber became, during the Civil War, the chief local
gunpowder-maker for the King, and not only sent £800
worth to Oxford, but supplied Prince Rupert when in
Bristol with ammunition to the value of £1,500, for which
he was never repaid.
An affair which caused much excitement in the city
occurred during the autumn of 1631. The King had some
time before granted poAvers to a neighbouring landowner to
enclose large portions of the common land in the Forest of
Dean, and to cut cIoavii the woods, contrary, as the inhabi
tants alleged, to their ancient rights. The destruction com
mitted by the grantee having eA'entually led to tumultuary
gatherings and acts of violence, steps Avere taken by the
Government to punish the rioters, in the course of which
John Wragg, one of the myrmidons of the Privy Council,
arrested in Bristol a forester named Virtue, alleged to be
one of the ringleaders, temporarily lodged him in Newgate,
and reported the facts to his employers. Being sent back
by them with orders to remove the prisoner to Gloucester
for trial at the assizes, Wragg was himself arrested on a
writ of the Piepowder Court, at the suit of Virtue, avIio
claimed £500 damages for illegal imprisonment. According
to Wragg 's petition thereon to the Privy Council, the
Steward (judge) of the Court, the keeper of NeAvgate, and
various civic officials were abettors of Virtue's prosecution,
and he especially complained of the conduct of the under-
gaoler in refusing him fire, victuals, and bedding during
his detention. The Privy Council promptly resented the
treatment of their agent, and Miles Jackson, one of the city
Sheriffs, avIio Avas held ansAverable for the keeper of New
gate, together with the tinder-gaoler and others, were
prosecuted in the Star Chamber, and were apparently kept
m custody for several weeks. The Sheriff vainly protested
that Wragg's arrest took place Avithout his knowledge, and
that the messenger avps liberated within twenty-four hours
on his official position being ascertained; Avhilst the gaoler's

1631]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

121

plea that he had simply conformed to a legal mandate Avas
equally unavailing. A local annalist says : — " It cost them
dear before they were all discharged." It is not surjirising
that in the struggle then draAving near Miles Jackson Avas
a zealous Parliamentarian.
A new restriction upon local commerce Avas proclaimed
at the High Cross in November. The King having just
granted to six London merchants the sole right of trading
with Guinea, Bonny, and Angola, local merchants Avero
prohibited from competing with the monopolists. In 1633
a similar interdiction Avas published in reference to trade
Avith " the gulf and river of Canada," a monopoly having
been conferred on another London confederacy.
Manufacturers suffered from royal restrictions as severely
as did merchants. In December, 1631, a patent Avas granted
to seventeen persons, courtiers and Londoners, conferring
on them the sole right to make hard and soft soap out of
home materials ; and in the folloAving month these monopo
lists, styled the Society of Soapmakers of Westminster,
received a charter of incorporation empoAvering them to
destroy the vats and demolish the buildings of persons in
vading their privilege. In July, 1634, proclamation Avas
made in Bristol that the King forbade the making of soap
for private domestic use, and prohibited the importation of
foreign, Irish, or Scotch soap. Bristol had then enjoyed a
great repute for its soap for four hundred years, and the
soapmakers Avere numerous and their business extensive
Avhen this monopoly Avas created. Seeing the prospect of
ruin before them, the manufacturers naturally made terms
Avith the AVestminster Society, and in consideration of a
large payment permission Avas obtained to make and dis
pose, of tho insignificant quantity of 600 tons yearly. But
the Government, conceiving that more could' be extorted
from the Bristolians, then took action on its own account.
In a petition dated May, 1635, the local manufacturers made
an earnest appeal against a new order issued by the Privy
Council forbidding them to vend soap outside Bristol saA-e
to Wales and the Western ports, and requiring them to pay
an additional tax to the King of £1 per ton, a burden Avhich
they declared Avould simply be ruinous. No relief, Iioav-
ever, Avas accorded beyond permission to sell in Wilts and
Gloucestershire. About the same tim<* the local Soap-
makers' Company laid another grief before the Government
•complaining that although they had conformed to the terms
imposed by the King and the, London monopolists, their

122

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1633

soap had been seized by orders of the latter, and they had, in
spite of their poverty, been compelled to travel five times to
London, and to make long sojourns there without obtaining
any redress. Other documents show that the Londoners
maintained spies in the city avIio constantly harassed the
industry. In May, 1637, twelve Bristol soapmakers Avere
lying in the Fleet prison for non-payment of the extra tax
levied by the Crown, and Avere forced to redeem themselves
on the terms imposed by the Loid Treasurer. (Some of
these victims Avere afterwards conspicuous Parliamentarians.)
Filially, in 1638, the King's Gentlemen Pensioners, whose
salaries Avere two years in arrear, begged His Majesty to
grant them the profits of " his soap in Bristol," and this
appears to have been conceded. By the King's order in
Council, the number of soap-houses in the city was about
the same time reduced to four. These brief citations from
the State Papers afford but.au inadequate conception of the
suffering endured for several years by an inoffensive and
useful bod}'- of manufacturers. Adams, the ablest of the
contemporary chroniclers, Avho was a witness of the perse
cution, and whose zealous loyalty renders his statements on
the subject unimpeachable, records that about thirty Bristol
soapmakers "were served up to London, Avhere against
their wills they Avere retained long with great expenses,
imprisoned, and fined in above £20,000, and were bound to
more inconveniences before they could be discharged."
Neither the State records nor those of the Corporation
contain any reference to the tribulations of the Bristol
breAvers. But Adams notes : — " Another sort of [royal] com
missioners were for brewers, on whose behalf some of the
chiefest of that Company rode far London, Avhere they had
no remedy granted, but every brewer was enjoined to pay
40 marks a year, of all which the poor commons do feel the
smart." In January, 1633, a royal proclamation paralysed
another branch of trade, the making of girdles, belts, and
other articles of apparel being prohibited because, as the
mandate asserted, competition impoverished the Girdlers'
Company of London.
The relation of despotic restraints and exactions tends to
become someAvhat monotonous, but the grievances pressed
so heavily on all classes, and had so marked an effect on
public opinion in the final conflict between King and Par
liament, that it Avould be misleading to suppress the facts.
It was sIioavii at jtage 85 that the enormity of the fees
demanded at the Bristol Custom House was condemned in

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

123

1G33]
the House of Commons, and that the officials submitted to.
extensive reductions. Parliaments being now dispensed
Avith, and their revival being improbable, Messrs. DoAyell
and Willett, the Customer and Collector, in June, 1633, im-
jiudently repudiated the compact made with the merchants,
set forth a new and greatly enhanced scale of fees, and
threatened to stop the landing and shipment of goods unless
their demands were complied with. The mercantile body
appealed to the Government, but it was speedily discovered
that the Lord Treasurer had sanctioned, by warrant, the
proceedings of DoavoII and his colleagues, and that Attorney-
General Noy, on the pretext that one of the subordinate
officers had not signed the agreement of 1624, had given his
opinion that the arrangement was invalid. The merchants
continued their protests until April, 1634, when the Trea
surer sent doAvn a testy letter, requesting them to end the
dispute by immediate submission, and to give him no further
trouble. Tavo months later, however, for some mysterious
reason, he thought proper to change his mind, reAroked his
warrant to the officers, and ordered them to repay the
money they had extorted in excess of their just fees.
Whilst this dispute was pending, the Corporation gaAre an
order for the Lord Treasurer's portrait, which cost £2 15s.
The picture, on arrival, did not give satisfaction, and a
second commission was despatched, the artist being further
directed to paint pictures of the King and of "Lord Cecil."
Only £6 10s. was paid for the three portraits to " Flechier
tho Dutchman," and the fee included some " trimming " of
other jiictures in the Council blouse. The Chamberlain, a
Aveek or tAvo later, disbursed £1 Is, 7c/. " for a pie with two
salmons baked in it, and for four lamprey pies, presented
and sent to London to a friend, and for gilding them."
A royal proclamation received in the city in February,
1633, fixed the jirices at Avhich Avines Ave re to be sold by
retail for the ensuing year. The cost of Canary and
Muscadel Avas not to exceed 12d. jier quart, of sack and
Malaga, 9d., of best French, 6d.} and of Rochelle and in
ferior sorts, 3d. A Privy Council order on the same
subject, dated December, 1638, shows that prices had risen
2d. per quart.
The demolition of Morgan's pothouse at Pill (see p. 113)
did not reduce that Avorthy to submission. He jiroved, in
fact, as refractory as before, and the Somerset justices Avere
called upon in 1631 to suppress his " sconce " of alehouses.
In 1633 a " Avrit of rebellion" was issued against some of

J 2-1

THIS ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1633
tWw«™S' whVYere « intractable as their landlord, and
St T^^uv^ imprisoned without any apparent
result. In 1634 Morgan was prosecuted in the Court of
moori^ °i; eXaCt,mg " duti6S'" resistinS the *™*™ of
vber Z flP0?-' ™dn e?couraSing unlicensed alehouses,
whereby the Kmg s Customs were evaded and the goods of
iTeTad'tuiir^f^! U WRS rV6d b^ Witaesses ^
he had built another house.so close to the river that the
men engaged m towing ships had to struggle through tho
deep mud along the shore. After a litigation extending
over two_ years, the Court gave judgment against hinn
pioiiouncmg his conduct insufferable, fining him a con-
Z«Z rfi ST' and1 01x}f™g that one house only, for the
use of the ferry should be allowed to stand, and that all
the rest should be demolished at his expense the Corpor
ation being further empowered to erect such mooring
posts as they thought fit. The Common Council went to
great expense m prosecuting the suit, and retained four
leading barristers at the final hearing. The fees appear
small to modern eyes. The Attorney and Solicitor-General
received £o each, the Recorder of London, £4, and Mr
Lenthall (afterwards so famous), £3. The Solicitor-General
and the Recorder had, hoAvever, a present of £20 worth of
wine and sugar. Fifty pounds were paid for the decree
and for a present to the Lords," and a hogshead of Avine
with sugar loaves went to Sir Robert Eaton. Whether
the two hogsheads of wine presented about the same time
t(L t.ne. ^^ Chlef Baron had any connection Avith the
attains a matter of conjecture. Morgan having character
istically refused to obey the decree, more money was spent
m obtaining a warrant for his arrest. It will be seen
under 1637 that even imprisonment failed to reduce him to
obedience. Bishop Wright, Avith whom the Common Council had
always maintained cordial relations, Avas translated to
Lichfield m 1633. The Corporation soon afterwards sent
him a handsome piece of plate " as a testimony of love and
affection." His successor in Bristol was Dr. George Coke
who owed his preferment to his brother, Sir John Coke,
Secretary of State. The neAV prelate's letter to his relative,
giving an account of his arrival and " good Avelcome " iu
the city, is interesting for the proof it affords of the attach
ment to the Church that then prevailed. His first sermon,
he Avrote, was preached to the greatest concourse ho over
saAV. Tho Mayor, aldermen and sheriffs Avere present,

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUItY.

125

IGSS*]
together Avith all the city clergy, so that not one sermon
was preached in any of the other churches. Tho citizens,
he added, Avere loving and friendly, tho Mayor had invited
himself and family to a royal feast; another was to be
given by Sheriff Fitzherbert ; and Alderman Barker, a
aviso and able man, had sent him a present, as had some
others. Invitations were not expected from himself, " all
they require is loving acquaintance. " The Bishop's account
of Jus reception is confirmed by the civic accounts, Avhich
record the presentation to him, in the folloAving December
of " three silver bowls and a salt." His lordship's weak'
constitution obliged him to have recourse to the local
medical practitioners, of whom he wrote Avith some
bitterness in 1635:— "Such leeches are the physicians-
here that they aviII not leave hold as long as any blood
remains." At a meeting on April 9th, the Council appointed a
committee to superintend the repairing and beautifying of
the High Cross, but directed that the outlay should not
exceed £100, and that no alteration should be made in the
form of the structure. The committee, hoAvever, thought
proper to ignore those restrictions. Considering the graceful
production of the fourteenth century not sufficiently pre
tentious, they gave orders that it should be considerably
increased in height, in order to afford space for the insertion
of statues of four additional monarchs— the reio-nino-
sovereign, James I., Elizabeth, and Henry VI. The debased
(roth m work Avas executed by men engaged by the com
mittee., tho master mason being paid 2s. "and each of his
five or mix -subordinates Is. per day. The stone was brought
Iron, Ilaselbury, and one great block for the summit cost
7s. M besides .31 ).v for carriage. The total expenditure
almost exactly doubled the amount, proscribed bv the Council
no less than £42 being expended iu London in the purchase
ot the gold leaf and colours used in "decorating" the
masonry. &
In accordance with a commission under the Great Seal a
subscription Avas made in the Council Chamber in June to
GfTmP rT1,,Tti0n?f "th0 Churdl Exiles," otherwise
fct. iatils Cathedral, then m a ruinous condition. The
Mayor and aldermen contributed 20s. each ; the councillors
on an average, 10s. '
An old and inefficient crane on the Back, tho onlv

existing in the city, was removed this year, aiid r
a more poAverful one, at a cost of about £100.

one

•eplaced by
lie insfru-

12G

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1633-34

ment was let on lease, in August, to a man named Partridge,
at a rental of £8, which indicates the slender requirements
?r.li1!1C°^merCLof the Period- Infche five years ending
lb47 the Crane Master Avas unable to pay any rent at all
Business afterwards revived, and a fresh lease was granted
to him at the same rental, on his undertaking to pay up the
arrears, and £10 additional.
An order Avas given by the Council in September that
tAvo stately robes of scarlet and fur should be provided for
the Mayor and tho Mayor-elect, to be Avorn yearly at the
great corporate ceremony on Michaelmas Day. The sum
mi &2-° 1-4,'S"' WaS p:1'i(1 for oue robe> aud £U *or the other.
Ihe incident possibly inspired a wealthy citizen, George
White brother of the benevolent Dr. White, Avith a desire
to confer a further decoration on the chief magistrate, for
yJo1rT,ll.'da^d m Um' he dire°ted his executors to lay
out £150 in the purchase of " one cheyne of gold " to be
Avorn by the Mayor on " scarlet days. " Somewhat strangely,
the Council looked on the bequest Avith disfavour, for
though it was at first accepted by a narrow majority the
motion was shortly afterwards rescinded, and it \vas
resolved that " m lieu thereof £100 for the poor was more
requisite." The implied rebuke was the more ungracious
inasmuch as the testator had bequeathed £400 to the
Corporation for charitable purposes. SeA^eral audit books
of this period having been lost, it is uncertain Avhether
the executors did or did not adopt the Council's suggestion
but from the directions of the Avill they probably complied!
(Another of this gentleman's gifts Avas the brazen pillar
bearing his name, uoav standing before the Exchange.)
White's testament gives evidence as to the ostentation that
commonly marked the interment of wealthy Bristolians.
A sum of £150 — equivalent to £600 in our day — was left
for funeral expenses, and £6 more Avere bequeathed to " the
Society of Military Men " of the city for a funeral dinner,
a custom not uncommon amongst the members. Few men
attempted to withstand the custom of the age. Robert
RedAvood, the founder of the City Library, who died in
l! ,;30, ordered that not more than £10 should be expended
in funeral expenses and proving his will, but he directed
that forty poor men, for their attendance, should have
gOAvns, hats and shoes at a cost not exceeding £39 ; and by
a codicil made a week later, finding his wealth greater
than he had imagined, he allotted £100 more for the outlay
-on his burial.

1634]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

127

On May 31st, 1634, William Laud, Archbishop of Canter
bury— Carlyle's " lean little Tadpole of a man, Avith a face
betokening hot blood "—held a visitation of the diocese of
Bristol in the cathedral. His presence in the city is unmen-
tioned in the civic records ; the chroniclers are equally silent
ou the subject, and the account of the local churches that
would, of course, be presented to him seems to have perished.
Ihe State Papers of the year, however, include tAvo volumi
nous documents in reference to the cathedral and to the con
duct of tho capitular body. The replies which the Chapter
made in writing to tAventy interrogations submitted to them
Avere characterized, not unjustly, as "dark ansivers," and on
more explicit statements being demanded many discreditable
truths came to light. As the Dean and prebendaries all held
other benefices— one prebendary had three parochial livings
and three of his colleagues tAvo each— the permanent resi
dence at the cathedral stipulated by the statutes Avas not
observed, four Aveeks in the year being deemed sufficient.
lo increase the income divisable amongst the Chapter
miserable stipends Avere aUotted to the other members of the
staff, and several offices Avere suppressed. The minor canons
Avere alloAved to take other cures, and Avere therefore gener
ally absentees. The salary of the gospeller was given to the,
organist and smgmg men to improve their paltry pay A
chorister also acted as epistoler, and most of his brethren
were organists or parish clerks of churches in the city • so
that the Litany Avas scarcely ever sung at Sunday morning
services. lj,e almsmen Avere non-resident, but alloAved the
sexton something for performing their duty (sweeping the
church, bell-rmgmg, etc.) For the sake of the patronage, the
o lices ol caterer, cook, and butler were, maintained, though
the common table had been long abolished. The school
master, besides being needed elsewhere as Bishop's chaplain
was so aged that the singing boys were neither instructed
nor governed. The office of usher had been suppressed.
the dAvelbngs provided for the prebendaries were mostly let
to laymen. Ihe library was converted into -a private house.
The common hail for the quire was leased to a stranger as
ho^n °thZaIn the Preci»cts. The school-house in
the Green was fitted up and used as a tennis-court. The
cathedral Avas used as a common passage to the Bishoo's
palace and the houses in the cloisters. College Green was
m a scandalous condition, being ploughed up by the sledges
carrying clothes to dry on Brandon Hill, whikt the Co rpofa
tion had erected a whipping-post in the centre for iffi

12S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1634

offenders, and a rout of disorderly people played stop-ball
and other games from morning to night, on Sundays as Avell
as on week-days. Tho Chapter's confessions incidentally
refer to the visits of the Corporation to the cathedral. It
had long been tho practice, they said, if the Mayor arrived
before the end of morning prayer, to abruptly close the ser
vice, and proceed Avith the sermon, If, on the other hand,
prayers had concluded before, his worship made his appear
ance, the custom Avas to wait' in silence until the advent of
the civic party gavo the signal for the preacher to mount
the pulpit. In February, 1638, the Archbishop sent down
peremptory orders for the reform of some of the capitular
abuses, and the Chapter, after a pertinacious resistance for
nearly two years, consented that £20 should be set apart
yearly for repairing the cathedral, that £20 should be
devoted to increaso the stipends of the choristers, and
that the sinecure offices of caterer, etc., should be abol
ished. .
The Court of Star Chamber published a decree m June,
1634, concerning " the abuse of farthings," as well by per
sons counterfeiting the coin as by others who bought large
quantities at cheap rates, and made profit by forcing
labourers to accept them as Avages. The latter practice was
sternly forbidden, and it Avas ordered that no person should
pay above tAvo pence iu farthings in any one payment.
There is some reason to suspect that the Corporation had
been profiting by the artifice thus prohibited. In April,
1636 the Chamberlain Avas ordered to deliver £10 in silver
to Thomas Griffith, goldsmith, "Avhich he is desired to
exchange with poor people for farthings, not exceeding four
pence to any, and to do it as of himself, in so discreet a way
as he can, for pacifying the clamour of the poor."
Allusion Avas made in page 120 to the destruction wrought
in the Forest of Dean by the rapacious patentee to Avhom
the King had granted the woods. The havoc at length be
came of grave concern to local merchants and shipowners,
Avho in July, 1634, made a vigorous remonstrance to Lord
Holland Chief Justice in Eyre. Documents of this kind
-enerallv presented facts in highly exaggerated colours; but
there must, have been a solid substratum of truth underlying
the complaint, which was drawn up by tho Attorney-
Genoral It was asserted that one-half of the goodly forest
h-id been destroyed Avithin about twenty years, which had
,-uisedthe price' of timber to advance from 16s. to 25s. per
ton and rendered shipbuilding impracticable. Before wood

1634]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY.

129

became scarce, ships of from 100 to 200 tons Avere yearly
launched at Bristol, Avhereas during the previous nine years
only ono ship of 100 tons had been built, and shipAvrights
were unemployed. Merchants were thus constrained to buy
Dutch-built ships; but such vessels were liable to confisca
tion if they entered Spanish ports, and as the commerce of
Bristol Avas chiefly with Spain, the merchants Avere unable
to trade, and the King's Customs had diminished. If the
iron furnaces in the Forest continued to Avork, all the
remaining timber there would be consumed in fifteen years.
Consequently iron, which had risen to £17 per ton during
the late conflict with Spain, would, be unprocurable for
money in the event of a future Avar. The remedies proposed
by tho petitioners — the re-planting of the Avoods and the
preservation of Avhat remained — were urged by Alderman
Barker and others at a "great seat of justice" held by Lord
Holland at Gloucester, but there is no record of the result.
In tho British Museum is a lengthy manuscript entitled,
" A Relation of a late Survey into twenty-six counties . . .
in nine weeks . . . August, 1634. By a captain, a lieu
tenant, and an ancient [ensign] of the Military Company in
Norwich." These Ayorthy gentlemen, Avhose taste for traA-el
Avas as remarkable in their time as their antiquarian pro
clivities, arrived at the "Gillards" inn, High Street, Bristol,
at the end of the fifth Aveek of their tour, and record that
they were received by the landlord, "Mr. Hobson, a grave,
proper, honest, and discreet host, lately a bounteous, gentle,
free, and liberal Mayor of that stveet and rich city." The
visitors were pleased with the central streets, and much ad
mired the Marsh, "a very pleasant and delightful place,"
with its tree-sheltered Avalks and bowling green for Avealthy
and gentle citizens. Besides the cathedral, Avhich is oddly-
described as "newly finished," the visitors found eighteen
churches, fairly beautified, and "in the major part of them
neat, rich, and melodious organs. Their pulpits are most
curious, all which the citizens have spared no cost to
beautify . . . for they daily strive in every parish avIio
shall exceed other in their generous and religious bounty
most to deck and enrich." Some remarks folloAV on the
general pleasantness of the city, the riches and numbers of
her merchants and the excellent government of her Corpora
tion. " To grace and add to her beauty, she maintains
three foot companies, besides a voluntary company of gentle,
proper, martial, disciplined men, avIio have their arms
lodged ilia handsome Artillery House. uoavIv built up in tho

130

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1634
Castle yard, Avhere once a year they unite and entertain
both Earls and Lords, and a great many knights and gentry
of rank and quality at their military feast." The Castle is
incidentally mentioned as " almost quite demolished." The
visitors finally proceeded to inspect " a strange hot Avell,
Avhich comes gushing out of a mighty stony Rock. . . . To
it Ave descended by . . . near 200 slippery steps; Avhich
place, when the tide is gone,,, never Avants good store of
company to wash in this well,' and to drink of that warm
and medicinable water." Having marvelled at the copious
cold spring that fell from the rocks opposite to the hot well,
they reclimbed the steps to betake themselves to delving for
the "glittering bastard diamond stones" Avhich the hill
plentifully afforded. They then returned to their inn,
tasting on their way " a clear spring kept to refresh travel
lers" (at Jacob's Wells). "And so, with a cup of Bristow
milk, we parted with our honest and grave host, and bade
this SAveet city adieu." In their journey to Wells they were
convoyed for some miles "over huge stones and dangerous
lead-mines " by a troop of the " gentle artillery citizens "
with whom they had fraternized during their visit.
During the summer of this year the merchants of the
city experienced almost incessant persecution from royal
mercenaries of various kinds. The chroniclers maintain
their usual silence, on events of this character, but the State
Papers give a trustworthy, though imperfect, picture of the,
situation. On August 1st Alderman Barker, who had
become acquainted whilst in the House of Commons Avith
Secretary Nicholas, addressed an emphatic remonstrance to
that minister on the sufferings of his fellow-merchants.
During the previous five years, he asserted, repeated and
wholly unfounded informations had been laid against them
in the Star Chamber ; unwonted and vexatious commissions
had been issued to pry into their affairs ; Customs officials
had harassed them with false charges, and they had been
forced to endure the insolence of royal messengers and
common informers, acting as Avas pretended in the King's
service, though the consequences had been altogether con
trary. Going into details, Mr. Barker especially complained
of the manner in which, after merchants had paid for royal
licenses overriding the statute laAv, and discharged the
duties fixed bv those instruments, the Customs officers had
conspired Avith informers to bring false charges of fraud,
and instigated tho Attorney-General to prosecute upon
them, in 'which suits, though nothing had been proved,

1G34]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUUY.

131

heavy fees had been extorted from innocent persons.
Twenty merchants had in this Avay been dragged into the
Star Chamber, and though in some cases no definite, charge
had ever been made against them, none could obtain their
discharge Avithout paying largely. Commissions, again,
had been sent doAvn to examine sailors, clerks, and others,
and attempts had been made to suborn and intimidate those
men to bring false accusations against their employers. A
commission of this kind was then sitting, and efforts Avere
being made to convict the merchants of having fraudulently
made short entries at the Custom House, though all duties
had been honestly paid. In fine, more than £1,000 had
been Avrung out of innocent men Avithin five years, to say
nothing of tho slur cast upon their reputations. As the
Avriter had been informed that the Secretary disapproved of
these proceedings, his advice was prayed for in the matter,
and offers were made, of further information. Nicholas
replied a feAv days later, expressing regret, and asserting
that the Lord Treasurer would redress the grievances if
they Avere properly represented by so good a man as Barker.
Portland, hoAvever, Avas too subservient a tool to do anything
¦of the kind, and the ojipression continued unabated.
On September Kith, the Court of Aldermen appointed a
¦committee to take the first step for ojiening the Red Maids
Hospital founded by John Whitson, by selecting a meet
woman to take the charge of tweh-e young girls. The
¦Chamberlain's first disbursement for the institution denotes
his appreciation of feminine proclivities — he qiaicl one shil
ling " for a looking-glass for the children." By the end of
the year he had given GoodAvife Green, the matron, £4 4s.
for the. diet of the maids until Christmas, and expended
A-arions sinus for clothing, furniture, and utensils, including
six beds, a frying-pan, and Avoorlen platters, the establish
ment being completely equipped for the modest, sum of
£33 13s. 8d. The litigation in Chancery oA'er Whitson's
Avill had just terminated, and the. Corporation, at the sug
gestion of the Lord Keeper, bestoAved £,(ii> 13s. Ad. on Wil
liam Willett, one of the testator's disinherited nephews,
" for his preferment." The yearly sum allotted to the
schoolmistress for boarding and teaching the girls Avas
originally fixed r.t 50s. a head, a fraction less than one shil
ling per Aveek ; but in 1636 the stipend Avas raised to 60*.
The children Avere indentured to tho mistress for seven years,
and the latter mado such profit as she could out o'f the
.'labours of her pupils, whose education Avas confined to

132

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1634

reading, and avIio Avere almost constantly employed on
needleAvork. Reference must noAv be made to a Government requisition
that aroused great excitement at the time, and is still
historically famous. A Avrit demanding ship money Avas
issued on October 20th, and commanded the levying of
£104,252 on the seaports and maritime counties. On
November 6th the King addressed a special mandate to the
Corporations of Bristol, Gloucester, Bridgwater, and Mine-
head, and to tho Sherill's of Gloucestershire and Somerset,
requiring them to set forth a ship of 800 tons, Avith 260 men,
fully equipped for half a year's service. The demand Avas
afterwards commuted into a money payment of £6,500.
The jiretext put forward for the impost Avas the need of a
fleet in vieAV of the hostile attitude of France and Holland;
but this statement Avas received with incredulity, and
strong suspicions arose that the King was simply taking
measures to render himself permanently independent of
Parliamentary control. After many vain supplications
made to the Court by the Corporation, in the course of
Avhich bribes Avere profusely distributed amongst officials,
and an enormous quantity of Avine was "bestoAved on noble
personages " Avithout securing alleviation, the Privy Council,
on December 3rd, forwarded a wrathful letter to the Mayor,
stating that, as the local authorities had failed in their duty,
the assessment of the city had been confided to the county
sheriffs, and demanding immediate submission to their
proceedings. The sheriffs, who had similar instructions as
to BridgAvater and Gloucester, then took action, and, as Avas
not unnatural in county gentlemen, they threAv nearly the
Avhole charge on the Avealthy Bristolians to alleviate their
OAvn friends. The Corporation at once made a piteous pro
test to the Government, and the Privy Council, admittmg
the justice of the complaint, turned in a rage upon the
sheriffs, accusing them of partiality, annulled their assess
ment, and ordered that Bristol should not pay more than
one-third of the sum imposed — namely, £2,166 13s. Ad'.
That amount was then contributed, the sum assessed on the
city being paid in full before March 14th, 1635. (The im
post, levied on Liverpool Avas £15.) Elated with tho success
of its maiKcuvre, the Government then, Avithout any
definite, foreign policy, issued a second writ in the following
August, by which ship-money Avas converted into a general
tax imposed upon the entire kingdom. The. amount de
manded from Bristol Avas £2,000, but after many prayers.

1634]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

133

for relief, accompanied by gratuities and tips as before, the
burden was reduced to £1,200. This sum, added to the
previous year's exaction, Avas represented by the Corporation
iis equal to the levy of eighteen subsidies — a Avholly un
precedented charge, and far exceeding the burden laid on
other counties and boroughs. The money having been, by
some means, Avrung from the inhabitants, the Privy Council
sent doAvn a third warrant in October, 1636, requiring the
city to furnish a ship of 100 tons. This demand Avas con
verted into a money payment of £1,000,— commuted to £8f X ),
— most of Avhich Avas collected Avithin a tAvelvemonth. A
fourth Avrit, demanding a ship of HO tons, or £800, Avas
received in 1637 ; but the taxpayers, Avho, as Avill be shown,
were groaning under other oppressions, Avere well-nigh
exhausted. The collection being delayed, the King's minis
ters, in May, 1638, sent an angry letter to the Mayor, com-
jilaining of his negligence, charging him Avith disaffection,
and summoning him before the Privy Council to anSAver for
his contempt of the King's Avill. In great alarm, the
Corporation deputed the Toavii Clerk and others to appease
their lordships, and as £400 Avere at once paid in and the
remainder Avas being collected, the Mayor Avas discharged.
The Government, hoAvever, found it prudent to mitigate its
next demand, the fifth Avrit, of November, 1638, requiring
the immediate levy of only £250, of Avhich four-fifths had
been paid in June, 1639. The sixth and last of these
arbitrary exactions Avas called for in November, 1639, Avhen
£KDO were required; but this sum was subsequently abated
to £610, provided prompt payment Avere made, the full
charge being insisted on in the event of delay. In July,
1610, shortly before the elect-ions for the Long'Parliament,
the Corporation informed the Government that they had
remitted all they could collect (amount not stated), and that
more could be extracted only by distraints; they had already
levied some distresses, but no one would buy the goods; and
£700 had just been levied on the citizens for the mainten
ance and clothing of soldiers. One of the most remarkable
facts iu connection Avith the subject is the absence of local
information as to the, feeling 'of the inhabitants during
these arbitrary proceedings. AVith the exception of a laconic
reference to tho first writ in tAvo or three of the chronicles,
the Avhole story of the impost is ignored by local historians;
the civic audit books for tho three years ending Michaelmas,
1639, have mysteriously vanished; and though the mercan
tile body must have been amongst the chief victims, the

134

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1G34

of the fat W *[frc.han+ts Society are stated to be destitute
nfomrnf US1°n *° *lle matter" Near1^ ^11 the above
information has been extracted from the State Papers So
ones^T'nf m"de.out' the Corporation contributed about
one-sixth of each imposition, and the rest was levied by
assessment on the householders 3
enforShttl!le T^* *>* Wjlilst the Government was
enforcing the above system of extortion it would have
Svr6N0m fllep1Jy. Piling local merchants in otTer
™3 s. Nevertheless, m December, 1631, only a month
after the issue of the ship-money warrant, a wr w
addressed by the King under the Privy Seal to the officer
of his household, setting forth his " ancient right of purvey
ance," and commanding them tQ levy an extra duty iipm,
wmes lanced at Bristol m lieu of that privilege, th" no ?
was'liW; "to "" aIlegf(1' hnQTlSe the ™y*1 expJJiri re
cWclren "3tl. ' f1'1?86 ^ G°ds S™9 ^ reason of our
children, then infants. The composition Avas fixed at ten
cen T h^' tUU j aml " f ^ °ne refllsed t0 P»y, r« V ¦
cent, of Ins wines were to be seized, for which he was to
receive a small proportion of the value. It will be obl'rve
that this edict was a flagrant violation of the solemn iudo-
ment of the Court of Exchequer in 1609 (see p. 36 J The
Corporation urgently pleaded the facts bearing on the case
affirming tha the burden Avould raise tl/net pric of
Bnstol wmes 30*. per tun in excess of those of London, t>
the^obvious ruin of local trade. All remonstrances were
ineffectual, and the impost was collected for some years
Uie Privy Council at this period Avere seized with a
desire to usurp the functions of the ordinary courts o
jus ice. In November, 1634, Matthew Warren, who ha,
gallant and ba HI up to Court, to answer the mere assertion
of a man named Helly, who alleged that the Mayor had
caused him to be imprisoned on an unfounded charge of
HehVs laCC° " J1" 'fT T1rh' l0rdshiPs the11 found that
Helly s story could not be substantiated, and Mr. Warren
was "respited from attendance till the case be further
uZ T\ ' \Z '1Cl1' ? C°UrSe' Was never do^ A week
later, Robert She ward, vintner, was dragged up in the same
R^fT' "I tlie11|nf0Ta,tion5f the Illn]iolders' Company of
Bnstol who alleged that SheAvard had dressed and sold
victuals m ],,s tavern to several persons "contrary to the
decree of the Star Chamber." The culprit's defence hav
ing been heard, their lordships ordered that his prosecu-

1G30J

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

135

tion should be stojiped on his promising not to offend
again. Extreme distress amongst the poor having become again
prevalent in the early months of 1635, the Council took
unusually extensive measures for its relief. A large Avare-
hottse was engaged for storing bread, butter, cheese, oatmeal,
and roots, which were purchased wholesale to the value of
£800, and resold at prices barely sufficient to recoup tho
outlay It Avas anticipated that the stock Avould be "re
turned " (turned over) three or four times during the year,
but the accounts do not enter into details. One of the main
objects of the scheme Avas to prevent the alleged exactions
of the local hucksters, who were stigmatised in the Council
as "tho vermin of the commonwealth." Still larger pur
chases of grain, etc., Avere made in 1637 and 1638, when,
owing to bad harvests, the distress Avas greater than ever.
The, Council, in April, 1635, elected the Earl of Pembroke
to tho post of Lord High Steivard, in the room of the Earl
of Portland, who died in the previous month. The new
official Avas Lord Chamberlain, and much was doubtless
hoped from his influence at Court in reference to the demand
for ship-money. That nothing might be Avanting to secure
his favour, a handsome silver basin and ewer Avere presented
to him soon afterwards, and a "reward " (lumped up Avith a
number of gratuities) was bestowed on his secretary. His
lordship exercised his influence in 1636 by recommending
a Mr. Maun to the vacant post of Master of the Grammar
School, and his nominee Avas at once elected.
In consequence of the purchase from Sir Charles Gerard
ol part of the estate of the former Priory of St. James, the
Corporation, m J635, for the first time enjoyed the prisage
of wino entering the port during i]„. Whit-sun week. Tavo
barks having arrived, tho Chamberlain sold the Avine so
obtained for £3!1 12s.
The. establishment of a Government "running post" from
.London to Bristol, and other towns was ordered on July
31st No messengers Avero thenceforth to run to and from
Bristol except those appointed by Thomas Withering, but
letters Avero allowed to be sent by common carriers, or by
private messengers passing betAveen friends. The postage.
was fixed at two pence for under 80 miles, and at four
pence for under 140 miles. In October, 1637, John Freeman
Avas appointed "(borough post" at Bristol, and ordered to
provide horses for all men riding post on the King's affairs.
Letters were not to be detained more than half ^a quarter

130

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL,

[1635-36
of an _ hour, and the carriers were to run seven miles an
nour in summer, and fiye in winter— ideal rates of speed
?v«er? Farely afctailied even a hundred years later.
Difficulties were encountered at this time in inducing
citizens to accept vacant seats in the Common Council. An
ordinance was passed in August, 1635, by which it was
decreed that any burgess elected into the Corporation, and
refusing to serve, should, unless he could swear that he was
not worth £1,500, pay such fino as the Chamber thought
fit to impose. The order was first put in oporation in Kill,
when Michael Meredith, one of the Customers of the port
was elected a Councillor. Mr. Meredith at first "utterly
refused to accept the office, insisting that Customs officers
were exempted from such service by statute; but eventually
he pleaded infirmity, and asked to be released on payment
ot a hue. He Avas thereupon mulcted in £50, and dis
missed. The transactions of certain Bristol merchants in the
purchase and export of Welsh butter Avere mentioned
under 1620 (see p. 76). There is some evidence that the
monopolists had not been content to limit their dealings to
the large quantity specified in the royal patent; for in
February, 1636, the Kmg granted a commission to Dowell
the notorious Bristol Customer, and others, empowering
them to compound Avith those who had been prosecuted in
the Star Chamber for transgressing the terms of the license;
and a fine of £300 Avas subsequently levied before they
were discharged from prison. By this time the Welsh
butter patent had come into the hands of Lord Goring and
Sir Henry Hungate, the latter of Avhom had transferred his
share of the monopoly to several Bristol merchants in
consideration of a rent of £700 a year. Other Bristolians
hoAvever, ventured into the trade, exporting English butterj
and the patentees alleged that some officers of the Customs
had connived Avith the interlopers, whose offences had been
"smothered." In the spring of 1639, during a season of
great dearth, the King prohibited the exportation of Welsh
butter, on Avhich a Avarm dispute arose betAveen Hungate
and his licensees, tho former demanding jiayment of his
rent in full, Avhilst the merchants protested against his
claim, alleging that only a thirtieth part of the fixed
quantity had been shipped before the King's interference,
and that a vast stock Avas lying on hand "ready to jierish."
The result does not ajtpear.
During the spring of 1636, four sail of Turkish corsairs

1630]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CKHTl'HY.

137

boldly entered into the Bristol Channel, causing great
consternation in the city. A letter amongst the_ State
Papers alleges that twenty barks speedily fell victims to
them, Avhilst Giles Penn, the Bristol mariner already re
ferred to, addressing Secretary Nicholas in August, asserted
that a thousand persons had fallen into the hands of the
bandits Avithin the previous six months. If there had been
any truth in the Government's allegation that ship-money
Avas imposed to defend tho coast from outrage, the royal
navy should have been cajrable of punishing the pirates ;
but tho efforts made by the Corporation to stir the Govern
ment into action were Avholly ineffectual. The local mer
chants at length asked permission to fit out three ships as
privateers to deal with the malefactors, and on their request
being granted Penn appears to have been engaged to
command the vessels. He afterAvards zealously urged that a
Government expedition should be sent against Sallee under
his directions, and in hopes of his appointment the Corpo
ration ordered that £10 be given to him, to free English
captives at Sallee and Algiers, Bristolians, if any there, to
be preferred. He Avas set aside, hoAvever, in faA'Ottr of
Cajitain Rainsborottgh (avIio became a soldier during the
Civil War, and distinguished himself at the siege of Bristol
in 1645), and that officer, in 1637, not only delivered about
300 English captives from slavery, but relieved the Western
coast for some time from jiiratical incursions. OAving to
Penn's knoivlcdge of the Moorish tongue, he was strongly
recommended by English merchants to the attention of the
Grown, and Ava.s subsequently appointed the King's Consul
at Sallee. [lis name does not occur again in local records.
An outbreak of Plague occurred in London during the
summer, and caused great alarm throughout the country.
The matter is worth mentioning only on account of the
incidental information Avhich crops up as to the great
importance of the Bristol fairs. The Corporation having
given notice that Londoners and their goods Avould not be
admitted into the city Avhilst the pestilence continued, the
excluded traders applied for relief to the Privy Council,
Avhich had tied to Oatlands. Persons resorted to St. James's
fair, they alleged, from most of the counties in England,
Ireland, and Wales; many drajters, skinners, leather sellers,
and " upholdsters " rode to the city to bestoAV many thousand
pounds ; and divers chapmen and debtors met there and
nowhere else; so that the petitioners Avould be grievous
losers if they were shut out. The disease- haAung partially

13S

THV. ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1636-37

abater! in London, the Government ordered that traders
from thence avIio could produce certificates of health from
the Lord Mayor should be permitted to traffic at the fair
Similar orders Avere issued m January and July, 1637 for
both fairs, the Lord Mayor being requested to be very
careful m granting certificates. The anxiety in Bristol
during the summer of the latter year Avas so extreme that
the Corporation commanded eA'ery able-bodied citizen to
take his turn in Avatching tire Gates, to prevent the entrance
ot suspected strangers. Nineteen burgesses, assisted by
four Avatchmen receiving 4d. a day, Avere to be on duty in
the daytime, and twenty-one at night, who were to rigor
ously guard the entrances to the city and the quays at
every flood tide. By this arrangement each burgess's turn
was estimated "to come about every five Aveeks"; so that
the able-bodied citizens Avere supposed to number about
1,400. An order was issued by the Common Council in August
respecting the tolling of church bells for the dead. It was
decreed that a passing knell should not exceed tAvo hours in
length, and that for a funeral more than four hours, and the
tolling was to be at one church only. The Corporation had
really no power to make such an enactment, and it Avas
probably neA-er obeyed. It is recorded at a much later date
that at the death of one Avealthy inhabitant the bells of
every church in the city Avere tolled from morning till
night. °
„r^Jie Corporation purchased during the autumn, from
William Winter, Esq., of Clapton, the manor of North
W eston, near Portishead, for the sum of £1,40!). The North
Weston estate Avas sold in 1836 for upAvards of £16,400.
A neAV method of harassing the Corporation Avas invented
by some member of the Government in 1637. By a charter
granted by Henry IV., subsequently confirmed by Edward
IV., the Mayor and Commonalty, Avho had been grievously
annoyed by officers of the Admiralty, Avere exempted from
their interference, and empoAvered to establish a local Ad
miralty Court for determining disputes arising in the port.
These royal grants Avere highly prized, inasmuch as many
Lord Admirals and their subordinates had sought to encroach
on the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals, and had suc
ceeded in claiming cognisance not only of matters done on
the high sens, but also of foreign contracts and debts, of
causes be j ween merchants aud mariners, aud own of some
disputes between, residents of inland towns. On repeated

1637]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

ISO

occasions the great Admiralty officials had endeavoured to
repudiate the special jirivilege of Bristolians, but after the
usual blackmailing had been borne by the. victims, the rights
conceded by the above charters had been sullenly admitted.
On this occasion the Government itself sought to abrogate
the ancient privilege, and, besides applying for a writ of
Quo warranto, it sent down commissioners charged to inquire
into the local system of jDrocedure, and if jiossible to detect
abuses that Avould throw a colour of justice, over its policy.
In the end the inquisition resulted in failure, but the
Government, nevertheless, insisted on subverting the city's
rights. For though permission Avas granted to hold a court
in Bristol, the Judge of the Admiralty Avas empoAvered to
take a seat in it whenever he chose, and all judgments Avere
subject to appeal to his oavii Court, sitting in London. The
affair Avas a costly one to the Corporation, involving lengthy
visits of deputies to Whitehall, entertainments to the com
missioners, and presents to the Lord High SteAvard and
other courtiers. Amongst the last named Avas a Avell-knoAvu
personage, Endymion Porter, Gentleman of the Bedchamber
and a favourite of the King, avIio Avas admitted to the
freedom of the city, and voted a gratuity for his "services,"
hoav invisible.
The Admiralty case was still pending when the Govern
ment brought another and still more formidable engine to
bear upon the citizens. In January, 1637, Hugh Lewis,
Customs Searcher, Avhohas a suspicious appearance of being
a tool of Dowell, the Customer, complained to the Privy
Council of the alleged malpractices of the Mayor i'Richarc.1
Long) and other leading merchants. They had, he asserted,
unlawfully shipped a quantity of tanned 'hides and candles,
intending to export them, but he, refusing to be bribed by
them to allow the goods to pass, had seized the cargo, and
Avas proceeding by law for its confiscation Avhen the OAvners
appealed to the Privy Council, "Avheroby he Avas greatly
discouraged in his service." Their lordships gave directions
that a commission of mquiry should be applied for to clear
up the facts. Nothing more resjiecting the case appears in
the Council's minutes for a twelvemonth, but it is clear that
the local Customs authorities sent up farther and graA'er
charges against the Corporation, and that the Government
changed the nature of the inquiry. For in Nrvomber,
1637, the. King issued a special commission, of Avhich Lord
Mohnn and "two men of mean quality " (as the Toavii Clerk
described them) named Foxe and "Powlott proved to be the

140

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1637
acting members The document 'recited that His Majesty
had been credibly informed that the magistrates of the cit/,
-Mid others, had unlawfully levied very great sums of money
upon imports and exports of merchandise, and ordered the
commissioners to discover the offenders, and to ascertain
what sums so obtained were due to the King, in order that
they might be recovered. On what grounds any part of
unlawfully levied money could be claimed by the Crown
the commission omitted to explain. The case indeed was so
bad that the commissioners carefully concealed the real
object of the inquiry. When the royal deputies arrived,
accompanied by a crowd of minor mercenaries, the Town
Clerk requested that the terms of the commission should bo
made known, but the application was insolently rejected.
the city swarmed w,th pursuivants and other officials, who
.I'r^A tradeS"n "' Tf11^8' Clerks> ^opmen, porters,
e c, and dragged them before the inquisitors, who threatened
them with imprisonment if they did not give satisfactory
evidence, and actually sent some to gaol for disobedience to
their behests Mr. Long, the ex-Mayor, and Master of the
Merchants' Society was roundly abused as an abettor of
frauds, whilst Mr. Arundel, another eminent merchant, and
the 1 own Clerk were committed for alleged contempt. In
spite of these unscrupulous tactics, the charge of levying
illegal duties completely broke doAvn. The truth was that
the Corporation and their lessees, the Merchants' Company
had increased the wharfage, and possibly other local dues
to assist m discharging the demands for ship-money ; but
m this they had merely foUoAved an ancient custom in
emergencies. The commissioners next betook themselves
to the charges originally raised by the Searcher, Lewis. As
has been already shoAvn, some merchants and manufacturers
had been granted royal licenses to export butter and leather,
to import currants, and to manufacture soap, starch, beer
etc. the quantities in each case being limited by the terms
of the patents. The Crown officials, alleging that great
frauds had been committed by the licensees exceeding their
jinvileges, had caused Avrits to be issued out of the Star
< handier, and the inquisitors sought to further these pro
ceedings by ordering the defendants to produce their books
and gne evidence against their partners, friends and neigh
bours, Avhilst the odious system of tempting or intimidating
clerks and other servants to make accusations against their
employers Avas resorted to unscrupulously. The proceedings
m the Star Chamber were equally discreditable. Many

1637]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

14L

respectable citizens, against Avhom nothing could be proved,
were summoned to the Court, which threw some of them
into prison, and after allowing others to return home
demanded their presence in London afresh ; Avhilst in all
cases the men so treated were forced to pay enormous exac
tions in the shape of fees. After submitting to this tyranny
for some months, a deputation of four aldermen and other
merchants besought an audience of the King, and rirayed
him on their knees to take their distress into consideration
But Charles, who it is painful to say had taken much
mterest in the persecution from tho outset, and had person
ally given orders in the Privy Council for the suits in the
Star Chamber, coldly replied that the commission could not
be withdrawn or the inquiry suspended ; but that the peti
tioners might, if they thought fit, prefer a Bill in the Star
Chamber against those they complained of. The ultimate
judgment of that iniquitous tribunal cannot be found in the
records. Possibly the frttitlessness of the commission of
inquiry became so evident that the Government ordered its
instruments to relinquish their work.
As was foreshadoAved in a previous page, the case of
M°rgair'4 "TeP^ssibl° *P"r6 of Pill, turned up again in
May, 1637, Avhen the Corporation, in a petition to the Privy
Council, represented that, in despite of the judgment of the
Court of Exchequer, Avhich had been foUoAved by an order
lor Morgan s imprisonment for contempt, he. and his tenants
Avere still perversely disobedient, and nothing bad been
done, the magistrates had lately held a conference Avitli
some ol the justices of Somerset with a view to takiire-
fiction, but this had been ineffectual, and the obnoxious ale*
houses wore still unremoved. It- appears that the Privy
Umncil had forbidden the demolition of the. hovels dnrin<-
the previous winter out of chanty for the poor familie^
1 heir lordships hoav conceived that the tenants bad received
abundant notice, and empowered the Corporation to proceed
forthwith m carrying out the decree of the Court of
Exchequer Owing to the disappearance of the corporate.
account-books, evidence is wanting as to the steps actually
taken but there can be little doubt that they were vigorous
and, for a time, effectual,
In spite of numerous royal proclamations, the tobacco
plant was very extensively cultivated at this period in
G oucestershire. The Privy Council, in June, forwarded a
letter to the county justices strongly censuring them ha
re miss ness m supporting the officers sent down to root out

142

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOT-

[1637-38

the plantations, avIio had been riotously resisted in various
districts. Similar missives were frequently dispatched,
clearly Avithout effect, and it is probable that the landed
gentry winked at an industry that tended to enhance then-
rentals. A document in the Historical Manuscript reports
(vol. x. part 2) states that the price of the best tobacco in
1638 Avas one shilling per ounce.
A minute in the Corporation Bargain Book, dated Sep
tember Oth, sIioavs that the medieval system of constructing
toAvn dwellings Avas still in favour. The surveyors certify
that they had vieAved the tAvo tenements then being built
by Francis CresAviek iu Corn Street, adjoining St. Wit-
burgh's church, in Avhich the upper story projected four
feet beyond the loAver story, and Avas supported by jiosts on
the " city Avast-e" — that is. the public street. It Avas deter
mined that CresAviek should pay, for liberty so to do, 6,s\ 8d.
jier annum. The houses in question were removed early in
the nineteenth century, for tne erection of the Commercial
Rooms. In the summer of 1638 the King issued a proclamation
imposing an additional duty of 40s. per tun on all Avines
imported, and immediately afterwards farmed out the neAV
tax to the Vintners' Company of London, avIio, little fore
seeing the Parliamentary troubles in store for them, lost no
time in jmtting their jxrwers in operation. One morning in
September, a deputation of the Company presented them
selves in Bristol, accompanied by one of the detested royal
pursuivants, and after presenting a mandate from the Privy
Council commanding submission to their behests, they
demanded a sight of all the Avine stored in the city. The
inspection having been made, they next requested the pay
ment of the extra duty, not merely on the stock in hand,
but on Avhat had been sold during the jireviotts three
months. Urgent appeals for relief having been vainly
addressed to the Privy Council, the merchants Avere driven
to offer a composition, and the Londoners consented to
accept a fixed sum of £3,500 per annum, providing that ten
Avealthy citizens Avould become security for its payment.
The collection of the imjiost Avas soon found to be imjiractic-
able. Half the local vintners became insolvent, others
refused to pay the tax, and the total amount received during
two years Avas only £8( M ), although 4.250 tuns of wine had been
lirou'ght into port. In 1640 tho Vintners' Company com
menced an action against the. guarantors for £4,450, being
•cio-liteeu months'' composition, less the above instalment.

1638]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHA'.

143

The suit was still proceeding in February, 1642, when only
about £200 more had been Avrung from the citizens. By
that time, hoAvever, Parliament had dealt trenchantly Avith
many of the King's arbitrary imposts, including those on
Avine. A report of a House of Commons' committee m May,
1641, charged the London vintners Avith having been pro
jectors of the last tax, and asserted that the Company,
whilst paying only £19,000 yearly to the CroAvn, had sought
to exact £170,000 from the subject. The Bristol merchants
Avere thus encouraged to urge their grievances on Parlia
ment, and a deputation Avas sont up to Westminster, tho
leader of Avhich Avas Mr. Goorgo BoAvcher, Avhose tragic fate
at no distant clay Avas then unforeseen. Tho London
vintners, whose chief, Alderman Abel, Avith some of his
confederates, Avas already in prison, became panic-stricken
at tho prospect, submitted humbly to the Commons, offering
fines for pardon, and doubtless dropped their suit, of Avhich
there is no further mention.
Monopolies being in high favour at Court in 1638, the
Bristol Merchant Venturers Avere induced to hope that, by
royal favour, they might realize their long-cherished de
sire to crush the competition of interlopers. On November
28th they presented a petition to the King, setting forth
their incorporation by Echvard VI., and their subsequent
good works in supporting an almshouse, in proA'iding
pensions for decayed merchants and seamen's avIiIoavs, and
in maintaining a schoolmaster and curate; and urging that
further privileges should be conceded to them as an en
couragement to continue on the same path. The King
referred the petition to the Attorney-General, Avho soon
afterwards reported in its favour iu general terms, but added
that certain qualifications must be introduced into the ad
ditional privileges solicited. His report was approved by
His Majesty, and a new charter Avas thereupon granted on
January 7th, 1630. (All the alxree documents are preserved
at the Record Office.) Unfortunately for the merchants,
the Attorney-General's "qualifications" avoiv destructive
of the object tho Society had at heart, no poAvers being
conceded to suppress the rivalry of non-members. ImproA-e-
monts Avere made in the constitution of the Company. A
body of ten "Assistants" Avas created, avIio Avith the Master
and* Wardens wore to make ordinances and enforce penalties :
but such ordinances Avero not to be prejudicial to the royal
prerogative or fo the Corporation of the city. The annual
elections were thenceforth to take place on November loth,

144

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1639

and neAV Masters and Wardens were to be sworn before the
outgoing officials, and not, as previously, before the Mayor
and Aldermen.
The Government, in February, 1639, was compelled to
withdraw the arbitrary orders by which the foreign tobacco
trade was made a monopoly for the benefit of London
merchants. At a sitting of the Privy Council on the 17th
a petition was considered of the farmers of the Customs for
an abrogation of the system," owing to the great injury
they sustained from it, many ships laden Avith tobacco being,
they alleged, carried into Western outports under pretence
of damage, Avhen the cargoes AVere smuggled ariiore, and
tho duties lost. Their lordships determined to reverse their
policy, and it Avas ordered that tobacco might be thereafter
landed at Bristol, Plymouth, Dartmouth and Southampton.
A great stimulus Avas thus imparted to local commerce, and
the trade rapidly deA'eloped.
The country Avas hoav hastening to a crisis that Avas fated
to shatter the financial fabric Avhich the King had so
laboriously built- up during his ten years' despotism. The
re.A-olt of the Scotch nation against Laud's ecclesiastical
policy could not be supjiressed except by force of arms, and
in February, 1630, the King issued a mandate for troops to
the Lords-Lieutenant of counties. Being resolved, he said,
to repair in person to the North Avith his army, to main
tain the safety of the kingdom, he required a certain
number of infantry to be drawn out of the trained bands,
and sent to attend him at York. The contingent demanded
from Bristol Avas 50, Avhilst 1,000 Avere summoned from
Gloucestershire. From an imperfect minute in the Common
Council books it appears that the request Avas immediately
complied Avith, and that the cost of equipping and sending
forAvard the men Avas borne by the Corporation, Avho paid
£15 for the carriage to York of fifty stand of arms. Hoav
little ardour the neAV levies displayed in fighting the
" Bishops' War " is a matter of history.
The starchmakers of Bristol being feAv in number, and
apparently unrejiresented in the Common Council, the story
of their sufferings at the hands of London monopolists has
been lost to posterity. They are supjiosed to have made
terms Avith the King's patentees for the manufacture of a
limited quantity of starch, and, like the soapmakers, they
Avere harassed with charges of exceeding the allotted output.
In August the PriA'y Council forAvardecl to the Mayor the
complaints cf the Corporation of Starchmakers, alleging

1639]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY,

145

illegalities ; and their lordships ordered that the offenders
should be brought before the justices and sharply examined,
especially Thomas and John Collyer, who were charged
with having resisted the starch-searchers (that is, the
jiatentees' spies) Avith swords whilst attempting to seize
contraband starch. All others engaged in the same illegal
trade were also to be arrested, and to be compelled to give
bonds to forbear the manufacture. The State Papers of
this year are largely composed of documents of a similar
character, arising out of the tyrannical proceedings of the
Crown in reference to monopolies, illegal patents, im
posts on Avine, soaji and other articles, forced loans, resump
tion of forest rights, invasions of private property by
saltpetre men, commissions for compounding for penal
offences, and especially to the decisions of the Star Chamber
and Court of High Commission in defiance of the common
law. A letter from Bishop Skinner, of Bristol, to Archbishop
Laud, dated August 26th, shows the manner in which the
royal minions attempted to intimidate judges in the ad
ministration of justice. A man named Davis having been
arraigned at the local gaol delivery — it is not said for Avhat
offence, though it seems probable the prisoner was a Puritan
jiroacher — the Bishoji, one of Laud's most zealous instru
ments, states that he Avaited on the Recorder on the evening
before the trial, and expressed his desire " that a matter of
this high nature should not be slubbered OA*er, but carried
Avith severity." Serjeant Glanville replied that he had
advised upon the case Avith the Lord Keeper, and the
Attorney-General, and also Avith the Primate himself, and
the Bishop departed. But Avhen the, trial came on, though
tho Recorder showed a " semblance of severity," the jury
returned a verdict of not guilty, to tho great joy of the
prisoner, avIio knelt cIoavii in 'the dock and prayed for
the King, the archbishop, and the bishops. The irritated
meddler concludes :—" My conceit is that the whole business
Avas a mere_ scene, Avherein the judge acted his part cun
ningly, the jury plausibly, and the prisoner craftily."
An illustration of the manner in Avhich Charles I. habit
ually intermeddled Avith public bodies ajipears in tho civic
minute-books for October. The office of Chamberlain
having become vacant, eight candidates petitioned for the
place, and tho choice of the Council fell upon William
Chotwyn, a merchant of good repute and of twenty years'
experience. At the next meeting, early in November, a

146

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1639

letter from the King was produced, alleging that certain
members of the Council, for their private ends, and in dis
regard of the city's liberties, had chosen a man then absent
from the realm and unfit to hold such an office. " Our Avill
and pleasure is that, notwithstanding your former election,
you forbear to ratify the same, and forthwith proceed to a
neAV election, recommending to your choice our well-beloved
subject Ralph Farmer ... of whose abilities we have
received ample testimony." The King's will being hiAV,
the. Council at once obeyed orders. But, in the bolief that
His Majesty had been secretly prejudiced, it Avas resolved to
send a deputation to Court to plead the privileges of the city,
Avith a further intimation that Farmer was not qualified to
hold the office when he applied for it, being a non-burgess,
and that Chetwyn Avas the Avorthiest of the candidates. The
necessity of convoking a Parliament was already pressing
upon the King, and he probably saw the imprudence of
offending a great Corporation. At all events, His Majesty
received the deputation graciously, and informed them that
he left the Council free to act at their discretion. Where
upon, without loss of time, Farmer's election Avas " frus
trated and made void," and ChetAvyn was reajipointed.
There is reason to believe that the new Chamberlain in
troduced a remarkable innovation in the corporate system
of book-keeping. All the audit books that have come
down to us preceding his election display the receipts and
payments in ancient Roman numerals. The accounts for
the year ending Michaelmas, 1640, on the contrary, are made
up in the Arabic figures now universally adopted in civilized
countries. Having regard to the portentous difficulty of
casting up the Roman formula, when, for example, xl£, xis.
and xid. might folloAV each other in successive entries, the
task of auditing must have been excessiA'ely arduous and
protracted, even Avith the " counters " and other apparatus
that the Corporation employed for facilitating the work.
It is well known that the King's system of civil Govern
ment and Laud's intolerant rule in ecclesiastical affairs
caused many Puritans, despairing of relief, to seek homes
aud liberty in tho infant settlements of New England ;
but local annalists afford no information as to the part
taken by Bristolians in furthering this migration. Some
interesting facts have been discovered in the minutes of
the. Privy Council. On November 22nd, 1639, their lord
ships considered a jietition of Richard Long, John Taylor,
and John Gonning, three eminent Bristol merchants, and

1639-40]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

147

owners of a ship of 180 tons, named the Mary Rose. The
vessel had previously traded to Newfoundland, whence she
carried cargoes of fish to Spain, and returned home laden
Avith Avine. She Avas now destined, however, if the Govern
ment would permit it, to carry over to New England a
party of 120 emigrants — children of a grand destiny— and
a miscellaneous cargo of meal, shoes, cheese, poivder, shot,
candles, peAvter, soap, nails, wine, vinegar, and 250 gallons
of " hot Avater " (spirits). The Privy Council directed that
the Customs officers of the port should alloAV the vessel to
proceed, provided the passengers first took the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy, the latter being Avell known to
be galling to Puritans. Similar licenses Avere granted on
the same condition to the ship Neptune, Avith 125 passengers,
and to the ship Fellowship, with 250 passengers, in January,
1640 ; and three months later to the ship Charles, Avith 250
jiassengers, and the ship William and John, with 60 passen
gers. All these vessels belonged to Bristol and carried
general cargoes, the last-named taking out a consignment
of 20 dozen of Monmouth caps, whilst the Charles had 750
gallons of " strong Avaters." It is probable that the above
emigrants settled in that region of New England now
known as Massachusetts and Rhode Island, both of Avhich
States have a county called Bristol, and the latter has also
a town of that name. In 1632 Robert AldAvorth and his
relative Giles Elbridge, two leading local merchants, ob
tained a grant from the Council of NeAV England of a con
siderable tract of land, and Avere promised 100 additional
acres for every person they brought over, on condition that
they founded and maintained a colony.
The^ expense of the. Bishops' AVar in' Scotland had plunged
the King in financial embarrassment, and an appcal°to
Parliament for assistance Avas unwillingly resolved upon.
The election for Bristol took place in March, 1640, Avheii
the Corporation, in conjunction Avitli the freeholders, but
excluding the free burgesses, returned the Recorder,' Ser
jeant Glanville, and Alderman Humphrey Hooke. The
former Avas elected Speaker by the House of Commons, to
Avhich a deputation Avas sent by the Common Council' at
the suggestion of Alderman Hooke, to represent the many
grievances tinder which the citizens Avere suffering. On
the. refusal of the House to grant supplies before discussiire
grievances, the King Avrathfully dissolved Parliament after
a- session of only three Aveeks, producing bitter disappoint
ment and irritation throughout the country.

148

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1641V
The freemen of Bristol did not submit to their dis
franchisement Avithout a protest. At a meeting of tho
Common Council in October, a petition was presented ou
behalf of "a great number of free burgesses/' requesting
that their body might be permitted to vote for repre
sentatives "in conformity Avith statutes." The Council
however, fell back upon the ordinance of 1625 (see p. 93)
which they alleged Avas founded on usage, and it was
ordered that all future elections should be conducted on the
same narrow basis. Though nothing is to be found in the
Journals of the Long Parliament, which are notoriously
very imperfect, it may be inferred that the freemen re
presented their grievances and obtained redress, for their
right to the franchise was never again disputed after 1640
Lven whilst the Short Parliament was sitting, the
Government pursued its unconstitutional policy. On tho
dismissal of the Houses the patentees of monopolies exer
cised great oppression, and many people were prosecuted
and ruined for alleged evasions. Ship-money was also
rigorously exacted, seizures of goods and imprisonments
tor default being of constant occurrence. Towards the end
ot April, the Kmg addressed a letter to the civic authorities,
requiring 200 men to be raised and equipped at the city's
expense for service in the army. The troopers were to be
paid eightpence per head daily from the time of their em-
bocument. The Council assented to the royal mandate, but
the lown Clerk ivas despatched to London to seek relief
from the burden, on the ground that a demand for land
forces from a maritime port then being taxed to find money
and men for the Navy Avas an unusual stretch of the royal
prerogative. But no relief Avas obtainable, and tho Cor
poration disbursed £674 on the troopers, and £308 for
ammunition. Ordinances for the Tailors' Company were draAvn up by
the Common Council in May. An idea of their general
character may be derived from tAvo brief extracts. A
citizen, not a member of the Company, presuming to make
any manner of garment except for himself and family, Avas
to be fined 20,s\, or imprisoned in default of payment. Any
tradesman, not being a tailor, making or selling linen or
woollen stockings Avas made liable to a penalty of 3s. Ad.
The first recorded enunciation from a Bristol pulpit of
advanced Puritanical opinions Avas made in September by
the Rev. Matthew Hazard, avIio had been ajipointed in
cumbent of St. Mary Redcliff and vicar of St. Ewen's a

1640]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

149

feAv months previously. In consequence of the Scotch
Avar, a form of prayer for the success of the King s arms
had been draAvn up by order of the Government, and was
required to be read in every parish church. _ One clause of
this formula denounced the traitorous subjects who had
east off obedience to their anointed sovereign, and were
rebelliously seeking to invade the realm. Mr. Hazard
thought proper to omit this condemnation, and substi
tuted for it a prayer that God Avould reveal to the King
those traitorous enemies that disturbed the public peace
and molested the hearts of the Church and of faithful
people. His expressions Avere fortliAvith reported to the Cor
poration, but they declined to express any opinion on the
matter. The loyalty of the Council at this period is
sufficiently proved by the fact that a carving of the royal
arms Avas jittrchased about the same date, and ordered to be
set up in the Guildhall.
The autumn assizes of the year Avere of unusual length.
In September, Mr. Robert Yeamans, so soon _ to become
tragically memorable, Avas paid £40 for entertaining Chief
Justice Brampston at His house for four nights, the Cham
berlain adding " Avhich Avas extraordinary." An outlay of
£0 more Avas incurred for roAving his lordship doAvn to
Hungroad and entertaining him on board " the Globe " —
probably to enable him to inspect the site of Morgan's
demolished alehouses at Pill.
The local election of members for Avhat Avas destined to
be the Long Parliament took place on October 12th. For
sonic. uuknoAvn reason, the Corporation, avIio, as has been
just stated, excluded the freemen from the franchise, did
'not re-elect the Recorder, but returned Alderman Richard
Long as colleague of the, former member, Alderman Hooke.
In one of tho most untrustworthy of local works, ToA-ey's
"Life of Colston," Alderman Long is stigmatised as "a
gloomy fanatic, prepared to go to any extreme." As a
matter of fact, the Alderman, avIio Avas expelled from the
House of Commons in 1642 for being concerned in mono
polies, Avas a devoted Royalist, and had subsequently to
compound for his " delinquency " by payment of £800 —
one-tenth of his estate.
A sudden and unexpected change of the corporate policy
in reference to the Welsh butter monopoly took place
during tho autumn. It has been already shoAvn that the
Council Avere accustomed to make large purchases of butter,
and of vending it by retail at or e\Ten below cost-price,

150

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1640
acHn,-,tJie.r\1°ubted ^fc °-f faciJifcating the export trans-
F™, V *he merchants interested in the royal patent.
rPJ!L t ap^n ^ok,for the J™* ««der revieiv notes tho
rtn £» 1° f°i'iU"er. sold t0 the labouring classes.
ne Hon £ f?g o the ^ C°Uncil 0n November 1st a
ffi i ** ™*ithe 9orPorat/on was presented, setting forth
that butter, "the principal food for tile poorer sort of people,"
tTie noi^g ^T en°r™llS Pri0e °f 5^ Per P°«^> ™ng
the poor to complain of the exports still Wng made by the
abise avS F al?lwlntef a committee to inquire into the
abuse, with directions, which were also sent to the Mayor
fallST f"rtllr exP°rtotion8 at Bristol until prices had
fallen to normal rates. The ill-humour of the Corpbra-
bttJterwl aUfnd S°T affcerwa^s. ^nd large purchases of
butter were made m subsequent years.
riie Privy Council dealt on the following day with an
other monopoly m which Bristol merchants were large y
interested. Complaints had been previously made totfm
Governinent tlmt sole leather haA greatl/ advanced in
pice, owing to the practices of the patentee! for exporting
hides TSh byrvlf10m- +UUder C°}.°nr0i their license, many
norts ! ?!, bnSt S°rt ^ llleSally shiPPed to foreigm
calf si' iu p thefGoyer«1™tnt had C0^<Piently ordered tlmt
calf-skin exports snould be stopped until the King's nlea-
sure was made known. The interdict had dismayed the
iwawdTh!^ Sl;1US' °lle °f -Wh0m' James MaxAvell, had
payed the King to remove it, asserting that there had
been no frauds and that the export of the flimsy skins
(only fit, as another interested party averred, to make shoes
for foreigners) could not affect the price of good leather
At the above meetmg the King's assent was announced to
Maxweh s petition, and he and his lessees Avere allowed to
continue the trade. No relaxation was made in favour of
the Bristol patentee, but he certainly obtained one for
exports on an extensive scale continued as usual The
absence of direct evidence is due to the complete dis
organization of the Privy Council, caused by the vigorous
measures of the House of Commons. Laud, who had been
practical y Prime Minister, Avas consigned to the Tower
the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Windebank fled the
country to avoid a similar fate, and the Council's minute-
hooks for twenty years are an absolute blank after this
date. The year 16 10 is locally notable for its record of the first

1640-41]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

151

open secession from the Church of England, a movement
necessarily followed by the opening of the first " dissent
ing" place of worship. One day, says the quaint and
curious book known as the " Broadmead Records," a farmer
of Stapleton, a butcher of Lawford's Gate, a farrier of Wine
Street, and a young minister, named Bacon, living m
Lewin's Mead, met together in Broad Street, at the house
of Mr. Hazard, the incumbent of St. Ewen's and St. Mary
Redcliff already referred to. Mrs. Hazard haying joined
the party, it was agreed after grave deliberation to sepa
rate from the worship of the world, and to go no more to
the services set down m the Book of Common Prayer. In
the morning they proposed to attend church to hear Mr.
Hazard preach, but in the afternoon they determined to
meet in private to engage in such exercises as they ap
proved. Subsequent notes will show that Mrs. Hazard, who
probably instigated this meeting, was one of the phenomena
of the period — a strong-minded female Puritan; and she
saAV no impropriety in offering her husband's vicarage as a
place for the first separatist gatherings. In a short time
the little baud of " non-conformists " obtained as a regular
minister one Mr. Penned, Avho, having resigned the incum
bency of St. Leonard's church, Corn Street, "closed in"
with them, and " the Church " soon increased to about 160
persons, including many residents in the suburbs Avho came
in to attend the services. Where the meetings took jilace
is not stated, but it seems unlikely that so numerous a con
gregation could have assembled in an ordinary dAvelling.
Hy this timo the separatist movement had made consider
able, progress, and other meetings were being held. In
August, Kill, Dennis Hollister, afterwards M.P., and Wil
liam Cooke, grocer, High Street, Avere brought before the
magistrates and committed for trial, charged Avith keeping
a. conventicle and occasioning a riot for seA'cral hours before
Cooke's door. One Mrs. Clements Avas also " presented " for
openly asserting that the parson of Temple "could preach
no more than a black dog." The gatherings Avere broken
up in 1643, owing to the brutality of the Royalist soldiers
then in jiossession of the city, and most of the ministers
took refuge in London until the tyranny was overpassed —
many being plundered and maltreated during oheir migra
tion. In January, 1641, the Common Council resoled that a
letter should be forwarded to the members for Bristol, re
presenting the wrong done to the, city — a Staple Town — by

ir,2

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1641

the landing, Avith the assent of the officers of Customs of
wools at Minehead, " which ought to be landed here ° The
grievance alleged by a body that was frequently clamoro s
against the favours bestowed on London was one tmhke v
to meet Avith much sympathy in the House of Commons
then busily engaged m abolishing obnoxious pri™s'
troduced9 The° ***?"" that x^ object wasVe^
™£?« •T1iei?nembe^ were further instructed to seek
redress against the persons who, during the late desbotism
"by unjust informations to his Majesty" and by urn aim d '
itreCt?" bfe!1; the City/' !Vad U&* an/S;
merchants by entering into the Merchants' Hall takiiw
away their books of account and other writings . and bv
procuring many of the inhabitants to be puiulvanted no
and unjustly dealt with." It seems pretty ceSn thS
JeT ^ Pff US thus de»™*ced wefe the^London vint
ners, who had farmed the illegal wine duty and J] ™
1TrnUitTheUCt in fV* haS ^ a^7 de^rib^°&°
sietSrthe H nun]b^less Petitioners who were then be
sieging the House of Commons was the indomitable Pill
andowner, Mr. Morgan, who raised a grievous moan over
iTne wffhe Pf^ U"fi *** *"™h™^ "v7ng
oone what he liked with his own. The Corporation an
pointed a committee to draw up a statement of his mS
practices and the Town Clerk Avas sent up to Westminster
to offer detailed explanations. The subject is not mentfoned
m the Journals of the House of Commons mentl0*ed
T i C0™1?1SS10^ was ^sued by the Court of Exchequer in
July, addressed to Thomas Colston, Nathaniel Cale an
h Z. * ferch^ ?rderiug them to hold an inquiry
m reference to a suit raised by a Customs Waiter agLinS
William Penneye, Bryan Rogers, and other BristoW
at the ^rT°nerS ™C0Tdinsly heW a court in September
at the Rose tavern, then a noted hostelry, and many wit
nesses were examined. The case arose out of the King's
fsefnPnmbfdgHthe ^P°rtatr of ^acco into Brisfo
(see p 116), and the evidence shows how docal merchants
Avere driven to seek relief from the edict. It wasTeposed
that m November 1637, the Lord Treasurer, on the earncS
petition (and doubtless at the heavy change) of Rfohard
Lock, merchant, and Avith the approval of Lord Goring and
others, farm,™ of the tobacco duty, ordered the Cttftoms
}'rem ™t lA-iTt01 a"? rTw n°Ck t0 ^ " "^ of *<*S
1 SS m'« r Sat the Same Minisfcor' in J«»narjr,
1WS, on the prayer of Pennoye, gave similar license for the

1641]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

153

landing at this port of ninety cwt. of tobacco from Bar-
badoes, and in the following month granted permission to
a ship to take in as much St. Kitts tobacco as would
"victual" her for a voyage to France. The prosecutor
further deposed that during the last-mentioned year cer
tain ships brought large quantities of tobacco into the
Avon, and landed some without warrant, and that Avhen
he attempted to seize part of this prohibited merchandise
lie Avas thwarted by the defendants. The evidence on tho
other side disclosed the real cause of the prosecution. The
defendant Rogers was the local agent of the tobacco farmers,
and had been accustomed, with their approval, to grant
licenses to merchants to land tobacco, on their paying hand
somely for the privilege in addition to the regular duty.
Cale, one of the commissioners, deposed that he had himself
bought 40,000 weight by an arrangement with one of Lord
Goring's officers. Other witnesses asserted that much of
the tobacco alleged to have been smuggled out of Hung
road Avas in fact delivered to the agents of the farmers, and
sent to London in accordance Avith the King's mandate,
Avhilst the full duty Avas paid on wdiat remained in Bristol.
The whole testimony raises a suspicion that the prosecuting
Landing Waiter was irritated by seeing that the bribes he
coA^etecl for himself went into the pockets of other people.
He doubtless drojiped his suit, of Avhich there is no further
mention. The. groAving Avealth of the Corporation is indicated by a
resolution adopted in August, whereby the annual alloAv-
auce of £52 jnoviously made to the Mayor Avas increased to
£104, and for serving a second time the sum Avas raised to
£20-S. Tho Chamberlain's salary Avas increased about the
same time from £20 to £r>t>, exclusive, of his numerous
fees. A great panic arose during the summer in consequence of
an outbreak of Plague at Taunton and other toAvns. The
Corporation adojited the customary measures to prevent
infection, watchmen being posted at the Gates to keep out
suspicious visitors, Avhilst inhabitants shoAving symptoms
of infection Avero closely shut up in their houses, anil sup-
plied Avith food until their convalescence Avas no longer
doubtful. A physician and a barber received £2 from the
Chamberlain for looking after suspected invalids, but the
leeches themselves fell into a. sickly condition, and Avere
rigorously confined to their homes, the doctor afterwards
receiving £-1 and tho barber £10 in compensation for the

154

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1641-42
suspension of their businesses. Towards the close of the
year the chronic distress of the working classes Avas aggra-
A-ated by the excessiA-e clearness of Kingswood coal, the
cause of Avhich is not explained. Several shiploads of fuel
Avere consequently brought from Swansea and sold to the
poor at cost-price. Perhaps to cheer the spirits of the
citizens, the Corporation perambulated the boundaries of
the borough with unusual ceremony, a banquet being held
in the open air, foUoAved by a great duck hunt at Treen
Mills (the site of Bat-hurst B'asin). One of tho last disburse
ments of the year Avas for raising bonfires before the Mayor's
house and the High Cross on the King's safe return out of
Scotland— a further proof of the loyalty of the Corporation.
The uninterrupted sittings of Parliament Avould in any
case have greatly increased the " wages " due to the city
representatives. The charge Avas still further augmented
by the liberality of the Common Council, Avho raised the
honorarium to each member from 4s. to 6s. 8d. per day.
For the year ending October those gentlemen received
£20(5 for 300 days' services. UpAvards of £100 Avas sub
sequently paid to them for the further period they Avere at
Westminster jireA-ious to their expulsion from the House.
Modern historians concur in fixing on the opening Aveeks
of 1642 as the turning-point in the great struggle between
Charles I. and his Parliament. The latter, Avhose policy
Avas originally supported by an overwhelming majority of
the nation, had been sitting for fifteen months, during
Avhich it had swejit away innumerable abuses and re
established the constitutional rights so long trampled
upon. Great popular movements are generally followed
by a reaction, and the very achievements of the Parliament
tended to cool the zeal of many moderate and cautious
observers. Symptoms, moreover, Avere not wanting of
the rise of a school of politicians which, not content with
reinstating the nation in its rights and liberties, aimed at
fundamental changes in the system of government, as well
political as ecclesiastical. As a natural consequence, con-
servati\-e instincts became alarmed at the prospect, and an
ever-increasing party in the House of Commons rallied to
the support of the CroAvn. Had the King displayed
prudence and foresight in circumstances so favourable to
him, it seems unquestionable that his triumph over the
reA-'oIutionary theorists would have been speedy and com
plete. But. in his impatience to trample on his enemies he
brought ruin on himself. On January 4th, accompanied

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

155

1642] by a band of armed and insolent troopers, who blocked the
approaches to the House of Commons, he entered the
Chamber itself, and demanded the surrender of Mr. Pym,
the ablest of the Puritan leaders (a native of Somerset),
and four others, whose treason, he said, was entitled to no
privilege. The outrage, committed in the teeth of his
promise a few days before, " on the honour of a King," to
defend the privileges of the House, destroyed the belief of
thousands in his good faith, banished their hope of recon
ciliation and jieace, and kindled a Avidesjiread feeling that
His Majesty, even Avhilst making many concessions, Avas »
still looking forward to the re-establishment of absolutism
and a bloody revenge.
These facts must be borne in mind in revioAving the
local incidents of the crisis. It has been shoAvn in the fore
going jiages that the Corporation, though complaining of
many grievances, had remained loyal to the Crown. But
there are many indications, after the attempt on the five
members, that the local supporters of Parliament increased
in influence and numbers. The arrival in the port of about
400 famishing Irish Protestants, who had escaped from the
savages then massacring" thousands of English blood in the
King's name, added fuel to the growing disaffection. Al
ready, one of the captaincies in the trained bands having
become vacant, the Council had appointed William Cann,
a prominent partisan of the Parliament, to the jiost. Early
in February the members for the city, by direction of the
IIouso of Commons, made an agreement Avith Miles Jackson
and William Merrick, two local merchants of "Roundhead"
principles, to man, equiji, and victual three ships, Avith guns
and ammunition equal to men-cd-Avar, for a cruise of eight
months, the outlay for Avhich Parliament, undertook to
repay. About the same time the King, in a letter to the
Mayor, after comjilainirig of " upstart sects in religion" and
of the rebellious conduct of some maloA'olcnt citizens, ordered
his worship to receiApe no troops either on his own side or
that of the Parliament, but to defend the city for His
Majesty's use. But the sympathy of the Corporation
was so far from being eA^oked that (if Ave may trust Mr.
Seyer, probably quoting some chronicle) before the King's
messenger had left the city the Mayor dispatched four
cannon to Marlborough to assist in fortifying that place
against His Majesty. On March 15th the Common Council
appointed a numerous committee to draw up " a fit peti
tion to Parliament, to be subscribed by the burgesses and

156

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1642

cue ivmg lhreatened violence, however wn<, fi™ii
those engaged m the confederacy. On Mav 21st tlTc™
fc t e °S ^lcl/.lat^ should be addressed both to the
sel cl7 ". jw" rT1] ' ^ a committe« °f ten members"
dlcrionof two3 Ti T^" f V^' -d «ie 'subseqS
selection of two ardent Royalist clergymen, Messrs. Towo-00d
Stl Siti:tedntefced tt0 rTS6 the draft -e-oiil^was
mue calculated to restore harmony. After nearlv two
months' contention, the Council resolved o sheW bolh
BeWUH i11!1"8'111'01 ^ have been s° long relarded"
Before that time, m fact, the civic body had definitelv
of tSeHrm, h6f^°yaliSt °aUSe- °n J-ey7trthe SpeaS
ot the House of Commons sent a letter to the Mayor and
Aldermen requesting contributions from the city Ty \vav
resolveTSia^ *£1 0 fn ^ ^TT"1 the Common Co™cdl
resolved that £1,000 should be lent to Parliament for those
purposes, and that loans should also be invited from the
Z^r^1^^ and fr0m the inhabitant Alto-
W the c'o SUbT ^ hl the Council Cha^ber, fpart
from the corporate vote, amounted to £2,625. The Mavor
-Swmo"^0? red £Z°- Elght °f ^ ald™ gave
£300 amongst them. One councillor (Richard AldAvorth)
e ch aid ZT*? ? ^t60- TT othB™ ^bscribed £100
each, and most of the others either £50 or £25 It is a
X^rcfstf ^^ ^bertrYeamailS and Thomas Colston"
afteiAvaids famous as Royalists, contributed £50 each The
only non-subscribers Avere Aldermen Jones and Taylor and
Francis Creswick, Gabriel Sherman, John Gonning ° Miles
Jackson, John Langton, Edward Pitt, and John Bush
Contemporaneously with the important incident iust re
corded, an event occurred in the city Avhich is now not a
after tf'^' °n v*J 12th th* House of Cbnunl
attei many previous discussions on monopolies, during
whicn the licenses held by Bristol merchants wer'e doubt?

1642]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

157

loss sharply criticised, resolved that Humphrey Hooke and
ltichard Long, the tAvo members for the city, Avere " bene
ficiaries in the project of wines," contrary to the order of
the House, and thereby disqualified to sit in Parliament.
A neAV Avrit Avas ordered to issue, and an election took place
early m June, Avhen the Recorder, Sir John Glanville, Avas
reinstated in his former position, and Alderman John Tay
lor was returned as his colleague. As the new members
have always been described as ardent Royalists, their selec
tion seems to be m astounding contradiction to the action
ot the Common Council. The only feasible explanation
appears to be that the opinions of the new representatives
like those of many Avorthy men at that period, Avere per
plexed and uncertain, and that in a personal light tliey
were generally respected for moderation and ability
Moreover, Avhilst the ex-Speaker's position in the Short
Parliament had cast a reflected credit on his constituents,
¦li. ,70r TaS' for some time loilger, so much in harmony
with the policy of. the House of Commons that, after the
outbreak of the Civil War, he subscribed £50 towards the
needs of Parhament, " and promised more, if needful " The
annalists of the time are absolutely silent in reference to-
this remarkable election, which was also unknown to both
Mr. Barrett and Mr. Seyer.
The King having resolved on war, the Marquis of Hert
ford, Bord-Lietttenant of Somerset and Bristol, received a
commission to proceed to the West to secure the county for
the royal cause, and to seek for the sympathy and support
ot Bristol the importance of which, in every point of vfev
was regarded as vital both by His Majesty and his oppo
nents. At a meeting of the Council on July 11th, it was
intimated that his lordship was drawing near, whereunon
' it Avas thought fitting " that he should be suit^ eXT
tamed, so that he might not "be driven to take up his
fodgmgs at an mn." The Great House on St. Augustine's
Back having been offered for this purpose by Sh Fer-
dmando Gorges and Mr. Smyth, of Long Ashton theV
were thanked "for their love/and sttitabfe £iSn S
made for the expected guest. The Marquis, however tool-
up his quarters at Wells, contenting himself with aimh
ing to the Mayor, through Sir F. Gorges and Mi • s£? h"
W fTTTr t0 S8nd S°me1 tr°°pS of cavalry iuto Bristol ¦
but this the Mayor promptly refused, pleading the En's
T^TtST? Uf admittanCe °f S0ldiers on either side
Loid Hertford, a few days later, whilst moving on Bristol

15S

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1642

Avith no friendly intent, Avas defeated at Chewton Mendip,
and his forces Avere scattered by the troops collected by
A lexander Popham and other Puritan gentry. The House
of Commons passed a vote of thanks to the gentlemen of
Somerset for their gallantry, and Mr. Taylor, M.P., was
directed to thank the Bristolians who had " showed for-
Avard " in the affair. Mr. Smyth, avIio had been in the
Royalist camp, for Avhich he was expelled from Parliament,
fled to Minehead, and thence to Cardiff, Avhere he soon after
died. The combat at Chewton Mendip stirred the Council to
take vigorous action for improving the defences of the city,
and for providing for the Avants of the inhabitants in the
event of a siege. On August 14th it Avas ordered that the
city Gates should be repaired and made strong with chains
and other necessaries, that all defects in the Avails should
be made good, and that suitable ordnance and ammunition,
Avith five skilled gunners, should be provided. The alder
men Avere directed to visit their Avards and to report as to
what arms Avere in the hands of the inhabitants, Avhat
persons Avere able to bear them but Avere unprovided, and
Avhat number of unarmed men Avere in a position to equijj
themselAres. And the Chamberlain received orders to bor-
roAA'- £1,000 forthwith, and £1,000 as occasion required, for
the purchase of corn, butter, cheese, and other jiroAisions
for the relief of the poor and other inhabitants. A feAv
days later, it Avas resolved that 300 muskets and 150
corslets should be added to the city's store of arms. The
erection of an extensive line of otttAvorks was not then
contemplated. One of the committees appointed to carry
out the above resolutions reported that a piece of void
ground betAveen BrideAvell and tho Pithay Gate, with a
toAver there, Avas " a very fit and considerable place for
planting one piece of ordnance for the safety of the city,"
and the Council approved of the proposal and ordered it to
be carried out. A very great quantity of gunpowder, bul
lets, etc., Avas purchased, much of the poAvder being stored
in the Guildhall ! The Mayor was directed to buy a cargo
of KM tons of whefJ, offered at the then enormous price of
32s. per quarter. Of butter about 3,500 lb. Avas obtained
from Wales and Newport at a cost of £413. Altogether
£] ,900 Avere expended for provisions, the money being bor-
roAved from clivers persons. Lady Mansell, of Margam
Abbey, generously lent £500 free of interest, Alderman
Holworthy advanced £500 at 6 per cent., but Alderman

1642]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

159

Gonning, Avhom some annalists style a Royalist, demanded
7 per cent, interest for a loan of the same sum.
The minute-books bearing on these transactions are uni
formly reticent as to the political opinions of the predomi
nant party. But the members of the committee chosen to
strengthen the defences are knoAvn to have been zealous
Parliamentarians, and one of them, Joseph Jackson, Avas
appointed trained-band captain of an additional company
of 100 men raised during the summer. The Corjioration,
moreover, obeyed the order of Parliament that Henzil Hol
ies, one of the Puritan leaders, should be admitted to re-
vieAV the trained bands — a fact Avhich excludes all doubt
as to the principles animating the majority both of the
Council and the civic militia. But, as if to soothe the feel
ings of the minority, the hospitality hitherto always ac
corded to the reviewing officer Avas conspicuous from its
absence, the Chamberlain's only disbursement on the occa
sion being 33s., the jiay of six drummers, six " phifers,"

and the usual sergeants.

It is someAvhat amazing, more

over, to find that at a time Avhen the King had taken the
field, and blood had already been spilt, the members of the
Corporation gave themselves up to tAvo daj^s of jollification,
and spent more than Avas usual on their duck-hunting and
Froom fishing sports. The Council AA'ere still apathetic in
October, Avhen about 2,000 soldiers, under orders for Ire
land, arrived in the city, accompanied by tAvo members of
Parliament, Avho had instructions to apply to the Corpora
tion for an additional loan. The deputies, Avriting to the
Speaker on the 17th, stated that they had seen the Mayor
and many other well-affected persons, judging by their
Avords, but nothing had been subscribed. They had also
seen the aldermanic body, and put them in mind of their
duties, but their only ansAver Avas a request for time to con
sider. There Avas also nothing being collected for Customs.
which Avas an evil example to other toAvns. Two days
later, at a meeting of the Council, it Avas resolved that, in
vieAV of the recent heavy disbursements and decay of trade,
no money could be lent, and Mr. Hooke, Mr. Colston, and
others Avere directed to draw up a " meet ansAver " to the,
House of Commons. On the other hand, it Avas agreed that
a large outlay for victualling and shipping the troops
should be advanced by the Corporation, on the faith of
the Speaker's promise of repayment (Avhich Avas redeemed
in the folloAving year) ; that the work of fortifying the
Castle should be taken in hand forthwith, and that the

leo

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1642

OAvners of hovels standing against or about the Tower (the
Norman Keep) should be compounded Avith, and tho dwell
ings demolished.
The assumed attitude of neutrality became practically
untenable in the folloAving Aveek. On October 24th the
House of Commons, losing patience, addressed a communi
cation to the Mayor, the Sheriffs, Aldermen Tomlinson,
Charlton, Hohvorthy, and Vickris, and Luke Hodges, coun
cillor, requiring them to go from house to house, through
out the city, asking for all men's subscriptions to the Par
liament, and to receive money, plate, and horses on behalf
of the cause. Under the influence of this spur, and of the
more exciting incidents about to be recorded, the Council
on November 1st raised a subscription amongst themselves
with practical unanimity. Six aldermen contributed £2( )
each, and their four colleagues from £5 to £10. The only
other, Mr. Taylor, Avas in the House of Commons. The
councillors gave from £10 to £4, the only non-subscribers
being F. CresAviek, T. Colston, and Thomas Hooke. Direc
tions Avere then given to each alderman to visit his ward,
accompanied b}r the clergy, churchwardens, and chief con
stables, and to collect from those of ability to contribute.
The result Avas recorded by the Chamberlain in the follow
ing January : — " Received of several jiersons, Avhich was
lent to furnish the present occasions of King and Kingdom,
£2,397 13s. 1UI. (besides 1,591 ounces of plate afterwards
deli\_ered back to the OAvners, only some four parcels are
sold)." An additional item follows of £182 9s. Ad. received
for 827 ounces of plate, contributed by Messrs. Tomlinson,
Sherman, Wyatt, Miles Jackson, and Young, and sold to a
goldsmith, raising the total sttbscriptiou to nearly £2,600.
The Common Councd's change of front at this juncture,
hoAA^ever, Avas mainly caused, not by the letter of the House
of Commons, but by the action of the Puritan gentry in the
neighbouring counties. On October 24th the Chamber had
to deliberate upon a letter forwarded by the Association of
Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Wilts, " desiring a mutual as
sociation with the city for the defence of the King and King
dom against all forces sent into the district without consent
of Parliament." It was resolved to assent to such an asso
ciation, and a- committee of four members was appointed to
confer Avith the promoters of the design. A letter to the
gentry approving of the scheme was also unanimously
adopted. In the following iveek it Avas determined that, in
addition to the military preparations for the defence of the

1642]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

161

city, an armed ship should be fitted out, to be followed by
another, if found necessary. A hundred musketeers were to
bo in arms every night, under tho supervision of five of tho
Council, who were to undertake this duty by turns. " And
'tis thought fit that a drum or t\vo be at each Gate as
occasion shall require in those times of distraction."
The fight at Edgehill, on October 23rd, ought to have
convinced all parties that a peaceful compromise had become
hopeless. Yet the minutes of a pathetic meeting of the
Council on November 8th cannot be read without a feeling
of pity and respect for men overridden by events beyond
their control. " This day, the Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs
and Common Council have declared themselves to be in love
and amity one Avith another, and do desire a friendly asso
ciation together in all mutual accommodation." The former
idea of ajipealing to both King and Parliament was revived,
and a committee of seventeen members was appointed to
frame a petition to each, praying for reconciliation, and
alsotodraAV up an "association" for the signature of all
the inhabitants. Mr. Towgood and Mr. Standish were
further desired, as representative of all the city clergy, to
meet the committee "for an amiable accommodation one
Avith another throughout the Avhole city." At another
meeting, two days later, the committee produced the two
petitions, Avhich Avere ajiproved, and delegates were selected
to present them, but there is indirect evidence that the
matter Avent no further.
Amicable resolutions could not stay the inevitable course
of events. On November 24th the Council, after giving
directions for " new planking " of the great Keep, to enable
cannon to be mounted there, ordered that " eartlnvorks be
made in all needful places round about the city for the
necessary defence thereof . . . with all expedition." This
is the only definite information contained in the minute-
books respecting the extensive line of fortifications that
speedily grew up. And there is a remarkable lack of informa
tion as to the maimer in Avhich the execution was effected
of works which even in the present day Avould be considered
formidable, and which then must have involved an enormous
strain on the resources of the citizens. The only part of the
ancient Avails Avhich could be made serviceable was the
c10.^Pai'atlvely short hue of ramparts extending from Red-
cliff Hill to a place on the Avon knoAvn as Tower Harritz
now covered by the Railway Station. From the bank of
the Avon fronting Tower Harritz to LaAvford's Gate, and
M

162

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1642

thence by Avay of Stokes Croft, Kingsdown, St. Michael's
Hill, and Brandon Hill to " Water Fort " on the Avon,
near the site of Avhat Avas later Limekiln Dock — a total
distance of nearly three miles— a " graff," or rough wall,
had to be built, defended on the outer side by a trench,
Avhich for a great distance had to be excavated out of a tena
cious rock ; and three bastioned forts had to be erected
on the dominant positions of Prior's Hill, Windmill Hill
(now Tyndall House), and Brandon Hill. Water Fort, a
few redoubts to strengthen the graff, a " sconce " at Totter-
down to command the southern road, and some batteries in
the Marsh to guard against an attack by water, were sub
sidiary labours. Seeing Avhat progress had been made m
this vast undertaking early in the following summer, Avhen
Prince Rupert's army appeared, it is certain that a host of
labourers must have been employed throughout the Avmter.
The outlay on the works cannot be ascertained, but on one
occasion the city treasurer recorded a payment, on account,
of £1,260, of Avhich £527 had been received from parochial
collectors. This seems to prove that assessments were made
upon the householders, and doubtless much of the expendi
ture was defrayed by means of rates. Although the
account-books contain little information as to the facts, a
minute oddly inserted in the Bargain Book sIioavs that
£2 000 were borroAved from William Yeamans and other
trustees of Michael Meredith, half of which was lent
" gratis for a time," and the other moiety at 5 per cent. ;
£500 more, " orphanage money," Avas taken at the same
rate • while Alderman Charlton, for a loan of £o00, and
Alde'rman Gonning, for £300, demanded 8 per cent.
interest. It will be seen later on that considerable grants
in aid were made by the House of Commons.
It will be remembered that in October the Corporation
had agreed to enter into the Association of the neighbour-
in" counties for the support of the Parliament. Nothing,
however had been done to cany out this arrangement when,
at the Council meeting on November 24th, information came
to hand that the county gentry, angry at the delay, in
tended to bring matters to a crisis. A letter, it was alleged,
had been sent by Alexander Popham to Captain Harrington
of the city trained bands, announcing his purpose to bring
forces to Bristol, and desiring Harrington to be ready with
the trained bands and volunteers to join him at an hour s
notice, but in the meantime to keep the design secret. Ihe
Council, in much perturbation, requested the Mayor and

1642]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

1G3

Aldermen to write to Popham, "our loving friend," dis
suading him from taking such a step without their privity.
" We shall be glad," said the. missive, "av hen occasion shall
require, to receive all friendly assistance from you, but as
Ave now stand we conceive there is none." The Corporation,
in fact, had gone back to armed neutrality. Popham, avIio
had advanced to Pensford, replied on the folloAving clay,
denying the alleged intention, but jiointing out that the
Council's lack of zeal Avas perilous to the city and surround
ing districts, and might Avell cause him " to think of a
remedy." The remedy Avas indeed already determined
upon. In the House of Commons, on November 26th, a
letter was read from Sir EdAvard Hungerford and other
allies of Popham, stating that the Cavaliers Avere reported
to be preparing an attack on Bristol, and that the well-
affected citizens had besought the help of the Avriters, which
Avas Avillingly offered, but that the magistrates scrupled
to admit them Avithout an order of Parliament. The
majority of the aldermen, it Avas added, Avere suspected of
being malignants, but of the commonalty there were
three good to one ill-affected member. Authority to lead
1,000 of the county troops into the city Avas there
fore requested, and an order to that effect Avas approved by
both Houses. Before this mandate Avas issued, howeA'er, the
Common Council, at Popham's invitation, appointed a com
mittee to meet the associated gentry at Bath, on the 28th.
At the same time an effort was made to suppress the Avear-
ing of colours and badges on the hats of the inhabitants,
avIio were forming into antagonistic factions. The result of
the conference at Bath gave great dissatisfaction to the
county gentry. The Bristol delegates declined to co-operate
in any decisive step, and asked for further time to consider
the Association's proposals. The delay was regarded as a
mere evasion, and the gentry, avIio must soon after ha\Te
received the Parliamentary warrant, resolved to take action.
On December 2nd the Mayor and ten aldermen wrote to
Popham and Sir John Seymour, alleging that no time Avas
being lost in considering the proposals of the Association.
" But on learning that a company of volunteers rode into
Bedminster yesterday, where they yet remain in increas
ing numbers, aud the report of some others to be billeted at
Westbury and adjoining places to encompass the city, and
then (as some give out) to enter the same, hath so distracted
ns that until Ave receive some overtures from you as to Avhat
is intended, we shall not be able to satisfy your expecta-

164

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1642
tions." This assumed firmness was followed up, it would
appear, by the mounting of a few cannon and the mustering
of the trained bands, but soon ended in submission. The
order of Parliament to admit the county troops was received
on December 3rd. On the 7th letters were forwarded to
Popham, Seymour, and Edward Stephens, an energetic
Gloucestershire leader, stating that the Corporation had
already sent off messengers to inform them of the number
of troopers the city would entertain, "with all cheerful
ness," but that these envoys had boen detained as prisoners
by Colonel Essex, avIio, with his forces and the trained
bands of Gloucestershire, "are this night to be at or
about Thornbttry, with intent to be here to-morrow." The
letters ended with a request that the county gentlemen
Avould come into the city next morning before Essex's
arrival, " Avhereby Ave may accommodate the premises to
avoid effusion of blood, Avhich otherAvise will undoubtedly
happen,"; which proves that the Royalists were preparing
for resistance
There is no trustworthy account of the entry of the
Parliamentary forces. The most graphic narrative was
first produced by Barrett, and was probably founded on
oral tradition, as there is no reference to any written
document. The fact that it misdates the event, and de
scribes the conduct of the city authorities in a manner
utterly irreconcdable Avith the letters quoted above, casts
much suspicion on its authenticity. The story in brief is,
that when Essex's forces appeared on " December 5th," the
citizens flew to arms, and the Council assembled at the
Tolzey to devise measures for preserving the city for the
King, Avhen a number of women, with the Mayor's wife at
their head, burst into the Chamber clamouring for the ad
mittance of the soldiers, and so completely upset the resolu
tion of the civic dignitaries that the Gates were forthwith
opened, to the great grief of the commons. Other accounts,
more inaccurate as to date, and still less credible as to
details, are given in the calendars and summarized in Mr.
Seyer's history. They allege that Essex was before the
town as early as December 2nd, but was kept out for two
days by the loyal citizens, who planted two guns at the
High Cross (!) and tAvo on Froom Gate ; and that when
Essex attempted to enter at the latter place he was bravely
beaten off. During the fray there, however, NeAvgate was
opened by the contri\-ance of a woman, and then the tale is
repeated of the humiliating surrender of the city fathers to<

1642]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

165

their tumultuous mates and miscellaneous viragoes — " to
the number of 100," says the indignant historian ; whose
belief that the Council's reluctance (if it really showed re
luctance) was a preconcerted farce seems reasonable enough.
Against these Royalist accounts may be set a Puritan version
printed immediately afterwards in London, entitled :— " A
Declaration from the City of Bristol by the Mayor, Alder
men, Sheriffs, and others of the city, declaring their resolu
tion and fidelity to the Parliament. . . . Sent from Mr.
John Ball, m Bristol, to Mr. James Nicolls, merchant in
London. This writer alleges that though " many of the
great ones amongst us, Colston, Yeomans and their brethren "
were mahgnants, yet the bulk of the city " stood firm for
the Parliament." The Corporation, indeed, had sent Sheriff
Jackson, Alderman Locke, and Mr. James to Gloucester,
i<°tA1VlWi^lng that no tro°Ps would be allowed to enter,
but the Gloucester men were so incensed that they clapt
them up, and would not liberate them until they
had engaged their lives for the admission of a garrison "
4 offf^1™ °f the ladies> whose ^mber is here magnified
to 200, is next referred to, and is made to enlarge on the
danger of the city being deprived of provisions by the
irritated country people. But the capitulation of the Coun
cil instead of being immediate, is postponed by the writer
until the folloAving clay. The "malignants," in the mean
while, hired a number of seamen, armed with muskets
and swords, and planted two cannon on Froom Gate.
Ihese mercenaries raised a tumult and refused to disperse
when commanded by the Mayor ; but the troops neverthe
less entered Avithout resistance at Pithay Gate and New
gate. Coining to trustworthy documents, a despatch from Bris
tol, dated December 10th, informed Parliament that Colonel
Essex with 2 000 men was then in the city; whereupon a
letter was ordered to be sent to the citizens "to encourage
them to go on in its defence." On the 19th, the Earl of
Stamford Essex's superior officer, Avho had followed the
troops, informed the House of Lords by letter that he had
heard, whilst on his Avay here, that "some commotion " had
occurred after the entry of the forces, but such had been
nrrJ'f Ifr6 S J^^ate that all was in order on his
aimal. I find this city infinitely well affected toAvards
the good cause." As to this assertion there has been much
1 M? ™S ° T110"- J°hn °°rbet' a Puritan millister, who in
164o published an account ot the famous siege of Gloucester,

1GG

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1642-43
confessed that the King's cause was favoured by two
extremes in Bristol, " the wealthy and powerful men, and
the basest and loivest sort." Fiennes, in defence of his
surrender, wrote " the great men of this town have been
well acquainted with monopolies and engrossments of trade,"
referring to the profitable butter and calf-skins patents,
" and are therefore Malignants." Mr. Seyer, again, argues,
though far from convincingly, that the trained bands, drawn
from the lower classes, Avere undoubtedly Royalists. But it
seems admitted on all hands that the feeling of the majority
of the Common Council, and of the great body of citizens
standing between the rich and the poor, was decidedly in
favour of the Parliament, "¦ .
On January 4th, 1643, the House of Commons issued an
order for the repayment of £2,000 that had been borroAved
from Bristol, doubtless referring to the money contributed
in the preceding June. On January 10th, a lengthy minute
Avas inserted in the House of Lords' Journals, to the effect
that the city had also lent £3,000 to the counties of Somer
set, Gloucester and Wilts, to enable them to raise an army
to co-operate Avith that of the Earl of Essex, which sum was
promised on the public faith to be repaid if the counties
made default. (From an incidental note in the city audit
books it would appear that £1,000 of this loan Avas sent to
Bridgwater, where, the defences were being strengthened.)
A further sum of £3,400 was advanced to Colonel Essex for
the maintenance of the garrison ; and the outlay on the new
line of fortifications Avas constantly increasing. To meet this
prodigious expenditure, the Corporation had practically
no resource save the taxation or voluntary help of the in
habitants. The subscription of nearly £2,600 by the citi
zens, already referred to, happily came in largely during
the early Aveeks of the year, and much alleviated the finan
cial embarrassment. There is no indication in the accounts
of any special demand imposed by the Corporation upon
those suspected of "malignity."
Reference has been made in previous pages to the re
peated but abortiA-e attempts of the Common Council to
agree upon the terms of a petition to the King jiraying for
reconciliation. Tho subject does not reappear in the minute-
books, but on January 7th, 1643, a petition, drawn in the
name of the city instead of the Corporation, was presented
to His Majesty at Oxford by four unnamed aldermen. The
document, which Avas couched in absurdly bombastic lan
guage, described the state of the kingdom as one of horror

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

167

1643]
and wrath. Trade had ceased, ships were rotting in har
bour, credit was lost, the lives of men once happy were
unsafe and miserable, fathers were fighting against sons,
and sons against fathers, and all were overwhelmed with
ever-growing troubles. The petitioners went on to declare
their opinion as to the causes of these calamities. The King
had divorced himself from Parliament, " the husbands of the
commonwealth," who had faithfully and zealously served
him, and who jirayed him simply to abandon the counsels of
notorious malignants striving to destroy the liberty and
rights of Englishmen. A strong denunciation followed of
the hoav doctrines which Prelacy had sought to force upon
the people, corroding the hearts of the religious and well-
affected ; and the King was finally implored to devise some
speedy way to lasting peace by rectifying church abuses
and finishing bleeding dissensions. In consequence, doubt
less, of the negotiations for peace betAveen the King and
the Parliament then about to be opened, His Majesty made
a lengthy and gracious reply, expressing compassion for
the afflictions of the nation, assurances of his anxiety
for reconciliation, and thanks to the petitioners for their
advice. After a brief sojourn in Bristol, the Earl of Stamford,
commanding officer in the district, departed for Exeter with
one of the regiments stationed here, leaving the other with
Colonel Essex, who informally became Governor of the city.
Ihe conduct of the new official soon aroused Puritan
suspicion. He shoAved no energy in pushing forward the
fortifications, but spent much of his time in feasting, drink
ing and gambling; he accepted hospitality from, and had
many conferences Avith, persons notoriously sympathising
with the Kmg, held aloof from leading Parliamentarians,
and was suspected, Mr. Seyer thinks justly, of correspond
ing with Prince Rupert. An act of great brutality filled
up the measure of his offences. The Parliament had for
bidden the troops from extorting money from the citizens on
whom they were billeted, the wages of the men being fixed
sufficiently high to enable them to pay for all they required
H rem some inadvertence— probably through the carelessness
ol li^ssex— the soldiers were not paid for several weeks, and
were forced to buy on credit, at enhanced prices. On the
morning of January 24th, about twenty of the troopers laid
their grievances before their captain, who, disclaiming re
sponsibility, accompanied them to the lodgings of Essex
then sleeping off a night's carouse. Irritated at being

1GS

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643
disturbed, the Governor shortly afterwards appeared, armed
Avith a horse pistol, oidered some of the men out of the
room, refusing to listen to their complaint, and on one of
them asking permission to speak before departing, he shot
the unfortunate man dead on the spot. The atrocity, which
caused a great sensation; proved the unfitness of its author
for a responsible position. The Earl of Essex, on being
acquainted with the facts, accordingly ordered Colonel the
Hon. Nathaniel Fiennes, then commanding a detachment in
Wiltshire, to proceed to Bristol, with poAvor to act as cir
cumstances might require, and, if needful, to arrest Colonel
Essex and send him to headquarters. Fiennes arriA'ed in
the city Avith additional troops about the middle of Febru
ary, when further grave information respecting Essex's
dissolute habits and suspicious connections was laid before
him, and orders Avere given for the Governor's dismissal and
removal from the city. His arrest took place on the 27th,
Avhilst he Avas revelling at the house of one Captain Hill, at
Redland, an alleged agent of Prince Rupert.
Apparently at the request of the Earl of Essex, Fiennes
assumed the office of Governor, though, as he afterwards
asserted, much against his inclination. The appointment
was similar to many made in the early period of the Avar.
The neAV officer Avas selected, not because of his mditary
experience, of Avhich he Avas entirely destitute, nor because
of his undoubted ability as a politician, but because he
belonged to an aristocratic family, being a son of Lord Saye
and Sele, one of the most active and influential peers on
the Parliamentary side. He Avas not, hoAvever, like his
predecessor, a mere roystering bravo. Delegating the
military duties of his position to his brother, Colonel John
Fiennes, he took up his residence in Broad Street, to super
intend administrative work, and his unwearied pains and
Avatchfulness are acknowledged in a letter signed by the
Mayor and several influential citizens. He immediately
ordered the reorganization of the local armed forces, and
the active prosecution of the outer line of fortifications;
and according to a pamphlet Avritten by Major Langrish,
published in the same year, he armed 500 well-affected
citizens, whilst " the works had more done unto them in
five days than they had done unto them in six weeks
before." The House of Commons being unable to meet the
numberless demands upon it, and Fiennes' first request for
a loan of £1,000 having drained the corporate treasury, a
local committee was appointed, comprising the Mayor, the

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

169

^ 1643]
two Sheriffs, Alderman Holworthy, Luke Hodges, and other
zealous " Roundheads " ; and this body assessed and levied
a weekly sum of £55 15s., payable on all real and jiersonal
property within the city. The tax, which came into opera
tion on March 1st, and was to continue for three months,
was confirmed by Parliament. It was soon found, hoAvever,
that the rate Avas inadequate to provide pay for the garrison
and keep in employment the numerous labourers needed to
complete the defences; and throughout his governorship
Fiennes made constant and piteous appeals to Parliament
for relief. In May he complained that he had laid out
£9,00O, whilst the Commons had remitted him only
£4,000, and the citizens were refusing to contribute any
longer. In the following month he mournfully prayed to
be delivered from the charge of a town Avhich he had not
half enough men to defend, Avhilst destitute of the means of
supporting those he had. In another letter he asserted that
the demands upon him were seldom under £1,000 a week,
aud sometimes reached £1,300. The Commons' Journals
contain no information as to the sums actually trans
mitted to him. Prynn, a somewhat untrustworthy au
thority, _says that he received "near £9,000." Even with
this assistance, it is difficult to imagine Iioav he met his
liabilities. About the same time, £2,000 Avere demanded
from the city, on loan, by Sir William Waller, but only
jiart of this amount Avas received by Fiennes, avIio got
£1,000 more from the Corporation on his oavii account.
Possibly contributions Avere levied upon the neighbouring
counties, as became a regular practice later in the war,
ami large sums Avere certainly extorted from so-called
Malignants. One mandate of tho GoA-ernor has been
preserved, desiring John Gonning, pin., son of the Alder
man, to forthwith pay in £21X1, "Avhich sum, in respect of
your estate, is beloAV the proportion required of other per
sons of your quality," and threatening the victim, on
refusal, with Avhatsoever course the desperation of neces
sitous soldiers might induce them to pursue.
Local historians of strong Royalist proclivities have
asserted that the ascendancy of the Parliamentary party
m the city was immediately signalised by the ejection,
plunder, and imprisonment of the beneficed clergy. One
of their charges against Fiennes is that he ejected Mr.
Williamson, the vicar of All Saints, and replaced him by
a Mr. Tombes. The truth respecting the matter may be
found in the Commons' Journal for January 4th, 1643,

170

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643
about six weeks before Fiennes' arri val :— " On the petition
nJ ^VJJ^i °£Jh1 Parish of AU Saints, Bristol,
Ordered, that Mr. Tombes [wWasa B.D.] be recommended
to the parish as a lecturer, and that George Williamson, the
vicar be required to permit him the use of the pulpit."
Ihe Rev. Richard Towgood, vicar of St. Nicholas, for his
unfaltering support of the royal cause, was appointed, after
the Restoration, Dean of Bristol. Yet he was held in such
respect whilst Fiennes was ^Governor that— so far from
bemg ejected as Mr. Seyer asserts-the Corporation, iu
May, 1043, selected him as one of the lecturers whose
stipends continued to be paid out of the civic purse. One
ot the frantic preachers brought into the city," writes
Mr. Seyer, was » Matthew Hass ard, whom they put into St.
• TfUAr Pi;iTuclPal hicendiary of the rebellion." The fact
is that Mr. Hazard Avas appointed to the living by the Cor
poration in 1639, before civil dissensions were foreseen.
. Larly m 1643, the army under Prince Rupert advanced
into the West of England with the object of recovering
Gloucestershire for the King. The capture of Cirencester—
its first success— must have caused a profound sensation in
Bristol. On February 6th Lord Chandos and the chief
Cavalier gentry of the county, jubilant at the prospect,
issued a mandate to the high constables of the hundreds
announcing that the Prince demanded £3,000 from the
inhabitants to raise forces to put into garrisons, and £4,000
per month for the maintenance of the soldiers, requests of
which they approved, and which they ordered the constables
to obey. Though events elsewhere subsequently induced
Rupert to return for a time to Oxford, his forward move
ment stimulated, if it did not originate, a design in Bristol
that Avas destined to end in a deplorable tragedy.
Several Avealthy and influential citizens, as has been
already stated, Avere supporters of the royal cause, and were
naturally discontented at the ascendancy gained by the
opposite party, and at the heavy burdens Avhich that party
imposed upon them. Perhaps the most resolute and active
member of this minority Avas Robert Yeamans, a merchant
who had held the office of sheriff in 1641-2, and who, Avhilst
holding that office, had applied for and received a commis
sion from Charles I. to raise a regiment for his service in
the city. The existing evidence as to his character tends to
sIioav that Yeamans was one of those zealots Avhose rash
enthusiasm is less dangerous to enemies than to friends.
By displaying his commission, Avhich he contended would,

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

171

if granted earlier, have enabled him to trample down rebel
lion, he Avas allowed to assume the leadership of the local
loyalists, and he soon set about the formation of a Avide-
spread conspiracy, destined, as he persuaded himself, to
overthrow both the garrison and the authorities. Fortune
at first favoured his efforts in an unexpected quarter. The
dismissal of Colonel Essex from the goA'ernorship had given
offence to some of the officers of his regiment ; a captain and
three lieutenants are alleged to have been seduced by Yea-
ma i is. partly by his arguments, and partly by a bribe of
A. 10, to promise their assistance in his design ; and many of
the political friends of the plotter, deluded by his assurances
that the greater part of Essex's troopers were animated by
the same resentment as their officers and Avere ready to rise
for the Kmg, consented to join in the confederacy. The
next step of the movement was one common to most projects
ot the same character. A form of oath was drawn up
binding the swearers to fidelity and secrecy, and this, it is
said, was administered to a number of adherents by Yea
mans henchman, Mr. George Butcher, or BoAvcher a
respected merchant, Avhose business abilities had been afore
time appreciated by both the Corporation and the Merchants'
Society. The scheme being thus far advanced, a full
disclosure of it was made to the Court at Oxford, with
which a regular correspondence was maintained ; and the
King, after having twice, sent down one Dr. Marks to
ascertain the progress effected, expressed his cordial approval
promised to make Bristol "a famous place" when he got
possession of it, and gave orders to Prince Rupert to ap
proach the city and lend the assistance %it would be
required on the explosion of the, plot, which Avas fixed to
take place on tho night of Tuesday, March 7th. Yeamans'
dwelling was on tho north side of Wine Street, nearly
opposito to a building known as the Guard House, where
troops were stationed, and tho choice of such a spot for the
mustering of a number of men, many of whom were prob
ably suspected of" malignacy," marks the heedlessness of
the ringleader There, however, upwards of thirty assem-
TVt1 T13' 7hllsfc more than double that number gathered
at Mr. Bowchers house in the more secluded quarter of
Christmas Street where a large store of arms and ammuni
tion had been collected. Two subsidiary bands met in St.
Michael s parish, and much help was expected from a gang
of slaughtermen, who undertook to muster near the Sham
bles (now Bridge Street), and also from a party of sailors

172

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643
The final outbreak had been arranged, it is said, Avith two
ol the officers Avhom Yeamans had suborned, who were that
night m command at the Guard House, one of Avhom under
took to patrol the round at midnight Avith men he had
gamed over and to seize Froom Gate, close to Bowcher's
house, Avhich would enable the party there and their con
federates in St. Michael's to render assistance, and take
possession of that important outlet. BoAvcher had prepared
the crypt of St. John's church as a temporary prison for the
captured Roundheads. The other traitor was to remain at
the Lrttard House, having undertaken to surrender it with
out bloodshed as soon as Yeamans' party came forward ; and
this body of expected victors Avas directed to seize the
cannon there scour the streets with them, and secure
possession of Newgate. Prince Rupert, who was to advance
stealthily m the darkness as far as the gallows at Cotham,
was to be made acquainted with the capture of Froom Gate
by the ringing of the bells of St. Michael's and St. John's
churches, when his troops would be able to enter the city
without striking a blow, and thus complete a practically
certain triumph. As soon as all this was accomplished, a
jiroclamation, draAvn up by Yeamans, was to be issued,
ordering all inhabitants of the Bridge, High Street and
Oorn Street— that is, the leading tradesmen of the city— to
keep within doors on pain of their lives, Avhilst men prepared
to stand for the King Avere summoned to appear in arms at
the High Cross.
There are various stories as to the manner in Avhich the
enterprise became knoAvn to the Parliamentarians, and it is
not unlikely that aU are founded on pure conjecture. If
faith can be put in the pamphlets recounting the affair,
about two thousand persons in the city and surrounding
districts were engaged in the conspiracy, and there have
been feAv plots of a fiftieth part of that number of men
Avhich have not produced at least one traitor. It is con
fessed that Yeamans had been recklessly indiscreet in
divulging his project to all whom he thought likely to join
Avith him. His favourite resort had been the popular Rose
tavern, Avhere he entertained many open or pretended
sympathisers, regardless of what might be heard by tapsters
and unknown listeners. It is also significant that there is
no record of any punishment inflicted on Essex's officers,
Ayho, if the foregoing allegations were true, deserved to be
shot off-hand. Duly Aveighing these circumstances, it seems
reasonable to assume that Governor Fiennes was Avell-

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

173

informed of the machination ou foot, allowed it to proceed
until explosion was imminent, and at last threAV his net
over the unsuspecting but self-convicted schemers. This
assumption is greatly strengthened by the fact that about
ten o'clock of the fateful night the Governor had assembled
a Council of War, which forthwith gave orders to two de
tachments of troops to march respectively to the houses of
Yeamans and BoAvcher and arrest all whom they found
assembled there. Yeamans, who is said to have learnt that
the plot was betrayed, at first refused to open his door, pro
testing " with deep execrations " that he had no guests. An
entrance, however, was forced, and the soldiers succeeded in
capturing twenty-three men, though many of the party,
chiefly ship captains and sailors, made a desperate resistance,
and additional troops Avere needed to convey them to prison.
Several others escaped by the roof of the house. In the
meantime, Bowcher's dwelling had been invested; but the
crowd of conspirators Avithin, instead of attempting defence,
were struck Avith panic. Keeping the door fast for a time,
a great number jumjied out of a back window overlooking
the Froom, and dropped into the bed of the river, the tide
being fortunately at low Avater. The number of prisoners
caught in the house is variously stated, the discrepancies
being doubtless due to the fact that several Avere seized out
side Avhilst floundering out of the deep mud of the stream.
" A great store of arms " Avas certainly secured. Prince
Rupert, after vainly waiting for the promised signal, found
it prudent to retreat about daybreak.
The intelligence, of this inglorious miscarriage Avas rapidly
spread by jiamphlets and broadsides 0A-er .the kingdom,
exciting transports of joy in one camp and corresjxmding
depression in the other. As is generally the case when
jiolitical passions become superheated, the'pamjihlet-Avriters
of the victorious party outrageously exaggerated the inten
tions of the conspirators, alleging that they had contemjilated
the murder of the Puritan Mayor, the Avholesale plunder
and massacre of all the reputable citizens save their slender
band of sympathisers, and even the burning of the city. In
tho Houses of Parliament on March 14th, letters from the
Mayor amd others were read, narrating in more reasonable
language the circumstances under which the betrayal of the
toAvn had been prevented, and ordinances were passed for
confiscating the estates of the plotters, for the trial of the
ringleaders, and for a national Thanksgiving for the
Avondcrful deliverance. (Tavo sermons Avere preached on

J 74

TIIK ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643

that occasion in Bristol by the Rev. John Tombes, B.D
i rbitld1 W^W aPPreofiated thafc they were ordered to be'
punted by the House of Commons. A copy of this rare
pamphlet, entitled "Jehovah Jirah, or God'FproVideiice^ii
ehvenng the Godly . . with a' brief narrative of tho
bloody and ahommab e Plot," is in the collection of Mr
authnriZt ° *? * f meant™e Fiennes and the civil
3,™ ™e buS1 \y enSaSed in apprehending men
M reh ml? 17^ Wa§ kU0Wil °r susP^tecf In a lerteTo
March 11th the Governor stated that the prisoners in the
Castle numbered "well near sixty," and others were doub !
hTtTfe ?' !ubsCll™>%- A Realist pamphleTeer at r s
that the captives Avere treated barbarously but his state
ments, if not pure inventions, could have lirte bli but the
~i? rV/" Pai"ty- T,h6 bulk °f the Prisoners
I?niP < f,' ^d ih&y cannot have been kept long in
custody for the Castle dungeons were empty whence
e^Toed in'lTl ^ """^ ktep- The ^ttLcS n en
M? w ¦ f eilgrn'i acc°rdlnS to the list drawn up by
brothereoftl'i d J°lm B°W,Cher and William YeanfaS
biotheis of the pnme movers, four other merchants named
^idJSiL Tal61'!?0?^ ^JTn> R°wland SearchfiTd
and John Taylor ; the steward of the Sheriff's Court (Wil
a Ztt?T' T,h° ZlS " b,an'ister) ; a ^Pboder, a brewer,
a hatter, a goldsmith, and two Oxford scholars. There is
also one "William Coleston or Cottlson," who cannot be
certainly identified. None of these persons except William
Waits were brought to trial, but had to ransom them*
selves by the sacrifice of their estates, which the Govenmr
took rigorous measures to secure. In a letter to his father
Fiennes stated that he did not expect to make £3,oS) out of
all of them, "there bemg never a rich man amongst them "
S^ptty.3 Were ClaimiDg ^ Cai'^ awty mostof
The originators of the plot could not be let off so easily.
Un the receipt ot a commission from the Earl of Essex
issued by order of Parliament, the Governor called a Council
itS/w1? °vrby himS^ bef°re Whicl1 Yeamans,
Boa , liei, William Yeamans, and EdAvard Dacres, a plumber
underwent several examinations. The trial of Robert
leamans took place on May 8th, on an indictment drawn
up by vlement Walker, ex-Usher of the Exchequer, the
proceedings taking place in Lady Rogers's great house at
the Budge. 1 ne Court consisted of the Governor and fifteen
citizens, and the difficulty of the Royalist writers in finding

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

175

material to revile the jury is shown by their complaint that
an attorney and a schoolmaster were members of the
tribunal. No defence seems to have been made by the
prisoner, except that he acted on the King's commission,
and he bore the sentence of death with firmness. The trial
of BoAvcher and the two others followed on May 22nd, and
had a similar result. Bowcher had admitted the charge
against him, adding that he had provided chains and locks
to bar the passage at St. John's Gate, so as to prevent the
Parliament forces from rushing in whilst " tho work Avas
doing." The sentence on Wdliam Yeamans and Dacres
was remitted. The two ringleaders were executed in Wino
Street on May 30th (the entry of Yeamans' interment in the
Christ Church register, dated May 20th, is almost certainly
inaccurate.) The scaffold was raised in front of Yeamans'
house, but he, like his companion, displayed great resolu
tion, and avowed his principles to the last. They Avere not
allowed to have the ministrations of the vicars of Christ
Church and St. Nicholas, and two Puritan preachers were
suffered to disturb their last moments. The King, anxious
to save them, had caused Lord Forth to Avarn Fiennes that
if the sentences Avere carried out, certain Roundheads taken
at Cirencester Avould also be put to death ; but the Governor
retorted that the law of nature, as of arms, drew a distinc
tion betAveen enemies taken in open Avarfare and secret
conspirators, adding that if Lord Forth should execute his
threat, an equal number of knights or squires, taken in
rebellion against " the King and Kingdom," Avould receive
no merry. Charles next forwarded a letter to the Mayor
and Aldermen, commanding them to raise tint inhabitants,
and to slay those, who attempted to take the lives of the
prisoners ; but the mandate did not, arri\-e until the tragedy
Avas over. The unfortunate, men left no less than sixteen
children to mourn their memories. Mrs. Bowcher appears
to have been promised a pension of £100 by the King.
Yeamans' AvidoAV found a second husband in Mr. Thomas
Sjieed, a Puritan merchant, who generously undertook to
bring up her numerous offspring, some of whom, like their
step-father, becamo j>rominent Quakers. The proceedings
of Fiennes Avere approved by the House of Commons. A
virulently Avritten Royalist pamphlet was published soon
after the executions, entitled "The tAvo State Martyrs.''
Avhich is reproduced in Mr. Seyer's history. It excited only
the derision of the Puritans, Avho contended that the two
plotters Avere no more martyrs than Guy FaAvkes.

17C

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1643

After the discovery of the plot, some of those implicated
in the affair Avho had escaped immediate arrest thought it
prudent to take to flight. From two petitions presented to
the House of Commons on April 12th and 14th, on behalf of
the Mayor, the Sheriffs, " and others well affected," it appears
that two ships in which the petitioners Avere interested had
been seized and carried off " by malignant fugitives," who
had departed leaving heavy debts due to the complainants.
The House ordered Governor^Fiennes to give the petitioners
fitting relief out of tho estates of local delinquents.
A broadside in the British Museum, dated April 14th,
and printed by order of the Lords and Commons, affords
some interesting information as to the " weekly assessments
imposed on various counties and towns " for the maintenance
of the Parliamentary army. As compared with subsequent
levies, the charges in this district were light. The weekly
sum demanded from Bristol Avas £55 15.s. ; from the city of
Gloucester, £62 10s. ; from Gloucestershire, £750 ; and from
Somerset, £1,050. The city of London paid £10,000, and
York £62 10*. The local committee for assessing the
amount on the householders were Richard Aldworth,
Mayor, John Jackson and Hugh Browne, Sheriffs, Alderman
Holworthy, Luke Hodges, and Henry Gibbes.
Notwithstanding the heavy burdens imposed on the
inhabitants for the defence of the city, generous help was
extended to those unhappy Irish Protestants who had escaped
butchery only to be menaced with starvation. On May 4th,
in the House of Commons, a letter was read from the Mayor
and Aldermen, stating that provisions contributed by the
"free benevolence" of the citizens, together Avith those
brought in from the tAvo neighbouring counties, had been
embarked in two ships, which would convoy a similarly
laden bark from Minehead. The cargo consisted of 3,880
cheese, great quantities of bread, corn, meat and beer, and
£30 in money. The writers took the opportunity to thank
the House for its care for the city in the appointment of
Fiennes, who, they said, omitted "nothing conducive to our
safety," and Avas the sole director and daily superintendent
of the fortifications, Avhich had " cost us very much money,"
but were " in great forAvarduess."
Their Avorships' complacent reference to the defences Avas
not justified by events Avhich, though imminent, Avere not
foreseen. The great forts, indeed, seem to havo been com
pleted as originally planned. Water Fort had boon armed
Avith seven gnus ; 'Brandon Hill Fort Avith six guns : Wiud-

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

177

mill (afterwards Royal) Fort with about tho same arma
ment, and Prior's Hill Fort with thirteen guns ; whilst
Lawford's Gate had been strengthened, and furnished with
seven cannon. Temple Gate and Tower Harritz appear to
have had fourteen guns, and fifteen pieces Avere placed at
and near Redcliff Gate. In the low-lying alluvial ground
between LaAvford's Gate and Stokes Croft, the earthen
rampart, designed to be about six feet high, with an outer
trench intended to be some five feet in depth, may have
been "in great forwardness." But in the long line of
defences from Stokes Croft to Water Fort, the ditch out of
which the "graff" was to be formed had to be mostly
excavated in the hard rock, and when, as will be sliOAvn,
Prince Rupert declared more than two years later that the
Avail aud trench were still incomplete, in spite of the con
stant efforts of troops of labourers, the imperfections in
1643 may Avell have inspired Fiennes Avith anxiety. So
little, indeed, had been done near St. Michael's Hill that
the royal troops brought up to aid in Yeamans' plot knew
they would have no obstruction to encounter in pushing
towards the city. In the same Avay, the rampart and ditch
in the valley between Windnull Fort and Brandon Hill had
been little more than sketched out, even in July, Avhen a
few men furnished with shovels quickly levelled the ground,
and enabled the Cavaliers to enter.
The defeat and rout of Sir William Waller at Roundway
Down on July 13th gave a fatal blow to the Parliamentary
cause in Bristol. Before the battle, Waller's imperious
demands for reinforcements from, the city had seriously
reduced the garrison, and even after being strengthened
with troops draAvn from Bath, Fiennes had only about
2,<>0O foot men and 300 cavalry to defend several miles of
fortifications against his advancing foes. The Governor,
however, jiroclaimed his determination to hold out to the
last extremity, and ordered the inhabitants to furnish them
selves with three months' provisions, whilst many of the
rural Puritans, hopeful of protection, flocked into the city
with their portable property. Barrett, relying on oral
tradition, asserts that Fiennes, to prevent a lodgment of
the enemy near the Castle, commanded the demolition of
the churches of St. Peter and St. Philip, but no evidence
can bo found in support of the story, which may be classed
amongst tho numberless calumnies of local gossip-mongers.
Prince Rupert's forces, numbering about, 20,(HK>, had prac
tically invested the town on Sunday, July 23rd, the Marquis

178 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL [1643
of Hertford and Prince Maurice being in command on the
Somerset side, whilst Rupert established himself at West-
bury, and attended service at Clifton church in the afternoon.
On Monday the beleaguering forces made a display of their
strength to discourage the besieged, and a summons to sur
render followed, which Fiennes promptly rejected. The for
mation of batteries intended to play on the various forts Avas
then begun, but Rupert Avas ill-provided with cannon until,
by a stroke of good fortune, eight ships were captured (or
voluntarily surrendered) in Kingroad, the guns from which
Avere quickly made serviceable. In the evening some trivial
attacks were made on the ramparts, but were easily repulsed.
On Tuesday these assaults were repeated by greater numbers,
and with more perseverance, but Avith no better success.
The royal batteries on Clifton Hill, directed against Water
Fort and Brandon Hill, proved also ineffectual, and the guns
were removed to assail Prior's Hdl Fort, on the eastern brow
of Kingsdown. In the afternoon, Prince Rupert held a
council of war with the officers on the southern side of the
Avon, and it was resolved that a concerted storm of the
defences at six different points should take place on the
following morning. At dawn on Wednesday, the 26th, the
enthusiastic Cornish regiments, under Lord Hertford, accord
ingly attempted to seize both Redcliff and Temple Gates,
but were repulsed at each place with heavy loss. Lord
Grandison led the attack against Prior's Hill Fort, defended
by Blake, the afterwards renowned admiral and one of the
noblest Avorthies of Somerset, who proved himself as skilful
and resolute on land as he was subsequently on the ocean.
The rampart near the fort was unfinished, and Grandison,
who displayed great valour, took advantage of the defect ;
but after three fierce assaults he fell mortally wounded, and
his men were beaten off. The attempt to carry the works
at Stokes Croft was repulsed after a conflict of an hour and
a half. A redoubt on Kingsdown, on the site of a later and
enlarged fort called Colston's Mount, also encountered a
vigorous but fruitless attack. The whole enterprise seemed
fated to end in a disastrous failure, Avhen tidings spread of
an unlooked-for success.
Reference has been made to the rudimentary state of the
rampart and trench between Brandon Hill and Windmill
Forts. Fiennes and his engineering advisers had probably
imagined that the approach to the city from Clifton would
bo sufficiently protected by the cannon on the heights,
aided by a redoubt, styled Essex's Fort, on a site a little to

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

179

the east of the present Blind Asylum. This post, however,
Avas also unfinished ; the thick furze and underwood on the
slopes of the two hills— so useful to an assailant — had not
been cleared away ; and, as the event proved, the mouths of
the cannon in the forts could not be lowered to aim into the
hollow. Captain Washington, a collateral ancestor of the
American hero, had been directed Avith 200 or 300 dragoons
to threaten the works at this spot, chiefly in order to dis
tract the attention of the besieged ; but the weakness of
the defences being speedily detected, Washington, after
arming his men Avith " fire pikes," commanded an assault,
dashed at the rampart, to the consternation of the feAv
cavalry guarding the line, who Avould not face the blazing
pikes and forthwith decamped. A handful of men then
quickly levelled the ditch by throwing doAvn the earthwork,
making an open roadway for the reinforcements that their
commander had at once demanded. The cowardice of a
fresh body of the Roundhead cavalry, Avho made a faint
hearted attempt to beat off Washington's slender force,
together Avith the panic-stricken flight of a small party
stationed in Essex's Fort, completely turned the fortune of
the clay. By about nine o'clock in the morning the Royal
ists were in possession of the cathedral and the two neigh
bouring churches, and some of them occupied St. Augustine's
Back, commanding the ships moored in the Froom. Another
party, forcing their Avay through narrow thoroughfares,
some of which have been since swept away, bore down upon
Froom Gate, where they encountered greater difficulties.
When the news of Washington's entrance reached the city,
Airs. Dorothy Hazard, a Puritan lady Avhose ardour has been
already noticed, rushed with about two hundred Avomen
and girls to this Gate, the importance of Avhich Avas obvious,
and with tho Help of some men the portal Avas solidly
blocked up Avith Avoolsacks and earth. Mrs. Hazard then
repaired to the Governor, and adjured him to remain firm,
assuring him that her Amazons would face the besiegers
Avith their children in their arms " to keep off the shot from
the soldiers if they Avere afraid." Her entreaties were of no
avail, but some of the Avomen stood firmly Avith the gunners
in. the Gate, and it Avas not until after repeated assaults
that the Royalists Avere able to enter. About this time
Fiennes ordered a sally against the Cavaliers in College
Green, but, according to his subsequent, statement, only tAvo
hundred men could be collected, and these were so tired out
through having been on constant duty for four days that

ISO

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643

they Avere easily repulsed by greatly superior numbers. It
may be mentioned here that the Cornishmen Avho had been
defeated on the Somerset side of the city were so thoroughly
disheartened as to have made preparations for a general
retreat, and one party fled as far as Whitchurch before
tidings were received of the actual victory of their cause.
Within a Ioav hours, Fiennes' precipitate submission
sealed the fate of the city. Before the siege he had vowed
that, if the outer fortifications were lost, he would retire
behind the ancient Avails, fight eA^ery inch of the streets,
and make a last stand in the Castle. The Royalists had
lost nearly 1,000 men, Avhile less than a score of the gar
rison Avere said to have fallen. (A pamphlet published by
the King's printer at Oxford, doubtless by order of the
Court, stated that "near 500 common men" lost their lives
on His Majesty's side, and that the total loss in the service
— " the hottest that ever was since the war began " — Avas
" at least 1,400.") But though the principal forts were
intact and commanded the city, the Governor ordered the
soldiers still holding the ramparts to retire into the town
on pain of death; and to the "exceeding comfort '* of the
besiegers, as they confessed, Fiennes sought for a parley
Avith a view to a capittdation. (It must in fairness be
added that, as he afterwards alleged, he took this step at
the urgent entreaty of the Mayor and other influential
citizens, and that Fairfax and Cromwell, as Avell as the
Royalist engineer De Gomme, held that further resistance
would have been useless.) Rupert gladly assented, and the
preliminaries to a surrender Avere agreed itjion in a garden
house near Park Roav. The final treaty, the original manu
script of Avhich is preserved in the Council House, was
executed in the evening. It was provided that the Parlia
mentary officers and cavalry, with their arms and horses,
the foot soldiers, with arms, and the sick and wounded,.
should be convoyed to Warminster ; that all gentlemen
should be free to retire unmolested with their portable
jiroperty, and that the liberties of the city should be main
tained. The arms, ammunition, and stores found in the
jilace Avere, of course, to be surrendered. The terms were
shamefully broken by the Royalists. About 800 of the
vanquished, from Fiennes himself doAvn to the grooms of
the gentry, Avere pitilessly plundered and outraged on taking
their departure, some being stripped almost naked and
robbed of all they jiossessed. And although, as a Royalist
Avriter admits, £1,400 Avere offered and paid by the Corpora-

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

181

tion to save the inhabitants from pillage, the houses of those
charged with disaffection by a feAv renegade Roundhead
soldiers were broken into and ruthlessly sacked. A Puritan
pamphlet published soon afterwards affirmed that one citi
zen, who had been already plundered of £500 Avorth of
goods, Avas deprived of 2,300 ounces of plate by the direct
orders of Prince Rupert, who refused him redress, reviled
him as a rebel, and directed one of his houses to be demo
lished. Some tradesmen ransomed their goods by offering
fines, but after payment was made, the soldiery burst into
their houses and seized all they could find, selling the plun
der openly in the streets. A great store of property had
been placed in the Castle — several Royalist Avriters estimated
its value at £100,000 — but in spite of the treaty the troops
broke into the place, and the OAvners got nothing but what
they redeemed by fines. Meanwhile the army was billeted
on the inhabitants, some of Avhom had between twenty and
thirty men thrust into their houses, and the families were
turned out of their beds and deprived of their food.
Alarmed by the rapacity of the soldiery, and possibly in
dread of a universal spoliation, the Council assembled on
July 28th, and resolved to offer a present to the King as a
testimony of the "love and good affection" of the city.
Giles Elbridge appears to have proposed that the gift should
be £20,000, but the Mayor and tAventy-five others voted for
£10,000. Four aldermen and four councillors, amongst Avhom
Avere Alderman Taylor and Thomas Colston, declined to vote
for either sum. The bulk of the money was, of course, to
be raised by a rate on the householders, who would thus, it
Avas hoped, be protected from looting. A personal subscrip
tion towards the gift Avas then made in the Chamber, to
Avhich the Mayor contributed £300, Alderman Charlton
£600, Aldermen Long and John Langton £200 each, Alder
men Gonning and Hooke, John Gonning, jun., and Hugh
Browne £150 each, Avhilst many of the rest offered sums
varying from £100 to £40. Miles Jackson closed the list
with £20. TAvelve gentlemen, about half of whom were
Puritans and the others Royalists — amongst the latter being
Aldermen Taylor and Jones, and Messrs. Elbridge, Colston,
and Fitzherbert — declined to subscribe anything.
If the Corporation imagined that this peace-offering Avould
satisfy the appetites of the conquerors their dlusion Avas
soon at an end. Documentary evidence as to the initial
stages_ of Avhat foUoAved has not been jireserved, but the
Council must have been informed soon aftenvards that

182

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643

Prince Rupert required a handsome gratification, and the
helpless civic body had to submit with such cheerfulness as
it could muster. The collection of the "gifts" had evidently
been proceeding for some time when, on October 16th, the
Council approved of the labours of two committees jire-
viously appointed "for raising £20,000 for the King and
Prince Rupert," aud they were desired "Avith all expedition
to get in the arrears," using any means to Avring out the
money that they might thinft proper. As the population
of the city Avas then only about 15,000, and the value of
money was certainly three times greater than it is no\v, a
proportionate "gift" at the present day would exceed a
million sterling. The civic treasury was then so exhausted
that the Corporation Avere compelled to give 8 per cent, for
a loan of £100, and to shut up the House of Correction in
order to save the gaoler's paltry salary ; while the members
of the Council Avere called on to club up 40s. each to pay for
£72 Avorth of Avine presented to the King. Besides the
aboAre princely donations, a Aveekly assessment was levied
ttpou householders for the support of the garrison. The
amount, as originally fixed, does not appear, but it was
probably £400, for in September a deputation was sent to
Oxford to implore the King for a remission of £200 a week,
and the tax was then apparently reduced to £300. Subse
quently (May, 1644), Avhen an enormous weekly rate was
being levied to strengthen the fortifications, the King con
sented to reduce the £300 to £100 ; but the relief was in
fact only nominal, the citizens being required to complete
and furnish the new Royal Fort, for which purpose the
Governor was ordered to assist the Corporation iu raising
additional taxes, and at the same time a lump sum of £2,000
was demanded for the maintenance of the garrison. The
unfortunate Corporation had again to resort to borrowing,
though the fact does not appear in the accounts, but is
again hidden away in the Bargain Book. Robert Bing, the
rector of Cannings, Wdts, lent £300 free, for six months.
Local Royalists Avere not so liberal, Alderman Wallis re
quiring 8 per cent, interest for- £200. Two daughters of
Humphrey Hooko and one Thomas FoAvens lent £200 each
at 6 jier cent., but four prominent and wealthy loyalists —
Alderman Taylor, Francis Creswick, John Gonning, jun.,
and Alexander James — contributed only from £50 to £150
each, A loan of £80 was also wrung from William Cann,
a. lending Parliamentarian.
Ti"> capture of Bristol — Avhich " struck the two Houses

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

183

to the heart" — brought a long-subsisting discord in the
royal army to an acute stage. The moderate men who had
taken arms in the King's cause thirsted for reconciliation,
and were anxious that the constitutional reforms effected
in the first year of the Long Parliament should be pre
served intact. The extreme Cavaliers, on the other hand,
of whom Prince Rupert was the idol, looked on national
liberties with contempt, were eager to destroy the Parlia
ment by the help of foreign and Irish mercenaries, and
constantly urged the King to maintain the war until his
opponents were under his heel and a future despotism
assured. Tho Marquis of Hertford, a representative of the
former section, had been for some time Lord-Lieutenant of
Bristol and the two adjacent counties, and being by his
commission in command of the Western troops (though he
delegated the actual leadership to Sir Ralph Hop ton), he
looked upon Rupert as but an auxiliary to his army. The
Prince, however, disregarding Hertford's position, had
drawn up the articles of Fiennes' capitulation without
even asking for his counsel, and assumed a right to deal
with the city at his discretion. Hertford, to vindicate his
authority, thereupon nominated the gallant Sir Ralph
Hopton as Governor of Bristol, without consulting the
Prince ; on hearing of which the latter wrote to the King,
concealing the fact of Hopton's appointment, and asking
for the governorship for himself, to which Charles unAvit-
tingly consented. The jealous hostility that had long
existed between the friends of the respective commanders
now rose to exasjieration, and the dissension threatened
such serious consequences that the King paid a visit to the
city to bring about a reconciliation. Accompanied by his
youthful sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York,
Charlos arrived on August 3rd, and took up his residence
in the mansion of the CresAviek family in Small Street,
which stood on the site of the present post-office. (Barrett
states that the King lodged in " Mr. Colston's house " iu
the same street, but the father of the philanthropist, from
his marriage to his death, a period of nearly fifty years,
resided in Wine Street.) According to a Royalist news-
sheet, the King Avas received with great demonstrations of
joy, and at night the city was ablaze with bonfires. His
Majesty had not been appeased by the liberal gift of the
Corporation, but informed his nephew that he Avould not
admit tho Mayor and Council to his presence until "the
businesses be settled "; or, as the news-writer says, until

184

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[1643
they had answered for the murder of the two "martyrs."
possibly his ill-humour gave a spur to the " present " made
to Rupert Thanks to the nobility of character shown by
Lord Hertford and Sir Ralph Hopton, a compromise be
tween the rival parties was effected, Hopton (who was
created a peer) consenting to become Lieutenant-Governor
under the Prince. A more momentous decision was arrived
at during the King's brief visit. The city of Gloucester
alone interrupted the communications between the ^royal
forces m Wales, the West, and the North, and Charles
sanguine of an easy triumph, resolved on besieging the
tV. tan town in person. It was eminently characteristic
of the King s temper during a flash of prosperity that a
day or two after his beleaguerment of Gloucester, he issued
orders for the levy throughout the county of £6,000 a
month for the maintenance of the garrisons at Bristol and
other places within the shire. The money was to be paid
by the high constables to " Thomas Walter of St. Nicholas's
parish m Bristol." The issue of his attempt on Gloucester
is historical.
A few days after the King's departure, the Council ap
pointed a committee to " mediate " with the new Lieuten
ant-Governor "for the liberties and freedom of the inhabi
tants, both for their persons and estate, especially those that
are noAv in custody, aud have petitioned for relief." To
propitiate his lordship, he was presented with a butt and
three hogsheads of wine, a hundredweight of sugar, and the
freedom of the city. The ultra party at Court were still so
drunk Avith success that Lord Hopton seems to have been
prevented from liberating the imprisoned Puritans, for on
the discomfited King's return to Oxford the Corporation
renewed their appeals for merciful consideration in humble
petitions, accompanied with copious presents of wine
After many months' hesitation, marking the reluctance of
the act, His Majesty granted the city his " gracious pardon"
on February 24th, 1644, which may have brought liberty
to the captives. The document cost the poverty-stricken
Council £150 m cash, irrespective of numerous presents
and the heavy travelling expenses of supplicating dele
gates. In other respects the civic body was treated with
scant respect. The King ordered the appointment of his
nominee to the vicarage of St. Michael; Lord Hopton
"commanded" the grant of the freedom to one Richard
Allan, '•postmaster-general"; and pressure was exerted to
secure a loyal majority in the Chamber. Councillors Vickris

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

185

and Hodges — probably in prison — Avere struck off the roll,
and to supply these and other vacancies William Colston
and five others of ultra-royal principles Avere elected. On
September 15th, when Humphrey Hooke (now become a
Royalist) was chosen Mayor, and William Colston and
Henry CresAviek Avere selected as Sheriffs, an illegal oath,
the author of which is not stated, was tendered to each
member of the Council, who Avas required to vow that he
would not abet or assist, or hold any intelligence Avith, the
forces of the Parliament, or pay any tax imposed by the
Houses, or encourage any one to bear arms against the
King. Thirty-two members swallowed this formula, it is
said 'voluntarily," though that assertion may well be
doubted. The outgoing Mayor, Richard Aldworth, and
about nine others either refused to swear or absented
themselves. Perhaps the most egregious instance of the
high-handedness of the royal officers occurred in November
Avhen the General of the Artillery, styled Lord Piercies in
the minutes, demanded of the Council that all the church
bells m the city should be immediately delivered up to him
lor conversion into cannon. The mandate evoked a digni
fied reply from the Mayor and Aldermen, pointing out that
the request was contrary to the terms of the capitulation,
and that, m any case, the Corporation had no right to dis
pose of parish property.
During the summer, Sir John Pennington arrived in the
city for the purpose of taking the command of a number of
ships of tvar that had gathered in the port for the royal
service, lo aid in procuring crews, the King issued a pro
clamation promising pardon to all sailors who deserted
from the Parliamentary fleet, and threatening those Avho
served against him with the punishment of rebels A
royal news-sheet of August 4th alleges that a ship of
eighteen guns had come into Kingroad, and surrendered
Bar lament, on the other hand, directed their admiral, the
h-arl of Warwick, to cruise near the mouth of the Bristol
Channel m order to capture ships sailing to Bristol, and
Prevent the transport of soldiers sent over to the King from
Ireland, m Avhich last service, however, Warwick Ai'as far
Irom successful considerable numbers of Irish mercenaries
being afterwards landed in the Avon.
A royalist quarrel, somewhat similar to that already re
corded, occurred at this time between Sir Edward Hyde
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Lord Ashburnham, Pay-
master of the Forces. The latter, embarrassed for money

ISO

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643

lost no time in seizing the receipts of the Bristol Custom
House, and when Hyde, the proper recipient of the dues,
ajiplied to the local officers for the amount collected, he was
enraged to find that he. had been forestalled by his military
colleague. After a bitter controversy the King decided in
favour of the Chancellor.
A brief reference must be made to the fortunes of ex-
Governor Fiennes. On arriving in London that gentleman
defended his conduct in the House of Commons, and invited
an inquiry before a Council of War. His challenge having
been taken up by the Avell-known William Prynn, seconded
by a shifty politician, Clement Walker, who both alleged
that they had " lost the best parts of their estate in
Bristol," and avIio stigmatised Fiennes as a coward in
separate pamphlets, the Earl of Essex summoned him and
his accusers before a Council of War, which after several
Aveeks' delay, oAviug to the efforts of Fiennes' friends to
avoid a trial, was opened at St. Albans on December 14th.
The indictment, framed by Prynn with his usual acri
mony, Avas of great length, and its virulence may be esti
mated by the fact that one charge was founded on the
condemnation of Yeamans and Bowcher, which had been
approved by both Lord Essex and the Houses of Parlia
ment. The accusation of coAvardice was put in various
forms, and the evidence of numerous witnesses (one of
Avhom Avas the strong-Avilled Dorothy Hazard) was pro
duced in its support. Fiennes discredited his defence by
raising the quibbling plea that as he Avas never legally
invested with the governorship of the city, the whole in
dictment was vitiated. Having been confuted on this
point, he fell back on assertions that he had done his best,
and that the defence of the town was impracticable with
the forces at his command. Puritan resentment, however,
demanded a victim. The Court found him guilty, and he
Avas sentenced to death. But his civil abilities, which
Avere confessedly brilliant, and the powerful influence of
his family, as well as the conflicting opinions of military
men as to the justice of the sentence, were urged upon the
Commander-in-Chief, who granted him a pardon, in which
his valour at Edgehill fight is warmly applauded. A few
years later Fiennes Avas appointed by Cromwell a member
of tho Council of State, and he was also for a time Keeper
of the Great Seal.
When the sanitary condition of the city, as previous
notes bear Avitness, had been always unsatisfactory, mat-

1643]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

187

ters were not likely to be improved by the introduction of
a large garrison and the contingencies of a siege. A
minute of a Council meeting in October shows that house
holders were in the habit of throwing their refuse into
the streets, and that filth was lying thickly in the un-
swept alleys and on the quays. Fines were threatened if
those abuses were persisted in, but it was felt that some
thing more was necessary, and the salary of " the Raker "
Avas raised from £70 to £80, the Council ordering that the
additional £10 should be levied on the inhabitants.
During August a Bristol ship Avith a valuable cargo was
taken by one of the Parliamentary men-of-war, and sold as
a prize in London by order of the House of Commons, to
the serious loss of some Royalist merchants. Soon af ter-
Avards, Colonel Massey, the heroic Governor of Gloucester,
equipped a frigate, by which a party of his soldiers, sailing
doAvn to Chepstow, succeeded in surprising and carrying off
some of the officers of the royal garrison, and, the A^essel
was afterwards employed in cruising for prizes in the
Bristol Channel. To meet this danger to local commerce,
efforts Avere made to send out ships for the defence of the
port. In February, 1644, Sir John Winter, Governor of
ChepstoAv, offered the Corporation a pinnace fit for this ser
vice, and undertook to pay half the outlay for the creAv's
wages and provisions. The proposal was accepted, and the
Merchants' Company having contributed £20 towards the
expense, the Corporation ordered that the remainder should
be levied upon the inhabitants, Avho seem to have been re
garded as a sort of inexhaustible milch coav. (They were
now, by the way, paying a new contribution of over
£1,000 a year for the relief of maimed soldiers and various
military needs.) A second jiinnace Avas aftenvards manned,
under a similar promise of assistance from AVinter, Avhich,
as in tho previous case, he entirely failed to fulfil. In
February, 1645, the Corporation, who had borne all the
outlay, informed him that if his moiety was not forthcom
ing, the city Avould bear no further charge. Though no
thing Avas receiAred, the King insisted that the ships should
be kept at sea ; but in July the Councd resolved that in
consequence of other excessive burdens on the ratepayers
the charge could no longer be sustained.
The King, on December 22nd, 1643, granted a neAV
charter to the Society of Merchant Venturers. The patent
stated that " in consideration that the merchants of Bristol
have expressed their loyalty and fidelity to us in these late

188

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1643
times of differences, Avhen even the merchants of London,
Avho have enjoyed many more privileges and immunities,
have many of them traitorously rebelled against us," the
King had granted the Society the same rights of trade as
Avere possessed by the Russia and Turkey Companies of
London, and also freedom to trade to the Hanse Towns and
Denmark. OAving to the lack of current money, always hoarded in
troublous times, a large proportion of the contributions ex
tracted from local .householders on behalf of the royal cause
Avere presented in the shape of silver plate, the value of
Avhich Avas taken at about 4s. Ad. per ounce. In order to
turn this mass of treasure to account, a Mint Avas estab
lished in the Castle, and great quantities of half-crowns,
shillings, and sixpences, dated 1643, were put into circula
tion. Several varieties are preserved, most of them bearing
the mint mark BR. As plate continued to be offered in
lieu of money, the Mint Avas busily employed throughout
1644, groats and half-groats being added to the previous
pieces. In the early months of 1645, in addition to fresh
issues of half-croAvns and shillings, a number of sovereigns
and half-sovereigns Avere struck in gold, the metal having
doubtless been received in the shape of chains, etc., ten
dered in lieu of cash. Descriptions of most of the various
local specimens still in existence may be found in Henfrey's
Avell-known work on the English coinage. In addition to
these authorized coins, it Avould appear that vast numbers
of tokens were made in the city during the royalist occu
pation. According to a contemporary neAvs-sheet, quoted
by Mr. Henfrey, it Avas stated in the House of Commons
on September 13th, 1644, that the King's soldiers were for
the most part paid Avith Bristol farthing tokens, some of
Avhich had been secretly conveyed to London for conver
sion into money. These base pieces, alleged in a Round
head pamphlet to be made of " tinkers' metal," are supposed
to be represented by numerous coins dredged from time to
time out of the Floating Harbour. They are somewhat
larger than the modern silver threepence, and bear a crown
and two crossed sceptres instead of the royal head, but
have neither date nor mint mark.
The city was also indebted to the Royalists for the in
troduction of a printing-press. Out of about a dozen tracts
emanating from it Avhich have been preserved, the earliest
is entitled : — " The Association Agreement and Protestation
of the Counties of Cornwall and Devon. January 5, 1643

1644]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

189

[old style, really 1644]. Bristoll, Printed by Robert Barker
and John Bile [error for Bill] Printers to the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, Mnoxniii." The latest of these pam
phlets is : — " A Letter from the Earl of Essex to his High
ness Prince Rupert," dated 1645. All of them are of course
in support of the Royalist cause. The King's Printers left
the city on the entry of Fairfax and Cromwell, and it was
not until half a century later that a local printing-press
was definitely established. .
A document amongst the State Papers for 1644 indicates
how the Bristol and other mints were kept provided Avith
raw material. It is a writ of Privy Seal under the sign
manual, dated February 14th, 1644, and directed to Wil
liam Wyatt, merchant, Bristol, setting forth that as the
Parliament at Oxford had approved of the speedy raising
of £100,000 for the royal defence, and had subscribed a
large jiortion of that sum, the King hoped that the re
mainder would be made up by loyal subjects, and therefore
required Wyatt to subscribe £20 in money or that value in
plate. Appended to the mandate is a memorandum, signed
by Francis Creswick, Sheriff, to the effect that Wyatt had
brought in eighty ounces of " touched " plate, value £20.
Similar extortions were largely practised in other towns
where the Cavaliers were predominant.
The above reference to the mock Parliament at Oxford
recalls attention to the somewhat equivocal position of the
representatives of Bristol. Serjeant Glanville seems to
have effaced himself from the time of his election, and
received no " wages " from the Corporation ; but. so long-
as the city Avas in Puritan hands, Alderman Taylor re
mained at Westminster, and, as has been sIioavii, lent and
jrromisocl pecuniary help to the Parliamentary cause. The
entry of Prince Rupert greatly altered his position. Hav
ing his property and business in tho city, he could not
have remained in the House of Commons Avithout being
jiersonally ruined, and, like many others subjected to the
same peril, he repaired to Oxford, repudiated the assembly
he had deserted (Avhich declared him "disabled"), and
thenceforth conducted himself as a supporter of theKing.
The change of front is noted in the corporate accounts for
1644 without remark:— "Paid Alderman Taylor, charges as
burgess at London and Oxford, £10." A few months later
he received £160 more, in addition to £60 previously paid
as salary whilst sitting at Westminster.
Though direct evidence is wanting, it is certain that

100

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1644
the royal officers had not been long in possession of the
city before they felt the urgent necessity of strengthening
the fortifications, and thus securing against such a mishap
as had befallen their opponents. Whatever may have been
the date at Avhich the additional works Avere commenced
a corporate minute of March, 1644, shoAvs that they were
then m full operation, tivo members of the Council beino-
ordered to ride round and view the works every afternoon
and encourage the Avorkmen. ''Entries of a month's later
date sIioav that money Avas collected in advance from the
inhabitants every six Aveeks for the payment of the
labourers, and that those unable to bear the burden Avere
required to send an able man, avIio was to Avork from six
a.m. to six p.m., save two hours at midday. Mr. Thomas
Colston Avas then engaged in extending and strengthening
the redoubt at KmgsdoAvn that Avas afterAvards knoAvn by
his name, and the Council undertook to refund him all his
disbursements. The most important extensions, however
were on the summit of St. Michael's Hill, where the little
Windmill Fort had been constructed tAvo years before
Ihe royal engineers resolved on converting this place into
a great pentagonal fortress, almost deserving the name
of a citadel, styled the Royal Fort, deeply entrenched
mounted with twenty-tAvo guns, and provided Avith maga
zines, barracks, and other military buildings. The city
being unable to furnish the extra number of labourers
needed for the completion of this stronghold with the
rapidity Avhich the course of the Avar rendered urgent
workmen were drafted by force from the surrounding
country, the inhabitants of Avhich were also required to
contribute to the cost of maintaining the garrison. One
of the Avarrants for labourers, dated June 15th,transmitted
to the head constables of Grumboldsash hundred, Glouces
tershire, many parishes of which are fifteen miles from
Bristol, is amongst the State Papers. It requires the
sending in of sixty able men for a " few days," provided
Avith good shovels and pickaxes, their wages being dto-
mised out of the monthly contributions levied on the hun
dred. Larger contingents would be available from the more
populous hundreds surrounding the city, but eA^en six
months later £219 per week were still being expended
upon the fortifications generally. The permanent military
establishment had then been settled. The garrison was
fixed at three, regiments of infantry (3,600 men), tho main
tenance of Avhich cost £834 a Aveek ; a regiment of cavalry,

1644]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

191

420 strong, costing weekly £352 ; the Prince's troop, 200
men, requiring £121, and about 60 gunners, receiving £38.
The Governor's salary is not stated, but £21 Aveekly were
apportioned to the Lieutenant-Governor, £10 to the De
puty-Governor, £5 each to the Major and Petardier, and
minor sums to subordinates. Finally £350 a Aveek Avere
to be laid out for making arms and ammunition. With
the exception of £200 derived from the Customs, the Avhole
of this burden— £2,000 a week in round numbers— Avas
arbitrarily levied upon the householders of the district, the
hundreds of Somerset being compelled to pay £850, of
Wilts £500, of the loAver division of Gloucestershire £300
and Bristol £150. '
About the end of January, 1644, a body of about 1 500
Irish soldiers, under the command of Lord Inchiqttin and
" the great O'Niel," disembarked at Bristol for service in
the royal army. The fact ajipears to have been suppressed
by the Royalist news-sheets, the writers of which were
aAvare of the detestation with Avhich the " Papists " were
regarded by Englishmen generally, in consequence of the
Avholesale massacres of Irish Protestants. The Roundhead
scribes, on the other hand, made the most of the intelli
gence, adding that Mass was being openly celebrated in
five different places in the city, and that the neighbouring
counties Avere being pdlaged to support the "rebels"
About two months later, when these mercenaries had de
parted, three more shiploads of Irish arrived, but the pilots
at Pill rose in mutiny, and refused to alloAV the A-essels to
come up the river ; Avhereupon Alderman Hooke called a
meeting of about sixty leading citizens, who approved of
the pilots' action, and Avarned the Deputy-Governor that
an attempt to force the hated hirelings on the city Avould
lead to an insurrection of the trained bands, and possibly
to a general revolt. The Deputy-G overnor then prudently
ordered the ships to land the troopers at Bridgwater.
Although our local historians have OA'erlooked the inci
dent, the corporate records bear witness that Queen Henri
etta Maria spent a night or tAvo in the city in April 1644
She Avas lodged in the Great House at St. Augustine's' Back'
which must have been scantily furnished, for beds Avere
borrowed from the landlord of the Red Lion inn who
seems to have received nothing for the loan. On Anril
23rd the Council resolved that £500 should be " freelv
bestowed" on Her Majesty, hoping that she would
"graciously accept it as a token of their love" One

192

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1644
fourth of the amount was to be paid by the Chamber ; the
remainder was ordered to be forthwith " imposed on the
inhabitants," Avhose experiences of such " benevolences "
must by this time have been painful. Some trouble was
found in raising the money, for Mr. John Gonning lent £40
to complete the sum. The present, being in silver, was a
bulky one, and ten bags, costing 2s. 8d., were required to
transport it. The Queen then disappears into black night.
Lord Hopton, who had been^absent from his post for some
time, returned about the middle of May, after having been
defeated by Sir William Waller in Hampshire, and appears
to have apprehended an early investment of the city.
Doubtless at his request, the Council, on May 21st, resolved
that the trained band should be increased to 1,000 men.
This and other expenses for defensive purposes neces
sitating an outlay of £1,000, it Avas determined that the
Chamber should become security for the loan, but that the
money should, at a conArenient season, be levied upon the
inhabitants. It was further decided that, as much jirevious
expenditure imposed on the citizens had been only partially
recovered, the Mayor and Aldermen should issue warrants
for the collection of the arrears, and that persons refusing
to pay should have their goods distrained, or be committed
to NeAvgate till the money was forthcoming. Constables
and churchwardens remiss in carrying out this order were
also to be sent to prison. To make further provision for
defence, it Avas determined on June 5th that Bristol should
enter into an Association wdth the counties of Somerset,
Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, in conformity with a proposal
to that effect brought by Sir Edward Rodney from the
central committee at Exeter. It will presently be seen that
this step plunged the Corporation into fresh financial
embarrassment. On September 20th the Council received
an urgent letter from Lord Hopton's deputy, Sir Francis
HaAvley, for help to finish the Royal Fort, which he Avas
unable to accomplish through lack of means. The civic
treasury being emjity, the Mayor and Mayor-elect were
requested to become security for £200, borrowed to furnish
the needful assistance, the Chamber undertaking to save
them harmless. By this time the royal cause was evidently
becoming desperate. Amongst the many interesting docu
ments in the collection of the late Mr. Sholto Hare, now in
the jiossession of Mr. Fenton Miles, is a letter from Sir
Francis Haivley to Prince Rupert, dated November 22nd,
stating that, many of the Bristol auxiliaries had rttu away,

1644]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

193

and begging for an order to impress 1,000 men. Shortly
atterivards, the Corporation raised a loan of £400 at 8 per
cont., and sent half tho money to Hawley, then become a peer,
tOAyards his expenses in entertaining Prince Rupert, who
had just passed through the city, after his defeat at Mars-
ton Moor, to join the King at Chard. The needs of the
snips ot Avar at Kingroad were next pressed upon the
S/Jr-n11,0 Pr°mised £160> but for a time could raise
only <tju. Under these painful difficulties the salary of the
Mayor was suspended, as was that of the Recorder, who
ceased to exercise his functions after 1642, gaol deliveries
bemg abandoned. b
fn;?^ *r the distracted state of the country, the great
lair at St. James's tide was not held in 1614. The suspen-
3l tF1r1 th° Sheriffs of their customary receipts from
booths and standings, and the Council voted them £50 " in
mdtted ?L f '"I gl'eat l°SS" Man^ Persons> t00' had
o "£2fi»o ?C1^™g houses uninhabited, and upwards
" ufterly lost" Corporation were reported as
iiiSr011^1'!? September 30th, deliberated
upon a letter just received from the King, renuirimr a nro
vision of 1,500 pairs of shoes and stockfAgsX hfs arLy.
There being no other meang Qf m S 3g
n^the1 'bat tIlG r6S l6Vy on householders for intaT-
ng the garrison should be doubled for a month. Another
resolution passed at the same meeting shows that orders
it we'el-s t Td7 SrnuL°r d0"WhigSthat imposition for
nonev td otl1^ ^ PnnC6 Eu^ert'S firelc°ks- frigate
money, and other necessary occasions." The condition of
Sx ru *^do*thr eternal exactions 1Mst W be-
pitiable Nevertheless, on October 8th, the Chamber
received another mandate from tho King/re brh ~ t to
assist the Somerset Committee with a lottn for the p^ment
of the royal army. This order had been sent Ch
Lord Hopton, who coolly " propounded " that £2,000 shoul
be advanced in ready money, and £1,000 spent in Zvidint

194

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

| 1644

to raise the money on their personal credit. The King's
necessities being in no degree mitigated, he sent down
another mandate in February, 1645, requiring £1,500 more
to be provided for his troops in Somerset. He had, Iioav-
ever, so thoroughly exhausted the city that the Council
frankly made answer that, in vieAV of the increasing debts
of the Corporation, the demand could not be complied
with. In or about December, the "construction of the Royal
Fort Avas at length completed, to the great relief of the
labouring population that had been driven in to work upon
it. On January 7th, 1645, the Council ordered a re-assess-
mciit of the citizens, and, in accordance Avith the King's
requirements, increased the weekly rate for supporting the
garrison from £100 to £150, but discontinued the tax for
the fortifications.
Early in March, 1645, the Prince of Wales, who, although
under fifteen years of age, had been appointed General of
the Association of the four Western counties, arrived in
Bristol, accompanied l>y Lord Capel, Sir EdAvard Hyde, Sir
John Culpepper, and others, Avho had been nominated as
his Council. Lord Hopton had previously solicited the
assistance of the Corporation in receiving this little Court,
Avhich Avas accommodated in the Great House, St. Augus
tine's, and four hogsheads of wine, Avith coal and avoocI,
Avere forthwith pnreided (on credit), aud consigned to the
cellars. The house being unfurnished, the Chamber further
resolved that Avhosoever Avould lend furniture, bedding, etc.,
should have the guarantee of the Corporation for the return
of their goods undamaged, whereupon, it is recorded, five
Councdlors each undertook to send in a feather bed, mat
tress, bolster, two pilloAVS Avith pillow bearers (cases), a pair
of sheets and a pair of blankets. The Corporation fur
nished a service of peAvter for the royal table at a cost of
£19. Some of the Prince's party Avere lodged in the
Bishop's palace, for Avhich furniture Avas also required. A
feAV days later the Common Council determined to present
the royal visitor Avith £500, Avhich Avere to bo raised " out of
band" by collecting "3s. and upAvards" from the house
holders. Only £430 being obtained in this way, the
Chamberlain contrived to make up the remainder, and five
bags, costing Is. 8d., Avere purchased to convey the gift,
Avhich Avas doubtless most acceptable. The juvenile
General found the Royalists in complete confusion. The
Association, on Avhich high hopes had been founded, Avas

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUliY.

1 U5

still in embryo. The county of Somerset, Avhich had pro
fessed much, had performed nothing; the £10* > a Aveek
promised for the Prince's support were not forthcoming ;
not a man or a horse had been raised ; and the county
gentry were spending their time in squabbling amongst
themselves. An alarming discovery had moreover been made
through some intercepted letters, shoAving that Sir AVilliam
Waller, then at Taunton, Avas contemplating an advance
on Bristol, and had friends there eager to support him ; but
the disclosure of the design led to the flight of the local
conspirators, and the, adjournment of Waller's advance. Of
course there was the chronic lack of money. On April 3rd
the Corporation received a demand from the Prince's
Council "to make good about £400 for the garrison,"
Avhich, adds the minute, Avas "jiretended to be in arrears."
Remonstrance being futile, the collectors Avere ordered to
get in funds Avith all expedition. The money Avas really
Avanted to victual the Royal Fort and the Castle, to Avhich
the Chamberlain sent large supplies, including nearly
12,000 gallons of beer, costing £81. About the middle of
the month the Prince repaired for a feAV days to Bridg-
Avater, Avhere an attempt was made, with little success, to
set the royal cause on a better footing. Before May loth
his Royal Highness had "propounded" to the Court of
Aldermen the loan of £400, promising to alloAV it out of
the " arrears " of the inhabitants, Avhich were alleged to be
" very great " ; but the Common Council, Avho had heard
too much of these imaginary liabilities, " humbly con
ceived " there were no arrears at all, and desired the
magistrates to say so in a " meet " manner. An attempt
to extract more money on behalf of the phantom Associ
ation Avas dealt Avith in a similar manner ; but a charge of
£548 for coals and candles for tho guard-rooms during the
thirteen months ending May Avas jiaid Avithout apparent
protest. The horrors of pestilence Avere hoav to be added to those
of civil Avar. The Plague had made its appearance in the
jireviotts autumn, Avhen the Corporation hired Knowle
House, to Avhich Avere sent some infected people in the
Castle Precincts and other districts ; but the sickness Avas
not then serious, and there is no further reference to the,
subject until April. Tho Council then assessed a fortnight's
contribution for the relief of sufferers, and appointed a, com
mittee to assist the aldermen in their respectiA'e Avards. A
Pest House Avasnext established, to Avhich those suspected of

106

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1645
the disease Avere sent, with orders to remain for thirty days.
This place of detention consisted of nineteen huts, specially
built for the purpose, and large numbers of poor patients-
Avere consigned there " in great Avant and necessity," in
spite of loans taken up for their assistance. One of these
loans, for £100, advanced by Alderman Farmer, remained
OAving for thirteen years OAving to the penury of the Corpor
ation. The mortality from the epidemic reached an alarm
ing height about the middle of'may. Sir John Culpepper,
writing to Lord Digby on the 18th, says: — "The sickness
increases fearfully. There died this Aveek according to the
proportion of 1500 in London. Thereupon the Prince is re
solved to remove upon Monday to Bath." No trustworthy sta
tistics as to the ravages of the pestilence are to be found in
the Calendars ; but one of them asserts, perhaps from guess
work, that there, were about 3,000 victims. One fifth of the
trained-band auxiliaries are reported to have disappeared,
but this may have beeu due partly to the want of employ
ment, aud partly to the desperate state of the royal cause.
The mortality began to decline about the end of September,
but there Avere 81 victims in the week ending September
23rd, and 32 in the Aveek ending October 28th. There was
another, but brief, outbreak in the following spring. In
connection Avith this Ausitation a brief reference may be
made to a tract entitled " A brief Treatise of the Nature
... of the Pestilence," by William Kemp, M.A. (a native
of Bristol), a copy of Avhich is in the British Museum. A
fashion had become prevalent amongst Royalist ladies to-
Avear small black patches, styled beauty spots, on their faces,
Avhereupon one of the King's chaplains in Bristol preached an
objurgatory sermon, Avarning his feminine hearers that these
so-called ornaments Avere forerunners of other and more
deadly spots (the Plague), which soon after broke out, and
drove all the patched women out of the city. Fashion,
hoAvever, AAras proof against either diseases or sermons, and
beauty sjiots Avere still in vogue in the reign of George I.
If dread of the deadly scourge declined during the autumn
months, the jirosjiect of an early and sanguinary conflict of
the opposing annies for the possession of the city must
haA*e daily grown more terrible. After the crushing defeat
of the royal forces at Naseby in the middle of June, Prince
Rupert retreated to Bristol, and made preparations against
the obvious intentions of Parliament and the new modelled
Puritan army to recoA^er the second jjort in the kingdom.
The Prince Avas accompanied by a brilliant staff, and a body

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

1.97

of troops which must have brought up the garrison to an
effective strength of nearly 4,000 men, exclusive of the
auxiliaries, though Rupert afterAvards asserted that the
number did not exceed 2,300. The continuous labour and
expenditure of two years, under the supervision of a skilful
engineer, Sir Bernard de Gomme, had effected immense im
provements in the fortifications. Besides the Great Fort,
already described, Colston's strong redoubt on KingsdoAvn
had been erected and furnished Avith seven guns ; Prior's
Hill Fort had been converted into a lofty stronghold Avith
two tiers of loopholes and thirteen cannon ; the LaAvford's
¦Gate works had been enlarged; flanking redoubts for
musketry had been raised at intervals ; and the entire line
of defence had been made more formidable by the heighten
ing of the rampart, and the deejiening and widening of
the trench. Altogether, the number of cannon mounted
on the works reached 140. No exertions Avere spared to
¦complete the preparations against a siege. The inhabitants
were required to victual themselves for six months, and as
1,500 out of the 2,500 families remaining in the city Avere
too poor to comply Avith the order, all the cattle in the sur
rounding districts were driven within the Avails, and sup
plies of grain and other food Avere draAvn from Wales and
elsewhere to feed both the troops and the indigent. Writ
ing in high spirits to the King on August 12th, Rupert
undertook to hold the city for four mouths.
The Parliamentary generals did not give him a long re
spite. On July 11th, after having routed the royal army
under Goring, near Langport, Sir Thomas Fairfax sur
rounded BridgAvater, which, after a gallant defence, capitu
lated cm the 25th. Bath Avas taken with little difficulty,
and Sherborne Castle Avas captured by storm on August
15th. Bristol thus became, the only important Royalist
stronghold in the district, ; and its reduction being an indis
pensable preliminary to the suppression of the war in the
West, a rapid advance toAvards it Avas ordered, and Fairfax's
army reached Chew Magna and Hanham on the 20th. The
weather being extremely unfavourable, Rupert, to distress
his assailants, ordered all the villages around the city to be
destroyed. Bedminster, Clifton, aud part of Westbury were
accordingly burned to the ground ; but Hanham, Keynsham,
and Stapleton were saved by detached squadrons of the
enemy. Fairfax, after careful reconnoitring on the 21st
and 22nd, fixed his headquarters on the 23rd at Stoke House,
fetapleton, the seat of a cadet branch of the Berkeleys By

108

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[1645
that date orders had been given for the posting of tho
Puritan regiments around the works, especial attention
being given to Prior's Hill Fort, Avhich Avas regarded as tho
key of the Avhole ; and Fairfax considered the place of such
vital importance that he removed his headquarters to a
bumble farmhouse on the western broAv of Ashley Doavii,
since knoAvn as Montpelier farm, near Avhich a battery Avas
thiwn ^ up to support the attack on the opposite fort.
Fairfax's practice of paying ready money for all that his
troops consumed soon had a great effect on the country
people, who had been mercilessly plundered by Goring and
other Royalist, officers, and supplies of provisions were cheer
fully furnished. Public feeling in the rural districts Avas
further stirred by the eloquence of Hugh Peters, Crom
well's chaplaiu, avIio boasted that by one sermon in Somerset
he Avon over to the Puritan host 3,000 " clubmen " (who had
armed to defend their property from the, raids of both
camps), aud that a similar discourse brought in 2,000 more
from Gloucestershire. Vast numbers did, in fact, come for
ward from both counties, and proved useful in keeping open
RoAvnham Ferry, excavating batteries, etc. Hopes Avere
also entertained that the " well affected " Bristolians Avould
make a vigorous effort to promote their own deliverance,
but, probably from the vigilance of the garrison, "their
goodaffection." CroniAvell Avrote, " did not ansAver expecta
tion." (The Gloucestershire auxiliaries, according to " The
True Informer " of September 20th, were led by Sir John
Seymour, of Bitton, Mr. Johu Codrington, of Codrington,
Mr. Stevens, and Philip Langley, of Mangotsfield.) Prince
Rupert shoAved characteristic energy whilst the investment
Avas proceeding. On August 23rd, during heavy firing from
the Royal Fort and Prior's Hill, a cavalry sally Avas made
from the former, but was soon repulsed, Sir Richard Crane
being mortally Avounded. On Sunday, the 24th, the Royal-
itss rushed from the sallyport at Stokes Croft, some horse
being supported by infantry, but Avere again driven back
Avith loss. At dawn on the 26th, a fresh outbreak was
made, this time from Temple Gate, against the forces
stationed near Bedminster, when tAventy of the besiegers
Avere killed or taken prisoners ; but later iu the day the
Royalists lost Sir Bernard Ashley, who Avas captured mor
tally Avounded. A fourth and Avholly fruitless sally took
place at Lawford's Gate ou the evening of the 27th. Next
day the Prince: proffered ten prisoners in exchange for Sir
B. Ashley, but his proposal Avas rejected. During this day

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

10!>

1645]the fort at Portishead Point, with seven guns, after a siege
of four days, surrendered, and five of the Parliament's war
ships Avere thus enabled to enter Kingroad and blockade the
Avon. On the 29th, which was devoted by the besiegers to
prayer and fasting, a fifth sally was made at LaAvford's
Gate, but resulted only in the capture of three or four
Roundheads. Intelligence also reached the Puritan generals
that the King was moving Avestwards, in the apparent hope
of raising the siege in co-operation with Goring, Avho Avas
advancing from Exeter; but, although the situation Avas
admitted to be critical, it Avas resolved to continue the in
vestment. On the 31st, Fairfax Avas cheered by the arrival
of the Parliamentary Admiral from Kingroad, Avho offered
the assistance of his seamen in the impending attack. On
Sejitember 1st, a Avet and murky day, Prince Rupert made
a sixth and final sally from the Royal Fort, Avith 1,000
horse and 600 infantry ; but the effort was as ineffectual ns
its forerunners, only one Puritan officer being killed, but
Colonel Okey, of the Roundhead dragoons, lost his way in
the mist and was captured. Rain having fallen for several
successive clays, the besiegers were hoav suffering severely
from the saturated state of the ground. On the 2nd Fairfax
held a Council of War, when it was felt that a regular
blockade Avould be tedious as well as distressing, and might
possibly be perilous ; aud it Avas resolved to effect a capture
by storm whilst there was no enemy in the rear. The pre
parations for the enterprise were completed on the folloiving
clay. Colonel Weldon's four regiments of foot and three of
horse Avere ordered to assail the formidable southern ram
parts. Three " forlorn hopes " of 200 men each Avere to lead
tho storm in different places. Montagu's brigade— four in
fantry and two cavalry regiments — proud of their great
deeds at Naseby, Avere directed to attack the rampart ou
both sides of Lawford's Gate. To the A-eteran brigade of
Rainsboroiigh, comprising four foot regiments and one of
horse, Avas reserved the most important task of all— the con
quest of Prior's Hill Fort, commanding the greater part of
the long line of entrenchments. Colonel Pride Avas to occupy
the attention of the Royal Fort. Okey's dragoons were to
feign an advance toAvards "Washington's breach," which
the Royalists had taken care to render practically unas
sailable. Three cavalry regiments under FleetAvood were
to bo posted ou Durdham Doavii to act as necessity should
arise, and the sailors coining up by boats Avere to attack
Water hort. Upwards of 2,000 countrymen, brought up

200

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1645

by Sir John Seymour on the 4th, with twelve companies
more that came m on the 5th, added somewhat to the im
pressive appearance of the besieging forces.
Preparations being now complete, a summons to surrender
was forwarded on the 4th by Sir Thomas Fairfax to Prince
Kupert, earnestly desiring him to avoid bloodshed. If, said
bir Ihomas through wilfulness, a great, famous and ancient
city tull of people, be exposed to ruin, " I appeal to the
righteous God to be judge between you and us, and to re
quite the wrong." A personal appeal followed to the son of
the Eleetress Palatine :—" Let all England judge whether
the burning of its towns, ruining its cities, and destroying
its people be a good requital from a person of your family,
which hath had the prayers, tears, purses and blood of its
Parliament and people." As it Avas reported that Rupert
had threatened to hang any one who brought in a demand
to capitulate, the trumpeter charged with this missive must
have been a courageous man. He got safely to his destina
tion however, and the Prince, opening the letter, cried,
God damn me ! 'tis a summons," and called for a cup of
sack. The trumpeter Avas detained until the 5th, Avhen he
brought back a request from the Prince to be allowed to
communicate with the King. This being refused, Rupert
again held back the messenger for a day, and then returned
him bearing an offer of surrender providing, amongst other
things, that the Royalists Avere allowed to depart with all
the honours of Avar, carrying off their cannon and ammuni
tion, and that the fortifications be immediately destroyed.
Fairfax responded by naming three of his generals to confer
with the Prince on the terms of a treaty to be signed that
night. After another delay, Rupert demanded that tho
objections to his proposals should be stated in writing ; and
Avhen Fairfax, on the 8th, complied Avith this request, the
royal general succeeded in delaying his reply until the
evening of the 9th, Avhen it Avas found to be as evasive as
before. Feeling at last that he Avas being trifled Avith, and
that Rupert Avas gaining time merely to strengthen the
defences, Fairfax gave orders for the assault, at which, it is
asserted, his soldiers "leaped for joy."
About two o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, Sep
tember 10th, the signal for attack was given from the
battery on Ashley Hill, and by the firing of a great heap of
straw, the blaze of which Avas everyAvhere visible. Mon
tagu's brigade more, than maintained its high reputation.
Surmounting the rampart near LaAvford's Gate, that posi-

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

201

tion Avas assailed in every direction, and after a short
resistance Avas captured, Avith many prisoners and tiventy-
two guns ; the ditch, about seven feet Avide and five deep,
Avas bridged ; and Bethell's and DesbroAve's horse, dashing
down the Old Market, forced the great gate of the Castle
after a fierce fight, in which Bethell Avas mortally wounded.
Sir Hardress Waller's men, accompanied by Fairfax's regi
ment, had in the meantime carried the rampart between the
Avon and Lawford's Gate, Avhere the defences Avere Aveaker,
and joined hands Avith Montagu. The 'sallyport at Stokes
Croft simultaneously yielded to Hammond, Avhile Skippon
and Birch's troops carried the works between the Croft and
LaAvford's Gate. But a desperate resistance Avas made
against Rainsborough's attack, Avith three regiments, on
Prior's Hill Fort. For nearly three hours, mostly in pro
found darkness, the assailants vainly strove to gain a foot-
nig on the parapet, the top of which Avas hardly touched by
ladders of thirty rungs ; and a deadly fire of balls and case
shot Avas all the Avhile plied from the cannon on the summit
aided by musketry from the portholes. At length some oi
the men that had taken Stokes Croft climbed the hill on
the inside of the rampart, and attacked the fort at its
Aveakest point, whilst other assailants succeeded in forcing
their Avay through the upper portholes and seizing the
royal standard. After struggling some time longer, pike
against pike, the garrison were forced to retreat below
where, owing to the exasperation of the victors, Avhose early
offer of quarter had been rejected, most of the Royalists
Avere put to the sAvord, a feAV only being saved by the
personal exertions of Rainsborongh and Hammond. The
struggle Avas over before sunrise. The Puritans Avould
almost certainly have been defeated if the attack had been
postponed until daylight, for tho fort was fully commanded
by the guns of Royal Fort and Colston's Mount.
The Roundhead assaults on the Somerset side of the forti
fications were as unsuccessful as those of the Cavaliers in
1613, and for the same reasons. There Avas no lack of zeal
and gallantry; but the Avail was so lofty and the ditch so
deep that the longest scaling ladders did not reach the
parapet, and proved mere death-traps to those who strove
to mount. Water Fort was captured for a time, with its
little garrison of Welshmen, but when the tide ebbed the
victors, open to the fire of Brandon Hill Fort, found it
expedient to withdraw. The attacks on Brandon Hill and
.ttoyal and Colston's Forts were mere feints, the chief object

202

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1645
of the Puritan officers in that direction being to prevent the
escape of any royal cavalry towards the Severn.
Two incidents of the day are Avorthy of mention. Soon
after the capture of Prior's Hill Fort, Avhilst Fairfax
and his great lieutenant, Cromwell, Avere vieAving the city
from the parapet, a cannon shot from the Castle grazed the
wall within two hand breadths of them, but left them un
injured. Amongst, tho Cavaliers slain in that fort was a
young ollieer mimed Pngsley, who had just been married,
and who, by Fairfax's orders, Avas buried in an adjoining
field Avith military honours. His widoAv survived him for
no less than sixty years. On her death, in 1705, she was,
in accordance Avith her dying request, buried by the side of
her husband in her Avedding dress, without a coffin, but
with girls streAving fioAvers and musicians playing merrily
as her body Avas borne to the grave.
In despite of the successes of the besiegers, Prince Rupert's
position remained a strong one. He still held four great
forts and the old Castle on the northern side of the Avon,
Avith all the ancient inner defences ; he was undisputed
master of the parishes south of the Bridge, and his store of
provisions and ammunition would have sufficed to maintain
a lengthened resistance. Desperation, however, seems to
have taken possession of his followers, who recklessly set
fire to the city in three different places, to the grief and
alarm of Fairfax and his generals. About four hours after
the loss of Prior's Hill Fort, the royal commander, who
seems to have suddenly lost his nerve, made voluntary pro-
jiosals for a surrender, and commissioners were ajipointed
on each side to arrange details. At this critical moment
something occurred Avhich Avas kept secret at the time, and
Avill jirobably ahvays remain a mystery. Alderman Hooke,
Mayor in the jireviotts year, a man of dubious principles, as
previous notes bear Avitness, had posed as a zealous Cavalier
during the Royalist occupation, but thought this a desir
able opportunity to seek the favour of his previous friends.
At all events, to use Cromwell's expression some years after-
Avards, he did " something considerable " in support of the
Puritans, for which Sir Thomas Fairfax engaged that he
and his jiroperty should be as free as before the war. In.
1050, when Hooke Avas threatened by the Compounding
Commissioners v/ith a heavy fine, for " delinquency," the
Alderman urged this pledge upon Cromwell, and the latter
stayed the hands of the spoilers, informing them that
Hooke's proceeding Avas " for many reasons desired to be

1615]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

203

concealed." Before entering into negotiations, Fairfax, fear
ing tho destruction of the city, insisted that the garrison
should extinguish the fires, and this Avas complied Avith.
Deputies ivore then sent in to draAvup a treaty of surrender,
which was concluded in the evening. The Prince, his
officers, and other gentlemen Avere permitted to leave Avith
their horses, arms, and baggage ; the soldiers Avith their
swords. Rupert Avas also alloAved a coiwoy to guard him
against the country people, tho "clubmen," Avho detested
him for the cruelties he had permitted, and threatened
revenge. The sick and Avounded left in the city Avere to be
sent to the King on their recovery. In return, Bristol Avas
to be surrendered at noon, next day, and the Puritan
prisoners were to be liberated. On Thursday, September
11th, the young Prince, splendidly clad in scarlet and silver,
and mounted on a gallant steed, left the Royal Fort, fol-
loAved by the distinguished party of lords, ladies, and
gentlemen that had taken refuge there. As a mute but
eloquent reproach on the ruffianly outrages committed on
Fiennes and his companions under a similar misfortune, Sir
Thomas Fairfax escorted Rupert and his friends for tAvo
miles over Durdham Down, and lent him 1,000 muskets
(most of Avhich Avere never returned) for jirotectiou against
the infuriated peasantry. The King's jiriuters,- Avith their
printing-press, were alloAved to depart for Exeter. Even
the malignant pamphleteers of Oxford Avere not able to
adduce a single charge of pillage or ill-treatment on the
jiart of the conquerors. The stores left hy the Royalists
slmwed the vastness of their preparations for defence, made
at tho cost of the city and district. The mounted cannon
numbered 140, Avith 3,000 muskets, and an ample supply of
ammunition. The Royal Fort contained nearly eleven
months' provisions for 150 men, and about half that quan
tity Avas found in tho Castle. The victory cost the lives of
200 Puritans, 400 more being Avounded.
A few hours after the departure of the Cavaliers, Fairfax,
accompanied by his Lieutenant- General, Cronrwell, about
Avhom the narrators of the storming maintain a singular
silence, removed his headquarters into Bristol, and was
shocked at the condition of the toivn. " It looked," wrote
Sprigge, the ablest of the reporters, " more like a prison than a
city, and the people more like prisoners than citizens ; being
brought so Ioav with taxations, so poor in habit, and so
dejected in countenance; the streets so noisome, and the
houses so nasty as that they were unfit to receive friends till

204

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1645

they Avere cleansed." The Plague was still raging, but
CroniAvell, in his historical letter to Parliament (given at
length by Carlyle and Seyer), stated that, so far as he could
learn, the army, though quartered in infected places, had
lost only one man from the scourge. As it would have been
foolhardy to incur useless danger, Fairfax soon departed
Avith all his forces, except the regiment of General Philip
Skippon, a valorous and high-ininded Puritan. So early as
September 15th tho House of Commons Avas petitioned by
several exiled citizens to appoint Skippon as Governor, and
Fairfax, by tho advice of the House, complied Avith the
request. On September 17th, Parliament ordered a national
Thanksgiving for the victory ; and during the services
collections Avere requested to be taken for the relief of the
"many distressed and plundered people of Bristol" Avho
had taken refuge in London during the Royalist occujia-
tion. Sir Thomas Fairfax, either before or soon after his
-.departure, was presented by the Common Council Avith tAvo
pipes of Avine, the political sentiments of the body having
changed Avith marvellous celerity.
On receiving intelligence of the overwhelming disaster,
Charles I., as Avas but natural, Avas bitterly incensed at the
hasty submission of his nepheAV, whom he loaded Avith
reproaches for the non-fulfilment of his promise, only a few
Aveeks old, to hold out for four months, and concluded by
dismissing the Prince from the army and ordering him to
leave the kingdom. Rupert, hoAvever, though reviled Avith
cries of " traitor " by the soldiery at Oxford, followed the
King to Newark, where he treated his uncle with gross dis
respect, abetted some mutinous officers, and insisted upon
an inquiry into his conduct, Avhich resulted on his being
acquitted of all but indiscretion. His Majesty _ seems to
have eventually come round to the same conclusion. In a
letter to Prince Maurice, the King expressed his confidence
that " this great error proceeded not from change of affec
tion, but merely by having his [Rupert's] judgment seduced
by some rotten-hearted villains "—a remark which deserves
to be considered in conjunction with the Hooke mystery.
It must be added that a " declaration " — really an apology —
written by Rupert, and published about this time, does no
credit to his reputation, his assertions as to the weakness of
the fortifications and the feeble strength of the garrison
being disproved by incontrovertible facts, adduced by Royal
ist writers. Perhaps his most daring contention was, that
the Royal Fort Avas untenable because it was commanded by

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

20r

Brandon Hill, where the works were but a fifth the size of
the great pentagon. The assertion was false, and would
have been frivolous if true, for both the strongholds were
occupied by his soldiers. It is almost needless to add that
the inglorious failure of the Prince threw Fiennes and his
friends into transports of exultation, and a comparison
between the action of the inexperienced lawyer and that of
the much-vaunted general Avas certainly all in favour of
the civilian.
A slight deviation from chronological order has been
made to complete the story of the siege, which may be said
to have sealed the doom of the royal cause. Attention
must now be drawn to the proceedings of the civic Council.
On September 3rd, when the siege was far advanced, the
Royalist majority resolved to contribute to relieve necessi
tous members of the trained bands and other auxiliaries,
lists of whom Avere to be brought in by the tAvo colonels,
Taylor and Colston. (Colonel Taylor, whose chequered
career has been already refereed to, Avas killed during the
storm, a week later.) On the 5th, a proposition was received
from Prince Rupert, proffering to refrain from demanding
free quarters for his troops on condition of being paid £801 >.
This being accepted, the money was ordered to be raised in
a someAvhat extraordinary manner. It Avas determined that
a quantity of Avine, ginger, cochineal, etc., lying in store
(doubtless the property of strangers), should be compulsorily
sold to the inhabitants. "Those that Avill not take some
reasonable proportion, being able, and not doing duty in
person on the lines, shall pay as much weekly as they are
.ratod at for free quarters." Whether this resolution was
or Avas not carried out before the surrender took place
cannot bo discovered. On September 15th, when the
Puritan victors were in possession, the Council, before pro
ceeding to the annual elections, desired to know Fairfax's
wishes as to the iioav officials. As Sir Thomas declined to
interfere, and suggested that the ancient custom should be
observed, Alderman Francis CresAviek, a zealous Royalist,
Avas chosen chief magistrate. As a counterpoise, Richard
Vickris and Luke Hodges, tAvo noted Roundhead councillors
expelled in 1643, Avere reinstated in their places. Alderman
Hohvorthy, another ejected member, Avas readmitted to his
seat by order of Parliament. On October 2nd it Avas re
solved that £5,000 should be given as a " gratuity " to the
soldiers who had entered the city, the money to be raised,
partly by the sale of all the goods of strangers stored in the

206

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1645

Back Hall and elsewhere, partly by a tax on such strangers
as Avere iu the toivn at the surrender) and partly by a rate
on the inhabitants. Tavo days later, perhaps in alarm at the
attitude of the troops, the gratuity Avas increased to £6,000,
a motion to that effect being supported by Colonel Colston,
and carried by the easting vote of another ex-Royalist, the
Mayor. On November 12th it Avas reported to the Council
that as only one-fourth of the gift had been collected, the
military authorities had ordered the rate books to be
handed to them, in order that the soldiers might gather
in the money ; Avhereupon the Council, in a panic, prayed for
a brief respite, promising to bring in the gratuity Avith all
despatch. Money being very scarce, contributions Avere
largely made in silver plate, but it Avas not until February
that the total amount could be extracted from the city.
Whilst this matter Avas in progress, tAvo members of
Parliament deputed by the Commons to superintend local
affairs addressed some, letters respecting their mission to
the Speaker. These documents, Avhich have been disinterred
by the Historical MSS. Commission (Report XIII.), throAv a
flood of light upon the lamentable state of the city and neigh
bourhood. The Avriters, on October 8th, after observing that
the irregularities of the military had begotten much trouble,
refer to the immense destruction of provisions committed in
the country districts by roving bands of soldiers and club
men. The victimised people, avIio had previously been
ra\raged by the enemy, Avere noAv being eaten up by those
that had flocked to the siege, and Avould perish unless they
were relieved. " The city of Gloucester demands twenty-
four months contributions to the very Avails of this city,
and enforces it by driving the country and imprisoning,
beating and wounding such as resist." The writers had
especially complained of the treatment of Henbury hundred,
but the Gloucester committee resented their interference,
and continued the outrages. In Bristol, Avhere the Plague
was increasing, the inability of the Avriters to relieve, the
sick and Avounded begot daily mutinies and desertions, and
but for the gratuity raised for the troops ruin Avould have
fallen on the city from the soldiers' appetites. It had been
hoped that funds Avould be obtained from the wealth of the
enemy ; but the city Avas found to be a den of thieves, the
goods of escaped Royalists being claimed tinder jiretended
transfers or for jiretended debts. The citizens, moreover,
refused to buy such prize goods as had been found. In a
second letter, dated November 12th, the dejmties Avarmly

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

207

complain of the exaction of free quarters by the soldiers,
and the cruel pressure exercised in the country districts by
the Parliamentary committees of the two counties, avIio had
no regard for tho impoverished state of the people. The
Bristol garrison could not subsist Avithout help from the.
neighbouring hundreds, yet its maintenance Avas of great
concern owing to the public discontent. Complaint is also
made of the " crying down of the ryalls of eight," jjreviously
current for 4.s\ ba., but which the Customs and Excise
officers had refused to accept at any price. This stop to
trade, together Avith expected changes in the Corporation
and the orders for fining and sequestering certain citizens,
had put an end to all hopes of collecting the gratuity for
the soldiers. The Avriters wish for Governor Skippon 's
return (their letter is the only evidence of his absence), as
many officers Avere taking all they could lay hands on for
themselves. The letter concludes Avith some remarks on
religion Avhich dispose of the baseless statements of various
Royalist authors. The people, Avrote the deputies, Avere still
sitting in darkness OAving to the Avant of a godly ministry.
The collegiate (cathedral) men were still chanting out the
Common Prayer to the Avonted height, and no other dis
cipline Avas thought of in the parish churches, there, being
hardly three sermons on Sundays in the Avhole city.
The conduct of many members of the Corporation during
the Royalist occupation had not escaped attention at West
minster, and the Parliamentary leaders lost little, time in
determining upon extensive changes in the Common Council.
Ou October 28th an Ordinance Avas passed by both Houses
" for the better securing and government of Bristol," setting
forth that Aldermen CresAviek (Mayor), Hooke, Long, Wallis,
Jamos, and Thomas Colston, and Councillors Fitzherbert,
Henry CresAviek, William Colston, Cale, Bevan, Gregson,'
and Elbridge had been so disaffected to Parliament, and so
active in promoting the designs of the enemy, that their
continttance in the magistracy and Council Avould be in
consistent with the safety and welfare of the city. They
were therefore suspended, and threatened Avith prosecution
for their delinquency. Tho Ordinance next nominated John
Gonning, junior, as Mayor, and ordered the Sheriffs to
assemble the remaining members of the Council, who Avere
to proceed to the election of well-affected persons to supply
the vacancies created by the above dismissals ; but men
under imprisonment, or Avhose estates had been sequestered
by Parliament, Avere to be held as disqnaliefid.

20S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1645

The "something considerable " done a few weeks before
by Alderman Hooke was evidently unknown to the framers
of this decree. The favour sIioavu to John Gonning, avIio, if
the minute-books can be trusted, had been a Royalist, is one
of the puzzles of the time in reference to the conduct of some
prominent citizens. The only explanation of their Avavering
and inconsistencies seems to be that they had no settled
opinions as to the national issues then pending, and sought
to protect their personal interests by favouring Avhichever
jiarty got uppermost, and by deserting each in turn Avhen
the tide of fortune turned. On November 1st the Houses
ajipiwed of another Ordinance, requiring the reinstatement
in their former places of Alderman Richard Aldworth and
Messrs. Vickris and Hodges, " removed Avithout laAvf ul
cause," and of Avhose " great sufferings for being faithful
the Houses had ample testimony." (Vickris and Hodges, as
stated aboAre, had been already admitted.) OAving to the
absence of Governor Skippon, these mandates did not reach
the Council for several Aveeks. At length, on December
19th, they Avere presented by the General, Avho required them
to be read, Avith the effect of producing the following
characteristic minute : — " And all persons therein concerned
Avillingly submitted thereunto, and Francis CresAviek did
next day in the usual place deliver up his office, SAVord and
cap of maintenance unto Mr. John Gonning, who was there-
ttjxm savoi'u Mayor." As if to further attest their obedience,
the Council a. feAV clays later presented Governor Skippon
Avith a pipe of Canary and two hogsheads of claret.
No class of society in Bristol appears to have suffered so
much from the devastating effects of the Avar as did the
incumbents of the parochial churches. Nearly all the
livings being miserably endoAved, the clergy had been
accustomed to look for support to the yearly offerings of
their flocks. But Avhen the city became a garrison town,
and ceaseless impositions Avere extorted for military
jmrposes, the majority of householders greAV indisposed, and
many doubtless Avere rendered unable, to continue their
voluntary subscriptions. In consequence of representations
made at Westminster as to the poverty of the ministers, the
Houses, on No\'ember 28th, empowered their delegates in
Bristol to draw up a report, defining the number of churches
that Avould suffice for the population, uniting parishes where
it Avas thought desirable, and determining Iioav adequate
stipends could be jwovided for the reduced number of
incumbents, either by taxation of the inhabitants or by an

1645]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

209

allotment of part of the Dean and Chapter revenues. The
Journals of the two Houses are silent as to the result of this
order, but the Corporation will hereafter be found dealing
with the subject. In the meantime, the local Parliamentary
committee took action under a general Ordinance for the
removal of ill-affected ministers. Early in 1646 Messrs.
Towgood and Standfast, vicars of St. Nicholas and Christ
Church, Mr. Pierce, vicar of St. Philip's, and Mr. Brent,
vicar of Temple, were sequestered for " disaffection," which
then denoted loyalty, only a fifth of their incomes being
paid by Avay of indemnity to their Avives and children. The
Nonconformists who had taken flight on the entry of the
Royalists had returned soon after the recapture of the city,
but no longer lived in their former harmony. Many new
sects had arisen, doctrinal subtleties provoked disputes and
divisions, rivalries arose amongst the preachers, and meetings
called for prayer sometimes ended in angry confusion. The
founders of tho first Dissenting congregation (see p. 151) held
together, and for some time attended All Saints church to
hear the sermons of a Mr. Ingello, Avho at length was chosen
as their regular teacher. But Mr. Ingello, to the indignation
and grief of his followers, not only flaunted in gay apparel,
which was deemed absolutely sinful, but devoted much of
his time to profane music, his love of that art tempting him
to frequent the houses of various wealthy worldlings.
Proving incorrigible, the devotee of harmony was dismissed.
The Parliament, on December 3rd, passed an Ordinance
confirming General Skippon in the governorship of the city,
garrison, Castle, aud forts, and empowering him to execute
martial law. It was further decreed that, for the support
of the garrison and for necessary charges, a levy should be
mado of £3,000 per month for six months, of Avhich sum
£200 were to be raised in Bristol, £1,200 in Somerset, and
£800 each in Gloucestershire and Wilts. By another
Ordinance of the same date, £5,000 Avere to bo bestoAved for
"raising" the forces in Bristol, and for other necessary
services ; and it Avould appear that Major Samuel Kem
Avas employed by the Government to raise a regiment
amongst the inhabitants. Kem had been an army officer
under" Lord Denbigh, and, as Avas long customary in English
regiments, combined the functions of major and chaplain.
He was also for some time lecturer at St. Werburgh's, vice
the Rev. Richard Standfast. Certain writers of limited
knoAvledgo, Avho have treated of the Civil War, have branded
all the military preachers as uncultured fanatics. Kem,

210

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1645-46

hoAvever, like others, was an educated gentleman, and held the
degree of B.D. In a letter to Lord Denbigh, dated Decem
ber 19th, he refers with grief to the scandal caused in Bristol
by a schismatical lieutenant, who " daily preacheth in a
scarlet coat with sdver lace and with his sword by his side
. . . who holds the mortality of the soul." When called
to other services in 1646, Kem preached, and afterwards
printed, a farewell sermon to his Bristol regiment, in which
he referred with scorn to the prevalent " rabble of heresies,'*
and to " the subservieut actors for Scott t-Master-General
Self Ends," who Avere slaying more than had perished by
the sAVord.
On December 9th the House of Commons took into con
sideration the jietition of Richard Netheway, a Bristol
breiver, avIio made an urgent appeal for relief from the
distress to Avhich he had been reduced by the Royalists,
OAving to his affection for the Parliament. The enemy had,
he averred, burned down his valuable houses near the Pithay
Gate, and thereby ruined him. The Commons directed that
he should be giA^en £500 in money, and that their deputies
in Bristol should provide him with a house suitable for his
trade out of the estates of sequestered Royalists, and also
consider how £500 more should be raised in condensation
for his losses, which Avas done. Nothing more is heard of
NetheAvay for twenty years ; but in the State Papers for
1665 there is a petition from him to Charles II., affirming
that he was reduced to poverty through his fervent loyalty.
He had supplied Rupert's garrison Avith £120 worth of beer,
never paid for, and his house at Pithay Gate was burnt with
his consent, lest it should advantage the Roundhead besiegers.
The impudent rogue begged for a place in the Custom
House or some other compensation, declaring that he Avas
likely to die in prison. The King's response has perished.
As the Recorder, Sir John Glanville, persistently refrained
from visiting the city to perform his* functions, the
Council, on January 6th, 1646, declared that he was in
capable of holding his place any longer, and that the office
Avas therefore void. Edmund Prideattx, one of the Com
missioners of the Great Seal, was thereupon appointed to
the vacancy
Glanville had been " disabled " from sitting in Parliament
by tho House of Commons in the previous September, and
Colonel Taylor, the other representative of Bristol, " disabled "
in 1644, had been killed during the siege. An election for
two members consequently took place on January 26th, 1646.

1646]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

211

Major Kem, B.D., had previously preached a sermon exhort
ing the electors to return godly men, and Alderman Richard
Aldworth and Luke Hodges, two of the Puritans expelled
from the Council in 1643, were elected. Aldworth from
time to time advanced considerable sums for the service of the
Parliament, and appears to have been a popular member.
Early in the year the Corporation was sued, in the person
of the Under Sheriff, by one John Roberts, who Avould have
brought about the absolute ruin of the civic body if success
had crowned his enterprise. When the " gratuitj' " of
£20,000 to the King and Prince Rupert Avas being collected
from the householders, Roberts's father was assessed at, and
paid, £20; and the action Avas brought to recover this sum.
The Court of King's Bench, hoAvever, seems to have sum
marily quashed the plaintiff's claim, for the laAv costs paid
by the Corporation amounted to only ten shillings.
Tho soldiery of the garrison, having no serious duties to
perform, occupied much of their leisure about this time in
visiting the parish churches, and destroying Avhat they
styled " idolatrous " sculpture and stained glass, the latter
being almost entirely demolished. Much havoc is said to
have been wrought in the tabernacle Avork of the tombs, etc.,
in St. Mary Redcliff, where the organ was jmlled to pieces,
and the pipes carried away and blown as trumpets in the
streets. The supposition that these zealots mutilated the
once magnificent reredos at the end of the north aisle of the
-cathedral is, however, unfounded, the destruction of shrines
and images in churches having been relentlessly carried out
by order of the Government of EdAvard VI., a century earlier.
Fearing that the painted glass in the Guildhall would fall
a prey to the fanatics, the Corporation had 134 feet of it
removed, and replaced by ordinary material at an outlay of
£3 7.S-. Unfortunately, tho ornamental glass seems to have
perished through neglect, as it is never mentioned again.
_ When iconoclasts Avere aroused to fury by the sight of
pictured glass and carved corbels, their hatred of Avhat they
styled prelacy Avas pretty sure to make them equally pitiless
towards human beings. The local chroniclers are silent on
the subject, and the only existing source of information is
the book known as Walker's " Sufferings of the Clergy,"
¦compiled upwards of sixty years later, and much of' it
•avowedly based on hearsay and tradition, but which, it is
only too probable, is in many cases trustworthy. Dr.
Thomas Howell Avas nominated to the see of Bristol in 1644,
¦and was in residence during a part of the second Puritan

212

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1646-

occupation. His palace and park Avere sold by order of
Parliament to Thomas and Samuel Clark for £240, and, as
the Bishop refused to quit, the purchasers stripped the lead
off the roof, by which the inmates, including Mrs. HoavoII,
then advanced in pregnancy, Avere exposed to the weather.
The unfortunate lady died in childbed, after which the
Bishop was driven out of the house, which was first
plundered and then converted ftito a malt mill and store
house. Dr. Howell died a few months afterAvards, leaving
ten children. . ,
When so little respect was paid to a bishop, it might be
assumed that still less Avould be rendered to the King, against
whom the Puritans were in arms. Yet the assumption
would be erroneous as regards the period under review.
Revolutionary ideas Avere developing rapidly iu the Parlia
mentary army, but amongst civilians, in spite of years of
misgovernment, loyalty Avas still deep and widespread, and
possibly may have increased tinder the severe rule of the
two Houses. In March, 1646, by order of the Corporation,
the Chamberlain laid out 3s. Ad. " for wood for the bonfire
before Mr. Mayor's door on Coronation Day, being the
Kino-'s Holiday." The same item occurs in the accounts of
1647toand 1648, the latter entry showing how the holiday was
then celebrated :— " Paid Mr. Jessop for preaching a sermon
at the College (cathedral), on the King's Coronation Day :
ordered by the Mayor and Aldermen Lock, Vickris and
Gibbs, but never paid before by the city, £1." This entry,
together Avith the usual quarterly items for dusting the
Corporation seats, satisfactorily explodes the assertion made
by some prejudiced Avriters that services in the cathedral
Avere discontinued and the building desecrated soon after
the departure of Prince Rupert.
OAving to the exorbitant demands of the Royalist officers
Avhilst the city Avas in their poAver, the means of main
taining the ordinary machinery of police were no longer
procurable, and the results may be imagined. The sca
venger for example, having been discharged through want
of funds the cleansing of the streets was left to the elements,
and as the issue of two years' neglect the main thorough
fares, according to a corporate minute of February 3rd, lb4b,
Avere " full of dirt, soil, and filth, and very dangerous m this
time of infection." Yet their condition Avas savoury Avhen
compared Avith that of the numerous narrow lanes inhabited
by the poor. The Council, heavily burdened Avith debt,
evaded the task of reform, and ordered the churchwardens.

1646]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

213

to levy rates with a view to purification; but after a
lengthened trial of this system, the Corporation were com
pelled to resume their functions. In 1648 the Raker again
became their servant at a salary of £100, of which sum the
Council contributed £40, aud the remainder Avas raised by
a rate. The condition of the banks of the tivo rivers,
especially of those of the Froom, was at Ioav water even
more sickening than that of the streets, owing to the im
purities deposited there from the sewers and the filth cast in
by the neighbouring inhabitants ; but reformation was left
to the winter floods, the authorities contenting themselves
by threatening heaAry penalties on detected malpractices.
General Skippon, avIio found the governorship of Bristol
a by no means envious position, addressed a letter to the
House of Lords on February 2nd, 1646, describing his
embarrassments and praying for assistance, the want of
Avhich, he asserted, " is likely suddenly to bring this place
into a very sad condition." The order made by Parlia
ment for contributions from the three neighbouring counties
has been already recorded. Skippon's letter stated that
though more than £9,000 ought to have been received
from these sources, not so much as £900 had actually
arrived ; and that he had no power to raise money except
in the city. Not a jjenny had been sent in from Gloucester
shire and Wilts, and only about £700 had come from
Somerset. He had thus been disabled from increasing the
garrison, or rendering help to distressed friends in the
three counties lately plundered by the enemy ; Avhilst he
had to keep in aAve a multitude of ill-affected persons in
Bristol (an assertion Avorthy of note). His earnest prayer
for attention to his necessities led to an Ordinance of thetAVO
Houses, passed on February 21th, directing that the receipts
from the Excise and new Impost in the cit}- and district
should bo temporarily appropriated to tho maintenance of
the troops. In August, Avhen the King Avas a prisoner, it
Avas ordered that the garrison should be reduced to 800
infantry and one troop of horse, and that the soldiers be no
longer employed in Gloucestershire in lev3ung the contri
butions. The difficulty in procuring money from that
•county is explained in a letter addressed to the Speaker by
Colonel Pynder, a deputy from the Commons. " The charge
for free quarters during the siege," he wrote, " amounts to
so great a sum that, Avithout your encouragement, the poor
county Avill be undone, and disabled either to support the
garrison or themselves."

214

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[164(5
The Chamberlain, in August, disbursed £8 as a recom-
iiense to a citizen named Moore, on account of his house
having been plundered by Prince Rupert's soldiers, " avIio
possessed the same two Avhole years." A shilling was also-
paid to a smith for his help in letting down " the portcullis
at Froom Gate, to keep out carts," which were always
regarded as a nuisance 4>y the Corporation.
Raglan Castle, the last stronghold of the Royalist cause
in the West of England, surrendered to the Parliament
forces in August. A London neAVS-sheet reported soon
afterwards that one. Major Tuleday had arrived in Bristol
on his Avay to the capital, with the King's standard and
other badges of triumph borne before him, and that as he
approached the city he Avas met by joyous crowds, who
heartily Avelcomed him. =
One of the earliest, indications that the civic body was
recovering from the blood-sucking practices of the Cavaliers
occurs in the Council minutes of October 15th. There being
much distress amongst the poor, OAving to the dearness of
food, tbe members clubbed up £266, the whole of which
sum' was expended, not in the purchase of corn, but of
butter, destined for sale by retail at low prices. In the
result there was a loss ou the transaction of over £30,
which Avas borne by the Chamber. Soon after, a gratuity
of £30 Avas voted to Sir John Glanville for "arrears" of
his fees when Recorder, though a much larger sum was
nominally due to him. This was folloAved by the revival
of the Mayor's fishing excursion on the Froom, by a peram
bulation of the boundaries, and by a duck-hunting feast,
the expenses of each, though on a modest scale, indicating
a desire to revert to old-fashioned festivities. A novel item
crops up about the same time— a payment of £4 3s. 6d. for
horse-meat, etc., for Mr. Recorder's horses— which the Cham
berlain carefully noted was "not to be brought m president
for the future." In point of fact it became a " president
for annual items of far greater amount, extendmg over
more than a hundred years. It is probable that tfie
Recorder, during bis first visit, may have pointed out
the desirability of re-constitutmg the aldermanic body,
which by the purgation of the previous year, had been
reduced to four members; for during his stay, eight
crentlemon, all prominent Puritans, were elected, thus
completing the magisterial bench. Six Common Coun
cillors of similar political views, were chosen about the
same time one of Avhom was William Yeamans, a relative

1646]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

215

of the " martyr." Finally, in November, when Dublin Avas
in danger of falling into hostile hands, the members of the
Council subscribed upwards of £160 for the purchase and
despatch of ammunition for the Puritan garrison.
Towards the close of the year the Parliamentary tribunal
charged with inquiring into the value of "delinquents
estates, and "compounding" with the owners for fines m
lieu of sequestration, was actively fulfilling those duties,
and several Bristol names occur in the State Papers,_ which
often omit to mention the decisions arrived at. It is clear
from these papers that some prominent local Royalists
changed sides immediately after the Puritan victory. I or
example, Thomas Colston, the trained-band colonel who
constructed Colston Fort, petitioned for favourable con
sideration because he had at once conformed to Parliament ;
Avhile his subordinate, Captain Bevan, made the same
prayer, alleging that he had laid doAvn his arms even
before the storming of the toAvn, and had since advanced
" great part " of the gratuity to the Roundhead soldiers.
No fine is noted in either case. Ex-Alderman Walhs's
petition admits that he was for Parliament until Prince
Rupert entered, and for the King till the Royalists Avere
driven out.. Being noAv "well affected" again, he got off
on paying £177 10s. Richard Gregson acknowledges hav
ing taken arms for the King, but pleads that he has uoav
taken the Covenant, and had paid " £40 for his 25th part,"
which was probably the assessment levied for raising the
£6,000 given to the soldiery. He escaped ou paying £105
more. Ex-Alderman Richard Long made no profession
of change of opinion, but asked to be alloAved to compound,
Avhich Avas granted on payment of £800. Thomas Chester,
in the samo way, compounded for his landed estate by a fine
of £1,0 K), Avhich would have been more but. for the fact that
some of his houses Avere destroyed by the fires raised by the
defeated Royalists. He paid a further, but unrecorded, fine
to redeem his personal estate. John BoAvcher, merchant
(doubtless the brother of the " martyr "), in praying to be
alloAved to compound, stated that he had been a captain in
one of the King's foot regiments. He was fined £135.
Alexander James, Mayor in 1644-5, appears to have been
mulcted in £670. Ex-Alderman Humphrey Hooke, already
Avell known to the reader, made an urgent appeal for tender
treatment. When Fiennes Avas Governor of the city, the
petitioner lent him £250, supplied jiOAvder (value £90),
which Avas never paid for, and made other gifts in money.

21G

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1646-47

It Avas true he had helped Prince Rupert to defend the
toAvn against Parliament, but he had since given much
toAvards the soldiers' gratuity, and paid all contributions,
and had finally become a good Puritan, by adhering to the
Covenant ! Mr. Hooke had large estates in the tAvo adjoin
ing counties and in Worcestershire, and his case occupied
the commissioners for five years. Two fines, amounting
to about £800, occur in the proceedings, but, as has been
already mentioned, he appealed to Cromwell, and probably
escaped scot-free. Sir Maurice Berkeley, of Stoko, near
Stapleton, in asking to be alloAved to compound, alleged
that he had been forced, from the nearness of his house to
Bristol, to adhere to the King's party. He was fined £1,030,
but petitioned again " on a fresh particular," when the mulct
AA'as fixed at £343. His son Richard declared that, " being
under the poAver of the enemy," he was forced to take the
King's side. He appears to have got off on payment of
£231. Sir Robert Poyntz, KB., of Iron Acton, who had
jirojierty in Bristol, and was in the city with the Royalists,
was fined £723.
The most destructive, fire recorded in local history until
the present century occurred on February 17th, 1647. It
originated in a house on Bristol Bridge occupied by an
apothecary, named Edwards, and OAving tp the dwellings
there being chiefly constructed of timber, the flames rajndly
spread. About twenty - four houses lining the narroAv
thoroughfare betAveen the relics of St. Mary's chapel
and the northern end of the Bridge Avere consumed in a feAV
hours. The tradesmen on the Bridge Avere regarded as
amongst the wealthiest in the city, and some of the stocks
destroyed Avere of great value. A London neAvs-sheet stated
that the flames Avere jirevented from spreading further only
by the pulling cIoavii of a number of dAvellings. Such was
the fruit, added the Avriter, of " paper or Avooden buildings,
which no loss will make to be laid aside." The city was
then destitute of a fire-engine, and it is imjirobable that
such an apparatus Avould have been of much avail. At a
meeting of the Council on the 25th it was ordered that, to
repay the charges of quenching the flames, and also for
erecting walls or rails for the protection of passengers, a
rate should be leAued on householders. Subsequently it Avas
determined to send to London for a fire-engine, for which
£31 10s. Avere paid, Avith £8 8s. more for forty-eight buckets.
A further resolution required every member of the Council
to keep six buckets in his house, and the magistrates were

1647]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

217

desired to fix the number to be kept in each parish church
and in each had of the trade companies. The OAvners of the
burned property found some alleviation of their OAvn misfor
tune in taking advantage of that of a: great nobleman. As
has been already noted, Raglan Castle, the princely seat of
the aged Marquis of Worcester, was captured by the Parlia
mentary forces in August, 1646 ; and some months later,
Avhen the extensive building had been pulled to pieces, the
timber, with the lead roofings, Avas removed to Monmouth,
and sold in lots by auction, realizing only trivial prices.
Much of the material was purchased by Bristolians, floated
down the Wye and Severn on rafts, and made use of in the
Avork of reconstruction.
Moved by the appeals made by the inhabitants of the
city and district for relief from military imposts, the House
of Commons, in March, 1647, ordered that the garrison of
the Castle and Great Fort should be reduced to 250 men,
and that the town should be disgarrisoned, and the outer
ramparts and minor forts " slighted." The Corporation lent
no assistance in carrying out the work of demolition, and
Iioav it was effected is matter of conjecture. Probably the
OAvners of the ground occupied by the Avail and trench
Avere allowed to resume possession of their property,
and to restore it to its original condition. The leA-elling
was executed so thoroughly that a hundred years later the
precise course of the line between Stokes Croft and Law-
lord's Gate could no longer be traced. Several of the cannon
from the forts and redoubts were stored in the Guildhall in
January, 1648.
An Ordinance of the Corporation for the benefit of the
WhitaAvers', Glovers' and Pomtmakers' Company Avas issued
in April. After reciting that the fines and forfeitures im-
** posed by the Company for breaches of their Liavs had been
previously recovered from offenders either by distraint or
imprisonment, the document states that those processes often
led to affrays and bloodshed, and sometimes to far worse
misdemeanours. For remedy Avhereof it Avas ordered that
the penalties should thenceforth be recovered by actions
raised in the Mayor's Court, and the proceeds applied to
works of charity. This suppression of brutality on the part
of petty officials worked so satisfactorily that other trades
applied for, and Avere granted, a similar recourse to a legal
tribunal. A corporate lease granted on April 14th to John Elliott,
of Barton Regis, preserves the only record of the first place

21S THE ANNALS OF, BRISTOL [1647
of detention for offenders in the Gloucestershire portion of
St. Philip's parish. The document demises " a splot or rag
of ground near LaAvford's Gate, behind the place where the
Cage theretofore stood." The Cage had doubtless been
destroyed during the Civil War; and it Avas not replaced by
a permanent prison until early in the following century.
A ne\v office was created by the Court of Aldermen in
June, a man styled a Warner being appointed to bring up
intelligence from Avon month of the arrival of vessols. The
appointment gave much offence to the pilots, avIio had pre
viously fulfilled this 'duty in a perfunctory manner, ami
they often Unvaried the iioav official by giving him false
information as to the names of the ships. Threats of dis
missal at length put an end to misconduct, and the Warner
Avas a useful public servant until the introduction of
steam-tugs. The Common Council, in August, approved of a charter
of incorporation for the Mercers' Company. This fraternity,
though one of the latest, Avas for some time one of the most
influential, of the trading societies, some of its members
attaining high office in the Corporation. The first Master
was John Young, Sheriff in the previous year. A " hall "
was rented in St. Thomas's Lane, but the Company after-
Avards removed to Nicholas Street. Like many of the city
fraternities, this incorporation seems to have died out in the
last quarter of the eighteenth century.
In September, 1647, a deputation of Bristolians carried to
the House of Commons a petition, purporting to be signed
by " many thousand hands," praying for a variety of
reforms. The petitioners asked, amongst other things, for
such a settlement of peace as would prevent another war,
for the redress of army grievances, the preserAration of
popular rights, the expulsion of incapable members from the
House and from seats of justice, for tenderness in imposing
the Covenant upon pious consciences, and for the restoration
of the old supporters of the King to the privileges of
Englishmen. The document evidently proceeded from
persons opposed to the dominant Presbyterians, and sym
pathising Avith the neAV sect of Independents represented by
Cromwell and the army ; but it was possibly signed by
many Royalists. After the petition had been read, the
deputation Avere called in, and informed by the Speaker
that the House did not approve of some of their requests,
but thanked them for their good affections.
An entry in tho corporate Bargain Book, dated Novem-

1647-48]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH J3ENTUHY.

219'

ber, 1647, affords some information respecting ToAver
Harritz, a building frequently mentioned in the city
annals, but of which little is knoAvn. The record shows
that the tower had lost its roof during the siege of 1645,
probably from fire, and that a neighbouring dAvelling-house
had been burned doAvn. In consideration of one Puxton
covenanting to rebuild the house, the Corporation granted
him the property for thirty years at a rent of £5. A sluice
that, jircvious to the war, had been used to let water into
and out of the moat in front of the toAvn Avail Avas to bo re
paired by the Chamber, so that masts might be left there
according to ancient custom ; and Puxton was alloived to
put a roof on the toAver, and to build against it if he
pleased. Some local histories assert that on November 23rd Parlia
ment was informed that the garrison had mutinied, and had
seized and threatened to keep in prison an alderman until
they should receive a month's pay; that the Corporation
protested against the outrage, and that the Houses ordered
the immediate discharge of the captiAre. The story Avas
probably copied from one of the mendacious pamphlets of
the time. No mention of such an incident occurs in the
Journals of the tAvo Houses or in the minutes of the
Common Council.
The Parliament, on December 30th, issued an order for
the payment out of the Excise to one of the wealthiest of
Bristolians, Alderman Aldworth, M.P., of £3,961, advanced
by him for the service of the State, chiefly whilst Fiennes
was Governor of the city, together A\ith £1,313 interest.
Continuous sjmijitoms of reviving prosjierity are notice
able in the corporate account-books. At Christmas, the
Avaits, rarely mentioned for seAvral years, Avere furnished
with hoav liveries at a cost of £4 lbs. The Chamber Avas
still paying 8 per cent, for money borroAved, but in January,
1648, Sir Robert Poyntz, of Iron Acton, advanced £800 at
5 per cent., and tAvo pressing creditors were paid off. In
tho following month £80 Avere paicl to Aldermen Aldworth
and Hodges, on account, for their services in Parliament ; and
soon afterwards several long-outstanding debts for presents
of Avine and other matters Avere discharged. Owing to the
distractions of the Avar it had been impossible to collect the
rentals of various charity estates ; but in February a sum
of £480 Avas received from London as the recoA-erable instal
ment of routs arising from Dr. White's benefactions. For
several years the Corporation suspended the payment of the

220

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1648
£104 jier annum devised by Sir Thomas White to various
English boroughs in rotation, alleging that the income from
his estate had been entirely lost. The account-book of the
charity preserved in the Council House proves that this
assertion was Avholly unfounded, but alloAvance must be
made for the extreme penury to Avhich the civic body had
been reduced by military exactions.
The spring of 1648 was memorable for the outbreak of
the second Civil War, brought about by the King's intrigues
Avith the Scotch Presbyterians, and the drifting of many
conspicuous members of Parliament toAvards the roval cause
through fear and detestation of the Republican party. On
May 1st letters from Bristol were received at Westminster,
announcing that divers persons in the city Avere enlisting
soldiers for the King, and that the garrison showed coldness
m suppressing these proceedings. The Journals of the tAvo
Houses are strangely imperfect about this time, but their
defects are partially supplied by documents amongst the
State Papers. From these it appears that on the receipt
of the above intelligence a committee of the two Houses
directed the Gloucestershire committee to send forty barrels
of_ gunpowder to Bristol. Orders were also given that
£5,000, then lying in the city for transport to Ireland,
should be instantly removed to a ship of Avar lying in King
road, until it could be safely despatched ; and an order was
sent to the Lord General Fairfax, pointing out the peril to
the Avhole kingdom if the " malignants " should recover
poAver in Bristol " iioav that there is so great a distemper
among t.ie jieople," and requesting that 600 foot and 100
horse be sent under a faithful commander to secure the
place. Whitelock records in his Avell-knoAvn " Memorials "
that on May 2nd a sum of £6,000 was voted " for Bristol,"
for Avhat service he does not state. On May 10th the
Commons passed an order for charging £500 on the Excise
for reparations and jirovisions at Bristol, and Mr. Aldworth
was directed to take it up to the Lords, by whom it was at
once approved. Whitelock says the money was required "for
fortifying Bristol in some new places." On July 1st the
Houses resolved that £1,000 should be advanced to the city
for the repair of the Great Fort, and for furnishing that
jjlace and the Castle with provisions and ammunition,
showing that great anxiety still prevailed. The money
Avas to be raised out of the estates of local "delinquents "
An Ordinance for re-organizing the militia and raising
forces for the better defence of the city Avas jiassed about

1648]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

221

the same time. Having regard to these jiahic-stricken
arrangements, it is surprising to find that the Corporation,
although unquestionably in sympathy Avith the then pre
dominant party in Parliament, seem to have treated the
alleged peril Avith almost perfect unconcern. On July 14th
the Council ordered that £200 should be levied on the ablest
inhabitants, by way of loan, for equipping the trained
bands and auxiliaries, it being added that the money would
be repaid in a short time by virtue of the Ordinance for
charging the outlay upon the Excise. And tins is practi
cally the only local reference to the scare at Westminster.
i The chief subject occupying corporate attention during
the year Avas the famishing condition of the poor, resulting
from a succession of bad harvests. It Avas resolved that a
quantity of wheat and other grain should be stored in the
Old JeAvry (in Bell Lane), and sold in retail at the rate of
8s. lOd. per bushel for wheat, 6s. 8d. for rye, and 4s. for
barley, the loss on the transactions to be borne by the
Chamber. If reliance can be placed on the statement of a
contemporary annalist, the above prices Avere greatly beloAv
the market rates, which are given at 96s. jier quarter for
wheat, 80s. for rye, and 64s. for barley. When it is re
membered that the ordinary Avages of artizans were then
only one shilling per day, the general misery may be
faintly conceived. Butter, says the same authority, sold at
Id. per pound, nearly three times its normal value, a fact
which perhaps prevented the Council from indulging in one
of its favourite traffics. A little later iu the year, a con
tribution of from 7s. to 10s. Avas required from each member
of the Council to provide the jioor Avith coal ; and in
December, bread being still at famine juice, a generous
subscrijition Avas in ado for the jmrchasc of peas to relieve
the starving.
After the use of tho Book of Common Prayer, either in
churches or jirivate houses, was jirohibited by Parliament
in 1647, the usual liturgical services in the cathedral Avere
suspended ; though, as has been already shoAvn, the members
of the Corporation retained their seats in the bttildiug,
occasionally went in state to hear a sermon, and made a
donation to the preacher. Desirous that a service in
conformity with their auoavs should be permanently estab
lished, the Council, in August, sent a petition to Parlia
ment, praying that steps might be taken for maintaining
a preacher in the cathedral by an allowance out of the
capitular estates ; and a second petition, practically to tho

222

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1648

same effect Avas forwarded in September. Though the
Houses took no action on either memorial, the above facts
TnW « ref t0* nT ?Ve„th? reckIess assertions made in
lovey s "Life of Colston," that the sacred edifice, on the
departure of Princo Rupert, Avas converted into a military
stable, and polluted to the vilest purposes. On October 2nd
the House of Commons directed the members for Bristol to
draw up an Ordinance for levying a rate on the inhabitants
tor the maintenance of their Ministers, whilst a committee
Avas ordered to grant an augmentation of tho ministers'
stipends out of the revenues of the Dean and Chapter. The
co lajiso of Presbyterianism, brought about soon afterwards
by Pride s Purge," seems to have prevented either of these
proposals from taking effect. In the meantime, as well as
afterwards, the Corporation continued their state visits to
the cathedral. A Mr. Paul was paid 20s. for preaching a
*™, ih«™™®"y F™kes Day. The audit books for
Ih4t-o0 and Ibo0-1 have been lost; but the accounts for
lbol-2 contain the usual quarterly payments for looking
after the corporate seats, while a further item occurs for
repairs, indicating that Sunday sermons were then re-estab
lished, it they had ever been discontinued.
The Revenue Commissioners presented a report to the
House of Commons m August, upon the petition of Robert
Cann and the Merchants' Company of Bristol, complaining
that merchandise to the value of £2,815 had been takeS
out of their ships at SciUy to supply the Parliamentary
garrison, and praying for relief. The House ordered that
the above amount should be paid " out of money due for
the Iavo subsidies of 1641, and in the collector's hands
concealed. As no further complaint appears in the
records, the money seems to have been forthcoming The
Merchant Venturers applied about the same time to tho
Houses for the loan of a frigate to protect the commerce of
the Bristol Channel, then infested with "Irish rebels"— that
is, with privateers sent out by the Royalists. The request
was granted, but OAving to further heavy losses sustained
from those raiders, the Society's intention to man and
equip the frigate could not be carried out, and Bristol
vessels were stated to be unsafe even in Kingroad. An
increased Parliamentary fleet on the Irish coast probably
put an end to the grievance.
The English colonies iu North America and the West
Indies Avere still in their infancy at this period, but the
planters and settlers seem to havo already acquired a

1648-49]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY'.

22i5

yearning for forced labour. On CromAvell's Victory over
the Scotch Royalists in Lancashire, in August, several
thousands of the invaders Avere captured, Avhereupou, says
the Commons' Journal for September 4th, " the gentlemen
of Bristol applied to have liberty to transport 500 of the
prisoners to the plantations," and their request was at once
granted. Owing to the Custom House records haAung
jierished, all details as to this remarkable shipment — the
first of its kind — have disappeared. After the battle of
Worcester, in 1651, a great number of the defeated Scotch
were brought to Bristol, not only from the scene of that
fight, but from Chester, Stafford, LucIIoav, and other jilaces,
some local merchants having undertaken Avith the GoArern-
ment to transjiort them to the colonies, where they Avere
sold into slavery. Great delay occurred before the cajitives
Avere shijiped, and many jierished through sickness. In
July, 1652, again, the Council of State ordered the Governor
of Waterford to deliver to Robert Cann, Robert Yate, and
Thomas Speed, three wealthy Bristol merchants, as many
Irish rebel prisoners as they might choose to embark in
their ships, bound for the West Indies ; and three months
later Thomas Speed, who became a Quaker, Avas granted 200
more of the rebels for shipment to Barbadoes. The above
facts are obtained from the State Papers, which contain
many other documents relating to this abominable traffic.
On the annual civic elections clay, in September, John
Bush, Common Councillor, gave a bond for the jiayment of
£100 in consideration of being relieved from his office. In
a fit of economy the Council passed an ordinance reducing
the Mayor's salary from £104 to half that sum. A tAvelve-
month later it Avas resolATed that the chief magistrate should
have £104 notAvithstanding the ordinance, and this payment
continued until 1658, when another lurch towards frugality
took place, it being determined that the existing Mayor, and
he only, should have £104. But the salary Avas again raised
tAvo years later.
At a meeting of the Council on January 3rd, 1649, the
members for the city Avere " requested to put Parliament in
mind of the destruction of [blank] Forest, and to desire a
restraint for the preservation thereof." The obscurity of
the minute is cleared up by a letter amongst the State
Papers, dated March 26th, addressed by the Council of State
to the Governor of ChepstoAv Castle, intimating that, in con
sequence of the complaints of the Corporation of Bristol as
to the great Avaste of timber in the Forest of Dean, direc-

224

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[104t>

tions had been given to the members for that city and
other Bristolians to take measures for its preservation, and
requesting the Governor to lend them his assistance. It is
someAvhat surprising that the Corporation should have
directed their energies so far afield when the wholesale de
struction of Kingswood Chase was going on almost under
their eyes ; the ravages of the labouring population on the
deer and the woods being winked at, and not improbably
encouraged, by neighbouring landowners, whose dubious
claims to the soil Avero much furthered by the depredations
on the old rights of the Crown. An obscure minute of
June, 1652, sIioavs that the Council had tardily discovered
Iioav deeply the citizens Ave re interested in the valuable
coalfield, but the negotiation for a lease then contemplated
with the Government apjiears to have fallen still-born.
The Chapel of "the Assumption of the Virgin " on Bristol
Bridge Avas purchased by the Corporation from the Govern
ment of Echvard VI. soon after the suppression of the
Chantries, and was subsequently assigned to a tradesman,
subject to a small ground-rent, aud converted into dwelling-
houses and shops. The buildings extended over the centre
and both sides of the bridge, there being a gateAvay in the
middle similar to the still existing arch under the, tower of
St. John's church. Ha\-ing sustained much damage from
the great fire of February, 1647, and threatening peril to
the jmblic, the state of the fabric Avas represented to the
owner by the Corporation, with the result set forth in the
folloAving minute of a Council meeting held on February
13th, 1649 : — " Walter Stephens hath now promised to con
form to the order of the Mayor and justices, and will either
pull down or fortliAvith repair the arch hanging over the
highway leading over the Bridge, Avhich is very dangerous
to all people travelling that way." Mr. Stephens, who was
Sheriff in 1645-6, Avas a draper, and was not only the
owner but the occupier of the building. The ancient portal,
which must have been a great impediment to traffic, was
removed shortly afterwards. The matter is character
istically recorded in Tovey's " Life of Colston," where it is
antedated six years, and where Stephens, styled an " obsti
nate visionary," is pictured as inciting a "mob" to destroy
a sacred building.
A letter of the Council of State to the Mayor, dated April
13th, 1649, a cojiy of Avhich is jireserved amongst tho State
Papers, introduces the reader to a man who played a
notable part in local affairs for many years, and avIioso

164<)1

IN THE SEVI rEENTH CENTURA.'.

225

virulence towards political opponent* is displayed on his
first appearance. The Council state that the captain of the
President frigate had reported an insult to him and the
owners of the ship, and therein au insufferable affront to the
authority of Parliament, offered by John Knight, who had
called them "Parliament dogs " and « Parliament rogues,
and other like terms, his insolent speeches being approved
by many others. The Mayor's conduct in refusing to take
into his custody a vessel captured by the President is also
noted. The Commonwealth, add the Council, cannot oe
preserved in peace if such attempts upon its authority go
unpunished. The Mayor is therefore to call Knight before
him, and to see that he is punished as his offence deserves.
His worship is also to take charge of prizes, and to preserve
authority by punishing disaffection. The Mayor thus ad
monished was William Cann, who had earned a dubious
fame a few weeks earlier by formally proclaiming at the
High Cross the abolition of the monarchy.
General Skippon's military duties with the army fre
quently required his absence from the city, and though no
record exists of his removal from the office of Governor, he
appears to have relinquished it. In March, 1647, Colonel
Charles Dowly was appointed by Parliament Governor of
the Great Fort and Castle, but his name does not occur after
June of the same year. In July, 1649, the Council of State
apprised Colonel John Haggett by letter that, for the better
security of Bristol, the government of the place Avas com
mitted to his care, and that, as security against danger, a
regiment was to be enlisted there under his command, while
£500 avou Id be remitted for repair of the defences. But in
the State Papers for January, 1650, only six months later,
is a communication of Colonel Adrian Scrope, " GoA'ernor of
Bristol," and in the folloAving June £1,000 were fonvarded
to that officer to repair the fortifications. Scrojie, avIio Avas
a member of the tribunal which jiasscd sentence of death on
Charles I., and who was executed as a regicide after the
Restoration, Avas jiresented with the freedom in 1652. His
son Avas subsequently an eminent local merchant, and his
grandson, John Scrope, for some time Recorder and M.P. for
Bristol, Avas long one of Walpole's trustiest lieutenants,
holding the office of Secretary of the Treasury for upwards
of a quarter of a century.
Oliver Cromwell, then Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, arrived
on July 14th, to embark for Dublin on his memorable cam
paign. The future Protector traA'elled in great state, his

226

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1649

carriage, draAvn by six horses, being followed by the chief
members of his retinue in several coaches, and guarded by a
fine body of life guards. The journey from London occtt-
jjied four days. On his arrival, says one of the neAVS-sheets
of the folloAving week, " he was royally entertained by the
soldiers and officers in arms, and others who held offices by
order of Parliament. The citizens also expressed much joy,
and entertained him Avith great respect." At a meeting of
the Council on the 10th, it Avas " thought meet that con-
A-enient lodging should be provided " for tho visitor, and the
house of Alderman Jackson Avas selected " for his entertain
ment at the city's charge." The tAvo following items,
although not paid until 1652, doubtless refer to tho
matter : — " Paid Mr. Mayor (Jackson) for entertaining the
Lord General, £10. Paid for a butt of sack given to the
Lord General, £20." At another meeting, held before the
great soldier's departure, the Council, on his recommenda
tion, admitted a chirurgeon, named Allen, to the freedom
Avithout a. fine, but the favoured intruder had to promise
to keep no ojien shoji until he had compounded with the
Barber Surgeons' Comjiany.
At the meeting on July 23rd just referred to, Alderman
AldAvorth, M.P., had a gratifying announcemen to make to
the Council. From the minutes it appears that in Ald-
Avorth's mayoralty, 1642-3, Avhen Governor Fiennes and his
friends Avere at their wits' end for means to hurry forward
the fortifications and prepare for the approaching siege,
the Corporation advanced upwards of £3,000 out of the
" orphans' money " confided to them, on a pledge of repay
ment by Parliament. This loan, by Alclworth's exertions,
had been at length recovered, and he Avas cordially thanked
for his services. Little suspecting that the sum thus
recovered from the frying-pan Avas about to be thrown
into the fire, the Council desired the Alderman "to procure
some convenient purchase of Dean and Chapter lands " for
investment of the money. Negotiations were accordingly
entered into with the commissioners appointed to dispose of
capitular estates, and the manors of Blacksworth, West
Hatch, and Torleton (formerly belonging to the Bristol
Chapter), and the jirebend. of Henstridge in Wells Cathe
dral, were purchased by the Corporation in March, 1650,
for £3,838. The estates Avere recovered after the Restoration
by the revived Deans and Chapters; but the Corporation
lost only about one half of the amount invested, the sum of
£1,275 having been saved by a fortunate sale of Torleton,

1649-50

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

227

Avhilo the Henstridge estate was disjiosed of for £600 to
William Carent, Esq., of Somerset.
Au interesting reference to buildings still in existence —
the porch of St. BartholomeAv's Hospital and the adjoining
house — occurs at this time in the corporate Bargain Books.
On July 4th a lease for lives Avas granted to Arthur Farmer,
brewer (Mayor, 1657-8), at a rent of 42s., of a corner tene
ment, and also of " tAvo upjier rooms lying over the porch
leading into the Free School, situate m Horse Street." It
seems probable that the tenement and rooms had then been
recently erected. A relic of the city defences disapjieared
about the same date, the Chamberlain disbursing 30s. " for
making up the Avay at Temple Gate, Avhere the false draAV-
bridge did stand."
An aspiration for greater comfort and dignity is betrayed
by another item of expenditure. Uji to this time the only
seats in the Council Chamber consisted of long Avooden
benches, but in September an " upholster " Avas jiaid £5 5*.
for " tAvelve Russian [leather] chairs," doubtless for the
accommodation of the aldermen. (Chairs Avere then an almost
unknoAvn luxury in jirivate families. In the will of a
wealthy draper named KerSAvell, dated in July, 1642, men
tion is made Avith evident jiride of two unusual articles of
property, a library of books and "tAvo chairs.") The cor
porate furniture appears to haA'e been of a substantial
character, for there is no record of its renewal until 1700,
Avhen a new set of chairs cost £10.
Owing to the House of Commons sitting in permanence,
the charge on the Corporation for the " Avages " of the city
members became very onerous. In January, 1650, the
Council, at the request of Mr. Hodges, M.P., Avhose salary
was " divers years " in arrear, ordered that £300 be paid to
him on account. A suggestion seems to have been made
that the future salary should be reduced, but the Council
adjourned it for further consideration, and the proposal Avas
not revived.
_ The distressed condition of the jiarochial clergy of the
city at this period was noticed and explained at page 208.
In February, 1650, a Bill jjromoted by some of the unfortu
nate gentlemen, apparently Avith the tacit approval of the
Corporation, and styled a Bill for the more, frequent preach
ing _ of the Gospel and the better maintenance of the
ministers in Bristol, Avas brought into the House of
Commons, and became laAv in the folloAving month. Its
jirovisions Avere of an extraordinary character, a yeai-ty rate

228

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1650

being imposed of Is. Gel. in the jiound upon real propertj',
and of 5s. per cent, upon merchandise and stock in everj'
branch of trade, whilst several parishes were to be united
Avith others so as to increase the incomes of certain favoured
ministers. A number of leading Presbyterians were nomi
nated in the Act as commissioners to carry out its provi
sions. But the measure aroused a storm for which the
promoters Avere unjirepared. A jjrotest, signed by upwards
of 400 free burgesses, chiefly"1 adherents of the silenced
Church of England, but joined by some zealous Indepen
dents and Baptists, declared that the provisions of the Act
Avere in contravention of the city's great charter, granted
by Edward III., and a gross violation of the privileges and
franchises of the burgesses, avIio could not submit to such a
burden Avithout breaking their oaths. Confronted by this
opposition, the authorities refrained from exercising their
poAvers, either as regarded the levying of rates or the con
solidation of parishes. It will be seen hereafter that
another statute of a similar character was obtained in 1657.
The Plague again visited the city in the summer of
1650. The Council, in June, ordered a rate to be levied oiq
householders to defray the charges already incurred, and a
day was appointed for a "private Fast." No further refer
ence to the subject occurs until 1651, Avhen the alarm was
so serious that the Corporation hired the "Little Park"
(in the neighbourhood of Brandon Hill), where a number of
huts were built for the reception of the infected. Precau
tions Avere stdl being taken in March, 1652, when the
guards stationed at the gates to keep out suspicious
strangers were ordered to remain on duty ; and in the
folloAving November stringent provisions were issued
against the introduction of goods from infected localities
until they had been aired to the satisfaction of the justices.
Under an otttAvard show of submission to the new
Government there Avas much inward dissatisfaction, evinced
to some extent by an unAvillingness to accept or retain
public offices. In September, 1650, three members of the
Council prayed for dismissal from the Chamber on various
jiretexts. Robert Biackborow, Avhose turn had come for
the shrievalty, pleaded infirmity, and was allowed to depart
on paying £100, of Avhich £20 Avere returned in considera
tion of prompt payment. William Pynney urged losses in
trade, and was let off on a fine of £100, afterwards reduced
to £50. Thomas Woochvard, one of the signers of the Pro
test mentioned aboA'e, escaped on payment of £50. Wood-

1650]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

229

ward's seat remained vacant for two years, and the Council
thought it advisable to revive the ordinance of 1635,
threatening to fine, at their discretion, any one refusing to
accept office, but exempting those able to swear that they
Avere not worth 2,000 marks. For reasons now unknown,
the Council of State suspected the fidelity of the dignitaries
elected about this time in Bristol and other toivns, and
requested the House of Commons to take steps to jirevent
danger to the Commonwealth arising from the appointment
<d " very disaffected " persons as magistrates.
The local elections mentioned above brought trouble to
Constant Jessop, a Presbyterian minister, Avho seems to have
been intruded into St. Nicholas's church on the expulsion
of the vicar, the Rev. Richard Towgood. At a service on
tho election of the Mayor (Hugh BroAvne), Mr. Jessop
preached a sermon that gave anything but satisfaction to
some of his hearers. The fact Avas, that rigid Presbyterians
of the minister's stamp, avIio were as intolerant of dissent
from their doctrines as Laud had been towards all sectaries,
were irritated by the laxity of the Government in maintain
ing the Solemn League and Covenant, and their pulpit
discourses became so troublesome that Parliament Avas
applied to for an Act to repress seditious preaching. Com
plaint as to Jessop's sermon Avas sent up by " the well-
affected " — meaning the adherents of other sects — to the.
Council of State, and the minister Avas summoned to London
to explain his language. As was to be expected, the
reverend gentleman, Avhilst admitting some of the allega
tions against him, refused to retract anything, whereupon
the, Government insisted on his promising obedience to
Parliament, and making an apology in the pulpit for the
scandal he, had provoked. Mr. Jessop refusing, of course, to
comply, ho Avas forbidden to exerciso his ministry in Bristol,
or to conio Avithin ten miles of the city. Iu February, 1652,
on his petition, the Council of State 'allowed him to pay a
tAvo months' visit to his former quarters, and he clearly
took advantage of the concession to denounce the liberty
granted to "schismatics." On May 20th the Government,
m a letter to the Governor of Bristol, obseiwed that it was
not intended, in permitting Jessop's sojourn, that he should
stir up former factions ; and on a Avarning being gi\-en him,
he departed. In September, hoAvever, he obtained a license
to_return for a fortnight, to remove some goods ; and in
1654 the Government's interdiction was Avithdrawn. and he
became free to preach if he pleased. In the same vear,

2,-JO

TUB ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1651
"upon the petition of the inhabitants," the Corporation
appointed him to the living of St. Philip's, but he held it-
only for a feAv months.
Ill-conceived regulations devised for keeping down the
juice of bread crop up in the corporate records from time to
time. A notion then universally prevailed that purchasers
of large stocks of corn and flour, avIio sought to make a
profit in times of scarcity by Retailing at enhanced prices,
Avere simply covert robbers, whose transactions demanded
rigorous restraint^ By an ordinance passed by the Common
Council in January, 1651, no one Avas alloAved to buy or sell
meal or grain except in the market Avithin fixed hours, and
no grain landed at the quays Avas to be sold until three clays
after a proclamation of its arrival had been made by the
bellman. Any person buying grain in the market and re
selling it on the same day at a higher price was subject to
heavy fine or imprisonment by the general laAv of the land.
As the above civic ordinance Avas re-enacted, with slight
modifications, in September, 1656, it may be inferred that
the regulations had been frequently disregarded.
The laAvs prohibiting the entrance of carts into the cit}-,
referred to in previous pages, Avere reviA^ed in January, 1651,
and made more stringent. It was decreed that no breAver,
farmer, or other person should haul beer, fruit, hay, or other
commodity excepting upon " drays or sleeds "— tAvo species
of sledges. In addition to the ordinary fine of ten shillings
for each offence, it Avas ordered that the wheels of the in
truding carts should be taken off and confiscated.
By a Government proclamation issued in January, all
statues, heraldic emblazonments and other insignia, in
honour of the late King decorating public buildings,
ships, etc., were ordered to be remoA'ed and broken to pieces.
The statue of Charles Avas accordingly taken out of its niche
in the High Cross ; but the authorities, Avith commendable
foresight, deemed it sufficient to conceal the monument in
the civic cellars. The picture of His Majesty and the royal
arms displayed in the Council House were doubtless dealt
Avith in a similar manner.
Up to this time the t\vo city coroners Avere so poorly es
teemed by the Corporation that they receiAred no higher
stipend than 40s. per annum, and Avere apparently the
Avorst paid of local officials. In. February the Council, in a
fit, of generosity, raised their salaries to £3 6s. 8d. each, or
about fifteen-pence a Aveek," to encourage them to proceed
Avith cheerfulness in executing their office." A curious

1651]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

231

case connected Avith an inquest Avas discussed , at the same
meeting. A small vessel had lurched OA'er in the harbour,
causing the death of a labourer, and according to the ancient
laAv dealing with such fatalities, the ship and its cargo
Avere thereby forfeited as " deodand " ; the medieval inten
tion being that the value of the forfeiture should be devoted
to the payment of masses for the soul of the person killed.
The Council, recognising the hardship of the penalty, sur
rendered the ship to its owner ou payment of £10, half of
Avhich sum Avas given to the deceased man's sister.
The Council, at the same meeting, resolved that the free
dom of the city should be presented to Major-Generals
Skippon and Harrison, and that the fact should be intimated
to them in a " letter of thanks." The parchment sent to
General Skippon, still preserved, states that the honour
Avas conferred upon him " for the love, respect and affection
we have found that he beareth towards the city, and the
Avelfare of the inhabitants thereof."
By a deed of conveyance, dated February 11th, 1651, the
commissioners appointed by Parliament for disposing of the
ancient fee-farm rents payable to the Crown, in considera
tion of £1,260, granted to Alderman Richard Vickris the
fee-farm rent of £142 10s. per annum for the town.
markets, etc., of Bristol, reserved by Edward III. in his Avell-
knoAvn charter ; also a rent of 53s. Ad. reseiwed by Henry
VII. in his patent for a water-bailiff; also a rent of one half
penny in lieu of a red rose, payable on St. Peter's Day, for
land near Tenby; also a rent of sixpence for a shed in
Bristol; also 5s. yearly issuing out of the former house of
Jaspin, a. Tew, in Wine Street; also 6s. 8c/. yearly arising
out of a house in Fishmonger Street; also As. yearly issi£
mg out of houses of David Tott, hanged at Yorkshire.
assizes; also 9s. yearly out of a. house on the Bridge, once
belonging to Boniface, a Jew ; aud two or three other tri
fling rents issuing from places not described. (Some of these
minor fee-farms must have been in existence for about four
hundred years.) The connection of the Corporation with
this purchase is someAvhat obscure, owing to the disappear
ance of the audit book for the year. Ata, Council meeting
in May, the conveyance Avas read, and Avas Ordered to be
sent to the Town Clerk, then in London, from which it is
evident that the Corporation Avere interested" in the transac
tion. But Vickris remained the legal OAvner throughout
the Commomvealth period, and received the city feedarm
from the. Chamberlain half-yearly. At the Restoration all

232

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1651

the fee-farms disposed of by tho commissioners were seized
as Crown property, and the whole of the purchase moneys
Avas lost.
Simultaneously with the above purchase by Vickris, the
commissioners conveyed to one Oliver Wallis the fee-farm
rent of £40 per annum reserved by Charles I., Avhen he
granted the Castle and its precincts to the Corporation.
The sum paid for this assignment does not appear.
The Corporation made a further purchase of fee-farms ou
its own account, securing a CroAvn rent of £20, issuing out
of the estates formerly belonging to Gaunts' Hospital ;
another, of £41, issuing out of the manor of Congresbury,
and a third, of £6 lis. bd., payable out of lands at Winter-
bourne. The tAvo latter estates belonged to Queen Eliza
beth's Hospital; and the Council resolved that, as the yearly
exjienditttre Avould be reduced, four additional boys should
be admitted into the school, raising tho total number to
twenty-four. The sum jiaid for the above fee-farms Avas
only £577, so that the iirvestment produced a yearly return
of nearly 12 per cent. The purchasers, hoAvever, in 1661,
were fated to learn the truth of the maxim that high in
terest means bad security.
The Earl of Pembroke, Lord High SteAvard, had died in
January, 1650, but the Council took no steps to fill the
Aracancy for upwards of a year, although CroniAvell's sojourn
in the city had in the meantime afforded an opportunity of
following the usual practice of appointing a person of in
fluence in the Government. At a meeting on March 4th
Sir Henry Vane Avas elected on the accustomed conditions.
The minutes indicate that Cromwell Avas nominated, but
that his candidature Avas AvithdraAvn before the question
Avas put, a large majority of those jiresent being Presby
terians. The new High SteAvard visited Bristol in November,
1654, Avhen the long friendship betwixt himself and the
Protector had changed to violent enmity. He was lodged
at the Bell Inn, and Avas complimented by the Corporation
Avith a banquet. Mr. Barrett has perpetrated a gross
blunder in placing the name of Cromwell in his list of
Lord High Stewards, apparently through reliance upon
some Avorthless calendar. Further proof of Vane's occtt-
jiation of the office, Avill be found under 1658.
An ordinance of a somewhat puzzling character Avas
passed by the Common Council in June, 1651. After
setting forth that the number of " hot water houses " had
greatly increased of late years, and that they Avere used

1651]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

and frequented as common tippling houses, insomuch as
divers persons spent their time and money m drunkenness
to the scar lal of the city, the neAV law ordained that vendors
of hot water should not suffer any person to continue drink
ing hot water in their houses, or set up any seats m their
shops for that purpose, under a penalty of 6s. 8d. ;^ and
persons found drinking were to forfeit 3s. Ad. Hot
Avater" really meant ardent spirits, and it Avould apjiear
from this ordinance that the sale of such liquors was not
customary in inns and taverns, but confined to a special
class of retailers.
The Corporation, in August, established a "passage, or
ferry, for men and horses, from Temjde Back to the St.
Philip's shore of the Avon, to the great accommodation of
the increasing population of those districts. The jtroject
Avas really duo to an unnamed individual, Avho had set up
a ferry boat there Avithout asking the leaA-e of the authori
ties, and was ignominiottsly driven off for his pains. The
place, styled Bathavon, Avas let on the first occasion for
five years, at an annual rent of 40s. A century later the
rental Avas about £150.
The advance of Charles II. at the head of a Scotch army
to Worcester, and his expected march on Bristol, aroused
intense excitement in the closing Aveek of August, awaken
ing the hopes of the Royalists and the terror of their
opponents. The Council of State, Avriting on the 24th
to the Commissioners of Militia for Bristol. Somerset, and
Wilts, gave them urgent directions to draw out all the
available forces of horse and foot for the defence of the
city, " being of extraordinary importance " ; and to secure
malignants and suspected persons, together with their
horses, arms, and ammunition. By another despatch the
Commissioners Avere ordered to fake immediate stejis to
improve, tho fortifications, and an existing document shows
that £320 Avere expended for this purpose Avithin a feAv
days. Governor Scrope Avas further instructed to get the
ships in port sent doAvn to Kingroad, so as to be out of
danger of surprisal if the enemy approached. AVhateA'er
discontent might have been provoked by the proceedings
of the party in power — and it Avas jirobably deep and wide
spread — Bristolians generally had no relish for a jjossible
domination of semi-barbarous Scotchmen, and showed Augour
and alacrity in arming to prevent it. On August- 29th,
Avhilst the issue Avas still in doubt, the Council of State.
addressing the Mayor, Governor, Common Council, ami

2;i4

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1651
Militia authorities, expressed their thanks for the readiness
and zeal chsj)laycd by the inhabitants for the preservation
of the toAvn. A laudatory resolution to the same effect
was passed by the House of Commons, and another by the
Common Council. Cronrwell's OA^erAvhelming victory on
September 3rd put an end to the crisis.
The escape of the young King after his defeat has been
the theme of many disquisitions, but its local incidents may
be disposed of briefly. Disguised as a servant attending
upon a lady named Lane, the fugitive rode Avith her through
Gloucestershire upon Avhat Avas called a double horse, ap
proached Bristol by way of Sodbury, Winterbourne, and
Stapleton, and must have entered the city by Lawford's
Gate. Lord Clarendon relates an idle story about the King
bemg unable to forbear carrying his assumed mistress far
out of the Avay, in order to ride around the place where
the Great Fort had stood. The historian Avas perhaps
thinking of the Castle, but as a matter of fact both the
h ort and the Castle Avere standing unaltered Avhen the visit
took jdace, and both, as the last paragraph testifies, were
garrisoned by troops of men Avhose suspicion of Avandering
strangers it Avould have been madness to arouse. A more
reasonable supposition is that the King— if he did not cross
Bristol Bridge, Avhich Avould have been hazardous — made
his Avay to Rownham with all the haste consistent Avith
safety, crossed the Avon by the ferry, which then accom
modated horses, and arrived a few minutes later at Leigh
Court, the seat of a country squire named Norton, whose
Avife was a relative of Miss Lane. NotAvithstanding a
pompous epitaph in Abbots' Leigh church eulogising Mr.
Norton's eager loyalty in harbouring and entertaining the
King at the risk of his oavii life, and in despite of the
attempt of some local scribblers to do honour to the lord
of Ashton Court by bringing him also into the secret, it is
certain that Miss Lane kept her relatives in profound
ignorance of the rank of her pretended groom, and left
Leigh Avith him on her further perilous journey towards
the south coast, Avhence he found an ojiportttnity to
escajie. Amongst the many novelties iiiA'ented by the Republicans
during their brief tenure of power Avas the introduction into
election proceedings of voting by ballot. At a meeting of
the Council in November it Avas " agreed that the election
of officers and all ordinances hereafter to be made by the
Common Council shall be by billets, balls, or tickets in

16511

IN THE SEA'ENTEENTH CENTURA'.

235

Avriting, denominating the party, or, by assenting or gain
saying any order or not by I or noe."
Mr. Edmund Prideattx, Avho had become Attorney-General
after his election as Recorder, resigned his connection Avith
the city in November, Avhen the celebrated Bulstrode
Whitelock, Serjeant at Law, 'and afterAvards Keeper of the
Great Seal, Avas appointed to the vacant office.
A corjiorate ordinance, undated, but inserted inthe records
between an order of August, 1651, and another of June,
1652, affords definite information as to the issue of the Avell-
knoAvn Bristol farthings of the Common Avealth'period. After
reciting the permission granted by Queen Elizabeth to the
Mayor and Aldermen to coin square farthings, the ordinance
states that through the omission for some years to exercise
this jnivilege, some shopkeepers had taken upon them to
make and vend small farthing tokens for exchange in their
trades, Avhich, not being alloAved to jiass generally, were
found to be a great prejudice to the poor. In consideration
whereof, the Mayor and Aldermen had set on foot the
making of new hrass farthings, round, and circumscribed
" A Bristoll Farthing " on one side and " The armes of
Bristoll " on the other, which Avere alloAved to pass Avithin
the city, all others being suppressed as ttnlaAvfttl. And to
the end that none should suffer loss by the neiv issues, the
Mayor and Aldermen had proclaimed their general use in
the city, and undertook to accept them at the rate of four
for a penny for any quantity. Contemporary memoranda
in other books state that Alderman AldAvorth. M.P., initiated
the movement, obtained the sanction of the Council of State,
and procured the round stamp from Avhich the coins Avere
struck at. the Mint in London. And it Avould seem that he
Avas allowed to receive the profits deriA'ed from the issue.
In 1653 there is an item in the ciA'ic accounts: — "Paid
Alderman Aldworth £65 for farthings " ; but the charge is
not carried into the column of payments, for Avhich there is
a marginal explanation : — "This repaid again.", It will be
seen that the sum in question represents a coinage of up
wards of 62,000 farthings. Six A-arieties of these coins are
known to modern numismatists. They are all dated 1652,
but vary in slight details.
It Avill be remembered that in October, 1644, a forced loan
of £1,000 was extorted from the Corporation, or rather from
its chief Puritan members, for the assistance of the Royalist
party in Somerset. The Council, about the close of 'l 651.
threatened legal proceedings for the recovery of the money

2.30

TUB ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1651-52

from the gentry of Somerset Avho had given bonds for its
repayment, many of whom had saved their estates from con
fiscation only by the payment of heavy fines for their
" malignity." The borroAvers necessarily submitted, the
chief contributors toAvards paying off the debt being Sir
Thomas Bridges, Sir EdAvard Rodney, and Mr. Speke. The
Corporation had, at an earlier period, lent £500 to the
Puritan gentry of Wilts and. Somerset, payment of which
Avas demanded in 1 653-4. Colonel Alexander Popham for-
Avardcd £300, " being his proportion," and subsequently sent
£106 more, which had probably been collected from other
squires, as his steAvard received a gratuity of £10 " for his
pains." Early in 1652, one Major Samuel Clark, Avho had
abandoned a military life for commercial pursuits, but had
neglected an indispensable preliminary to local trading, got
into trouble Avith the Corporation. Being a mere " foreigner,"
he had, it appears, presumed to bargain for, and purchase, a
quantity of fruit imported by another " foreigner," and on
the discovery of this enormity, the goods Avere fortliAvith
confiscated as " foreign bought and foreign sold." The
culprit having apjilied for some relief, the Council resolAred
in March that if he Avould pay £30, and satisfy the Sheriffs
for their dues, he should be admitted a free burgess aud have
his goods restored. Soon after it Avas found that the fruit
had been seriously damaged during its long detention, and
the fine Avas reduced to £20, which Clark paid. About this
timetAVO other " foreigners," before being alloAved to carry
on trade, were required to pay fines of £50 each, and in
1654-5 a third stranger Avas mulcted £66 13s. Ad., equivalent
to over £250 in modern currency.
The reneAved misdoings of Mr. Morgan, of Pill, or rather
< if the son of the obstinate gentleman referred to in previous
pages, Avere reported to the Common Council in June, 1652.
It Avas stated that in despite of the former decree of the
Court of Exchequer, and of the demolition of the alehouses
erected on the river bank, the landoAvner or some of his tenants
Avere raising fresh buildings at the same place, to the
prejudice of navigation. It Avas ordered that a jieremjitory
notice should be sent to Morgan to desist, and to demolish
Avhat had been built. FolloAving the custom of his family,
Morgan set tho Corjioration at defiance, and, though the
civic minutes are strangely destitute of information on the
subject, another action against him Avas raised, and another
judgment in favour of the prosecutors jironounced after a

1652]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

237

jjrotracted litigation. In the State Papers for _16»7 is a
petition of divers sailors and shipAvrights of Pill to the
justices of Somerset, setting forth an order of the Court of
Exchequer for the demolition of their houses fronting the
river, " to the titter undoing of themselves and families of
fifty persons," and praying that the order be not executed,
as the petitioners must otherwise perish under hedges. The
justices had doubtless forwarded the petition to the Govern
ment, Avith Avhat result does not appear.
A calendar in the Council House mentions a quaint fact
that apparently occurred during the summer : — " Christ
Church spire iioav pointed, and an iron spear whereon the
cock standeth Avas set up in the old one's place, av hereon was
a roasting pig eaten." The lucidity of the statement leaves
something to be desired.
The picturesque almshouses in King Street belonging to
St. Nicholas's parish had their origin at this period. The
parishioners having petitioned the Council for the grant of
a plot of land on Avhich they might build an almshouse^the
Chamber, in June, ordered that a piece of ground sufficient
for this purpose should be laid out under the city wall, in
the Marsh, near Back Gate, and should be conveyed in per
petuity at a chief rent of 6s. 8d. per annum. An additional
plot, including a round tower on the toAvn Avail, was granted
in 1656. The almshouse was one of the first buildings
erected on the line of what was subsequently to become
King Street, and, until 1663, the almsfolk had a pleasant
outlook on the green Marsh and the busy Avon.
Amongst the multifarious losses of the Corjioration
brought about by the Civil War, the diminished income
derived from tho Castle Precincts Avas a not inconsiderable
bereavement. Through military exigencies after the Castle
became a garrison in 16-1.3, a number of houses surrounding
the. Keep Avero entirely sAvept aAvay, many others Avere
burned or rendered uninhabitable by the soldiers, and
rentals of course disappeared. On the other hand, heavy
incumbrances accumulated in connection with the fee-farm
rents originally clue to the Crown, but since, as has been
shown, transferred to private hands. The two ancient fee-
farms were OAving for the three years ending 1650 (jwrevious
to the purchase by Alderman Vickris), and the debt amounted
to £435 10s. ; and £140 Avere due for three and a half years'
fee-farm of the Castle, ending March, 1651, Avhen this
charge Avas jmrchased by OliA'cr Wallis. In April, 1651,
the Council appointed a committee to consider Avhat could

23S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1 052

be dono toAvards ¦ restoring the Castle estate to its former
value, and likeAvise to seek for a remission of the debt due
to the State. If the silence of the minute-books may bo
taken as evidence, the committee took no steps in either
direction ; and a crisis arose in November, 1652, when it
appears, from a letter of one Collins, a State official, to
Alderman Joseph Jackson, that the Government had taken -
proceedings for the recovery of the arrears, and that a
distraint on corporate lands' Avas imminent. The Avritcr
stated that he Avould allow 2s. bd. in tho pound, or about
£70, for taxes, provided the debt Avas fortliAvith liquidated,
but not otherwise. It must have been about this point
that a petition of tho Corporation, a cojiy of Avhich is pre
served Avithout date or address, Avas sent up to Westminster,
setting forth the grievous hardships under Avhich the civic
body Avas suffering. Nearly all the houses in the Castle
Precincts had been demolished, and nearly eleven years'
rentals entirely lost. (Another paper estimates the total
loss from these causes at £3,000.) The petitioners therefore
jirayed that they might be released from the arrears, " and
from jiayment in time to come," including in this extra
ordinary request the rent clue to Wallis, Avho Avas also
stteing them for arrears amounting to £100. The jietition
Avas considered by the House of Commons on Ajiril 5th,.
1653, within a feAV clays of its memorable dismissal by
Cromwell, when it Avas resolved that the arrears of the fee-
farms due to the CommonAvealth should be discharged, and
that £100 should be paid to the city in consideration of the
use made of the Castle by the army (in other Avords, to
Avipe off Wallis's claim). It Avas further resolved that the
fortress should be fortliAvith dismantled and the city disgar-
risoned. These resolutions Avere treated Avith scant resjiect
by the coming dictator. In 1656 the Corjioration Avere
compelled to jiay Wallis £200 for five years' arrears, and in
September of the same year, the laAv officials of the Govern
ment seized the corporate estates in Somerset to recover
the toAvn fee-farm arrears, amounting as before to £435.
Another urgent appeal for relief having been then made to
the Council of State, that body advised the Protector to
pardon the debt in consonance Avith the above resolution of
Parliament, and this Avas eventually done. The sharji
State accountants, however, discovered that another year's
arrears — for the period ending Michaelmas, 1647 — had been
overlooked, and a fresh claim Avas sent doAvn for £145. But
on an appeal, iu October, Cromwell remitted this debt also.

1052 1

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

2)39

Two ordinances regulating trade Comjianies Avere ja&ssed
by the Council in 1652. The rules for the Barber-surgeons'
fraternity provided that no barber should emjdoy a " for
eigner" as journeyman, unless Avith the license of tho
Mayor, on jiain of forfeiting 4-O.v. a month, nor was any one,
under the same penalty, to open tvvo shojjs for " barbing or
Vshaving." A chirurgeon taking the patient of another
member out of his hands without his consent Avas to be
fined 20s. The other ordinance decreed that the Tobacco-
pi po Makers' Company 'should consist of twenty-five mem
bers, from Avhich it may be assumed that the export of
pipes, afterwards considerable, had already commenced.
Any inhabitant, not a pipe-maker, presuming to buy iime
clay to sell again Avas threatened with a penalty of 20s.
_ The earliest mention of a Baptist congregation in the
city occurs in 1652. The members had separated from the
dissenting body referred to at page 151, Avhose " Records"
note that " divers of the church Avere baptised in a river " 
probably the Froom. (The statement in Mr. Hunt's history
of the city that "the neAV secession has left its mark in the
name Baptist Mills, where a wholesale immersion took place
iu January, 1667," is based on a silly fable. A map of the
eastern suburbs, drawn in 1609, nearly half a century
before the neAV sect arose in Bristol, styles the place in
question Baptist Mills, and there can be no question that it
is identical Avith the Bagpaths Mill mentioned by William
Worcester about 1480.) The Baptists worshipped in the
Pithay, where they built the first Nonconformist chapel in
Bristol, some remains of Avhich are still standing. About
this time, the original sect met Aveekly at tho house of
Dennis 1 loll is tor, a prosperous grocer in High Street, in
Avhom the Common Council placed much confidence, and
who, jiorhaps on that account, Avas nominated by OroniAvoll
in 1653 as a member of the Little, or Barbone's Parliament.
He, Avas also, for a Avhile, one of the Council of State.
The, honours conferred on Hollister led to unexpected
results, Avhich are noted Avith some acerbity in the " Broad-
mead Records," and may here be conveniently summarised
by a, slight deviation from chronological order. Whilst
in London, say bis critics, he "sucked in some upstart
doctrines " from the sect of Quakers, avIio had fust sprung
up through tho preaching of George. Fox ; and upon bis
venting these "poisonous" notions 'alter his return, "the.
Church" shook tho dust off their feet at his doorstep, and
Avent to his house no more. Shortly afterwards (July,

24(»

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1652

1654), to the great horror of his old conrpanions, Hollister
entertained two missionary Quakers Avho had Avandered
here from Kendal, and countenanced them in visiting the
Independent and Baptist meetings and preaching their
" damnable doctrines, Avhich Avere strongly suspected to be
the iuvention of Jesuits or other Papists. To make matters
Avorse, Hollister's example had already allured aAvay about
tAventy members of " the Church," previously diminished
by the Baptist secession, andmow reduced to less than sixty
faithful. The Quakers at the above visit had preached
only on one day, having a pressing call to Plymouth. But
they must have caused a great sensation, for in the folloAV-
ing September, Avhen one of them returned, accoinjianied
by a convert as illiterate but as zealous as himself, frequent.
services were held at the Red Lodge, the Great Fort, and
the open fields, in the presence, according to a Quaker
pamphleteer, of " two, three, nay sometimes near four
thousand people." Such spectacles were not calculated to
calm the exasperation of other sects and parties. "The
jiriests and rulers," writes the Quaker aforesaid, with
"Puritans, Presbyterians, Independents, Notionists, Ranters,"
were for once in complete accord in their revilings and
reproaches, and "the rude rabble of ignorant" re-echoed
their cries. The Common Council, inspired by the general
animosity, summoned the Quaker orators in October, and,
after a sharp examination, angrily ordered them to leave
the city ; but this they refused to do, alleging that the
mandate was contrary to law. And so, in despite of some
being committed to prison, they Avent on with their meet
ings although they could not appear in the streets without
being molested by people of every rank, from gentlemen
to errand boys: "abused, dirted, stoned, pinched, kicked,
and otherwise greatly injured." It must be added, in
fairness to the persecutors, that the acrimonious and in
sulting language used by the preachers was exceedingly
irritating, and that their conduct was as perverse and
provoking as their speech. On December 10th, a Quakeress
named Marshall entered "Nicholas steeple house," where
the Mayor Avas attending service, and, after denouncing the
minister, Ralph Farmer, as a " dumb shepherd," proceeded
to bestoAV her oavii eloquence on the congregation until she
Avas driven cut of the church, and received a pelting from
the croAvd gathered outside. A similar disturbance took.
place at " Philip's steeple house" on the afternoon of the
same day, the offenders being Iavo Quakers. A Aveek later,

1652]

IN THI3 SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

241

at the cathedral, Mrs. Marshall turned up again, and raised
such a tumult by her invectives against the minister that
she Avas committed to Newgate. Next day an alarming
riot occurred in Wine Street, owing to the pojmlaee having
got hold of the two leading Quaker preachers, Avhose
jihilippics had aroused the wrath of the mob. Soon after-
Avards, on a market-day, an enthusiast named Sarah Gold
smith clothed herself in sackcloth, leaving her legs bare,
covered her flowing hair with ashes, paraded in this guise
through all the Gates of the city, and finally exhibited her
self at the High Cross, in company Avith two female admirers,
" as a sign against the, pride of Bristol." As her procession
through the streets had attracted a delighted throng of
youthful idlers and other mischief-makers, the spectacle
naturally ended in a protracted tumult, and the three
Avomen were saved from deadly peril only by the exertions
of the magistrates, avIio, after enduring Sarah's flighty
harangues, committed them to Bridewell for a feAV days — a
sentence Avhich a Quaker pamphleteer denounced as iniqui
tous. Many other disturbances arising out of Quaker
outbreaks in churches are recorded, but the above cases are
fair illustrations of what Avas a constant source of offence.
Although the Quakers admitted no weapon but the tongue,
they seldom failed to use it unsparingly. To return to
Dennis Hollister, avIio provoked this digression. In 1656,
u moved by the Evil One," say the Broadmead Records,
Hollister fulminated a pamphlet, entitled "The skirts of
the Whore discovered," against "the Independent baptised
people avIio call themselves a church of Christ, but are a
synagogue of Satan," in Avhich it Avas casually stated that
a Quakeress — a deserter, like the, Avriter, from 'the original
llock— had been whipped and imprisoned in Bridewell for
" testifying " in their mooting— in plain terms, reviling the
preacher and his hearers. " The church," adds the Broad-
mead scribe, Avas fain to put forth an answer, in Avhich
Hollister was complimented with the title of " Satan in-
throned in the Chair of Pestilence." Whereupon the
Quakers, " moved by Jesuits." made irruptions into the
parish churches, in Avhich Nonconformist ministers then
preached, and yelled at them as hireling deceivers, never

be

en

ceasing to scream until they Avere forcibly expelled.
The gallantry of General Blake as a soldier lias
already briefly noted. The Somerset hero Avas at, this period
Avinning imperishable, fame as a naval commander. In
September, 1(552, he dealt a heavy blow at the Dutch fleet,
i;

242

THK ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1653

sinking several vessels, and chasing the rest to their oavii
coast ; but this success Avas eclipsed by his brilliant victory
over Van Tromp in February, 1653, Avhen, Avith only sixty
ships against eighty, he captured seventeen of the enemy s
men-of-war, together Avith fifty merchantmen. The news
of the restored naval sujiremacy of England Avas received in
Bristol, as everyAvhere, with transports of delighted pride ;
and no time Avas lost in collecting subscriptions for the
relief of those Avounded in the action. The Mayor's Calendar
records that £200 and much good linou Avero at once gathered
and sent to Weymouth and other ports, earning a grateful
letter of thanks from the Speaker of the House of Commons.
The civic scribe appears from the State Papers to have un
derstated the charity of the inhabitants. A naval agent at
Southampton,Avritiiig to the Admiralty on March 3rd, says :—
" The Sheriff of Bristol has brought in £250, collected there
for the sick and wounded " ; and the corporate audit book
shows that £200 were carried to Weymouth by Sheriff
Blackwell. Notwithstanding Blake's triumph and the con
sequent prize money, the demand for sailors to recruit the
fleet aroused strong local discontent. In the Record Office
is a letter of two naval agents in Bristol, stating that they
found much difficulty in getting seamen on account of
disaffection and unwillingness. The Mayor had readily
assisted, and had impressed 164, but many of the men
escaped ; other self-interested magistrates complained that
the port was being plundered of sailors ; and some masters
of Bristol ships had carried off part of the impressed seamen.
The subscription for the wounded tars had scarcely been
disposed of before another urgent call was made on public
benevolence. On April 28th a fire broke out at Marl
borough, which, from the general use of thatch for roots
rapidly spread over nearly the whole town about 1,500
people being unhoused. The calamity excited great sym
pathy and £227 were contributed in Bristol. The fact would
have been unknown to us but for two small items m the
civic audit book, noting the expenses of the Chamberlain,
Swordbearer, and a sergeant, whose outlay on a three days
journey amounted to £2 18s. 6d., including bs. "for a port-
mantle and pillion to carry the money." .
'Hie royal licenses for exporting tanned call-skins and
Welsh butter, frequently noticed in previous pages, were
not abrogated by the Long Parliament, part y, perhaps,
owiie- to' tho benefit which the landed interest derived Irom
the suspension ol' the old laws prohibiting such exports, and

1653]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

243

partly from the absence of complaints from other classes.
The only action taken by the House of Commons on the
subject ,was to insert calf-skins and butter in the regular
Customs tariff as dutiable articles, and licenses to export
were granted to the Bristol merchants. This arrangement
went on quietly for some years ; but in the State Papers
for February 8th, 1653, is a petition of the Merchant Ven
turers' Society to the House of Commons, complaining that,
although they had conformed to the licenses and paid the
Customs duty, they had been repeatedly informed against
by one Michael Moasy, Avho grounded his prosecutions on
the old statutes prohibiting exports of the above articles,
and that judgment against them at his suit would be ap-
jibed for that day in the Court of Exchequer. Being put
to very great straits and likely to be undone by these
suits, which also threatened ruin to tho Avhole commerce of
Bristol, they prayed for the interference of the House. The
Commons responded by an order to the judges, directing
Measy's suit to be dismissed. After the disappearance of
the Long Parliament Measy revived his prosecutions, and
in 16o,> he obtained a second judgment nisi, Avhen the Mer
chants' Society applied for relief to the Council of State, by
whoso order the actions were quashed. Nothing daunted,
and having the statute law clearly on his side. Measy, in
lbob, petitioned the Government in his turn, alleging that
he m conjunction with Hugh Lewis (son of the original
calf-skm patentee), had been prosecuting the merchants for
many years, at a cost of £1,000, on account of their exports
being in excess of their licenses. The petitioner was now
ruined and Lewis had died in utter misery. But if the
Council would allow a new suit to be carried to judgment
m the Court of Exchequer, the petitioner would obtain
relief, aud £20,000 a year would be added to the national
revenue. Although the Council of State responded by
ordering Measy to drop his prosecution, the irrepressible
litigant drew up another appeal. In this document he
alleged that Lewis raised the first suit for excessive exports
iu t!> 43 ; that when the King recovered Bristol in that year
the merchants, out of spite, denounced Lewis to Lord Hop-
ton as a rebel, when he was plundered by the soldiery ; and
that when Fairfax captured the city, "in 1645, the same
merchants denounced Lewis as a malignant to Parliament
by which ho lost his office of Searcher in tho Custom House'
the Merchants' Society, moreover, discontinued to pay the
rent due to Lewis under his patent, and he died wiihimt a

244

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1653

penny. The petitioner, having lent £500 freely to Parlia
ment, therefore prayed that the law might at length have
its course. The only reply being a repetition of the pre
vious order, Measy made a final effort by laying his grievances
before the Protector, but met with no better success, and
then disappears into darkness. The above is but a brief
summary of the voluminous pajiers in the Record Office.
It is only too certain that the merchants availed themselves
of Lewis's patent to make large illegal gains, and treated
the patentee himself with exceeding harshness.
At the Somerset quarter sessions in January, 1(553, the
justices drew up a memorial to tho Committee of Parliament,
representing that they had been informed by the minister
and chief inhabitants of Bedminster, and had, many of them,
jiersonal knowledge, that in September, 1645, the church of
that parish was burned doAvn by Prince Rupert's soldiers,
aud thereby made unserviceable for the Avorship of 800
inhabitants, and that the rebuilding of the edifice Avould
not cost less than £3,500, which the parishioners, most of
Avhose clAA'ellings the troops likewise destroyed, were unable
to bear. Their worships therefore prayed the Committee
to empoAver the parish to collect the charitable benevolence
of the Avell-disposed toAvards reconstruction. Nothing ap
pears to have been done, however, until after the Restora
tion, when the Royalists, naturally ashamed of Rupert's
ha\-oc, began the work of rebuilding, and completed an
extremely ugly edifice in 1663. In Tovey's " Life of Colston "
the desecration of Bedminster church is characteristically
laid to the charge of Puritan fanatics.
The odd ideas of the age in reference to the responsibili
ties of a municipal corporation are illustrated by a vote of
the Common Council on March 4th, 1653. The secrets of
the House, says the minute, having been divulged by some
members, Avhereby contentions and animosities have been
occasioned in the city, " Ordered, that any member divulg
ing matters on Avhich secrecy has been enjoined in debate
shall forfeit £10, to be recovered by distress, or imprison
ment until he Jiay."
The memorable dismissal of the remnant of the House of
Commons by Cromwell took place in April. About six
Aveeks later, on June 6th, the imperious Lord General issued
summonses to 144 jiersons, "having assurances [from the
local Puritan churches] of their love to God and interest in
His people," requiring them to appear at Whitehall on the
4th July, and to take upon them the trust of legislators.

1653]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

245

Tho member nominated for Bristol, as has been already
stated, Avas Dennis Hollister. The "Little Parliament,"
mockingly styled "Barebones"' from the unlucky name of
Barbone, one of the members for London, was soon torn by
internal dissensions, and surrendered its functions in the
following December.
Although statutes had been long in force prohibiting the
groAvth of tobacco in England, the profits of the culture
and the widespread love of "the Aveed " caused them to be
often violated, especially in Gloucestershire. In 1652 the
House of Commons passed a fresh ordinance interdicting
cultivation, and authorizing any one to destroy the jilan-
tations ; but this was felt as a grievance in the district, and
a number of petitions were sent up for its repeal, one of
Avhich, signed by the Mayor of Bristol, alleged that riots
had been caused by the attempts made by certain persons
to destroy the crops. Accordingly, the Barbone Parlia
ment in August, 1653, resolved that a duty of 3d. per
pound on all tobacco produced in Gloucestershire should be
paid by the groAvers, Avho should reap the profits of the
cultivation for that year only without molestation, after
which planting was to be stopped. The cultivation,
hoAvever, Avent on as before. In June, 1655, the Govern
ment issued an order to the army officers in Gloucestershire,
Somerset, and Bristol, commenting on the preA'alenc6 and
persistency of the unlawful industry, and ordering them to
assist the persons authorized to destroy the plantations,
and to suppress the tumults of those avIio might oppose
them. Serjeant Whitelock's inability to fulfil the functions of
Recorder OAving to the pressure of his duties in the Court
of Chancery had been borne Avith patiently for some time ;
but all prospect of his immediate services being lost by his
appointment as Ambassador to Sweden, the Common Coun
cil resolved in September that a letter should be forAvarded
requesting his resignation. The missive, which Avas couched
in flattering terms, pointed out that several gentlemen avIio
had been elected aldermen, as well as the neAvly appointed
Chamberlain, could not fulfil their offices until they had been
SAvorn in before the Recorder, according to the charter.
Moreover, through the illness of the Town Clerk, quarter
sessions could not be held, and the course of justice had
been thus obstructed for two successive years, Avliilst the
Chamber was in constant Avant of counsel. The letter ends
Avith a clumsily framed remark that the Council did not

24(5 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1653
doubt that his lordship " Avill as favourably resent your
resignation as it is unwilling but very necessary requested."
NotAvithstanding this appeal, Serjeant Whitelock did not
relinquish the office until May, 1655. The delay maj"- have
been due to the action of the Council of State, avIio in
October, 1653, directed Dennis Hollister to move Parliament
for the appointment, as Deputy-Recorder during White-
lock's absence, of John Haggett, who was probably nomi
nated accordingly. The gaol delivery in 1654 was held by
Whitelock in person.
A temporary quarrel between the Corporation and the
Merchants' Society, arising out of the excessive eagerness
of the latter to make profit out of the Welsh butter mono
poly, vvas noted at page 149. A misunderstanding on the
same subject again occurred at tho period under revieAv.
The merchants were desirous that the Council should con
tinue its long-established practice of buying butter whole
sale and retailing it. at- a slight loss, because the system
kept down the price of the article in the local market, and
so enabled them to export under the terms of their license.
But they raised a complaint when the corporate purchases
were made in Welsh butter, because the quantity they
desired to ship abroad was thereby diminished to their
"prejudice." Seeking a way out of the difficulty, the
Mayor and Aldermen issued an ordinance in October,
ordering the merchants to thenceforth pay one shilling
per kilderkin on the butter brought in from Wales for
exportation, the receipts from this source to be ajrplied
to the use of the poor. The difference subsequently became
acute. On June (5th, 1654, the Mayor and Aldermen adop
ted another ordinance, setting forth that the buying up of
large stocks of butter for export purposes had greatly raised
the price, to the injury of the poor, and Avas contrary to
precedents, by which such purchases were prohibited unless
the market juice Avas at or under 3d. per pound. Where
fore the water bailiff Avas ordered to search and detain all
ships that had more butter on board than was required for
the crews. The merchants, who had evidently refused to
pay the tax of a shilling per kilderkin, but were poAverless
to resist the drastic measure of the justices, and perhaps
dreaded the loss of their patent if their illegal practices
came to the ears of the Government, hoav found it necessary
to come to terms ; and an agreement Avasmade under Avhich
Sd. per kilderkin avds to be paid on the butter brought from
Wales, the proceeds to bo aj)j)lied for the benefit of the jioor.

1653]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA".

247

Trading in butter was thenceforth abandoned by the Cor-
jDoration. Several Bristol privateers Avere commissioned in Sep
tember, 1(553. Robert Yeamans equijiped the Robert,
Gabriel Deane and Thomas Speed (a Quaker) the Richard
and Mary, Major Samuel Clark the Hart, Richard Ste
phens the Jane, and Thomas Leigh the Elizabeth. Fran
cis Bailey, a notable local shipbuilder, made a contract
with the Government in October to build a frigate of 400
or 500 tons, afterwards called tho Nantwich, at £5 5s.
per ton. Ho Avas building another, the Islip, when this
agreement was effected. In the following May, in re
porting progress to the Navy Board, Bailey begged for an
order to enable him to jiay his Avorkmen more than tAvo
shillings a day Avithout being liable to the jienalty of £10
and ten days' imprisonment imposed by the Mayor on all
who paid more. The Islip Avas launched soon after
wards, and Avas reported by the Collector of Customs to be
" the best of her rate in England," and by a naval captain
as " the best sailer he ever saAv." The NantAvich, delayed
from Avant of money, Avas launched in March, 1655. The
above facts are extracted from the State Papers, local
annalists treating the subject as unAvorthy of record.
The proposed tax for the benefit of the jjarochial ministers
being still suspended, the Council of State issued an order
in October for the payment to John KnoAvles, preacher at
the cathedral, and to others, ministers of parishes, of " their
several augmentations from first fruits and tenths." The
State Papers give, no further information on the subject.
HoAvever bitter might be the political dissensions of the
inhabitants, they ahvays showed a laudable unanimity in
maintaining the liberties and privileges of the city. The
"Book of Remembrances " in (he Council House contains a
copy of a petition addressed in October to " His Excellency
Oliver Cromwell, Captain General of the armies." "The
great exjierience Ave have had," say the memorialists. " of
your indefatigable care and endeavouring for the good of
the_ nation in general, and of this place in particular,
inyiteth us to make our address unto you Avith a humble
desire." After a little more exordium, the citizens pray
that Cromwell Avill " promote their request to Parliament
and tho Council of State that in all acts and decrees the.
city may remain a distinct county, according to the Charter
of Edward 111., and that they may have all manner of
justice administered at their oavii doors." The explanation

2-18

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1663-54

of this a2JPeal seems to be that in the commissions for hold
ing the customary 'summer assizes, Bristol, instead of being
recognised as a separate county, had been treated as if it
were part of Somerset.
The early plans of Bristol, as is apparent from a cursory
insjiection of them, Avere rude attemjits made by unskilled
persons to delineate the prominent features of the toAvn,
regardless of details and proportions. The fact that some
of them represent the Castle as entirely surrounded by
Avater sIioavs Iioav little the designers Avere acquainted Avith
the locality. About the close of 1653 the Corporation
directed one Philip Stninred, supposed to have been a land-
suiweyor, to make a ucav plan of the city, and jierhaps,
amongst the numerous civic documents that have perished
in the course of centuries, the loss of this Avork is the most
to be regretted. The cost of it cannot be stated, the sur-
A-eyor's charge being lumped Avith the outlay for perambulat
ing the boundaries ; but the total amount of the item is only
£5 9s. The Council Avere so pleased Avith Stainred's labours
that they afterAvards commissioued him to " ainplyfy the
map," for which he Avas jiaid £1 Is. 8cZ.
On Bristol becoming a garrison toAvn at the outbreak of
the CiA'il War, the nightly Avatch previously maintained Avas
abolished, in order to lighten the taxation imjiosed on house
holders. The troojis having been for the most jiart removed,
the Common Council, in February,- 1654, resolved that the
ordinance of 1621 for the regulation of the nightly Avatch
should be revived on March 1st folloAving. On the morning
of the clay on which this resolution Avas passed, a serious
fire had occurred in Wine Street, Avhen the absence of any
provision for protecting property and suppressing disorder
must have been painfully felt. Another ordinance that had
long been practically obsolete, forbidding the boiling of
talloAv, oil and pitch in houses in the heart of the city, was
also reviA'ed at the same meeting.
A combination of avooc! and faggot dealers, alleged to have
been formed for the purpose of inordinately raising the
price of fuel, Avas complained of by several inhabitants
before the magistrates in February. The bench immediately
ordered that all importers of such material should, before
landing their cargoes, acquaint the Mayor with the price
intended to be demanded from consumers, when permission
to land Avould be given only if the rates Avere deemed
reasonable. Complaint being also made of the huge jiiles
of fuel lying on the quays, it Avas ordered that no faggots, etc.,

1654]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

WL>

should be landed " above the lower brass post "—the earliest
mention of brazen pillars in that locality.
A magisterial record states that in February, Thomas
Hobson, innholder, and G. Linelle, gentleman, made oath
before the Mayor, that the Commonwealth Avas indebted
to the innholders of Bristol, for the quartering of soldiers,
in tho sum of £988 lis. bd., as certified by the committee of
Parliament Avhich had sat in the city. The affidavit appears
to have been required by the Government previous to the
discharge of tho debt.
Tho Council, in March, made one of its numerous, and
invariably abortive, efforts to jirovide remunerative, work
for unemployed children. It Avas determined on this
occasion to open a vvorkhouse in the Smiths' Hall (a portion
of the old Dominican Friary), in Avhich spinning and knit
ting Avere to be taught ; a hosier named Messenger having
undertaken to manage the place for ten years, on being
provided Avith sufficient stock ; his salary and the rent being
defrayed by the Chamber. The children Avere to be paid Avages
for their work, so that the parishes Avould be relieA'ed of the
cost of their maintenance, and in compensation the parochial
authorities were ordered to provide the necessary stock. All
Saints, " Nicholas," and Christ Church were required to con
tribute £20 each; "Thomas'," "John's" and Redcliff, £10
each ; " Stephen's," £6, and Temple, £4. The resolution Avas
foUoAved by a sort of proclamation addressed to the church-
Avardens and overseers, desiring them to see that unemployed
people Avere made to work, and that children were trained,
and to give information as to Avandering beggars and idle
children. Tho spinning scheme, however, Avas abandoned
soon after as unprofitable.
Tho " Smiths' and Cutlers1 Hull" mentioned in the above
paragraph appears to have been acquired by the Comjiany
during tho reign of Elizabeth, from the possessor of the
Friary estate, avIio sold it on a fee-farm rent of £3 3s. The
Company, in December, 1653, demised it to Giles Gough for
a term of sixty-one years, and the lease AA-as soon afterAvards
assigned to the Corporation, doubtless for carrying out their
industrial experiment. Subsequently, in 1664, the civic
body reassigned the lease to one Richard Baugh for a tiivial
consideration. The later history of this interesting relic of
tho Dominicans is given in the annals of the following
century. Although Cromwell had been proclaimed Protector iu
December, 1653, the Corporation incurred no expense in

250

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1654

notifying the event, and four meetings of the Council Avere
held Avithout any reference being made to the subject — a
circumstance only exjilicable by the discontent and semi-
hostility of the predominant Presbyterians in the Chamber.
At length, on May 2nd, a committee Avas appointed to pre
pare "a humble address and recognition" for presentation
to the neAAr head of the State^ and a few days later a deputa
tion Avas selected to carry it to AVhitehall. The affair seems
to have been conducted with a strict regard for economy.
The Chamberlain's expenses amounted only to £5, exclusive
of £1 Is. 8d "paid for a dinner, &e, on those that Avent
up." The genial and eultiA'ated diarist, John E\-elyn, jiaid a
brief visit to Bristol on the 30th June, during a sojourn at
Bath, and made a Icav interesting notes. He describes the
city as emulating London in its manner of building, its
shops, and Bridge ; but the Castle, over Avhich heAvas shown
by tbe GoA-eruor. he thought of " no great concernment."
Here, he adds, " I first- saAV the manner of refining sugar,
and casting it into loa\"es, Avhere Ave had a collation of eggs
fried in the sugar furnace, together Avith excellent Spanish
Avine ; but what Avas most stupendous to me Avas the rock of
St. Vincent, the jireci pice whereof is equal to anything of that
nature I have seen in the most confragous cataracts of the
Alps. Here Ave Avent searching for diamonds, and to the Hot
Wells at its foot. There is also on the side of this horrid
Alp a Arery remarkable seat " (the Giant's Cave? ).
An election of members of Parliament took place on July
12th, and excited great interest, four candidates offering
themselves to the constituency. The Presbyterian party
Avas represented by Robert Aldworth, Toavii Clerk, and
Alderman Miles Jackson, who had the support of the Cor
poration, and probably of many Royalists. The Indepen
dents and other sectaries favoured the pretensions of John
Haggett, Colonel of the city militia, but a laAvyer by pro-
fession, Avhose name has already occurred in connection with
the deputy -recordership, and of Captain George Bishop, a
leading Independent, Avho soon after became a Quaker.
Nothing is known as to the number of votes polled, but
Aldworth and Jackson Avere declared elected by the Sheriffs
amidst the protests of the opposite party, Avholostno time in
presenting a petition to the House of Commons against the re
turn. This document, signed by ninety- five citizens, asserted
that the. Sheriffs had encouraged those to vote who adhered
to the late. King, had insulted and threatened the petitioners,

1654]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

251

debarred some of them from voting, and had stigmatised
Haggett and Bishop as horse-stealersj " The Cavalier party
carried things as if Charles SteAvart were again enthroned."
Accompanying the petition Avas a deposition signed by the
rough-tongued Quaker, Dennis Hollister, asserting that Miles
Jackson, Avhilst the Royalists held Bristol, subscribed £30
toAvards the present to the King, and had signed the protes
tation condemning the bearing of arms against His Majesty
(acts notoriously done under threats of ruinous plundering].
In the State Papers is a letter of Governor Scrojie to the
Protector, coinciding with the allegations both of the
petitioners and of Hollister, and adding :— " I beg you to
consider the condition of the city, Avhich I never saAV in a
Avorse posture. The Mayor and Sheriffs cannot be trusted,
and Avere so insolent in the late election that it discouraged
the godly jjarty. One of them Avho had been in arms for the
late King declared that all such might vote. . . . The
enemies of God iioav exceedingly insult, and think to carry
all before them." The Corporation, on the other hand,
vigorously defended the neAV members, sending up to London
the Aldermen, Sheriffs, and numerous Councillors and officers.
In curious contrast with the parsimony displayed in for-
Avarding the address to Cromwell, the outlay on the election
¦delegates amounted to nearly £90. The petition, if it Avere
eA'er brought to a hearing, must have been dismissed.
Though the abo\'e Parliament Avas dissolved in the folloAv-
ing January, the "instructions" jirepared by the Corpora
tion for the guidance of the city members are of interest for
tho light they throw on the opinions of the majority of the
¦constituency. The representatives Avere desired, amongst
other things, to jiromote the spreading of the Cospcl in dark
jilaces, to settle the maintenance of ministers by tithes and
otherAvise, to establish order in the church, to relicA'e the
peojile of burdens and taxes, to obtain for the city the
restoration of the Castle, to rectify the mistake of the
Government officials in classifying Bristol as part of Somer
set, to procure an augmented income of £150 a year for the
¦college (cathedral), to get Bristol farthings exempted from
any general laAv dealing Avith small coins, to prevent
" foreigners " from keeping shojis iu the city to the jirejudice
of freemen, and lastly to jireA'eiit the groAvth of English
tobacco, which Avas to the "extraordinary prejudice" of
local trade ; " there being very vast quantities jilanted this
year, aud daily brought into this city."
An examjilo of the high-handed manner iu Avhich apoAver-

252 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1654
ful Corporation could in those days usurp private rights was
furnished at a Council meieting on August 25th. It must
be premised that iu or about the thirteenth century, the
house of Carmelite Friars on St. Augustine's Back, who
possessed a copious spring issuing near Brandon Hill, granted
the parishioners of St. John's a " feather " from their main
pipe (in Pipe Lane), Avhich feather was conducted to a
reservoir built against the church in Broad Street, and fur
nished the little parish Avitlv a good supply of water. On
the supjiression of the monasteries, the main conduit, with
the conventual buildings, passed into private hands, and in
1(554, the Great House, built on the site of the friary, having
fallen from its ancient grandeur, had recently been converted
into a sugar refinery by Mr. John Knight, junior, but of
course retained its former Avater supply. The Council,
alleging certain complaints from St. John's parish as to the
scarcity of water at the reservoir, maintained at the
above meeting, in flagrant defiance of truth, that all the
springs supjilying the city conduits, and consequently the
spring near Brandon Hill, Avere and always had been the
property of the Corporation ; that if a feather had ever
been granted to the Great House, of Avhich there was no
record, it was conceded only to a "private family," and that
the arrangement of the pipes in Pipe Lane, by which the
chief supply Avas diverted to the house, was a gross in
fringement of public rights ! The city plumber was there
fore ordered to cut the main pipe leading to the sugar
refinery, which was thenceforth to be supplied Avith a
feather, wdiile the bulk of the Avater was to be diverted to
the fountain at St. John's Church, the parish wardens being-
directed to superintend the operations. There can be no
doubt that Mr. Knight, avIio had not lived long in the city,
Avas ignorant of the true history of the spring, as he made
a " humble submission " to the authorities, and sanctioned
the alterations commanded.
A week or tAvo after the above meeting, Mr. Knight was
ordered to jiay a fine of £100 for refusing to serve the
office of Common Councillor, to which he had been elected in
the previous year. (The fine was never paid, and he did not
enter the Council until 1664.) On the same day, John
Knight, senior, already mentioned as railing at " Parliament
rogues," Avas chosen a Councillor in the room of Luke
Hodges, ex-M.P., avIio had left the city. Though generally
styled senior and junior in the records, tho two men were, it
is probable, second or third cousins, the former being son of

1654]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

253

George Knight, mayor in 1639-40, the latter a grandson of
Francis Knight, mayor in 1594-5. Both afterwards served
as aldermen and mayors, bnt a distinction betAveen themAvas
effected at the Restoration, Avheii the senior of ,the tAvo
received the honour of knighthood, and was elected M.P.
Later on, when their sons, both named John,; became
merchants, and Avhen the son of the sugar refiner Avas also
dubbed a knight and elected Mayor and M.P., the confusion
in the minutes Avas extremely great, and has led local
historians into innumerable blunders.
The Council, in August, revived the old ordinance pro
hibiting A'essels of 100 tons and upwards from coining up to
the quays, a fine of £10 being imposed for disobedience. A
few days later the magistrates ordered the Avater-bailifF to
seize a ship called the Good Success, "forfeited to the Cor
poration " because the captain, being jiart oAvner, stood
charged Avith murder ! The order Avas subsequently re
scinded, it being found that the captain held no share in the
vessel. In June, 1661, the justices issued an order that all
vessels lying at the quays above 60 tons burden, " Avhich
tended to the utter spoiling of the harbour," should fall
doAvn to Hungroad Avithin fourteen days, on jiain, in each
default, of a fine of £20. This order Avas re-issued in 1666,
doubtless OAving to numerous infractions, and was finally
abolished in 1703 as confessedly obsolete.
One of the most unpopular of the Commonwealth enact
ments, especially amongst the fair sex, was the statute for
bidding marriages to be celebrated according to the liturgy
of the episcojial Church. On September 4th, a clergyman
named James Reed Avas committed for trial at the sessions,
for having, on his own confession, married two persons a feAv
clays previously "according to the old forms." Cases of the
sa.mo kind occurred in all parts of the kingdom, Avith the
natural effect of exciting sympathy Avith the so-called
offenders. The new system required, in lieu of the customarA'
banns announced in churches, the proclamation of the in
tended marriage on a market day for three Aveeks at a public
place, Avhich in Bristol Avas the High Cross.
The administration of the law in other directions can
hardly have tended to edification. In October, a black
smith of the city and a woman from TeAvkesbury, having
been convicted of incontinence, Avere ordered to be set on a
horse, back to back, and so exhibited through High Street.
Redcliff Street, Thomas Street, and Wine 'street, the bell
man preceding the culprits and proclaiming their crime.

2o4

THE ANNALS OF J1HTSTOL

[1654
The man was then to bo imprisoned until he found sureties
lor his good behaviour, and the woman whipped and sent
home; whilst the drunken alowiTe in whoso dwelling they
Avere found was to be put, in tho stocks for three hours, and
then committed for trial for keeping a disorderly house In
iSovomber, a butcher's Avife avus sent to tho stocks for three
hours for having m a passion uttered two profane oaths,
and her husband, for forcibly attempting to rescue her Avas
committed for trial. Further instances of people similarly
dealt Avith occur about tho samo time. A number of
persons Avere also fined, or committed to gaol until trial on
charges of having taken a stroll or carried a parcel o'n a
Sunday : and innkeepers or victuallers avIio allowed toAvns-
u o11! i*0.,0^' drmk' °r hny lill"ors iii their houses on the
Sabbath were heavily mulcted. By a magisterial ordi
nance, all tho conduits m the city were kept closed through
out the same day, and the parish constables were required
to lay informations against persons carrying water to their
homes, m order that the culprits might be brought up on
Mondays and Only punished. Still another order forbade
the plying of the ferry at Temple Back ou the Lord's Day
\Y illiam Hobson, a cousin of Edward Colston, was sent to
prison for six months and required to find securities for his
future good behaviour for having said, perhaps in a joke,
that drunkenness was not a sin. Many games and holiday
amusements were interdicted, and though some of the
sports, such as cock-tkiwing, dog-fighting, and bull-bait-
mg, were cruel and deserved to be put down, it was strongly
suspected that they Avere forbidden, not because they gave
pain to dumb animals, but because they gave pleasure to
the sjiectators. Maypoles entirely disajipeared, and finally,
by a Parliamentary decree, Christmas Day was appointed
as a national Fast, and mince-pies, plum-puddings, and
family festivities were attempted to be suppressed by police
regulations. A remarkable corporate ordinance Avas adopted on Septem
ber 29th. It premises that many complaints had been
made of the inA-eigling, purloining, and stealing away boys,
maids, and others, and transporting them beyond seas, and
there disposing of them for private gain, without the
knowledge of their parents and friends. " This being a
crime of much villany," it was ordered that all boys, maids,
and others thenceforth transported as servants should before
shipment have iheir indentures of service enrolled in the
Tolzey Book. A penalty of £20 was imposed on any ship

J 654]

IN THE SEVKNTKKNTU CENTURA'.

25i>

captain or officer receiving persons not so enrolled, and the
Water-bail ill was directed to use diligence in searching
.ships for those designed to be carried off. Copies of tho
ordinance Avero ordered to bo pasted up ill convenient [daces,
that nouo might plead ignorance. The offence Avas, how-
over, too profitable to bo suppressed by a mere bye-huv, and
it is certain that kidnapping Avas habitually encouraged by
many merchants throughout the century, and was not un
common even later (see "Annals of xviri. Century," p. 152).
In September, 1655, two men, convicted of " man stealing."
Avere condemned by the magistrates to stand one hour in
the pillory on three market days, with the offence. placarded
on their breasts. If the sentence had ended here, the ivrath
of the populace Avould have inflicted such a vengeance on
tho malefactors as would have made a lasting impression on
all engaged in the infamous pursuit. But the merchants,
sitting as magistrates, with a tender regard for mercantile
interests, ordered that the villains should be "protected,"—
that is, guarded from the missiles of spectators,— so that the
punishment Avas little more than formal. In August. 1656,
a man Avas committed for trial " for spiriting away Iavo
boys." In 1661, another wretch, who had robbed a boy of
money on the highway, and then stolen the lad himself.
" being knoAvn to be a common man stealer, and spirit that
enticoth aAvay jieople," Avas also committed for trial ; but as
the Sessions record is lost, the fate of both those men is
unknown. A little later, another knave was ordered " to
stand in the pillory at the High Cross next market day for
half an hour, with an inscription on his breast of his offence
—kidnapping. To be protected." The frivolous punish
ments inflicted on offenders, by a bench which evidently
sympathised Avith them, of course had no deterring effect
on a profitable traffic. In July, 1662, the Corporation, repre
senting the trading class as well as merchants, petitioned
the King for poAVer to examine the masters and passen
gers on board ships bound to the plantations, Avith a vieAv
to prevent the "spiriting away" of unwary persons by
manstealers, and the escape of rogues aud apprentices— a
plain proof that mercantile cupidity had set at defiance the
ordinance of 1654 The King's response is not preserved,
but the traffic had already attracted the attention of the
Privy Council. In July, 1660, the minute-book states that
their lordships had received information that children were
being daily enticed away from their parents, and servants
from their masters, being caught up by merchants and

25 (i

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1654

ship captains trading to Virginia and the West Indies,
an. I there sold as merchandise; moreover that if such kid
napped people Avoro found in a ship before her departure,
the captain would not, liberate them without he received
compensation—" a barbarous and inhumane thing." From
the order which folloAvs for the searching of three ships
then iu the Thames, and the rescue of the children they
contained, the system appears to have been as common in
London as in Bristol. i-
At another Council meeting in September, 1(554 the
trustees of the late Alice Cole, widow of an alderman, and
sister of John Carr, the founder of Queen Elizabeth's
Hospital, petitioned for the grant of a piece of ground on
St. J ames s Back, on Avhich to build a free school for poor
children with a dwelling for the master. The Chamber
acceded to the request, expressing its approval of " so pious
a work. References to this day school— the first estab
lished m the city for the instruction of the labouring
population— occur from time to time until the early years
ot the following century, after which all traces of it dis-
ajqiear. A riot^of Avhieli scarcely any details are recorded, broke
out on December ISth. So far- as can be made out the
apprentices m the city, having taken offence at some of the
eccentric practices of the Quakers, had concerted an attack
upon the shopkeepers of that sect, Avith a vieAv of forcing
them to close their places of business. The tumult began
on the Bridge, Avhere several Quakers resided, and Avas
resumed on the following day, when the magistrates, after
being long contemptuously defied by a mob gathered around
the Tolzey, issued a proclamation commanding all persons
to refrain from disorder, and to retire to their dwellings.
The disturbances were nevertheless renewed on subsequent
days, about 1,500 youths and men taking part in them, and
cries for Charles SteAvart were not Avanting to heighten the
alarm of the authorities. On Christinas Day, which, as
already stated, had been proclaimed a national Fast, 'the
justices issued another proclamation, in the name of the
Protector, enjoining the apprentices to return to their
occupations, and to forbear from the " shutting cIoavii of shops
Avhich standeth open," from Avhich one may infer that the
apprentices' love of a holiday had given a fresh edge, to
their ill-humour. The Royalists seem to have joined
heartily with the malcontents, and boldly raised cries for
"tho Kmg"; a Quaker pamphleteer, indeed, alleges that

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

257

1654-55]
the rioting of the apprentices was openly encouraged b]
many of their masters. The citizens are said to have beei
in " great affrightment " ; but some troops were broughj
in to second the efforts of the authorities, and the disturb
ances at length subsided.
It is not unworthy of note that the above, events wen
contemporaneous Avith the determination arrived at by the
Government to remo\Te the garrison outside the city walls
and to demolish the Norman Castle. On December 27th the
Protector signed a mandate to Governor Scrojie, desiring
him within seven days to draw all the troops out of the
fortress, except those needed to guard the Governor's house,
and to jilace them in the Great Fort ; a former order (which
has perished) to demolish the latter and disband the soldiers
there being suspended until further orders. On December \
28th the Protector addressed the following laconic missive s
to the Corjioration : — " These are to authorise you forth
with to dismantle and demolish the Castle within the city
of Bristol ; and for so doing this shall be your warrant."
The order was so acceptable to the civic body, who were
naturally eager to recover possession of their property, that
they bestowed a gratuity of £4 upon the messenger who
brought down the letter. On January 3rd, 1655, after a
conference betAveen Alderman AldAvorth and a Government
agent named Watson, the latter gave permission to the
Corjioration to begin the Avork of dismantling " to-morrow."
On the same day, to facilitate matters, the Council appointed
a committee to superintend the destruction, and authorized
tho Chamberlain to relieve the inhabitants of the Castle
Precincts of all arrears of fee-farm rents. On March 10th,
Avhen tho removal of arms, ammunition, and stores seems to
have boon completed, the Court of Aldermen issued an
ordinance setting forth that the speedy dismantling of the
Keep and the putting of the right proprietors of houses into
possession were of great concernment to the city, but could
not be effected Avithout extraordinary expense. It was
therefore ordered that, toAvards defraying the charge, all the
inhabitants in every ward assessed in the monthly contri
bution upon personal estate should one day in every week
either Avork in person or pay 12d. for the hire of a labourer ;
a,nd officers Avere nominated to collect the impost and keep
lists of tho workmen. The members of the Council coolly
delegated their personal rcsjxmsibilities under this ordinance
to the Chamberlain, avIio disbursed about £40 for his masters
out of the city treasury. It turned out, a feAV days later,

25S THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1655
that some people near the Castle displayed a superabun
dance of zeal in the task of destruction, and the justices
fouud it necessary to prohibit the removal of the fine Caen
stoneAVork, which Avas being carried off Avholesale for private
ends. The walls of Robert Fitzroy's gigantic Keep Avere of
enormous thickness and great solidity; and, although
another committee Avas selected in June to hasten opera
tions, no great impression hack been made on the building
when, on July 24th, the Council of State issued an order for
the removal of all military provisions from Bristol to Chep-
stoAV, and for the demolition by the Corporation of the
Great Fort. Another onerous burden Avas thus imposed
upon the citizens, avIio Avere required, by a magisterial order
of September 6th, to severally contribute a labourer's Avages
for one day Aveekly until tbe demolition Avas completed.
The progress made being still unsatisfactory, the justices
ordered on October 19th that thirty labourers should bo
hired at the city's charge for dismantling the Fort and
Castle, and payments of Avages to these men Avent on for
some weeks. These brief citations from the civic records
suffice to explode the absurd statement made in some local
histories that the Castle Avas demolished in a fortnight. In
addition to the above expenditure, the Corporation made
gratuities to the Governor aud others for leaving their
dwellings uninjured. " Paid Colonel Scrope, in consideration
he should not deface the house in the Castle, . . , and for 27
sheets of lead he put on the Great House, £80." (The Great
or Military House is believed to have included the state
apartments erected in the thirteenth century, some relics of
which are still to be seen in ToAver Street.) " Paid Cajitain
Beale that he should no Avay deface the house in the Great
Fort, £20." " Paid Captain Watson for doors, dogwheels,
&c, fixed in his lodgings, that he should not take them
doAvn, £2." Further outlay Avas incurred in laying out a
direct thoroughfare from the Old Market to Peter Street—
the greatest public improvement of the century, affording
a convenient approach to the city from the east in the place
of the tortuous old route by Castle Ditch, Broad Weir, and
NeAvgate. A bridge Avas also thrown over Castle Ditch,
and Avas subsequently protected by a gate. These disburse
ments, hoAvever, Avere amply recouped by the receipts for
building sites in Avhat Avas soon afterAvards called Castle
Street. On January 22nd, 1655, one George CoAvlishaAV, an iron
monger, ajipeared before the magistrates at the Tolzey, and

1655]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

259

asserted ujion oath that certain Franciscan friars from
Rome had lately come into England under the guise of
Quakers, and had drawn together large numbers of people
in London, seeking to pervert their religion ; and that tAvo
of them, calling themselves Quakers, had lately been in
Bristol. A warning to the same effect having been received
from the Government, the Mayor and Aldermen, on the
24th, issued directions to the parish constables to search for
and arrest suspicious characters, naming especially, as pro
bable Papist emissaries, George Fox, James Nayler, and
four others, avIio Avere stated to have lately come to the
city professing to be Quakers, and to have created great
disturbances. As none of the persons named in the w'arrant
Avero arrested, it may be inferred that the missionaries had
departed. Fox, indeed, had not been here at all, and there
is evidence that Nayler Avas soon afterAvards preaching in
Devon and CornAvall. The sect Avas by this time sufficiently
numerous in Bristol to found a meeting-house in Redcliff
Street, Avhere a zealot named Mudford Avas apprehended,
and Avas driven out of toAvn by order of the justices ; but he
of course came back, and lectured the aldermen on their
sins. The disturbance of Avorship in the parish churches by
the zealots Avas still of constant occurrence ; yet, in despite
of the rough treatment that it frequently brought upon
them, their numbers increased. In 1656, when George Fox
paid his first visit to the city, his folloAvers worshipped in
an ujistairs room of a house in Broadmead, and frequently
held open-air services in the orchard of the old Dominican
Friary, the property of Dennis Hollister. At this latter
place Fox, after silencing a " rude jangling Bajitist avIio
began by finding fault Avith my hair," pronounced his first
discourse to "some thousands of peojde," av1ioi listened to
him for " many hours," and he had Avhat he terms in his
diary " a blessed day." Fox's hair Avas often a subject of
merriment. It Avas long and straight, and is described by
one of his critics as " like rats' tails."
The severity of the restrictions on " foreign " Avorkmen is
illustrated by a case brought before the magistrates in
January, Avhen au Irish journeyman tailor, then iu prison
under a decree of the Tailors' Company for having worked
at his trade Avithout their leave, prayed for release, promising
to depart with his wife and children Avithin three months.
He Avas, nevertheless, still in the city in September, Avhen
he signed a receipt for 45s., given him by the magistrates
on his undertaking to lea\re Avithin a fortnight.

260

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1655

Parliamentary contests have never been remarkable for
the promotion of brotherly love amongst the partisans who
engage in them, and the conflict in Bristol of the summer
of 1654 appears to have left the rival parties in a state of
rancorous animosity. Whether their fierce contentions kin
dled a feeling of hope in the doAvn-trodden Royalists is not
very clear ; but the latter certainly seized an opportunity
to make a demonstration. On. the night of February 13th
tho body of Lady NeAvton, of Barrs Court, Kingswood, was-
brought in for interment in St. Peter's church, where her
stately monument still remains. Her son, Sir Johu NeAvton,
a notorious Cavalier, having invited a prodigious number of
his friends to the funeral, between 300 and 400 armed horse
men made their appearance, and, as Avas alleged, endeavoured
to extinguish the torches borne by retainers along the route
to the church. During the procession, probably by accident,
a haystack standing near Castle Ditch. Avas destroyed by
fire. No disorder, hoAvever, occuned, though there waJ
scarcely a handful of troojis in the city, and most of the
strangers departed after the ceremony. The incident Avas
nevertheless seized by Captain Bishop, one of the defeated
candidates, to excite the alarm of the Government and to
traduce his enemies in the Corjioration, and his voluminous
letters, preserA'ed in the Thurloe State Papers, insist that a
Royalist outbreak had been designed, and that the civic
body was disaffected and untrustAvorthy. The Protector
thought it advisable to order an inquiry as to the alleged
plot, and the City Chamberlain informed Thurloe a few days
later that the allegations of Bishop, whom he stigmatised
as a viper, had been utterly confuted. This assertion was
confirmed by a letter of Cronrwell to the Mayor, thanking
the Corporation for their diligence.
The annual order of the justices Avas issued in February,
prohibiting cock-throwing and dog-tossing on Shrove Tues
day ; but it may be doubted Avhether the lower classes and
the 'prentices would have paid much regard for it if they
could have foreseen the Royalist outbreak which took place
a few days later in Somerset and Wilts, tragical as Avere its
results. On March 14th the Protector issued a mandate
addressed to the Mayor, the GoA'ernor, five of the Aldermen,
and thirteen other Bristolians, nominating them commis
sioners of militia, in vieAv of the neAV troubles raised by the
enemy, "hoav robbing and plundering the peojile." The
rising for a time caused great alarm. The Corjioration
entered into an "engagement" to stand by the Protector

1655]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

261

with their lives and fortunes, raised a large body of troops,
though there was a painful lack of weapons, engaged scouts
to watch the hostile movements, and' equipped a small
vessel, " to prevent the rebels going into Wales," Avhere
they had many sympathisers. In April, though the revolt
Avas then quelled, the Chamber thought it prudent to take
permanent precautions, and the number of trained-band
companies Avas increased to eight, each commanded by a
captain and furnished Avith drums, ensigns, etc. The colours
and " trophies " for the regiment cost £53. At the close of
the year Major-General Desbroive came cIoavii to revieAv the
regiment (Avhen he made a communication to the Mayor, of
Avhich more will presently be heard), and had, according to
¦custom, a handsome present of wine and sugar.
Public sympathy Avas much excited during the summer
by the infamous jiersectttion of the pious Protestants in
Savoy. A local subscription Avas opened for their relief,
and £270 Avere speedily collected. The sums received from
the various parishes indicate the localities chiefly favoured
by Avealthy citizens. More than two-thirds of the donations
sprang from six districts, the parish of St. Nicholas contri
buting £64 ; St. Werburgh, £34 ; St. Thomas, £29 ; St.
Stephen, £25 ; St. Leonard, £17 ; and Christ Church, £15.
Serjeant Whitelock having, at length, resigned the
recordership, the Council, in August, elected Mr. John
Doddridge. Although he held the office only three years,
the new Recorder seems to have held the Corporation in
high esteem, for by his Avill he bequeathed them two
beautiful pieces of jilate, Avhich still embellish the banquets
at tho Mansion House.
Tho civic body occasionally offered hosjiitable treatment
to a "foreigner" Avhen it Avas thought, jtossible to turn him
to profitable account. Ono John Packer, a founder, haA'ing
petitioned for the freedom, a committee of the Council
reported in August that " he might be A'ery beneficial to
the inhabitants in the Avay of his profession," Avhich had no
representative in the city, and he was consequently offered
enfranchisement on paying 40s. Avithin a twelvemonth.
Indications that the jiolitical opinions jireA'alent in the,
'Common Council Avero antagonistic to the policy of Crom-
Avell have been already noted. It Avill jiresently be seen
that tho hostility Avas dealt Avith iu the faA'Oiuite fashion of
arbitrary rulers. In the meantime an amusing note may
be extracted from the magisterial records, dated August
29th. " AVhereas ou the information of seA7eral jiersons

2G2

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1655
that Richard Jones, coppersmith, had said that the Mayor
| the versatile John Gonning, hoav serving a second time]
was a Cavalier, and that he Avas more like a horso or an ass
than a mayor, a Avarrant was issued against him, Avhen he
refused to yield obedience, drew his sworcl. and endeavoured
to Avottnd the officers, and Avas of uncivil and peremptory
carnage during his examination : ordered that he be com
mitted for trial at the quarter sessions, and be imprisoned
till he find bail." There can be little doubt that the culprit
Avas an old Ironside, many of whom, by order of Parliament,
had been admitted, notAvithstanding the rnivileges of the
incorporated Companies, to trade and Avork within the city.
Ihe Council, in September, passed a resolution setting
forth that the old custom of joining in prayer before pro
ceeding to business had been of late years discontinued, but
that thenceforth Mr. [Ralph] Farmer, a godly, able minister,
should be desired to pray at every assembly of the Chamber,
and that £10 a year should be given him for his pains.
Except on a single previous occasion, there is no evidence
either m the minute or the audit books that prayer had ever
previously been a preliminary to civic debates. (Mr.
Farmer, described as Chaplain to the Mayor and Aldermen
received Iavo years' salary in 1657, and, which is somewhat
remarkable, Avas paid £30 more, as his stipend for three
years, some months after the Restoration.) At the same
meeting, a Councillor named Henry Roe, having absented
himself from the Chamber for a twelvemonth, Avas fined
6s. 8d. for each of his ten defaults, and it was ordered that
the money should be recovered by distraint. A year later,
Avhen the fines were still unpaid and ten more absences Avere
reported, the sum of £6 13s. Ad. Avas ordered to be sued for,
but the Chamberlain never received the money. At last
Roe Avas fined £50 and dismissed from the Chamber, and
after another long delay he escaped on payment of £40.
Roe Avas a stout Republican, and Avas the father of another
intractable man of Avhom much Avill be heard hereafter.
The premises originally granted for the boarding and
teaching of Whitson's Red Maids being found insufficient
and inconvenient, an agreement Avas made in September
between the Corporation and the feoffees of the charity, by
Avhich the latter undertook to erect neiv school buildings on
the Council granting them £90 per annum for two years.
(The ucav hospital, completed in 1658, ccst £660.) A feAv
Aveeks later, the Chamber took into consideration the salary
of the master of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, which was only

1655]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

263

£7 16s., in addition to board and lodging, and increased the
stipend to £16 a year.
At tho Michaelmas quarter sessions' the attention of the
court Avas directed to the frequent presentation of complaints
by grand juries as to the mischiefs and inconveniences
arising from the darkness of the streets during the ivinter
months, OAving to the want of candles and lanterns at the
doors of the inhabitants. A recommendation of the
gnevanco Avas made to tho Corporation, but the Chamber
treated it Avith indifference, and took no action for several
years. The maintenance of the nightly watch, a frequent source
of trouble to the civic authorities, was found in November
to again need reconsideration. Many complaints, say the
Council minutes, being made of the inconsiderableness of the
Avatch, it was ordered that 27 men should be summoned
every night, 17 of whom, of ability of body, were to be
hired, receiving sixpence a head per night for the Avinter,
and fourpence for the summer half-years: Avhile the re
maining ten Avere " to Avatch for themselves "—that is, to be
drawn from the householders. The pay of the hired men
was to be raised by levying sixpence daily on 22 of the non-
Avatching citizens in turn, out of Avhich money the two night
bellmen were to have ninepence each, and the overlooker of
the Avatch one shilling. Two councillors, taking the duty
in rotation, Avere to see the Avatchmen sworn iu nightly, after
which four of the ablest guardians of order Avere to enter
inns, alehouses and hot- water houses, and turn out all
persons found tippling there after ten o'clock at night. As
usual, many householders strove to evade the duty imposed
upon them. In November, 165S, the Council gave orders
that any one refusing to watch, or to pay for a substitute,
should bo sent to prison and kept there 'until he complied
with the regulations. Perhaps to mitigate the rigour of
this edict, the number of Avatchmen Avas reduced a few
weeks later to 24, and it was provided that no householder
should be forced to pay or to ivatch more than once in two
months, and that a clay's notice should be given to each
person of the night of his service.
Outstanding liabilities dating from the Civil War are
still frequently noted in the corporate minutes and audit
books. In November, the Chamberlain was ordered to pay
Henry Creswick £150, a sum which his father had lent to
the Corporation during the Royalist occupation in 1(544
together with eleven years' interest. In 165(5 the Keeper of

264

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1655-56

NeAvgate and of the House of Correction laid his claims
before the Council. He had been appointed in 1643 at a
salary of 40 marks a year, Avhich he had never received, and
he had spent £15 upon repairs. The Chamber ordered that
he should be paid, in full of all demands, £33, less than
one-tenth of the promised stipend, the repairs being
ignored ! At the same meeting a Councillor Avho had laid
out £100 for the relief of the Plague-stricken in 1645 Avas
ordered to be reimbursed. In 1657-8 a man Avas paid £70
for pulling doAvn, in 1643, the windmill Avhich then stood on
the site of the Great Fort. Finally, in 1659, Jonathan
Blackwell, a Avealthy Councillor and Avine merchant (after
Avards an Alderman of London), receiAred £34 10s. for Avine
purchased from him for presentation to General Fairfax,
fourteen years before.
Acting, it may be assumed, under the directions of the
Common Council, the Chamberlain about this time stripped
off a portion of the leaden roofing of the cathedral. As
sermons Avere preached on Sundays in the building, the
destruction cannot have been committed on that part of
the edifice reserved for services. Indeed, a contemporary
annalist expressly states that the devastation Avas confined
to the cloisters aud the nave (that is, the transepts). The
Chamber in January, 1656, repented of the sacrilege, and
gave orders that the lead " lately taken off some jiart of the
cathedral or cloisters " should be sold, and the purchase
money employed in necessary repairs of the fabric. And in
October, 1658, on the petition of the sextoness, Avho sent
in an account of her disbursements for repairs, the Cham
berlain Avas ordered to pay her £77 8s. 6d.
At this period much of the garden produce, fish, jxmltry,
butter and Avood fuel consumed in the city was brought
from the valley of the Wye, in boats called Avood-bushes,
which carried back considerable quantities of domestic and
foreign goods. The conditions of navigation in the above
river were therefore of importance to Bristolians. In the
State Papers for January, 1656, is a petition of the Mayor
and Aldermen, and others " deeply concerned in the incom-
modities from the Aveirs in the Wye." These annoyances,
says the petition, Avere ordered to be pulled down by Queen
Elizabeth and King James, but Avere kept up by the influ
ence of the Earl of Worcester and others, and the Govern
ment are prayed to have them destroyed, by which the
river might be made everywhere four feet deep, " and thus
Avould carry large vessels." Nothing Avas done in the matter

1656]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

265

until 1663, when au Act Avas passed empowering three men to
make the river navigable, and to levy tolls on the trade carried.
on in boats between Bristol and Hereford. The promoters
however, Avere unable to prosecute the Undertaking. In lb J (
¦another Act was passed, declaring the Wye to be a free
river, and appointing trustees to carry out the provisions of
the jn-evious statute, to borrow £16,000 for that purpose,
and to impose a rate upon the county of Hereford to meet
the outlay on the works.
Reference has been made to the visit of Major-General
DesbroAve to the city about NeAV Year's Day, in connection
with the trained bands. On February 13th, this formidable
official, in whom the government of the district Avas prac
tically vested, addressed a letter to the Mayor, reminding
his Avorship that, whilst in Bristol, the Avriter had directed
him to advise three of the aldermen— Gabriel Sherman,
John Locke and George Knight— to tender a resignation of
their offices, they being in no measure qualified for their
jiosition on the public stage, Avhilst their retention of it could
not tend to the reputation or honour of the city. (Accord
ing to Desbrowe's letter to the Protector, in the State Papers,
this step had been taken in consequence of the information
of "some honest people" that the aldermen in question
Avere "retaining their old malignant principles and uphold
ing the loose and profane.") The General noAv reneAved
Ids request, and desired the impeached aldermen to be told
that, if they Avould not voluntarily resign, he must take a
course that would not stand Avith their credit, as no persons
scandalous in their lives or enemies to the CommonAvealth
¦could be suffered in places of trust. On the receipt of this
missive a meeting of the Court of Aldermen was convened
for February 18th, Avhen, " in jmrsuance of the aforesaid
letter," the three proscribed gentlemen " by writing under
their hands and seals requested to be discharged from their
places," forasmuch through age and Aveakness of body and
other infirmities, " they Avere unable to fulfil their duties in
a proper manner " ; and the Court, " taking the same into
¦consideration," at once accepted their resignation; The plea
Avas truthful in the case of Alderman Knight, Ay ho Avas 86
years of age, but his two colleagues were much younger men.
The Mayor communicated the result to General Desbrowe,
adding that the displaced dignitaries had offered to resign
Avhen his disapproval had been first made known to them,
and that the writer Avould faithfully perform any further
commands. The Aracancies were not filled until the follow-

266 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1656
ing September, when a fourth seat Avas void through death.
Tho new aldermen woro Richard Balman, Arthur Farmer,
Walter Sandy and Edivard Tyson, all stanch Cromwellians.
In the State Papers of this year are numerous letters
addressed to Secretary Nicholas, the exiled King's minister,
then living at Cologne, by various spies and correspondents
in England, showing that Royalist conspiracies for a revolt
Avere then rife in many districts. A man named Ross
informed Nicholas iu February that 1,000 foot and 500
horse had been promised iu Gloucestershire, td whom two-
thirds would bo raised iu Bristol. In April the same
emissary mado the preposterous assertion that 3,000 men
Avere ready in Bristol, and Avere Avell furnished for the
field, but that tho King's friends Avould not settle there,
preferring to be nearer to Gloucester, Avhere they had 1,000
men. A little later there is a note of offers made to a royal
agent by tAvo persons, Avhose names are given iu initials,
promising to appear in Bristol at twenty days' Avarning
with 3,000 men, armed, and arms for 2,000 more. " There
are many prisoners there, but only 60 soldiers, and not
meat for one meal." The same persons Avere also readj' to
surprise Gloucester, having 500 men in the city and 600 to
assist them at the Gates, and then both towns could "quickly
be made tenable." The King's agent Avas afterwards in
formed by these enthusiasts that they could increase their
troops to 6,050. Another letter, apparently of a later date,
is amongst the Clarendon MSS. in the Bodleian Library.
The Avriter asserted that if the King effected a landing
Major W. C. Avould have 1,400 men in readiness to march
from Bristol Avithin four days, besides many who would be
left to guard tho toAvn and fort (!), whilst the gates of
Gloucester would be opened by D. F. to Colonel V., who
was assured of the. assistance of 600 " malcon tented tobacco
planters." At Shepton Mallet, again, 300 men were ready
to join Avith Bristol, and in three days the force there would
number 6,000. Though the figures are obviously much
exaggerated, the statements as clearly indicate the smoth
ered hostility of many men towards the existing des
potism. At a meeting of the Council in March a lengthy ordinance
Avas passed for the instruction of the deputy-aldermen,
officials avIio, though established by ancient custom, had
ncA-or been properly made acquainted Avith tho duties of
their position. Their chief functions, it is stated, Avero to
perambulate the Avards on Sunday, and to suppress every

1656]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

267

visible sign of profane desecration of the, " Sabbath." To
strike terror in evil-doers the deputies Avere also to see that
a pair of stocks Avas provided in every parish " as formerly."
This arrangement for the promotion of Sabbatarianism being
deemed insufficient, it was resolved to appoint six fit men
as marshals, who Avere to inform against children playing
in the street, ships passing up and down the river, Avomen
draiving water from the conduits, and men rambling in the
fields during sermon time
In the general reconstruction of the buildings Avithin tho
Castlo Precincts the ancient royal apartments referred to
in a previous page were to a large extent sAvept aAvay. A
considerable portion of the great Military House, Avith some
gardens, was granted on lease to the Chamberlain. Another
part, which had been occupied by Captain Watson, Avith
other gardens, passed in the same way to John KnoAvles,
the cathedral minister, avIio afterAvards transferred his estate
to Thomas Goldney, a prosjierous Quaker grocer living in
the neighbourhood. Permission Avas granted to these lessees
to take stone for building purposes out of the AA'all originally
surrounding the Castle. But the most interesting feature
of the documents is the mention of an ancient chapel that
had stood to the east of the state apartments, and was pro
bably entered by a still existing Early English porch.
Another of the corporate grants of the year was a lease
to the Sword-bearer of the Gate-house and ledge in the late
Great Fort, supjiosed by some writers to have been once
occupied by Prince Rupert, and unquestionably the dAvell-
ing of Mr. Seyer, the historian, at the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
Down to this time the roadway from LaAvford's Gate to
tho city, through the Old Market, Avas an undulating nn-
paved track, tho condition of which, after heai'y rain, Avas
on a par with that of the sloughy highways iu the rural
districts. The Council Avere informed in May that the in
habitants of "Philip's" Avere making endeavours to level
and pitch the thoroughfare, and the undertaking being-
deemed "very much to the honour of the city, and corm
modiotts for travellers," they Ave re granted permission to
take as much as they thought fit of the stones and rubble
out of the Castle (thereby relieving the Corporation of a
nuisance), Avhilst gardeners and others using the road were
ordered to assist in levelling it, and the' scavenger Avas
directed to carry out a large part of the rubbish from the
Onvn for the same purpose. At tho gaol delivery in Sep-

268

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1656
tember the parish petitioned for relief, stating that the
householders, though taxed to the utmost, could not com
plete the work unless helped to the extent of £200 ; where
upon the Council, seldom unwilling to be charitable out of
other people's pockets, ordered £100 to be levied at once upon
the whole city and promised more from the same source if
the gift proved insufficient.
An order was received iij August from the Council of
State respecting a frigate called the Royal James, sent
out by the enemy," which had attempted to capture tho
Bristol ship Recovery, but had not only been beaten off
with great loss of life by the latter, but was captured her
self and brought as a prize into this port, with twenty-seven
prisoners The captain and crew of the Recovery were
granted the frigate as a reward for their valour, and diet
money at the rate of 4d. per head daily was ordered for the
support ot the vanquished sailors.
An election for members of Parliament took place on
August 20th when- Robert Aldworth, Town Clerk, was
again returned, m conjunction with the Recorder, John Dod
dridge who was also chosen for Devon. Barrett states that
the latter Avas displaced, and that General Desbrowe was
nominated m his room ; but Desbrowe was already elected
lor Somerset, Gloucester, and tivo other constituencies, and
there is other evidence that the statement is Avithout foun
dation. In fact, upon Doddridge's death, early in 1657
Alderman Miles Jackson was chosen M.P. in his place.
The Common Council seems to have been reminded by the
election that the " Avages " of the members in the Parliament
of 16o4 were still unpaid, and Messrs Aldworth and Jackson
Avere voted £o0 each for 150 days' service. Subsequently
AldAvorth received £138 (including some arrears) and
Alderman Jackson £53 for attending the Parliament of
1656-7. Schemes for effecting a communication betAveen London
and Bristol by means of a canal to unite the Thames with
the Avon Avere laid before the Protector during the year,
and the citizens of Bath at the same time revived their
proposal for improving the navigation of the Avon (see
p. 71). The Corporation of Bristol looked askance on both
these designs, the mercantile interest being strongly ojiposed
to_ any competition with the shipping trade ; and a com
mittee of the Council reported in October that they Avould
tend to the prejudice of the city, Avhen Mr. Aldworth, M.P.,
Avas desired to obstruct the projectors in seeking to secure

1656]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

26£>

the approval of Parliament. Both the plans Avere soon
afterwards abandoned. The Thames and Avon canal
scheme was revived in 1662 by one Francis Mathew, who
seems to have met with opposition from the landowners
on the proposed route. A bill to sj-uthorize the project was
read a first time in the House Of Lords on April 14th,
1668, but made no further progress.
Josias Clutterbuck, grocer, was elected one of the Sheriffs
on September 15th, but declined to serve. A .fine of £300
Avas imposed for the contumacy, and upon his refusal to-
pay he was expelled from the Council, and threatened Avith
prosecution at laAv. Then the Chamber relented, reduced
the fine to £150, and postponed legal proceedings. At
last, two years later, Clutterbuck brought in the money,
disclaiming any want of respect, but pleading losses and
family troubles ; whereupon the Council returned him £75,
" Avhich he received very thankfully."
The Corporation macte another unlucky jnurchase of church
property at this time. The Chamberlain records the matter
as follows :—" Paid to the trustees for the sale of Dean and
Chapter lands, for the purchase of £6 3s. Ad. per annum
(issuing) out of Stockland to the Church of Wells, £68."
The Chapter of course recovered their fee-farm rent at the
Restoration. An almost incredible spectacle, inspired by religious
fanaticism, was presented to the citizens on October 24th.
The first visit of a Quaker enthusiast named James Nayler,
and his departure to the Western counties, have been already
reported. During his Avanderings in Devonshire his
fanaticism unquestionably developed into absolute insanity,
and he vehemently asserted himself to be a re-incarnation
of Christ. That he should have fallen into mental derange
ment was no uncommon incident in that time of morbid
religious excitement. The extraordinary fact is that he
communicated his delirium to many of his admirers,
especially to several women, some of Avhom ojienly wor
shipped him as superhuman. On his return journey through
the toAvnsin Somerset, accompanied by a part of his strange
flock, his path Avas streAvn with garments and tokens of
thanksgiving, and the streets resounded with shouts of
" flosannah." On departing from Bedminster for Bristol on
the 24th, a procession Avas formed on that part of the road
reserA-ed for carts, Avhere, says an observant spectator, tho
mud reached to the knees of tho impassioned pedestrians ;
and Nayler, on horseback, was escorted by his friends into

270

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1656

the city amidst singing and screams of rejoicing. Soon
after he had reached the White Lion Inn, in Broad Street,
the scandalised magistrates gave orders for the arrest of all
the strangers, and on the following day they Avere examined
at the Tolzey, where Nayler repeatedly proclaimed his
Messianic character, Avhilst one of his female adorers
jiositively asserted that two days after her death he had
restored her to life, SomeAvhat perplexed as to how to deal
Avith the fanatics, tho magistrates forwarded a copy of tho
examinations to Mr. Aldworth, M.P., for tho consideration
of Parliament. The result Avas an Order of the House for
the removal of the prisoners to London, to Avhich they de
parted on November 10th. The Corporation found horses
for the company, the hire of which cost £4 10s. ; but the
Government paid the expenses of the journey, amounting to
£37. The case was referred to a committee of the Commons,
avIio repeatedly examined the party, and took further evi
dence, Avhile the reverence of Nayler's companions towards
his person continued unabated. After a long enqttiiy, the
committee rejiorted that all the charges of blasphemy Avere
proved, after Avhich, the House, forsaking jmblic business,
deliberated for no less than thirteen days upon the punish
ment to be inflicted. A motion that Nayler should suffer
death as a grand impostor and blasphemous deceiver Avas
negatived by the narrow majority of 96 against 82.
Finally, on December 17th, it Avas resolved that the hapless
maniac should be exposed for tAvo hours in the pillory at
Westminster, and for the same time in London, after being
Avhipped from one city to the other ; that he should have
his tongue bored through Avith a red-hot iron, and his fore
head branded with the letter B ; that he should then be sent
to Bristol, where he was to ride through the streets on a
bare-backed horse and be publicly whipped, aud that he
should then be carried back to London and kept in solitary
confinement, debarred the use of pen and paper, and com-
jielled to earn his food by hard labour, until Parliament
thought fit to release him. It does not appear that a single
Aroice Avas raised in the House against the inhumanity of the
sentence. In the State Papers is a letter of a Royalist to
Secretary Williamson reporting the case, adding : — " The
Protector wrote a letter for some moderation, but the House
Avould not hearken to it." Many of those Avho concurred in
the judgment doubtless lulled their consciences by pleading
the urgent comjilaints against the misconduct of the neAV
sect Avhich Avere addressed to the House from various counties

1656]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

271

from Northumberland to Cornwall, the Corporation of Bristol
especially denouncing Nayler as a ringleader of tho zealots,
and clamouring for relief from " the insolencies of these
people, that so the reproach, not only of this city, but of
the Avhole nation, may be rolled away." Public opinion,
however, Avas shocked at the prolonged barbarity of the pro
posed punishment, for after the culprit had stood once in the
pillory, and been brought to the verge of death by the
infliction of 310 lashes, a jietition for tho remission of the
remaining horrors, signed by Governor Scrope. of Bristol,
and many eminent persons, Avas jiresented to the Commons
by an influential deputation. It Avas nevertheless unsuccess
ful. The second pillory exhibition, Avith the tongue-boring
and brow-branding tortures, took place on December 27th,
and it was noted as significant of the feeling of even the
jiopulace, of Avhom many thousands Avere present, that
instead of the sufferer being reviled or pelted Avith missiles
the spectators uncovered their heads Avhen the red-hot irons
did their Avork. As for Nayler's devotees (avIio appear to
have been all discharged), they availed themselves of the
opportunity to manifest their unshaken faith. An en
thusiast named Rich, as insane as his idol, placed a pajier
over the victim's head, inscribed " This is the King of the
Jews." Nayler's entrance into Bristol took place on January
17th, 1657, Avhen the Keeper of NeAvgate received orders to
have the jirisoner tied on horseback, Avith his face to the
tail, and thus led from LaAvford's Gate to the Tolzey, and
thence over the Bridge to Redcliff Gate. Nayler Avas then to
alight and walk to the market-place in Thomas Street, Avhere
he Avas to bo strijjped, tied to a carthorse, and Avhipped ;
he Avas next to Avalk to the south end of the Bridge,
where he Avas to be again Avhipped ; and four more lashiugs
were to bo administered at the north end of the Bridge, in
High Street, at the Tolzoy, and finally in Broad Street, he
being all the Avhile tied to the horse's tail. Lastly, his
clothes Avere to be thrown over him in Tailors' Court, and he
Avas to be. carried to NeAvgate " by Tower Lane, the back
Avay." These instructions Avere punctually carried out, but
a contemporary pamphleteer complained that an ugly
Quaker copjiersmith Avas suffered to hold back the beadle's
arm during the whipjiings. Throughout the proceedings the
madman Rich rode before the prisoner singing " Holy, holy,"
etc. After his Avounds Ave re healed in prison, Nayler Avas
taken back to London, where he Avas imprisoned for some
time. Subsequently he. resided permanently in Bristol,

272

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[165G

apparently delivered from his mental distemper, and it is
asserted that at a meeting of the local Quakers he made a
recantation of his errors, and apologized for the offence he
had given to the society.
As may be supposed, his persecution gave rise to a cloud
of polemical pamphlets, the Avriters of which vied Avith each
other iu scattering insults aud invectives. One of the most
furious, entitled " The Quaker's Jesus," was written by a
Bristol tanner and leading "Presbyterian, William Grigge,
who was so anxious to disseminate his tract that ho an
nounced " there are a store of them in Bristol, to be sold at
Nicholas Jordan's for three farthings a piece." The Avriter,
not content with charging the Quakers with drunkenness,
blasphemy and murder, attacked the Baptists and other sects
Avith equal virulence, and conjured Parliament to silence all
" soul-infecting parsons," and to compel every one, however
miAvilliug, to conform to Presbyterianism. This iu tolerant
rant provoked a reply, entitled " Rabshakeh's Outrage Re
proved ; or, A Whip for William Grigge ... to Scourge
him for many notorious Lies," etc., which from its references
to local events was probably also penned by a Bristolian.
A singular intervention of the Corporation in a business
entirely beyond its sphere is recorded in October, 1656.
Information having been obtained that certain private per
sons Avere applying to the Government to increase the
number of wine licenses alloAved in the city, it Avas resolved
that Mr. AldAvorth, M.P., should solicit the grant of four
additional licenses on behalf of the Corporation, raising the
number to sixteen, " Avhich are as many as the city can well
bear," and should exert himself to hinder the concession of any
grants to other people. The Town Clerk's success in the
affair exceeded the hopes of the Council, which Avas apprised
in November that six new licenses had been obtained for
the exclusive benefit of the civic body. Six Councillors
Avere thereupon nominated to take out the licenses in their
own names, they in the first place undertaking to transfer
them at the pleasure of the Chamber. The State received
£13 6s. 8d. yearly for each document, but the Council dis
posed of them at £20 a piece, making a clear profit on the
transaction of £40 a year. There were numerous petitioners
for the licenses, and one of the six successful applicants Avas
Mr. Sheriff Vickris.
" This year," notes a contemporary annalist, " the bowling
grcon in the Marsh " — -which had been destroyed Avhen bat
teries Avere formed there prior to the siege of 1643 — -" Avae

1657]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

27.3

new made and walled-in, in the place Avhere formerly it was;
moneys being given by several tOAvnsmen." There Avas
anothor boAvling green m the Castle Precincts, a new lease
of which was granted by the Corporation in 1657. A neAV
lease of the Marsh, bowling green, which had been furnished
with a lodge for the entertainment of bowlers, was granted
in June, 1660, at a rent of £12 yearly. The place had then
become a favourite resort of wealthy citizens, and continued
popular until the close of the century.
At a meeting of the Council on January 7th, 1657, a reso
lution Avas passed setting forth that an Act of Parliament
formerly obtained for the maintenance of jireaching minis
ters in the city (see p. 227) had, through the death of
several of the commissioners and various defects, become
unworkable ; and requesting Mr. Aldworth, M.P., to make
efforts for obtaining another and more efficient measure.
At another meeting, on April 1st, it was determined that, as
the parish of St. Ewen contained only twenty-two families,
and as the church, Avhich had no jirovision for a minister,
Avas sejiarated from tAvo other churches only by the breadth
of a street, Avhile there Avas great Avant of a library in the
city for public use, Mr. Aldworth should be desired to use his
best endeavours to jirocure an Act for vesting the building
in the Corjioration for a library or other public purpose.
An Act by which both these proposals Avere sanctioned Avas
jiassed during the session. By this statute the taxes on real
jtrojierty and on trade stocks, authorized in 1650, Avere re-
imposed, and the Mayor, Sheriffs, and other commissioners
Avere emjiowered either to distrain for their recovery, or to
sue defaulters in the local Courts for double the unpaid rate.
As to St. Ewen's, the jiarish was annexed to that of All
Saints, and the commissioners received poAver to convert the
church into a, public library. The fate of this enactment
resembled that of its forerunner. In October, a feAV Aveeks
after it had receiA'od the Protector's assent, the Council dreAV
up lengthy resolutions Avith a vieAV to carry it out. The
cathedral and the churches of St. Mark, St. Augustine, and
St. Michael Avere united into one parish ; St. Werburgh's
Avas united to St. Leonard's ; All Saints' to St. EAven's ;
Christ Church to St. John's ; and St. Maryleport to St.
Peter's ; but the existing ministers Avere to continue in office,
and all the churches Avere to be maintained. The sum to
be levied from each parish Avas as folloAVS : — St. Augustine's.
£30, and St. Michael's, £20 = £5( ) ; St. Werburgh's, £50, and
St. Leonard's, £35 = £85 ; All Saints'. £50, and St, Ewen's, r

274

'IHE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

|lor>7

sT Tr~ i; C1"'1S* VJ.mrcIl> xr>~1, and St. John's, £55= £120;
»tih~y leV°rt>.£il.>> f»d St. Peter's, £60= £96. In the
C^TS?"16 ^dependent, St. James' was to contri-
ThUiSf' i P^rS ^2°' TemPIe' ^48-^edcliff, £40, St.
Philips and Castle Precincts, £20, St. Stephen's, £90. 'and
nL/n /fS ' f ^ The C°Uncil ^P^ssed their willing
ness to delegate the power of taxation to the parochial ves
tries, which Avere requested to meet and assess their propor
tions as they thought fit, with a view to the rate being
submitted to cheerfully "; and m order that the ministers
might be acceptable to the people, it was promised that each
S;! SJ10uld cllooso lts blister, provided it nominated an
oida ned person or a member of a university. These pro
posals did not allay public hostility. In March K55.S a
committee that had been appointed lo carry out tiie abov
scheme reported that they had prepared an assessment for
•i^nrovT TI 1 w,'1'"' Vestl'yfficn hfl(l withheld their
appioval. Ihey had then sent for three iuhabitants of each
!!™VVSSf In1, n™kinZ arate> but bad met with a
gemual refusal, ihe Corporation nevertheless resolved to
proceed, and directed the committee to reconsider the pro
posed assessments and to return them for final confirmation.
A long delay followed, and in September, Avhen a rate had
been nnposed, apparently with little success, the Council,
al egmg the insufficiency of the ministers' incomes, voted
£100 a year for their "better maintenance aud encourage
ment but ordered the grant to be repaid out of the rates.
Out of this vote £80 were divided equally amongst four
men-John Paul, minister of St. James's; Henry Jones, of
St. Stephen's ; Ralph Farmer, of St. Nicholas' ; and Edward
Hancock, of St, Philip's. The last-named had held the
appointment only a fortnight, and, in view of the above dis
qualification of unordained persons, the story in Walker's
• Sufferings of the Clergy" as to Hancock having been
a menial servant Avhen appointed seems very tmtrust-
Avorthy. J
The Council of State, in March, 1657, issued an order for
the payment of £ lo per annum to Thomas Ewens, minister
ot • a church " at Bristol, Avith jiermission for him and his
congregation to freely use "Leonard's church" for religious
services. The. congregation in question Avas the original
Dissenting body Avhose history has been preserved in the
" Broadmeacl Records." tho writer of Avhich states that Mr
Lwens Avas induced to eomo to the city by the magistrates,
aud that he pi cached for some years ih St. Nicholas, Christ

16

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

275

Church, and Maryleport churches. If Walker's " Sufferings "
is to be believed, this minister Avas by trade a tailor. In
June lhuH, the Common Council, on the petition of the
parishioners of Christ Church, approved of a Mr. Till-Adama
as a preacher in that church, and, "as much as in them
lay presented him to the living (from which the legal in-
beforej Standfasfc» bad been expelled several years
At tliis period the extremely contracted dimensions of
the lolzey and Council House, constructed about a cen
tury earlier upon the site of the south aisle of the little
ehurch of St. EAven, must have been a constant source of
inconvenience to the Corporation, and their desire, just re
corded, to convert the church itself into a library, 'instead
ol appropriating it for a much-needed extension of the civic
premises is not a little extraordinary. The Council, how
ever, had contented itself with purchasing an adjacent
pi ivate house, standing a-t the corner of Broad Street and
Corn Street with a view to obtaining additional elbow
riyrVw 'T'-kt the oId embarrassment* caused
by the Civi War still impeded the improvement. In con
sequence, whenever the Council assembled in full force and
delegates came m with petitions, the city officials were
unable to find standing room inside the House. Adoption-
a piriluj expedient for relief, the Chamber, in -March. ] 657
¦re hW 1 1"' "if S?S °f *Te stocki"S-«-bers, huddled
against the walls of Christ Church, should be swept away,
^ '' Cr|W'*: *? "^SWgate there, in oiler that
i Ii n f S 1'^v.ded for the Mayor's and Sheriffs'
ing days."' "l™1 ° ™ay°r a"d AI(1«™» "1™ m.-et-
At the above meeting, a. letter was read from the leo-al
advisers or the Chamber in rel'ereucn ,„ the four at tone vs
f l U;:10 f'-se favoured persons was also practis
ing in the Courts at Westminster, causing ids f reorient
absence from the, city, to the detriment of Ins clients and
£,ebS^hVrlltll,lt ^ »hmM he -'ered to aba'udo
mt o c^0U- Tt WaS further ™ffffested that, as
• not,, oi the attorneys was '-very unserviceable" he
ft? J t ft " WltL hl f aV°m" of a» effi— t prac t i, „i
but that, fo the encouragement of ingenious persons it was
id t'rSe cl'' "I1"'6 tluU1 f°Ur -tterneys^hou d' t a -
nutted Iho Chamber approved of all thl'se roeommenda-
¦tions, the unserviceable gentleman being removed an.'tl'er

270

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1657

elected, and the third man threatened Avith dismissal unless
he confined himself to local business. The Corporation were
always jealous of the superior Courts. Au ordinance of
1576 imposed a fine of £10 on any burgess sueing a fellow.
freeman except in the Mayor's or Sheriffs' Court, and the
penalty had been enforced against an offender only a few
Aveeks before the aboA'e meeting.
The bribing of influential personages for the promotion
of corporate designs had not been extinguished by the fall
of the monarchy. With revolutionary ascendancy had
come corruption.' It Avas found that suitors to the Govern
ment could make no progress except by offering gratifica
tions, and that, so-called saints and patriots Avere not above
making scandalous gains. The folloAving significant reso
lution was passed by the Council in June :• — " Ordered that
it be referred to the Toavii Clerk and Chamberlain to pre
sent such gratuities to persons of honour above as have been
and still may be friends to the Corporation, according to
ancient presidents in the like case." Six months later the
folloAAung entries appear in the audit book :— " Paid by
Robert AldAvorth (Toavu Clerk) to the city's friend, for a
present, for soliciting city business, £31." " Paid by him
to clerks and others about soliciting for the fee-farm, £20."
The " friend " had doubtless influenced the Council of State
in recommending the Protector to remit the heavy arrears
of the toAvn fee-farm noticed at page 238.
In the corporate Bargain Book, dated 30th June, is the
minute of a license to " Giles Gough, and other inhabitants
of St. James's," to erect, at their oavii charge, a bridge over
the Froom from Broadmead End to Duck Lane, and to
make a passage through the Toavu Wall there ; the bridge
to alloAV of the passage of vessels as usual, and the parties
to set up a strong double gate in the Avail like to the other
city Gates. The latter proviso does not appear to have
been carried out ; aud the new bridge Avas immediately
designated Needless Bridge by everybody, the corporate
scribes included.
The progress of building operations in the Castle Pre
cincts is attested by a resolution passed by the Council in
July :  " Whereas the Castle iioav is demolished, and a
common street and highway made therein. And whereas
there Avas formerly a house in the Castle called the George
inn. A new house having been built on part of the old site,
and it being very commodious for entertaining men and
horses, Ordered that the said house be used as a common

1G57]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY,

277

inn and hostelry." Another resolution, of a few months
later date, decreed that there should be no other inn within
tho precincts " or elsewhere in the city," the existing num
ber being considered sufficient. The George inn, which was
in Castle Street, and became a valuable property, Avas after
Avards sold to the Merchants' Society.
Owing to the loss of the records of the Courts of Quarter
Session, the regulations made at intervals for equalizing
the poor rates in the various parishes cannot now be ex
plained. At a meeting of the Council in September, certain
districts that had been ordered to contribute to the relief of
Temple parish, where the unemployed poor Avere very
numerous, petitioned to be delivered of the burden owing to
the Aveight of their oavii charges " in these dead times ;
and £12 yearly were thereupon voted to Temple so that the
rates of the contribtttories might be abated. It Avas further
ordered that Is. Ad. paid (weekly?) by All Saints' parish to
Redcliff should thenceforth be paid to St. James's, the
Chamber voting £3 yearly to Redcliff in compensation.
The extreme triviality of these rates in aid and the im
patience Avith Avhich they Avere borne are not unAVorthy of
remark. . .
The procrastination frequently displayed by the civic
body in settling many matters that a modern Council Avould
deal with off-hand may be illustrated by a case that Avas
discussed at this time. Seven years previously (September,
1650) Mr. Giles Gough was elected a Common Councillor.
After giving him tAvo years to make his appearance, with
out any result, he was fined 100 marks for his recusancy m
1652. Five years more having elapsed, the Chamber aAvoke
to the propriety of recovering the fine ; whereupon Gough
put in a plea that, at the instigation of the then Mayor, m
1651, he had spent upAvards of £150 in "arching over
Broadmead," and that more than half that amount was
still due to him. It Avas next discovered that he had been
fined £10 a long time before for cutting down forty trees
on the city estate, and that the money had never been re
covered. After much deliberation, it Avas resolved that he
should be dismissed on giving a receipt in full for his claim
in reference to Broadmead.
The Council, in September, appointed a committee to con
sider the rules of the House for the regulation of debates,
" and also by what means the magistracy and government
of the city may be carried on with better port and honour,
thereby to gain the more reverence and respect from the

27.S

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

1 (if) 7

people. The committee, on NoA'ember ;3rd, reported on the
rules of debate, but altogether eluded the other and
much more interesting subject referred to them by a body
evidently dismayed at its increasing unpopularity. The
suggestions offered to the Chamber Avere approved, but they
possessed no feature of interest ; except that the House was
to assemble at nine o'clock in the morning, Avhen a half-
nour glass Avas to be set, up, and that those entering after
the glass had run out Avere to bo fined I2d. each.
The unfortunate people knoAvn as hucksters again fell
under the displeasure of the Corporation at this time.
Iheir number m the High Street market was condemned
as unnecessarily great, whilst their forestalling and regrat-
ing were declared to be absolutely injurious. Order was
therefore given that nine only should' be licensed for the
future, that their business should be done on stalls, and not in
the street, and that they should be all freemen or freemen's
wives or Avidows. The goods of unlicensed vendors Avere
ordered to be seized, and sold for the benefit of the poor.
A letter of the Protector to the Corporation, dated Decem
ber 2nd, shows that the Royalist conspiracies in the city,
referred to at page 266, Avere not unknown, to him. " Re
membering well," he writes, " the late expressions of Love
that I haA-e had from you, I cannot omit any opportunity to
express my care of you. I do hear, on all hands, that the
Cavalier 2iarty are designing to put us into blood. We are,
I hope, taking the best care Ave can, by the blessing of God,
to _ obviate this danger; but our Intelligence on all hands
being that they haA-e a design upon your city, Ave could not
but warn you thereof, and give you authority, as we do
hereby, to put yourselves in the best posture you can for
your oavii defence, by raising your militia by virtue of the
Commissions formerly sent you, and putting them in a
readiness for the purpose aforesaid ; letting you also knoAv
that for your better encouragement herein you shall have a
troop of horse sent to you, to quarter in or near your town.
We desire you to let us hear from time to time from you
Avhat occurs to you touching the malignant party. And so
we bid you fareAvell." This missiA-e Avas read to the Council
on December 6th, Avhen it was resolved that the city should
be fortlnvith prepared for defence by raising the militia, and
a very numerous committee Avas appointed to consider and
carry otttAvhat further measures might be thought needful.
In March, 1658, the Protector, avoiding the "trusty and
well-beloved " formula of his previous communication, ad-

Ki57-5-S|

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

27»

dressed another letter to the Corpora tion " of our city of
Bristol," as follows :— " Gentlemen, We have certain intelli
gence that the old Cavalier party and those avIio favour
their interest in these nations do design a' sudden insurrec
tion in this nation, and are to be encouraged therein by the
Spaniards, avIio, together Avith Charles Stuart, intend an in
vasion. And Ave are informed that your city is particularly
designed upon, and that some of their agents are sent doAvn
privately to prepare both persons and thi'-gs against the
time they shall be read}-. AVherefore Ave haA-e thought it
necessary to give you timely notice hereof, to the end you
may be upon your guard, and be in a position to defend
yourselves either against open foes or secret underminings.
And Ave shall be ready, as you shall let us understand your
condition, to give you assistance as it shall be necessary for
the preservation of the jieace of your city. We rest your
very loving friend, Oliver, P." The Council, on the re
ceipt of this warning, ordered the superior officers of the
trained bands to report on Avhat Avas fit to be done and on
the proper provision of ammunition to be made, and the
Chamberlain Avas directed to disburse funds for an extra
ordinary guard if the officers thought such a precaution ex
pedient. The reply made to the Protector has not been
preserved. The head-mastership of the Grammar School at this time
Avas held by Walter Rainstorp, avIio had a salary of £10 a
year. This amount Avas increased to £60 in December, but
Mr. Rainstorp died a few weeks afterAvards. In March,
1658, the Council, taking into consideration his many years'
services, his great success as a teacher, and the little advan
tage he had derived from the post, granted his widow and
children a pension of £10. In 1670, the ReAr. John Rainstorp,
son of Walter, educated at the school, and FcIIoav of St.
John's, Oxford, Avas appointed head-master, and was so
much iu the favour of the Common Council that he was also
preferred to the rectory of St. Michael, in despite of the
rule forbidding a head-master to hold a benefice,
The first distinct admission of the financial embarrassment
of the Corporation occurs in the minutes of a meeting held
on January 5th, 1658, as folloAvs : — " Whereas the Chamber
is at present many thousand pounds in debt, and thereby ne
cessitated to pay many hundred pounds a year interest more
| than] the yearly public revenue of the city can discharge."
It Avas therefore resoh'ed that the manors of Torleton,
West Hatch and North Weston should be disposed of at the

2SO

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1(358

best prices obtainable. Torleton, as has been already noted,
formed part of the purchase of Dean and Chapter lands in
164!.). It Avas uoav disposed of to Giles Earle, Esq., a mem
ber of a Avealthy Bristol family, AAdio accepted such title as
could be produced, and paid doAvn £1,275 for an estate
which he was destined to lose in little more than two years.
The other estates did not meet Avith purchasers.
A new corporate office Avas created at the above meeting,
a man being appointed SAvorn Measurer of draperies aud
linen cloth. He Avas to measure Avith a " silver thumb or
thimble containing one inch " — nothing being said about
longer measures — and his fee Avas fixed at one penny for all
sorts of cloth except Shrewsbury cottons, for Avhich he Avas
to have Ad. per piece. The fee Avas to be paid by the seller,
but in cases of dispute, Avhen both parties submitted to his
decision, the charge Avas to be divided betAveen them.
A lengthy ordinance Avas passed by the Council in March
to regulate the admission of freemen. Many of the clauses
Avere revivals of old laAvs. It Avas ordered that a Avidow or
daughter of a freeman should not have the privilege of
making more than one husband free. Women of these
classes, if they had lived out of the city for seven years,
Avere to be deemed aliens ; but for shorter terms of absence,
their husbands Avere to be admitted on payment of £2 for
each year that their AAaves had lived elseAvhere. No " for
eigner " Avas to be made free either by fine or marriage,
unless tAvo burgesses became sureties for his good behaviour,
for the payment of his rates, and for safeguarding the
parishes from poor relief as regarded his family.
" Foreigners " — even though natiAres of suburban parishes
— were nearly always treated as outcasts by the city rulers.
Whilst the above ordinance was being draAvn up, the Coun
cil learnt, with great indignation, that two strangers had
intruded into the city, and had been so presumptuous as to
open shops in Wine Street. It was immediately ordered
that the sheriffs' officers " do attend at the doors and houses
of the said foreigners, or of any other foreigners, and shall
shut down their windoAvs as often as they open them, ac
cording to ancient custom." As no exceptional fine Avas
paid during the year for admission as a burgess (except by
one Griffen, a " labourer," avIio paid £5), there is little doubt
that the interlopers were driven out of the place.
Intimation having been received that the Protector's son,
" Lord " Richard Croimvell, Avas about to visit Bath, accom
panied by Major-General Desbrowe, the Council, on June

1G5H1

in tht; seventeenth Centura',

281

Sth, requested the Mayor and Aldermen to make a present

to the" visitors, as an expression of love' and respect, of
Avine, sugar, and such other things as Avere thought fit;
also to invite them to Bristol, and to offer such entertain
ment to them and their retinue as should be agreeable to
their honour and the laudable customs of the city. For
getting that the Chamber was " many thousand pounds in
debt," according to the resolution of January, it Avas
further determined that a handsome house should be pro
vided, not merely for the entertainment of the expected
guests, but for " the future reception of persons of honour,
judges, &o," resorting to Bristol; but this premature con
ception of a Mansion House perished still-born. The
magistrates fulfilled their commission by purchasing four
hogsheads of Avine and about a hundredAveight of loaf
sugar, Avhich Avere conveyed to Bath and presented by the
Chamberlain, together with a letter of invitation, Avhich
Avas accepted. The visit took place on July 3rd, on Avhich
day " the most illustrious lord," as he is styled in Mercurius
J'olifkus, was met, about three miles from the city, by the
sheriffs and about 300 gentlemen on horseback, and con
ducted, amidst many salutes of artillery, to the Tolzey,
Avhere the Mayor .and Council Avere in attendance to do him
honour. The mansion of Colonel AldAvorth, the Toavu Clerk,
in Broad Street, Avhich, Avith its garden, occupied the Avhole
of the site of what is uoav John Street and ToAver Street,
had been prepared^for his reception. On the folloAving day,
after a promenade on horseback, he sat cIoavh to a " noble
dinner," for which a supply of Avine (costing no less than
£146) had been provided ; but the above reporter notes Avith
approval that excess and noise, so common at great feasts,
Avere carefully avoided. (Perhaps gravity Avas partially
furthered by an ample store of tobacco aud a gross of
tobacco pipes.) The visitor next made the obligatory
promenade in the Marsh, Avhere the great guns roared a
grand salute; then he attended another "banquet" pro
vided by the Mayor ; and finally departed in state for Bath.
On all hands, concludes the newspaper scribe, " duty and
affection " Avere never more apparent. The Toavii Clerk's
" note " of expenses at his house amounted to £70 9s., and
the outlay for gunpowder Avas £14 15s., Avhile the present
sent to Bath, including a small gift to the Recorder, cost
£83. A further sum of £28 was paid for " a butt of sack
giA^en aAvay by the Ma}-^* and Aldermen." Nothing is
said as to the destination of the liquor, but possibly tho

2S2

TIIK ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1G58

" perfecting of the fee-farm business," referred to in a pre-
A-ious note, may htiAe had some connection Avith the gift.
One more item connected with the banquets may be noted
as characteristic of the age : — " Paid Mr. Ralph Farmer
[minister of St. Nicholas] for prayers and graces, Avhich
Avas extraordinary, Pis. 4d."
On Avhat pretence does not appear, the Corporation from
time to time claimed the right of imposing poor rates. At
the meeting in June just referred to, the Chamber ordered
that, in consequence of the destitution prevailing amongst
the AvidoAvs and children of many Bristol sailors, killed in
the recent Avars Avith Spain and Holland, the parochial rates
for relieving the poor should be at once doubled. The city
ministers Ave re directed to publish the reason of the increase
in their pulpits, in order that householders might pay the
more cheerfully.
The proposed establishment of a ciA'ic Mansion House
has just been recorded. The Corporation, in August,
adopted another deA'iee for striking the ej^e of the vulgar.
It Avas ordered that a handsome barge, roAved with eight or
ten oars, after the manner of the barges of the Lord Slayor
and Aldermen of London, and also a proper place for keep
ing it, be built at the city's charge. The A^essel was not
finished until August, 1662, Avhen a few gallons of Avine
Avere drunk at the launch. In the following month the
Mayor and Aldermen took an excursion down the Avon,
and Avere supplied by the Chamberlain, for their entertain
ment, Avith sixpennyAvorth of nuts and abundance of wine
until a great banquet Avas ready for them at Pill. But the
tidal peculiarities of the river did not lend themselves to
corporate pageantry of this kind, and the gay barge — the
cost of Avhich Avas not fully discharged until 1670 — seems
to haA-e soon fallen into disfavour. After lying neglected
for many years, it Avas offered for sale in 1686^ and no
purchaser being forthcoming, it was ordered to be ripped
up and the material sold.
A brief note in a contemporary calendar states that on
August 12th a number of gentlemen, natives of Bristol,
held a "feast" at the Great House at the south end of
Bristol Bridge, once occupied by the Rogers family, but at
this time, it is supposed, conA'erted into an inn. The Mayor
(Arthur Farmer) presided, also acting as treasurer, and the
company paid 5.s-. per head for the banquet — an unusually
large sum at that period. There can be little question that
the dinner in question Avas the first held by the flloucostor-

1(358 J

IX THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUUV.

'2H'i

shire Society, whose records state that it Avas founded for
charitable purposes on December 1st, 1057, at a meeting of
about fifty gentlemen of the city and neighbourhood.
The first Steward of the infant institution was Thomas
Bubb, Common Councillor, Avho probably yielded the chair
to the Mayor to give greater eclat to the proceedings. The
" collection," which probably means the surplus over ex
penses derived from the dinner tickets, amounted to £5 14s.
\d., a sum exceeding the average annual receipts during
the remaining years of the century. At a later period the
collections were of a very liberal character. The amount
received in 1771 reached £30(5, more than double the sum
collected in that year by the three great Colston Societies
put together.
At a meeting of the Common Council ou September (5th,
a letter from the Council of State to the Mayor Avas pro
duced, announcing the death of the Protector, and the
succession of his son, Richard CroniAA-ell. The dispatch
requested that the magistrates should be forthwith
assembled, and steps taken for proclaiming the hcav head
of the State Avith fitting solemnity, and for securing the
peace against all machinations of the evil-minded. It Avas
thereupon resolved that one of the Sheriffs should make
proclamation that day at the High Cross, in the jn-esence of
the civic body arrayed in scarlet, the city companies, the
officers of the trained bands, etc., and directions Ave re giA_eii
for bonfires, music, bell-ringing and cannon firing, as ivell
by the great guns in the Marsh as from, the shipping in
the harbour. There is no record of the subsequent cere
mony. No enthusiasm Avas possible under the circumstances.
and it would seem from the corporate accounts that not a
single bottle of Avine Avas broached on the occasion.
Sir Henry Vane had been elected Lord High SteAvard of
the city at a time Avhen he. Avas a personage of great poli
tical importance, Soon after the appointment he Avas
reduced to impotence through the failure of his resistance
to Cromwell, and the Corporation, thinking it needless to
maintain, relations Avith him. judiciously forgot for seA'eral
years to offer the customaiy honorarium. The aspect, of
public affairs having been greatly altered by the Protector's
death, a change was thought advisable in the ciA'ic policy,
and the sum of £20 in gold i costing £2.0 Avas sent to Sir
Henry in September, 165S. iu part payment of the arrears.
In September, 165', I, it must- have been determined to
forward £20 more, being pa\'meut in full, for the item is

284

IHE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1658

actually entered in the audit book; but the figures are not
carried into the column, and the Chamberlain adds in a
note : — " This was stopt aud not paid." Coming events
seem to have cast their shadows before. Sir Henry Vano
Avas arrested in the following year, and Avas executed in 1(562,
after a gross breach of faith on the part of Charles II.
A lengthy code of rules for regulating the Grammar
School Avas approved by the ^Council in October. It was
ordered that the boys should be in their places at seven
o'clock in tho morning in the summer, and eight in the
Avinter months, should leave for dinner at eleven for two
hours, and should depart at five in summer and half an hour
earlier in Avinter. Two half-holidays weekly Avere granted,
Avhen the lads Avere expected to attend a writing school, but
any boy going to the latter school except on those afternoons
Avas to be punished, and for a third offence expelled. The
holidays Avere limited to a fortnight at Christmas, ten days
each at Easter aud Whitsuntide, tAvo days at St. Paul's fair,
and four days at that of St. James. All the boys were to
attend church on Sundays, and on Mondays the elder youths
Avere to produce notes of the sermon, Avhile the younger
Avere to give an oral account of it. An examination before
the Mayor and Aldermen was to take place yearly at Easter,
Avhen the best deserving pupil Avas to receive a prize of ten
shillings. This ordinance Avas re-issued in 1667 Avith some
modifications, one of Avhich required the scholars to be
present at six o'clock on summer mornings. The admission
fee for freemen's sous Avas increased from fourpence to 5s.
Other boys were to pay Avhat the Master and their parents
agreed upon ; but all Avere to contribute a shilling each for
fire in Avinter and tAvopence quarterly for SAveeping the,
school. Another singular instance of magisterial arrogance is
recorded in the minutes of the Court of Aldermen, dated
October 1st. " The Mayor and Aldermen being informed of
a lecture set up Avithout any authority at all in St. Mary-
port church at seven on Sunday mornings, the church-
Avardens are forewarned not to suffer the bells to be rung or
the door opened any more, or any suffer to preach Avithout
orders from the Mayor and Aldermen " !
Directions Avere given by the Council in December for the
erection of a Gate in Castle Street for the protection of the
iioav approach to the city. An order for a second Gate " at
the further end of the, Castle Bridge" was given in the fol
lowing month. The Chamberlain superintended the work-

1G5(.)J

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

28"

men engaged, and items for Avages occur in his books for
many weeks. The Gates, one of Avhich Avas decorated Avith
a carving of the arms of the city and supplemented by
a porter's lodge, were completed in the folloAving year.
Great distress prevailed at this time amongst the working
classes OAving to the high price of provisions. The Council,
in January, 1650, having considered " the manifold and
extraordinary necessities of the poor," resolved that a collec
tion should be made from door to door for the relief of those
in want. The subscription Avas started in the Chamber,
Avhere it iiroduced £37 10s. A request for contributions
Avas sent to absentees, and the Mayor Avas directed to urge
the parochial ministers to stir their flocks to give freely.
A Parliament having been summoned to assemble on
January 27th, au election of representatives took place
a feAv weeks previously, Avhen Robert AldAvorth, Town
Clerk, Avas returned for the third time, his colleague being
Alderman Joseph Jackson. The local chroniclers, as usual,
afford no information as to the proceedings, but Ave learn
from the memoirs of General Edmund LttdloAv, a Avell-
informed and trustworthy Parliamentarian, that Sir Henry
Vane came forward as a candidate, and had a majority of
the votes polled, but that the Sheriffs refused to return him
as a member. Mr. AldAvorth on this occasion received no
" Avages " from the Corporation, but Mr. Jackson was paid
£28 (!s. 8d. for 85 days' attendance. Although the existing
form of Government Avas evidently tottering, the Council
thought it worth while to instruct the neAV members " to
consider of any enlargement that may be convenient for the
city charters." They were also desired to make endeavours
to get the government of the local militia invested in the
Corporal-ion. Tho speedy dissolution of the new House ren
dered these instructions futile. But the relies of the Long
Parliament, Avhich reassembled iu the summer, practically
fulfilled the corporate Avishes as to the militia, by appointing
as commissioners the Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being,
and several Puritan aldermen and councillors.
Amongst the State Papers for January and February are
three letters to the Admiralty from one Shewed, a navv
agent in Bristol, respecting a number of maimed soldiers
landed at the quays. As to the first batch of thirteen, he
states that he had begged help for them, and sent them to
the Mayor, avIio gave them "passes" to beg, and a dole of 5v.,
" which is Bristol charity to such as serve tho State.-' Two
days later he Avrote that more men had been .sent ashore

2&<;

run ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[105!)

who Ave re cripples, carried on men's backs ; but the magis
trates took no more care for them than if they had been so
many crippled dogs. He had given them 40s. In his third
despatch he reported that after pressing the justices closely,
they had consented to advance money to send the men up
to London in Avagons.
The Council, in March, elected as Recorder John Stejiheiis
(son of Edward Stephens, Esq., of Little Sodbury), then
M.P. for Gloucestershire, nee Mr. Doddridge, deceased.
The uoav official had been a- stanch supporter of tho
C-ommomvealth. In a letter acquainting him of his ap
pointment the Council stated that amongst many others
nominated, no name Avas in so great an estimation as his ;
God's providence had directed the judgment of the Chamber ;
and it Avas hoped that he Avould " clearly see the footsteps
of divine appointment in this your call." Mr. Stephens
returned thanks to the Chamber in a missive of a similar
character. The researches of the Historical Manuscripts Commission
i Aid. x. part 4) haAre disinterred a number of letters, Avritten
about this time by Sir Edvvard Hyde, the future Lord
Clarendon, in reference to Royalist projects in Bristol and
Gloucestershire. Addressing one Mordaunt, who had been
sent 0Arer to England by Charles II. to promote a Restora
tion, Hyde expressed an anxious hope that " Colonel " Massey
i the hero of Gloucester, avIio, like many discontented Presby
terians, had gone oA'er to the royal camp) Avould attempt to
secure Bristol and Gloucester, for Avhich, " in spite of his
weaknesses," the King's friends thought him very desirable.
On May 27th, Hyde proposed to move the King to land
3.1 10( l men in the district, " which Avould give a neAV life to
his business, and make the Avariest fly to him. This Ave
have their promises for." On June 4th he Avrote that there
Avould be nothing rash in the above venture, Avhich would
spread a fire through the kingdom. Mordaunt threAv cold
Avater on these sanguine vieAvs. Writing to the King on
.July 6th, he stated that Massey had assured his friends
positively of the certain sttrprisal of the tAvo cities. " But
'twas found Ave could not assure ourselves of ammunition
nor foot arms sufficient for the numbers that would appear.
For these Ave ahvays depended ou your Majestj'."
In the State Papers for April is a petition to the young
Protector from Sarah Norris, of Bristol, praying for relief.
•-1 Avas ruined,'' she. Avrites, " by my good affection in the
late Avar in helping prisoners and giving intelligence to our

1(359]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

2-Sf

armies, especially in warning them of an intended attack,
Avhich being discovered I had to fly for my life, leaving my
goods to plunder. My husband [James Reade| died in
prison leaving six small children. My losses and my hus
band's loans to Lord Fiennes come to £3,000." The truth
of these statements Avas certified by Colonel John Haggett
and others. On the report of General Skippon and other
officers, the Government granted the applicant au alloAvance
of 20s. per Aveek ; but the pension of course ceased on the
restoration of the monarchy.
Tho Council, on April 12th, adopted a singular resolution
in reference to a crying evil: — "For the more easy sup
pressing of the innumerable company of [unlicensed] ale
houses," it was determined to impose a fine on breAvers
supplying such places, the penalty being fixed at 6s. 8d. per
barrel; and the officers of the Brewers' Company Avere to be
compelled to see this order strictly carried out. The idea of
fining the unlicensed pothouse keepers, some of Avhom prob
ably breAved their beer at home, does not appear to have
occurred to the city senate.
" In consideration of the poverty of the parish of St.
.lames, and of the small and uncertain maintenance of Mr.
Paul, the minister," the Council resolved in July to grant a
lease to the parish, for the life of the incumbent, Avho Avas
to enjoy half the profits, of the churchyard, the benefits
of the standings there during the great yearly fair, the
tithes, tithe pigs, etc., reserving a rent of *£3 (is. 8d. ' The,
parsonage, stated to have been recently built, Avas declared
to be for the minister and his successors for eA-er. There is
reason to believe that in the opinion of the parish vestry
the Corporation, in granting this lease, Ave re practically
laying claim to an estate that did not belong to them. The,
parish had for centuries enjoyed the profits of the standings in
the churchyard during the fair, and had collected money
for tithes and tithe pigs, and for the grazing of horses in
the burial ground, and any corporate right there, excepting
the fee-farm rent of £3 6s. 8d., Avas flatly repudiated. The
matter afterwards became the subject of prolonged litiga-
tion (see Sept. i(><7).
According to numerous papers in the Record Office, the.
Royalist conspiracies in Bristol and Gloucestershire, to
which reference has been made ih previous pages, threAv the,
Council of State into great alarm during tho'summor. Ou
July 25th, President LaAvrence, in a letter to Colonel
Haggett, Nehemiah Collins, Edward Tvsou.and three other

2SS

TIIK ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1659

Bristolians, announced that the Council, hearing of the
designs of the enemy, had thought fit, for the safety of the
city, to send doAvn commissioners for the enlistment and
arming of six companies of foot from amongst the Avell-
affected, to be commanded by the persons above named, avIio
were ordered to put themselves in an attitude of defence.
Tavo clays later the Government resolved on securing the
city by an army corps, and tAvo days afterwards President
Whitelock, in a despatch to Colonel Okey, a prominent local
officer, stated that the Council, apprised of au intended
insurrection, and of the design of a large number of the
enemy to assemble in Bristol, required Okey to dispose of
his forces not merely for defence but offence, and to make
the security of the city and adjoining county his special
care. He Avas further requested to search Colonel Popham's
house near Bristol, as many arms were suspected to be stored
there. (Popham, the ardent Parliamentarian of 1642, had,
like Massey and many others, become a Royalist.) In
August, the Council empoAvered the militia commissioners
to raise money by the lev3r of a month's assessment on the
inhabitants ; but the alarm had subsided in the folloAving
month, Avhen General DesbroAve reported from the Com
mittee of Safety that the militia authorities should be
authorized to pay off and dismiss the troops of horse and
foot that they had raised. Nevertheless a panic must have
occurred rn the city soon afterAvards, probably arising out
of a Royalist revolt at Chester, for on November 1st, the
Common Council ordered that, toAvards paying off the ser
geants, drummers and others emplojred for the defence of
the city " on the late insurrection," the Chamberlain should
temporarily ach-ance £42. The regiment of soldiers sent
doAvn by the Government next began to give serious trouble.
Their pay fell many weeks in arrear, and being unable to
obtain food in a regular manner they threatened to help
themselAft-es by force. Their commanding officer thereupon
proposed that the citizens should provide the men with
a Aveek's pay " in lieu of free quarters " ; and on December
25th the Chamberlain paid £50 " to certain officers and
soldiers of Mainwaring's regiment to prevent plundering."
Further sums must have been extorted, for at a Council
meeting on January 6th, 1660, the minutes state that Avith
a vieAV to preventing disturbances, and relieving both
soldiers and citizens, the Chamber had advanced £105.
The money seems to haA'e been recovered by levying a rate
on the householders. The troops were removed a feAV days

1659]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

289

afterwards ; and the Council of State having authorized the
Mayor to raise a sufficient local force for the preservation of
peace, the trained bands were formed into a regiment of
militia, commanded by Colonel Aldworth, Town Clerk, with
James Powell, Chamberlain, as lieutenant-colonel, and
Nehemiah Collins as major.
John Hicks, mercer, having refused to accept the office of
Common Councillor, was fined £200 in September, and
orders Avere given for his committal to gaol if he refused to
pay. Mr. Hicks, unable to bear this rigorous treatment,
consented to enter the Council, and in due course served the
offices of Sheriff and Mayor. It may be noted that about
this date the minutes of the Chamber begin to be written
by a scribe Avhose execrable caligraphy would alone render
them almost unintelligible, but Avho also occasionally re
corded them in shorthand, and sometimes wrote only the
initials of the persons named in resolutions !
Probably the last surviving tradesman dealing exclusively
in bows and arrotvs for military and sporting purposes made
his appearance in the city at this time. On September loth,
James Price, "fletcher," Avas admitted to the freedom.
'_' There being," says the minute, " none of the same trade
in the city," no fine seems to have been demanded.
The occasional eccentricity of corporate proceedings is
illustrated by a resolution passed by the Council on Sep
tember 29th. It Avas ordered that the number of bo3>-s in
Queen Elizabeth's Hospital should be increased from 28 to
40, and that the addition should be made as revenues fell in
hand. As a matter of fact, no increase in the number of
boys took place until 1681— twenty-two years later.
The Council being informed in October that the head of
the conduit near Green's Mill, supplying the Quay and
Back Pipes Avith Avater, ivas in a defective state, and the
supply much impeded, a committee Avas ajtpointed to make
the necessary reparations. (Green's Mill, of wdiich some
remains still exist, was situated about 200 yards to the
south of the present Ashley Hill raihvay station.) The
above minute is almost the only one in Avhich any reference
is made to the principal city conduit, though it is super
abundantly mentioned in the' Chamberlain's accounts. Tho
reservoir near the spring must have been entirely unpro
tected, as there are numberless payments for opening tho
conduit in various places in order to remove the bodies of
dead cats that stopped the supply. In ono audit book there
are four such items within three months, and in 1660, after
u

290

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1659-60

the above committee had presumably fulfilled its commis
sion, the Chamberlain Avas compelled to disburse money to
a plumber " for taking cats out of the pipes." Similar pay
ments occur in connection with " the Gatints' Pipe " sup
plying the City School and neighbouring houses in College
Green. SeAren or eight dead animals were sometimes taken
out of this conduit within a tAvelvemonth.
In despite of the precautious taken by tho Protector's
ministers, the Royalists in this district Avere still preparing
for an outbreak. Amongst the State Papers for December
is a letter from Secretary Nicholas to a local agent, stating
that he Avill advise the King to send Major-General Massey
to take charge of " the Bristol business," for Avhich, says
the ingonttous Avriter, " he is the fittest person, being an
excellent commander, faithful and loyal" !
The remoA-al of MaiiiAvaring's regiment gave the local
loyalists fresh encouragement to prosecute their design for
a popular rising. One of the most industrious of the in
triguers was a- merchant named Richard EllsAVorth, avIio,
clearly Avith the countenance of some influential citizens,
sedulously sought recruits amongst apprentices and young
men, urging them to take united action for the overthrow
of the existing GoA-ernment and the restoration of the
monarchy. The reception by General Monk of petitions
for a free Parliament wdiilst advancing with his army
toAvards London lent additional strength to the secret
agitation in Bristol, and on February 2nd, 1660, a consider
able number of youths gathered in the Marsh in a tumul
tuous manner, some raising cries for " a free Parliament,"
and others for " Charles SteAvart." Emboldened by this
successful defiance of the authorities, the apprentices and
their confederates returned into the city, Avhere they seized
the main Guard-house before the militia could be collected,
broke into various houses, carrying off the arms found
there, and, after attracting many more adherents by beat
ing drums about the streets, and making " great brags of
Avhat they Avould do," had the audacity to set a guard on
the Mayor and confine him to his house. Notwithstanding
proclamations by tho magistrates on the 3rd and 4th,
requiring the apprentices to return to their homes, the
disturbances Avere renewed daily for a week, during Avhich
many Royalist gentry flocked in from the country to stimu
late the rioters ; Avhilst ordinary business was practically
suspended, and the authorities were apparently paralysed.
Had there been any solid foundation for the statements of

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

291

Royalist conspirators as to 3,000 Bristolians being eager to
rise for the King, no circumstances could be imagined more
favourable than these for securing the city for His Majesty
and effecting a revolution. But the arrival of. a single
troop of horse completely changed tbe situation. Ellsworth
and other instigators of disorder sought safety in precipi
tate flight, and after a proclamation of the Mayor and
Council at the High Cross, requiring immediate submission,
the apprentices repaired to the Marsh, and laid doAvn their
arms. The Corporation were enabled to inform the Govern
ment on February 10th that order was restored. The
Council of State promptly replied, thanking them for their
good affection in subduing by God's help the mutinous
distemper raised by malignant spirits, and for the diligence
that had been displayed, and desiring care to be taken for
the discovery of the fomentors. Three or four youths are
said to have been committed to prison, but there is no
record of their punishment. The Government, indeed,
discountenanced severity. Addressing Colonel Okey on
February 25th, the Council of State sharply demanded to
know why he had, contrary to instructions, removed Bris
tolians out of their houses, imprisoning some, and hreaten-
ing to send others to Chepstow Castle. Nothing of that
kind Avas to be done Avithout orders, except in case of insur
rection, and the military must not trench upon the civil
authority, or on the inhabitants in their laAvful rights.
Nearly the whole of the above facts have been gleaned from
the State Papers, the local annalists affording scarcely any
information on the subject. EllsAvorth stole up to London,
and on February 16th, a pamphlet that may be safely
attributed to him Avas published there, entitled " A Letter
of the Apprentices of the City of Bristol to the Apprentices
•of the City of London," denouncing the Government and
tho House of Commons, declaring that the pretended Avriters
would resist the payment of taxes until the meeting of a
free Parliament, and trusting that "you Avill quit your
selves as_ frec-bom English gallants, and play the man for
God, religion and the country." Ellsworth's attempts to
•excite rioting in the capital, of Avhich he afterAvards boasted,
Avere, -however, speedily suppressed, and he fled back to
Bristol, whence, on February 25th, he sent a letter to
General Mouk. Carefully concealing his recent doughty
deeds, the writer stigmatised the Mayor, the Toavu Clerk,
Alderman Yato, and others, as fanatics, avIio excluded the
u sober and judicious " aldermen, Gonning, Joseph and

292

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1660

Miles Jackson, Balman, Farmer, Sandy and White, from
their consultations, " so that the most factious are now the
only actors," and a number of insinuations follow as to tbe
alleged hostile intentions of the Mayor, the Baptists, and
the Quakers. This earliest specimen of Ellsworth's malig
nant penmanship is amongst the Popham MSS. at Littlecote.
The authority of the magistrates had been greatly shaken
by the youthful mutiny, and by the impotence of their
efforts for its suppression ; and 'the loAver classes were soon
ripe for further disturbance. On March 5th, tho day before
Shrove Tuesday, the justices made their customary procla
mation by the bellman, prohibiting the ancient sports of
the season — cock-throAving, dog- tossing, and football-playing
in the streets. But the bellman was knocked about by
a mob, and had his livery destroyed, and next day the
apprentices threw at geese and hens instead of cocks, and
tossed bitches and cats instead of dogs, committing some of
these pranks before the Mayor's windows, and breaking the
head of one of the Sheriffs into the bargain. The turmoil,
which is reported by Royalist chroniclers with great glee,
had no serious consequences. The Corporation, soon after
Avards, were so satisfied with the aspect of affairs that on
March 25th the Chamberlain paid £20 "to two troops of
horse that were in town, to send them going."
The last effort of the civic Council to maintain the Com
mon Avealth was made at a meeting on March 15th, Avhen it
was resolved to present an address to Parliament — " the
Rump " — recognising its authority, and expressing " good
affection" towards it. The Chamber further determined, if
London and other places pursued the same course, to peti
tion for a continuance of the existing Parliament— convoked
nearly twenty years previously — - and for filling _ up the
hundreds of vacancies occasioned by deaths and ejections.
A third resolution directed that speedy measures should be
taken to obtain from the Government the repayment of
upwards of £600 owing to the Corporation and the inhabi
tants for the quartering of soldiers. It Avould be interesting
to knoAv whether the desire of recovering the debt had any
influence in prompting tho offering of "good affection."
At another meeting, on the 27th, letters Avere read from
General Monk and Vice- Admiral Penn, and as no record of
thoir purport, appears in tho minutes, it may be safely sur
mised that they enunciated vioAVS respecting tho Parliament
iu flat contradiction to those so recently advocated by the
Council.

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

293

Admiral, or, as he was often styled, General Penn, had
taken an early opportunity of deserting the Commonwealth
Government and paying his devotions to the' rising sun.
In promotion of his personal ambition, he now contemplated
offering himself for the representation of his native city in.
the Convention Parliament, and as a then indispensable
qualification for the position, he applied to the Council for
admission as a freeman, a privilege that he claimed by right
of birth. A committee was appointed to search the records,
and as his father, Giles Penn, Avas found to have been a
free burgess, he Avas admitted in the usual manner.
The election of members took place in April. Admiral
Penn had rendered distinguished services at the conquest of
Jamaica in 1655, but the vast importance of that island in
a local point of view Avas not then appreciated, and the
candidate's conversion to Royalism Avas not likely to com
mend him to the bulk of the Corporation. The other
aspirants were John Knight (senior), a fervent Royalist,
and the Recorder, John Stephens, avIio had, Avhile member
for Gloucestershire, been a supporter of the Commonwealth.
Penn Avas rejected, but the poll has unfortunately perished.
The Toavu Clerk, Robert Aldworth, was elected for Devizes.
The Admiral Avas immediately afterAvards returned for
Weymouth, Avhich he represented until his death. He was
charged in 1668 Avith embezzling naval prize goods, and he
' admitted that, by permission of the Admiralty and Avith
the knowledge of the King, goods were distributed to the
flag officers to the value of £1,000 each, and that he took
double that amount for himself. Pepys, in his Diary, rarely
loses a chance of vilipending Penn as a rogue and rascal,
but those railings probably sprang from nothing more than
vexation at having to serve under him, and irritation at
finding personal schemes of aggrandizement detected and
overthrown. An ordinance of tho Court of Aldermen, issued about the
end of April, may be regarded as the last protest of expir
ing corporate Puritanism. The document condemns the
liberty lately taken bjr rude persons in setting up may
poles, occasioning disorderly gatherings, especially on the
Lord's Day, forbids such assemblies and the erection of
may-poles, and orders the constables to remove those that
were standing. It is probable that the command Avas ignored
by tho parish officials. The truth Avas that Puritanism,
aiming at an unattainable standard, had denied the multi
tude, not merely brutalising pleasures, but the innocent

294

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1660

amusements of the drama, the may-pole, the Christmas
feast, the Sunday Avalk, and other pleasures which are a
moral necessity of human nature. The consequence of a
tyranny of godliness Avheii the Republican yoke was felt to
be shaken to pieces Avas a recoil that soon developed into
uncontrolled licentiousness.
In the civic audit-book of the year is the folloAving entry,
dated May 10th: — " Charges for putting the Avine in the
Key Pipe at the proclaiming "of the King, 4s. lOd." This
is the only known record as to the date of the ceremony,
but an annalist states that the proclamation was read by
Francis Gleed, one of the Sheriffs, in the presence of tho
Mayor aud Aldermen rolled in scarlet — as they had been at
the proclamation of Richard CromAvell less than t\vo years
before. The Avine drank in the Tolzey and that " put into
the conduits," at a cost of about £19, Avere, hoAvever, inno-
vations signalling the da\vn of a new era. The revolution
in the State was accompanied by a startling revulsion in
national manners and customs, political consistency going
as much out of fashion as personal sobriety, pious enthu
siasm, and Puritanical garments. Tlie-object most eagerly
pursued in the Council House, even by many men who had
been ardent adA^ocates of the Cronrwellian system, was the
favour of the neAV monarch, a favour which, as seems to
have been Avell knoAvn, could be secured only in one Avay.
On May 29th the Chamber debated as to Avhat gift in
money should be offered to His Majesty as a token of love
and affection, when a considerable majority determined
that the present should be £500, only three members — one
of them a captain under the Commonwealth — voting for
£1,000. It was easier to approve of such a donation than
to produce it, for the civic treasury was empty, and the
Corporation were deeply in debt. It was at first proposed to
borroAv the money from a number of members, nearly all
of Avhom had been prominent anti-Royalists. Eventually,
the whole sum, with £50 extra for its conversion into gold,
was borrowed, on the security of the city, from Aldermen
Joseph Jackson and Farmer, tAvo leading Puritans ; and the
money was sent up to London, accompanied by a congratu
latory address of thoroughly loyal ring, for presentation to
His Majesty by the members for the city, and a numerous
deputation of aldermen and councillors. Even before the
gift Avas tendered, however, it was not deemed sufficiently
ample to testify the devotion and open-handed zeal of the
neAV coiiA^erts to Royalism. The purchase of certain CroAvn

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

295

fee-farms from the CommonAvealtb Government for £o77
has been noted at page 232. At a hastily convened meet
ing of the Council on June 8th, it Avas resolved that these
rents, producing £67 a year, should be freely returned to
the King Avhen the gift in gold was offered to him ; and a
deed under the city seal, testifying this free-Avill surrender,
was hurried up after the deputation, who, as may be con
ceived, met with a gracious reception from the throne. A
few days later, the Council again assembled to make pre
parations for duly celebrating the day (June 28th) fixed by
the Government for a national thanksgiving on the happy
Restoration. It Avas resolved that the Corporation should
proceed in state to the cathedral to hear a sermon, and the
members of tho trade Companies Avere desired to attend
" in their formalities." Further instructions Avere given for
the firing of salutes from the great guns, and for fireAvorks
in the evening. Altogether, the gunpowder burnt " at his
Majesty's coming in " cost the Chamber £76 19s. 9d.
Much more required to be done for perfecting and em
bellishing the neAV order of things. The statue of Charles I.,
Avhich had been concealed after its removal from the High
Cross, was again brought forth, but had suffered so much in
the civic vaults as to be unfit for restoration to its original
place. The Chamberlain had the " old picture," as he called
it, taken to the house of a carver named Thorne, who pro
duced a neAV statue, set it up in the Cross, and repaired the
other figures there, for £13. A painter was next engaged
to re-decorate the royal arms, also drawn from a hiding-
place, and to illuminate the neAV statue, and receiAred £5 10s.
for his pains. The corporate plate, tarnished from disuse,
was regilded, and the state sword refurbished, at a cost of
£20. A new silver mace Avas obtained for the Chamberlain.
The custom of ducking vixenish Avomen, long suspended,
Avas revived, for Avhich end a hcav cucking-stool Avas set up
at the Weir. The perambulation of the city boundaries
Avas reviAred Avith unusual ceremony, and Avas Avottnd up by
a grand banquet in the Guildhall. And this was naturally
folloAvod by a formal survey of the Avater boundaries, Avhen
tho monotony of the Aroyage Avas relieved by continuous
feastiug. Whilst these matters Avere proceeding, the Court of
King's Bench Avas applied to for the redress of ireegu-
larities alleged to haAre been committed in the Common
Council. John Locke and Gabriel Sherman, Avho had. in
1656, tendered a resignation of their aldermanships in a

296

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1660
, formal document (see p. 265), applied for and obtained a
mandamus to recover their places, and similar mandates
were issued on behalf of Henry Creswick, Nicholas Cale,
Kicliard (xregson, and John Knight (senior), who had all
been aldermen, but had been expelled (though, with the
exception of Creswick, ejected in 1645, there is no record
ot their expulsion in the civic minutes). Except in the
case of Locke, who was generally unpopular, the Council
ottered no resistance to the writs, and Locke was also rein
stated a fe-AV Aveeks later. •
_ The triumphant Royalists, dissatisfied with these legal
victories, next sought to expel from the Council Chamber
every vestige of the Puritan party. The State Papers of
t-lie year contain numerous documents concerning their
mancouvres, which have wholly escaped local historians.
-karly m September, Henry Creswick, the restored alder
man and some of like principles, secretly addressed a
petition to the King, asking permission to turn out of
the Council all such as had been elected for their support
ot the late Government, to restore loyal men that had been
ejected, and to elect others chosen by themselves. Speedy
action Avas requested to prevent the other party from elect
ing officers on September 15th. The petition-passed through
the hands of the Lord Chancellor (Clarendon), who informed
Secretary Nicholas that the King Avould Avrite to the Mayor.
Ihese men, he added, Avere impatient to have all done at
once, but it must be done by degrees. In the result, the
elections came on before the King thought fit to interfere ;
but the secret intriguers had no cause for complaint. The
sji-stem of voting by ballot was, of course, abolished as a
rehe of Puritanism, and the chief magistracy Avas conferred
on Creswick himself, while the sterling Royalist, John
Knight (senior), and Thomas Stevens, a convert, were
appointed Sheriffs. (Knight, urging that his duties as
member of Parliament required all his attention, was
excused ; Stevens, refusing to accept office, was fined £200,
and Avas ordered to be committed to gaol until he produced
the penalty, but was ultimately pardoned, and served as
Sheriff in the folloiving year.) The meeting had next to
consider a missive from the King, received some time
before. His Majesty stated that he had received informa
tion of the sufferings, through loyalty, of Alexander Gray,
a Bristol merchant, and that the office of corporate Cham
berlain Avas executed by James PoAvell, said to have been
elected on the recommendation of Cromwell. Gray being

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

297

represented as fit for the place, the King recommended his
appointment. Profusely loyal as the Chamber had now
become, it was shocked by this characteristic specimen of
Stewart meddlesomeness in behalf of an obscure Scotch
intruder, avIio, being a "foreigner," Avas disqualified by
the express terms of the city charters. A petition was
forthwith draAvn up, declaring that PoAvell had been chosen
out of numerous candidates as the most deserving, Avithout
being recommended by Cromwell or any other, and having
alwaj's faithfully exercised his office, it was prayed that the
royal request would not be pressed. Charles abandoned his
nominee, but the determination to displace PoAvell continued,
and Avas effected, as will be sIioavu, in April, 1662.
To return to the intrigue of CresAviek and his con
federates. On September 24th, 1660, nine days after
CresAvick's election as Mayor, the expected letter arrived
from the King. His Majesty, professing anxiety to remove
difficulties between his subjects if they conducted them
selves Avell, desired that former members of. the Council
removed for their loyalty should be restored, that the legal
number of forty-three should as far as possible be made
up from such survivors as Avere chosen before the Civil War,
and that all the rest of the aldermen and councillors should
be expelled. It is a remarkable fact that although CresAviek
Avas now empowered to deal root and branch with his
opponents in accordance Avith his previous request, he took
no action Avhatever against them. On April 2nd, 1661, the
King, in another letter, repeated his previous orders, but
tho matter Avas never brought before the Council through
out Creswick's mayoralty. His ultra-Royalist colleagues
Avero naturally furious. EllsAvorth, the virulent mouth-
pieco of the malcontents, complained to Secretary Nicholas
that tho Mayor still kept iu their places his relations by
marriage, suck as Alderman Joseph Jackson, a factious
Anabaptist, avIio had fined a man bs. 8c/., for drinking the
King's health, and Robert Aldworth, the Toavii Clerk, Avho
opposed the Restoration ; Avhilst the loyalists expelled in
164o had not been brought back, in spite of the King's in
structions. Aldermen William Colston and Nathaniel Cale,
two_e5Hreme partisans, Avrote to the Secretary in a similar
strain, affirming that the Mayor Avas favouring Aldermen
Avho were mortal enemies of the King, and avIio, being as
Svi t0r2nG m the whole number, Avould throAV all charge
able offices upon loyal men, Avho Avere disabled to bear them
through sequestrations. The Mayor, it Avas added, had

298

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1(360

endeared himself to the sectaries, who abounded, by making
Alderman Vickris his deputy, and was now in London
seeking to get the mihtia into the hands of the Corporation,
which might be of " ill consequence." Prebendary Dashfield
aiTi de.n1°imced the Mayor's remissness and the fanaticism
ot the Aldermen, and sent up the names of " untainted men,"
ht tor service. Eighteen barrels of gunpowder, he added,
had been found m tho house pi Major Roe, a Quaker, who
had borne arms against the'Ciwn, yet the. Mayor had
returned three barrels to tho owner, Av'hich the writer con
sidered scandalous. Tho purification of the Chamber under
Creswick s successor Avill be narrated presently.
Ihe insatiable craving for appointments under the Crown.
or procurable by its influence, Avas one of the most con
spicuous incidents that followed the Restoration. The Kino-
had scarcely settled down at Whitehall before he was up to the
knees m memorials for compensations, reAvards, and honours.
Amongst the croAvd of local solicitors, Captain Richard
leamans petitioned for a surveyorship of Customs, represent
ing that his brother Robert Avas murdered, another brother
cut to pieces and himself Avounded, imprisoned, and
banished, after being deprived of an estate of £2,000. (He
Avas appointed Comptroller, but died soon afterwards.) The
six children of George. BoAvcher, executed with Yeamans,
PJa/ien ', , u"SULressf "Hy, for a continuance of the pension
ot ^100 that had been received by their mother. William
Colston, the father of Echvard, pleading heavy losses durino-
™e ?**, sued for» and eventually obtained, the post of
English Consul at Marseilles for his son Richard, a youth
of about 20 years of age. John Fitzherbert coolly applied
tor Iavo Customerships because he had been concerned in
the \ caimans' plot, for which, he alleged, he had been chained
to another man m the Castle for nine Aveeks, and had lost
£o(lX) m the royal cause. William Baber, gunpowder
maker, Avhose sufferings under the despotism of Charles I.
are recorded in previous pages, sought for a good place in
the Customs, alleging that he had supplied the late King
with £2,500 worth of powder, never paid for. Then Samuel
Farley, avIio had been a leading innkeeper in the city,
begged for a good appointment because he had carried
letters for General, iioav Sir Echvard, Massey and other
Royalist conspirators in 1659 at the hazard 'of his life.
His appeal being neglected, Farley had the impudence to
ask for a blank Avarrant for a baronetcj', for the purpose
of selling it to the best bidder (then a common practice).

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

299

Being again rebuffed, he besought the King to procure for
him the office of Sword-bearer of Bristol ; but, though a
recommendation to that effect was' sent from Court, the
Common Council elected another candidate. The King
at length silenced the sturdy mendicant by granting
him a surveyorship in the Customs at Lonclon. A son
of one Sir Peter Rycaut sued for the office of Toavu Clerk
of Bristol, and the King actually granted him an order
demanding the dismissal of Robert Aldworth, appointed
during tho usurpation. Aldworth, however, found pro
tectors at Court, and the order Avas cancelled ; but
Rycaut made strenuous efforts for its revival, first by an
abortive Quo Warranto, and afterwards by trumping up
calumnious charges that he Avas unable to prove. John
Thruston begged for the chamberlainship of Bristol in
consideration for his loyal exertions and losses, and soon
after succeeded in his aim. Hester Adams petitioned for
the place of one of the Queen's starchers, pleading that her
late husband lost £800 by the burning of his bouse at Bed
minster for the Kiug's service, by order of Prince Rupert.
Lord Bristol's valet applied for the richest place in the
local Custom House, simply on the ground that the existing
official had served under the Commonwealth. One Laureuce
Drake asked for another Customs appointment, producing
Lord Poulet's certificate, that he had lost £2,500 for his
loyalty Several clergymen supplicated for prebends in
the cathedral, and four of them, including tAvo popular men,
Richard ToAvgood and Richard Standfast, Avere appointed.
Irobably the most clamorous and persistent of all the
applicants Avas Richard Ellsworth, a relative of the Poyntz
family of Iron Acton, who alleged he had been Avounded
during the siege of 1645, and contended that, in spite of the
pretensions of various other citizens, he avus entitled to the
entire credit of inciting the apprentices to insurrection in
the preceding spring, though he, of course, said nothing of
his desertion of them on the appearance of a feAv troops.
His pretensions were supported by the Mayor and some
old Royalists m the Council, and by Sir Robert Poyntz,
while the Duke of Albemarle testified that the applicant
had rendered useful service in Lonclon just before the
1-testoration. By dint of strenuous efforts. Ellsworth
obtained one of the offices of Customer in Bristol, bein^
apparently directed to keep the Government informed upon
local political movements. Later on, he got, a petty office
m tlie King's household, and was dubbed a knight. He

300

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1660
Avas afterAvards occasionally employed as an agent for
furthering Bristol business at Court, for Avhich he appears
to have been largely rewarded.
Corporate sympathy Avith the necessities of the poor in
reference to butter temporarily revived after the Restora
tion. At a Council meeting in November, six members
offered to advance £20 each for the purchase of butter to be
retailed at cheap rates, and a resolution was passed
guaranteeing them from loss. It is known that efforts
Avere being made at this timo to obtain a now patent for
the exportation of calf-skins ; and it may be fairly sur
mised that, concurrently Avith the above benevolence,
endeavours were being secretly prosecuted to revive the
old butter monopoly. Nothing being obtainable from the
Government in this direction, corporate butter transactions
canto to an end. At the same meeting the Council, " tak
ing note of the great number of cottages lately erected and
uoav erecting outside LaAvford's Gate, and conceiving it to
tend to the great impoverishment of the city," directed the
Mayor and city surveyors to confer with Mr. Chester, on
whose land the houses Avere built, " for putting a stop to
further building." The district, however, soon became the
most populous, as it Avas also the most disorderly, of the
suburbs. Mr. Richard EllsAvorth, the neAV Customer, with certain
colleagues of his own stamp, Avas engaged during the
autumn, under a commission from the Government, in
summoning all the inhabitants over sixteen years of age,
and commanding them to take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy. In a letter to Secretary Nicholas, dated Nov
ember 21st, he complains that he and his friends are much
obstructed by Quakers and Anabaptists (whose principles
forbade the taking of oaths), adding that loyal people felt
aggrieved if those dangerous and disaffected sectaries Were
excused. He ends by asking for power to imprison all who
refuse to swear. " These monsters," he says, in a second
letter to the same effect, " are more numerous in Bristol
than in all the West of England, and hold meetings of
1,000 or 1,200, to the great alarm of the city." His state
ments illustrate the treatment to which Nonconformists
generally were subjected, though their persecution Avas
then only beginning. EllsAvorth's policy having been
approved by the Government, before the end of the year
4,000 Quakers Avere in gaol throughout the kingdom, many
for refusing to bind themselves by oaths, some for dis-

1660]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

obedience to the proclamations forbidding religious meetings
by Dissenters, perhaps all through the fear of the Court
that they sympathised Avith the Fifth Monarchy fanatics.
In Bristol a party of sixty-five, caught whilst holding a
prayer-meeting at the house of Dennis Hollister, were
carried off to NeAvgate, their number being subsequently
increased to 190 by captures in Temple Street and other
localities. The only charge against the majority of the
prisoners was their refusal to be sworn. Eventually they
Avero liberated, in common with their co-religionists else
where, through the unaccountable influence exercised over
the King by a Quakeress named Margaret Fell, the AvidoAV
of a judge, and afterwards Avife of George Fox. It may
be added that on the recovery by Mr. Towgood, Mr.
Standfast and other clergymen of their parish churches
the original Nonconformist congregation were allowed for
some time to hold meetings at the house formerly occupied
by Colonel Scrope, in Castle Precincts ; but being straitened
for room they hired a building " in the Friars " (meaning
probably the old Dominican convent), Avhere Mr. Ewens,
who still remained with his flock, officiated until July,
1(561, Avhen he was committed to prison for preaching
in defiance of the interdiction of the magistrates. _ The
story of the other Dissenting bodies at this period is not
recorded. Although many presentments had been made by grand
juries at quarter sessions, pointing out the inconvenience
and peril arising from the total absence of street lighting,
the civic authorities shoAved great reluctance to promote
improvement in that direction. At length, in December,
tho Court of Aldermen issued a Avarrant to their officers,
ordering them to give notice to about 530 of the principal
householders to hang out at their respective doors during
the winter mouths a lantern and a lighted candle from 6
to 9 o'clock every night ; a penalty of 3s. 4c/. being
threatened for every default. The persons on Ayhom this
duty was imposed Avere classified in parishes, and it appears
that the largest numbers lived in the parishes of St.
Nicholas (61), St. Thomas (52), St. Peter (47), and St,
Stepheu (43). Christ Church parish had to provide thirty-
one lanterns, tbe inhabitants of Wine Street including
three Aldermen, Colston, Cale and Yate. The fashionable
parish of St. Werburgh contained the residences of the
Mayor (Henry CresAviek), Aldermen Gonning and M.
Jackson, and Messrs. Long, Cann, Langton and Yeamans,

302

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1660-61

but tho total number of lights was only thirteen. Five
Aldermen, Tyson, White, Sandy, J. Jackson and James,
lived in St. Nicholas' parish. Having imposed this duty
on the inhabitants, tho Corporation seem to have thought
that some effort of a public character could not be omitted
Avithout discredit. The Chamberlain accordingly expended
20s. " for a great lanthorn for the Tolzey," Avhich was
followed, a year later, by the outlay of the same amount
for lanterns at the Blind Gate and Small Street Gate, com
pleting tho ciA'ic display.
The first public coach from Bristol to London for the
conveyance of passengers is believed to have been established
in 1660. It was certainly runuiiig in 1661, and Avas ono of
the six then plying betweeu leading provincial toAvns and
the capital. The " machine " succeeded in completing each
journey in three days, by dint of starting early each
morning, and struggling oirward until late at night, the
accomplishment of forty miles a day being then considered
a Herculean task. The feat was practicable only in the
summer half-year, and traffic was suspended during the
Avinter. In some papers of the family of the Gores of
Flax Bourton, uoav in the Museum aud Library, is a note
of the cost of a coach expedition in 1663. " Paid Jerrat
Gore's coach higher from London to Bristol, £1 5s. ; his
expenses by the way, 15s." The same sums Avere laid out
on the return journey.
Amongst the grants by the King in February, 1661, was
one to Colonel Humphrey Hooke (grandson of the gentle
man of the same name referred to in previous pages) of tl$
Keepership of Kingswood and Fillwood forests, Avitli\a
fee, according to the minute in the Record Office, of l\d.
" yearly." The last word is an error, 7\d. per day being
the sum payable for several centuries to the Keepers of
KingSAVOod out of the royal fee-farm of Bristol. The
tergiversations of the elder Hooke, Avho, like the famous
Vicar of Bray, Avas always ready to cheer the winning side,
have been noted at page 215. Having died on the eve of
the Restoration, his Avealth, and apparently his principles,
descended to his grandson, who became, of course, a vehe
ment, Royalist, and Avas speedily rcAvarclcd Avith tho honour
of knighthood. The Keepership of the tAvo Chases must
have been practically valueless, the deer which once
swarmed in KingsAvood having been extirpated during the
Civil War by the colliers and labourers, Avho invaded tho
avoocIs and Avorked havoc uncontrolled, Avhile Filhvood. as

1661]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

ouo

was shown in page 61, had been appropriated by the
neighbouring landlords at least as early as the reign 0
Elizabeth, and existed only in name. Soon after Hooke s
appointment, the state of Kingswood appears to have been
represented to the Government by Sir Gilbert Gerard and
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, two distinguished Royalists
during the Civil War; and in October, 1661, Lord- Trea
surer Southampton issued a Avarrant to them and others,
constituting them Commissioners to negotiate with the
persons claiming oAvnership over the Chase. According to
their report, the grasping pretenders speedily found it
prudent to offer terms. Sir John Newton, the AVidow
Player, and Philip Langley, three of the largest _" lords,
undertook to set out one- third part of the area claimed by
them, as Avell as a tenth part of the coal, as the Kings
share, and to give up the same proportions for the use of
the commoners and the poor. John Tooke, who held the
royalty belonging for life to Lady Berkeley, had subscribed
to the same conditions, but as the estate was entailed, and
no good title could be made without an Act of Parliament,
he wished to become a leasehold tenant under the King for
His Majesty's share. The guardians of the infant heiress
of John Mallet Avero willing to set out the tAvo third shares,
but sought to become tenants as in the last case. Thomas
Chester, lord of the manor of Barton Regis, consented to
set out tAvo third parts of the land to the King and the
commoners, but refused to part Avith any of the coal ; he
also Avas desirous to become tenant of the King's share,
provided that all the very numerous cottages erected by
him and his predecessors, Avith plots of land attached to
them, might bo allotted to himself. Most of the inhabitants
of Bitton, Mangotsfield and Stapleton holding common
rights had subscribed for an enclosure of the Chase, but
those living on Chester's liberty had mostly objected, owing
to Chester's nonconformity as* to coaling. The Commis
sioners concluded by recommending that a Commission of
Oyer and Terminer should be issued to settle the matter,
and there seems to be little question that if this advice had
been followed, the rights both of the Crown and the public
Avould have been secured. Nothing, however, Avas done,
and on the death of Sir John Newton, before the. inquiry
had terminated, he Avas succeeded by a stranger of the same
name, avIio at first undertook to confirm Avhat his prede
cessor had agreed to, but afterwards repudiated the arrange
ment, and induced tho other landlords to follow his example.

304 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1661
Sir Humphrey Hooke having introduced no deer into the
Chase, as he had undertaken to do, the King, in March,
1663, was pleased to grant, out of consideration for their
loyal sufferings, to Sir Gilbert Gerard £1,500, and to Sir
Nicholas Throckmorton £1,000, out of compositions to be
made for the royal rights ; but the opportunity for a corn-
premise had passed away, and Throckmorton died in great
poverty in 1664, having incurred heavy debts in vainly
prosecuting his claim. On the petition of Sir Baynham,
his son, Charles II. granted him the royal franchises in tho
Chase in May, 1666, for a term of sixty years, at a rent of
£20, in lieu of the former grant. Sir Humphrey Hooke
afterAvards surrendered the office of Ranger on receiving
£100, and the new lessee then obtained commissions out of
the Court of Exchequer offering the landlords and com
moners the ro3ral pardon for past offences and a grant of
the King's rights, provided a third of the soil Avere sur
rendered in compensation (nothing being hoav said of the
third clue to the poor). According to Throckmorton's peti
tion to the King m 1667, some of the lords and many of the
commoners Avould have agreed to this proposal providing
that the consent Avas unanimous, but, as one lord (Newton)
and some commoners Avere refractory, the large sums of
money spent by the lessee and his predecessors Avere likely
to be lost — as was in fact the case. After some consider
ation of Throckmorton's case, the King in Council, in June,
1668, came to the absurd resolution that the Chase should
be again stocked with deer, and constituted Sir Baynham
Ranger; and two years later a new lease of the Chase was
granted to him for sixty years, rent free, on his covenanting
to replenish the Avoods Avith 500 deer. As Sir Charles Harbord,
a royal official, reported in 1672 that the place contained a
" multitude of coal pits, and was stuffed Avith cottagers and
alehouses, and overlaid with horses used for carrying coal "
to Bristol, some idea may be formed of the lessee's hopeless
task. The Court of Aldermen, on March 5th, laid a heavy hand
on some " foreigners " described in the minutes as " trans
lators." Griffen Btoavii, translator on St. James's Back,
being a stranger, Avas ordered to leave the city Avithin
six days, or in default to be punished according to law.
Four other translators were also warned to depart, one
Avithin a fortnight, the others in a month. Similar cases
occur in the records from time to time. Lord Macaulay, Avho
was once questioned as to the occupation of these men,

1661]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

305

replied that they Avere doubtless employed by merchants
and others to translate foreign documents. As a matter
of fact, they were cobblers, who converted old boots into
shoes, The revival of compulsory fasting in Lent was another
outcome of the Restoration. Butchers Avere forbidden to
expose meat for sale from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday,
but for the sake of aged and infirm people the magistrates
granted licenses to three butchers to sell flesh during the
first three weeks in Lent, Avhile five others were permitted
to sell during the folloAving three Aveeks.
At the general election in April, three candidates offered
themselves before the electors of Bristol — -namely the Earl
of Ossory, son of the Duke of Ormond, Sir Humphrey
Plooke, and John Knight (senior). All being Royalists, the
voting must have hinged upon personal considerations, but
the contest Avas nevertheless severe, and in the result there
Avas a double return, Lord Ossory and Knight being de
clared elected in one indenture, and Hooke Avith Knight
in the other. Ou the case coming before the House of
Commons in May, the fact that Hooke had subscribed his
name to Ossory's return (probably through some prhrate
arrangement betAveen the parties) was held to bar his
election, and Lord Ossory Avas ordered to sit until the merits
of the case Avere investigated. His lordship, in fact, held
the seat until September, 1666, Avhen he was raised to the
peerage. Sir Humphrey then put in a renewed claim to
the seat, contending that he had had a majority of Arotes,
and the House, on a report from the Committee of Elections
confirming his assertion, not only declared him duly elected,
but ordered Thomas Langton, one of the Sheriffs in 1661, to
bo summoned to the bar for making a false, return ! Langton,
who Avas Mayor Avhen this extraordinary resolution was
arrived at, Avas thereupon carried in custody to West
minster, and actually committed for the alleged offence,
but Avas liberated on tbe folloAving day. Barrett's History
(p. 158) is more than usually inaccurate in reference to this
election. At a meeting of the Council on April Oth a proposal was
draAvn up for the consideration of the Merchants' Society.
The existing quays being insufficient to accommodate the
increasing commerce of the port, the Corporation offered to
grant the Society a neAV lease for eighty years of the dues
for anchorage, cannage and plankage, at the old rent of
£3 6s. 8d. (see page 17), prOAided the lessees would construct x

306

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1661

a neAV quay from the LoAver Slip to Aldsworth's Dock (that
is, from about the middle of the present Broad Quay to.
a point a little beyond the end of Thunderbolt Street),
and also make the road from RoAvnham to the Hot WeU
passable for coaches, towards Avhich the Chamber offered to
contribute £100. The Society seem to have asked for more
liberal terms. At all events, the neAV lease, executed in
September, not only demised the above clues, but also the
wharfage' dues created by the Council in 1606, the receipts
from Avhich had been up to this time received by the Cham
berlain. It is somewhat strange that this important
concession, involving a large loss of inoome to the Cor
poration, AAras never approved by a vote of the Council
until the lease was actually sealed and in operation.
Another important matter Avas discussed at the above
meeting, Avhen the Mayor produced a Avrit of Quo Warranto,
procured by the Attorney-General, requiring the Corpora
tion to show b}' Avhat authority they exercised the rights
and liberties claimed by them. The threatened attack on
the charters Avas apparently based on the action of the
Council during the Commonwealth in ejecting Royalist
members, replacing them by persons of the opposite party,
and generally supporting the Republican cause. After
much deliberation, tAvo petitions were drawn up for pre
sentation to the King, praying for the suspension of the
writ, and the grant of a neAV charter. The first supplica
tion, after setting forth the joy of the Chamber at His
Majesty's return, expressed ignorance of having committed
any offence, but, fearing through indiscretion they might
have fallen under the King's displeasure, they fled to him
for sanctuary and relief. The other petition Avas of a totally
different character. It alleged that the government of the
city had been divested of its ancient lustre through the
refusal of able persons to accept public offices, whilst the
city itself was much decayed through losses at sea, deadness
of trade, and the interloping of artificers and others, who
traded as merchants without having served apprenticeship,
to the loss of the Customs and the discouragement of those
best able to serve the Crown. It Avas therefore prayed that
the King would confirm, not merely the city charters, but
those of the Society of Merchants, Avho were desirous of
further poAvers for the regulation of trade. It is clear that
this second petition Avas adopted at the instance of the
Merchants' Company, avIio Avero once more attempting to
secure a monopoly of commercial business, and that the

1661]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

307

Council were only half-hearted in supporting their efforts,
for tho two documents Avere confided to tbe Mayor, who
Avas empoAvered to omit the clause relating to the mer
chants, if he were advised to do so by the Recorder, the
Town Clerk, and the members of Parliament, all then in
London. He was, hoAvever, especially requested to ask that
the new charter should empower the Chamber to impose a
fine of £400 on any one refusing to serve as Councillor,
Alderman, Sheriff, or Mayor (unless such person could swear
that he was not Avorth £1,500), and to imprison him until
ho made payment. Finally, his Avorship was to press, for
insertion m the charter, that the election of members of
Parliament should be vested " as formerly " in the Council
and local freeholders exclusively. Even these requests were
•considered too modest, for the Court of Aldermen held three
independent meetings to draAV up further demands, and the
Mayor was directed to ask for powers for the better pre
servation of the Avon, for preventing the erection of houses
outside Lawford's Gate, for placing the government of the
militia in the hands of the Corporation, and lastly for com
pelling capable persons to take up the freedom, so that they
might be made amenable to the above fines on being elected
as Councillors. It being well understood that neAV privi
leges could be obtained only by liberal expenditure, the
Council resolved to borrow £300 by way of mortgage, to
defray " all manner of charges " incident to the furtherance
of their desires. On May lStJh the Mayor presented himself
at Whitehall Avith some parade, his retinue of civic officials
being furnished with new robes and liveries for the occa
sion. A Privy Council meeting was summoned to receive
his petition, and the King coudescended to preside. After
hearing his Avorship, their lordships ordered that the petition
should be remitted to tho Attorney-General, Avho Avas
directed to send in a report. No record Avas kept of the"
negotiations, but the judicious disposition of the funds en
trusted to the Mayor may be divined by the fact that the
Quo Warranto proceedings Avere stopped, and that, although
the grant of a new charter Avas delayed, the Common
Council were encouraged by the apparent good humour of
the Government to enhance their demands. In June, 1662,
when the Mayor was again sent up to Court to renew the
application, the Chamber desired that the fine for refusing
to take office should be increased to £500, that all fines for
broach of ordinances should bo leviable by distraint, and
that persons of good condition Avdio lived outside tho city to

308

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1661

aA-oid election should be compelled to chvell m the toAvn ;
Avhile tho previous request for the disfranchisement of the
freemen Avas urgently repeated. On August 5th the Mayor-
reported to the Council that he had been graciously received
at Whitehall— a circumstance by no means surprising when
one discovers that his Avorship had found it needful to ex
pend no less than £584 during his mission— and that a new
charter Avas certainly iu preparation. In the meantime he
had been furnished with a Avarrant signed by the Kmg,
commanding every burgess elected to a civic office to accept
the same on pain of being summoned before the Privy
Council to ansAver for his contempt. The charter was not
forthcoming until 16(54.
Whether the corporate recommendation, m one of the
petitions recited above, of the Merchant Society's desire for
additional poAvcrs to regulate trade Avas laid before the
King or " omitted," it is impossible to decide. In any case,
the Society took measures to obtain such poAvers by inde
pendent action. The minutes of the Privy Council show
that Avhen the Mayor presented the corporate petition for a
neAV charter on May 18th, 1661, he Avas accompanied by
representatives of the Merchants' Company, who tendered
a similar supplication on their oavii account, and that this
document Avas also remitted to the Attorney-General. But
probably despairing of such a royal rescript as Avould suffice
to establish the monopoly for Avhich they had been striving
for a century, the Society determined to resort to the more
powerful help of Parliament. The result is briefly but
satisfactorily reported in the Journals of the House ot
Commons. Towards the close of the year, a measure bear
ing the innocent-looking title of "A Bill for confirming
letters patent incorporating the Society of Merchant
Venturers of Bristol "—in plain words, a scheme for giving
the force of laAv to the monopoly of trade conceded to the
Society by the charter of Edward VI— was introduced into
tbe Lower House. But its real intention was detected and
exposed by some sharp-witted member; and on January
7th 166'' when tbe, Bill was read a second time, a motion
was immediately put that it should be "laid aside," and
S£ wrcarriedVithout a division. Subsequent attempts.
of a similar character having proved equally ^ unsuccessful,
the application*, the King Avas renewed in 1668, when His
Maje ty granted the Society a new charter But i was
simply a confirmation of the charter granted by Charles I..
iu 1638, and was practically valueless.

1601]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

309

A curious but obscurely reported dispute betAveen one John
Poster, a Bristol draper, and the Dean and Chapter came
before the Privy Council in April, 1661, upon a report from
the Commissioners appointed to inquire into pretended
alienations of church lands ; the matter in difference bemg
a lease claimed by Pester of " 33 acres of meadoAv commonly
called Canons' Marsh." In order to clear up the case, the
Council ordered the respective parties to appear before them,
and at another meeting, May 18th, the question was further
considered. On examination of the facts, say the minutes,
it appeared that the Dean and Chapter, contrary to the
request of the above Commissioners, who ordered them to
grant a lease of the Marsh to Pester, had granted one to
John Knight (doubtless the senior). The Dean (Glemham)
uoav failing to give the King and Council any satisfactory ex
planation of this proceeding, His Majesty ordered him and
the Chapter to revoke the lease to Knight, and make a neAV
one to Pester, and to pay the latter, who had been at great
charge in improving the land, the full sum they had received
from Knight. All parties were then ordered to appear again
on June 7th, but on that day, Avhen the Council reassem
bled five of the prebendaries absented themselves, and it Avas
found that nothing had been done. " The King, highly
offended Avith their obstinate disobedience, ordered that
until they complied neither the Dean nor any of the pre
bends should presume to appear at Court." No further
reference to the matter has been found, but as the Dean
continued to be, a sedulous courtier, and was preferred to the
bishopric of St. Asaph in 16(57, it is probable that the
Chapter obeyed the royal commands.
At a meeting of tho Council ou August 23rd, the office of
Lord High Steward Avas conferred upon the Duke of
Ormond, Avho had been appointed Lord-Lieutenant _ of
the city and of Somerset in the previous year. The civic
dignity Avas not really vacant, but the Council, desirous of
pleasing the Government, ignored the existence of Sir Henry
Vane, who Avas then in prison, and Avas tried and executed
in June, 1(5(52. . .
NotAvithstanding its obsequiousness, the composition of
the Common Council Avas by no means satisfactory to tne
ultra-Royalists, still intoxicated with success, and thirsting
to enjoy the double pleasure of recovering predominance
in local affairs and humiliating their detested opponents.
Having represented their desires to the Court, the King, on
September 29th, addressed a mandate to the now Mayor,

310

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1661

Nathaniel Cale, one of the most vindictive of the party.
His Majesty, after stating that many loyal subjects in the
city Avere removed from places of trust during the late dis
turbances, and persons of contrary principles settled in their
offices, ordered that all the men so unduly brought in,
as well as others notoriously disaffected, should be displaced,
in order that those ejected during the evil times should be
restored, and that tho latteiyin conjunction Avith such per
sons of integrity as remained, should fill up vacancies by a
free election, Avhereby the Corporation might enjoy the
benefit of their charters. As sixteen years had elapsed since
the government of the city had fallen into the hands of tho
Parliamentarians, the practical effect of the mandate was
to SAveep away the existing Council. In fact, at a meeting
on October 4th, Avhen the above mandate was read, the
Recorder, tAvo Aldermen and twenty-nine Councillors Avere
removed ; while at another meeting, on October 30th, only
three persons out of the forty-three that formed the Council
tAvo years before put in an appearance — Aldermen Sandy
and Ballman, and Councillor Stephens. These Avere joined
by Aldermen Locke and Sherman, whose recovery of their
seats has been already noticed, and by five others, some of
whom had been elected since the Restoration. This select
gathering then proceeded to " elect and choose " sixteen Coun
cillors ; but what it really did was to re-elect sixteen gentle
men out of the Council as it had been constituted under the
CommonAvealth, the most prominent being John Knight
(senior), John LaAvford, William Yeamans, Robert Cann,
John Pope, Robert Vickris, John Willougbby, Thomas
Langton and AndreAv Hooke. On November 2nd, when
twentj'-one of the neAV body attended (including William
Colston, who resumed his seat), ten more Councillors were
elected, none of whom had previously held office, the most
notable being John Knight (junior) — who refused to serve
— Richard Streamer and Ralph Olliffe. And five days later
another batch of nine Avere appointed, including Robert
Yeamans, Richard Hart (avIio refused to serve) and Richard
Crump. The Mayor and five or six Aldermen next held a
Court, and filled up vacancies in that body, five Common
Avealth dignitaries — John Gonning, Miles Jackson, Joseph
Jackson, Walter Sandy and Arthur Farmer — being rein
stated. Finally, on November 28th, the Council elected five
more Councillors, one of them being Thomas Day. It Avill
be seen that the number of persons chosen Avas by this time
greatly in excess of the forty-three prescribed by the char-

1661]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

311

ters ; but several had not come forward to be sworn, while
some had positively refused to serve, and only thirty-eight
Avere on the roll on November 28th. An incident soor
after occurred that, in less excited times, would have caused
a lively sensation. An Act of Parliament was passed foi
the purpose of expelling Puritans out of every municipal
Corporation, and on April 4th a royal Avarrant Avas laid
before tho Council, constituting the Mayor and a few
kindred spirits commissioners for carrying out the provisions
of the statute. Cale, hoAvever, had so vigorously fulfilled
his previous instructions that the commissioners' task Avas
almost confined to tendering the newly invented test oaths
to those present. Aldermen Vickris and Gibbs appear to
have been the only members who refused to be sworn,
thereby losing their seats. The only other victims Avere
the Chamberlain, James Powell, whom the commissioners
curtly dismissed, appointing the King's nominee, John
Thruston, in his place, and John Haggett, the Steward
(judge) of the Tolzey Court, the King requesting that
office for another unqualified stranger, named John Robins.
Rycaut, His Majesty's former nominee for the ToAvn Clerk
ship, made another pertinacious effort to get AldAvorth
ejected, but his malignity in fabricating false charges at
Court as to the disloyalty of the Corporation had made him
detestable even to the commissioners, avIio refused to listen
to him. On August 21st, the Council elected nine more
members, of Avhom five Avere immediately savoi'u in. The
recusants had hoav become so numerous that the Chamber
determined to take action. It Avas resolved that as John
Knight (junior), Richard Hart and ten others had refused to
fake. the. oaths, warrants of imprisonment should be issued
against (-hem for their contempt. Knight had been pre
viously fined £400, and Hart £300, for refusing to take office,
but there is no evidence that the money Avas recovered, and
nothing seems to have resulted from menacing them Avith
the gaol. The Council Avas doubtless perplexed by the
fact that, if any of the recusants had offered to submit, the
number in the Chamber Avould have been in excess of the
legal limits, the acting members in August, 1663, being
forty-three, the maximum fixed by the charters. The sub
ject Avill be resumed under 1664.
Having provided the city Avith a new ducking apparatus,
much to the delight of the juvenile loAver classes, the magis
trates seem to have been tin Avilling that the machine should
grow rusty from disuse. In October, 1661, GoodAvife Orchard,

312

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1662

of St. Michael's, Avas ordered, being a disorderly scold, to be
ducked in the Froom, and sent to the House of Correction.
In July and August, 1664, two women Avere ordered to
be ducked three times each. John Willoughby, Mayor in
1665-6, Avas an especial admirer of this form of punishment,
and sent seven vixens to be ducked during tbe summer.
Three women suffered in 1667, three in 16(59 and t\vo in
1670, after Avhich tho instrument fell somewhat into dis
favour. Another spectacle, dear to the youthful population,
and often exhibited at this period, Avas tho carting of incon
tinent women through all the principal streets, preceded by
the bellman proclaiming their offence.
Mention of another local sugar refinery occurs in the
Council minutes of January, 1662. The parishioners of St.
Thomas's having complained that the sugar-house of John
Hind, grocer (afterAvards Mayor), was very dangerous owing
to its liability to take fire, Hind Avas ordered to remove his
Avorks Avithin tAvo months.
A great storm of wind in March caused much damage to
city "property. Amongst numerous items referring to it in
the audit book is the following : — "The Chamberlain asks
alloAvance for the trees bloAvndown in the Marsh, belonging
to him by custom time out of mind as a perquisite of his
office : they being Avorth above £30, but sold underhand,
£22."' The claim Avas alloAved.
Robert Cann, a Avealthy Bristol merchant, son of the
Mayor Avho proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy in 1649,
received the honour of knighthood in April for his services
to the royal cause. Sir Robert, as Roger North, his relative
by marriage, has stated Avith his customary spitef illness,
Avas a someAvhat arrogant and pompous personage, fond of
parading his riches, and prone to speak his mind Avith little
regard for the feelings of others. No member of the
Corporation had previously been knighted, and the honour
having somewhat turned the heads of himself and family,
be took occasion, at some corporate function shortly after
receiving the King's accolade, to claim precedency, although
but a Common Councillor, over all the Aldermen by virtue of
his title. His pretensions Avere so indignantly resisted that
at a meeting of the Council on May 27th— when Sir Robert
Atkyns, KB., Avas elected Recorder, vice Mr. John Stephens,
resigned, or ral her expelled — he absented himself from the
Chamber. Being forl'liAvith summoned, he made his appear-
d from further
ig any reason for the demand, and

ance, but only to request his being exeuse.1 Irom

Ser a- ice

AVl'tl

IOH1- ollerilli

1602]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

313

then unceremoniously departed. The Coanj^g^SS
resolved that his conduct was contrary to Ins oath tend
to the dissolution of corporate government, ^<l ™* ^J^
" dissatisfactory " ; but Avhen this resolution was read tc i him
at the next mating, a week later, *»• {^X , Mem™
satisfaction than the previous one. The f*^f™™^
thereupon thought it desirable to seek the advice of t he
Heralds' College on the question, and the Mayor, who
carried up their application when despatched to negotiate
o a eluuter, also' brought back the result, which was read
to the Council in August. The College stated that a simiku
dispute had arisen in 1611, amongst the members of the
London Corporation, when, after a three days hearing, the
knights had withdrawn their claim to precedence over then
untitled seniors, and that the practice then established had
since been always followed. Sir Robert Cann seems to have
treated the Heralds' certificate with contempt, and his pre
tensions Avere put forward Avith still greater obstinacy in
the following month, when-probably through the purchase
¦of one of the "blank warrants" that were being freely
offered for sale— he was created a baronet ^ ith a view,
perhaps, of tiding over the difficulty, the Council immeci-
Itely elected him Mayor; so that, for a time, there could be
no question as to his pre-eminence, and a few months later
be Avas chosen an Alderman. But when he quitted the civic
chair his claims were revived, and the dispute grew Jiotier
than ever. In October, 1663, hoping to bring the fuming
baronet to reason, the Council applied for the opinions ot Sir
Robert Atkyns, the Recorder, and of Sir John Frederic an
ex-Lord Mayor of London, both of whom approved ot the
decision of the Heralds' College, the Recorder adding that a
similar rule, was followed in the Inns of Court and West
minster Hall, where, his ownOrderof the Bath gave him no
precedence over his professional seniors. If, continued the
learned gentleman, Cann Avas so ill advised as to carry his
claim before the Privy Council, "it will expose ns to the
merriment and contempt of those avIio hear it.' But Cann
remained impenetrable to argument, and unluckily he had
by this time found a sympathiser and supporter in Robert
Yeamans, who had been knighted iu the previous month,
and Avas even more, petulant and impracticable than his
colleague. On January 5th, 10(54, the Common Council
passed a lengthy ordinance, founded on tho decision of the
College, of Heralds, decla,ring that precedency Avas regulated
exclusively by seniority, "any dignity of knighthood or

314

TIIK ANNALS OF BllISTOL

[1662

baronetcy to the contrary notwithstanding." Nevertheless,
on February 9th, Sir Robert Yeamans, a man of a most
irascible temper, scouted the Chamber's decree, and for con
tempt and incivility to the Mayor, refusing to Avear his
gown, and insulting the Aldermen, was ordered to be com
mitted to Newgate, but escaped from the city before tho
sentence could be carried out. Cann, about the same date,
raised a disturbance in church during service, in trying to
maintain his chum. The two rebellious Avorthies had
already resoU'ed on carrying their complaints to the Crown,
and uoav concocted a petition iiiAvhieh they insinuated that
contempt had been shown to the King, by giving uutitled
Aldermen "and their Avives " — a notable expression — prece
dency over the petitioners and their titled helpmates. (A
suspicion that feminine vanity lurked at the bottom of the
dispute has perhaps suggested itself to the experienced
reader.) Furnished Avith this document, and having gained
the co-operation of Sir Humphrey Hooke, Avho alleged in a
petition that the King's honour would be eclipsed and his
prerogative encroached upon if commoners Avere allowed to
usurp the places clue to men of title, the tAvo knights made
their Avajr to Court, Avhere they pressed their case so earnestly
that, for a brief season, the thoughtless and easy-going King
Avas inclined to decide in their favour, and sent doAvn a man
date requiring the ordinance of the previous January to be
remitted to the Privy Council " for rectification." The
Corporation, however, had also friends in high places, and
finally the case came on for a solemn hearing before His
Majesty in Council on February 24th. The issue was com
municated to the Mayor by Secretary Bennet on the folloAV-
ing day. The Privy Council ruled that, in all meetings of
the civic body, knighthood Avas in no case to avail against
seniority ; and the same regulation Avas to apply to ladies
Avhen they assembled for a corporate function, such as
occurred in Loudon when the Lady Mayoress went to the
Spittle — wives there taking their places according to the
seniority of their husbands. On the other hand, in all in
different places, Avhere the Corporation Avere not solemnly
represented, the knights and their Avives Avere to have their
rightful precedence. Being informed during the hearing
that the two petitioners had absented themselves from their
ditties and countenanced disaffection, the Privy Council
severely reprehended them, commanding them presently to
return home and submit themselves to the Mayor for their
disrespect to him and his office. The mortified gentlemen

1602]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUKY.

315

denarted, and at a meeting of the Chamber m
SeTPq' Robert Yeamans, after manifest ng some refrac-
¥a?ch> Stook his place aJ fixed by seniority. In the
tonness *£* P ^ ^ mutineeM contested
?U°T,pned?ncy of a sheriff when in the execution of his
tl£ f ePadingyto a fresh complaint of the Mayor to the
G&£«X?and an irritated repetition by the Secretary of
«hT!o{ the royal decision. Discord nevertheless continued
U, ,.'U for a year and a half. In a letter to Sir Robert
Ai,yns,dated "Sept. 10" (1665), Lord Clarendon, by the
™'» direction, desired him to examine earnestly into the
^orders still going on, so that His Majesty m.ght apply a
Jmecly. " It is a very sad thing," wrote the Lord Chan-
¦ellor " that from so ridiculous contention between women
for place there should such furious animosities arise as
threaten the very peace of the city." The character of the
incorrigible knights receives further illustration from an
order of the Privy Council of October 25th, 166o, showing
that the Mayor had again complained of their persistent
misbehaviour in claiming illegal precedence that Sir Joint
Knreht on behalf of the Corporation, together with Cann
and Yeamans, had been summoned before the Jxmg m
Council, that the Avhole case was heard over again, and that
His Majesty gave peremptory orders that the custom ol
Lonclon should be followed in Bristol as well by the knights
as by their wives. This seems to have terminated the pro
tracted quarrel. A number of documents relating to tho
case are preserved amongst the State Papers. Sir Robert
Yeamans, styled "of Redland," was created a baronet m
1(5(50 As be had rendered no services to the Government,
but, ou the contrary, given much trouble by his mutinous
behaviour, it is probable that he had purchased one ot the
"blank warrants" already referred to. The lengthy
squabble, and especially the masterful attitude of the ladies
interested in it, appear to have afforded amusement to the
West of England generally. In 166S, when Mr; Pepys was
on the tour so graphically recorded in his Diary, he notec.
that the landlord of his inn at Salisbury "made us mighty
merry at supper about manning the ucav ship at Bristol
with none but men whose wives do master them ; and it
seems it is in reproach to some men of estate that this is
become common talk."
Robert Taunton, an organ builder, petitioned the Council
for the freedom iu May, 1662, and ou the ground that there
Avas no similar " artist " in the city, he Avas admitted at the

316

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1062
low fine of £5. Taunton, in the same year, made contract
Avith the Dean and Chapter of Wells to build "a Avu_tunec|
useful and beautiful double organ" in their cathai for
the sum of £800. The Corporation Avere very capi^^g ju
fixing the fine for the freedom. In 1663, Richard^ariow
"gentleman," paid no less than £100 on being admtteci a
free burgess.
_ The earliest evidence of tho existence of a local Post \ffice
is afforded by a letter preserved at the Museum and Libi,rv
It was despatched in A ugust from Oxford and is addressei', _
" Plus to be left at tho Post-house in Bristol for iv
honoured landlord, Thomas Gore, Esquire, living at Barre,
in Somerset. Post paid to London." There being no direc,
post from Oxford to Bristol, a further postage of sixpence
was demanded here. Evans mentions, in his Chronological
History under 1663, a letter addressed :—" To Mr. John
Hellier, at his house in Corn Street, in Bristol Citty," from
which it may be inferred that a postman was then employed
for deliveries in the principal streets. This supposition is
continued by a letter of 1670, iioav in the Baptist College,
with the address :— " To . . . Mr. Terrill, at his house in
Bristol. To be left Avith Mr. Mitchell, near the Post office."
The Government Avere much disturbed during the summer
by reports of alleged revolutionary designs by disaffected
people in Bristol and Somerset. Instructions were sent
doAvn to the Deputy-Lieutenants to take precautions for
the maintenance of laAv and order, but the early papers on
the subject are missing at the Record Office. On July 12th,
Sir Hugh Smyth, of Long Ashton, and Mr. Echvard Phelipps
informed Secretary Nicholas that they had discovered
further disorders, and feared a great design to distract the
nation. They had secured some suspicious persons, and
desired orders to draw part of the militia into Taunton, as
the discontented refused to pay all rates and taxes. On
July 21st, Henry CresAviek and William Colston, Deputy-
Lieutenants of Bristol, addressing the same Minister, said
they had deferred the muster of the militia until after the
great fair, but in the meantime had ordered the trained
bands to keep guard. On August 6th, Sir John Sydenham
and Phelipps informed Nicholas that they had failed to make
discoveries in Bristol OAving to their agent being suspected,
but many men had been committed till the assizes for
lalking of a coming change. On tho same day a resident
at Tormarlon reported that every day there Avas rumour of
rebellion, and that although men Avould buy land iu the late

1662-63]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

[317

troubled times they Avould not do so iioav. He added that
tho militia Ave re being called out to destroy " the tobacco
planted here, Avhich many are interested in." The Secretary
of State in the folloAving month sent down the Duke of
Ormond's deputation to the Mayor and others, Avith orders
to settle the militia fortliAvith, and to prevent the designs of
the disaffected, " of Avhom there are not a few in the city."
The Deputy-Lieutenants repeatedly expressed theirdetermin-
atiou to prevent tvicked designs, and on December 17th they
informed Secretary Bonnet that they had discovered a
dangerous plot for a general rising on January 1st, but
hoped to apprehend the local conspirators. They feared
mischief, hoAvever, from some officers of Customs avIio Avere
engaged in the former rebellion. Tavo prisoners in Ilchester
gaol next alleged that a felknv-prisoner, a suspected plotter,
had assured them that 2,000 men Avould rise in Somerset,
and that fifty old army officers Avere lurking about Bristol
and enlisting men for a revolt. Then an apothecary's ser
vant in the city told a Government spy that 700 Bristolians
had engaged to rise on January 1st ; they met at Stapleton
inn, and had money and arms enough. Similar information
Avas received from the wife of one of the conspirators, the
man having absconded Avhen she threatened to betray the
plot. Other letters report numerous arrests of suspected
persons, some of Avhoin Avere kept long in prison, but no
satisfactory evidence could be obtained as to the ringleaders,
whose designs Avere doubtless frustrated by the above dis
closures. The Council, in March, 1663, resolved that a new street
should lie laid out in the Marsh " from Weare's house to the
Marsh Gate," of which the almshouse of St. Nicholas's
parish, already mentioned, formed an original feature. The
thoroughfare soon received tl

_.ie name of King Street, prob
ably by an unrecorded order of tho Council. The ground
was let on leases for five lives, or for 41 years certain, at a
reserved yearly rent of from Is. to is. 6c?. per foot of frontage.
The lessees Avere placed under a covenant to erect uniform
buildings, but they appear to have paid little regard to the
engagement. A few fine examples of the original houses
still remain.
The King, on March 24th, granted a charter to a number
of noblemen and gentlemen, constituting them a corporation
under the name of the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, for the-
settlement and government of that region of North America.
Amongst tho patentees Avero John Lord Berkeley and Sir

318 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1663
William Berkeley. By another charter of June, 1005, the
Lords Proprietors Avere empoAvered to confer titles, build
forts, and levy soldiers. Many changes subsequently took
place iu the body of patentees, and though no Bristolians
took part in the government of the colony, a considerable
local trade sprang up Avith the settlement. In 1728, when
seven out of the eight existing lords surrendered their rights
to the Crown on receiving £17,500, the only persons con
cerned in the assignment connected Avith this district Avere
the executors of the Duke of Beaufort.
In the State Papers of July is a singular document
entitled a " Statement and certificate," Avhich sets forth that
its author, Captain Fawns Urrey, had, in November, 16(51,
laid an information before the Mayor and Sir Hugh Smyth
(Deputy-Lieutenants), averring that John Casbeard, of
Bristol, had called the King an arrant tyrant, and declared
that he would venture his blood against kingly rule.
AVhereupon, the information having been forAvarded to the
Government, Casbeard Avas arrested, carried up to West
minster aud imprisoned, but AA^as afterAvards released Avith
out trial ; Avhen be came back to Bristol, caused Urrey to
be arrested on an action for £10,000 damages, and kept him
in NeAvgate for nearly twenty wreeks. This document,
which Avas doubtless a sort of begging letter addressed to
the Government, indicates the perilous state of society at
that period, when no one, hoAvever innocent, Avas safe
against the malignity of an informer or of a private enemy.
It is clear that TJrrey could produce no evidence in support
of his charge against Casbeard, and that the latter must
have shown grounds for his action satisfactory to tho
authorities of the Tolzey Court.
In August, Avhen' it was announced that the King and
Queen Avere about to visit Bath for the purpose of drinking
the waters, the ultra-royal Corporation of Bristol became
immediately solicitous to offer an entertainment to then-
Majesties. On August 24th, it Avas resolved to send a.
deputation to Bath to greet the royal visitors on their
arrival, and invite them to this city ; and, as a favourable
response Avas anticipated, a committee Avas appointed to
make fitting preparations for their reception. A serious
difficulty, hoAvever, at once presented itself. The civic
treasury Avas empty, the Corporation Avere struggling with
financial embarrassments, and they do not appear to haA^o
ventured on applying to tradesmen for credit. Another
meeting was therefore convened for the 28th, Avhen loans

1663]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

319

Avere solicited from individual members, Avith a promise of
repayment and 5 per cent, interest. The Mayor headed the
list Avith £180, and his son, William Cann, followed Avith
£100. Alderman Knight subscribed £110, Aldermen
CresAviek, LaAvford and Yeamans £60 each, and some
twenty others various sums, from £50 to £25, the total
reaching £1,150. Subsequently, another loan subscription
Avas started for the special purpose of furnishing provisions
for the intended banquet, when Thomas Speed and George
Bishop, on behalf of the Quakers, offered £100, and
Thomas Langton £50, other contributions bringing up the
fund to £450. (This fund received additional help from the
generosity of the Gloucestershire Society, who had laid in a
large store of delicacies for their annual feast, but handed
over the Avhole for the entertainment of the royal visitors.)
The first outlay Avas for a present of Avine and sugar,
carried to their Majesties at Bath by the Mayor, Avhen he
Avent there Avith the civic invitation, and Avhich appears to
have cost £160. The liberality of the gift was calculated
to smooth over difficulties, if any existed, and the King
promised a visit on September 5th. Accordingly, on that
day their Majesties, accompanied by the Duke and Duchess
of York, the Duke of Monmouth, and Prince Rupert, and
foUoAved by a glittering croAvd of courtiers, Avere received
at Lawford's Gate by the Mayor and members of the
Common Council, arrayed in scarlet, when the ancient
ceremonies of surrendering and returning the SAvord of
State Avere gone through by the respectiAre parties Avith
the usual solemnity. The Recorder having next delivered
an address breathing loyal congratulation and Avelcome,
the royal procession started for the city, preceded on horse
back by tho Mayor, bareheaded, parrying the, State Sword.
With judicious forethought, the Corporation had concealed
all defects in the roachvay by a plentiful covering of sand,
and the cortege successfully made its Avay to the Great
House at the south end of the Bridge, Avhere a magnificent
dinner Avas in readiness. After the banquet (it may be
presumed, though the time of the incident is not recorded),
the Mayor presented the Queen with a handsome purse
containing 100 guineas of 22s. each, and Avas graciously
thanked. A generous potation folloAved, an enormous
quantity of Avine, to the value of £120, having been pro
vided with a thoughtful regard for the capacity of courtly
revellers. The King shoAved his gratification by dubbing
four knights, Aldermen Knight and CresAviek, AVilliam

320

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1663

Cami, son of the Mayor, and Robert Atkyns, son of the
Recorder. (Robert Yeamans, one of the Sheriffs, on being
sent to Bath in the folloAving Aveek Avith a complimentary
letter, received the same honour.) The Corporation had
hoped that their Majesties Avould spend a night in the city.
But neither the King nor Prince Rupert had any desire to
revisit the scenes of their youth. The royal party, indeed,
had no sooner done justice to the famous " Bristol milk "
than they shoAved a manifest anxiety to depart, and left
for Bath Avithin four hours of their arrival, being saluted,
as at their coming, by 150 great guns planted in the
Marsh. The Corporation hired nine cooks to dress the
dinner, and paid them £50 3s. for their services. PeAvter
dishes and platters Avere borrowed from se\-en tradesmen, avIio
received £18 for the accommodation. Perhaps tho item
most characteristic of SteAvart days is : — " Paid Francis
Btoavii, one of the King's servants, for his fees, £36 bs."
A letter from William Colston to Secretary Williamson,
referring to the above visit, is in the Record Office.
Writing on September 19th, the Alderman states that,
having been injured by the overthrow of a coach — the first
local mention of such a A'ehicle — he rode Avith much pain to
Lawford's Gate to meet the King. He had prepared his
oavii house for the reception of his correspondent, expecting
that His Majesty would have made a longer stay. He had
since been to Bath, Avhere Mr. Godolphin rejiroved him for
not offering expected civilities, but he gave the Secretary a
horse-load of wines, as the King was to dine Avith him that
day. The real object of the letter, as of several from the
same hand amongst the State Papers, was to procure
Williamson's help in removing difficulties encountered by
Colston's youthful son, Richard, in securing the Consulship
at Marseilles, the previous Consul refusing to quit his
office. Richard got into possession soon afterwards, and
held the post for many years, being eventually knighted
for his services.
On September 9th, the local Commissioners for Subsidies,
appointed by an Act of that year, consisting of the Mayor,
the Sheriffs, four Aldermen and three Councillors, held a
meeting to set about the duties confided to them. The
Mayor opened the proceedings by producing a letter from
the' Privy Council, which is of some interest as well in a
historical as in a local point of view. Addressing the
Commissioners as " our very loving friends," their lordships
stated that, the supply for the King having been restored

1663]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

321

to the ancient Avay of subsidies, with Avhich, through long
disuse, the public were unacquainted, it was thought
proper to let them knoAv that, though the tax Avas four
shillings in the pound on land, and 2s. 8d. on goods,
yet that men had not paid ordinarily above the twentieth
part of these rates. The tax could not therefore press
hardly on any one, but if it were not duly assessed it would
not answer the required end. The Commissioners were
therefore urged to order a just assessment and a faithful
collection. No Commissioner or magistrate, who by law
must have laud of £20 yearly value, should be assessed for
a, less sum, as when such persons fairly rated themselves
others Avould cheerfully bear their part. Such proceedings
Avould also give the best proof of good affection, and deserve
the King's thanks. Thus exhorted, the meeting appointed
assessors for the several wards, Avho brought in their
assessments in the following Aveek, and the Commissioners
then proceeded to the delicate task of assessing themselves
and the ward assessors. Their decisions were truly remark
able. All the assessments Avere on goods, and two subsidies
—nominally 5s. Ad. in the pound — were to be collected.
The goods of the Mayor, Sir Robert Cann, a merchant of
great Avealth, were adjudged to be worth £10, and he was
required to pay £2 13s. 4d. The goods of Sir Henry
Creswick, Alderman Lawford and John Knight, three of
the most prosperous men in the city, were assessed to be
each of the value of £8 ; those of Sir Robert Yeamans and
Sir John Knight were valued at £7; those of Sir Humphrey
Hooke- at £13, and those of Thomas Langton at £9. These
wero the plums in the dish. The other Commissioners
modestly valued their entire wealth in goods at from £6 to
£3 each. William Colston Avas assessed as being worth
only £4. The assessors Avere, of course, treated with equal
leniency ; nearly all were assessed at £3 or £4, AndreAV
Hooke alone being rated on £8. The leading merchants
and traders Avere also tenderly dealt with. Arthur Farmer
Avas the only person assessed to pay on £10, and Richard
Vickris was alone in paying on £9 ; the goods of all the
rest Avero valued at from £8 downwards. It may be
regarded as certain that the stocks of many of the above
persons were valued at much less than a hundredth part of
their value. In February 1604, when assessments had to
bo made for two more subsidies, tho Privy Council sent
doAvn a letter expressing great surprise at the' pitiful amount
collected, which Avas beloAv Avhat had been returned in times

322 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1663
Avhen the city was far less prosperous ; and after plainly
expressing their opinion that the Commissioners had acted
with partiality, not merely to themselves, but to the chief
inhabitants generally, their lordships asked for an improve
ment in the forthcoming collection. The missive, hoAvever,
Avas quietly ignored, and the neiv assessments were almost
invariabty the same as before, though some^ialf-dozen
householders, assessed on £5 each, were added to the list.
This farcical manner of dealing with the tax prevailed in
every part of the Kingdom, Avith the result that each of
the above subsidies produced only about a fourth of the
amount raised by a subsidy a century earlier. This ancient
form of taxation was thenceforth abandoned.
An incident apparently unprecedented at the time, aud
causing much excitement, occurred in September. Alder
man John Pope was elected Mayor, but instead of accepting
the honourable post, " he contemptuously and obstinately
AvithdreAV himself," says the mmute-book, " into secret
places," and could by no means be laid hold of. (The
offender Avas a convert from Republicanism, and it is not
impossible that the RoyaUsts maliciously sought to force
him into an office involving a heavy demand on his purse.)
At a subsequent meeting the Council, professing much
indignation, fined him £1,000, failing payment of which
he Avas to be imprisoned in NeAvgate. He Avas also expelled
from the aldermanic bench and from the Chamber, disfran
chised as a free burgess, and ordered to be reputed thence
forth as a " foreigner." Sir John Knight Avas elected chief
magistrate. Pope, still iu concealment, afterAvards peti
tioned for a hearing, and a committee Avas appointed to
confer Avith him, assuring him hberty to appear and return
without molestation. In the result the culprit signed a
bond for £2,000 as security for payment of the fine, but
prayed an abatement, and the penalty Avas reduced to £100,
Avhich he paid. He Avas also re-admitted as a burgess, and
later on the Chamberlain was ordered to refund £30 of the
fine. Renewed reports of disaffection and intended revolt in
Bristol and the district alarmed the Government in October.
In the State Papers is a document endorsed: — " Information
concerning the Plot, sent from the Duke of Buckingham to
His Majesty.'' alleging that a rising Avas being prepared for
October 13th, when 7,000 or 8,000 men Avere to surprise
Bristol, Avith arms and ammunition for ten or tAvelve days,
Avhen they hoped to be masters of the country. Warning

1663]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

323

was forthwith despatched to the deputy-lieutenants by
Secretary Bennet (his letter is in the possession of the
Rev. J. H. Way, of Henbury), and Bennet was informed
by Sir Hugh Smyth on the 14th that tAvo companies of foot
would mount guard that night to secure the city, and that
next day the regiment would be summoned, though it
was imperfect. He and other deputy-lieutenants had been
"much slighted by some of Bristol." Sir Humphrey Hooke
and his colleagues in the city despatched information as to
their precautions on the same day, adding that they had
arrested clivers persons of ill principles, and asked for in
structions for dealing with them, and power to levy con
tributions for the payment of soldiers. Further intelligence
was sent up by Sir Thomas Bridges, of Keynsham, and Sir
John Knight, whilst Alderman Cale, the ex-Mayor, seized
the opportunity to forward some worthless papers respecting
the plot of the previous year, which he had the effrontery
to assert Avas defeated by his vigilance. The panic sub
sided soon afteiuvards.
There is some reason to believe that the alleged conspiracy
had little other basis than the bitter complaints of injustice
Avrung from the Nonconformists by the oppression under
Avhich they were suffering. In despite of the King's
pledges before his restoration, dissenting ministers were
forbidden to preach, and their flocks were systematically
persecuted by order of the Government. Sir John Knight,
just become Mayor, assured Secretary Bennet in October
that he Avould do his utmost to execute the King's pleasure
against the sectaries, and had already committed Evans,
an ejected minister, vvho, he Avrote, was " the most danger
ous Anabaptist that ever lived." He might ha\-e added
that he had sent another preacher to gaol to keep Evans
company. At the folloAving quarter sessions the two
prisoners Avere charged Avith rioting,— that is, Avith haAung
gathered more than five jiersons together, contrary to laAv, —
and they Avere fined £50 each, and committed to Newgate
in default of payment. After remaining in the loathsome
prison for nine months, the Sheriffs liberated them on their
friends paying 40s. for each. In emulation of the Mayor,
Sir Hugh Smyth and Sir Thomas Bridges were harrying
the numerous Quakers in North Somerset. Their usual
course Avas to summon prominent Quakers, and command
them to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. As
the principles of the victims compelled them to refuse, they
Avere fortliAvith committed to Ilchester gaol. The day after

324

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1663

the King's Adsit to Bristol, thirty-three of these sufferers
petitioned His Majesty for relief, declaring that they were
ruined by fines and imprisonment, and that the gaoler's
cruelty exposed them to famish ; Avhile another Quaker,
lying 'iii Bristol gaol, gave the King a candid piece of his
mind respecting royal excesses and Avantonness, and re
proached him -with, the blood of innocent men who had
died, and Avere dying, in nasty dungeons. It will presently
be seen that these cases Avere but a slight foreshadowing of
the persecutions jret to come.
The efforts of the Common Council to procure a confirma
tion of the old city charters aud the concession of additional
privileges were recorded at page 306. After much delay,
the chief purpose of which seems to have been to Avring
more money out of the applicants, a royal warrant for the
coA-eted document Avas signed ou December 26th, " for the
satisfaction giA'en by the late entertainment of the King
and Queen." The instrument, which did not receive the
Great Seal until April 22nd, 1664, is of prodigious dimen
sions, and its cost was enormous. The Toavu Clerk, Avho
appears to have stayed several months in London attending
to its progress, had £400 remitted to him to keep greedy
officials in good humour. There is also an item of £50
" remitted to London to be made use of " ; and Sir John
Knight, in addition to his "Avages" as member of Parlia
ment, Avas paid £426 6s. 8d., "disbursed for the city." The
Corporation would probably not have begrudged this out
lay had it succeeded in its aims. But the new charter
neither disfranchised the freemen nor conferred any of the
additional privileges that had been solicited. It Avas, in
fact, simply an unnecessary confirmation of existing rights,
the only new feature being a clause levelled at Dissenters,
requiring persons elected as Councillors to take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy.
Sir John Knight had entered upon his mayoralty at
Michaelmas with a determination to make it long memor
able to Nonconformists. Raids on dissenting places of
Avorship began in October, and his worship was able to
inform the Privy Cottucil ou November 11th that he had
dealt effectually with all the conventicles, and committed
some of their leading supporters to prison ; for which their
lordships, on the 16th, returned him "hearty thanks,"
praying him to continue his vigilance until he had secured
all the principal heads of the faction, and made them give
heaA'-A'' bail to ansAver for their offences at the assizes. The

1663-6-4]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

325

Mayor soon found a zealous coadjutor in Richard Streamer,
one of the Sheriffs. The latter, on December 27th, received
the Mayor's instructions to proceed to the Quakers' meeting
house, put a stop to the service, and apprehend some of the
members. The directions were promptly obeyed, and the
obnoxious oaths having been tendered to three leading
Quakers, which they, of course, declined to take, Streamer
ordered them off to prison. At this point, John Knight,
the sugar refiner, commonly called "junior " to distinguish
him from his cousin, the Mayor, offered himself as bail for
those in custody, and, being rebuked by the Sheriff for his
tenderness to sectaries, retorted upon the official, declaring
that he valued him no more than his dog, boxed the ears of
some one else, and ultimately dreAV his sword — a weapon
still ordinarily worn by the tipper classes. The Sheriff,
greatly incensed, soon after complained to the deputy-
lieutenants, asking that the Mayor might be rebuked for
not treating his namesake with severity, and that the
latter should be arrested ; whereupon the deputy-lieutenants
Avrote to Secretary Bennet for instructions, observing that
the sugar refiner Avas a man of full fortune but violent
passions. Streamer also besought the Government to punish
Knight, and the choleric gentleman Avas haled before the
King in Council in the following February, where, accord
ing to a letter of Secretary Bennet, " he had very seA^ere
reproof for his misbehaviour," and matters Avould have
" yet passed worse for him " if the Duke of Albemarle had
not interposed, and represented his good services at the
time of the Restoration. The Minister, in narrating these
facts to the Mayor, added : — " His Majesty bade me tell you
Iioav much satisfied he is of your care of the good govern
ment of his city, and to thank you in his name for it."
Elated with this approval, the Mayor made preparations
for a grand battue. It was well knoAvn that the Quakers
held services in a large upstairs apartment in Broadmead
(on the site of the present Broadmead Chapel) iu the house
of one Samuel Tovey. On Sunday, February 28th, 1664,
his Avorship, accompanied by Sir Henry Creswick and
others, repaired to this place, Avhere about 300 Quakers
were assembled, and commanded them to disperse. Several
shoAving unwillingness to obey, fourteen of the more
obstinate were arrested and sent to Newgate. On subse
quent Sundays similar scenes took place at the chapels of
the Baptists and Independents, after which the pastime
Avas suspended for a Avhile owing to the Mayor's departure

326

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1664

for London to fulfil his duties in Parliament. He there
energetically supported the Conventicle Bill brought in by
the Government, under Avhich a person thrice convicted of
attending a dissenting place of Avorship Avas subjected to
transportation for seAren years, Avith the confiscation of his
property to defray the charge of his removal. Sir John, in
expressing his delight at this provision, informed the House
of Commons that he hoped to send 400 Quakers out of the
land before the end of his mayoralty. The Bill having
become laAv the jubilant knight returned to Bristol to carry
out his intended policy, in Avhich he had the assistance of
a troop of cavalry, despatched by the Government on that
especial service. Earty in July, 200 Quakers, caught in
their room in Broadmead, were arrested. The man found
preaching was sent to gaol for three months ; all the rest
were ordered to pay fines, and on the refusal of all except
nine to produce the money, they were severally committed
to prison for a month. A fortnight later the raid was
repeated, but owing to the number lying in NeAvgate only
100 Quakers Ave re assembled. An old. acquaintance, Dennis
Hollister, was captured on this occasion. Refusing to pay
a fine of £4, he Avas sent to NeAvgate for six weeks ; five
others were condemned to a month's incarceration, and all
the rest were convicted, but had their sentences respited
in terrorem. On the three Sundays ending August 14th,
the Mayor pursued his prey relentlessly, and ccmmitted
about thirty, chiefly wcmen, for a week, about forty for
three weeks, and a great number for a month. In conse
quence of the multitude of victims, the condition of the
prisons was appalling. Fifty-five women consigned to
Bridewell, whose piety Avas their only offence, had but five
beds to lie upon, and two died from the effects of the stench.
A renewed onslaught was next made on the other con
venticles, and the original Nonconformist bcdy was so
persistently harried that it was forced to abandon its
meeting-place in the Friars, and assemble in the garrets
or cellars of private houses. On one occasion the Mayer
captured thirty-one gathered in this way, and consigned
all of them to Bridewell for a month-. Before the end of
his mayoralty Sir John Avas entitled to beast that he had
driven into filthy dungeons about SCO sufferers for con
science sake, who Avere forced to hoard with criminals cf
the vilest character. He was succeeded in the civic chair
by Alderman John LaAvforcl, who continued to break up the
unlawful services, but generally ccmmitted only the persons

1664]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

327

in whose houses the meetings took place. The outbreak
of the Plague in 1665-6, and the moderation of Alderman
Willoughby, then Mayor, put a temporary stop to the
persecutions. Evidence has been adduced from the State records that
Sir John Knight, in pursuing the course just briefly
described, Avas acting with the express encouragement of
the Government, Avhose ostensible pretext for its policy was
its anxiety for the promotion of religion and morality.
Nothing need bo said here respecting the dissoluteness of
the Court, or of the " profane SAvearing felloAVS," as Pepys
terms them, who composed the bulk of the House of
Commons and passed the intolerant Acts against Dissenters.
But it is edifying to examine the character of the letters
which a Secretary of State was addressing to the magis
trates of Bristol whilst applauding their treatment of
Quakers and others. Amongst the iniquities that arose
after the Restoration vvas the introduction of fraudulent
gambling establishments licensed by the Government.
Gangs of knaves were empowered to proAvl about the
kingdom, setting up ivhat they styled lotteries, and reaping
enormous profits out of the credulous public, a portion of
the spoil being handed over to high officials at Court to
secure a continuance of the privilege. Secretary William
son seems to have been deeply interested in those secret
transactions, for letters in the Record Office sIioav that he
sent repeated requests to Bristol for magisterial sanction of
the lotteries at the great local fairs. In reply to one of
these missives, Alderman Cale promised to forward any
of the- lotteries except that called the Royal Oak, Avhich he
said " broke half the cashiers [people with cash] in Bristol"
at its previous visit. But the Royal Oak SAvindle was one
under Williamson's protection, and after

being

pressed, Calo Avrote a few days later that be had prevailed
on the Mayor to sanction the Royal Oak lottery during
Paul's fair, and that the leave might be extended, though
when it Avas last in the city many young men ruined
themselves, and his oavii son lost £50. In the following
month Calo stated that the Mayor AVas anxious to comply
Avith the Secretary's desire to have the lottery prolonged,
but some of the Aldermen had opposed him. Rarely losing
an opportunity to calumniate his colleagues, Cale, as he
had done in the previous letter, prayed for the prosecution
of John Knight (junior), avIio, ho said, had gone to London,
to join Sir Robert Cann and Sir Robert Yeamans, men of

32S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1664

HOP)!0!' bad ' PrinciPIes. ftnd enemies of the late King' The
theVi;f- f rTMay°v n?x' sought to curry favour with
behaH of hre % ^^edging Williamson's letter? o
StL fJ tlJ tteiy,men' 7110 had been Permitted to
Piactise for three weeks, and would, he said, be allowed to
rnSrintWb6 tim:,l0nger'. ^ -ere,'he added five
S™ ? y m the Pre™us year, though the cry of
r,p6 f -SOrf 7aS greafc a§'ainst them, and they were
clearly against laAv. Williamson next requested stTll
rua v 9iT6USe *? ?6 BharPen» and <*« Maqyo'f0^ ^
ruary 24th promised to " obey his commands."
so complete that they found it necessary to seek excitement
a ™ ,l g °?6nS1Ve CllargeS °SaiMt ea& other Worthiest
as was the character of Alclennan Cale, he was outrivalled
wSthre rte1' t7 RiSai'd EUsW°rth' «f apprenSSTam:1
w iitmg to Secretary Bennet on February 15th the Ctts-
rern'oneTf te 7™ H^ ^ t0 ^ b^ °bta^d
a id to tell wW ! Q^kers, whom he had bribed, he
a ert in dS P£T * ^ th?1T meetinSs- He Avent on to
to n a'^is teriaf ifl °f, ^^i B*™d7 reCOrded> that owing
nfoega treeb ii n^ Y1&]™™> the sect was able to meet
E, + U1 a ll0l\se opposite to the Mayor's (in Temple
dtttA }W ^S1ratlllS that Knight Aval not doing Es
duty Some Quakers and Baptists had, he admitted been
sent to prison; but one of the Sheriffs had been so 'weaJ
as to order the gaoler to let the chief culprits go abrold to
take the air. This lenity he attributed to the prisoners
£dgo?Wh6dTl?r Si^Eofft Cann, Sir Robert iaman
Toto, ^ J0lln Knig^ (JUnior) aud Yeamans had
moreover been active against the King, and were still
tend th?t ?ltl0nS m ^-^J- N° doulrt'they would pre
tend that they were entitled to the credit of raising the
apprentices m 1660, but " they had no hand in i$ the
writer claimmg al the glory of the riot as" exclusively his
own. In the following month, Avhilst the Mayor was
S!tl ?1SrteiS every Sunday, Ellsworth wrote
again to the Secretary— obviously in the interest of a con
genial libeller, the office-seeker Rycattt-denouncing his
worslnp and the Town Clerk for disaffection. The cfeam
oi this correspondence, hoAvever, is to be found in Cale's
petition to the Kmg for the reversion of a Tellership of
the Exchequer, one of the richest offices in the gift of the
Crown. ihe application was founded on alleged losses

1664]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

329

during the Avar, and on exertions to drive suspected persons
out of the Corporation, by Avhich the petitioner had " con
tracted much envy and malice " — Avhich Avas true in a sense
that the writer did not mean to convey. In 1669 the
Common Council pardoned a debt due from Cale, owing to
his poverty, and granted him a yearly pension of £40 for
hie. After his death, in 1672, a pension of £30 was voted
to his Avidow.
Unexpected information respecting the ancient hospital
of St. Catherine, near Bedminster, has been found in the
State Papers for April, 1664. One John Borcel petitioned
the Kmg to have the government of the hospital, with
poivcr to bring to account Francis Nevil, who, being Master
of the place thirty years previously, had illegally demo
lished it, and converted the lands and goods to his oavii use.
Annexed to the document is a report from the Archbishop
of Canterbury m favour of the applicant. The King
accordingly granted the Mastership to Borcel, together with
ail arrears clue to the hospital. The petition was probably
draAvn up under false information, and its success can have
been of little avail. The Nevil family held a grant of the
estate from the Crown, and disposed of the site of the
hospital to Sir Hugh Smyth so early as 1605. A glass
house and afterAvards a saw-yard occupied the ground in
the eighteenth century. Some of the ruined buildings
were afterwards divided into miserable hovels, and eventu
ally in 1887, the site was entirely cleared previous to the
construction of a vast tobacco manufactory.
Tavo ordinances passed by the Council in April raise a
suspicion that grave irregularities had arisen in the local ad
ministration of justice. It was decreed that the Town
Uerk and Under-Sheriff, under pain of forfeiting £100 each,
should make arrangements for the regular holding of autumn
assizes. Under the same penalty every Mayor for the time
being was required to provide for the sitting of the court of
quarter sessions, as " being of great concernment to good
government." &
As 1ms been remarked, the King's concession of a new
charter had proved a bitter disappointment. The Corpora
tion m applying for it, had sought for power to compel
Sfr habitants to become freemen, in order that they
o tt « ^^ fra; election as Councillors, and also
uJZ 1 T h?Tlj lf they refnsed t0 ^rve; 'but these
poweis had not been conceded. Appeals for royal help
were consequently made through private channels, and at I

330

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1664-65

meeting of the Privy Council on September 8th, their
lordships drew up a letter to the Corporation, which was
produced at a special meeting of the Chamber, held in tho
Guildhall, preliminary to the annual elections. Evading
the corporate desire to persecute uon-freemen, the Govern
ment's language in reference to burgesses was satisfactory
enough. Their lordships stated they had been informed
that several persons of quality and ability, nominated Alder
men and Councillors, had refused to do His Majesty sendee in'
their places, to the great prejudice of good government, and
that it Avas surmised they intended to again absent them
selves at the approaching elections, to avoid being chosen to
the chief offices. The King felt very sensible of such neg
lect and contempt, Avhich might lead to the subversion of the
ciAuc body, and iioav expressly commanded that no one should
presume to absent himself at the approaching elections,
when more than ordinary care should be taken to choose men
of integrity and ability, or refuse to take office if elected.
The names of any wilfully disobeying this mandate were
ordered to be sent up to the Government. Probably
through dread as to the consequences of further resistance,
nearly all those wdio had been elected Councillors, but had .
refused to take their seats, attended this meeting, and six of
them, including John Knight (junior), Richard Hart, Alex
ander Jackson and John AldAvorth, submitted, and took the
oaths: Thomas Moore and Shersliavv Gary prayed to be
excused ; and, on their appeal being rejected, flatly refused
to swallow the test oaths. Joseph Creswick pleaded that he
Avas not qualified, being a non-freeman, and declined to ac
cept the freedom Avhen offered to him. One more, Thomas
Cale, Avas dismissed on his own petition. Alexander James,
avIio had been elected an Alderman, did not appear, and was
afterAvards dismissed. The result of these proceedings was
testified three days later, at the annual elections, the mem
bers on the roll having swollen to forty-eight, or five in
excess of the legal number, and forty-five were actually
present. It will be seen later on that the unreasoning
perversity of the civic leaders on this point afforded the
Government an unanswerable pretext for demanding the
surrender of the city's liberties.
The Admiralty gave orders about this time for the build
ing, at Bristol, of a royal frigate of fifty-two guns, to be
named the St. Patrick. The first mention of this ship of
Avar occurs in the State Papers of January, 1665, Avhen one
Adams, the naval agent, acquainted his employers of a cliffi-

1665]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

331

culty respecting anchors. Good iron from the Forest of
Dean, he said, Avas procurable at £16 per ton,— equivalent m
modern currency to about £50,— but the local blacksmiths
would not contract for the great anchors, having no work
shops fitted to make them. Perhaps the smiths had another
reason for holding aloof, for Adams adds that they had asked
how they would be paid if they undertook the work. Evi
dence Avill be produced hereafter as to the ; scandalous
treatment of local shipbuilders by the Government of
Charlos II. A frigate was also being constructed at Lydney
in 1665, and the naval agent there applied to the authorities
for poAver to impress shipwrights at Bristol. In March, Sir
William Coventry sent a letter to Pepys, Secretary to the
Admiralty, eminently characteristic of the age. Sir John
Knight, he wrote, had taken up the George, of Bristol, for
the service of the Board, and as the ship Avould carry twenty
guns she would need a good complement of men. " It will
be a way to get volunteers in that sea, and being thus tre
panned they can be used other Avays." Sir John Knight'
was then, and for seAreral subsequent years, an active agent
of the Admiralty, and was nearly always begging for money
to carry out his instructions. On April l'Jth, he informed
the Navy Board that the George had departed, with 226 able
seamen ;" so that the trepanning had been successful. A
Aveek later, he reported that he had impressed man}' more
sailors, but was afraid they avouM run aAvay, as he had no
place for their detention. A Avarrant to press four hundred
additional seamen Avas sent to him in the folloAving month.
The Corporation, in March, having been informed that
the Duke of Oriiiond, Lord High Steivard, Avould soon ar
rive in the city on his Avay to Dublin as Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland -^arranged that his grace should be suitably enter
tained in Sir Henry Cresivick's mansion at the city's
expenso, and a committee Avas appointed to prepare for
his reception. The Duke did not reach Bristol, hoAveA'er,
until the end of August. After receiAing a royal salute, his
grace descended at the Council House, Avhere the city
fathers, arrayed in scarlet, Avere assembled to do him
honour. A mighty entertainment followed, the outlay
on Avhich exceeded £150. Westphalian hams and tongues,
specially sent for from London, were novel and costly items
of the banquet, Avhile as regards liquor, including a separate
provision for the ducal retinue, about tAvo hundred gallons
of Avine Avere purchased and doubtless consumed. From
references to the state of the Corporation to be found in pro-

332

THE ANNALS OF BIUSTOL

[1665
ceding pages, it is not surprising to learn from Ormond's
biographer that the Duke discovered the city to be "di
vided mto factions, and ready to break out into tumults."
He consequently prolonged his visit for four clays Avith the
object of conciliating the hostile cliques— probably with
little success. He then departed, via Gloucester, for Milf ord
Haven. _ Oiving to the scarcity and high price of com, the exporta
tion of grain Avas temporarily prohibited, but licenses to
evade the royal order could generally be obtained "for a
consideration." AVilliam Colston, writing to Secretary
Williamson in February, prayed for a permit for his small
ship, The Augel Gabriel, Avhich he wished to despatch Avith a
gram cargo to Portugal; and bluntly offered the Minister
£10 to have the license quickly. Some delay occurring —
perhaps Williamson Avas looking for a larger gratification-
Colston fired off a second letter, hoping that he would not be
denied the favour of sending a ship of eight men, Avhen
others had been granted leave to despatch vessels of thirty
men. The Secretary's reply is missing. It will be noticed
that Mr. Colston had named his little bark after the famous
Bristol vessel of the then popular ballad (see p. 99).
Some interesting facts respecting a renewed dispute be
tween the Levant Company of London and the Merchant
Venturers' Society of Bristol occur about this time in the
minutes of the Privy Council. As is mentioned in page 65,
the Levant Company claimed a monopoly of trade in Eastern
Europe, but AA-ere required by the Government in 1618 to
permit Bristolians "on trial for three years" to import a
small quantity of dried fruit, on paying a royalty of 6s. 8d.
per ton. For some unknown reason, the London confederacy
took no further steps in the matter, permitting the Bristol
merchants to continue their traffic, Avithout any restriction
as to its dimensions, and even neglecting to demand the
royalty reserved to them. Suddenly, in the spring of 1665,
Avhen local commerce with the fruit islands had largely
deA-eloped, the Levant Company made vehement complaints
to the PriA'y Council against those invasions on the mono
poly, and their lordships ordered the Mayor of Bristol, on
April 28th, to giA-e notice to those concerned to appear be
fore them in the following month. The Merchants' Society,
apparently in much alarm, petitioned for further time to
defend themselves, and from various causes, especially from
the interruption of Council meetings during the Great
Plague, the matter Avas not brought to a hearing until

1665]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

333

May 23rd, 1666, by Avhich time the Merchant Venturers
had recovered their courage, and stoutly pleaded their char
tered privileges. The case of the respective parties was
heard before the King himself, and, after a deliberation,
the Council pronounced a formal order that no impositions
should thenceforth be demanded by the Levant Company
from any Bristol merchants trading to Venice or Zante,
for the goods of those places only. Although this decree
debarred Bristolians from Turkey, they hailed it with
intense satisfaction as a signal triumph over their grasping
rivals. The terrible pestilence known as the Great Plague broke
out in London in December, 1664, but does not appear to
have excited much local apprehension until the following
June, Avhen, in vieAV of the approaching St. James's fair, the
Corporation appealed to the Privy Council for a proclama
tion prohibiting its being held during the current year,
and by dint of spending £24 in gratuities at Court the
required order was secured. On the 19th the Chamber
passed a series of resolutions in the hope of barring out the
disease. All the householders in turn were to keep watch
and ward at the entrances to the city, armed Avith halberts.
No Londoner was to be admitted unless he brought a certi
ficate of health, and goods sent from the capital were to be
aired thirty days before passing through the Gates. But
there is no evidence that anything Avas attempted of a sani
tary character. Towards the close of the year the scourge
was fatally prevalent in Bedminster and in the suburb
outside LaAvford's Gate ; and the Councd. in great alarm,
ordered that a Pest House should be constructed near Bap
tist Mills on some land known by the strange name of
Forlorn Hope. Tho "filthiness of the streets" is now ad
mitted in the minute-book, which contains an order for the
removal of vast heaps of noisome refuse in eight different
parishes. Isolated cases of plague occurred in Horse Street,
Pile Street, Tucker Street, Redcliff Street, and St. Philip's
parish, the infected families being severally shut up in
their houses, or removed to the Pest House, and supplied
Avith food. A rate Avas leAied monthly on the citizens for
these purposes, and a considerable sum was also contributed
by the Chamber. A Privy Cottucil order Avas afterAvards
issued forbidding the holding of St. Paul's fair. The epi
demic lingered on until the folloAving summer. Iu April,
1666, the Corporation ordered the levying of £450 by a rate
for relieving necessitous families suffering from the infec-

334

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1665

tion, and another rate for the same purpose was ordered in
August. The total mortality due to the pestilence is not
recorded. In reference to the Plague in London, an account
has been preserved of the funds subscribed in provincial
toAvns and sent up for the relief of poor families. The total
amount was £1,258, of Avhich Bristol contributed £205,
Exeter £222, and Taunton £155.
OAving to the decay of the Navy under the restored
monarchy, ruinous losses Avere sustained by Bristol mer
chants during tho Avar Avith Holland. There are many
papers on the subject in the Record Office. Sir John
Knight, Avriting to the Navy Board in July, reported that
five more slups belonging to the port had been captured, at
a loss to the citizens of £30,000. Hardly a ship, he added,
escaped the enemy. On the other hand, the almost total
suspension of business in London, caused by the long-con
tinued pestilence, gave a marked impetus to local commerce.
In September, a fleet of twenty-four Bristol ships was ex
pected home from Virginia, and in November a letter sent
to London reported that thirty merchantmen had just sailed
from the Avon for the West Indies, and that half as many
more would follow in a feAv days. In July, 1666, letters to
Secretary Williamson announced the safe arrival of the
Bristol fleets from Virginia and Barbadoes, the former em
bracing nineteen ships laden Avith tobacco and four with
sugar and cotton, while the latter comprised thirteen vessels,
chiefly laden with sugar. The Avriter added that they were
in time for the fair, and rejoiced the town, which had lately
sustained so heaAry a loss in the capture of the Nevis ships,
worth £50,000. (No other record of this disaster has been
found, but there is a note that six Barbadoes ships were lost
about the same time.) The Customs duties derived from
the above arrivals amounted to what was then regarded as
the stupendous sum of £30,000. In October the Secretary
Avas informed by a Bridgwater correspondent that the
Bristol merchants Avere making vast profits on their im
ports, having taken advantage of the destruction of London
stocks by the great fire to demand exorbitant prices. A
Bristol letter of the same month stated that thirty ships
were preparing to return to Virginia and Barbadoes, but
would carry slender cargoes, Bristol goods being bought so
cheap and selling so dear that a small quantity brought in
a large return.
NotAvithstauding the purification of the Common Council
from Puritan elements, the Government seem to have put

1665]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

335

Httle trust in the test oaths that had been imposed on tbe
members, and, probably Avith the help of EllsAvorth, kept
a vigilant eye on local affairs. A feAV days before the
annual elections, the King, through Lord Arlington, sent
down a mandate expressing his displeasure at the con
trivances of disaffected persons to disturb the good govern
ment of the city, and requested that men of fidelity might
be chosen as officers, and especially that the Mayor should
be selected from the aldermanic body, and not from the
councillors. The Chamber, of course, obeyed, and placed
Alderman Willoughby in the civic chair on September
15th. On the folloAving day, at quarter sessions, seven of the
Aldermen, Messrs. Lawforcl, Willoughby, Creswick, Locke,
Sanely and Morgan, and Sir John Knight, were able to
manifest the "good affection, prudence and fidelity" so
much esteemed by the King. Six men and three Avomen
Avere indicted for having taken part in Nonconformist
services, after having been t\vice before convicted of the
same crime. After being found guilty, the Recorder, as
chairman of the Court, condemned them to be transported to
Barbadoes for the term of seven years, with a Avarning that,
if they escaped and returned to England, and did not pay
down £100 each for such offence, they Avould be hanged as
felons, with confiscation of goods. A warrant, ordering the
proper officer to embark the prisoners fortliAvith on board
ship, was then signed by the justices. A copy of this order
is preserved at the Council House. There is reason to believe
that some of these victims escaped the tender mercies of the
laAv. In the Colonial State Papers is a singular document,
dated January 7th, 1665 (the new year then began in March),
entitled a " certificate," signed by eight of the creAvof the ship
Mary Fortune, of Bristol. It states that in December three
Quakers were brought to their ship for transportation, but
that the Avriters durst not carry away innocent persons, and
were persuaded tho King did not Avish to make void the Act
that Englishmen should not be carried abroad without their
own consent. Moreover, there was a law in Barbadoes for
bidding persons to be brought there against their wills, and
requiring them to be carried home again. They had, there
fore, put these men ashore. How the tars Avere treated for
this honourable insubordination does not appear.
By an order of the Common Council, the ancient Court
Leet of the city, Avhich had been discontinued for many-
years, was revived in October. A sitting took place in each

336

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1665

ward, and complaints Avere made in the form of present
ments. One or the juries bestoAved praotical approval on
the ducking-stool, for the Chamberlain Avas presented for not
keeping it in repair. The same official was also censured for
neglecting the tAvo " Avashing slips " near the Weir — that
is, the places Avhere Avomen gathered to wash clothes by the
river-side, a practice still common in French country towns.
A man living in or near Castle Street Avas presented for roof
ing his house with thatch. At the Court held in 1666 two
men Avero presented for having made haystacks at the back
of their houses — one iu Hallier Lane (Nelson Street), and tho
other in the Old Market. In All Saints' ward, four men
were presented for selling " colley " and ale Avithout a license
— the first mention of coffee-houses, afterwards very common.
The churcliAvarclens of All Saints' were complained of " for
not mending the place Avhere the play is in Christmas
Street, being Arery much decayed " — the only explanation of
which seems to be that some building for theatrical purposes
had been erected there. The roadAvay in Castle Street was
pronounced to be ruinous and deep in filth through the neg
lect of the Chamberlain, while Sir John Knight and Mr.
Colston were presented for defective pitching in front of
their property.
Excepting only the poll-tax, the impost known as hearth
money AAras the most unpopular ever sanctioned by Parlia
ment. The duty was leviable upon every dwelling that had
more than two chimneys, and the rapacious men who
" farmed " it were entitled to enter houses whenever they
had a suspicion that fire-places were concealed, and to seize
even the bed of a labourer if he refused, or was unable, to pay
the tax ou demand. In spite of the notorious brutality of
the collectors, the Government invariably supported the
farmers in their efforts to increase their profits. In Novem
ber, 1665, the Privy Council addressed a letter to the Mayor
and Aldermen, complaining that some of the justices (who
had power to grant certificates of exemption in certain cases)
made undue use of this privilege to favour people liable to
the duty, wherewith His Majesty was much dissatisfied, and
required amendment for the future. The answer of the
magistrates is not recorded ; but at a later period their
worships sent a long letter to the Privy Council, stating
that they had given the utmost assistance in securing pay
ment oi tho tax, but that the farmer and his officers had
exacted it from persons clearly exempt, seizing even the
miserable chattels of people begging from door to door, and

1665]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

337

the working tools of poor labourers. They had proposed to
the farmer that a return should be drawn up of all houses
liable to pay, and of those free from the duty, but this Avas
not complied Avith ; lists Avere brought in by the officers that
included many exempt rhvellings, and the Clerk of the
Peace had been menaced for refusing to return them to the
Exchequer. " The cry of the poor is so great that we are
inforced to lay their complaints before your honours." The
justices concluded by hoping that the compassion sIioavu to
the poor of so mo other places Avould be extended to those of
this city ; but there is no evidence that relief Avas afforded.
In September, 1667, a local agent of the Government in
formed Secretary Williamson that the collectors caused
much murmuring by purposely going to demand the tax
Avhen they kneiy persons were from home, breaking into
their houses, seizing goods, and then making the OAvners pay
double duty to redeem them. They had, he added, so served
the Dean of Bristol (Dr. Glemham), Avhen he was dining
Avith the Mayor. In 1671 one of the civic sergeants— a
miserably paid class of men — had his furniture seized for
nonpayment of the tax, and happening to haA'e- the Sword-
bearer's state apparel in his custody, the Chamberlain was
forced to come to the rescue.
The Lord's Day being much profaned by barbers shaving
their customers, an ordinance was passed in NoArember pro
hibiting the practice, a penalty of £10 being imposed on
every master, and one of £5 on every journeyman, detected
in the commission of this profanity. Any master allowing
his apprentice to shave on Sunday Avas to be fined £5
for each offence.
About 120 Dutchmen, doubtless captured in the victory
over tho Dutch fleet iu June, were brought here toAvards the
close of the year, and Avere lodged in the crypt under Red
cliff church, or possibly in a portion of the great caverns
still existing in that locality. The Corporation Avas thrifty
m providing for their accommodation, a load of straw and
fifty bed mats, costing £4 7*'. 8d., being all that Avas fur
nished. No charge for food is recorded. The men were
immured in this dungeon until the following April, when
£18 were disbursed for coin-eying them to Chepstow
Castle. On Christmas Day, a number of Quaker tradesmen
though^ proper to manifest their principles, or, as Secre
tary Williamson's correspondent put it, "to show their
contempt of authority," by keeping open their places of

338 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1665-66
business. Some soldiers of Lord Oxford's regiment, Iioav-
ever, Avere stationed in the city, and dealt with them so
brutally that they lost no time in bringing their manifesta
tion to a close. I'he news Avas forwarded to the Minister as
an excellent joke. The real character of the pleasantry is
revealed in a record of the persecuted sect, Avhich states
that three of the tradesmen Avere tied neck and heels, Avith
heavy Aveights laid on their backs, and Avere not released
until the punishment threatened to end in their murder.
During the year, Mr. Marmaduke RaAvdon, a York
merchant, made a tour in the West of England— then a
very unusual enterprise — and kept an interesting diary of
his experiences, Avhich Avas reproduced by the late Camden
Society. Of Bristol he Avrote :— "In this city are many
proper men, but very feAv handsome Avomen, and most of
them ill-bred ; being generally, men and Avomen, very
proud, not affable to strangers, but rather much admiring
themselves; so that an ordinary fellow Avho is but a
freeman of Bristol, conceits himself to be as grave as a
senator of Rome, and very sparing of his hat, insomuch
that their preachers have told them of it in the pulpit.
They use in the city most sleds to carry their goods, and
the drivers such rude people that they Avill have their
horses upon a stranger's back before he be aAvare." Mr.
Rawdon stayed about five Aveeks in the district OAving to
the Plague raging in London, and must have been a person
of some reputation, as he Avas entertained by the Sheriffs,
the Collector of Customs, and several "gentlemen and
merchants of quality." Before leaving, he gave a parting
feast to all his friends at the then noted Star tavern.
A letter from the Privy Council to the Mayor and
Aldermen, dated February 8th, 1666, announced that, in
consequence of the outbreak of Avar Avith France, the
Government required poAverful and speedy supplies of
seamen. The justices Avere therefore directed to procure
the names and addresses of every sailor, and of every able
man that had formerly gone to sea, and to deliver such
lists to the Press Masters, to the end that on those officers
leaving a shilling at the house of an absent seaman, the
man should be deemed impressed, and compelled to serve.
Any one absenting himself on his return home was to be
sent to prison. Another royal mandate was issued _ on
February 14th, setting forth that the Parliament in voting
a supply had permitted the raising of part of the money by
Avay of loans, a course which the King uoav recommended

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

339

1666]
to the Mayor, asking him to promote subscriptions, which
ishould be repaid. The Council appointed a committee to
further this service. Its proceedings are not recorded, but
references to the matter in the corporate books sIioav that
the bulk, if not the whole, of the money collected Avas not
raised by voluntary subscriptions, but was levied by forced
rates upon all the householders. The sum demanded was
£200 monthly, and Avas exacted for three years. Of this
amount, omitting shillings and pence, St. Nicholas's parish
¦contributed £30 ; St. Thomas' £26, St. Stephen's and St.
James' £14 each, and the other parishes smaller amounts,
the least being St. Ewen's and St. Philip's Avhich each paid
£3 a month. The burden, coming as an addition to the
rates for relieving the poor and the Plague-stricken, was
so onerous that many inhabitants sought to evade it by
removing into the country ; but the Council promptly
announced, through the bellman, that no one should be
alloAved to depart without giving security for the payment
of the imposts.
The yearly proclamations of the Protectorate Govern
ment prohibiting the culture of tobacco in the West of
England continued to be issued after the Restoration, but
as before were ineffectual. In March the Privy Council, in
a letter to the Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, stated
that, from information received, the quantity of the root
then growing in the county was greater than in any
previous year, and that some of the cultivators, in resisting
the King's officers, had declared they Avould rather lose
their lives than obey the laAv. The Lord-Lieutenant Avas
ordered to make use of the militia to reduce the mutineers,
and Avas promised the assistance of a troop of cavalry. A
despatch was sent on the same clay to the judges of assize
at Gloucester, urging them to see the law put in execution,
and to censure the local magistrates for their remissness.
As the Council issued similar orders in the following year,
it is clear that the cultivation was still unchecked, to the
great annoyance of Bristol merchants interested in the
American trade, avIio naturally disliked home competition.
In the State Papers of August, 1667, is a representation to
the Government from local firms respecting this grieA'ance,
pointing out imperfections in the Act prohibiting domestic
culture. The plant, it was alleged, Avas groAvn throughout
'Gloucestershire, even on the estates of magistrates, whose
interest forbade them to interfere, as they received half the
profits in the shape of rent. Probably in response to this

340

THE ANNALS OF BIUSTOL

[1666

appeal for more vigorous measures, a considerable body of
the King's guards tvas sent down to assist in the destruction
of the plantations.
On April 3rd, the Common Council, on the petition of
John Harvy, stone-cutter, Avho offered to present the city
Avith a statue of the King, admitted him as a freeman,
provided he gave a bond " not to pajnit any Avork but
his oavii proper Avork," from Avhich it might be inferred
that he Avas really a painter. The Chamberlain subse
quently paid £1 for erecting the figure in the Tolzey, and
£2 5*. for " work done about it." In course of time, Mr..
Harvy repented of his generosity, for in June, 1668, upon
his petition, the Council ordered £15 to be paid to him
"for the King's effigies." This poor piece of statuary,
Avhich one of the King's mistresses is said to have con
demned as "more like a great clumsy porter" than His-
Majesty, is still presoiwed in the Guildhall.
Amongst the State Papers in May is an account of the
time speut in carrying the mails on the chief routes-
throughout the country. Although the speed fixed by the
Government fort-he post-boys Avas seven miles an hour in
the summer months, the actual rate attained on the
Bristol, Chester and York roads Avas only four miles, and
Avas half a mile less on the Gloucester and Plymouth routes.
An appended note states that a man spent seventeen or
eighteen hours in riding from Winchester to Southampton !
in December, Lord Arlington complained to the postal
authorities that the King's letters from Bristol and other-
towns Avere delayed from ten to fourteen hours beyond the-
proper time, and ordered that the postmasters should be
threatened with dismissal unless they reformed. No im
provement, hoAveA-er, was effected for more than half a
century. Francis Baylie, the builder of the frigate St. Patrick,
succeeded in launching the ship from the Marsh early in
May. Some rejoicing took place on the occasion, the Cor
poration inviting many of the country gentry to Avitness
the spectacle, and liberally entertained them. (The frigate
Avas taken in the folloAving January by two Dutch
privateers.) The St. David frigate, of 64 guns, built at
Lydney, ought to haA'e been finished about the same time,.
but the builder could obtain neither money nor materials.
from the Government, and complained that the keel would
be rotten before the ship Avas completed. She was, hoAV-
ever, launched in the following year, and was brought.

1666]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

341

down to Kingroad to be fitted, but lay long unfinished, the
workmen vainly clamouring for ! wages. The builder
informed the Admiralty in July that he Avas unable to
relieve the distress of his family, Avhilst the poor ship
wrights Avere being daily thrown into prison for debt, and
everyone was upon him for money. Upwards of 500 sailors
Avere impressed in Bristol to man this and other vessels.
A piece of sharp practice on the part of the Corporation
of Bath came to the ears of the Bristol authorities in June,
although, singularly enough, the only reference to tho
matter has been found in the minutes of the Privy Council.
On June 27th their lordships received a petition from the
Corporation, stating that they had received information
that the civic body at Bath had secretly instigated " some
feiv clothiers " to memorialise the King, praying for the
removal for the present year of St. James's fair from
Bristol to Bath, alleging the prevalence of Plague in the
former city. This assertion Avas stigmatised as false, no
fresh case of the disease having occurred for ten days,
Avhile none were suffering from it except those immured in
a remote Pest House. A number of other reasons Avere
adduced against any interference Avith ancient privileges,
and the Privy Council at once gave orders that the fair
should be held at the usual place.
After an interval of inactiAuty, the Common Council in
September began a new crusade against the " foreigners "
carrying on trade Avithin the city. A stranger avIio had
ventured to open a shop in Castle Street Avas ordered to
pay £5 " for his contempt," but the money was never
rccoA'ered. An ordinance Avas also fulminated against all
interloping persons carrying on arts and trades, setting
forth that divers persons by subtle and sinister means
were "defrauding the charters," to the great hurt of the
freemen, and ordaining that after Michaelmas Day no such
intruders should offer or sell any wares Avhatsoever, or use
any art, trade or handicraft in any house or shop, on pain
of forfeiting £20 for each offence, one third of Avhich Avas
to bo given to the informer. Persons bringing in victuals,
or soiling firc-AVOod in St. Thomas's Market, Avere alone
exempted from the decree. In February, 1667, the magis
trates, acting upon an older ordinance, Avhich the Merchants'
Society had urgently prayed the Council to put in execu
tion, took vigorous action. A ship belonging to strangers
(probably London men) had brought in a cargo of sugar
and molasses, some of Avhich, instead of being carried to tho

342

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1666-T-67

Back Hall, according to local law, had been sold by a
decliT1* w +?"fc °U b°iard a Swails™ vessel. The justfces,
dec ding that tliese gooes were "foreign bought and foreign
sold, ordered the Sheriffs to seize them forthwith, and to
of the dt 7 & brou8'hfc for their recovery at the expense
A great panic occurred at the Council House in Septem
ber, through the outbreak of a fire in the adjoining house,
standing at the corner of Broad and Corn Streets. The
Chamberlain ^munificently distributed half a crown amongst
those that did he p me down Avith the books and boxes out
ot my office, and bestoAved twenty shillings' Avorth of
$riXn?°Tt '\that t°1°k e^traoi-dinary pains to quench
the fire, which fortunately did little damage
At a meeting of the Council in November, it Avas
announced that Sir Henry Creswick, who had sued the Cor
poration, and obtained judgment, for money advanced by
him, apparently many years before, had distrained upon
several citizens to recover his claim. The Chamber, which
seems to have made no defence to the action, now proposed
that the matter should be settled by arbitration, to Avhich
Creswick consented, and AVilliam Colston and Isaac Morgan
were appointed arbitrators. From some unexplained cause
this arrangement broke down, and three months later Cres
Aviek obtained a decree in Chancery for the payment of
£134 and costs. A new reference to umpires followed, and
th® Corporation finally paid £160 in full of all demands.
Disaffection Avas still very prevalent in the West of
England, and the state of public feeling in Bristol and
Somerset was especially disquieting to the Court. In the
State Papers is a letter Avritten by Richard Dtttton, an old
Cavaber to Colonel Pigott, reporting that on December
4th a party of horse had marched towards Bristol, through
the town r where he lived, two miles from the city, and that
on the Mayor and deputy-lieutenants being apprised the
inns Avere searched for suspicious persons. He added
that the city Avas so disaffected that there Avere not sufficient
active honest persons to make the search effectual. He
knew only of himself and three others out of 20 000 in the
town who had served the late King as general officers.
I he inhabitants, he added, should not be left to do as they
pleased, without a. good guard of soldiers.
On January 2Hrd, 1667, tho Privy Council considered a
petition of "Ihomas Thomas and all other booksellers and
paper sellers m Bristol," stating that the stoppage of the

1667]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH. CENTURY.
I

343

importation of paper from France, OAving to the Avar, had
caused great hindrance to trade, and praying that they
might have a license for two small vessels to bring pape:*
from Normandy. Their lordships thought the reques
reasonable, and authorized the Duke of York to issue thi
license. Except coarse material for packing purposes, in
paper Avas then made in England ; and in 1688 the expe
dition of the Prince of Orange brought Avith it the Dutcl
paper upon which the Deliverer's proclamations Avere printed
at Exeter. Thanks to Huguenot emigrants, paper mills
were opened in this country in 1690.
An unexampled humiliation to England — the triumphant
entrance of the Dutch fleet into the MedAvay — Avas little
calculated to increase the popularity of the Government. On
June 17th, 1677, the Mayor (Sir Thomas Langton), Sir
Henry Creswick and William Colston, addressing Secretary
Williamson, narrated the steps they had taken on learning
of the disaster. The militia had been put in a good posture,
and all letters coming by post addressed to persons suspected
of disloyalty had been opened, in the hope of making dis
coveries. One of these missives Avas enclosed. It was from
a man named Mansell, in London, to Hugh Parry, merchant,
Bristol Castle, and stated that at present " the great business
must lie dormant. There is such a general exclamation
against tAvo great men that it is not safe for them to go
about the streets." Parry Avas examined by the magistrates,
but nothing could be extracted from him.
As it Avas notorious that the calamitous state of the Navy
Avas due to the profligate extravagance of the King, the
moment Avas not a favourable one for placing money
unreservedly in his hands. On July 9th, hoivever, a royal
letter Avas laid before the Common Council, in Avhich the
danger of the country and the necessity of defensive
measures Avere adduced as reasons Avhich should inspire all
loyal subjects to make a voluntary liberal offer of Avhat they
could afford, by Avay of loan. A subscription Avas opened,
but the Council displayed little enthusiasm. The Mayor
and Sir Henry Creswick gave £50 each, Sir John Knight
£100, and five others contributed £100 amongst them.
Tho rest held aloof. How the appeal Avas received by tho
citizens does not appear.
Several fires having occurred since the alarm at the Tol
zey, and the appalling devastation of London having struck
general terror, the Council Avere moved to reneAV the often
revived and always neglected ordinance for the provision of

344

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1667
a plentiful supply of water buckets. In August, for better
preservation from fire, and for the apprehension of dis
orderly persons, it Avas resolved that the night Avatchmen
should be discharged, and their duties imposed upon the
householders personally, by turns. The resolution had
hardlybeen passed before it Avas found to be unworkable.
Early in September the old system Avas re-established, and
able-bodied householders were offered the alternative of
Avatching in person or providing a substitute as their turn of
duty came round. A few months later, it Avas discovered
that many members of tho Council had ignored the order for
fire buckets, whereupon the SAvordbearer Avas ordered to
make a general visitation, and to inform against defaulters.
In November, 166S, the Chamber resolved on the purchase
of another fire engine, and gave orders for a profuse supply
of buckets, it being determined that the Corporation should
proAide 70, the Parochial Vestries 208, the Dean and
Chapter 24, and the Trading Companies 146, Avhilst requisi
tions for several hundreds more were made on the principal
inhabitants. As soon as the alarm subsided, the resolution
Avas treated as so much Avaste paper.
A curious example of the practice of kidnapping human
beings for transportation to America is recorded in the
minutes of the Court of Aldermen in July. The justices
note that one Dinah Black had lived for five years as ser
vant to Dorothy Smith, and had been baptised, and wished
to live under the teaching of the Gospel ; yet her mistress
had recently caused her to be put aboard a ship, to be con-
A^eyed to the plantations. Complaint having been made,
Black had been rescued, but her mistress (av1io had doubtless
sold her) refused to take her back ; and it was therefore
ordered that she should be free to earn her living until the
case was heard at the next quarter sessions. The Sessions
Book has perished. From the peculiar manner in Avhich
she is described, it may be assumed that Dinah was a negro
woman captured ou the African coast, and had lived as a
slave in Bristol.
The malicious disposition of Richard Ellsworth has been
noticed in previous pages. At this period his evil nature
induced him to cast insinuations against the honesty of Sir
John Knight, avIio, Avhatever might be thought of his
treatment of Dissenters, enjoyed a high reputation for
probity and capacity as a man of business, and Avas
frequently employed as an agent of the Admiralty. Elks-
worth's earlier calumnies against Sir John have been lost

1667]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

345

but on July 31st he informed Secretary Williamson that he
was enabled to confirm his previous hints. If, he adds, Sir
John holds shares Avith the buyers of the King's prizes,
Avhich he will not deny that he does, there is great suspicion
that his apjiraisements will be too Ioav. This is all he is
able to adduce in support of his charges, and he concludes
by praying that he be not named as the informer, as that
Avould render him incapable of doing further service. The
Navy Board appear to have disregarded the libeller, for
Knight continued to act as their agent both at Bristol and
Plymouth. Intelligence of a serious disaster arrived from Virginia in
August. Nine Bristol ships and nine other English vessels,
together Avith a royal frigate, had been attacked in the
James River by a large Dutch man-of-Avar, and completely
destroyed, inflicting a heaAry loss on local merchants and
shipowners. A richly laden fleet from Barbadoes arrived
safely in Kingroad a fe\v months later ; but one of the
ships, the Royal Charles, belonging to Bristolians, capsized
in Broad Pill, and all the cargo, save some cotton and wool,
Avas practically lost.
The possession of a unique statue of Charles II. being
insufficient to satisfy the Council's admiration of his most
religious Majesty, an order was given to William Starre,
arms painter, for a suitable portrait to adorn the Council
Chamber. Mr. Starre received £4 10s. in NoArember for his
production. After this art treasure had been enjoyed for
sevon years, a house-painter Avas paid £8 " for gilding his
Majesty's picture," meaning presumably the frame. The
Avork is still in the Council House.
The important character of Bristol trade Avith Newfound
land and the Peninsula is slnnvn by a- petition presented to
the Privy Council on December 6th on behalf of the
Merchants' Society and several local shipoAvners. Tbe
petitioners, in praying for the better protection of NeAv-
foundland against the French and Dutch cruisers, Avho
threatened to destroy their trade, asserted that the Customs
duties paid at Bristol on the Avine, oil, and fruit brought in
from Spain, Portugal and Italy, in exchange for the fish
they carried to those countries, amounted to £40,000 yearly.
A feAV clays later, the Privy Council were called on to
consider the griefs of another party of Bristol merchants.
These applicants stated that during the late Avar Avith the
Dutch the, enemy had captured six of their ships laden Avith
3,300 hogsheads of tobacco in 1665 and 1666, Avhile in 1667

346

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1667

nine ships, Avith 6,003 hogsheads, had been taken and burnt
in the James River disaster. On all this tobacco an impost
of 2s. 3d. per hhd. had been levied by the Governor of
Virginia, — professedly for the erection of fortifications,
though no such Avorks had been built, — and the petitioners
prayed that the money might be refunded. The Council
promised an inquiry, but there is no evidence that relief
Avas afforded. In November, 1670, Sir John Knight
asserted iii the House of Commons that of the 6,000 tons of
shipping possessed by Bristol, one half Avas employed in the
importation of tobacco.
During the year, the members of the Quaker congrega
tion worshipping in the upstairs room in Broadmead,
mentioned in previous notes, resolved on building a large
meeting-house " on the ground." A difference of opinion
haying arisen as to the most eligible site, the matter was
decided by the casting of lots, and the choice fell upon
Dennis Hollister's property — the remains of the old
Dominican Friary. Whilst the chapel Avas under con
struction, the society made an agreement with the porter
of NeAvgate, Avhereby he Avas paid 5s. quarterly " for his
pains and love in opening the Gate to Friends " attending
service on Sundays. This payment continued until 1703.
A school for the children of poor members Avas established
in 1668, the master's yearly salary being fixed at £10. The
neAV chapel Avas opened in 1670, Avhen the house in Broad
mead was abandoned ; but it was purchased and occupied
in 1671 by the Baptists, Avho subsequently erected Broad
mead Chapel on the site. Another Quaker meeting-house
Avas built about 1670 in Temple Street.
The crusade against " foreigners " Avas still being
pursued. In December, the Council Avas informed that one
Walter, a cook and freeman, had been " colouring " (buying
or selling) strangers' goods, alleging them to be his own,
Avhereon he was at once disfranchised ; the Chamberlain
Avas ordered to shut doAvn his shop Avindows ; and the bell
man Avas instructed to proclaim his offence up and doAvn
the streets, especially at his shop door. On humbly
petitioning for pardon, he was re-admitted a freeman on
paying a fine of £15. A similar case occurred in the
folloAving year, Avhen the offended escaped banishment by
paying £5.
An amended ordinance for the regulation of the
Carpenters' Company, passed during the year, shows that a
marked improvement had taken place in wages since the

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

347

1667-68] middle of the century, when a workman never received
more than 1.9. per day. It Avas now ordered that a master
carpenter should have 2s., a journeyman or oldest appren
tice Is. 8d., and a younger apprentice Is. Ad. daily. No
one was " to presume to give any greater wages than as
aforesaid, upon pain to be proceeded against according to
law," Avhich excites a suspicion that wages Avere still
advancing. The hours of labour Avere fixed at from 5 or
fi o'clock in the morning until 7 at night, Avith intervals
for breakfast and dinner. Any joiner presuming to under
take carpenter's Avork was to be fined 10s.
Another trade ordinance was issued by the justices in
January, 1.668. It set forth that the Company of Inn
holders, existing time out of mind, obtained from the CroAvn
in 1605 a confirmation of their privileges, Avhereby certain
houses tvere declared to be inns and ostrys, and no others
Avere permitted. But there being a house outside Temple
Gate called the George, commodious for men and horses,
and trade to and from the city having increased, it Avas
ordered, at the request of the Company, that the house
should be alloAved as an inn or ostry, provided the occupier
were a freeman, and the Company gave sureties for his
payment of the customary duties.
It has been already stated that a pair of stocks was
maintained in every parish for the punishment of drunkards
and others. In consequence of complaints, the magistrates,
in March, issued peremptory orders to the \Testries of St.
Stephen's and St. Peter's for the reparation of these terrors
to evil-doers.
The Council, in April, dealt sharply Avith one John
Wathers, apothecary, avIio, although entitled to the free
dom, had never taken the oath of a burgess, and had
unlaAvfully kept open shop for tAvelve years. For this
enormity he Avas fined £20, and his shop was ordered to be
shut up until he paid the money. A man avIio had served
eight years' apprenticeship to Wathers, and Avas ignorant
of his irregularity, Avas denied the freedom until he paid a
fine of £5. At the same meeting, a Councillor named
Haynes was released from the Chamber and freed from
holding any office, on payment of £100.
In the State Papers of April is a proposal made to the
Government by Richard Ellsworth, offering to prosecute a
Bill in Parliament for suppressing deceits in the making of
cloth, as petitioned for, he alleged, by the merchants of
Bristol. In compensation for this seiwice, in promoting

34S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1668

which, he asserted, he had travelled 600 miles and spent a
year s labour, he modestly requested the gift of three blank
•warrants for the creation of baronetcies, to be sold at his
discretion. His proposal Avas not entertained. As a matter
of _ fact, Ins repeated journeys to London Avere due to his
being engaged as agent by the Merchant Venturers in their
suit for a ne\v charter, for Avhich he was no doubt bounti
fully rewarded by his employers. He reneAved his applica
tion to the Ministry in 1670, but was again rebuffed.
Pehaps to silence him, he received the honour of knieht-
hood. 6
An interesting item occurs in the Chamberlain's accounts
m May :— " Paid Thomas Chatterton, mason, for Avork done
about Redcliff horse-pool [in the moat, near Redcliff Gate],
£5 5s. 8c/. William and John, sons of Thomas, were
admitted freemen in 1681. Both of them Avere masons,
and William was occasionally employed by the Corporation.
John is probably the man avIio was sexton of Redcliff
Church in 1734, and if so was grandfather of the poet.
On June 13th, the quaint diarist, Samuel Pepys, then on
a tour in the West of England with his wife and retinue,
paid a brief visit to the city, hiring a coach for the purpose
at Bath to save his horses. He was set down at the Horse
Shoe, a posting house, Avhere he was " trimmed " by a
handsome barber for 2s. and' then repaired to the Sun inn.
"The city," he notes, " is in every respect another London,
that one can hardly know it to stand in the country. No
carts, it standing generally on vaults, only dog carts " —
at which he marvelled. From the quay, which he des
cribed as " a most large and noble place," he proceeded to
inspect the fine man-of-war then being built by Baylie in
the Marsh. Before his return, Mrs. Pepys' too pretty maid,
Willett, otherwise "Deb," a Bristol girl, had sought out her
uncle Butt, Avhom Pepys found to be " a sober merchant,
very good company, and so like one of our sober, wealthy
London merchants as pleased me mightily." Mr. Butt
took the visitors to his " substantial good house, well
furnished," and after Deb had been joyfully welcomed by
her family, the host "gave us good entertainment of
strawberries, a Avhole venison pasty, and plenty of brave
Avine and above all Bristol milk." After a little more
sight-seeing, the party returned to Bath by moonlight, the
badness of the road being noted both in coining and going.
It Avill be remembered that in the early years of
the century the Corporation were accustomed to bestoAV

1668]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

340

gratuities on travelling companies of players for the enter
tainments they afforded. The position had become singu
larly inverted in 1668, when the authorities, instead of
rewarding the visitors, demanded money for alloAving them
to perforin. In July, a man named Devottee was " per
mitted to show his play at the fair on paying 50s.," and
one Cosley had leave " to dance upon the ropes, paying 40s."
On learning that Lord Arlington, Secretary of State, was
about to visit Bath, the Council resolved, in July, to make
him a present " in acknoAvledgment of his services to the
city." The gift consisted of three hogsheads of Avine —
sack, claret, and French white wine — the cost of Avhich
Avas £39. The Chamberlain and two others escorted the
consignment to Bath, laying out 6s. for the hire of three
horses, and 23s. for the use of a Avaggon.
The ship of Avar Edgar, of nearly 1,100 tons burden, and
pierced for 70 guns, Avas launched on July 29th, from
Baylie's yard in the Marsh. The size of the vessel greatly
exceeded that of any previously built in Bristol, and the
ceremony, which took place in the presence of the members
of the Corporation, is said to have attracted upAvards of
20,000 spectators, many of whom were attending the great
fair. Early in September, the civic magnates Avere throAvn
into some consternation by the unforeseen arrival, from
Bath, of the Duchess of Monmouth, one of the most distin
guished personages at Court. Being unprepared to giA-e
her a fitting reception, the authorities huniedly provided
her grace with a " banquet of sweetmeats " aud about SO
gallons of Avine, the former costing £9 13s. 8c?., and the
latter £2(t Part of this feast Avas laid out at the house of
Mr. Hume, vintner, on St. Michael's Hill, Avhere the Mayor
offered his respects ; and a second entertainment took place
at Mr. Streamer's residence in Corn Street, where the
Mayoress Avas in attendance. The Duchess having had
her frolic, the civic dignitaries gravely escorted her as far
as Castle Street, and thankfully bade her fareAvell.
Tavo remarkable funerals took place during the autumn.
Ou October 6th, the body of Sir Henry Creswick Avas interred
in St. Werburgh's Church Avith great ceremony, the pall
being supported by six knights — an unexampled occurrence.
Pompous funerals were at this period always held at night.
A month later, Captain George Bishop, one of the local
Puritan leaders during the Civil War, and afterAvards a
prominent Quaker, Avas buried in the Friends' Cemetery

3oO

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1668-69

at Redcliff Pit. A correspondent acquainted Secretary
Williamson that the attendance was greater than he had
ever seen at a funeral, and it is probable that the occasion
Avas seized by Nonconformists to demonstrate their strength
in despite of persecution.
Hoav imperfectly the civic minute-book Avas often kept
is illustrated by an entry in March, 1669. Orders must have
been given at some previous meeting for the recovery of
fines due from members for non-attendance, for the minute
states that distraints Avere then proceeding against " many "
gentlemen, and that further fines had been incurred, and a
few paid. It Avas resolved that, " in hopes of better con
formity for the future," the distresses should be Avithdrawn,
the fines forgiven, and those paid refunded. The only
mention of such fines for several previous years is a record
of 6s. Sd. imposed on, and paid by, Alderman Hicks, avIio
once left the Chamber in a passion without leave, and came
back again in a cloak instead of his gown.
The Government, in July, granted a license to Sir Robert
Cann to transport fifty horses for service on his plantations in
Barbadoes. FeAV negroes having been shipped to the West
Indies at this period, horses, and still oftener mules, were
largely employed in cultivation, and exports of these animals
are frequently recorded.
In 1544, just three years after the suppression of St.
James's Priory, the estates and monastic buildings of that
convent Avere granted by Henry VIII. to Henry Brayne, a
London tailor, for the pitiful consideration of £667. Brayne,
Avho Avas one of a busy gang of church-plunder brokers,
established himself in Bristol, and converted the refectory,
dormitory, and other apartments of the monks into what
Avas styled a " capital mansion or manor house," with
extensive gardens and outbuildings, the premises extending
from the great gateway nearly fronting the east end of
Lewin's Mead to a pound and smaller gate at the east end of
what is noAv St. James's Barton. In 1579, after the deaths
of Brayne and his son, the property, with the other priory
estates, Avas divided by agreement betAveen the husbands of
his two daughters, Sir Charles Somerset and Mr. George
Winter ; and as both those gentlemen had country seats
the vast mansion house was soon abandoned, afterwards
alienated, and greatly altered to fit it for trading purposes.
From a deed in the Council House it Avould appear that the
eastern half of the premises, apportioned to Somerset, had
come into the possession of Henry Hobson, a Avealthy inn-

1669]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

351

keener (Mayor in 1632), previous to 1637 when the " barton "
was still really a farmyard, and Stokes Croft was a pasture.
At what date Winter disposed of the western moiety, com
prising the state rooms of the mansion, has not been dis
covered ; but in 1666 it belonged to William Davis, a Bristol
merchant, and John Teagtte, of London, Avho then sold it to
Thomas Edis, another local merchant. Like two other
imposing dAvellings in the city— the Great House in St.
Augustine's and the mansion behind St. Peter's Church—
Brayno's place had already been converted into a sugar
refinery, and Avas let on lease at £90 per annum. A deed
of September, 1669, Avhen £800 Avere borroAved by Ellis on
mortgage, gives a description of the estate, Avhich shoivs its
great extent and the transformations that had been effected.
Mention is made of a messuage, three gardens, an orchard,
a sugar refinery and warehouses, all held under the above
lease ; a tenement and court at the Avestern gate, then called
Whitsun Court ; tAvo plots called the Cherry Garden and
the Liquorice Garden, and a number of other buildings, Avith
two gardens, occupied by various tenants ; "all or most of
which premises," says the deed, " are built upon part of the
ground Avhereon the mansion house of St. James formerly
stood." In 1660, Hobson's grandson raised a mortgage on
that part of Brayne's dwelling once possessed by Somerset,
and this deed speaks of the great parlour, the little parlour,
and a number of chambers and galleries. It may be added
that in 1898, when the Tramways Company constructed
•extensive stabling on part of the rite, relics of Avhat Avere
supposed to have been the great cloisters, and some fragments
of ancient effigies, Avere disinterred by the workmen.
A royal proclamation commanding magistrates to strictly
put in' force the penal laws against Dissenters was issued
during the autumn of 1669, but a Bristol letter sent to
Secretary Williamson laments that it had produced little
effect. One of the obnoxious preachers, indeed, had been
sent to gaol, but he preached through the grating at New
gate, and large crowds flocked to hear him. George Fox
Avas again in Bristol at this time, and was married at the
Quakers' meeting-house on October 18th to the remarkable
woman, Margaret Fell, already referred to as exercising a
strange influence over Charles II.
A victory of the Bristol merchants over the, Levant Com
pany, in reference to the dried fruit trade, Avas recorded at
page 332. The Privy Council books sIioav, however, that
the decision Avas not accepted by the Company, who entered

352

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1669

a caveat against it, and threatened further legal action. In
tho State Papers for October, 1669, is a report of a Govern
ment committee on tho renewed dispute betAveen the tAvo
parties, the Londoners having complained that Bristolians
Avere violating the exclusive rights of trading conferred on
the Levant Company by charter. No doubt through a
secret understanding, another London confederacy, the
Hamburg Companj', raised a simultaneous lament over the
intrusions of Bristol merchants into the trade with northern
German}' — a liappj' hunting-ground Avhich tho complainants
alleged to be exclusively their oavii. As Avas usual in those
days, both bodies of monopolists asserted that they would be
ruined if their rights Ave re ignored. Oddly enough, Iioav-
cA-er, both the corporations oficred to admit Bristolians into
their companies, the Hamburg clique on payment of 20
marks and those of the Levant on the receipt of £25 a head.
The Privy Council held numerous meetings to consider the
subject, and probably there was much secret negotiating at
Court. At length the Merchant Venturers insisted on the
right of freedom of trade conferred on them by Edward VI.,
and the Levant Company were compelled to Avithdraw their
pretensions, a course Avhich was doubtless followed by the
Hamburg Company, for their claims were never revi\red.
An interesting ceremony took place in September. Down
to this date the thoroughfare noAv known as Christmas
Steps Avas merely a break-neck footpath, very perilous to
passengers in winter weather and dark nights. The im
provement of the track had been undertaken early in the
year by the directions and at the expense of Jonathan
Blackwell, a wealthy vintner, who, as already noted, had
removed to the city of London, of Avhich he was uoav an
Alderman. A calendar in the Council House describes the
alterations made by his orders : — " Going up, there is steps,
on the last of which there is a turned style, or whirligig,
OA' or which there is a lantern ; then about 100 feet pitched ;
and then steps, with a court Avith six seats on each side ;
and then steps and a turns tyle like the former " : a state
ment Avhich disposes of the fable about the "sedilia" having
been constructed as begging stations for the mendicant
Friars. The neAV thoroughfare Avas opened by the Mayor
and the members of the Corporation, who went in solemn
precession for the purpose, and the place was called Queen
Street, perhaps at, BlackAvell's request. The position of the
" sedilia" has been twice greatly altered during the present
century.

1669-70]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

353

At the quarter sessions in October, the grand jury drew
up a very lengthy presentment on local grievances, throw
ing some light on the then existing state of society.
Amongst the diversified evils demanding a remedy, much
was said of the "horrid impiety " of Sabbath profanation, of
the prevailing gross immorality, of the frauds of traders in
using unjust Aveights and measures, of the extortions of the
Mayor's and Sheriffs' officers, of the unrtdiness and reckless
ness of hauliers, of the filth that many householders allowed
to accumulate at their doors, of the darkness and dangers of
the streets by night, of the Corporation's shortcomings in
dealing with charity funds and neglectful treatment of
nuisances both in the city and the harbour, of the rudeness
and exactions of porters, of the excessive number of alehouses,
and of the abuses committed in many inns and victualling
houses. But tho jury Avere especially eloquent on the loss
•and injury suffered by freemen from tho dealings of "one
foreigner Avith another" in the city, in defiance of laAv.
The only action taken by the authorities on any of these
subjects appears in a minute of the Court of Aldermen in
December, forbidding a man from exercising the art of a
worsted comber, and from employing non-freemen in that
trade. The Council soon afterAvards forbade porters and
hauliers from moving the goods of foreigners except to or
from the Back Hall, and the shops of one or two strangers
Avere peremptorily ordered to be " shut down."
The Shrove-tide gambols of the youths of the city haA-e
not been mentioned since thej^ Avere turned to account by
tho Royalists in 1660. Public opinion had somewhat
changed in the meantime, and jttA-enile disorders were no
longer applauded. A Government agent, Avriting to
Secretary Williamson on February 19th, 1670, says: — "The
apprentices of Bristol took more than ordinary liberty on
Tuesday last, and at night met together Avith staves and
clubs, intending to fight, but Avere prevented by the Mayor,
Avho persuaded them to depart. He prevailed Avith most,
but some, being abusive, Avere sent to gaol, Avhich aroused
some resentment ; and about 50 or 60 Avere up on Wednes
day and Thursday nights, threatening to force the others'
freedom; but Sir Robert [Yeamans] and some officers
dispersed them. Had it not been for his great vigilance,
mischief Avould have been done." More serious symptoms
of discontent -will bo mentioned presently.
The first foreshadowing of Avhat Avas to bo eventually
knoAvn as Queen Square appears in the folloAving minute, of

A A

354

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1670

a Council meeting in March : — " Towards discharging the
heavy dobts of the Corporation, ordered that the Mayor and
Surveyors view the void ground in the Marsh, and consider
how it may be leased in plots for the uniform building of
houses by persons willing to accept leases of the same for
five lives. Reserved rent, X2d. per foot at the least for the
frontage." For some unexplained cause, the project Avas
suffered to sleep for more thaiu.a quarter of a century.
The office of HaA'cn Master was created at the above
meeting, " for the better preservation of the harbour and
the prevention of abuses daily committed there," John
Jones Avas elected to the post, Avith a salary of £20 a year.
The Government, dissatisfied Avith the Avorking of the
Conventicle Acts, procured the passing, in 1670, of a still
more drastic measure for crushing the Dissenters, who, to
the exceeding wrath of their enemies, had visibly increased
under persecution. On May 21st, the Mayor, addressing
Lord Arlington in a letter no\v in the Record Office,
encloses a copy of an anonymous pamphlet " of dangerous
consequences," and narrates what he had done under the
new statute : — " I have committed some, and imposed fines,
&o, and shall use my utmost skill to prosecute the Act ;
but the numerous criminals of the several sects seem
obstinate to tire out the magistracy, as well as affront them
by threats, so that the face of things has a bad aspect.
The factious party are more numerous than the loyal, and
unite, though of different persuasions, and seem so dis
contented that httle less than rebellion is to be read in
their faces." Truly a remarkable contrast to the outburst
of enthusiasm ten years previously, on the revival of the
monarchy. In the opinion of the Mayor even the Alder
men of the purified Corporation were no longer trust-
Avorthy. Some of them had absented themselves that day
from the Tolzey (whilst his worship was dealing with a
large troop of the sectaries), " so that I fear they retain
some of the leaven of the bad old times." A letter to
Secretary Williamson from his local agent is to much the
same effect. The face of things, he wrote, looked scurvily ;
the factions were united and spoke treason in parables ;
they scoffed at tho justices' efforts to put the Acts in opera
tion, and uttered veiled threats as to the danger of dis
obliging them. Subsequent letters assert that the parish
constables refused to perform the duties imposed on them
by the Act (a statement confirmed by tho Mayor), and that
tho conventicles Avere still boing hold as usual. Informers,

1670]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

355

it Avas added, were much needed, so many stratagems being
used by the sectaries in making trap-doors and back outlets
to their meeting-houses that they often escaped before the
officers could find an entrance. Bishop Ironside, however,
supplied this want by hiring a gang of spies, Avho attended
tho services in order to identify those present. A London
neAvsletter of June 14th states that the King in Council
had just given orders for the pulling down of the seats and
pulpits in all the meeting-houses in London, Bristol, and
other places. This process not sufficing to drive aAvay the
worshippers, the buildings Avere systematically broken into
and the hearers carried to prison. Finally the magistrates
locked up the chapels, and surrounded them by the trained
bauds, forcing the congregations to gather in suburban
lanes and fields. Williamson's informant wrote in Septem
ber that many distresses had been levied on the furniture
•of the fanatics, but nobody would buy the goods distrained.
On September 14th the King in Council Avas informed that
on Sunday, the 4th, the Quakers, who had met in the street
since their meeting-house Avas seized for the King, had
boldly gone to the building and broken open the doors
four times, for Avhich sixteen of them had been sent to gaol
by the magistrates. The justices, however, stated that
they Avere unable to suppress the sect owing to their tricks
and rural gatherings. The Privy Council desired the
Recorder to inquire and report, apparently without result.
It is evident that these proceedings, however they might
be applauded by extreme partisans, gave great offence to
moderate-minded citizens. As if to show disapproval of
Sir Robert Yeamans' conduct as chief magistrate, the
'Council, in September, passing over an Alderman who in
the ordinary course Avould have succeeded to the civic
•chair, and also tAvo of his colleagues next in seniority,
elected as Mayor Mr. John Knight, the sugar-refiner,
Avhose sympathy Avith the persecuted sects has been
already recorded. The choice of the Chamber threw Sir
John Knight into transports of indignation. In a letter to
Secretary Williamson, he angrily urged that the King
should order the election to be annulled, and begged that a
mandate to that effect should bo sent cIoavu before Michael
mas Day, otherwise "the person" elected would be sworn
in. _ This letter, which is among the State Papers, is a mild
affair compared Avith a furious tirade Avhich Avas addressed
to tho Privy Council, in Avhich Sir John donounced his
•cousin, the Mayor, and tho majority of tho Common

356

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1670

Council as " fanatics " — that is, Dissenters. _ Even Sir
Robert Yeamans Avas included in the wrathful indictment.
The latter had been requested, before the voting took place,
to read tho King's former directions for the selection of an
Alderman as Mayor, but he had refused to do so, and thus
the sugar-refiner had been chosen by a majority of two.
The Privy Council on September 20th lent a ready ear to
these allegations. Lord Arlington was directed to send a
demand in the King's name for an immediate convocation
of the civic body and the election to tho chair of ono of the
Aldermen. The Common Council, hoAvever, shoAved un
exampled spirit by ignoring the royal behests. No second
election took place, and My. Knight Avas duly sworn in as
Mayor on September 29th. Moreover, on October 4th, at a
special meeting, the Chamber directed the Mayor and
Aldermen to draAV up a memorial to the King, setting forth
tho facts, and praying for a gracious interpretation of
what had been done. Their worships were further in
structed to select fit persons to present the petition, and to
" make ansAver in defence of the privileges of the city " — a
covert protest against regal dictation which must have
increased the irritation of the courtly minority. The firm
ness of the Council Avas applauded by the public, and at the
folloAving quarter sessions the grand jury formally thanked
the bench for the choice, as chief magistrate, of a " worthy
person," Avhose good services to both the King andthe city
were referred to in laudatory terms. Sir John Knight was
not, however, discouraged. Having gone up to London, he
laid fresh charges against Sir Robert Yeamans and tho
Mayor, and both the alleged offenders were summoned
before the Privy Council, and, it is said, Avere detained in
custody. At this point the records of the Privy Council
and the statements of local writers become hopelessly irre
concilable. According to the former, Yeamans and his
accuser were confronted before His Majesty on February
10th, when, after a full hearing, His Majesty, "having
regard to the good character he had received of Mr. John
Knight, was pleased to overlook the fault committed athis
election, but ordered that his instructions should be faith
fully obeyed in future," Avhilst Yeamans was curtly dis
missed ; whereby the whole affair would seem to have
come to an end. But this was certainly not the case, for
nearly a month later (March 6th), the Mayor being still
unreleascd, the Common .^ Council dreAv up a " Remon
strance," in modern language a declaration, as to his

1670]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

357

unexceptionable qualifications and deportment as well
before as since his election, especially eulogising his sober
life, peaceable disposition, sterling loyalty, devotion to the
Church, and general ability and wisdom in public affairs.
In despite of this certificate, Avhich; was presented to the
King, the unfortunate Mayor, did not obtain liberty to
depart from London until the middle of April. The affair
naturally caused much local excitement, and gave rise to
tAvo significant demonstrations. Sir Robert Yeamans, Avho
returned to Bristol soon after his discharge, Avas met out
side, LaAvford's Gate by 220 gentlemen on horseback, who
cordially Avelcomed him, and conducted him to his house
amidst the cheering of the citizens. The long detention of
the Mayor evoked still more general sympathy, and on
April 20th he was met in a similar manner by 235 horse
men, and had a joyful public reception. It was uoav the
turn of the accuser to make a reappearance. He had not
been forced, as a chronicler avers, to beg the King's pardon
on his knees for his wrongful accusations, but though he
still had many influential partisans, neither he nor they
Avere prepared to invite a popular manifestation. Sir John
accordingly arrived in a private manner at Lawford's Gate,
avoided the main streets by taking the ferry at Temple
Back, and so slunk to his neighbouring mansion to digest
his discomfiture.
A singular revival of ecclesiastical pretensions occurred
at this time. In a petition to the Common Council, the
Master and Company of Barber Chirurgeons complained of
the proceedings taken against them by the Chancellor of
tho diocese, Henry Jones, for practising chirurgery without
having obtained his license, although, say tho petitioners,
they Avoro one of the anciontest sub-incorporations in the
city, and had never taken licenses from any Chancellor.
The Council in September, 1670, ordered that any action
taken by tho meddlesome official should be defended by the
Corporation. Mr Jones, tvho had raised an obsolete claim
in the hope, of extorting fees, then beat a judicious retreat.
The state of Kingswood Chase had not improved in the
hands of Sir Baynham Throckmorton. Secretary William
son's local agent reported in September that several of the
cottagers had been indicted "for their tricks " at Gloucester
sessions, but that, Avhen the sheriff's officers came to arrest
them, 300 or 400 met riotously at the call of a trumpet and
drum, and beat the officers severely. Tavo clays later

ie

announced that tho cottagers had driven out Sir Baynham

358

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1670
and all his staff, so that the tumult was over. He then
narrated the story of the Chase, much as it is given in a
previous page, The cottages and coal works, he said, had
been increased by the self-styled proprietors, and 800
families Avere living there Avithout any means of subsistence.
On the same day, Sir John Newton, of Barrs Court, whose
repudiation of his predecessor's undertaking to surrender
two-thirds of his " liberty " hjis been already noted, and
whose personal unscriipulousness comes out in many docu
ments, Avrote to the Secretary in defence of the cottagers,
impudently asserting that the violence had been all on the
side of the ranger and sheriff's officers, some of whom, he
characteristically added, " Avere formerly in the rebellion."
The Government directed Sir Robert Atkyns, Recorder, to
inquire into and report upon the subject, but the issue of
his labours cannot be found.
Sir William Penn, perhaps the most distinguished
Bristolian of the century, died on September 16th at his
seat in Essex, in his fiftieth year. His body, by his OAvn
directions, Avas brought to his native city for interment by
the side of his mother in St. Mary Redcliff. His remains
lay in state in the Guildhall until October 3rd, when they
were conveyed to the grave with much heraldic pomp, the
trained bands being mustered to guard the route. The
Corporation, having a long-standing grudge against the
gallant admiral, forebore from taking any part m the
proceedings. After having suspended the issue of small tokens tor
several years, the Corporation about this time put m
circulation a number of " Bristol farthings," struck from
two dies shoAving slight variations, but both bearing the
date 1670 No reference to these coins is to be found in. the
civic accounts, and it is clear that they were circulated
without tbe sanction of the Government, for at a Council
meeting on October 3rd, the Chamberlain announced the
receipt of information that a Quo Warranto was suspected
to be preparing against the Corporation for unlawfully
stamping and issuing the farthings. As the matter does
not turn up again, the Corporation apparently succeeded m
obtaining forgiveness from the Ministry.
Notwithstanding the elaborate ordinance of 16bS for
maintaining adequate protection against fires the grand
jury at the October sessions emphatically protested that
the provisions were illusory. A sugar-refinery in Redchfi
Street, had recently burst into flame, threatening wide

1670]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

359

destruction owing to the force of the W, ^^rcff^
were forthcoming until after a long delay, and scarce one
was sound "The jury offered various suggestions on the
rbiect one of which was that the Corporation should keep
a stock of torches for such emergencies, as " candles could
not be kept lighted" during the late calamity
The minutes of the annual Court Leet for St Stephens
parish are somewhat puzzling, and do not say much .for rthe
nullifications of the scribe. The jury " present John Keemis
cooper, not fit to sell ale, having no child; he keep a
tapper which is no freeman that have a wife and child
" We present Richard Rooke, shipwright, not fit to sell
ale, having no child, and brews themse ves." A barber
surgeon wis also pronounced disqualified to keep a pot
house, having no cfiild, " and also for entertaining a strange
mld"St;1Cchool"-the first parochial, institution . of
that, kind in the city-was founded in St. Nicholas's parish
in or about 1670. Very Httle is known of its subsequent
history. In 1835 it was held in the tipper room of a house
in Nicholas' Street, where the master lodged free of charge
with a salary of £20, the pupils then numbering only ten
bovs and ten girls. -,
M. Jorevin de Rochefort, Treasurer of France, made a
European tour in the reign of Charles II, and published
his experiences in a work of seven volumes, the first of
which apP^red in 1672. The sixth contains an account of
this city, which he visited m or about 16(0 Bristol, he
stated, was the third city in England, and the best port
after London, and was situated in a mountainous country.
The Bridge, was covered with houses and shops, kept by
tbe richest merchants. Much puzzled by the churches
standing on tho old city walls the traveller «rW S .
Nicholas's Gate as a grand arcade sustaining a llttl"c^i
and forming the entrance to several fine streets. He lodged
with a Fleming, and was well treated, man and horse, tor
two shillings a day, living being cheap in England pro
vided little wine Avere drunk. Like Mr. Rawdon already
mentioned, ho was taken to Hungroad to see the great
shins lying there, and to the Marsh, well shaded with trees,
and the favourite promenade of the citizens. His 1 lemish
host bad formerly entertained a priest, who said Mass
secretly, but this had been discovered and forbidden, so
that a Mass could not be beard in tbe city, though many
Catholics, Flemish, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, ire-

3G0 THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL [1670-71
quented the port. The traveller left on his way to " Glo-
chester," managing " to enter into the mountains " before
he .passed " Stableton " and " Embrok." A little later in
his tour, whilst at Worcester, M. Jorevin noted the pre-
Aft-alence of tobacco smoking. "Supper being finished," he
says, " they set on the table half a dozen pipes, and a
packet of tobacco for smoking, Avhich is a general custom
amongst Avomen as Avell as men, who think that without
tobacco one cannot live in England, because they say it
dissipates the humours of the brain." He goes on to allege
that smoking Avas common amongst schoolboys in that
neighbourhood. A SavIss gentleman named Muralt, who
Avroto a description of English manners towards the end
of the century, seems to have seen nothing in London that
surprised him more than the spectacle of clergymen seated
in all the inns and coffee-houses, Avith long- pipes in their
mouths. The purchase by the Corporation of certain fee-farm
rents from the Government of the CommonAvealth, and the
precipitate surrender of them to the King in 1660, have
been noted in previous pages. The Council, in June, 1671,
resolved tipou another transaction in these securities. Tavo
Acts of Parliament having been passed empowering the
Government to dispose of a multitude of CroAvn rents of
this character, it Avas resolved that the fee-farms issuing
out of the corporate estates and from the lands of various
city charities should be forthwith secured. It was easier to
pass such a resolution than to carry it into effect, for the
purchase money amounted to nearly £3,000, and the Cor
poration were already deeply in debt. HoAvever, it was
further ordered that certain chief rents, payable to the
city, should be sold at not less than 18 years' purchase,
and that the remainder of the required sum should be
raised by loans, to Avhich the members of the Council Avere
requested to contribute, and nearly £1,000 Avere subscribed
in the Chamber. The sales to tenants Avere insignificant,
and practically the whole of the purchase money — £2,989 —
was raised by borroAving. The bargain was a profitable
one. to the Corporation, who obtained a number of small
fee-farm rents, amounting to £29 14s. 6|d, at 16-J- years'
purchase ; others, amounting to £72 8s. lid., at 16 years'
purchase, and the fee-farms of the borough and Castle,
together £182 10s. (subject to the life interest of Queen
Catherine), at 8 years' purchase.
The King, in Nrvember, nominated Guy Carleton, D.D.,

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

361

1671] Dean of Carlisle, to the bishopric of Bristol, in succession to
Dr. Gilbert Ironside, who died in the previous September,
and was one of the few Bishops interred in the cathedral.
At the beginning of the Civil AVar, Carleton, though al
ready in middle age, quitted his clerical preferments for
the camp, adopted the language and habits of the royster-
ing Cavaliers, and took an active part in the field, being
once captured in an engagement. His promotion to the
episcopate Avas due, partly to his military services, partly
to his ability to sustain the dignity independent of the in
come of the see, which did not exceed £300, but mainly,
it Avas alleged, because an iron-fisted prelate was needed
to deal Avith the Bristol " fanatics." In the last respect,
though 76 years of age, he must have satisfied his patrons,
for the whips of Ironside Avere endurable compared with
Carleton's scorpions. The neAV Bishop Avas allowed to re
tain one of the "golden prebends" in Durham Cathedral,
and a Avell-encloAved rectory in the same county.
As existing houses in King Street and other localities
bear Avitness, the dAvellings constructed at this period Avere
chiefly composed of Avood and plaster, Avorked stone being
considered too expensive for ordinary use, and bricks being
reserved for fire-places and chimneys. In an ordinance for
the Tilers' and Plasterers' Company, passed by the Council
this year, it Avas decreed that if a member should cause
any gentleman's house to be lathed outside, or in the front,
Avith "sappy laths," he should be fined 6s. 8d. The same
penalty Avas imposed on any member who lent a ladder to
a carpenter or a mason, to the prejudice of the Company.
In 1671, James Millerd, mercer, published what he styled
" An exact delineation of the famous Cittie of Bristoll and
suburbs thereof. Composed by a Scale, and Ichnographically
described by I. M., 1671." The engraving, which measures
9 inches by 10, Avas " printed for ye author and sold by Mr.
Tho. Wall, Bookseller, in Bristoll." The success of the
publication Avas so great that Mr. Millerd was induced to
venture upon what Avas, for the age, a truly remarkable
production, unexampled in the provinces. This Avas a plan
of the city extending over four sheets, adorned with views
of many of the public buildings, and professing to sIioav
" all the highways, thoroughfares, streets, lanes, and pub-
lick passages. . . . Described, Engraved, and Published
by In. Millerd, Citizen and Inhabitant." A copy having
been presented to the Corporation, to whom the engraving
Avas dedicated, the Council, in May, 1673, after eulogising

362

THK ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1671-72

the plan as " the largest, exactest, and handsomest that
ever Avas drawn," ordered that the author be thanked, and
presented Avith a piece of plate value £10. A similar gift
of the value of £5 Avas voted to Millerd by the Merchants'
Society. The enterprising mercer subsequently published a
third engraving — now extremely rare — a perspective vieAV
of the city, taken from the southern heights. This print is
supposed to have been also dedicated to the Corporation,
but the Council shmved no appreciation of tho compliment,
and in the extant, impressions the place reserved for an
inscription is Areiled by curtains.
About the time that Millerd Avas publishing his first plan,
certain local commissioners appointed by Act of Parliament
for assessing and collecting a neAV tax upon the citizens
Avere engaged in estimating the yearly Aralue of the real
and personal property of the iuhabitants. (The statute
terms the tax a "subsid}'," but it was in fact a charge of
one shilling in the pound on rentals and stocks, leAued, not
upon individuals, but upon parishes.) The assessments
preserved at the Council House are not complete, tho
returns for St. James's, Redcliff, St. Stephen's, and St.
Peter's being omitted ; but, so far as can be made out, the
annual value of real property Avithin the city was estimated
at about £18,500. The tAventieth assessed on St. Nicholas's
parish amounted to £159 5s. St. Thomas's paid £129 12s. ;
Christ Church, £76 16s.; Castle Precincts, £63 12s; St.
John's, £62 13s. ; Temple, £61 18s. ; and St. Augustine's,
£5!) 6s. All the rest paid under £45 each, and the fashion
able parish of St. Werburgh Avas assessed at only £28 18s.
According to the commissioners' extraordinary calculations,
the gross value of the citizens' personal effects (excluding
the four omitted parishes) was under £3,000. The twen
tieth assessed on St. Nicholas' — more than double the
charge on any other parish — Avas fixed at £40 18s., whilst
only £4 2s. was demanded from St. John's, and £3 12s. from
St. Philip's !
The deliberation Avith which the Council not infrequently
dealt Avith matters of apparent urgency is again illustrated
by some of its proceedings in 1672. Early in January the
Chamber is stated to have been " informed " — though the
facts must have been notorious — that a bark belonging to
'•foreigners" had been lying sunk for several years in the
Froom branch of the harbour, to the great prejudice of
navigation. A committee Avas thereupon appointed, but it
had taken no action six months later, wdieu tho Court of

1672]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

363

quarter sessions, observing that the great bank of mud
gathered around the wreck threatened to choke up the river,
ordered the ship to be ripped to pieces and the mud bank
removed. Nothing, hoAvever, had been clone m the follow
ing November, when the Council, after a discussion,
appointed a fresh committee to inquire whether the hulk s
position was really prejudicial, and, if so, to report as to
what further steps should bo taken ! The minutes contain
no further reference to the matter, and no expense Avas
incurred by the Chamberlain.
The Court of quarter sessions, in January, displayed a
well-balanced appreciation of official dignity and ol judicial
frugality. The justices ordered that the ward constables
should provide themselves with " staffs of distinction, m
accordance Avith the custom used in London " ; m pursuance
whereof, Mr. Tilly, chief constable of All Saints ward,
provided his subordinates with "decent and handsome
staffs," and applied to the Court for repayment of his out
lay, 46s. 6d. Upon due consideration of which claim, the
magistrates calmly brushed it aside, ordering the church
wardens of All Saints' to reimburse Tdly out of the church
stock. Their worships then directed the constables, Avith
their neAV staves, to perambulate the city every Sunday, and
prevent loitering in the streets, unlawful recreations, and
the making of uproars.
An alarming fire occurred in March, when the Bell tavern
in Broad Street was burned to the ground. The accident
led to tho customary discussion at the next meeting of the
Council upon the proved inadequacy of the provision against
such calamities. As the fire-engine ordered m 1668 had
never been purchased, a committee Avas appointed to consider
Iioav many small engines should be procured — Avith as little
result as on the previous occasion.
Tho Privy Council, on March 29th, sent a letter to the
Mayor and Aldermen stating that the King had been
appealed to by the Quakers lying in many gaols for his
merciful consideration, but that, before any step was taken,
it Avas desirable to have further information. The justices
were therefore, requested to forward a list of the Quakers in
Bristol gaol, Avith the causes of their commitment. The
return has unfortunately perished. The persecution of
Dissenters Avas suspended at this time, and from documents
in tho Record Office it appears that the Government was for
a short period disposed tinvards a partial toleration. In
April, in response to the petition of a 1"oav Bristolians, the

3G4

THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[1672

King granted a license to John Weeks, a Avell-kiunvii
Presbyterian, to preach — not, hoAvever, iu his former chapel,
but at a pri\rate house on St. James's Back. A similar
license Avas granted in the folloAving month to Jeremy
Hohvay, an Independent, Avho Avas allowed to preach in his
oavii house in Corn Street. The lull Avas but the prelude to
another and more vindictive explosion.
It Avas resolved by the Council in May that, as the salary
of £5 a year, due to the Duke of Ormond as Lord High
Steward, Avas several years in arrear, he should be presented
Avith a butt of sherry and two hogsheads of French Avine.
Instead of forAvarding the liquor from Bristol, hoAvever, au
order was giveu to a Avine merchant in London, avIio
supplied the required quantity for £50, and the gift Avas
duly made by Mr. AldAvorth, ToAvn Clerk. But the Duke
Avas much displeased by the substitution of London sherry
for Avhat he knew by experience to be a superior article.
His autograph letter of acknoAvledgment, undated, and a
remarkable specimen of noble caligraphy, is preserved at the
Council House. Modernising the spelling, it reads : — " Mr.
Mayor and Aldermen, — It pains me that anything untoward
should interrupt the good amity which for eleven years have
existed betAA'een us, but touching my salary I did expect
your excellent sherries, for which your fair city are so
famed that none like can be had elseAvhere, selected Avith
such discriminative tact by the Avorshipful aldermen. I
have no Avish to reprimise, and trust that the attempt to
impose on my judgment Avill not be repeated." The abashed
Council obeyed his Grace's request on subsequent occasions,
and the minutes once record that the Duke " highly approved
of the sherry." His Grace resigned the Lord-Lieutenancy
of Somerset and Bristol in September, 1672, and Avas
succeeded by his relative, Henry, Marquis of Worcester, avIio
bad been appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire at
the Restoration. From this time the City Lieutenancy,
ahvays previously annexed to that of Somerset, has been
invariably held Avith that of Gloucestershire.
The annual muster of the trained bands seems to have
become a mere formality after the Government had
established a small standing army. Each parish kept one
musket in stock, and paid a man one day's Avages for appear
ing at the inspection in the Marsh. The contingent
furnished by the Corporation is sliOAvn in the audit book : —
" Paid at a general muster to six soldiers, and for poAvder,
cleaning arms, and muster master, £1 Os. lOd. Wine,

1672-73]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

365

sugar, tobacco, pipes, &c, £2 -Is." Tho festive accessories
were provided lor tho civic, dignitaries, Avho honoured the
review with their presence. Tobacco and pipes had by this
time become indispensable adjuncts of a corporate feast. It
may be added that although the Council paid for six men,
the stock of arms is distinctly stated to consist of only three
muskets and six sivords.
An example of the brutal punishments of the age may be
taken from the quarter sessions book in August :— " Evan
Thomas, felon ; ordered that he be stripped naked in the
cart and severely whipped till the blood comes, next market
day." As all felonies of a serious character Avere punishable
with death, the man's crime ivas probably a trivial one. In
1679, the justices ordered a woman, Avhose offence is not
stated, to be stripped and lashed till the blood came, at the
High Cross Avhipping-post — an established institution.
Abuses in the markets gave rise to a lengthy corporate
ordinance in September. The previous Clerk of the Markets
Avas stated to have neglected his duties to the prejudice of
the public, and the person appointed to succeed him Avas
ordered to attend every market with his gown upon his
back, see to the weight of butter, prevent hucksters from
forestalling and regrating, weigh the bread in the bakers'
shops, carefully examine grain measures, and bring up all
offenders. He Avas also to make a weekly report to the
justices as to the price of corn, in order to enable the bench
to fix the rate at Avhich bread Avas to be sold by the bakers.
During the year, a purchase Avas made by the Sheriffs of
tAvo handsome silver trumpets for use at the reception of
the judges of assizo and on other occasions of state. The
instruments cost £32. Having obtained them, _ it became
necessary to furnish the musicians Avith gay liveries, for
Avhich £6 more Avere expended.
The Council, in March, 1673, revived an Ordinance passed
101 years previously, which had long become obsolete and
forgotten, and Avas doomed a second time to the same fate.
It Avas enacted that any freeman abiding out of the city or
its liberties for a year and a day, except on the royal service
or trading beyond seas, should be disfranchised until he paid
a fine to bo fixed by the Mayor and Aldermen. The Council
next proceeded to consider a complaint made by the Chandlers'
and Soapmakers' Company against a member named
Cadwallader. This man, working as a journeyman, had
taken an apprentice, but the youth continued to liA'e in his
father's house, for which illegality the Court of quarter

366

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1673-74

sessions had ordered the enrolment of the indenture to be
erased. Cadwallader had thereupon taken the boy into his
house, claiming to continue the apprenticeship, which avus
the grievance complained of. The Council ordered that the
offender should be discommoned, that his shop AvindoAvs
should be shut doAvn, and that the bellman should proclaim
his disfranchisement before his shop and in all the streets.
The Marquis of AVorcester, Lord-Lieutenant, having given
notice of his intention to visit the city for the purpose of
" settling " the militia, the Council, in August, resolved on
entertaining him during his stay. This is the earliest
reference _ to the house of Badminton to be found iu the
city archives. Sir Robert Cann and Sir John Knight Avero
directed to ride to " Babington " to proffer the compliment,
for which purpose, at a cost of 30s., those Avorthies engaged
a coach, a vehicle hitherto only once mentioned in local
annals. The Marquis arrived in September, when he was
presented with a congratulatory address, in which a hope
Avas expressed that the deputy-lieutenants for Bristol would
be selected from the citizens, and not from the rural gentry.
A French cook, imported to prepare the civic feast, received
£121 for his catering and services, and £122 were disbursed
by the Mayor for Avine and sundry delicacies.
After a long period of plenty, the harvest of 1673 proved
seriously deficient, and great distress prevailed during the
winter. The magistrates, in January, 1674, ordered the
poor-rate to be doubled, and the Council, having taken up
£1,000 on loan, purchased a stock of corn for distribution
amongst the poor at cost-price, a small loss on the transaction
being borne by the Chamber.
The Corporation, in January, 1674, were again compelled
to deal with the eternal difficulties attending the mainte
nance of an efficient nightly watch. The often-repeated
attempt to force personal service on householders was now
abandoned. A return had been procured of the persons
liable to be charged for maintaining the force, from which
it appeared that they numbered 2,000. The Council there
upon resolved that each of those persons should contribute,
once every seven weeks, a night's pay of a watchman,
namely od. during the summer and 7d. during the winter
half-year. The yearly charge on the ratepayers was thus
to be about £370. The force was to consist of two head
constables, twenty-six watchmen, and two bellmen, the duty
of the last-named officials being to perambulate the streets at
midnight, according to custom. In 1675, the number of

1674]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

367

Avatchmen Avas increased to thirty, one head constable being
dispensed with, and the pay was raised one penny per night.
Ratepayers willing to watch in person Ave re exempted from
the tax.
A book of 105 pages, entitled " Bristol Drollery : Poems
and Songs, by Mr. C," was printed in London this
year " for Charles Allen, Bookseller in Bristol." Some pre
fatory verses " To the Young Gallants " are signed " N. C,
Jany., 167 J." The book contains about fifty amatory
songs and other trifles, one of which is entitled " A mock
Poem on the waters of the Hot Well," but all the rhymes
are utterly deA^icl of merit. A copy of this very rare volume
is in the British Museum.
There are many indications in the corporate records that
the old walls of the original borough had long ceased to be
regarded as of any practical utility, and that many breaches
had been made in them ivhere they stood in the Avay of
improvements. The strong line of ramparts extending from
Redcliff to Temple Gates tvas still, hoAvever, considered a
necessary bulwark. The grand jury, in May, made a
presentment that several doorways had been illicitly cut
there for the convenience of persons going to their fields
and gardens in the suburbs, whereupon the Court indignantly
denounced such acts as not only contemptuous but danger
ous, inasmuch as rogues might thereby get in aud out at
night, when the gates were shut, and ordered the citv mason
to " dam " them up forthwith. An exception Avas never
theless made in favour of a breach leading out of Thomas
Street, and it may be suspected that the judicial decree had
little permanent effect.
Owing to the financial embarrassment of the Corporation,
the proper maintenance of civic buildings seems to have
been much neglected. The Council were informed in May
that the foundations of Bridewell, NeAvgate, Froom Gate
the toAver by Bridewell holding the magazine of gun
powder (!), the arches of Bristol Bridge, and several other
public places were out of repair aud likely to fall, where
upon the Court of Aldermen were instructed to superintend
the needful restorations. The house of the porter of New
gate had been destroyed during the Avar, and was still in
ruins. To stave off the cost of rebuilding, the Council soon
after voted the man 40s. a year, to enable him to rent a
dwelling. Wo are informed by a local annalist that on September
11th the Countess of Castlemaine, one of the King's dis-

363

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1674

reputable females, accompanied by Sir John Churchill, a
legal hanger-on of the Duke of York, and Sir Thomas
Bridges, tho persecutor of Dissenters, paid a visit to tho
city, and after a pompous parade through the streets was
entertained at the Three Tuns tavern, Corn Street, at
Churchill's expense. The two knights brought their Avives
Avith them to do further honour to their discreditable guest ;
but the Mayor and Corporation significautly kept aloof.
The shameless indifference sliOAvn by the Government
towards the marauding of Moorish pirates is illustrated by
a petition presented to the Court of quarter sessions in
October by a cooper named John Knight. The applicant
stated that upAvards of six years previously his brother
Henry, sailing in a Bristol ship, Avas taken prisoner by
Tttrks, and carried captive into Sallee, where he still
remained a slaA-e. He could iioav, it Avas belieAred, bo
ransomed for £130, and the petitioner, being unable to raise
tho money, jirayed the Court to deAdse some expedient for
the unhappy man's redemption. The justices made an
urgent request to the citizens for contributions, and ordered
the churchwardens to collect subscriptions. The result is
ttnknoAvn. The State Papers for November contain the first document
bearing on a neAV struggle between London monopolists
ami Bristol merchants, a conflict destined to coiitinuo al
most uninterruptedly for some eight}'- years. On November
25th, a royal proclamation Avas issued, reciting the King's
letters patent of 1673, granted to the African Company, and
expressing His Majesty's displeasure on learning that divers
private persons had nevertheless presumed to send out ships
to trade with Africa, to the prejudice of the Company. The
King iioav positively prohibited his subjects from trafficking
in negroes or goods betAveen the African coast and the
American plantations, on pain of forfeiture of " such com
modities." No evidence exists that local merchants made
any protest against this unconstitutional act of the Crown,
which was a flagrant violation of the rights of the Merchant
Venturers. What is certain is that the proclamation was
quietly ignored, and that the monopolists Avere unable to
prevent a steady development of African trade in Bristol.
The Council amused themseh'es in December by harassing
a feAV non-freemen, probably Quakers. " Whereas," runs
the minute, " Peter Young, soap boiler, on tho Bridge, and
James Fry and Samuel Hollister, grocers, in Wine Street,
having of late opened shops and sold goods though not

1674-76]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

3G9

freemen, and not having taken tbe oath of allegiance, have
had their shops shut doAvn ; yet nevertheless have con
temptuously cqioned them again. Of which the House being
informed, the parties were sent for, and their answers being
in no Avay satisfactory, ordered that their shops be again
shut down and kept down." The Chamberlain subsequently
paid tho large sum of £8 lis. bd. "for watching four
Quakers' shops Avhen their AvindoAvs Avas shut down and
nailed doAvn." The order being so persistently carried out,
the offenders Avere compelled to seek admission as burgesses.
In September, 1675, the Chamber adopted a lengthy
ordinance setting forth that by ancient laAvs no man
except a freeman could abide in the town more than forty
days for selling Avares, or keep shop, or dived in the toAvn,
or buy goods of any but a burgess ; notwithstanding Avhich
clivers persons had of late contemptuously opened shops and
openly used trades and handicrafts to the discouragement
of freemen. For reformation Avhereof it Avas ordered that
every such offender should be fined 20s. a day. Although
individuals suffered much from time to time by legislation
of this kind, it is clear that the Corporation Avere unable to
prevent the constant intrusion of " foreigners."
About the close of the year, the toleration enjoyed for a
while by the nonconformist bodies came to an end, and Avas
foUoAved by a persecution compared Avith which eA-en Sir
John Knight's former oppressions Avere merciful. At
Michaelmas the civic chair was taken by Ralph Olliffe, the
landlord of the Three Tuns tavern, and a copious consumer
of his own liquors, but redeeming his vices in many eyes
by an uncompromising hatred of Dissenters. Tavo men of
kindred opinions Avere elected Sheriffs. Hearing, perhaps, of
the fitness of the neAV Mayor to co-operate in an intended
crusade, Bishop Carleton made his appearance a few weeks
later, and frankly announced his intention to extirpate
every conventicle in the city. Acting, it Avas believed, at
his instigation, the Sheriffs, at the Epiphany quarter
sessions, packed the grand jury Avith violent Churchmen,
aud this body delivered a lengthy presentment — probably
prepared in advance — denouncing dissenting preachers as
impostors and firebrands, and their adherents as seditious
fanatics, lauding the energy of the Bishop in prosecuting
those pests, and recommending the Aldermen to root them
out by a vigorous execution of the Conventicle Acts. The
Bishop, who had taken a seat on the bench to hear the
reading of a document that was suspected by many to be
n n

370

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1675
his oavii composition, expressed his cordial approval of its
contents, and the Avhole scene appears to havo been arranged
m order to give ulterior proceedings the formal sanction of
a court of justice. There Avere then eight sectarian con
gregations in the city: tAvo of Quakers, Avith no regular
minister ; three of Baptists, with pastors named Hardcastlo,
Gifford, and Kitchen ; tAvo of Independents, led by Messrs.
Thompson and Troughton ; and one of Presbyterians, whose
minister was John Weeks, already mentioned, Avhose popu
larity is proved by a contemporary statement that his flock
numbered about 1,600. Bishop Carleton found au un
scrupulous instrument in an attorney named Hellier, a
churchwarden of St. James's, in Avhich parish Avere four of
the meeting-houses. This man, at the prelate's desire, laid
informations under the Conventicle Acts, which tho Mayor
Avas proceeding to act upon, Avhen, to the mortification of
the prosecutors, it Avas sIioavii that the King had granted
licenses to hold services in three of the chapels. The
Bishop, however, promptly repaired to Court for the
purpose of urging the King to revoke the licenses, and
Charles, Avith his usual callousness, having complied with
the request, Carleton returned in triumph in the following
February, and ordered Hellier to resume operations. The
Mayor and some of the Aldermen lending zealous assistance,
and the Bishop again seating himself amongst the justices
and clamouring for severity, Avarrants were issued against
four of the ministers. On February 10th, Carleton, four
parsons, tAvo Aldermen and some military officers, with a
noisy rabble, surrounded Castle Green Chapel whilst service
was proceeding, arrested the minister, John Thompson, a
Master of Arts of Oxford, and carried him before the Mayor.
The Bishop, acting as prosecutor, at once burst into virulent
language, declaring that the seditious villain, the rebel clog,
ought to stretch a halter, and demanded his immediate
commitment to gaol for six months for having been found
Avithin the city after a previous conviction. His demand
Avas complied with, and three other pastors, found guilty of'
the same offence, received similar sentences within a feAv
days. NeAvgate was rarely free from epidemics, arising
from the foulness of the cells, and Thompson was speedily
prostrated by fever. A physician, called in to attend him,
informed the justices that his life would be endangered if
he Avere not imprisoned in a healthier place. The Sheriffs
Avere asked to alloAV his removal to a decent chamber,
security in £500 being offered that he should remain in

1675]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

371

custody but the officials refused to assent without the
approval of the Bishop, and tho latter, on hearing of the
proposal, threatened them with his vengeance if they made
the concession The victim rapidly sank under his malady,
stel-1 t? MarCh 4 ?\ fhe>%? of the citizens wa
.significantly expressed at his interment, the most remark
able ever known, about 5,000 persons attending St. Philip's
churchyard to manifest their regret and horrer. On the
evening of the funeral, a paper was thrown into the
Mayors house, threatening that if the persecution con
tinued, many eminent men and numbers of apprentices and
StrT V6f tU1"! tlieil\]lves f°r freedoni and Thomas
Cao appointed postmaster in 1G79,, m informing Secretary
W liamson of the fact, expressed his belief thaAwo-thircS
«. the inhabitants were "that Avay inclined." The death
i,"!"' ]7^er made no impression on the "se-
cutois who published a pamphlet, sanctioned bv and
Cler'^ Im^r ft ?» BisW; -hich, in define 'of tl e
gaolei s affidavit that the victim perished of maltenant
fever, asserted that death Avas occasioned by " Hi ?fo V'
A few clays after Thompson's demise, Hellier broke ttu
some meetings for prayer and sent several of ke peremts
omul there to Newgate, where they were throAvnW le
hooper into the most loathsome, den in the place, Avfth a
damp car hen floor and destitute of seats. But the perse
cution only strengthened the firmness and religious ardour
of the sectaries. Worship was maintained" ffi a tie
meetmgdiottses, and various devices Avere invented to cot
eeal the preachers so as to prevent the Bishop's mercenaries
from laying informations. In two chapels trapXors Sere
made m the floor through which the ministers de cended
o Heiboi4 "raltTaS STn °f th6 aPProac]l of the ISyor
oi Hell oi a gang, the entrance to the meetiim- bourn- also
purposely b ockeel Avith women. In otLr %& the
preacher, Avith others, Avas concealed behind a C-tain so
£tdv0tr;s u\ the bTodyu°f the Ch^el »«» S to
h! ;,7i- /Peaker> In ali cases> wlie» the Mayor or a
justice forced an entrance, the congregation were found
singing, winch Avas not an indictable'offence and the iZe
Ins worship threatened the louder resoundk the P X
SSed^ffi? Tnt °ff.-m a ^ tlie ™ vS
oveHn the ho™ of g somet"^? returned three times
r-ll i i iKP6 °f securing a conviction, he was jrenerallv
routed by the persistency of the chorus The C J
again, baffled t& officei/by sittiiigT' siSe ti tS

372

THE ANNALS OF BIWSTOL

[1675

meetings for hours together, and thus defeating the pro-
Ausions of the statute. Grossly brutal practices, hoAvever,
AVero habitually resorted to by'Hellier, Alderman Streamer,
the Bishop's hirelings, and others, against the unresisting
congregations, batches of Avhom, varying from half a dozen
to fifty in number, Avero often hauled before tho Mayor and
committed to gaol on false charges of rioting. This perse
cution continued for many Aveeks, and the fact that each
outrage, generally committed on Sunday, Avas preceded by
a carouse in the bibulous Mayor's tavern Avas not calculated
to excite public approval. The magistrates, it is recorded,
became at length "much weary" of the endless Avork
demanded from them by the Bishop, and upon his lordship
going up to Parliament in a huff at their inaction, the
harryings temporarily ceased. But the campaign was soon
resumed by the Mayor and Hellier, avIio had a love for the
sport, and great roughness Avas repeatedly used to disperse
the congregations. On one occasion Robert Colston, soap
boiler (a brother of Edwardi, condescended to act as a spjr,
and informed against a quiet gathering, to the grieved
surprise of those who had trusted him. Hellier was clearly
proved to have committed perjury in one of his informa
tions, but Chief Justice North ordered his discharge at tho
autumn assizes. By that time the term of imprisonment
of the three surviving ministers had expired. On being
released they recommenced preaching, and some of them
Avere soon consigned to their former loathsome quarters. It
is a melancholy tact that the aged Bishop accompanied the
Mayor to one of the meeting-houses Avith the object of
arresting one of the culprits. Hellier, Avho was on the alert
every Sunday, on one occasion flung several chairs into the
chapel fire, and nearly succeeded in burning down the
building. As a final achievement, Olliffe, on the last
Sunday in his Mayoralty, having secured the assistance of
Sir John Knight, 'Sir Robert Yeamans, and Streamer, pro
posed a general attack on the congregations, but the results
Avere disappointing ; and a few days later the accession of
Sir Robert Cann to the chair, and the entrance into office of
tAvo moderate-minded Sheriffs, promised a return to tran
quillity. Hellier, though discountenanced by the new
Mayor, who actually invited many leading Dissenters to
dinner, nevertheless continued to disturb meetings, often
using violence to effect his purpose, Avhilst Aldermen
Streamer, Lawford, Yeamans, and Olliffe supported him by
sending to Newgate those he informed against, or ordering

1675-76]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

373

distraints upon their goods. The persecution raged Avith
little interruption for fifteen months Avithout having any
deterring effect on tho dissenting bodies. Early iu 1676
Mr. Hardcastle, of Broadmead Chapel, Avas liberated after
a second imprisonment of six months, and recommenced
preaching on tho day of his release.
Intelligence reached the city in December that the shiji
Bristol Merchant, with a creAV of thirty men, nearl}- all of
Avhom had Avives li\ing here, some Avith fivo and six chil
dren, had been captured by a Moorish pirate, Avhich had
carried all the men into slavery. Urgent appeals Avere
made to the Government by Sir John Knight and others
on behalf of tho seamen's families, and some of the Avomen
Ave re sent up to Lonclon to seek relief at Court, but the
effort seems to haA'e been fruitless. A local subscription
Avas afterwards started for the redemption of the captives.
At the beginning of Sir Robert Cann's second mayoralty,
the Council gave, orders that a new set of robes should be
provided for him, and also a neAV cap of maintenance for
the Swordbearer. The articles, including two pairs of silver
clasps for the robes, cost £30 '¦is. 8d. The purchase Avas not
made to gratify the Avorthy baronet's known loA'e of osten
tation, but in consequence of the passing of an Act in
tended to put a new curb upon corporations, the chief
magistrates being required to proceed to AVestminster to be
SAvorn iii. The Council Avere naturally desirous that the
appearance of the Mayor and his attendants should be credit
able to the city. The journey entailed a further outlay of
£30, and this item became an annual one for some years.
Tho office of Toavu Clerk became Aracant in March, 1676,
by the death of Robert AldAvorth, and from letters amongst
the State Papers it appears that a number of candidates for
the post ivere speedily in the field. The Marquis of Wor
cester, who kept a vigilant eye' upon the Corporation, is
stated to have warned the Mayor that the place must be
confided to a stanch King and Church man ; Avhilst Ells
Avorth addressed a characteristic note to Secretary Wil
liamson, alleging that the city Avas as factious a:5 it Avas
populous, that, the authorities AArere grossly ignorant, and
not thoroughly purged of the old leaA-en, and that the laws
against sedition were laid asleep. He concluded by advis
ing 'hat the King should send d oavii a proper command to
the Council. The A'aeancy Avas filled in the followino-
month by the election of John Romsey, avIio is not to be
confounded Avith a Colonel John Romsey, or Rumscy avIio

374

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1676

was at the same time local Collector of Customs, and Avas
subsequently concerned in tho Rye House Plot. Mr. Ald
Avorth, iu his later years, dwelt in a large mansion in the
Marsh, on or near tho spot Avhere the Assembly Rooms
were built in the following century. The house, erected
early in the century by Humphrey Hooke, Avas the most
pleasantly situated in the city, and was frequently made
available for the reception o£ the judges and Recorder.
Chief Justice North lodged there shortly before Aldworth's
death, and will be found there again during the Popish
Plot mania, being then the guest of Romsey, the neAV
tenant, avIio also entertained Chief Justice Jeffreys during
the Bloody Assizes. John Evans and his copyists have
alleged that this historic mansion Avas situated in King
Street, ou uo other cA-idence than the fact that a small and
mean bouse there (removed a feAV years ago) had the initials
J. R. inscribed over the door. The true site is minutely
described iu the Bargain Books of the Corporation.
The Society of Merchants purchased, m June, of one
Isaac Morgan, three- fourths of the manor of Clifton, for
some generations the property of the Avealthy local family
of Broke, but eventually divided amongst co-heiresses
through failure of heirs male. The remaining fourth part
is supposed to haAre been acquired in fragments. The Society
believed they had become possessed of manorial rights over
the entire parish. But it appears from a document in the
Reference Library (from which the above facts are taken)
that in 1683 they Avere disagreeably surprised by the dis-
co\Tery that certain persons Avere claiming portions of the
" Avaste " by virtue of manorial rights derived from one of
the ministers of Henry VIII. — Sir Ralph Sadleir. That
famous grabber of church lands had, in fact, obtained a
grant, soon after the dissolution of the monasteries, of a manor
in Clifton previously belonging to the Dean and Canons of
Westbury, and the estate had devolved by a later purchase
on Gabriel Deane, of Bristol, merchant, and Abel Kelly.
Mr. Knapp, in his "Handbook of Clifton," stated that the
Society purchased the ecclesiastical manor from those
OAvners, by Avhich litigation Avas avoided.
The Duke oi Orinond paid another visit to the city in 1676,
and av;is sumptuously entertained in St. George's Chapel,
in the Ouildhall. The French cook already mentioned
Avas again in rcijuest, an abundant supply of sweetmeats
avus provided, and Alderman Olliffe furnished a copious store
ol Ihe, Bristol sherry so much esteemed by tho noble guest.

1676]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

3?r»

The Chamberlain, in August, records the disbursement of
£145, "tho charge of building a neAV bridge going out of
the Castle into Castle Meacl, alias the Queen's Orchard."
This is doubtless the bridge Avhich still spans the ancient
moat in the rear of Castle Street. The Mead Avas at that
time really a meadoAV, but Avas being prepared for building
operations. This Avas a Avork which could not be satisfac
torily accomplished without refreshments ; so " Ave " — that
is, the Chamberlain and his staff — repaired to the Three
Tuns tavern after a morning's measurement, "for tivo
quarts of sack and a bisket," for Avhich Falstaffian regale
he paid 3s. bd.
Tho Mayor's annual fishing recreation in the Froom,
which had been long discontinued, Avas revived in Septem
ber, though on a humble scale as compared Avith former
times. The outlay for the day amounted to only 15s. bd. ;
but tliCAvine bill may have been included in Olliffo.'s yearly
account. In Septemher, 1678, the Chamberlain paid £2 10s.
for "a fishing net, 20 fathom of rope, and a barrel to put
him in."
The Council, in September, had its dignity affronted in
an unprecedented manner. At a previous meeting the
Mayor, exercising an ancient privilege, nominated one
Robert Bagnell for admittance to the freedom Avithout
the payment of a fine, and a confirmatory order Avas passed
as a matter of course. But his Avorship iioav announced
that this graceless individual, instead of feeling thankful
for the honour conferred upon him, had in saucy and im
pertinent language contemned and despised the same.' The
House, much incensed, ordered the previous resolution te be
expunged from the minute-book, and declared Bagnell to be
for oArer incapable of holding the freedom. A balm to the
Chamber's Avound Ava.s applied a feiv days later. It Avas
intimated that Sir John Churchill, now become attorney-
general to the Duke of York, Avas desirous of being useful
to the city, and Avas anxious for an offer of tho freedom.
The disreputable incident in connection with Lady Castle-
naine could not have been forgotten, but the Avily laAvyer
had pushed his Avay at Court by this and other baseness,
and tho Council, "considering in Avhat stead the having so
Avorthy a member might be to the city," ordered the free
dom to be presented to him.
The rector and churchwardens of St. Stephen's parish
petitioned the Chamber iu October, representing that ihe
littlo burial-ground attached to the church Avas so full of

376

THE ANNALS OI" BHISTOL

[1676

dead bodies that there was no place left for fresh inter
ments, and that the place had become a great annoyance
and grievance to tho neighbourhood. The House ordered
that a fitting piece of ground in the Marsh should be
granted to the parish in fee-farm, a rent of 3s. 4d. being
reserved. In the folloAving century the iioav cemetery also
became a pestiferous nuisance from the same cause, and the
Corporation had to repurchase the ground at the price
demanded by the vestry — £1,000.
The Council Avere requested in October to deal Avith a
refractory member of the Feltmakers' Company. It Avas
stated that the man had bought several parcels of felts, but
had refused to alloAV the Company's officers to inspect them,
and had resold the goods before they had been approved as
marketable, being also contumacious and discourteous to
the magistrates Avhen they admonished him. The House
ga\'e the offender six months to consider the enormity of
his conduct ; but he reappeared in April as stiff-necked as
before. It was therefore ordered that he be disfranchised
and thenceforth treated as a foreigner.
The Corporation in November met Avith a serious dis
comfiture in the Court of Exchequer, a judgment being
given against them, after a long and costly litigation, in a
suit raised by Sir William Waller, the lessee under the
CroAvn of the right of " prisage" of Avines. It Avill be re
membered that in the disputes respecting royal " purvey
ance " in the early years of the century, the citizens resisted
those burdens on the ground that the CroAvn claimed a
right — unknoAvn in other ports — to take one tun of Avine out
of every cargo of from ten to twenty tuns, and two tuns out
of every larger cargo, brought into Bristol ; but no further
information respecting this "prisage" Avas then obtainable.
From the voluminous documents in the Record Office con
cerning the above suit, hoAvever, it is possible to give further
details. It appears from depositions that the Waller family
had enjoyed a lease of the prisage for several generations,
the rent paid to the King by Sir William being £500 a
year. Early in the reign of James I., one of his ancestors sub
leased the right for thirty-eight years to several prominent
members of the Corporation, reserving a rent of £1 10, together
Avith a tax of £6 for every tun of prisage. At the expira
tion of this sub-lease, during the Civil War, the right re
verted to the Wallers, avIio obtained a fresh grant from
Charles IT. at the Restoration, and their claim to the profits
does not appear to have been ever resisted. In the. middle

1676]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

377

ages the Crown right, for a brief space in every year, lamed
to the monks of St. James's Priory, Avho claimed to have
the right of prisage on wines coming mto port during tne
Whitsun week by virtue of a charter of William Earl of
Gloucester. This pretension Avas held to be, valid at tne
suppression of the monastery, for the week's prisage was
granted by Henry VIII. to Brayne, with the rest of _the
Priory estates. Brayne's tAvo representatives, m loi.l,
divided the property between them, and it was arranged
that the prisage. should be taken by them in alternate years,
"for ever" In 1627, the heir of one of these men, Sir
Charles Gerard, sold this and other rights to the Corpora
tion (see p. 97), but there is no evidence in the civic
archives of any receipt from prisage for nearly half a
century. But in May, 1673, Avhen four ships reached the
Aa'oii during the Whitsun Aveek, two belonging to Sir
Robert Cann and one to William Colston, Avith an aggre
gate cargo of 240 tuns of ivine, Waller's agent selected ten
butts of Spanish liquor, worth £16 per butt, and two tuns
of French, valued at £38 each, and put the '• King's mark "
upon them, Avhen they Avere violently seized by one Jones,
acting upon the orders of the Mayor, aud removed to corpo
rate cellars, the Customs duty, £72 4s., being paid by the
Chamberlain. Sir William Waller thereupon commenced
an action against both the Corporation and the importers,
to which the former pleaded the privilege granted to the
Priory. Tavc Commissions Avere issued by the Court _ to
take local evidence as to the facts, and the above information
is drawn from the depositions. It may be of importance to
add that Waller's chief Avitness alleged that, although the
ships reached the port in the Whitsun Aveek. none of the
Avines Avere entered at the Custom 1 louse until the folloAving
Monday. The judgment delivered in the Court of Ex
chequer is appended to the last depositions. The judges
determined that "no prisage Avas clue Avithin the time that
the city claimed to have the same," and that "the prisage
of the Avines imported as aforesaid are not Avithin the claim
of the defendants." Cann, Colston, and the other importers
Avere therefore ordered to pay Waller his prisage. deducting
the duty. The Corporation, of course, bore this burden, £150,
and also paid the plaintiff £50 for costs, to say nothing of
their oavii, about three times greater. With the exception
of a sum of £-! ISs. bd., received in April, 16SO, •' for duties
of goods that came in last Whitsun week." and of Iavo butts
of sherry, taken at Whitsuntide, l(il>7, the city authorities

37S

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1677

do not appear to have afterwards reaped any profit from
their prisage rights.
For some years previous to this date, there had been
occasional manifestations on the part of the Cathedral
authorities of a desire to claim immunity from civic jurisdic
tion. In 1666, to give an example, Nicholas Pownell,
Registrar of the Consistory Court, who had built himself a
house in LoAver College Green, together with three of his
neighbours, asserting tho place to be extra parochial, refused
to pay the rate of twopence weekly then assessed on all
respectable householders for the relief of the poor ; but tho
Corporation ordered the rate to be recovered by distraint,
and the resistance Avas for the time abandoned. The Dean
and Chapter nevertheless continued to sigh for the inde
pendence enjoyed by tho capitular bodies in some ancient
cities, and they probably stirred up Bishop Carleton to
demand a similar privilege for their oavii cathedral precincts.
The bellicose prelate, at all events sought to shake off cor
porate control in a characteristic fashion. The Council
learnt in April, 1677, that his lordship was seeking to
achieve his aim by foisting a clause for that purpose into a
Bill then before Parliament for endowing poor vicarages.
This manoeuvre proving unsuccessful, the campaign Avas
continued in another form by the Chapter. In May, the
Mayor and Aldermen, appealing to the Recorder for his
assistance, forAvarded a demand made by the Dean and
prebendaries, " the purport Avhereof," say th? writers, " is
to exempt themseh-es, not only from the jurisdiction of the
city, but from all temporal jurisdiction whatever." Sir
Robert Atkyns's reply has been lost, but in June he was
apprised that the Dean and Chapter " persevere in the con
test with the city Avith unseemly rigour and severity, as by
arresting the Mayor " — -an incident on Avhich Ave have no
further information, except that one of the prebendaries, in
a letter to the Primate, alleged that the outrage Avas ordered
by the Bishoji. The Recorder appears to have advised the
Corporation to apply for relief to the Lord Chancellor, for
the next effort of the Court of Aldermen Avas an appeal to
Lord Finch, setting forth the aggressive tactics of their
opponents, avIio, Avith unbecoming heat and ardour, were
claiming immunities in derogation of undoubted civic
rights; "and not on]y so, but they have endeavoured to
shorten the jurisdiction and extent of thecity, by depriving
us of almost a Avhole parish, claimed by them as a distinct
and separate jurisdiction." These claims, continued the

1677]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

379

applicants, had been prosecuted at the instigation of the
Bishoj); and not contented Avith this aggression, these con
federates were labouring to obtain a Commission of chari
table uses, to be worked by their own creatures, openly
declaring that they Avere aiming at an inquisition " into
the arcana of the city." Flattered, perhaps, by the eulogium
of his Avisdom and ability, Avith Avhich the Avriters concluded,
the Chancellor ajijiears to have directed Mr. Justice Jones,
avIio came d oavii for the autumn assizes, to inquire into the
case, for the judge certainly requested Sir John Churchill to
endeavour to accommodate the controA'ersy betAveen tho
Corporation on the one hand and i the Bishop and Chapter
on the other. The Council, in September, assented to
Churchill's intervention, but ordered their determination
" to bo kept secret," and prohibited any member from "pre
suming to discourse of it under severe penalties." It is
clear from the total disappearance of the subject in later
minutes that the Dean and Chapter eventually Avithdrew
their pretensions as unsustainable. The Commission also
proved a failure, and no further record remains of it in the
civic books except a disbursement of £15 for expenses
entailed on the Corporation.
A vague tradition" existed in the city early in the present
century that tAvo brothers of Echvard Colston Avere mur
dered in Spain during their residence in that country as
agents of their father, William. The true facts respecting
the matter have been unexpectedly discovered in the minutes
of the Privy Council. On June 22nd, 1677, their lordships
considered a petition from William Colston, Es-q., of Bristol,
setting forth that his son William Avas barbarously mur
dered at Lisbon, on December 16th, 1675, by a, stab Avith
a dagger knife, giA-en by one Hutchinson, an Englishman,
without provocation ; that the petitioner, upon hearing
that Hutchinson Avas coming to England, caused him to be
apprehended by Avarrant and committed to Newgate : but
that it was stated he could not be tried here Avithout a special
commission; and therefore jirayed that such a commission
might be granted by the King. The Council ordered that
the Keeper of NeAvgate (presumably tho gaol in London)
should bring the prisoner, under a strong guard, before the
King in Council, five days later, Avhen Coiston was to take
care to have his Avi Loesses present. The parties accordingly
appeared on the 27th, Avhen clear evidence Avas giA'on that
Hutchinson had perpetrated a barbarous murder; but it,
Avas also sIioavii that he had been tried in Portugal, and

3S0

THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[1677
acquitted. The Council then ordered the Attorney-General
to confer with the judges as to what should bo done ; but
the law officer reported on July 20th that owing to the
¦approaching assizes the judges had been unable to consider
the matter. The Council thereupon directed that the
Lord Chief Justice should take bail for the appearance of
Hutchinson in the following Michaelmas term. As there
is no further reference to the subject, it may bo inferred
that the miscreant escaped his deserts.
The Corporation had hitherto limited the operations of
the scavenger to the central districts under their control,
and left the outlying parishes to make provision for them
selves. The. Court of quarter sessions uoav suggesting that
some assistance should be rendered to tho neglected locali
ties, the Council voted the munificent sum of £3 each to
the authorities of St. Augustine's and St. James's " towards
keeping the parishes clean" for tho ensuing year. St.
Michael's parish Avas considered to be equitably treated by
a dole of 20s.
Queen Catherine being on a visit to Bath, the Corpora
tion felt it obligatory to offer her the hospitality of the
city, and, on the invitation being graciously accerited, due
preparations Avere ordered for Her Majesty's reception on
July 11th. The cit}- treasury being in its chronic condi
tion of emptiness, the first step Avas to borrow money, and
Sir AVilliam Cann generously offered the loan of £300 for
a month, free of interest. It Avas then resolved that the
royal guest should be conducted by -way of Castle Green,
that all the streets should be thickly sanded from Castle
Gate to Small Street, and that the members of the Council
should parade in black furred robes. As the route of the
procession iireolved the passing of Newgate, the keejier
received instructions to prevent the prisoners — avIio clam
orously begged for alms daily from inside the grated portal
— from making a display of their Avretchedness. The story
of the Queen's arrival at LaAvford's Gate, including the
solemn oration of the Town Clerk, the bareheaded march
of the Mayor before the royal coach, and the. firing of
salutes, is almost a stereo tyjjed rejiroduction of the account
of the King and Queen's arrival fourteen years earlier.
The feast offered to Hei Majesty Avas prepared in the
mansion of the Creswick family in Small Street — one of
the finest in the city, though probably uninhabited after
the death of Sir Henry. The French cook always engaged
on state occasions appears to have spared no expense in

1677]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

381

producing a regal entertainment, for the note of charges
showed a total of £446. After dinner the Queen proceeded
to the Hot Well in her coach, attended by tho gallant Earl
of Ossory and a numerous Court, inspected the magnificent
ravine, still almost unmittilated by quarrymen, and took
a draught from the sjiring that was then fast becoming
famous. Then, after a short repose in Small Street, Her
Majesty started on her return journey, and reached Bath
late in tho evening. In tho following year, the Chamber
lain bought six yards of damask at Vs. a yard, to make a
tablecloth for Alderman Crabb, the cloth that he had lent
for the feast having been stained and spoiled ; but the
discarded article was retained at the Council House, being
deemed good enough " for the city's use."
The. amenities of Newgate are, briefly sketched in a
petition jiresentecl to the Council in July by tho late
Keeper of the gaol. The ajiplicant set forth that for the
better health of the prison, Avhich was close, and had no
rules (liberties) like some other gaols, and was made noi
some by the unwholesome stenches from the AvhitaAvers'
(curriers') pits lying tinder the walls, he had built a small
bouse, and made a Avalk, Avith benches, Avhence the jirisoners
could vieAv the country, much to their health. Prayer was
made for the rejiayment of the outlay, but the impecunious
Council did not respond to the call.
About this time the Corporation seem to have been
advised by the Toavu Clerk or some other legal authoritj'
that they were entitled to receive the rents for booths and
other standings erected in St. James's churchyard during
the annual summer fair — an income which, as stated in
pago 287, had been jireviously enjoyed by the parish. The
first mention of the subject occurs iu the Council minutes
of September 25th, Avium it Avas ordered that the parishion-
ers should produce their title to the profits, aud that unless
they paid over the money collected at the last fair, a suit
should be raised for its reco\rery. As no reference to the
dispute is to be found in any local history, it may be well
to give a brief summary of the facts in a connected form.
On receiving the above intimation, the cliurcliAvardcns
refused to distribute the money in their hands in the
customary way, ivhereupon, in January, 1678, a petition
from " sundry poor people " of the parish Avas presented to
Bishop Carleton and others, the Commissioners for charit
able uses under the commission already referred to, alleging
that the profits of the fair in the churchyard, from time

3S2

THU ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1677
immemorial, had been gathered by the churoliAvardens for
the benefit of tho jioor, but that the existing officers Avith-
held the money, pretending that the Corporation Avere
entitled to it ; Avherefore the petitioners prayed that the
Avardens should be compelled to distribute it in the usual
manner. The sitting Commissioners (Sir Francis Fane,
EdAvard Gorges and others) ordered the summoning of a
jury of tAventy-four inhabitants, not being St. James's men
or free burgesses; and thisdiody, on January 19th, found
that the e]iurchwa.rdens, for time out of mind, had let the
standings in tho churchyard and received tho rents, as aviis
proved by leases produced, dating from the 8th Henry IV.
to the 30th Elizabeth ; and that the money, about £30
yearly, had been distributed amongst the poor. Nothing
further appears to haA'e been done by the Commissioners,
who Avere ignored by the Corporation ; but a suit in
Chancery Avas raised soon afterwards by the Mayor ami
Commonalty, against Thomas Home (the incumbent) and
the parishioners of St. James's. After pleadings in London,
the Court, ordered an inquiry into the facts upon the sjiot,
and the Commissioners appointed for that purpose, Robert
Henley and Francis Yeamans, sat at the White Lion inn
on September 24th, 1680, to take evidence. The deposi
tions made on behalf of the plaintiffs have not been pre-
seiwed, but it is clear that the Corporation claimed to
possess the freehold of the churchyard. On the other hand,
the Avitnesses for the parish showed that the Avardens were
accustomed to receive 2s. yearly from the holders of every
house having a door opening on the cemetery, and that
seizures for this rent had been sometimes made. The
minister and clerk had each a house rent free, opening
upon the churchyard, the yearly value of which was
estimated at £4 and £2 respectively. The herbage of the
ground once brought in a rent to the parish of 40s., but
had become valueless by reason of the numerous footpaths.
The parish clerk deposed that the Corporation had never
claimed the profits of the fair until within the last few
years. The wardens, thirty years previous, threw doAvn all
the trees in the loAver walk, and sold the timber to pay for
the re-casting of the church bells ; but the witness admitted
that Sir Robert Yeamans, Avhen Mayor, forbade a baker to
shroud the trees, though the man had the consent of the
wardens. After further proceedings, in the course of
which " the A7ast expense of the suit " is noticed in the
Council minutes, the Lord Chancellor ordered, in July,

1677]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

383

1681, that a trial of the cause at common laAv should take
place at tho ensuing assizes. But on February 11th, 1682,
his lordship Avas informed by the counsel for the parish that
the plaintiffs had neglected to bring the case to trial, and
that the Avardens had quietly collected the profits of the
last fair, and had handed them to Sir Robert Cann (doubt
less appointed receiver by the Court). It Avas therefore
asked that Sir Robert should be ordered to refund the
money — about £36— so that it might bo distributed
amongst the poor. This tho Chancellor thought reason
able, and ordered it to be done unless the plaintiffs shoived
cause to the contrary. The Corporation apjiealed, but the
order for repayment Avas confirmed, and the Court again
directed the case to be tried at the local assizes. But after
live years' litigation, the Council abandoned their claim,
and on October 19th, 1682, rescinded the authority given
to Sir John Knight to prosecute the suit in London.
The early Bristol Volunteers (see p. 93) Avere revived
and reorganized in 1677. On September 25th the Council
gave orders that such gentlemen as might think fit to join
an Association of an Artillery Yaid, for their better in
struction in military discipline, might haA~e the use of the
BoAvling Green in the Marsh, on making an agreement
Avith the tenant. In the following February, the Marquis
of Worcester, Lord-Lieutenant, expressed his approA-a.l of
the movement, when a committee of the Council Avas
appointed, apparently at his suggestion, to make terms
Avith tho tenant of the Bowling Green, or to obtain some
other piece of ground, for conversion into an Artillery Yard.
Subsequently, the King's apjirobation Avas signified to the
Marquis, avIio nominated his son, Lord Herbert, to be captain
and leader of the Company, Avhich had also a lieutenant
and ensign. From tho tenor of the rules draAvn up for tho
regulation of the corps, it is evident that tho members, Avho
numbered more than a hundred, were all of ultra-royalist
jirinciples. The dress of the pikemen and musketeers Avas
a grey cloth coat, scarlet breeches and stockings, and a Avhite
hat. An official return to the Government of the amount of Cus
toms duties received at the various ports for the tAvehre
months ending Michaelmas, 1677, is amongst the State,
Papers of the year. The chief receipts were : — at London,
£597,704 ; Bristol, £50,946 ; Hull, £21,480 ; Exeter, £17,92l!
In other ports the collections Avere insignificant, Liverpool
producing £3,507.

3S4

THE ANNALS OP BOTSTOL

[1677

Robert Lippyat, "distiller and metheglin maker," Avas
admitted a freeman by the Council in October, on pay
ment of £20. Metheglin- — a beer made from honey — Avas
then a popular beverage, especially favoured by Welshmen.
At the same meeting, the Rev. Nicholas PeiiAvarne, rector
of St. Stephen's, petitioned for admittance as a burgess,
pleading that he had many children, Avith a probability
of having many more, to Avhom the freedom might be bene
ficial. His request haA'ing "been acceded to, applications
to the same effect wen1 forthwith made by the vicar of St.
Augustine's and the incumbent of St. Werburgh's and St.
John's, both of Avhom Avere granted a similar favour gratis.
A feAV months later, a labourer, Avho must have had an
influential jiatron in the Chamber, was also admitted free,
" to make him capable of an almshouse."
Sir Humphrey Hooke, M.P., died in October, causing a
vacancy in the. representation of the city. Never losing an
opportunity of venting his malignity, Sir R. Ellsworth Avrote
at once to Secretary Williamson, stating that Sir Robert
Cann Avould endeavour to get elected, though he had in
stigated his father to disloyalty in 1649, and had made
grossly disloyal speeches himself, Avhich the writer professed
to quote, though he acknoAvledged he had gathered them from
hearsay. Cann, he adds, will be elected by the Dissenters,
avIio are two-thirds of the city, unless he is interdicted by
the King's order. A new writ was issued in the folloAving
January, Avhen Sir Robert Avas elected without opposition.
Although Hooke had received great wealth from his grand
father, he died in embanassed circumstances, and in 1680
his trustees disposed of his fine estate at Kingsweston to
¦6ir Robert Southwell.
An innovation occurred at the beginning of Avinter. To
this time, although all the little candles illuminating the
streets were expected to burn out by nine o'clock in the
evening, the watchmen who came on duty at that hour
had patrolled throughout dark nights without having the
means to distinguish an honest man from a rogue. In
November, however, the Chamberlain expended £1 lis. lid.
in providing " candles for the watch." The outlay after
Avards amounted to about £14 yearly. No provision of
lanterns was made by the Chamber, but the outlay for that
purpose Avas doubtless paid out of the Avatch rate._
Tavo somewhat puzzling items occur in the civic accounts
of tbe year. On tbe debit side is the folloAving : — " Paid the
Lord Chief Justice's Receiver, two years' exhibition money

1678]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

385

to the poor prisoners in the King's Bench and Marshalsea
[two well-known London gaols], £4 4s." No such item
appears in previous audit books, and no explanation of the
liability is forthcoming. The charge must have been forth
with assessed upon householders, for the following entry is
found on the credit side of the accounts : — " Collected from
the churchwardens for one (sic) year's arrears due for re
lief of the prisoners in the King's Bench and Marshalsea,
£9 15s." In tho audit book for 1079, a payment of £4 4s.
is again entered, but on this occasion the Chamberlain
collected £19 10s. from the parishes, leaving a handsome
profit on the transaction. The disbursement continued for
several years, and then disappears as mysteriously as it arose.
The Recorder, Sir Robert Atkyns, having refused for three
years to accept the customary feeo of his office, the Corpor
ation presented him in January, 1678, with some handsome
jilate, costing £59 18s. 6d. Sir Robert had been since 1672
one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas, and was
often consulted by the Government on business connected
Avith Bristol. In a letter from Sir John Knight to the
Mayor, in the following June, it appears that Bishoj)
Carleton had been " soliciting for another Commission
of charitable uses, the better still to affront the magistrates
and trample upon them," but that the Lord Chancellor had
refused until he could consult "our Recorder," Avhose dis-
approval could be foreseen. The letter also refers to the
Bishoj)'s high-handed conduct in inducting one Home into
tho incumbency of St. James's,' " without our consent,"
although " our lay fee, and no parish church."
Either from disgust at Bishoji Carleton's conduct, or dis
content at the policy of the Government, a notable change
took place about this time in Sir .John Knight's political
sentiments. In February, 1678, in consequence of the
King's protendc.fl desire for Avar Avith France, the House of
Commons voted large supplies, Avhich Avere coolly appro
priated to other purposes, and soon afterAvards Charles
made a secret treaty of peace with Louis XIV., Avho granted
him a jiension of £300,000. The King then asked for further
supplies for disbanding his forces, and for an addition to his
revenue that would have made him independent of Parlia
ment. Upon the announcement of these demands, Knight,
hitherto a vigorous supporter of the Government, gave vent
to his feelings with much vivacity. Laying Ids hand upon
his heart, ho declared that such large sums Avero demanded
that the nation could not bear them, on Avhich Mr. Pepys,
c c

386

THE ANNAI-S OK BHISTOL

[1678

annoyed at this defection, asserted that if tho member for
Bristol laid one hand on his heart, ho should lay the other
on his faco, for shame — a taunt for which he aviis inconti
nently forced to make a humble apology. Sir John Knight
rencAved his opposition a feAV days later, declaring that
from the poverty of the jieople it Avas impossible to grant
the demands. "At this rate Ave shall soon Avear Avooden
shoes." After calling for an abolition of pensions he con
cluded by moving a resolution requiring the revenue to bo
better managed, and though his motion was not put, the
House refused to discuss the King's requests. Sir John
thenceforth became a sturdy opponent of the Ministry. In
the folloAving December he moved the impeachment of five
Romau Catholic peers, and a fortnight later, overfloAving
with rage on the discovery of the King's base treaty Avith
France, ho Avas one of the loudest in demanding the imjieach-
ment of Lord Dauby, by Avhom it had been negotiated.
The year 1678 is memorable for having produced Titus
Oates's first villainous fictions respecting an alleged Popish
Plot, Avhich threw the nation for a time into a delirium of
mingled fury and terror. The immense popularity of the
arch-impostor naturally brought imitators and rivals^ into
the field, and amongst those avIio took part in sjiilling inno
cent blood Avas a Avretch named William Bedloe. This man,
born at ChepstoAv, where in youth he Avorked as a cobbler,
spent his early manhood as a menial servant to Englishmen
travelling on the continent; but subsequently pretended
that he was employed by the Jesuits as an emissary to
Rome, Spain, a net Flanders. When Oates became the popu
lar idol, and a second witness was found needful to swear
a\vay the lives of peaceful Romanists, a reward Avas offered
for an informer. Bedloe, then living in Bristol, at once
made a communication to the Mayor, John Lloyd, a pom
pous and credulous Welshman, Avho, according to Roger
North, loved to embroider his lofty talk with " tags of
Latin." His worship, a fervent believer in the ''devilish
design" proclaimed by Oates, lost no time in apjirising the
Government of the startling disclosures made by Bedloe,
and received immediate instructions to send the informer to
London, where he arrived, wrote Secretary Coventry, " on
the 7th' instant (November) very safely, by your prudent
directions, for which I am to return you his Majesty s
thanks." ' Lloyd was in fact knighted for his "eminent
services." Bedloe forthwith strove to outstrip Oates in the
concoction of alarming fictions, and swore to the existence

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

387

1678]
of a vn.st plot for tho landing of a Popish army and a general
massacre of Prot.csta.nts. His lying depositions respecting
tho murder of Sir Edinuudbury Godfrey so gratilied the
House of Commons that he Avas voted £500. By March,
1679, ho Avas as jiojmlar as Oates, Avas feasted by the citizens
of London, and received £10 a iveek from the Government,
whilst ho Avas living at the rate of £2,000 a year. He soon
after married a woman of a small fortune, Avith whom ho
returned to the West- of England. An early trace of him
is to be found in the archives at Badminton. Writing on
September 5th from Monmouth to the Marquis of Worcester
(a Romanist), he asserts that he had made it his business, in
passing through Reading, Bristol, Gloucester, and other
towns, to contradict reports unfavourable to his lordship,
and Avhenever he found accusations against the Marquis
lying in the coffee-rooms, he had torn them up, and had
sent some of the coffee men to prison. He soon after settled
in Bristol, and lived on Stony Hill (LoAver Park Row) for
several months. In the summer of 1080 he Avent back to
London, doubtless prepared with a fresh batch of forgeries
and informations, but the national mania Avas subsiding,
and his impudent assurance Avas so shaken by the broAv-
beating arrogance of Jeffreys that he again" returned to
Bristol, Avhere he Avas stricken ivith fever. On August 16th,
Avhilst Chief Justice North Avas being entertained to dinner
by the ToAvn Clerk, Sir John Knight hurried to the house
to inform his lordship that the sick man, then lying with
little hope of recovery, Avished to make an important com
munication. North undertook to visit Bedloe in the course
of the evening, but being strongly distrustful of the rogue,
and dreading a snare " to put a sham plot upon him," he
requested the two Sheriffs, his brother Roger, and others, to
accompany him. On the arrival of the party, Bedloe made
a lengthy speech, in Avhich he declared, on' the faith of a
dying man, that all his evidence had been truthful ; and
then, having been sivorn, he solemnly asserted that the
Duke of York had been concerned in the plot, and that the
Queen had promised to give money to introduce the Popish
religion. The deposition Avas sent up to Secretary Jenkins,
and the Chief Justice was subsequently summoned before
the House of Commons to give a further account of the
interview. The deposition Avas afterwards published, by
order of the House. Bedloe, who was in extreme poverty,
died on Friday, August 20th. On the following Sunday
his body lay "in state" in the Tailors' Hall, and Avas buried

388

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1678

in the evening at the entrance to the Mayor's chapel m the
presence of a great company, the Mayor attending the cere
mony, and several members of tho Council " bearing up
' ^/despite of the unpopularity of tho impost, a Poll Tax
was sanctioned by Parliament at .this time, and the local
commissioners appointed to supervise its collection have lett
some imperfect records of their proceedings. Unfortunately,
nothino- is to be found respecting the amount extorted from
the inhabitants. The tax was levied on a sliding scale,
extending from dukes to common labourers, and the lew
details preserved relate to appeals for abatements, gentle
men who generally claimed the title of esquire shoAvmg
remarkable eagerness to repudiate the rank when they
were called upon to pay for it. The following are specimens
of numerous minutes :— " Ordered, that the Sheriffs be eased
from being Esquires, and reduced to the quality of gentle
men and be assessed at £1 each for their titles, and £1 each
for moneys, etc. Ordered, that Mr. Thomas Earle [a, very
Avealthy man, knighted soon afterAvards] be assessed only
at £1 for his quality of gentleman, and £8 for moneys, etc.
Ordered, that Mr. John Lloyd [another future knight, famed
for pomposity] be eased of the title of Esquire, and be
assessed at £1 for his quality of gentleman, and 20s. tor
''The Corporation, in September, 1678, granted to Ichabod
Chauncy, a professor of physic and a prominent Dissenter,
a lease for four lives of a piece of void ground m Castle
Green at a rent of £2 6s. 8d. A new chapel for the congre
gation worshipping in that locality was soon afterwards
erected on part of this site. Another lease of this i yeai
discloses the curious fact that the building called Redcliff
Gate contained in fact two gates, having a dwelling be
twixt them. Froom Gate was constructed in the same
™ The first improvement scheme canied out by the Common
Council, for facilitating traffic in the ancient streets, dates
fiom this period. Between the end o Thomas Street and
Bristol Bridge was a narrow and obstructive defile called
Leaden Walls, the houses in which belonged to the tailors
Company. The Corporation, having taken a lease of the pro
perty for seventy-five years, demolished some of the houses,
including the Lamb tavern at the end of Tucker Street
wSeuecAhe thoroughfare by eight feet, and finally relet
The new and other dwellings, the improvement being effected

1678]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

389

at little or no expense. Thomas. Street was then extended
to the Bridge, the old name of Leaden Walls being abolished.
Tho new Lamb tavern let for £69 a year— a remarkable
rent for the period.
A fresh and violent quarrel betAveen the Corporation and
the Dean and Chapter broke out in 1678, and continued for
several years. Little information respecting it can be found
iu the corporate records, but some references to the squabble
are preserved in the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library
and in the State Papers. It is not surprising to learn that
the dispute Avas provoked by the insolence of Bishop
Carleton. DoAvn to 1677 it had always been the custom to
pray for the Corporation in the Bidding Prayer before the
dignitaries of the church. This the Bishop ordered to be
altered, and as some of the Chapter refused to obey the in
struction, he reviled them in his visitation address for giving
precedence to a parcel of coopers and cobblers, and brought
them into " much derision in the streets." He next fell
upon Prebendary Crossman, as the leader of the refractory
party, ordering hiin to shoAV cause Avhy he should not be
suspended for disobedience, and publicly abused him as a
perjured and saucy fellow, who ought to have his gown
pulled off his back. Finally he went off to Newmarket
races to complain to the King against both the Chajiter and
the Corporation, and doubtless to make fresh appeals for
translation from what he called his " beggarly see." It
seems probable that Crossman and his allies sought to aviii
the Corporation back to the cathedral, which they had
deserted, by continuing the ancient form of the Bidding
Prayer. But the Council now set up, or possibly revived, a
claim to have their State Sword carried erect into the choir
before the Mayor and his brethren, and to have it main
tained in that position throughout the service ; Avhilst the
Chapter insisted that the weapon should be lowered. To
maintain their demand, the Chamber laid out £21 9s. for
" a cushion and cloth of state, both fringed, and a unicorn,
gilded, put up in the College to hold the Mayor's sword ' ;
but the Chapter appears to have refused its assent to tins
arrangement, for an undated paper preserved by Dr.
Tanner states that Avhen the Corporation attended the
cathedral, they remained in the nave (really the transepts),
and during the sermon only. It is not difficult to imagine
the joy Avith which Bishop Carleton Avould have plunged
into a controversy of this character. But his pertinacious
appeals to the Court for preferment resulted in his trans! a-

39U THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL [1678
tion to Chichester, in January, 1679, and he was succeeded
by a loA-er of peace, Dr. William Goulston, who kept aloof
from the strife. In November, 1681, whilst the quarrel was
still raging, the iioav Bishop, in a letter to the Primate,
stated that all attempts to get the sword lowered during the
service, as was done at York [Avhere a similar contest had
been settled by Charles I.], had proved futile. Nearly a year
later, September, 1682, his fordship informed the Archbishop
that on the jirevious Sunday the Mayor Avas about to enter
the cathedral with the sAvord erect, accompanied by Lord
Chief Justice North, Avhen the Avriter jiointed out to the
judge the scandal that Avould be created by a conflict in the
building between the civic and capitular officers. The Chief
Justice assenting, the Bishop took him and the Mayor into
the palace, Avhere his Avorship remained Avhilst the judge
and prelate went to prayers. (The sword could not be
raised Avhilst the Mayor Avas absent.) The absurd con
troversy was at length settled by the intervention of the
Bishop and the judges, it being arranged that the sword
should be carried erect into the cathedral, and there laid down
upon a cushion. What became of the costly gilded unicorn
does not appear. Whilst this teapot storm was raging, the
ecclesiastical authorities Avere by no means a happy family.
In a petition to the King, Bishop Goulston stated that the
Chapter, clearly in spite of his remonstrance, had let a jdece
of ground called the Canons' Little Marsh, immediately
under the palace windows, for the building and repairing of
ships (a use to Avhich it continued to be ajqilied until within
living memory). " The noise and stench is so continually
offensive, and is such an intolerable nuisance, that your
petitioner is not able to live in any part of his house with
any health or comfort." But the King was apathetic to
the discomforts of other people. About the same time, the
Dean and most of the Chapter revolted against their
treasurer, Prebendary Crossman, on the ground that he
conducted the capitular business without their privity and
consent, and had put up on each side of the Communion
Table "two concaves or noases of wood," Avhich he intended
to get carved into images of St. Peter and St. Paul. The
Bishop put his foot doAvn firmly against this innovation,
and Crossman subsided. Dr. Goulston, whose net in
come from the bishopric was only about £210 a year, at
length greAv Aveary of his troubles, and retired to his
rectory in Dorset, Avhere he generally resided until Ins
death, in 1684.

1679]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUI1Y

391

A general election, an event that had not occurred for
nearly eighteen years, took place in February, 1679. TI
two previous members for Bristol, Sir John Knight ar
Sir Robert Cann were again returned Avithout opposition
The former no sooner reached the House of Commons tha
he reneived his attacks on the royal policy, demanding tl.
impeachment of Danby, and the exclusion from the thron
of the Duke of York, who, he said, was amongst the thick
est of the Jesuits. " If the Pope gets his great too int.
England all his body will follow." The Parliament hai :
a very brief duration, being angrily dissolved by the King
in the following July, j Writs Avere thereupon issued for i
fresh election, Avhich took place in this city on August 25th
On this occasion, to the wrath of the Corporation, which
still attempted to impose its will upon the freemen, Mr,
Robert Henley, merchant, offered himself as a candidate^
and though all record of the poll has perished, some facts
that Avill be given hereafter tend to shoiv that the obnoxious
presumer received a majority of votes. The Sheriffs, hoAV-
ever, returned his competitors, Knight and Cann. The
Council in the following month, still enraged at the opposi
tion, resolved on prosecuting Henley for trading as a
merchant in the city, being merely a " foreigner," but the
minute books show that he Avas entitled to the freedom,
and had applied for it, Avhen the Mayor had arrogantly
refused to swear him in. Undismayed by his angry op
ponents, Henley petitioned against the return in October,
1680, but the hearing of his case was deferred by an extra
ordinary incident, illustrating the abnormal excitement
under Avhich both tho House of Commons and the local
Corporation Avere labouring through Oates's villainous
fabrications. On October 28th the Commons received in
formation that John Roe, Swordbearer of Bristol, had
stated on oath before a magistrate that Sir Robert Cann
and Sir Robert Yeamans bad, about a year previously,
publicly asserted — no doubt with their habitual vehemence
— that there was no Popish Plot at all, but a Presbyterian
Plot. In support of this horrible charge, Roe's affidavit
was read before the House, Avhereupon Cann's colleague,
Sir John Knight, rising from his seat, corroborated Roe's
assertions. Being called upon to answer his accusers. Sir
Robert Cann arose in his turn, and declared that Sir John
Knight's credit. Avas such in Bristol that no jury of his
neighbours Avould believe him upon oath, asseverating in a
lower tone, but audibly to those near him, " God damn me

392

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1.679
'tis true." (This is the account in the Commons' Journal.
Roger North alleges that his choleric relative also called
Roe " a damned rogue.") Knight having been chairman of
the committee for inquiring into the Plot during the pre
vious session, the House became greatly excited, and Cann
was ordered to withdraw. It next transpired that the
Swordbearer Avas coireeniently attending in the lobby to
give further information. Being at once brought to the
bar, Roe stated that Yeamans and Cann had made the
above assertion at the sessions dinner in October, 1679,
Yeamans adding that the Dissenters had voted for Knight
at the then recent election. The Swordbearer further
alleged that the tAvo culprits Avere mere tools of the Papist
Marquis of Worcester, " who governed the city in all
things," and had dragged Roe himself before the Privy
Council on an unknoAvn charge, which had cost him £60.
Cann was uoav brought back, and though he repeatedly
declared the charge to be false, he Avas ordered to receive
the Speaker's reprehension on bis knees, to Avhich he sub
mitted. He was then declared to have been guilty of
denying the existence, of the Popish Plot, for which un
pardonable offence he was committed to the Tower. And
finally he Avas expelled from the House, and received the
judgment on his knees ! A Avarrant for his commitment
Avas at once issued, as was another for the arrest of Sir
Robert Yeamans on the same charge. On November 8th
the unhappy Cann petitioned the House, acknowledging his
guilt, craving pardon, and praying for liberation ; where
upon he Avas released. On the 13th Sir Robert Yeamans
appeared at the bar to make a humble apology, and Avas
discharged on payment of heavy fees. The Corporation
were noAv in dread that Henley would be allowed to take
his seat, and sent uji a petition praying for a fresh election.
On December 20th the Committee of the Commons that
had inquired into Henley's petition reported that Cann had
not been duly elected, and that Henley should have been
returned, thus clearly imputing misconduct on the part
of the Sheriffs. But the House, overflowing with faction,
set aside tbe report, and resolved that neither of those
candidates had been elected, inasmuch as the Mayor and
Sheriffs had imposed an oath upon each voter, requiring
him to swear that he had not already voted. If this jiro-
ceediug vitiated the return of ono member, ii. ought also to
have upset the election of Sir John Knight, but the House
immediately resolved that that Avorthy Avas duly elected,

1679]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

393

and only one writ was ordered to issue. It was further
resolved that the Mayor and Sheriffs should be brought up
in custody to ansAver for their misdemeanour. There is no
mention of their appearance in the Journals of the House,
but the Common Council minutes state, that the Sheriffs
Avent to London, where they Avexe put to great expense
and trouble, and £90 were voted. to them "to make good
tho honour of the city, and to encourage future Sheriffs to
perform their duty.'* Sir. Richard Hart, a busy agent of
the predominant jiarty, iioav first styled Tories, received
£1 15 unore. The election for the vacant seat took jdace
about the close of the year, but there is no record of the
proceedings except that Sir Walter Long, Bart., Avas
returned. Parliament was dissolved in the folloAving Aveek.
Alderman Thomas Stevens (Mayor, 1668-9), died in April,
1679. By his will he bequeathed estates at Bridge Yate,
Wick, and Abson, to Sir John Knight and others, trustees,
Avith instructions to apply the rents to the purchase of a
piece of ground in St. Philip's parish, and of a similar plot
in Temple parish, and to erect thereon two almshouses for
the reception and maintenance of twenty-four aged men
or Avomen. Sufficient funds having accumulated, the
trustees, in September, 1686, bought some property fronting
the Old Market, and erected a substantial stone building
thereon, which is decorated with a bust of the founder.
The Temple Street Almshouse Avas commenced in 1715, on
ground acquired from the Corporation. Owing to the
increased value of the estate, the trustees were subsequently
enabled to support a number of out-jiensioners.
The rigid exclusion from this country of every descrijj-
tion of food produced in Ireland Avas a great obstacle to
local commerce, and pressed heavily upon the labouring
classes in times of scarcity. Iu April, 1679, a jtajier of
instructions for the city representatives Avas drawn uj) by
the Council, in Avhich tho members Avere urged to seek a
revision of the statutes prohibiting the importation of Irish
cattle. The laAvs " protecting " the English landed interest
Avere, howeA'er, then unassailable. It must be added in
fairness to the landlords that their narroAV-sighted selfish
ness aviis rivalled by that of the manufacturing interest.
About this period the Protestants in the north of Ireland
began to jmxluco a little fine. Avoollen cloth, and OAving to
tho Ioav price of labour their factories rapidly developed,
and they were at length found to be underselling the
English clothiers iu continental markets. A howl of in-

394 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL [1679
dignation was forthwith raised in the House of Commons
by west-country members, avIio declared that their con
stituents Avere threatened Avith absolute ruin ; whereupon
Parliament, in 1692, imposed such enormous duties on
exports of Irish drapery that the ne\v industry was
practically destroyed, Avith calamitous effects to the sister
country. The last Bristol farthings^issued by the Corporation are
dated 1679, according to Mr. "Henfry's work on the coinage,
and the author professes to have seen two specimens. No
information respecting them, hoAvever, is to be found in
the civic archives. In May, 1679, the Chamberlain paid
£4 Is. " to an attorney about a former business touching
the quining of farthings." The use of tokens Avas soon
afterAvards superseded by the issue of copper coins from the
royal mint.
The Common Council, in 1679, proposed to make another
of their many unsuccessful efforts to carry on a manu
facturing business to provide employment for the pooi\ At
a meeting on May 15th a committee previously appointed
to consider a proposal made by James HolloAvay, a Bristol
draper, " touching linen manufactory," brought in a report,
the purport of which can be inferred only from the resolu
tion adopted. It was ordered that, for the encouragement
of the undertakers, the Corporation should advance them
£2,000 without interest, one half for three years, and the
remainder for ten years, and should give up to them part of
Bridewell, for conversion into a workhouse at the cost of the
city. The undertakers were to employ 500 spinners, nomi
nated by the magistrates, and to pay them wages as they
merited. Twelve strangers, and no more, were to be im
ported to teach spinning and Aveaving, whose Avages hereto
be paid out of the earnings of the spinners. A sum of £600
was to be taken out of charity funds m the hands of the
Chamber, and the citizens were to be applied to for loans on
city bonds to complete the capital advanced. The Council
were so thoroughly in earnest on the subject that nearly
£1,000 was subscribed in the room. The rash scheme came
to the ears of the city members, then at Westminster, and
Sir John Knight, on behalf of himself and his colleague,
Sir Robert Cann— apparently then on friendly terms— des
patched an urgent protest against the speculation, pointing
out that tho finances of tbe Corporation were already in a
deplorable condition," and that the scheme must inevitably
fail since the, Act excluding French linens would shortly

1679]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH! CENTURY.

395

expire, when trade Avould be surejto return to its old chan
nels. He especially requested that no further debt should
be contracted until he and his fellow-member could be heard
in the Chamber. The Council, however, persisted m their
design, with the customary results. The following item
appears in the audit book for 1684 :—" Received of Walter
Stephens & Co., the undertakers for the linen Aveaving ;
freely lent by the city toAvards its advancement ; for the
repayment of which the city have given seals to several
gift money charities, £600." As there was no further re
payment, the loss ivas ajiparently very great. The dis
appearance of Holloway's name as chief " undertaker " is
explained by the tragical story to be narrated hereafter.
An odd item occurs in the Chamberlain's accounts for
October, 1679 :— " Paid R. Corsley for a neAV Chamberlain's
seal, the old seal being not Avell done, for instead of a jiurse,
which is the Chamberlain's seal, the old seal was a perfect
bell, and not at all like a purse, 15s. bd." Mr. Corsley, Avho
is often styled a goldsmith, negotiated bills of exchange,
and transacted other financial business, and Avas in fact a
banker before that term came into use.
An incident that must have caused an intense sensation
occurred during the summer. Our only information of it is
derived from a very rare pamphlet in the British Museum,
entitled " Strange and Avonderful NeAvs from Bristol," the
title-page further alleging that the acts recounted were
done for promoting a horrid and damnable Popish Plot.
The Avriter states that on July 24th four sheep Avere found
dead near the city, with all the kidney fat taken out of
them, the carcasses and skins being left. Three sheep hav
ing been treated in the same Avay in the previous Aveek, the
facts wore reported to the magistrates, and the Mayor,
several Aldermen and Captain William Bedloe took the
matter into their serious consideration, Avhen it Avas ordered
that the Avatch should be doubled and that six substantial
householders should personally serve every night. This
was clone, he adds, because similar villainies had been prac
tised before the great fires in London and other places, " for
the fat Avith other corupotmds made up into balls are of an
extraordinary furious burning quality, and once kindled
cannot be quenched, and stick so fast when throAvn that
they cannot bo removed." The formal order of the Council
for doubling the watch "in regard of the present appre
hended danger " aviis not passed until November, but that
Sir John Lloyd took upon himself to deal promjitly Avith

SOS

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1680

than e\-cii Papists. This document Avas also sent to the
GoA'crnment, and Avas endorsed, probably by Secretary
Williamson, "A seditious presentment."
A "certificate," amongst the State Papers of August,
introduces to notice a person Avho afterwards played a pro
minent part in local affairs — Nathaniel Wade, son of a
conspicuous Puritan officer during the Civil War. The
certifiers — Sir Robert Cann, Sir Robert Yeamans, and Alder
man Olliffe — declared that Wade, then awaiting his trial
at Wells assizes, had for three years been guilty of seditious
and disloyal practices, and that he and about sixty sectaries,
of Avhich he Avas the ringleader, had formed, without the
consent of the authorities, an armed company, and exercised
themselves in arms. He had also resisted a justice Avho
w^as disturbing a conventicle, for Avhich he Avas fined at
quarter sessions, and had since again committed the same
offence, for Avhich he and his brother Avere sent to jirison.
With what object this document was sent to the Govern
ment does not appear.
At, the conclusion of the assizes, in August, Chief Justice
North and his brother Roger, Avhose interview with Bedloe
has'' been already recorded, spent a week at Badminton on
the invitation of the Marquis of Worcester, whom Roger
iu his reminiscences styles Duke of Beaufort, though that
title Avas not conferred until 1682. "The duke," he Avrote,
" had a princely Avajr of living above any except crowned
heads that I have had notice of in Europe, and in some
respects greater than most of them. He had about 200
persons in his family, and nine tables covered every day ;
and for the accommodation of so many a large hall was
built. The chief steward dined Avith the gentlemen and
pages, the master of the horse Avith the coachmen and
Hveries, the under steAvard with the bailiffs and husband
men, . . . my lady's chief Avoman Avith the gentlewomen,
the housekeeper with the maids, and some others." The
duke, he adds, Avas Lord-Lieutenant of four or five counties,
and Lord President of all Wales. His grace's dictatorial
treatment of the Corporation of Bristol was glanced at in
the Swordbearer's testimony in the House of Commons, and
will be further described in later pages.
Towards the close of the year, the House of Commons, in
consequence of complaints made to it from Bristol concern
ing the sermons and conduct of the Rev. Richard Thompson,
appointed a committee to inquire into the case. Thompson
was a man of mean birth, but must have had an influential

1680]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

399

patron, as in 1676, when only twenty-eight years of age, be
Avas appointed to the canonry of Bedminster in Salisbury
cathedral, in right of Avhicli ho held the livings of Bed
minster, St. Mary Redcliff, St. Thomas, and Abbot's Leigh.
Soon after his arrival in Bristol, he began to be notorious
for his pulpit invectives against Dissenters, and ivitnesses
deposed before the committee as to the language he had
used iu a sermon preached in St. Thomas's church a fe\v
months before. Even the Devil, he said, blushed at Pres
byterians; they were as great traitors as the Papists, and
ho hoped they Avould all be flung into gaol and their houses
burnt. Hampden, he added, Avas a villain for refusing to
pay the King s rightful demand of ship-money. In another
sermon in the same church he asserted that Queen Eliza
beth ivas a leAvd and infamous woman, and then jiroceeded
to traduce the House of Commons and the Reformation.
Out of doors his talk Avas equally unseemly. He had re
viled several of the cathedral dignitaries, and denounced
people avIio attended their sermons as brats of the Devil.
He. had, he said, been a hundred times at Mass in France,
and lie (lid not knoAv but what he should change his reli
gion. Some coarse expressions aspersing Queen Elizabeth
Avere uttered to Roe, the Swordbearer, Avhom he described
as a "lusty felloAv," born out of due season. Thompson
Avas confronted Avith these Avitnesses, and confessed to
having spoken to the effect they deposed. The committee
having reported these facts to the House, the Commons
resolved that the offender was a scandal to his profession,
that he should be impeached, and that the report on his
case should be printed. (A copy of the pamphlet is in Mr.
t Yeare's collection.) The dissolution of Parliament,
a few days later, put an end to further proceedings. No
better evidence can be given as to the character of the
Government of the day than the fact that Thompson Avas
appointed to the first vacant canonry in Bristol cathedral
and Avas promoted to the office of Dean in 1684. though
utterly detested by the Bishop and his colleagues in the
Chapter On June 21st, 1685, he preached a sermon in the
cathedral to the troops brought into the city by the Duke
ot Beaufort, m which he insisted that subjects should pas
sively obey their Prince, and even humbly submit to be
punished for not observing his sinful commands. James II
he added, Avas great and Avise and merciful, and would be
known to future ages as James the Just. Being a. man
after the Kmg s heart, he was far on his Avay to a bishop-

400

THE ANNALS OJ? BRISTOL

[1681

ric, when his career was cut short by death in November,
1(585. The violence of political factions that had marked several
previous years reached its climax early in 1681, when,
owing to the ferment in London, a Parliament Avas sum
moned to meet at Oxford. It Avould seem that ardent
adherents of the tAvo rival camps could not meet in Bristol
without coming into collision. To cite an instance found
amongst the State Papers, Tt appears that on February
11th, Avhilst the Mayor (Sir Richard Hart), Sir John
Knight, and other Aldermen Avero assembling in the Tolzey
for judicial business, tho tAvo worthies just named, avIio
Avere getting ready to take the field as rival candidates,
lost no time in insulting each other, the irascible old knight
terming his competitor a base, ungrateful fellow, giving
him the lie to his face, and threatening him Avith his cane
— all Avhich Avas fortliAvith reported to the Government by
the Mayor, avIio prayed the King to redress the " intoler
able affront," but of course said nothing about the ttnruli-
ness of his oavii tongue. The Bristol election concluded
on March 7th, after scenes of unprecedented excitement.
Practices hitherto unknown Avere adopted to secure support
for the rival candidates. The ultra-Royalists secretly be
sought William Penn to influence Quaker voters, promising
that the sect should be exempted from the persecution of
Dissenters. The opposite party, on the other hand, had
recourse to a Lonclon printer, and produced an electioneer
ing placard, probably the first ever seen in Bristol. In this
unique broadside, of which there is a copy in the British
Museum, the " lovers of freedom " are desired to take notice
that " hundreds of persons" had been placed on the roll of
burgesses at the expense of Tory wire-pullers, to the injury
of the old freemen. Drinking and treating were, of course,
Avidely prevalent. The candidates were Sir Richard Hart,
Mayor, and leader of the Tories ; Thomas Earle, Mayor in
the following year, generally esteemed a Whig, hut a bitter
enemy of Dissenters; Sir Robert Atkyns, the Recorder,
who held aloof from bigots on both sides, but was probably
a Whig; and Sir John Knight, whose anti-Popery fanaticism
and opposition to tho Government had deadened old high
flying principles, and who Avas now scornfully termed "an
old rat " by a Tory chronicler. The poll, which luckily has
been preserved, resulted as follows: — Mr. Earle, 1,491; Sir
Ii. Hart, 1,462; Sir R. Atkyns, 1,435 ; Sir J. Knight, 1,301.
Through some disagreement between the Sheriffs, all the

1681]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

401

candidates were returned as duly elected. Sir John Knight,
as was| to be expected, vented his wrath at being at the
bottom of the poll by SAvearing at large, publicly branding
those Avho voted against him, according to a Tory grand-
jury presentment, as "Pojush dogs, Jesuits and devils."
On the meeting of Parliament a petition claiming the seats
was presented on behalf of Atkyns and Knight, but the
House" Avas dissolved after sitting only a few clays. The
Easter sessions grand jury, just referred to, donouncod the
jiotition as full of falsohoods, and suggested the removal of
the Recorder !
On March 8th, immediately after the election, an incident
of an exciting character occurred at the Council House.
After the death of Sir John Lloyd, some weeks previously,
the Mayor had been thrice requested to summon a Court of
Aldermen to supjily the vacancy, but Hart refused, being
desirous of postponing the matter ttntd Sir Robert Atkyns
had left the city, tvhen the Mayor's opponents would be
deprived of a vote. At length the Recorder and five other
Aldermen convened a Court on the above day, and requested
the Mayor and others to attend. At the hour appointed
the Mayor was at the Tolzey, but sulkily avoided to enter
the Chamber, and the six Aldermen present proceeded in
his absence, unanimously electing Thomas Day, the senior
Councillor on the roll, and a man of ample wealth. Mr.
Seyer 's assertion that " it Avas by no means a party busi
ness " seems justified by the facts. One of the Aldermen
present had been a zealous supporter, of Hart in the Par
liamentary contest, and Sir Robert Cann, a still warmer
adherent of the Mayor, was preArented from voting for Day
only by illness. The new Alderman, hoAvever, had a fatal
fault in the eyes of the Mayor : ho had voted at the poll for
tho Recorder and Sir John Knight. The first act of the
Tory majority in the Council touching the matter was some
what pitiful. They resolved that the entertainment of the
Recorder at the gaol delivery, Avhich had become a long-
established custom, should be discontinued, and search Avas
ordered to be made in the records to see whether his yearly
fee of £20 could not be cut down. But this did not satisfy
the Mayor and his more furious adherents, avIio determined
upon an extraordinary step — the indictment of the Recorder
and three other Aldermen, Avhom they charged at the quarter
sessions Avith conspiracy and riot. The prosecutors did not
dare to attack all those concerned in Day's electiou, for tho
trial of six justices before the Mayor and tho four Aldermen
D D

402

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1681

ready to obey his orders Avould have scandalised the city.
Hart Avas moreover astute enough to wait until after the an
nual civic elections, Avhen the choice of two uncompromising
partisans as Sheriffs rendered it certain that the jury-box
would be packed by men of similar passions. In the mean
time, he and his four henchmen, Cann, Yeamans, Olliffe and
Crump, held a Court of Aldermen, and filled the alleged
vacancy by electing Thomas Earle, then Mayor-elect. The
indictment produced at the October sessions against tho
Recorder and three other defendants assorted that, in pur
suance of a wicked conspiracy, they broke by force of arms
into the Tolzey, and riotously assembled in the Council
House, where they held a secret council for the purpose of
illegally electing Day. It was perfectly knoAvn to all in
Court that those charges Avere false ; but the unscrupulous
jury at once found a verdict of guilty. An appeal being,
however, demanded, the judgment Avas respited. Pending
the issue, Hart's friends devised a plan for bringing up
the Recorder for trial before themselves, with a view of
dismissing him from office. The ringleader in this project
Avas one of the new Sheriffs, the third John Knight of this
troublous reign, son of the respectable sugar-refiner, and
surpassing even his titled namesake in intemperance and
scurrility. This official, on November 15th, laid before the
Common Council a series of " articles " against Sir Robert
Atkyns, embodying the charges laid in the indictment,
with others of a like character ; and the Chamber sum
moned the Recorder to answer those charges within three
months. Sir Robert, hoAvever, treated the proceeding with
contempt, and it Avas found prudent to abandon the design.
In Michaelmas Term, 1682, the Recorder appeared in the
Court of King's Bench to defend his own case. The scene Avas
a remarkable one. Atkyns had been deprived by the King
of his judgeship in the Common Pleas for his uprightness
and independence in the discharge of his functions, a
proffered bribe for servility having been scornfully rejected.
He noAv appeared at the bar "in his cloak," discarding legal
apparel, and was received by the bench with great respect,
a chair being brought for him by order of the Chief Justice.
After pointing out various legal defects in the indictment,
he argued that the Mayor's assumed supremacy over the
Aldermen, and tbe jiretended illegality of an aldermanic
election at which Hart wilfully refused to be present, could
not bo substantiated. He further shoAved that Hart was
acting as a justice and an alderman in defiance of the

1681]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUEY.

403

express words of the city charters. He had come up at the
last gaol delivery, but not at the proper time, requesting
to be sAvorn m, and his partisans made a hideous tumult in
his support, but he (the Recorder) refused to let the oath
ne then tendered, and withdrew, and the ceremony of
swearing, winch was illegal in his absence, ivas a pure
nullity. ihe venerable gentleman concluded with some
striking remarks on the state of the civic body. He had
ielil, l,e said, the Recordership for twenty-ono years, the
iSir?Tkn0Wn,1 Until the I»st electoral contest,
weh he had not sought, he had the good will of all
p. , tics, even of Hart, for he would never join any section,
and strove to promote unity. But " ever since they grew
too VKi " ° ^ T1 k^hood-too much saifanl
u 1 fth.fr S^Tth-y have,beei1 miserably divided. And
i ui less tins Court will examine their disorders, and com-
Jtp ^ Pea°e and °rder t0 be observed, I cannot safely
attend any more, or hold any gaol delivery." The Court
masll "the^^Tf ^ ^Vnd^ment ™ vicious and
quashed the verdict. In the following December Atkyns
resigned the office he had held so honourably. It was
re orted hat he did so at the solicitation of his friends
bv tl L S°6 N°rt^ a!l6rted that lie was compelled to retire
to Wf VeiTTtS threats of Petition, but in a letter
meutS- I ^eilkllls complaining of his unworthy treat-
Sv ee of fWk StateS that lle ^drew by the friendly
o he If minff\ Hc "ved to see the downfall
William fil 7' beC°me L°rd Chief Barou under
foiTnvn,l0n'e *?itati°n Provoked by the election continued
many months. Reference has been aheady made to the
^m " W "J"'0 "y t,f'° !rtinm Kran'1 jU^at the ^
te(?i a u. fl 1S a f",rtl,cr l'aragra]>h in the document
Jir , f n g- r0gllU0U that Harfc a»d ]'is school Avere de-
mious ol imposing on public opinion. The iury strono-lv
tSiTtt^U C0Srh°USeS -^tipplieg-hottsi iiT the oft^
sectaries Lf^f T™ consta»% frequented by seditious
tiwtM p6rS0US' Where visitors ™*° enter
tained with false news, scandalous libels, and pamnhlets
dishonouring the Church and the Government It was
therefore recommended that no iicavs, printed or written
and no pamphlet should be suffered to be read in any coffee-'
iriicSi^ hthde is** — d iby the ^ -
The Council's quarrel with the Recorder was followed by

404:

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1681

a dispute Avith another, and much less reputable, civic
official, whose appearance in the House of Commons in the
case of Sir Robert Cann had given great offence. A
minute dated May 31st, 1681, reads as folloivs : — " John Roe,
SAvordbearer, having iu many respects misbehaved himself,
ordered that he be immediately dismissed." Doubts having
arisen as to the legal validity of this decree, the folloAving
note Avas afterwards interpolated : — " At a Council the 20th
June, the House having assigned no particular cause against
the said John Roe, ordered that those might be assigned :
for bearing false testimony against several persons of
quality in this city ; for refusing come (sic) from London
Avith Mr. Mayor Avheu thereto required ; for speaking Arery
opprobrious reproachful Avords of the magistracy and Govern
ment." The post being declared vacant, one Daniel Pym
Avas elected in the folloAving August. Two months later it
is recorded that Roe had applied for a mandamus for resti
tution to his office, and the Mayor, on instructions, retained
three barristers to resist the claim. Nevertheless, in Janu-
aiy, 1682, the Council, in doubt as to its proceedings,
thought it advisable to begin de novo, and summoned Roe
to show cause Avhy he should not be dismissed. Roe accord
ingly produced a " humble ansAver " to the above charges,
denying the alleged misdemeanours, but refusing, on legal
advice, to ansAver further until his suit in the King's Bench
Avas decided. He Avas thereupon again dismissed. Roe's
proceedings for the folloAving eighteen months are involved
in mystery. He was, in fact, engaged in an extensive con
spiracy, of Avhich an account will be given in 1683, and
saved his life ouly by a flight to Holland. The Corporation
exulted over Avhat appeared to be the extermination of its
litigious official. His surprising resurrection and ultimate
triumph Avill be narrated in 1691.
Two destructive fires, one upon the Quay and the other
in Wine Street, occurred in the early months of 1681, and,
as was always the case, the provision made against such
calamities was found practically unserviceable. The
Council, in June, ordered the parishes to procure fire-en
gines and an adequate supply of buckets. Old engravings
show that the fire-engines of the time were little larger or
more powerful than the garden engines of the present day;
but the vestries were ttnAvilling to incur expense, and no
thing appears to have been done ; for in September. 1685,
after another alarming fire, the Council "revived" the
above order, apparently with as little effect as before.

1681]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

405

The Marquis of Worcester, Lord-Lieutenant, having
given orders for a muster of the militia in September, the
dominant party in the Council resolved to avail themselves
ot his visit to mark their adherence to his ultra-Royalist
principles. An invitation to the Marquis and his tivo sons
to accept the hospitality of the Corporation having been
graciously accepted, it ivas resolved that the freedom should
be presented to his lordship for his many favours, not only
by Ins influence with the King, but by his "happy counsel
and advice " humbly trusting that the city might never
want the favour and patronage of his family. The same
compliment was also tendered to the Marquis's sons. The
noble gUc.sts seem to have been lodged at the mansion of
Sn Robert Cann, but one of the banquets given to them
took place m Merchants' Hall, and was probably offered by
the Society. The Corporation expended £186, of which
£110 were received by Sir Robert Cann. Amongst the
minor items of the account were As. for two pounds of
tobacco-a vast reduction in the price of that article as
compared with earlier records— and Is. lOd. for a gross of
pipes ; which prove that smoking had become a post-
prandial custom amongst the upper classes
About the time when the members of the Corporation
were hob-nobbmg_ Avith nobility, humbler citizens were
entertaining a visitor whose name will be ever associated
Soo! „f ? ^r688 Sld de™lopment of the English race.
Soon after \\ dbam Penn, Avhose Bristol extraction has been
already notech had obtained the charter constituting him
proprietor of Pennsylvania (February 24th, 1681), he began
preparations for the foundation of his colony. At his fn-
s igation, the Quakers of Bristol organized a company,
styled he Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania, and fn
the autumn Penn came down to confer with the leading
members, amongst Avhom were men named Moore, Eord
and Claypole, the first-named, Nicholas Moore, a JaAvyer
bemg their chairman. On September 27th Penn granted
the company 20,000 acres of land for a settlement A
vessel having been fitted out, in which several person ent
barked as emigrants Moore departed in chai-ge o the
S&f^ C0»tm^ sailed ^y
Amongst the Tanner MSS. in the Bodleian Library is a
letter from Bishop Goulston to the Primate, Avh ch Hoavs
some light on the corporate yearnings of the time W it im I
on November 16th, the Bishop stated that the Mayor had

40G

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1681

that day set off for London, previously begging tho Avriter
to appeal for the Archbishop's assistance in the applications
he Avas about to. make to the King. In the first place, the
Corporation desired the grant of a new charter ; secondly,
they wished to have a lease, iu reversion, of Kingswood
Chase ; and thirdly, they were anxious that Bristol might
have a Lord Mayor. It is characteristic of the civic records
that no hint of any of those proposals is to be found in the
Council minutes, tho Mayor's journey being ostensibly for
the sole purpose of taking the oaths. It will presently be
seen that the supplication for a new charter was granted in
a manner little satisfactory to many of the applicants. The
other requests were eluded, but to soften the Mayor's dis
appointment he was dubbed a knight, and reappeared in
the civic chair as Sir Thomas Earle.
The closing months of the year were marked by the out
break ot a persecution of Dissenters surpassing the grossest
of its forerunners. It, began in November by the arrest,
under the Conventicles Acts, of all the Nonconformist
ministers and about 100 laymen, all of whom Avere flung
£to -Newgate. In December, the notorious attorney, John
Hellier, followed by a smith and fourteen labourers, broke
into the Presbyterian chapel, and ordered his hirelings to
pull down the "prattling box," the pews, and the galleries,
and to destroy all tho windows, which was thoroughly.
accomplished. The Broadmead meeting-house, and that of
the Quakers m the Friars, were next reduced to wrecks
and the timber and other materials of the latter Avere
carried off, and appraised at £2 9*. 6d., though the damage
was ready more than a hundredfold greater. The out
rages w^ere perpetrated under pretence of distraining for a
fine of £5 laid on each building by Sir Richard Hart and
his clique for not sending a soldier in arms to the militia
muster; but they were doubtless instigated by party
vindictiveness, many of the Dissenters having voted
against Hart at the Parliamentary election. In the case of
Broadmead chapel the fine had been actually paid, yet the
hiiA-oc wrought there left it a mere ruin. On December
26th, the Mayor, with the Sheriffs and the Bishop's Secre
tary, took the field in person, and ordered all the men
gathered in that chapel to be committed to prison. A
feAv days later it Avas again entered by order of the
justices, when the seats were torn up and burnt; and
avi thin a feAV Aveeks all the other chapels Avere Avrecked,
the Avindows broken, the. doors nailed up, and tho ministers

1681]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

407

and many of the congregations sent to gaol. Children
were not punishable tinder the Apts, but several boys, caught
holding meetings for prayer whilst their fathers and
mothers were in gaol, were put in the stocks and beaten
Avith Avhalebone rods. Fifteen boys and girls Avere com
mitted to Bridewell as alleged disturbers of the peace,
and Hellier urged the justices to have them lashed ivith
the cat. Some of their parents Avere meaiiAvhile dying
iii the filthy prisons, and many Avere beggared by the
seizure and sale of their goods. Such Dissenters as
remained at liberty were noiv forced to betake themselves
to tho fields for Avorship, and in despite of the oppression
their meetings were sometimes attended by from 1,000 to
1,_T>00 people. At the sessions in March, 1682, upAvards of
150 persons were fined £20 a month for not attending
church. Hellier had then become under-sheriff of Somer
set, and in concert Avith one Player, a magistrate at
KingSAVood, and with a son of the aldermanic publican,
Olliffe, mercenaries were organized for preventing open-air
services in every suburban district. On April 11th, whilst
a minister named Knight, and a High Street mercer
named Ford, were striving to escape from one of these
gangs by crossing the Avon, near Conham, Mr. Ford was
droAvned, and Mr. Knight died subsequently from exhaus
tion. A coroner's jury found three of Olliffe's harpies
guilty of manslaughter, but at the trial, at Gloucester,
the judge, aAved by the presence of Lord Worcester's
eldest son, ordered the prisoners to be acquitted, and
rebuked the coroner. Hellier, in the meanwhile, got six
of Knight's congregation committed to Somerset assizes,
Avhere, on his false allegations of their disloyalty, they
Avero each fined £S(), and sent to gaol until the money
Avas_ paid; whilst in Bristol he applied for o()i) Avrits
against recusants, tho fine being £20 a month. In July,
the Mayor and his colleagues posted train- bands at the
city gates on Sunday mornings, to prevent Dissenters
from repairing to the fields, but this merely forced deter
mined men to depart on Saturday nights. Large bodies
of officers Avere, however, employed to capture such as
gathered for Avorship, and imprisonments Avithout any
warrant were of constant occurrence. NeAvgate Avas in
so vile a state that one of the aldermen publicly avowed
that he Avould not send his dog to it, yet it Avas frequently
so gorged with Dissenters that four Avero compelled to
repose on each miserable pallet, On one occasion a surplus

40S

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1681

glut of thirty-five Quakers had to sleep upon the ground.
JNot content Avith endangering the lives ol his victims, Hellier
levied exorbitant distraints on their goods, breaking into
houses and shops for that purpose, and selling the spoil
at a small fraction of its value. To give a single illus
tration of the numberless outrages, Mr. Richard Marsh,
a merchant m Wine Street, Avas deprived of tAvo butts of
wine, which were sold for the derisory sum of £4, and
then £6 in money were taken^orcibly from him to make
up a fine of £10. Only a fciv months later, a second
distress Avas levied upon him for the same amount, Avhen
all his account-books were carried off, together Avith a
quantity of goods, the officers even ransacking the chamber
in. which his Avife Avas lying in child-bed. Many em
ployers of labour Avere so impoverished as to be forced
to discharge their Avorkmen. A London news-letter of
August 17th stated that above 1,500 Bristol Dissenters
were then under prosecution. With the exception of
Hellier, no one was so active and so cruel in this persecu
tion as Helher's prompter, Sheriff John Knight, who had
learnt inhumanity whilst a factor in the West Indies.
His exploits being gleefully reported to the Government,
he was rewarded for his services with the honour of
knighthood. (It ts gratifying to learn that " old Sir John
Knignt was disgusted with the brutality of his name
sake, and was spoken of by a Quaker pamphleteer as "a
worthy magistrate.") The fines imposed on the Bristol
Quakers alone in 1683 amounted to £16,440. One
prominent Friend, Charles Harford, paid fines amounting
to over £300, and spent several months in prison. An
attempt was made by Knight and Hellier to put in
operation an Act of Elizabeth, under Avhich persons
refusing to conform to the Church and not abjuring the
realm Avere punishable with death. In fact, Richard
Vickris, son of Alderman Vickris, deceased, had this sen
tence actually pronounced upon him by Sir John Churchill,
the new Recorder, but a writ of error was procured
through the intervention of the Duke of York, and the
prisoner Avas discharged. One of the most melancholy
facts connected Avith the persecution is the language in
which the packed grand juries, at quarter sessions, express
Avarm approval of the proceedings of the authorities
urge them to a still more vigorous execution of the laws,'
and insolently "present" those magistrates (old Sir John
Knight, Alderman Crabb, and Alderman Creswick), avIio

1681]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

409

discountenanced the outrages that were being constantly
committed. William Colston, father of the philanthropist, died on
Novoinber 21st, 1681, in the house in Wine Street that
hacl been his dAvelling for nearly fifty years. He had
resigned his aldermanic gown in' 1664, but continued his
mercantile enterprises with great vigour, and became
probably the largest importer of Levant fruits, besides
carrying on an extensive Avine and oil trade Avith the Penin
sula. Although five of his sons attained manhood, none
ol them remained to assist in the Bristol house, and most
ol them are supposed to have been long resident in Spain
or Portugal. Near the end of his life he appears to have
sent for his fourth son, Thomas, to conduct his business,
and that gentleman soon afterAvards was admitted a free
man, and elected a Common Councillor, and purchased
from the son of Sir Henry CresAviek the stately mansion
of that family in Small Street. The second son, Sir
Richard Colston, resigned the considship of Marseilles
soon after bis father's death, but did not return to Bristol.
The early life of Echvard, the eldest child of the family,
is as obscure as that of his brothers. According to a
statement made by himself, he was educated in London.
The books of the London Mercers' Company show that
at Midsummer, 1654, he was apprenticed, being then
Avithm five months of completing his eighteenth year,
for a term of eight years, to Humfray Aldington, mercer.
At the end of his servitude he must have been absent
from the capital, for though the privileges of a London
freeman Avero indispensable to a resident merchant, he
did not apply for admission into his Company for eleven
years, lie was at length enrolled on May' 2nd, 1673,
Avium he paid a small fine, for his tardiness. Of his
presence in Bristol there is no evidence until June 15th, 16S2,
Avhoii he Avas in his forty-sixth year, and Avhen the Cham
berlain records a loan made by him to the Corporation :-

probably took place
¦ier Avas on a visit to the city to Avind up his late
father's estate, of which he was executor. In December,
1683, he was again in Bristol, in consequence of the fatal
illness of his brother Thomas, and took tho opportunity
to seek admission to the freedom, and also to the M<n'--
¦¦¦u ¦¦¦¦ ¦'¦*' Society. Thomas died in the folloAving your,

lend

chants'

410

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1681

bequeathing the house in Small Street, and apparently
the mercantile business, to Edward ; and from 16S5 to 1688
the latter imported, in ships previously belonging to his
father, yearly cargoes of oil and other goods. That he
Avas not even then a resident is proA'ed by the minute-books
of the Merchants' Society, in Avhich his presence at a Hall
is only twice recorded ; the words " at London," or " lives
at London," being generally written against his name
on the roll in explanation of his absence. During the
same period, in fact, he was taking an active part in the
management of Christ's Hospital. In 1687, when the
policy of the Corporation had probably given him dis
satisfaction, he demanded the repayment of his loan, and
£600 were refunded early in the year. But he continued to
press for the balance, and on October 13th the Mayor had the
unpleasant duty of informing the Council that an " extent "
hacl been levied on the city propertjr to recover the amount
due. A feAv days later, Colston's attorney, Mr. Thomas
EdAvards, came to the rescue of the impecunious Council,
adArancing the required amount on a mortgage, and the
unpleasant affair was thus settled. About the same time
Mr. Colston disposed of his Bristol ships, closed his local
transactions, and in April, 1689, removed from London
to Mortlake, Avhere he resided almost uninterruptedly
until his death. There is no trace of another visit to
Bristol until 1700.
It is difficult to realize the conditions of English social
life in an age destitute of newspapers. With the excep
tion of the Government organ, the London Gazette, which
tAvice a week produced proclamations and tidings of
official appointments, Avith brief records of horse races,
cock fights, startling highway robberies, and executions
of criminals — all compressed into two small pages — no
periodical touching on current events and topics Avas
allowed to be printed. The only manner in Avhich the
provincial public could obtain a knowledge of" passing
occurrences was by means of Lonclon " hbavs letters," the
writers of which skilfully collected facts and gossip from
various sources. These Aveekly letters became about this
time extremely popular amongst the class that could
afford to purchase them. The Corporation audit book
contains the following items under December, 1681 : —
"Paid the ToAvn Clerk, for one year's Mr. Munday's
letters, £6 ; postage, 39s." The cost of each letter was
thus a little over 3s.

1681-82]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

411

The first party of French Huguenots driven out
of their country by the persecution of Louis XIV.
landed at Bristol in December, 1681. Amongst the
State Papers of that month is a letter from the Mayor
and the high-flying Aldermen to Secretary Jenkins,
stating that the immigrants consisted of men, women
and children, generally of the meaner sort, and need
ing relief, and that many more Avere understood to be
coming. The writers were at a loss how to dispose of
them, owing to their great number and poverty, the
city having already more poor than it could keep at
work, and directions were requested as to Avhere the
immigrants should be sent. The truth was that the
Mayor and his allies were greatly annoyed by the influx of
this new body of Dissenters, who received much sympathy
from the citizens. Struck by a happy thought, the
irritated justices, in the following month, again addressed
Jenkins, begging that the fines levied on persons resort
ing to conventicles might by the King's grace be
applied to the relief of the French ; but there is no
record of this proposal having been carried out. Another
numerous party of Huguenots landed in the folloAving
August, and had a hospitable reception. On this occasion
the Corporation disbursed £42 10s. for their relief.
According to local tradition, many of the fugitives were
mariners, and this class Avould be soon absorbed in the
fast-increasing merchant service of the port. There Avas,
however, a sprinkling of higher-class immigrants, a
minute still in existence recording that ten merchants,
a physician, three surgeons, and nine weavers took the
oath of allegiance to the English crown.
The State Papers for 1682 and 1683 contain a con
siderable number of papers, hitherto unpublished, relat
ing to tho quarrels and intrigues then disturbing tho
Corporation. From the facts already narrated, one Avould
scarcely suppose that Sir Thomas Earle's treatment of
Dissenters could have merited disapproval on the ground
of its leniency. The Mayor himself, in a letter sent to
Secretary Jenkins, in June, 1682, took credit for his
thoroughness. The King's affairs in the city, he said,
"were in a good position, the conventicles being in a
manner wholly suppressed. We deal in all tenderness with
the Quakers, but such is their obstinacy that near 30 are in
Newgate, and 60 women in Bridewell, Avhere we put them
for more air, and to prevent their clamours above" — that is,

412

THE ANNALS OF lllUSTOL

[1682

to the Court. But this avus far from satisfactory to the
Aindietive Sheriff, the second Sir John Knight, avIio in the
sumo month forwarded to the Minister a furious indictment
against Sir Thomas. It is highly characteristic of this
unscrupulous man that tho missive, and others that Avill
shortly be mentioned, are not in his hanclAvriting, and bear
no signature, and are known to be concocted by him only
from the endorsements of the recipients or other circum
stances. The Mayor is charged Avith scandalous indulgence
to all recusants and sectaries. He refuses to send Baptists
to prison ; those that are committed by other aldermen he
induces the gaoler to liberate ; he takes sureties from rich
Quakers and discharges them at his own house ; Avhen
Quakers are brought before the bench, and he finds himself
outvoted by " honest " justices, he delays committing until
he can get a majority of aldermen on his side, and then the
offenders are let off; if sectaries are convicted by the
"loyal" magistrates, he advises the prisoners to appeal,
when he and his adherents outvote the honest justices ; it is
true he sends some poor fanatics to prison, but that is done
to arouse clamour against prosecutions ; and finally by these
arts he has put a full stop to proceedings against conven
ticles. After expatiating on these scandalous practices, and
detailing the case of the Recorder, the libeller comes to the
real object he has at heart. He urges that the Corporation
haA^e forfeited their charter, and earnestly hopes that the
King Avill commiserate the condition of his loyal subjects,
over-ridden by disaffected magistrates, by issuing a Quo
Warranto, and so put an end to the existing civic body.
That Sir John Knight II. had colleagues in the Council
equally eager to welcome a drastic royal policy will speeddy
be shown. The Government, however, were not yet ready
to move ; and the intriguers found it necessary to take
steps to secure a new Mayor, and neAV Sheriffs, on Avhom
they could thoroughly rely. A difficulty Avas encountered
in the fact that, in regard to both offices, several of those
entitled to be elected by the usual course of rotation Avere
men whose moderate principles rendered utterly objection
able. The obstacle was found to be so serious that it was
resolved to apply for help to the Marquis of Worcester, and
his lordship, cleverly disguising the real object of his visit,
ordered a muster of the militia for the alleged purpose of
imposing the test oaths on the troopers. During his stay,
the customary corporate festivities took place, which gave
the Marquis an opportunity of inculcating obedience and

1682]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

113

fidelity to the good cause, and ho apparently mado several
converts. Ho ended by ordering the election of Thomas
Eston as Mayor, and that person, Avith George Hart and
John Combes as Sheriffs, Avas duly elected. Sir Richard
Hart jubilantly informed Secretary Jenkins that "the loyal
party carried it without much struggling." The Marquis,
writing to the same Minister, frankly avowed that he had
come to the city "to promote a good election," adding, " I
have so far proceeded [succeeded ?] in it by strengthening
some, and forcing others, that though the King's friends
are not so thorough as I could wish, the result will be satis
factory. . . . We have been forced to leap over the heads
of some that of course should go before " (those elected).
A local instance of the mutability of human institutions
occurs in the Council minutes of September 15th. In the
previous century the chapel of "St. Anne in the Wood"
(Fillwood), near Brislington, was a highly popular place of
pilgrimage, and had seen even royal visitors offering at its
shrine. In 1682, a pottery had been erected amongst the
ruins, and at the above meeting, Edward Ward, potter, St.
Anne's, was admitted a freeman gratis. It is probable that
this manufactory was the first in the district to produce
articles superior to the coarse stoneware turned out by local
potters. The use of crockery for domestic purposes was still
far in the future, the dinners of the rich being served on
pewter, while humble traders and working-men were con
tent to dine on wooden platters.
The Council, in December, filled the office of Recorder by
the election of Sir John Churchill, subsequently Master of
the Rolls. This man's pompous entertainment in Bristol of
a member of the King's harem is already known to the
reader. But the Chamber, as if to emphasize its debase
ment, ordered that the hospitality it had refused to Sir
Robert Atkyns at the gaol delivery should be tendered to
his successor " with all respect." Tho Mayor, with
Yeamans, Olliffe, Crump, the second Sir John Knight, and
others seized the opportunity to inform Secretary Jenkins
of the appointment, trusting it would give the King satis
faction. The real aim of the letter, however, was to urge
the adoption of the policy already prayed for by Knight,
The city would never be well settled, said the writers, until
(old) Sir John Knight and the Aldermen that followed him
were displaced like Sir Robert Atkyns. This dispatch hav
ing been sent direct to Whitehall, the prime mover, Knight,
drew up a much longer diatribe, which he forwarded to the

414 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1682
Recorder for communication to the Government. As in the
former case, the letter bears no signature, but there can be
no question as to its authorship. It describes the Court of
Aldermen as consisting of the Mayor and four "good men,"
— Yeamans, Olliffe, Crump aud Hart — and seven" ill men,"
avIio Ai'ould be increased to eight next election if a Mayor
Avere chosen by seniority, and two "ill " sheriffs Avould also
come in by rotation. To get the aldermanic body in a
" food " state the Avriter proposed that four of the " bad "
meu— the elder Knight, LaAvford, Crabb and CresAviek —
should be tried for riot, convicted and ejected. Earle could
be laid aside, "his election not being good," a naive confes
sion of the malpractices of the clique. Thus five "good "
men could be chosen, and the succession of " bad " men would
be destroyed. If this plan Avere not approved, Knight sttg-
o-ested that the King should send doAvn a mandate to
the aldermanic body for the displacement of the " bad "
men Avhose relatiA-es Avould then not dare to support them,
as they otherwise Avould. " All this," he concludes, "is our
judgment," showing that he was acting with the assent of
ids partisans. The course taken by the Government will
speedily appear.
The Dean and Chapter, in 1682, gave orders for the
erection in the Cathedral of a " fair great organ," still in
existence. An organ built shortly before the Civil War
w^as then in use, but Avas doubtless dilapidated. A capitu
lar minute of December 10th reads :— " It appearing to tho
Dean and Chapter that Paul Heath, organist, and master of
the choristers, hath had several admonitions for keeping a
disorderly ale house, debauching the choir men, and other
disorders there, and neglecting the service of the church:
and being now credibly informed that he doth still keep ill
order in Ids house, and hath suffered one Rouch, a barber,
to trim in bis bouse on the Lord's Day, . , . (and ac
cording to report bath alloAved several town-dwellers to sit
tippling in bis houao till they were drunk, or very much
overgone Avith liquor, one of them being found there dead,
and hath often suffered illegal games^there,") ... it is or
dered that Heath be " removed, expelled, and dismissed.'
Tbe fixed capitular payments were then £544 a year; of
Avhich the, Dean rcceiA^ed £100, the six prebendaries £20
each, the four minor canons, £16 each, six singers £12 each,
four 'choristers £4 each, and the organist and schoolmaster
£20 each. Tho ordinary income Avas about £250 in excess
of tho outlay, and this surplus Avas raised to over £1,000

1682-83]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH' CENTURY.

415

in years when valuable leases Avere reneAved. Most of
the balance Avas divided annually amongst the Chapter,
the Dean receiving a fourth and each prebendary an
eighth. Amongst the freemen admitted this year Avas Onesiphorus
Tyndall, grocer, a native of Stinchcombe, Avho had sensed
as apprentice to Nathaniel Crowder, and Avho in the course
of a long life became a Avealthy and influential citizen. Mr.
Tyndall was treasurer of Lewin's Mead Chapel in 1704. The
name of Athelstano Tyndall, probably a brother or cousin
also occurs in the civic records.
A unique entry occurs in the Council minutes of February
6th, 1683. It records that Edward Young, Common Coun
cillor, being then present, an excommunication was produced
against him, whereupon he AvithdreAV. In the folloAving
month, Sir John Knight II., in a letter to Secretary Jenkins
incidentally stated that another Councillor [Michael] Hunt'
Avas also excommunicated. There is no further reference to
either case, either in the, civic minutes or elsewhere.
The idiom of the West of England is amusinglv adopted
by the Chamberlain in February, when he notes the pay
ment of half a croAvn to some men " that brought out the
engm from under the Guildhall to try him whether he Avas
in order." The masculine instrument did not give satisfac
tion, and a new engine Avas purchased in 1684 for £34 15s
According to Sir Richard Hart's account of his squabble with
old Sir John Knight in the Tolzey, his angry antagonist's
Ayalkmg-stick Avas also of the male gender :-—" He took tin
his cane and shook him at me." i
The. subserviency of the Common Council to tho new des
potism having been so unreserved, it seems at first sight sur
prising that tho-King and his advisers were still dissatisfied
with the situation. The charters of Bristol and other towns
however, implied the existence of popular self-government'
and though men of the stamp of the second Sir John Knteht
and Sir Robert Yeamans were everywhere ready to obey
royal dictation, there was always a" possibility that those
who succeeded them might refuse to be used as mere tools
By dett legal trickery the Corporation of London had been
driven to surrender their charters, and the lives and property
oi any men daring to oppose tho roval will in that city
were soon at the mercy of subservient judges and juries
packed with onomics. The Government iioav resolved to
secum snnilar powers in every corporate town, and in March,
1683, the Court of King's Bench, on the motion of tho

416

THE ANNALS OF UlUSTOL

[1683

Attorney-General, grantoa a "rule," requiring the Corpora
tion of Bristol to show cause Avhy a Quo Warranto should
not issue for practically depriving tho city of its ancient
franchises. Even before this step was taken, Sir John
Knreht II. had sent one of his characteristic letters to the
Secretary of State, urging the Government to proceed Avith
vie-our. He had now abandoned the plan he had previously
suggested, and hypocritically pretends that he is the mouth
piece of others in recommending a sweeping revolution :—
" I do not appear in the business on my own hand, but on
the desire of the Mayor and several of the Council, who are
ao-reed the city cannot be settled without a Quo Warranto ;
for a purge Avill be so far from settling us that it Avill divide
us " He& forAvarded the names of the members of the
Council, showing 26 as ready to bend to the King's desire,
and 22 '(including seven Aldermen) as "doubtful," but he
thought that eight of these would prove "right" on a divi
sion & Five others were absentees, showing that the Council
numbered 53 instead of 43. "If I have erred in one of the
96 men I will never see his Majesty's face. They would
despise any one who thought otherwise of them. Before I
attempted this design of a surrender, I gamed a confession
from each of them, saying they would submit. He then
disclosed the manner in which grand jury presentments
were manufactured :— " In the expectation that a writ would
be sent it was designed I should be foreman of a grand
iurv that so their presentment might agree with the
Council." Anticipating an easy victory, the Attorney-
General caused the writ to be sent down towards the end of
March and the Council assembled on the 29th, when, to the
consternation of the schemers, a resolution that the charters
should be at once surrendered was defeated on a division.
There is no further information in the minute-book, but a
letter of the newly created Duke of Beaufort to Secretary
Jenkins, dated April 1st, gives some interesting _ details
His -race was surprised at the disappointment, seeing that
Sir John Knight, the Bishop, the Mayor, the Toavu Clerk
aid a " great" ntimber of the considerable** of the loyal
^arty" had been to Badminton to inform him that they
had a moral assurance of success. There had however been
a defection amongst those that had promised Sir Thomas
Earl had not only gone astray, but had made a motion to
"address the King, through me, to continue the present
charter which befit a doubt whether I might not favour
such a delign." But the arch-traitor-of all unlikely men-

1683]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

417

Avas Sir Richard Hart, " who as you will see by your list
[clearly Knight's list] Avas depended on," but who insinuated
that the Quo Warranto was without the King's privity and
approbation. The Duke concluded by suggesting that the
Government should send down a threatening letter, when
the Mayor would call another Council ; adding that the
present defeat was " partly due to jealousy of Sir John
Knight having too great a sway if the surrender took
place." His grace's advice was probably followed, but on
April 28th, when the Council re-assembled, it was resolved
to put in an answer to the writ in defence of the city's
rights. The step seems to have caused a little perplexity
at Court, and a delay of some weeks followed ; but in June
the Attorney-General, in a letter to the Town Clerk, stated
that he not been hasty in pursuing the business, but Avas
now informed that his delay had become a matter of
triumph in Bristol, where it was supposed he was afraid
to proceed. " Deceive not yourselves. ... I entertain no
other thought but of proceeding according to a strict course
of law." The Corporation, he added, Avould be called to
account before the judges' next term. The chief charges to
be answered Avere stated to be the excessive number of the
Common Council and the neglect to hold gaol deliveries,
" divers other miscarriages and forfeitures " being hinted at
in terrorem. The Council directed the Town Clerk to deny
the charge of " triumphing," and to ask that the suit might
not be hunied on, it being impossible to make a just defence
in so short a time.
The threatened attack did not prevent the civic rulers
from continuing their quarrels. The election of Sir Thomas
Earle as an Alderman by the ultra-loyalists Avas recorded at
page 402. His defection on the surrender question aroused
the Avrath of the party, and on August 23rd the Mayor and
five Aldermen declared his election void, and chose the
Mayor to fill the seat to Avhich Day and Earle had been
successively appointed ! The matter, 'howevor, Avas not oven
yet settled (see August, 1689).
The record of corporate difficulties must be interrupted
in order to give a brief account of a conspiracy already
alluded to in dealing with Roe, the SAvordbearer. After the
King's triumph over the Whigs in 1681, a number of hot
headed men in London, Bristol and other towns began
sectetly to discuss schemes of an armed insurrection, with
a view of excluding the Duke of York from the throne.
From numerous documents in the State Papers, it appears

418

THE ANNALS OE JJ1HST0L

[1683

that upAvards of a hundred Bristolians Avere known or sup
posed to bo concerned in this project, amongst Avhom Colonel
JolmRumsoy, or Romsey, Avhohud been Collector of Customs,
Roe, Nathaniel Wade, his brother William Wade, and his
brother-in-law Joseph Whetham, James HolloAvay, draper
(the " undertaker" of the AveaAung scheme), Joseph Jackson,
merchant, Ichabod Chauncy, doctor, Thomas Tyloy, mercer,
and Thomas Scrope, merchant (son of Governor Scrope),
Avere alleged to have been the most conspicuous. The
confederates met nightly, sometimes to the number of
seventy, first at the White Hart, and later at the Horse
Shoe inns ; while another party gathered at the Mermaid.
Emissaries of the "Kings Head club" in London often
came doAvn to promote the design, and Roe was frequently
sent to town for the same purpose. Risings were planned
to take place in November, 1682, in nearly all the large
toAvns in the country, and the local plotters believed that
Bristol could be easily surprised and seized by 350 men, of
Avhom 200 were residents and 150 Avere to be stealthily
brought up from Taunton. Some of the more desperate
and fanatical of the conspirators in London seem to have
doubted the feasibility of projects of this character, and,
unknoAvn to the general confederacy, hatched a plot of their
oavu in March, 1683, for the purpose of assassinating the
King and the Duke of York at a place known as the Rye
House, between London and Newmarket. This gang, like
nearly all such gangs, soon produced a traitor. In May the
detection of the miscreants led to the immediate disclosure
of the original design, and the Government, with cruel
ingenuity, confounded the schemes together, insisting that
all who had joined in the first were accessories to the in
tended butchery. Colonel Rumsey, an unmitigated villain,
to save himself, surrendered, and became an informer.
Whetham, captured in London, was carried before the
Privy Council, where he insisted that the Bristol club
Avas simply formed to promote Sir Robert Atkyns' election
as member of Parliament, and, though committed for trial,
he Avas liberated on bail. Roe and others fled, including
HolloAvay, Avhose sad fate has yet to bo told. Sir Robert
Cann, on June 2nd, wrote to the Duke of Beaufort alleging
that Robert Henley, who was still unpardoned for his
Parliamentary candidature, was AVade's "great corres
pondent," evidently hoping that this Avould justify a pro
secution, adding that Dr. Chauncy avus " the bolhvethor of
all the phanatickes here." The Mayor informed Secretary

1683]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

419

Jenkins that four members of the Council, named Hine,
Watts, Corsley and Hale, had been committed to the
sessions for their complicity in the plot, and asked Iioav they
should be disposed of. Hellier, the attorney, denounced Dr.
Chauncy to the same Minister as a pestilent incendiary,
adding that all the seditious practices against the King Avere
hatched in the meeting-house that the doctor had built in
Castle Green. Chauncy, after being four months in gaol,
Avas banished. Owing to the loss of the sessions book, the
fate of the others arrested in Bristol is unknoAvn.
The discovery of the Rye House plot afforded the Council
an opportunity for beseeching the good graces of the Kino-
of which they did not fail to profit. On September 18th a
congratulatory address to His Majesty was adopted, ex
pressive of joy on his escape from a damnable conspiracy ;
but the compliments were but a shoeing horn to prayers on
a more interesting subject. " We humbly hope that your
Majesty has been pleased to accept our constant care of pre
serving the government of this city in loyal hands ... not
depending upon our OAvn judgment ... but electing the
Mayor last year by the intimation of the Duke of Beaufort,
and this year our Mayor and Sheriffs from your sacred
Majesty's directions." It was then humbly begged that the
privileges of the city would be confirmed, a pledge being
given to govern according to the King's directions. The
address was forthwith presented by the retiring Mayor
who, a week later, " read the very words uttered by his
Majesty " on the occasion. These gracious expressions Avere
not recorded in the minutes, but the Duke of Beaufort pro
fesses to repeat them in a letter to Secretary Jenkins. His
Majesty said he intended to demand no more than the Cor
poration had offered— namely, to have the governing power
secured to himself. When that was done the charters
should be confirmed as was desired. This, added the Duke
ought to force on a surrender ; if the Council refuse the
Quo Warranto should be vigorously prosecuted.
The year Avas full of surprises. It will bo seen that the
Kmg (who had rejected a Avhining suggestion for re-election
sent up by Eston) had commanded the eievation to the civic
chair of the innkeeper, Ralph Olliffe, Avhose only claims to
such an honour lay in his servility to the Government and
his cruel treatment of Dissenters, though Bish- o Mew of
Wells, extolled him to the King as "an excellent, subject and
a serviceable man." On September 29th. Ollillb then ill
Avas carried to the Guildhall in a sedan, to be sAvorn in • but

420

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1683

he died a feAv hours afterwards, to the dismay of his
partisans, avIio hurriedly despatched a messenger to Court to
recei\-e fresh instructions. In a letter of October 5th the
King, regretting the death of the " worthy magistrate,"
stated that, on the advice of the Duke of Beaufort (who had
really recommended that the city should be left without a
Mayor for a Avhile, to keep the Council in awe), he thought
fit to recommend William Clutterbuck for the vacant office,
iu order to avoid the heats of aii open election, and signifi
cantly reminded the Council of their late promise to obey
his instructions. The mandate elicited " hearty thanks,"
and was of course complied with.
The neiv Mayor, assisted by a committee, now addressed
the Attornej'-General, as tho King had suggested, begging
that he would not proceed Avith the Quo Warranto, and
promised him, with a just estimate of his character,
" returns suitable to your quality and pains " on a favour
able reply. Sir Robert SaAvyer responded on October 25th,
promising his good offices, but clearly intimating that the
Council must surrender at discretion, " As you express
readiness to comply Avith Avhat may be necessary, I have
sent you an instrument, which must be executed by you
before the King can proceed in regulating the government
of the city." The " instrument " contained a confession of
the offences mentioned in SaAvyer's previous letter, an offer
to surrender all the liberties and franchises conceded by the
charters, and a prayer that the King would grant such
privileges as he might think conducive to good government.
An appeal to the royal minions then acting as judges being
obviously hopeless, the humiliating document was executed
ou October 31st, and the Town Clerk was sent with it to
London to plead for favourable terms. He had scarcely
arrived there before he discovered that much pecuniary lu
brication would be needed " to make things pleasant." The
Lord Keeper and Secretary Jenkins had been already oiled,
the first with wine costing £42, and the latter with " 40
dozen mark quarts " of the same liquor, costing £50 13s. lid.
The Town Clerk had provided himself with a hamper of
wine for the Secretary's secretary, but that worthy declined
the gift, with a hint that a handier present would be quite
acceptable. " Though wine will not go down with some,"
Avrote Mr. Romsey to the Mayor, " yet I perceive that money
will Avith all, for the officers through which the patent has
to pass have taken every occasion to speak of Bristol as the
most opulent Avealthy place in England, and that bounty

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

421

1683]
was expected. Nay, they made a sort of comparison of it
to the East India Company." (out of Avhich they had exJ
torted enormous gratuities.) The unhappy official, " sick
of this place," asks as to Avhat shall be done Avith Jenkins,
Avho, in spite of the wine, Avas causing things " to stick,"
and concludes by requesting more money. Romsey, after
many weeks' negotiations, obtained some slight concessions,
the Corporation, for instance, being permitted to appoint
Toavii Clerks, subject to the King's approval. A request for
additional fairs Avas also granted, but a prayer for the
Rangership of KingsAvood was rejected. Doubtless for the
purpose of extracting more money, no real progress was
made until far into the following year, the King keeping
the city in his OAvn hands until June 2nd, 1684, Avhen the
new charter Avas executed. The instrument reserved to the
CroAvn the right to annul the election of any civic official
and to nominate his successor, the chief object being to
secure Sheriffs avIio could be relied upon to pack juries, and
to return members of Parliament of approved Court princi
ples. The safeguards of absolute government seemed thus
complete. Apparently at the request of the Corporation,
the charter empowered the Council to impose a fine of £500
on any one refusing to serve as Mayor, Alderman, Sheriff or
Councillor, and to imprison the recusant until the fine was
paid. The affair entailed an outlay of £742 13s. 6tf. ex
clusive of the Avine presents.
The first mention of a local glass grinder occurs this year,
Avhen a man Avas admitted a freeman, on his undertaking to
take a City schoolboy as an apprentice Avithout the usual
premium of £7. (The first glass maker does not appear
upon the roll until 1690.) On the same day a vote of £20
Avas passed for tho redemption of one Captain Johnson, avIio
had rendered the Corporation services, but had been captured
and enslaved by the Algerines.
An amusing account of Sir Robert Cann, a gentleman now
Avell knoAvn to the reader, is given in the reminiscences of
Roger North, and must refer to about this date. The cyn
ical narrator states that soon after his brother Dudley, the
eminent merchant, returned from Turkey, Avhich was in
1680, he made, the acquaintance of Sir Robert's daughter,
the rich AvidoAV of a knight named Gunning (of Rood Ash-
ton, a descendant of the Bristol Gonnings). The lady looked
on him favourably, but her father Avas opposed to the match,
and declined to entertain the suitor's proposals until he had
acquired such an estate in land as Avould provide, a fitting

422

THE ANNALS OF nrtlSTOL

[1683

jointure for the lady. Dudley, in repty, offered to settle
£20,(KX) upon her, but Sir Robert curtly responded : — "My
answer to your first letter is an answer to your second."
Dudley, equally lticonic, retorted: — "I see you like neither
me nor my business." After some time, hoAvever, Cann
yielded to the coaxing of his daughter ; North settled his
property on his intended Avife ; aud the Avedding took place,
but not before the bride had tbroAvn the marriage settlement
into tho fire. The old baronet OArcntually became proud of
his son-in-laAV, avIio, Avhen he came to Bristol, " to humour,"
says the bitter storyteller, "the vanity of that city and
people," put himself into a splendid equipage ; and the old
man often said to him, "Come, son, let us go out and shine,"
by which he meant a promenade in the streets, attended by
six footmen in rich liveries.
The elder Sir John Knight, after a long and active career,
died in December, 1683, aged 71, and the difficulty in dis
tinguishing betAveen him and his less reputable namesake
henceforth disappears. The latter, as has been previously
stated, spent se\reral years in the West Indies, and he appears
to have thought that his services to the Court in procuring
the surrender of the city franchises entitled him to no less
a roAvard than the governorship of the LeeAvard Islands, then
held by Sir William Stapleton. That he applied to the
King for this lucrative post is stated by himself in a letter
amongst the State Papers, and he adds, what is by no means
unlikely, that His Majesty had given him hopes of the
appointment. The Ministry, however, effectually remon
strated, and the disappointed suitor returned to Bristol, and
betook himself to bullying his colleagues in the Council.
One of them, Echvard Feilcling, who styles himself an old
Cavalier, appealed to Secretary Jenkins on January 31st,
1684. Observing that Knight had been more early " digni
fied" than his actions or estate deserved, the writer con
tinues : — " But his dignity Avould not satisfy his ambition
Avithout Sir William Stapleton's place to maintain it. He
has magnified his actions to get a place of profit for himself,
for Avhich he has trampled upon many loyal subjects of good
estate . . . and publicly preaches against the old suffer
ing Cavaliers. In December last, when he missed his
expectation of being generalissimo of the Caribbees, he
hasted to this city to set himself up for a parliament man,
promising some and threatening others, and putting the city
in a ferment." Mr. Feilding thinks it his duty to report
this, " which has lost the King 100 for one." On February

1683-84]

IN THE SKVENTEENTH CENTURY.

423

4th, the Secretary received another account of Knight's
doings from one John Haris, avIio alleged that Sir John in
tended to get John Romsey re-appointed Toavu Clerk "that
they might govern the city joyntly. . . . The way that
things are now managed gives great discontent to the loyal,
finding they are to be governed by these tAvo proud hot
headed gentlemen, whose dependence is on the Duke of
Beaufort." Soon after, the authorities of the LeeAvatd
Islands, greatly disturbed by reports that Knight Avould be
sont out to govern them, sent home urgent appeals against
tho nomination of a man " who is well known here," and
whoso inexperience and self-interest Avould be injurious to
both the King and tho colonies. Finally, Sir William
Stapleton must have forAvarded a scathing account of
Knight's conduct Avhilst at the islands, for Sir John peti
tioned the Privy Council to alloAV him " to vindicate his re
putation from the scandalous libels." A committee Avas
appointed for that purpose, but there is no further mention
of the subject in the minutes of the GoA'-ernment. But in the
late Mr. Sholto Hare's collection is a graphic letter from Sir
William Stapleton to Sir Robert Southwell, of Kingsweston,
dated 7th March, 1684, in Avhich he refers to the intrigues
of the "Bristol heroe" Avhilst at Montserrat, and to his talent
for noise and clamour. "There is nothing I abhor more than
to speak behind any man's back, yet, such is his rude
behaviour and insolence that I cannot forbear to say some
what of the man who is so much hated by all men here.
... I understand his grace the Duke of Beaufort is this
heroe's patron, but I am confident if his grace knew him,
he Avould never admit him in the commission of deputy-
lieutenants or militia, unless it were purely against the
quaquers, that he knows Avill not strike."
In the first week of May, 1684, the civic authorities
received a, horrible consignment from Lonclon — the head and
dismembered body of James Holloway, executed there on
April 30th — accompanied by an order from the Government
for the exhibition of the ghastly fragments over the prin
cipal city gates. The hapless "undertaker" of the corporate
Aveaving scheme was treated Avith exceptional barbarity by
the King's advisers. According to his confession, printed in
the State Trials, he had conceived a project for wresting the
linen trade from French hands by producing the fabrics at
home, and had gone to Westminster to solicit the support of
leading statesmen, in Avhich he had met with some success,
when, during the Popish Plot mania, he Avas induced to join

424

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL

[1684

in the conspiracy for excluding the Duke of York from the
throne. On the discovery of the Rye House Plot in which
he Avas not concerned, he absconded, and, as he did not
surrender under the royal proclamation, through fear of
arrest by some of his creditors, he was outlawed. After
Avandering about the country for some weeks, disguised as a
seller of Avood, he succeeded in hiring a boat of ten tons
burden in Bristol, whence he sailed to France, and eventually
to the West Indies, Avhere he employed a factor to collect
various debts due to him. This the scoundrel did, but
appropriated the money himself, and betrayed his employer
to the authorities. On being brought to London Holloway
sued piteously for pardon, but his confession was unsatis
factory to the Government, ?ince it contained nc evidence
against any of the men that the authorities sought to wreak
vengeance upon. No trial took place, and the unhappy man
was ordered to be executed on his outlaAvry.
During the nine months that elapsed between the sur
render of the old charters and the coming into force of their
debased substitute, the functions of the Common Council
Avere totally suspended, the negotiations with the Court
being left in the hands of the King's nominee, the Mayor.
Before the Chamber Avas permitted to resume its duties, a
body of royal Commissioners, consisting of the Marquis of
Worcester, Sir John Smyth, and others, held a sitting on
July 10th, 1684, to administer the oath of allegiance and
other tests of devotion, and were entertained at the city s
expense by Sir Robert Cann, the outlay being £138. The
first meeting for business under the new dispensation took
place on July 22nd, when the roll shows the changes that
had been effected. Sir Thomas Earle had been removed
from the aldermanic body, and William Hayman had been
nominated in his room by the King, who also appointed the
Mayor in the place of oldi Sir John Knight. Nineteen
Councillors, including Thomas Day and Edward Feildmg,
had been displaced, and only sixteen of the old body re
tained their seats, new men being brought m to complete a
Chamber numbering 43, as of old.; Two new members,
William Merrick and Richard Gibbons, prayed earnestly,
but vainly, to be excused. Thanks were voted to the Lord
Keeper, the Duke of Beaufort and Secretary Jenkins for the
o-reat favour they had conferred on the city in furthering
the neAV charter ; but even .the well-manipulated Council
showed a spark of independence. Lord Guildford had
"thought fit to request" the Chamber to confer the two

1684]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

425

city lectureships upon Mr. Gaskarth, lately appointed- vicar
of 'St Nicholas1, on the ground of the small income of the
living ; but as a respected clergyman, Mr. Chetwyn, already
held Sne lectureship, the Council tacitly refused to displace
him, and conferred the other upon the Lord Keepers
nominee. .
The harrying of Dissenters had gone on almost uninter
ruptedly from the period at which it was last mentioned, and
was continued throughout 1684. Tho Sheriffs nominated
by the King sought to outrival their predecessors m
severity; and the Quakers, in a petition to His Majesty,
made a piteous appeal for 120 of their sect immured m
NeAvgate and Bridewell, many for " near tAvo years, while
greater oppression was threatened. To give an instance ot
the treatment of others, the Mayor on August 23rd paid
into Court £42 10s., money levied on Michael _ Pope and
others, convicted of attending worship m Lewin s Mead
Chapel, one-third of the total amount being due to the
King. Distresses for the recovery of similar fines were of
constant occurrence, three successive distraints being levied
on the goods of Mr. Burges, draper, Wine Street. At this
period, the ministers of two chapels had been eighteen
months in Gloucester gaol, and there were numberless com
mitments of laymen. On the accession of James II., m
1685, about 1,500 Quakers were liberated from prisons, of
whom about a hundred were Bristolians ; but no lenity was
shown to other Dissenters. In the folloAving November,
Mr. FoAvnes, minister of Broadmead Chapel, died in
Gloucester gaol, where he had been incarcerated for nearly
three years.
An example of the manner in Avhich the purified Corpor
ation dealt Avith their Church patronage occurred m
September, 1684, when Richard Roberts Avas presented to
Christ Church, vacant by the death of the venerable Mr.
Standfast. In the following month Mr. Roberts petitioned
the Chamber, alleging that his new parishioners were
" litigious," and it was resolved to defend him at the city's
charge. The simple fact Avas, that Roberts was already
incumbent of All Saints', and wished to enjoy the other
living Avhilst evading the services due to the parish. The
scandal continued for a year and a half, when the Christ
Church vestry again threatened resistance, and the parson
renewed his brazen request for corporate support, although
he had been unable to got a dispensation to hold the tAvo
incumbencies. The Council, still anxious for his welfare,

420

TIIK ANNALS OF DEISTOL

[L6S4-8i">
then presented Emanuel Heath to Christ Church, " yet not
to injure the right of Mr. Roberts if he can obtain a dis
pensation." Heath — who was also incumbent of St.
Augustine's — retained the vicarage until his death, in
Jamaica, in 1693. He had obtained a royal warrant to
absent himself from his livings for seven years !
Attempts to obtain the freedom by trickery were, when
discovered, dealt Avith sharply. A publican named New
port, having, as he pretended, served an apprenticeship to a
freeman, got his name placed on the roll, and set up in
business. But the authorities, on discovering that his
servitude had been a mere sham, disfranchised him, and his
shop windows were nailed down. The offender petitioned
for pardon in October, and was re-admitted on paying a
fine of £40. Another victualler, though a " foreigner," was
o-ranted the freedom about the same time, on payment of
£8. Shortly afterAvards, a neAV industry — tbe manufacture
of tin plates— was introduced into the city by one John
Combs, avIio became a, freeman on paying £4.
Sir John Knight was in such dudgeon at the Govern
ment's refusal to reAvard him for his recent exertions that
he resolved on retiring from the Corporation. He accord
ingly petitioned the Privy Council in July, praying for his
discharge, " as the only expedient to secure him from envy
and ruin." The King's acquiescence Avas, after some delay,
transmitted to the Duke of Beaufort, as the general con
troller of corporate affairs, and at a Common Council held
on January 15th, 1685, a letter was read from his grace,
stating that Knight had been dismissed, though the King
was Avell satisfied Avith him, and exhorting the Council to
elect a man equally zealous for the King, Church and State.
The vacancy Avas" filled by the election of Robert Brook-
house, who received a warning that his non-acceptance of
the place Avould entail a fine of £200, and imprisonment till
it Avas paid. Brookhouse, however, took his seat on the
same day, but speedily tired of his dignity, which he
Avas allowed to relinquish six months' later on payment of
£100. .
Henry Gough, a former Sheriff, but ejected from tho
Chamber by the new charter, was at the above meeting
voted a pension of £20 a year, " considering his conddion."
After his death, in 1694, his widow received a pension of
£10 for life. , ^nnr, .
The death of Charles II. on February 6th, 1685, does not
appear to have been known in Bristol until the morning of

Jl 685]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

427

Ithe 8th. Although the day was a Sunday, it was resolved
to make the customary proclamation of his successor in the
hfternoon, and the ceremony is said to have taken place
"with the greatest joy and acclamation." From respect for
'the Lord's Day, the expenses were limited to 12s. 6d. A
feAV days later, the Council adopted a congratulatory address
to the, neAV sovereign, redolent of the servility due from
courtly nominees. The death of a King of blessed memory
AVottld have been, it Ava.s alleged, insupportable, had not his
successor's virtues, sagacity and affection alleviated grief.
Entire confidence of happiness Avas placed in His Majesty's
government, and pledges were given that the dutiful
addressers would stand by him Avith their lives and fortunes.
The Mayor (William Hayman), Avhose affection for the
Crown and its ministers underwent some modification before
be quitted office, presented the fulsome document at White
hall, and received the honour of knighthood. The Council
then felt unhappy at being without a portrait ofa_bene-
lieont monarch, and one John Hoskins Avas paid £10 5s. for
a Avork to supply the desideratum. (A feAv years later the
face of this picture Avas covered with paint, and the figure
converted into a portrait of Charles II.) The coronation of
the new sovereigns, in April, Avas celebrated with great
rejoicing. Salutes were fired from 114 great guns in the
Marsh. Tavo hogsheads of claret (costing £11 5s.) " caused
the four conduits to run with wine." The corporate
body proceeded in great pomp to " hear a sermon" in the
cathedral, and afterAvards dined at the Three Tuns tavern
—each guest being required to pay for his dinner. In the
evening an enormous bonfire blazed at the High Cross, and
another before the Mayor's Aviudows. An item of £6 16s.,
paid by the Chamberlain " for beer, ale and eider, for the
Mayor' and Aldermen," may be charitably supposed to mis
represent the number of consumers of several hundred
gallons. A general election took place in the spring, the proceed
ings in Bristol occurring on March 30th. The Duke of
Beaufort, A-vhoso Avatchful supervision of the Corporation
never relaxed, forwarded a sort of peremptory recommenda
tion of Sir John Churchill as a fitting member, aud the
obsequious Council, on the 27th, resolved, " every one of us
called over by name, to improve their interest to elect" his
grace's nominee, who Avas accordingly chosen, in company
Avith another admirer of passive obedience. Sir Richard
Crump. On the demand of the King to the House of Com-

42S

THE ANNALS OE DBISTOL

[1685
mons for money to pay off his late brother's debts, Dudley
.North, Sir Robert Cairn's son-in-laAv, and an able financier,
Avas instructed to devise Avays and means ; and in due course
proposed an increase, for eight years, of the duties on sugar
and tobacco. The mercantile interest was incensed by the
proposal, and nowhere was the wrath greater than in
Bristol. The Corporation forwarded urgent appeals to the ,
city members to resist a scheme so prejudicial to local com
merce with Virginia and the West Indies ; and a deputa
tion of merchants was admitted to the bar of the Commoxis
to represent the injuries that the scheme would inflict upon
the port. It Avas, however, adopted. Churchill died in 'the
following November, necessitating elections both for the
vacant seat and the Recordership. As regarded the former,
the Duke of Beaufort, in his Avonted style, requested the
choice of Mr. Romsey, the Town Clerk, but, to his great
irritation the demand Avas not responded to ; and Sir
Itichard Hart, who had sued for his grace's patronage and
had met with a flat refusal, was elected without opposition.
Ihe Duke's anger Avas somewhat mitigated, however, by
the obedience of the Council to another of his behests— the
appointment of Roger North to the office of Recorder.
OAvmg to the penury of its income, the bishopric of
Bristol Avas a dignity Avhich few clergymen of the SteAvart
period were likely to accept save as a stepping-stone to
a better position. In August, 1684, Dr. John Lake was
consecrated in the place of Dr. Goulston, deceased ; but
before a twelvemonth had expired the new prelate was
earnestly praying for Archbishop Sancroft's help in his
suit for the vacant see of Chichester, promising gratitude
if delivered from " the impertinences and insolences of our
Dean " (the incendiary Thompson). Lake's prayers being
heard, Sir Jonathan Trelawny was nominated to Bristol
in September, 1685, whereupon the baronet (who had been
greedily craving for a richer see, begging the King to
have " compassion on his slave ") informed Bishop Turner,
of Ely, that his preferment was too mean to give a man
credit for the large sum needful to enter upon it
(Tanner's MSS.). But, as will be shown hereafter, Tre-
laAvny Avas a man eager to win preferment by the ignoblest
means. In spite of his cloth, he took the field as a
soldier in the campaign about to be described. Lake
and Trelawny Avero afterAvards tAvo of the historical seven
Bishops. A narratiA'e of the Monmouth Rebellion, except so

1685]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

429

far as it affected Bristol, is not Avithin the scope of thif
work. It will suffice to say that the presumptuous youth
landed at Lyme on Juno 11th, accompanied amongs
others by Nathaniel Wade, a Bristol barrister, Thoma:
Tyley, a Bristol mercer, and John Roe, the ex-SAV ord bearer
all of whom had been charged Avith complicity in the
Rye House Plot. The " Protestant Duke " Avas hailed
Avith extraordinary enthusiasm by the peasantry, ivhc
Hocked to his standard, armed with scythes and pitch
forks ; and a week after his arrival Monmouth made a
triumphal entry into Taunton, where he was proclaimed
King amidst the plaudits of the toAvnspeople. Wade
Avas at this time major of the forces, and Tyley was one
of the captains. The Government were meanwhile on
the alert. In order to secure Cornwall, the King sent
the Rev. Sir Jonathan TrelaAvny doAvn to that county to
put it in a posture of defence ; and that bellicose cleric
boasted afterwards to Lord Sunderland that he raised the
militia, travelled night and day through every district to
review the regiments, gathered a store of arms, and
disposed the troops Avhere they were most likely to lie
useful ; for all which martial deeds he Avas reivarded in
September Avith the Bishopric of Bristol. By the King's
orders, again, the Duke of Beaufort entered this city on
the 16th June to secure it against attack, and the trained
bands that mustered at his command Avere afterAvards
supplemented by some companies of regular troops. The
Duke proceeded in his usual high-handed fashion, ordering
the, houses of Dissenters to be searched for arms, shipping
off about sixty citizens suspected of disloyalty to Gloucester
gaol, and croAvdiug the. city prisons with supposed mal
contents, all the arrests being made Avithout legal
authority. To return to tho Pretender, Monmouth marched
from Taunton to Bridgwater, Avhere ho Avas Avelcomed by
the Mayor and some members of the Corporation, and was
again proclaimed King. Tho folloAving clays found him at
Glastonbury, Wells, and Shepton Mallet, his so-called army
being everyAvhere joined by zealous volunteers. It AAras
now determined to attempt the capture of Bristol, where
Wade and Roe assured him of thousands of sympathisers,
whom the disaffected trained bands Avould neither be willing
nor able to keep doAvn. The southern walls of the city
being still formidable, it Avas resolved to make the attack
from Gloucestershire, and for this purpose a portion of
the rebels Avas sent forward to Keynsham to repair the

430

THIS ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[1685

bridge there (broken down by the King's troops), whilst
the main body halted at Pensford on June 24th. The
night of that day was long! remembered in Bristol. Tho
citizens had been informed of Monmouth's movements,
and many doubtless hoped, and many feared, that the
defences would be attacked before morning. The whole
population was afoot, eagerly on the Avatch for events.
Suddenly a ship lying at i the Quay burst into flames,
either from accident or design, though the causo avii-s never
discovered. The popular commotion then became intensi
fied, and seditious cries were raised in the darkness. If,
as Avas afterAvards alleged, the fire Avas the Avork of Mon
mouth's partisans, in the, hope that the trained bands would
be employed in saving the fleet in the harbour from the
flames, aud that a Avay would thus be opened to the rebels,
the scheme Avas a failure. The Duke of Beaufort, whose
forces Avere draAvn up outside Redcliff Gate, not only
refused help to quench the fire, but openly declared that
if any insurrection Avere attempted amongst the inhabi
tants he Avould burn the city about their ears. Monmouth,
though informed of the favourable incident, adhered to a
previous plan, and ordered an advance on Keynsham at
sunrise. On arriving there the bridge was found practi
cable, but in spite of the shortness Of the march the
Pretender resolved to proceed no further until the evening.
While his forces were idling about the village a small body
of horse guards dashed into the place, scattered two troops
of Monmouth's badly-mounted horsemen, and retired
uninjured, after causing a general panic. This trivial
skirmish led to the abandonment of the design on Bristol,
and practically to the ruin Of the enterprise. It is needless
to follow Monmouth during his subsequent inglorious
retreat, or to the combat on Sedgemoor, on July 6th, where
his untrained folloAvers fought bravely but hopelessly in
his cause. The neAvs of his defeat reached Bristol on the
same day, and caused much rejoicing, though an annalist
states that several more suspected persons Avere committed
to prison. The Duke of Beaufort had by this time
upAvards of forty companies of militia and about seven
troops of cavalry under his command, but most of the men
Avere soon afterAvards disbanded. His grace then departed
for Court, where the King Avarmly thanked him for his
services, and in December he Avas granted a pension of
£600 a year for so long as he might hold a post in the
royal household. During ;his stay in Bristol he was a

1685]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA-.

431

costly guest to the Corporation, for besides various
entertainments, ho ordered the construction of military
works, costing about £500, and left the Council to dis
charge the outlay. The Chamber tried to recover the
money by levying a rate, Avhich the inhabitants refused
to pay. Subscriptions were next appealed for Avithout
result Eventually the liability was added to an already
overwhelming burden of debt. Whilst the Corporation
was struggling with its pecuniary embarrassments a
brilliant thought occurred to Mr. Romsey, the Town Clerk
and was hailed with delight by the Council. Admission
into that body could be gained only by taking the test
oatns ; but Quakers Avere forbidden by their consciences to
take any oath at all. Nothing, therefore, Avas easier than
to elect prosperous Quakers as Councillors, and then to fine
them heavily for refusing to accept office. The first
victim was Thomas Speed, a highly esteemed merchant,
who while a young man had undertaken the burden of
nurtunng and bringing up the very numerous orphans of
the State Martyr," Yeamans. A fine of £200 having
been exacted from him, several other Quakers were sue*
cessively elected in his place, and fined according to what
was deemed the measure of their ability for refusing it.
rhomas CalloAvhill paid £150; Thomas Jordan, £100;
Charles Jones, £o0 ; James Freeman, £50; and Thomas
Goldney, £200. Richard Bickham was mulcted in £5oi»
and subsequently in £300 more for refusing to be sworn
as MeriJI ; but these sums were not recovered. The Toavu
Clerk complained, in June, 1686, that although his device
had pro veil very profitable, the Council still owed him a
large, sum for his costs in obtaining tho charter. As no
lurtl.er payment was made to him by the Chamber, thoireh
a vote of £2UO was passed, it is probable that he was
allowed to extract Ins debt out of the pockets of Bickham.
Chief Justice Jeffreys' "Bloody Assize," specially ordered
by James II. to glut his vengeance on the miserable pea-
S^7 f liad™en for "King Monmouth," was fixed for
September. Kirke's soldiery, quartered in Somerset, had
viheft TJlednr slau8'lltered a great number of captured
ntS- w ^.^ment complained, not of the Colonel's
KlSit^ S i\nirZSted leniiy towards delinquents
mission 1 of 1 T> -n<? j6ffr7S Was Sent d0wn wi* a c°m-
m ssion both of a judge and a general in the army, to fall
on all ranks without mercy. The assizes began at Win
chester, where the proceedings thrilled the nation with

482

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1685

horror. Jeffreys then proceeded to Dorchester, where he
shortened his labours by letting it be known that a pri
soner's only chance of avoiding the gallows lay in pleading
guilty. In the result, seventy-four men were sentenced to
be hanged Avithout delay. The rebellion had touched only
a fringe of Devon, and the convictions at Exeter were com
paratively few. But wide districts of Somerset had sIioavii
enthusiasm for the Pretender, and Jeffreys, whose ferocity
Avas aggravated by a painful disease aud by inordinate
drinking to relievo his anguish, literally revelled in his
sanguinary work. Altogether, 233 prisoners were hanged,
quartered, and gibbeted in various parts of the county,
cross-roads, market-places, and village-greens being rendered
pestiferous by decomposing corpses. Twelve unhappy men
were executed at Pensford, and eleven at Keynsham. In
addition to those done to death in the various counties,
about 850 persons were sentenced to a fate hardly less
cruel, — transportation as slaves to the West Indies, — while
a still greater number, for the utterance of mere idle words,
were sentenced to repeated scottrgings and long terms of
imprisonment. On finishing business at Taunton, on Sep
tember 19th, the judge reported progress to the King in
a letter not hitherto published. His Majesty, it appears,
had already sent instructions "about. the rebels designed
for transportation," and Jeffreys ventured to recommend
care in handing them over to private persons, — that is, to
purchasers, — for there was a great demand for them. They
were worth, he said, £10 if not £15 a head. (The King
took the hint, and handed over the convicts to the Queen,
the maids of honour, and favourite courtiers.) The writer
concluded by declaring that he would rather die than omit,
any opportunity of showing his loyalty, and by making
tAvo remarks of local interest. He "purposed for Bristol
on Monday and thence to Wells." And he had " ordered
Wade hence on Monday." The person thus referred to was
Nathaniel Wade, who had been captured after Sedgemoor,
and who, it is only too probable, had compounded for his
oAvn crimes by offering evidence against men far less cul
pable. Immediately after his arrest, Wade had made a
brief " confession," which was sent to the King, and His
Majesty, hoping for information that would inculpate peers
as well as peasants, ordered him to be brought near the
Court, where he Avas required to save his own neck by a
full disclosure of the details of the rebellion, and of those
engaged in it. He accordingly disburdened himself in two

1685]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHA'.

433

lengthy documents of all he kneAV, or said he -knew, of the
preparations made in Holland and of the events in England
But the papers, which are in the British Museum, contaii
nothing that the Government were not already acquainted
Avith. As his statements were not made public, and as the
King, through some caprice, took him into special favour
iu a way that will presently be described, the odious name
of " Traitor Wade," by Avhich he Avas popularly knoivn to
the end of his life, is reasonably explained.
Jeffreys, boasting that ho had already hanged more
traitors than all his predecessors put together, arrived at
Bristol on Monday, September 21st, and took up his quar
ters at the Town Clerk's mansion. After refreshing himself,
he proceeded to the Guildhall, Avhere a grand jury of forty-
one gentlemen were duly empanelled, to Avhom he delivered
a characteristic charge. Beginning with a scoff at the
splendour of his reception, he declared that he had not
come to make set speeches, but to do the business of a
gracious King, and after jeering at the influence which
women Avere reported to exercise in civic affairs, he burst
into a denunciation of the murder of Charles I., "the most
blessed martyr after Jesus," by order of rebels numbering
forty-one — an allusion to the jury before him. This Avas
followed by an ettlogium on the blessed and merciful prince,
the God on earth, whom he represented. Rebellion, he
swore, Avas like the sin of witchcraft, and Bristol had too
many rebels who had added to the ship's loading. " There
Avas your Tylys, your Roes, and your Wades, scoundrel
fellows, mere sons of dunghills," and there were still more
of the, same breed ; but he had brought a brush in his
pocket, and ho Avould sweep every man's door, great or
small, Avherevcr the dirt Avas sticking. The rebels Avithout
must have had encouragement from the rebels Avithin. A
ship had been fired as a signal, "and yet you are Avilling
to believe it was an accident." He then poured a torrent
of invective on the moderate politicians nicknamed Trim
mers, who he said Avere only cowardly and base-spirited
Whigs, and stank Avorse than the worst dirt in the city,
and yet the place had many of them. Then, after referring
to the sink of Conventicles, he roared : " Come, come, gen
tlemen, to be plain with you, I find the dirt of the ditch is
in your nostrils. This city, it seems, claims the privilege
of hanging amongst themselves. 1 find you haAro more
need of a Commission once a month." The very magistrates
were quarrelling amongst themselves, Avhile cunning men
F F

434

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1685
set them together by the ears and knocked their logger
heads together. " Yet they can agree for their interest, or
if there be a kid in the case ; for I hear the trade of kid
napping is of much request. They can discharge a felon
or a traitor, provided they Avill go to Mr. Alderman's plan
tation at the West Indies. Come, come, I find you stink
for want of rubbing." The Dissenters fared well amongst
these magistrates. If a Dissenter, three parts a rebel, is
brought up to be fined, an Alderman says, he is a good man,
and ho is fined but 5*. Then comes up another, Averse than
the first, and another good man Alderman says, he is an
honest man, and he is fined half a crown, each justice
playing knave in turn. After a reference to unseemly
dissensions amongst the city clergy, and directions to all
the constables to bring in presentments, Jeffreys closed his
tirade by adjourning the court.
Doubtless to the cruel judge's vexation, the prisoners for
trial Avere feAV in number. Thanks to the Duke of Beau
fort's summary seizure of over a hundred suspected citizens
on the first tidings of the rebellion, and to the awe inspired
by his forces, no overt act amounting to treason is recorded
by the annalists, and Jeffreys was unable to sentence more
than six men to death, and three of them were reprieved.
(The three executions took place on Redcliff Hill. About
the same time, three rebels condemned at Wells were
hanged at Bedminster ; one of them, a Bristoban, declaring
to the last that he had merely gone to have a sight of the
rebel army.) Several prisoners charged with idle talk, and
others for rough horse-play on Shrove Tuesday, were
ordered to be severely lashed at the tail of a cart. Disgusted
Avith the meagreness of the calendar, the Chief Justice again
fell upon the Aldermen, whom he unreasonably suspected of
disloyalty ; and by the help of information from some local
source, he Avas enabled for once to pose as an upright judge.
Roger North, then Recorder, explains in his reminiscences
that it had been customary for the Aldermen to transport
reprieved felons to the West Indies, where they were sold
as slaves. But this supply failing to satisfy greed, the
justices arranged that Avhen persons charged Avith crime
Avere brought before them; some underlings of the Court,
Avhispering the probability of hanging if the cases went to
trial, ad\ised the culprits to pray for transportation, as their
only chance of escaping the galloAvs, a course which was
generally adopted. The game thus bagged was appropriated
by the magistrates iu rotation — a squabble sometimes aris-

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTU11Y.

435

1685 J
ing as to who had the first claim— and tho poor wretches
were incontinently shipped off as marketable merchandise.
1 his practice, adds North, had gone on for some years, and
though Sir Robert Cann and other wealthy Aldermen
refused their share of the spoil, they connived in the guilt.
lo return to the Guildhall, Sir William Hayman the
Mayor, arrayed m his gorgeous robes, was seated on the
bencn he being, by an old and cherished privilege, named
m the Royal Commission before the judges, when Jeffreys
to use one of ]„s favourite expressions, gave his worship a
Jick with the rough side of his tongue. "Sir, Mr. Mayor
you I mean kidnapper! and that old justice on the bench
(Alderman Law ord), an old knave; he goes to the tavern,
and for a pint of sack he will bind people servants to the
Indies A kidnapping knave ! I will have his ears off
before I go forth of toAvn." The furious judge next threw
a paper to the Toavu Clerk, ordering him to read it, Avhich
was done. It appears to have given precise details as to
the above practices, and doubtless referred to the man-
stealing villainies that have been mentioned in previous
pages. In one case the Mayor was charged Avith having
sought to transport to Jamaica a man alleged to have picked
a pocket On this statement being read, Jeffreys, who was
suspected of being inflamed Avith liquor, flew 'into a tran
sport of rage, and again addressed the Mayor. " Kidnapper'
Do you see the keeper of Newgate ? If it were not in
respect of the sword Avhich is over your head, I would send
you to Newgate you kidnapping knave! You are worse
than tho pickpocket who stands at the bar. I hope yon are
a man of worth. I will make you pay sufficiently for it."
And thereupon ho fined Hayman £1,("K)() " f„r si'ifierhre a
boy committed to Bridewell |„ go beyond the sea " The
ordinary business then proceeded, but shortly before an
adjournment, for dinner the Chief .lustier ordered the Mayor
to enter the prisoners' dock, like a common felon, in onler
to plead guilty or not guilty. Hayman, dumbfouiidered by
this treatment, showing some hesitation, the furious judge
bawled at him, stamping with fury, and called for his
soldiers in virtue of his commission as a general The
S^io USUbmiSS.iveiy P,leaded not g^ty,' and he was
made to give security for his appearance in the afternoon
when he was given mto the custody of the Sheriffs to the
minute amazement of a crowded Court. " Had it not been
m respect of the city," vociferated Jeffreys, » T would have
arraigned him, and hanged him, before 1 'went forth, and

436

THE ANNAIlS OF BHISTOL

[1685

would ha\-e seen it done myself; a kidnapping knave!"
Charges of kidnapping Avere then laid against Sir Robert
Cann, Alderman La av ford, William SAvymmer, John Nap-
per and Robert Kirk, and they, with the Mayor, Avero
ordered to find tAvo sureties in £5,000 each to answer in
dictments in the Court of King's Bench.
Jeffreys did not let the day pass over Avithout recounting
his doughty deeds to Lord Sunderland, tho King's favourite
Minister. His missive, hitherto unknoAvn to local readers,
is amongst the State Papers. After the usual rhodomontado
about his affection for his royal master, he declares Bristol
to be a most factious city, Averse even than Taunton. "But
my lord, though harrassed Avith this clay's fatigue & iioav
mortified Avith a fit of the stone, I must beg leave to
acquaint your lordship that I this day committed Mr.
Mayor & some of his brethren the aldermen for kidnapping,
& have sent my tipstaff for others equally concerned in that
villany. I therefore beg your lordship Avill acquaint his
Majesty that I humbly apprehend it infinitely for his ser
vice that he be not surprised into a pardon to any man, tho'
he pretend much to loyalty, till I have the honour & happi
ness of kissing his royal baud. . . . My dear lord I will
paAvn my life, & that Avhich is dearer to me, my loyalty,
that Taunton & Bristol & the County of Somerset too, shall
knoAv their duty to God & their Prince before I leave them.
I purpose to-morrow for AVells &in a few days don't despair
to perfect the Avork I was sent about." He concludes by
recommending that the convicts for transportation should
not be "disposed of " hastily, the applicants for them being
" too impetuous."
The incriminated magistrates were never brought to trial
for the offences laid against them, and only one explanation
of the fact can be offered. During his bloody campaign in
the West, Jeffreys acquired Avhat Avas then considered a
great fortune by selling pardons to Avealthy persons sus
pected of complicity in the rebellion. From Mr. Edmund
Prideaux. son of a former Recorder of Bristol, he is known
to have extorted £1.5,000, though that gentleman had not
been in arms ; and this infamy was only one of many. The
prosecution of the Bristol Aldermen was adjourned on
trivial pretexts from time to time, but they doubtless paid
dearly for the favour. The charges were still hanging over
their heads at the Revolution, three years later, when they
Avere quashed by a general amnesty. The affair, however,
was fatal to Sir Robert Cann, Avhose dignity had been irre-

1685]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUIIA'.

437

parably outraged. The Avorthy old baronet Avent up to
London in great fear, and through the intervention of hi
influential son-in-law the charge against him Avas Avith
draAvn ; but the relief did little to revive his spirits. H
had been accustomed, says Itogcr North, to drink sherry
morning, noon and night ; but he iioav took an exclusivi
fancy for Sir Dudley's small be'er, of which he dranl-
extraA'agantly, and Avith Avonderful pleasure, and Avas mucl
concerned he had not found it out before. But Nature
Avould not bear so great a change, and he died soon after hit
return to Bristol.
Tho only payments for the entertainment of Jeffreys in
the civic accounts are 17s. for fruit, and 2.s\ 6d. for a couple
of ducks. The Town Clerk is not likely to have feasted the
judge at his OAvn expense, and it is probable that Bickham,
in this case also, Avas made to compensate Romsey. Tbe
sum of £42 17s. lOd. Avas paid by the Chamberlain " for
hay, oats and beans for the judge's horses." As Jeffreys was
not forty-eight hours in the city, and the ordinary charge
for horsekeep Avas only one shilling a day, the judicial
retinue must have been enormous.
At the outbreak of the rebellion, the city had been placed
under martial laAv by the Duke of Beaufort, and a return
to ordinary government Avas long delayed. In the autumn
a regiment of the line, under the command of Colonel
Trelawny, brother of the Bishop, Avas quartered upon the
inhabitants, and the troopers seem to have attempted to
rival " Kirke's lambs " in insolence, rapacity and debauchery.
Loud complaints Avere raised by the citizens, but the magis
trates Avere impotent Avithout the help of the Duke of Beau
fort. Efforts Avere made to recover his faA^ottr by sending
the Mayor to Badminton (at an expense of £10 for coach
hire) to offer a cordial vote of thanks for his eminent
services, and by presenting the freedom to the young Earl
of Ossory, son-in-laAV to the Duke, the latter being styled
in the Council's resolution " the protector and father of this
city." But Avhen the Chamber foUoAved up these flatteries
by beseeching his grace for relief from the outrages daily
committed by the soldiery, and praying that the expenses
caused by the rebellion should be repaid by the Govern
ment, and the keys of the city Gates restored to the
Corporation, the Duke penned an angry reply, refusing
to consider the conduct of the troopers, and expressing
wonder that a body Avhich had not complied Avith his " just
desires " at the recent Parliamentary election should pre-

438

TIIK ANNALS OF TMUSTOL

[1685-86

sume to ask for his services. He had not, he added, checked
them enough, and this encouraged them to make " such
frivolous complaints " ; Avhile to ask for the keys of the
toAvn when the King had forces in it Avas an unexampled
impertinence. Tho regiment probably left in the folloAving
year for the memorable camp at HounsloAv.
The neAV charter having granted to the Corporation a
market for the sale of imported corn, the erection of a
market-house at the loAver end of the then existing Quay
(near the Avest' end of Thunderbolt Street) aviis begun
toAvards the end of the year. The building, which cost
nearly £700, Ayas let in 1681! at the large rent of £140.
An ordinance had been previously passed forbidding the
landing or sale of imported grain at any place except this
market, under pain of prosecution. This regulation aroused
the ire of the burgesses of TeAvkesbury, avIio claimed the
right of importing goods into Bristol toll free, by virtue
of a charter of Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, confirmed by
EdAvard II. in 1314. They had asserted this right in 1534,
Avhen the Corporation were compelled to relieve them of all
tolls except key age. On the present occasion the dispute
Avas left to the arbitration of the Duke of Beaufort, Avhose
decision cannot be found. The market-house had but a
brief existence. In July, 1690, when the rapidly increasing
trade of the port demanded an extension of the Quay sottth-
Avards, the Merchants' Society undertook to carry out the
improvement, and to erect more cranes, providing the
Corporation granted them a neAV lease for eighty years of
the wharfage dues. To this the Council assented, and
further permitted the Society to take clown the whole or
part of the market and to make use of the materials for the
new works.
Local annalists unfortunately bestoAved little attention
on the religious topics of their time. Not only are they
silent respecting the treatment of Nonconformists, but even
the intense popular repugnance to Romanists is passed over
Avithout remark, though nowhere Avas Protestant feeling
more acute than in Bristol. In 1682, a sessions grand jury
incidentally remarked in a presentment that during the pre-
A'ious seven, years only tAvo Papist families had lived in the
city, and one of them had departed. The jury were prob
ably misinformed, adherents of the persecuted faith being
then in too great dread of popular fury to make a public
aA'OAval of their opinions. At all events, in April. 1686, the
inveterate tormentor of dissidents, Sir John Knight, got

1686]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUltY.

439

scent of a small Romanist congregation assembling to hear
Mass. Having forthwith reported his discovery, the Mayor,
Sheriffs and officers hurried to the place, and secured the
offending priest with some of his hearers, and the former
Avas committed to prison for what Avas then a capital crime.
The intelligence gave intense umbrage at Whitehall, where
Mass Avas being celebrated daily before the King and Court,
and the matter gave rise to a voluminous correspondence,
preserved amongst the State Pa[>ers. On April (really
May) 6th the Duke of Beaufort, Avho had received orders
to overawe the city justices, informed Lord Sunderland
that ho had acquainted the Mayor and Aldermen of the
King's resentment at their late proceedings and at Sir
John Knight's scandalous behaviour, and had made them
" a proper exhortation " for himself, Avhich he trusted Avould
make them sensible of their errors. The priest was doubt
less liberated by the King's dispensing power, but the
populace hacl become excited, and the affair gave rise to
a serious disturbance, of Avhich Lord Macaulay found some
details iu the despatches of the Dutch and Papal envoys
in London, dated May 18th and 19th :— " The rabble,
countenanced, it Avas said, by the magistrates, exhibited
a profane and indecent pageant, in Avhich the Virgin Mary
was represented by a buffoon, and in Avhich a mock host
Avas carried in procession. Soldiers Avere called out to
disperse the mob. The mob, then and eA'er since one of the
fiercest in the kingdom, resisted. BIoavs were exchanged,
and serious hurts inflicted." Sir John Knight appears to have
taken part in this business also, to the exasperation of the
King, for he Avas fortliAvith. arrested, and appeared before the
Privy Council on June 5th, together Avith the Mayor and five
of the Aldermen. Knight Avas then charged Avith "several
misdemeanours," and especially Avith going about the streets
of Bristol flourishing a SAVord, " to the terror of the public."
It Avould appear from the minutes that the informer against
him Avas Mr. Romsey, the Toavu Clerk, once, as has been
shoAvn, his closest ally ; for the Ministry requested Romsey
to give "further information," and in the meantime ordered
Knight to be prosecuted. The Mayor and Aldermen had
next to bear the brunt of the royal displeasure. The King,
avIio took part in the proceedings, reprehended them for the
recent disturbances, Avhich he asserted Avere due to their
default or connivance, and ordered Lord Chancellor Jeffreys
to issue commissions of the peace to as many gentry around
Bristol as he thought fit, avIio Avere to be associated Avith

440

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1686

the A Mermen for the better government of the city. In
the following week His Majesty ordered the ejection from
the Common Council of Alderman Sir Richard Hart, M.P.,
the chief of the ultra-Royalists, but a man towards whom
the Duke of Beaufort had a bitter antipathy. As for Sir
J ohn Knight, he was not easily daunted. In a letter written
on June rth to the Prime Minister, he stated that he was
not airaic of finding an opportunity of showing his inno-
cency, and being as acceptable to the King as ever he was
He moreover hoped to detect the contrivances that had
blasted his former fair "carrecter," and, supported by an
upright heart, he Avould " bare " his misfortunes. He then
insinuated at great, length that the seizure of the priest by
the justices arose from the encouragement and persuasiohs
oi others much more than from his own action, the real
truth, he says, bemg that Bishop TrelaAvny's charge to his
clergy had forced the Mayor to take measures " to prevent
Mass,^ whilst Romsey, though " he now puts another face
on it, - made _ a similar pressing charge to the grand jury,
his zeal against Popery being so great that he had chal
lenged several persons who had raised reports of his Popish
inclinations. Lord Sunderland maliciously communicated
tar Johns reflections on Bishop Trelawny to the new-
hedged preiate, Avhose terror at the prospect of falling
under the King's displeasure evoked an unconscious but
striking picture of his oavii true character and worth. He
is, he wrote, unalterably fixed in his duty to His Majesty
He has forcibly required all his clergy to observe the
King s commands. He not only " disrespected " Sir John
Knight, and forbade the cathedral clergy to converse Avith
him, but had collected the dangerous things he had said
and clone, and sent them up to the King. Before going to
Bristol he had inquired of Lord Jeffreys as to the character
of leading men, and on being told that the most trttst-
Avorthy was the Town Clerk, he had called on the latter
before Avaiting on the Mayor, Avhich incensed the toAvn.
He further pleaded that he had preached in Bristol only
once, Avhen he delivered an old sermon preached before the
late King, enforcing passive obedience to the Government.
As for Knight's statement respecting his charge, it Avas
said he had turned Papist before he got to the'city : and
being told, the day after his arrival, that Mass was being
said at a certain house, which he believed ivas done to try
him, he advised the Mayor to look after it, but the story
proved false. Hacl it been true he Avould have informed

16861

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHV.

441

the King, and asked his pleasure, and Avould have stopped
everything till that Avas known. And Sir Winston Churchill
avou Id attest how he had protected the Catholics in Dorset
shire. On the latter subject he dwells at some length in
another letter, couched in still more despicable terms.
Sunderland, it appears, had given him formal commands
as to tho language he Avas to use at his visitation, and he
iioav reports the result. When some Romanists Avere
presented at 'Cerne for recusancy, he ordered their dis
charge. A "very impudent" sermon, alleging danger
from Popery, having been preached, he reprehended the
preacher, and threatened him Avith suspension, telling the
clergy that such discourses cast an imputation on the
King, aud Avarning them that he should suspend and
silencn any avIio indulged in such excesses. He would
reside in Dorsetshire to set the clergy a good example, but
his episcopal income was so miserably small that he could
not do so without ruin. "But Avhenever the King shall
please to give me a dignity of larger value, I will engage
to render a proportionable service." Returning to Sir John
Knight, that Avorthy Avas prosecuted by the Attorney-
General, and the indictment appears to have charged him
with parading the streets, not- with a sword but Avith a
blunderbuss, to the terror of the lieges. His trial took
place in December. According to Luttrell's Diary, the
jury Avere Bristolians, "avIio kneiv him Avell, and he Avas
acquitted, to the great disappointment cf some persons
Avho appeared very fierce against him."
The. debt of the Corporation. Avhich had been increasing
for several years, had in April reached nearly £16.0<JO, and
threatened to bring about a financial collapse. Retrench
ment, however, Avas not in favour, and the Council resolved
to dispose of part of the property in the Castle Precincts.
Ihe saies brought in about £3,000. But in the autumn, the
necessity of economy having become urgent through an
outlay to be recorded presently, a number of charges Avere
abolished or pruned doA\m. The expenditure for scavenging,
£(>0 yearly, Avas stopped, and cleansing transferred to the
parishes. The salary of the Avails was Avithdrawn, the
musicians being dismissed. The quarter sessions' dinners
Avere given up, and the Mayor's salary " defalked " £52 on
that account. The salaries of the civic officers, increased at
the Restoration, Avere reduced to the previous scale No
more money Avas to be laid out in repairing the prions
and the pitcher was not to be paid for mending the road on

442

THE ANNALS OF JllUSTOIj

[ 1 686

St. Michael's Hill. Finally, the robes of the petty officials
Avere docked of their fur, embroidery and velvet, which not
only added to their cost but made their Avearers tmdistin-
guishablo to the vulgar from the members of the Council.
It Avill be found hereafter that these cheeseparings did not
suffice to restore an equilibrium.
A case of some, local interest came before the Privy
Council in May, arising out of a petition of Viscount
Crandison and one Henry HoAvard. Lord Grandison
alleged that he aud his partner, in 1676, Avere induced to
ach'enture in lead smelting by one Samuel Hutchinson
avIio had obtained a patent for a iioav process, and that,
after buying the patent, they set up Avorks near Bristol at
a cost of £4,000. Hutchinson had uoav set up Avorks of his
OAvn near the same place, to their great injury. The Privy
Council summoned the intruder, Avhose claim to work the
patent Avas annulled. Another claimant, however, after
Avards arose in the person of one John Hodges, Avho denied
Lord Grandison's rights, Avhen the latter, in another
petition, averred that he had spent £10,000 in establishing
his works, and Hodges' claim Avas dismissed. From various
references to " the Cupoloes " in documents of about this
date, it is probable that Grandison's works were near
Nightingale Valley.
The Corporation received intimation early in August
that the King had resolved upon a visit to the West of
England, for the purpose of inspecting the battlefield of
Sedgemoor, and immediate preparations were made for his
entertainment in a manner calculated, it Avas hoped, to
mitigate his displeasure. His Majesty arrived on the 25th,
and Avas humbly Avelcomed by the Mayor and Common
Council at Lawford's Gate, the precedents of the previous
reign being exactly followed. The house of Sir William
Hayman, in Small Street, had been made ready for the re
ception of the royal guest, and a grand banquet wound up
the day's proceedings. On the 26th the King held a revieAV
in the Marsh of some troops that had encamped there. He
afterAvards rode up St. Michael's Hill, to vieAv the remains
of the defences from Royal Fort to Prior's Hill Fort, and
returned by way of NeAvgate to his lodgings, where he
" graciously touched " several persons afflicted Avith scrofula.
An early dinner having been disposed of, he made an in
spection of the strong city Avails extending from Redcliff to
Temple Gate, and thence took a long ride to survey the fort
at Portishead. In the evening his Majesty knighted

16871

IN THE SEVENTEENTH OKNTUJIY.

44E

William Merrick, one of the Sheriffs, and Mr Winter
Sheriff of Gloucestershire, and early next morning departed
for Sedgomoor. His visit cost the Corporation, v/ho could
ill afford the outlay, £5^3, of which £146 went for wine
and £63 for confectionery. The Mayor received lO.v. for a
lost silver fork— a rare luxury at that period. ,
A renewed quarrel betAveen the civic body and the Bakers
Company broke out in the autumn, but the details are not
recorded. In October the Council took thc_ unprecedented
course of conferring the freedom, for a trivial line, on one
John Gibba, apparently a "foreigner," on his undertaking
to make good bread, and to hold aloof from the incorporated
Company. A feiv weeks later, a fine of £40 Avas demanded,
and paid, on the admission of an intruding ironmonger.
Towards the close of the year, Thomas Gale, Avho had
been appointed Postmaster of Bristol in 1678, petitioned his
superiors in London for an increase of his salary, then
amounting to £50 a year. The managing official thereupon
reported to Lord Rochester, Postmaster General, that Gale's
stipend Avas very small, considering the expenses to Avhich
he was put, and his extraordinary labours, Bristol being a
great city. On the other hand, the alloAvances that Gale
had applied for on account of his outlay for candles, string,
sealing wax and stationery, Avere stated to be for necessary
incidents of his office, borne' by all the provincial post
masters ; and as a reasonable compromise it Avas recommend
ed that the salary should be increased to £60 per annum.
An order carrying out this suggestion was signed by Lord
Rochester on December 13th. The entire in-door Avork of
tho local office appears to have been performed at that
period by tho unassisted efforts of the postmaster.
Ou January 18th, .1687, the Council, by electing Mr John
Bubb to fill a vacant seat iu the Chamber, umvittingly fell
under the King's displeasure. Bubb claimed exemption
from civic service, by virtue of his office, of '¦ Remitter of
the Customs," and having applied for royal protection, his
Majesty sent cIoavh an order that his officer should be
excused. The Council offered some resistance, and pointed
out, in a letter to Lord Sunderland, that as Bubb's employ
ment did not disturb him in his trade of shopkeeping, Avhich
he foUoAved very considerably, the duties of Councillor could
be no hindrance to him in serving the King. His Majesty,
hoAvever, forAvarded a peremptory reply. Being informed
that the real object of the Council Avas to thrust Bubb into
the costly office of Sheriff, he reiterated his former command

444

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

11687

and required instant obedience. The Council of course sub
mitted, but Mr. Bubb will, turn up again. About the same
time the Kmg in Council, on the petition of Alderman John
Moore, who pleaded great age and infirmities, relieved that
gentleman of his office.
The salary of the Lord High SteAvard, the venerable
Duke of Ormond, being several years in arrear, he Avas pre
sented in March Avith a butt and tivo dozen bottles of
^shcrrysack," Avhich cost, including carriage, £43 16s.
The Duke's estimation of " your excellent sherry " has been
already mentioned, and the Council Avere doubtless anxious
to maintain their good fame; yet tho cost of the fine old
Avine Avas only 15s. per dozen. A feAv days later, the Mayor
and other skilled members spent As. " at the Virgin tavern
in tasting of wine against the coining of the judges"  a
period which, from the large sums laid out for entertain
ments, must have been marked Avith copious libations.
During the assizes, Bishop TrelaA-ny had an intervieAV
Avith the Council, from the report of Avhich it appears that
the corporate body had been again deprived of their seats in
the cathedral. The Bishop proposed, in order that the
Mayor and Common Council might not be debarred from
coming into the choir during service, "no place being
hitherto assigned them," that they should have the free use
of " the sub-dean's seat, and all on the right-hand side of it
to the archdeacon's seat ; " the SAvord to be laid on a cushion
according to usage. To this the Council assented, and
resoh'-ed to attend service on the following Sunday.
[A The spring of 16S7 Avas marked by an astounding revul
sion in the royal policy. For a quarter of a century the
Dissenting bodies hacl undergone almost ceaseless persecution,
and many hundreds of both sexes Avere, for conscience sake,
lying in noisome gaols, when James II., assuming absolute
pOAyer to deal Avith any statute, suspended the penal laws
against all classes of Nonconformists, ordered the prison
doors to be throAvn Open, and authorised every sect to hold
services publicly. It is someAvhat strange that the Broad
mead Records contain scarcely any information as to this
unexpected relief. A briof entry states that the congrega
tion, which had been Avorshipping in a private house, at
length "had peace." The reparation of their chapel, re
duced to a mere ruin, was at once set about, and services
were resumed. The joy of the Dissenters at their emanci
pation Avas damped by the fact that they Avere classed in the
Indulgence Avith the real objects of the King's solicitude —

1687]

IN THE BEA'ENTEENTI-1 CENTCI1A'.

445

the adherents of the Roman Church. In July, a Papal
Nuncio was received at Court with extraordinary pomp, aud
subsequently made a tour through the country for the pro
pagation of his faith. The date of his visit to Bristol is not
recorded, but an annalist notes that he dined at the Three
Tuns tavern in Corn Street. Protestant feeling was greatly
irritated, and Guy Fawkes' Day Avas celebrated, by ivay of
protest, at unusual expense, and with great popular enthu
siasm. Tho impoverished state of the civic exchequer lad the
Council, iu July, to deal with a very ancient custom — the
payment of Avages to the Members of Parliament for the city.
It Avas resolved that no salary to the members should thence
forth bo paid by the Chamber, "but that it be paid as the
laAv directs " — a direction that it Avould have been difficult
to discover. Sir Richard Crump hacl received £J 7 13s. Ad.
for the brief session of the previous year, but nothing was
given to Sir Richard Hart. It will be seen, later on, that
the above resolution was temporarily rescinded.
The King, in August, started on a " progress " of an un
usually magnificent character-. After visiting the south
coast, he travelled to Bath, Avhere, after a short sojourn, he
left the Queen, paid a visit to Badminton, where he Avas
sumptuously entertained, and then proceeded by Gloucester
and Worcester to Chester. During his journey northward,
the Corporation sent a deputation to the "Queen Regent"
to pray her to accept an entertainment in Bristol, but her
Majesty declined the compliment. The stay of the Court at
Bath furnishes us Avith the. last notice of tbe royal deer that
once roamed so plentifully in KingsAvood. On August 27th,
thii Board of (Ireen Cloth sent a mandate to Mr. CresAviek,
of I Ian ham, the Ranger of the Chase (who hurl purchased
Throckmorton's interest iu January, IHS2), complaining that
its demand for fi\'e brace of bucks for the royal table had
produced only a single head, and ordering that three bucks
bo at once, delivered. Mr. Creswick had great difficulty in
finding the animals, but sent in ftAre deer at inteiwals during
tho folloAving month. (Hoav hopeless Avas the task of main
taining game there maybe judged by the fact that upivards
of seventy coal pits were being Avorked in \-arious parts of the
chase.) On the return of the King to Bath, another depu
tation from Bristol again proffered the hospitality of the
Corporation, and upon its acceptance the Council, little fore
seeing their contemptuous degradation in the near future,
and recklessly indifferent to the city debts, resolved on

446

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[ 1688

receiAdng their imperious master with even greater display
than in the previous year. The royal guests Avere received
at LaAvford's Gate on September 12th Avith the accustomed
ceremony, and Avere conducted to Mr. Lano's Great House at
St. Augustine's Back, whero a luxurious banquet was pre
pared for them, and Avhere the Queen Avas presented Avith 100
" broad pieces " of gold. Their Majesties returned to Bath
the same evening. Their brief visit cost the Corporation
no less than £703.
The shocking condition of the city gaol at length shamed
the Corporation into action. It Avas resolved in December,
to build a iioav prison on a different site, and the subject was
delegated to a committee to take the necessary steps, Avith
further instructions " to put BrideAvell into some proper
posture." Without further communication with the
Council, the committee framed and promoted a Bill, em-
poAVering the Corporation to construct a neAV building, and
to charge the cost upon the ratepayers • another Bill, creating
a Court of Conscience for the recovery of petty debts being
carried through Parliament simultaneously. The only
mention of the matter in the records is a payment of £92
to Sir Richard Hart, "charges of procuring the Acts." The
cost of rebuilding Newgate Avas about £1,600.
Another of the arbitrary edicts of James II. Avas in pre
paration at the opening of 1688. On this occasion the
1)1oav fell upon the English Corporations. The Bristol
Council, carefully selected from zealous Tories less than
four years previously, had always shown obedience to the
royal Avill ; they had proved their loyalty during the Men-
mouth rebellion ; and had on tAvo occasions displayed extra
vagant liberality in doing his Majesty honour. Their
latest- tribute of devotion — a joyful procession to the cathe
dral on January 29th, to take part in the thanksgiving
service ordered by the Government, on the Queen having
declared herself to be with child— had not yet reached the
royal ear, but might have been anticipated. But they, like
their brethren in other towns, were Churchmen, naturally
displeased by the illegal favours conceded to Papists and
sectaries, and could not be relied upon to carry out the
latest scheme devised by the King— the packing of a
Parliament to promote Roman Catholic supremacy. On
January 13th, 1688, by an Order in Council, Richard Lane,
Mayor ; Aldermen Swymmer, Hicks, Clutterbuck, Saunders,
Combe,' and Eston ; the Sheriffs, eighteen Councillors, and
Romsey, the Town Clerk, all zealous Tories, were dismissed

1688]

TN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

447

from the Corporation. This was foUoAved on the 14th by a
royal Mandate, addressed to the relics of the Chamber
orllering them to admit Thomas Day as Mayor ; Michael
Pope, Walter Stephens, William Jackson, William BroAvne,
Humphrey Corsley, and Thomas Scrope as Aldermen ;
Thomas Saunders and John Hine as Sheriffs; and eighteen
gentlemen, including Henry Gibbs, Joseph Jackson, John
Gary, John Duddelston, William Burges, Joseph Burges and
Nathaniel Day, as Councillors. Many_ of tho King's
nominees Avere Dissenters, some Avere survivors of the Com-
moiiAvealth regime, and Scrope was the son of a regicide ;
but even those appointments Avere not so astonishing as was
the selection for Tcnvn Clerk of Nathaniel Wade, notorious
as an accomplice in the Rye House plot, and as one of
Monmouth's prompters and lieutenants in the Avestern
rebclliou. To remove all difficulty in the Avay of the royal
nominees, the Mandate further directed that they Avere not
to be, required, before taking their seats, to swear the oaths
imposed by Acts of Parliament, "Avith which Ave are pleased
to dispense." His Majesty confided the above instruments
to Wade, avIio arrived in Bristol on February 2nd, and
fortliAvith informed the Mayor that he had " something to
communicate" to the Council. A meeting of that body was
accordingly convened for the 4th, Avhen, if the members had
been previously kept in the dark as to the fate hanging ireer
them, their eyes must have been opened by the aspect of
the Council House, already croAvded by the royal protects.
Mr. Lane having taken the chair, Wade Avas called in to
fulfil his commission ; the Order in Council Avas read ; _ the
displaced Tory gentlemen, Avho appear to have maintained
a silence more eloquent than words, Avithdrew ; the King's
Mandate Avas next presented to Alderman Lawford, the
senior surviving Alderman ; and the election and admission
of the new members, in pursuance of the royal commands,
brought the amazing revolution to a close. The "purge,"
as it Avas called, was sufficiently severe. Nevertheless, some
fiickerings of dissent from the royal policy were apparent,
and on March 25th, the King in Council issued an Order for
the displacement of Walter Stephens, one of the neAV Alder
men, and of five of the old Councillors ; and this Avas
followed, on the 26th, by a Mandate, nominating Simon
Hurle as Alderman, and five obscure persons — probablj-
Disse liters — to the other vacancies. These changes were
accordingly made at a Council held on April 11th, the
statutory oaths being again dispensed Avith. B}r this time

448

THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL

[1688

some members of tho highly purified Corporal. ion thought
it indispensable to return thanks to their gracious creator,
aud a committee Avas appointed to draw Up a suitable
address. This document, which may bo safely attributed to
Wade, Avas brought up at a meeting held in the folloAving
Aveek. In brief, tho address laid the Council at his Majesty's
feet, rendered hearty thanks for tho happiness enjoyed
under his Aviso government, extolled his suspension of the
penal laAVS, promised the utmost exertions to support his
policy, beseeched Cod to prolong his benign reign, and
prayed that the CroAvn, at his death, might fall to a
successor descending from himself, and inheriting his
princely virtues. Puppets as they were in tho royal hands,
and liable to be sAvept away by the pen that created them,
the majority of the Council revolted against the adulation
that it Avas proposed to put into their mouths, tho allusion
to the expected advent of an iufant prince being especially
distasteful. The adoption of the address Avas negatived by
sixteen votes against eleven, and a motion that it should be
adopted with amendments was rejected by fourteen votes
against thirteen. Wade, though not entitled to vote,
impudently took part in both divisions, and figured of
course amongst the minority. The largeness of the number
of absentees Avas doubtless due to disgust at the ToAvn
Clerk's servile manoeuvring.
The proceedings of the royal nominees during their brief
existence as civic rulers may be briefly summarised. Their
first act was to order the anniversary of the King's accession
to be celebrated with unusual trttmpetings, salutes and bon
fires. A feAV days later, their Puritan principles were dis
played in a resolution for the revival of the week-day
lectures at St. Nicholas's and St. Werburgh's churches. In
May, the Princess Anne, Avith her husband the Prince of
Denmark, arrived at Bath to drink the Avaters, and as their
Highnesses declined an invitation from Bristol, orders Avere
o-iven for the despatch to them of sixty dozen of sherry and
French Avines ; a further gift of a hogshead of sherry being
forAvarded to London, whither the Princess had hurried on
the birth of a Prince, soon better known as a Pretender.
The latter incident evoked many demonstrations of joy from
the King's partisans in the Council, in spite of the in
credulity Avith Avhich the intelligence Avas received by the
public. The office of Lord High Steward became vacant
during the summer, on the death of the Duke of Ormond,
but owing to dissensions as to a successor, the election was

1688]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

449

twice, deferred. (Strangely enough, (-here, is no furl her
reference to tho vacancy in tho minute books; but the
office whs certainly conferred, before the oamI oi October, on
James, Duke of Ormond, grandson of tho deceased Duke.)
The ciA'ic debt causing much embarrassment, it Avas
resolved in August to sell as much of the corporate estates
as avouIiI clear off the burden. On September 15th, Avhen
William Jackson Avas elected Mayor, Avith Thomas Listen
and Joseph Jackson, Sheriffs, Alderman Hurle produced an
Order in Council declaring the King's pleasure that he, and
also Councillor James Wallis, should be dismissed, Avhich was
accordingly done. Hurle then produced a Mandate requir
ing the election of Henry Gibbs as Alderman and of Peter
Muglcworl-h as Councillor, and the order Avas obej-ed. On
October 11 tli another Mandate, dated so far back as April
29th Avas produced, setting forth that the King, having
recei\red a good character of the sixtj'-nine persons named in
the document (man}'- of Avhom Avere Quakers), commanded
their admission as freemen, without their being required to
take any oath Avhatever. By this time, resistance to
James's daily violations of the laAv Avas developing in the
chief municipal bodies throughout the country, although
they hacl all been manipulated Avith the vigour exerted in
Bristol. It Avas moreoA'er knoAvn that the King, alarmed
at his position, had restored the charters of the city of
London: so the Council after a debate, shelAred a motion to
obey the order, and adjourned the matter until the next
House (Avhich quietly ignored it). Directions Avere however
given for the royal salutes and musical fantasias that
usually took place on the King's birthday (October 11th).
On the 14th his Majesty Avas constrained to AvithdraAV from
his monstrous encroachments on municipal liberties. It
appears from the proclamation, Order in Council, and Man
date issued on the 17th that, saving a fenv exceptions, the
surrenders of corporate charters made in and after 167!i had
never been enrolled, or the judgments on Quo varrantos
entered on the records, so thatne surrender in laAv hacl been
made of the ancient franchises, and the old corporations
Avere not in fact dissolved. Wherefore, to quote the
" general proclamation," the King, of his grace and faArour,
being resolved to place the ciauc bodies in their former
position, Avas pleased to order that Mayors, Sheriffs. Alder
men and Councillors elected after the date of the surrenders
should be at once displaced, and the previous Aldermen and
Councillors reinstated, after which, new elections of Mayors
G 0

i50

THE ANNALS OF BBISTOL

[1688
and Sheriffs avcto to take place, although the charter days
for such elections might have passed. His Majesty finally
promised to restore and confirm the charters that had been
surrendered. .. , , -,
The dignitaries that had been so contumehously treated
for their loyalty cannot but have exulted on returning to
the Council House. But their proceedings when again
reunited on October 23rd, when Wade had disappeared and
Romsey' had returned to his office, exhibit no vancour
towards tho King's late nominees. On the contrary, William
Jackson, the Mayor, was reappointed though he was not
really entitled to sit until he was elected a Councillor, lhc
lately appointed Sheriffs disappeared with the other royal
dependents, and Thomas Cole and William Biwno were
chosen, but, the latter bad fled from the city to his house
at Frenehay, to escape the office, and the fine of £41X1 'im
posed upon him was never recovered. (His p ace was Idled
by the election of George Wldte.) The arrival of the Dutch
fleet under the Prince of Orange being daily expected,
orders Avere given for the enrolment of six soldiers to guard
the city gates ; but this Avas clearly a mere formality, as
the troopers served only eleven days during the ensuing two
months On October 25th the Council assembled to appoint
a Recorder, when William Powlett, an able lawyer, was
elected in the place of Roger North, whose friends were m a
minority, and who revenged himself in his reminiscences
by many sneers and libels on Bristol and its citizens. A
copious present of wine was ordered for the Duke of
Beaufort; who had already arrived m the city by order ot
the King, with directions to repeat his exploits of 168o.
On November 20th, when the King's position had become
desperate, the Council, in co-operation with the leading
locil clergy, headed by Bishop Trelawny, whose principles
passive obedience' and non-resistance had become
marvellously modified, adopted a petition to His Majesty
™ying ior the coiwocation of a Free Parliament ; but
Here is&no evidence that this appeal ever reached i * i desti
nation. James's flight and the events that followed it
him-ed the Corporation into utter helplessness and con-
f i Son From the date of the above meeting until August
LoSj six attempts were made to assemble a Council for Joe
despatch of business, but it was m each case found impos
sible- to collect a quorum. . „„+:„„, * ;„
The local calendar Avriters are provolungly ret cen m
reference, to the events of this memorable year. It is known

1688]

IN TILE SEVENTEENTH CEXTUItY.

451

that the news of the birth of a Prince of Wales, received on
June 1 2th, two days after the. event, was greeted, as it was
everywhere, with mingled dismay and incredulity. lhey
rang the bells a little while," says one annalist, "but made
but very small demonstrations of joy." On the other hand,
public sympathy was cordially manifested in the following
week for the seven Bishops, Avhose liberation from the
Tower Avas hailed with great popular enthusiasm, and simi
lar demonstrations followed their ultimate acquittal. But
nothing is recorded as to the reception of the news of the
Prince of Orange's arrival, and it is necessary to resort to a
Loudon news-letter for most of the details m connection
with the occupation of Bristol by the Deliverer's partisans.
As stated above, the Duke of Beaufort arrived inthe city
iu October, resolved to secure it on behalf of the Kmg; but
he held aloof from the Corporation, notAvithstandmg its gift
of a quantity of Avine. and took up his abode Avith the Col
lector of Customs. Becoming sorroAvfully convinced that
public feeling amongst all classes was adverse, to his
cause, his Grace made no effort to assemble any considerable
number of trained bands. Such a moment Avas favourable
for an outbreak of fanaticism amongst the ignorant ami
disorderly. On tbe morning of December 1st, a rabble
gathered in the streets, and sacked the house of a Romanist
harness-maker in Castle Street, burning part of the contents
and stealing the remainder. The mob next attacked two
houses in King Street, also occupied by men of the obnoxious
faith, and wrought great havoc. Fortunately, in the after
noon, says the mnvs Avriter, the Earl of ShreAVsbury, with
200 horse and 200 infantry, entered the city Avithout
opposition, aud assumed the functions of Governor by
direction of the Prince of Orange. His Lordship avixs joined
on the same clay by Sir John Guest, avIio had recently
returned from exile for his opposition to the Duke of
Beaufort's proceedings, and Avho, Avith the assistance of Lord
Delamere, had already raised a large body of volunteers m
Gloucestershire. The Duke of Beaufort, hearing of the
approach of these unAvelcome visitors (he had attempted to
.arrest Guise in October), departed in some baste, "not staying
to dine," adds a chuckling chronicler. Lord Shrewsbury Avas
met at the Tolzey by the Mayor and Aldermen, to whom
be handed a letter from the Prince of Orange, assuring them
that he had come to England in defence of religion, liberty
and property, and adding that, being unwilling to burden
.them, and desiring to have their friendship and concurrence,

452

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1688

he had sent only a small party of troops. Lord Shrewsbury
had also a letter for Bishop Trelawny, who hacl probably
joined the Mayor and Corporation. His Lordship's brother,
the colonel of the regiment that had so recently run riot in
Bristol, had already carried over his troops to the Prince of
Orange, and the Bishop himself hastened to salute the rising-
sun. "Lord ShreAVsbury, with avIioso conduct Ave are all
extremely pleased, -will giAre you a full account of Avhat has
been done here, Avhich, if your Highness should approve it,
Avill be greater satisfaction to me that I have bore some
part in the Avork which your Highness has undertaken . . .
Believe me A_ery ready to promote so good a work." The
Mayor and Aldermen also sent the Prince assurances of
their assistance, and thanked him for bis considerate treat
ment of the city. The adhesion of Bristol Avas deemed so
important an event by William's advisers, that the missive
of the justices Avas hurriedly translated into Dutch and
despatched to Rotterdam, Avhere it Avas fortliAvith published,
accompanied by a proclamation of the Mayor and Aldermen
forbidding .lesuits. monks and Romish priests from abiding
in Bristol, and threatening those who harboured them Avith
heavy penalties. (A copy of this remarkable tract is in the
collection of Mr. G. E. Weare.) The disposition of tbe citi
zens generally Avas so favourable that it Avas thought-
needless to maintain a garrison, and all the troops, save a
small guard for the gates, departed about December 5th.
The only expense incurred by the Corporation during their
stay was 40s., presented to the dragoons by the Mayer, pre
sumably for their good conduct. The soldiers being gone,
the populace gathered again, intending to attack the houses
in King Street, but a calendar Avriter says:— "Sir John
Knight, Sir Richard Crump and Sir Thomas Earle, and
some others, drcAv their sAVords, Avhich so daunted tho
rabble that they fled." Oidy a feAV days later, a panic, the
cause of Avhich Avas never explained, broke out in Bristol,
London, and almost every town in the kingdom. A rumour
spread Avith amazing rapidity that the Irish soldiers dis
banded by James II. were approaching, massacring on their
Avay Protestant men, avoiucu and children. Thousands of per
sons floAV to arms to resist the barbarians, and it Avas not dis
covered in Bristol until after a night of awful terror that the
soldiery Avere stationed more, than a week's march from the
city. 'The Chamberlain paid £5 9s. " for powder, when the
report Avas that the Irish that was disbanded Avere coming
near this city, and did great cruelties wherever they goeth.

1688-80]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

453

Interrupting for a moment the story of the Revolution,
attention may be drawn to a curious deed, now in the
Reference Library, dated August llth, 1088 by which
Susanna Veil, of Bristol, in consideration of £40, conveyed
to an attorney, named Parmiter, a moiety of the tithes ot
tho lordship of Tockington. On the back of the instru
ment is a memorandum, signed by Parmiter, acknowledging
that ho had acted in the matter merely as the agent of
liichard Hawksworth [a Bristol merchant], to whom he
transferred the estate. In another hand is the folloAving
1K,te -—"Xofa bene. Richard HaAvksAVorth, herein men
tioned, and his heir Walter, who sold his right to these
tyths to St. I)., Avere & are still Quakers, though they did,
without scruple, receive and use these tyth fruits so many
years." St. !>., doubtless the Avriter of the above, Avas the
Rev Staunton Degge, of Over, avIio purchased the manor
of Tockington. Avhich, in 16SS, was the property of Alder
man Lawford/of the representatives of that gentleman s
heiress, Lady Dineley, Avidow of the, murdered Sir John
Diucley, alias Goodore.
In the closing days of December, the Prince oi Orange
resolved on summoning a Convention for the settlement
of the kingdom, Avhich James II. bad deserted. Tho Avrits
For Avhat Avas in all but the name a Parliament Avero
fortliAvith issued, and the election proceedings at Bristol
began on January llth, 1689. and concluded on the loth,
Avhen Sir Richard Hart and Sir John Knight Avere
returned, their Whig opponents, Thomas Day and Robert
Yate, being defeated. Bristol Avas one of the few impor
tant 'toAvns that returned uncompromising Tories at this
great crisis, and both its members opposed the de
thronement of James. Both, hoAvever, took the oath of
allcgianco to the uoav King and Queen, as did the Duke
of Beaufort after a short hesitation. At the clone of the
session, the Council, after passing a vote of thanks to the
members for their good services to the city and the Church
of England, repealed the resolution abolishing the payment
of " Avages " to representatiA'es, avIio received the usual
allowance of 6s. Sd. per day, amounting to a total sum of
£193. The proclamation of King William and Queen Mary
took place at the High Cross on February 16th, 1089.
The. meagre ceremonies denoted the prevailing sentiments
of the civic body. Not one bottle of Avine Avas consumed
by the. Corporation, and the total expenditure for salutes,

THE ANNALS OE BIUSTOL

[1689

trumpeters, and bonfires was only £2 7s. bd. A fortnight
later, however, the King sent instructions that the keys
of the city gates, which the Duke- of Beaufort had long-
held so teuaciously, should be delivered to the Mayor, and
this concession to corporate susceptibilities produced a
o-ood effect. On the day fixed for the coronation, in April,
the Council Avent in state to the cathedral (10s. being paid
"to four Avomen that strewed sAveet herbs before Mr.
Mayor "), and a modest potation took place afterAvards at
the Council House, Avhilst cannon fired salutes.
Bishop Trelawny's sudden abjuration of the principle
of passive obedience AA'as reAvarded in the way he desired.
In answer to his petition for preferment to the see of
Exeter, and for tAvo good livings in that diocese, to be
held in commendani, a conge cV el ire in his favour Avas issued
on March 16th. and on the same day be Avas granted a
Avell-endoAved Cornish deanery and a rectory in Devon
by royal Avarrant. His successor in Bristol Avas Gilbert
Ironside, son of a former Bishop of tbe same name.
This prelate's episcopate here was even shorter than
TrelaAvny's, his translation to Hereford taking place tAvo
years later.
Ecclesiastics Avere far from being the only suitorsjor
the favour of the new Government. On March 15th,
John Dutton Colt Avas appointed Collector of Customs at
Bristol, in conformity with his petition recounting his
sufferings in the Protestant cause. _
The long-standing dispute over the election of Sir
Thomas Earle as Alderman (see pp. 402, 417) was revived
in August, when the Court of Aldermen re-assembled after
a suspension of eight months. With the assent of the
Court- and in contradiction to its last decision on the
subject Sir Thomas took the oaths and his seat. Sir
William Clutterbuck and Thomas Day were then elected
Aldermen. Thomas Eston, Avho had been placed in l^arle s
seat by the Court in 1683, being now an encumbrance, it
was resolved, a few days later, that, as he had been long
imprisoned for debt, and could not attend to his office,
which he had held all along, "contrary to right, his
election was void. Sir William Hayman one of the late
King's nominees, was also ejected, and the Mayor with
EclArerd Feilding and William Donning, were appointed to
vacant seats. These resolutions were not passed without
much dissension. In fact, tbe Mayor was so embarrassed
in the performance of his office that, on September 4th, he

16891

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

455

addressed an appeal to the Government. His letter, which
is amongst the State Papers, stated that he had, on the
preceding day, called a House to make arrangements for
the coming elections, but many members did not attend,
while others came only to wrangle about precedency.
"They are for the most part those Avho consented to the
surrender of the charter, and I believe are least affected
to their Majesties' interest. I desire directions, Avishmg
to leave office in the hands of men entirely disposed to
their Majesties' service, which I cannot promise if Uus
party prevail." In reply, Lord ShreAvsbury said the King
had noticed the Mayor's faithful service, and expected that
those avIio hacl a right to choose officers should act as
became them. If business Avere obstructed, the names ot
offenders should be sent up to the Privy Council, that they
might be prosecuted. The result of the aldermanic pro
ceedings came out on election day, Avhen the civic scribe
placed" no less than seventeen Aldermen on the roll, declining
the responsibility of omitting Eston and those whom the
late King had nominated or displaced. Arthur Hart an
ultra-Tory, was placed in the chair. Ignoring Kmg
James's order for the exemption of John Bubb, that
gentleman Avas not only elected a Councillor but appointed
one of the Sheriffs. . .
At the period under revieAv, the law made no provision
for such persons ' condemned to death for felony as the
judges thought fit to save from the galloAvs. Prisoners
were hanged by scores every year for what Avould uoav be
deemed trivial offences; but if, from extreme youth or
other extenuating circumstances, the penalty of death
Avere remitted, the culprit suffered no heavier punishment
than that endured by poor people imprisoned for non-pay
ment of a debt. The perplexity occasioned by this defect-
in the statute book is illustrated by a letter addressed by
the Recorder of Bristol to the Attorney-General at the close
of the gaol delivery in September. Three men, Avrote Ser
jeant PoAvlett, had been sentenced to death : one for sheep
stealing, one for personating a landed man, and a third
for instigating the latter felony. The two first were
notorious rogues, and the whole country Avould cry out if
they were not hanged ; but it might be well to transport.
the. other, avIio Avas only twenty-four years old._ The
writer asked for advice, especially as to Avhat poAver judges
had to transport prisoners convicted of small felonies.
"Here are tAvo boys, the eldest not tAveh-e, convicted of

4.-5C?

THE ANNALS OI" BHISTOL

[1689-90
stealing a purse Avith forty pence in it. I reprieved
because so young, upon their friends promising to trans
port them." What Avould have happened to the tAvo
children if they had been destitute of friends is left to
conjecture. \Vhatever might be the bickerings in the Council cham
ber over precedency and other trifles, the members Avere
pretty unanimous in their hatred of Nonconformists. It
Avas resolved in October, that, "the settlement of the militia
being iu some part in the hands of Dissenters and persons
obnoxious to the Church of England," the fact should be
represented to the King, together Avith " other emergencies
that may fall out." A committee Avas also appointed to
Avrite to the city members, desiring their attention to these
important matters.
On January 18th, 1090, a fire broke out in the White
Lion inn, Broad Street, by Avhich that long-famed hostelry,
together with an adjoining house, Avas burned to the
ground. The Chamberlain disbursed £7 8s. Vd. amongst
those avIio strove to quench the flames.
A parliamentary election, consequent on the dissolution
of the preceding House of Commons, began in Bristol on
February 24th and continued for five days. The previous
members, Sir Richard Hart and Sir John Knight, again
offered themselves, and defeated their Whig opponents, the
Recorder and Robert Yate. The unsuccessful candidates
petitioned against the return, alleging that many of their
supporters had been prevented from voting, whilst clivers
unqualified persons bad been allowed to vote against them;
but their claim seems to have been abandoned. The Tory
majority m the Council Avere so enraged at the candidature
of Serjeant Powlett that they refused to allow him to be
present at meetings of the Chamber, although an Alderman
by \irtue of his office.
The repudiation by the Corporation of all responsibility
in reference to the cleansing of the streets was noted in a
previous page. As was to be expected, the parochial autho
rities were little disposed to bear the burden, and reduced
their .scavenging staff to derisory proportions. Though the
narrow alleys inhabited by the poor were not merely lanes
but sewers, the sum expended in the populous parish of
St. Stephen in the summer of 1690, according to the records
of the vestry, was only 4s. per week, Avhilst St. Leonard's
vestry laid out only £6 a year; and there is no reason to
suppose that those districts were more parsimonious than

1690]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUIIY.

457

their neighbours. The scandal continued until the last
year of tho century.
The Corporation, in fact, was ovenvhelmed Avith debt and
menaced Avith insolvency. In July it was announced that
two creditors threatened distraints, and orders Avere given
for raising temporary loans. The crisis Avas finally 0A-er-
eome by the sale of lands at Hamp for £3,600. Instances
of contemptible parsimony and of gross extravagance occur
in the year's accounts. Thus, on July 22nd, the Chamber
lain notes: — "Spent on several attorneys at, the Na^'s
Head, 2s. 2c/." A feAV weeks before ho had paid "Jonathan
Blackwell, Esq., for Avine, £102 "—representing about 260
gallons. ^ In August, Mr. Edward Colston made a proposal to the
Council to purchase three acres of land on St. Michael's
11 ill, known as the Turtles, or Jonas Leaze, intimating his
intention to build thereon an almshouse, chapel, and other
buildings. The Corporation, in vieAV of his charitable pur
pose, demanded only £100 for the ground, and the convey
ance was executed in November. There is no record of the
opening of the almshouse, which Avas constructed for the
reception of twelve men and tAvelve Avomen, and cost about
£2,500. In January, 1696, Mr. Colston conveyed the pro
perty, together tvith the endoAvment fund— consisting of a
great number of fee-farm rents purchased from the Crown-
to Sir Richard Hart and twenty-seven other citizens, chiefly
members of the Merchants' Society, Avho were constituted
managers of the charity, Avith poAver to appoint successors.
The nomination of alms-people Avas reserved to the founder
for life, Avith remainder to the Merchants' Society in per
petuity. One of the calendar Avriters of this time records that
" much heats and contentions degraded the Chamber, and
engendered continual squabblings and heart-burnings"; and
though the minutes of the Council are drawn up Avith
great reserve and ambiguity, enough may be made out to
corroborate the assertion. Quarrels as to precedence Avere
of frequent occurrence, the ex-mavors and sheriffs elected
alter the return of tho charters refusing to recognise the
seniority of the officials designated by James 11. or elected
by his nominees. A few headstrong Jacobites refused to
enter the Chamber at all, and attempts to coerce them In
fill es proved unavailing, as they had not taken the oath of
allegianco to tho now sovereigns, and were therefore dis
qualified. In supplying vacancies, Dissenters and others

45.S

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL

[10DO
Avere chosen against, their Avill for the mere purpose of
aiimryanee, and heavy fines Avere imposed for non-accept
ance of office; but one James AVhiting, being thus treated,
and committed to gaol in default of payment, raised an
action for illegal imprisonment, and the Council Avere glad
to settle the matter by relieving him of his office. Other
men, again, claimed to act as Councillors, though the
dominant party contended that they had no right to sit,
but this argument was raised only Avhen the claimant's
politics were antagonistic to those of the majority. Sir
John Knight, for instance, had formally resigned his goAvn
before being displaced by King James, but he returned and
claimed his place as if nothing had happened, and was of
course Avelcomed by his allies, avIio elected him Mayor in
September. With the pretended object of securing good
order, an ordinance Avas passed in the same month, under
Avhich any intruder claiming to take part in the business of
the House Avas to forfeit £2ll, and be imprisoned in default
of payment; Avhilst Mayors or Sheriffs neglecting to put this
laAv in force Avere threatened Avith the same penalties. But
the ^leeree fell stillborn. The exasperation of the ruling
faction Avas especially directed against Sir Thomas Earle,
and reached its climax in October. So far as can bo
gathered from the vague records, it would appear that in
the previous February the then Mayor (Hart) and some
of the Tory Aldermen, on evidence of a hearsay character,
had committed the mate of Earle's ship, the Eleanor, on a
charge of having a French pass in his possession, with the
object, as Hart insinuated, of landing a cargo of leaden
bullets in an enemy's port. Sir Thomas Earle thereupon
wrote to Secretary Lord ShreAvsbttry, setting forth Avhat ho
said Avere the true facts. The ship's cargo, chiefly perish
able goods, was consigned to his sons, factors at Bilbao, and
he had not sent a ship to France for thirty years. Neither
the captain nor himself knew that the mate had a pass ;
but as all other attempts to compromise him had failed,
Sir John Knight had turned affidavit man, Avhile the
Mayor, of like principles, had "got a leAvd felloAV to swear
to something that I believe Avas taught him." If attention
Avas paid to such stories, the Secretary would " find trouble
enough Avhilst this man is Mayor, for their whole party,
being known to be most zealous Jacobites," would cover
their designs by aspersing the men they mortally hated,
namely, those faithful to the Government ; the present
project being mainly designed to defeat the election of

160(1]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

4r>t>

Avell -affected members of Parliament. A copy of this letter
name into the hands of Earle's enemies about the end of
September, either by dint of bribing a GoA-ernment under
ling, or by the treachery of Lord Shrewsbury himself, avIio
had secretly gone over to the Jacobites. Before calling
Sir Thomas to account on this matter, a new charge Avas
raised against him by his opponents. They alleged that
ou July 23rd, Avhilst Hart and some Aldermen Avere sitting
in the Tolzey, Earle tuinultuonsly broke in upon them
with a crowd of people, and insolently menaced them for
granting bail to one Moore, accused of sedition, Avhich so
alarmed tho justices for their oavii safety that they com
mitted Moore to Newgate against their judgment. Thirdly,
it was asserted that Sir Thomas, Avith other deputy-lieu
tenants, had come into the Council House, and demanded
that the corporate books should be shoivn to the Earl of
Macclesfield (iioav Lord-Lieutenant of the city, vice the
Duko of Beaufort, resigned), for the purpose of bringing an
accusation against Hart, and prying into the civic secrets.
These charges having been formulated, Earle produced an
ansAver in Avriting, Avhich the Council refused to accept.
and he was ordered to give categorical replies to the accu
sations. On the first head he declined to say anything
until his letter Avas produced, Avhich of course could not be
done. To the second, he contended that he had simply
protested against an improper act, Avhen Hart bad con
temptuously ordered him — a magistrate — to " go away
aime." As to the third, he stated that he and his official
companions Avished to inspect an order concerning them in
the Council books. He Avas thereupon ordered to withdraAv.
and the Council, declaring all the charges pixreed. resolved
by a large majority that he be expelled from the Corpora
tion. (The only Whigs present were Aldermen CresAviek,
Day and Donning, aud Robert Yate.) The Jacobite
triumph Avas of brief duration. At, the next meeting.
November 12th, the Mayor announced that be had been
served Avith a " rule " for a mandamus, requiring Earle's
restoration, and it- Avas resolved to put iu an answer. The
defence. Avas unsatisfactory to the Court of King's Bench.
which granted a mandamus in February, 1091, Avhen the
mortified majority were compelled to vote for Earle's
restoration to his office.
Whilst- the aboATe squabble Avas raging, William III.
reached Kingroad on September 6th on his return from the
Battle of the Boyne. His Majesty landed at KingsAveston.

460

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL

[1690-91

then recently acquired by Sir Robert Southwell, Irish
Secretary of State, and on the folloAving day he passed
through Bristol on his Avay to the Duke of Beaufort's
mansion at Badminton. The only available approach to
the city from Kingsweston Avas.down St. Michael's Hill,
then narroAV, precipitous and rugged, leading to a danger
ous declivity called Steep Street, and the descent must
have been trying to one AvIio delighted in tho level fiats of
his oavii land. At Froom Gate, Christmas Street, the King
AA'as received by the city dignitaries, who preceded him.
bareheaded, to Lawford's Gate. Remembering the lavish
outlay repeatedly incurred in doing honour to AVilliam's
predecessors, the only items of civic expense on this occa
sion are Avorthy of a, record : — " Paid six soldiers for going
in the city's arms, (is. Disbursed in the Council House,
10s." In November, a day of Thanksgiving Avas appointed
to celebrate the King's successes ; but the, ruling party in
the Council Avere the reverse of jubilant, and only six
shillings Avorth of sack Avas needed "to drink the King and
Queen's health," implying a very general abstention from
a distasteful ceremony.
Soon after the King's return to England, the honour of
knighthood Avas conferred upon John Duddleston, a Bristol
merchant largely concerned in the- West Indian and tobacco
trades. A feAv Avecks later, January, 1091, Sir John was
created a baronet. The cause of these distinctions has neA-er
been explained, but it is not improbable that Duddleston,
avIio appears to haA'e been a Whig and a Dissenter, Avas sent
to KingsAveston to offer the King the respectful homage of
the citizens of similar sentiments — a tribute Avhich the
sullen reserve of the Jacobite Council Avould render the
more gratifying. It is almost needless to add that the story
of a knighthood being conferred on a humble staymaker by
Queen Anne, more than ten years later, is one of the absurd
fictions iirvented by a stupid imitator of Chatterton.
The Corporation Avere troubled, near the close of the year,
by the arrival of Sir Echvard Philipps, sent down by the
GoA'crnment to assume the office of Vice-Admiral, in repu
diation of tho city's chartered rights. The Members of
Parliament Avere fortliAvith furnished Avith documentary
evidence of the local privilege, and their exertions for its
maintenance proA'od successful. In February, 1091, the
Council Avere informed by the Mayor that Phil ipps's com
mission had been quashed, and that the Government had
promised to conduct future Admiralty business through

1691]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

461

the chief magistrate. So far as can be discovered, this Avas
the last occasion on Avhich the Council took the trouble to
defend a right that had ceased to be of any real value, and
had been often a source of expense. The focal jurisdiction
had been tacitly surrendered before 1741, Avhen, on the com
mittal of Sir John Dineley's murderers for trial in Bristol, the
Government attempted to move the case into the Admiralty
Court alleging that tho crime Avas committed at sea. Sir
Michael Foster, the Recorder, founded a successful defence
of Ihe magistrates on the fact that Kingroad was Avithin
the boundaries of the city, Avhich ousted a jurisdiction that
he did not care to dispute.
At tho above meeting in February, the Council Ave re
about to admit Charles Delamain, "lapidary," to the
freedom, on payment of £15, Avhen the goldsmiths of
the city, avIio had heard of the intention, presented a petition
complaining that the admission of Delamain, whom they
styled a jeAveller, would be grievously prejudicial to their
trade. The Council thereupon raised the fine to £30, and
that sum Avas paid.
Retrenchment in trifles Avas still pursued by the chic
rulers. It Avas resolved on February 27th to abolish the
salary of £2 paid to the Keeper of the Library, on the death
of the existing librarian. A committee Avas also instructed
to vieAV the house, set apart a space sufficient to store up the
books, and let the rest of the building as a dwelling ! In
spite of parsimonies of this kind, the Corporation could not
meet their liabilities, and in the folloAving month, Avhen a
distraint Avas threatened for a debt of £400. it Avas determined
to abstract that sum from charity funds, to be refunded
Avhen money came in. By the. ingenuity of the Mayor 'Sir
John Knight), these, financial troubles avoiv turned to
account for political purposes. On July 22nd he dilated on
the great expense, incurred for the entertainment, of the
judges, and induced the Council to abolish the custom._and
to limit the future outlay to a sum " not exceeding £5 for
some small necessaries." He then sent a messenger to the
judges on circuit, awning that this step had been taken.
not from disrespect but pure necessity. The Avell-infonned
diarist, Luttrell, notes the conclusion of tbe matter. On the
envoy fulfilling his mission at Exeter, Mr. Justice Gregory
replied that the Corporation "need not fright- themselves
with his being a burden to (hem (though he knew well
enough Iioav to construe their excuse V Al his coming io (he
city he receiAred great insolencies from some persons who

~ia'2 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL [1691
Avere very tumultuous about his coach, and threAV dirt at
him, for which, publicly noticing the affront, and resolving
that their Majesties' Government should not be so wounded
through him, he fined the city £100, aud each Sheriff £20,
bnt on their submission he remitted the fines."
The hostility of Sir Richard Hart, M.P., to the Govern
ment of William III. Avas exemplified by a speech Avhich he
addressed to the Council iu April. The recourse to impress
ment for reinforcing the land and sea forces was then of
ordinary occurrence, and during the reigns of the Stewarts
the Corporation had been frequently zealous in raising the
contingents that Avere called for. But the impressment of
three Kingswood labourers for service in the army was
complained of by the Jacobite knight as a shameful abuse
of the liberty of the subject. He drew, moreover, an
alarming picture of the disorders to be dreaded from the
irritation of the colliers, Avhose numbers he estimated at
500, and avIio, he said, might not only become riotous, but
refuse to supply the city with fuel. As the result of his
tirade, his political sympathisers resolved to address a
complaint to the GoA'ernment, who seem to have treated it
Avith silent contempt.
A someAvhat enigmatical minute was made at a Council
meeting in July : — " Mr. Mayor observed that several shows
and sights are setting up in the fair by tho license of the,
Mayor, in the houses of private persons, to the prejudice of
the fee farm. Ordered, that Mr. Mayor and all future
Mayors be desired to grant no license to any but such that
shall take ground of the city of the fee farm as usual." The
apparent complaint of the Mayor against his OAvn conduct
Avas probably directed against licenses granted by his pre
decessors. The profits derived from letting stands during
the fairs amounted to about £60 per annum. A standing
at the High Cross let for 30s. Three in the Corn Market,
Wine Street, brought in £28 15s. A theatrical booth in the
Horse Fair Avas set up almost every year, and produced £3.
Subsequently, tAvo companies of players made their
appearance, increasing the receipts ; but the old dislike of
the drama Avas aroused by the innovation, and in .1699 tho
actors Avere banished, the Sheriffs being compensated for
their loss by a vote of £5 yearly out of the civic purse.
The reappearance of John Roe, the rebellious SAvordbearer,
Avas foreshadowed in page 404. On November llth, the
Mayor informed the Council that he had been summoned
to sIioav cause why a mandamus should not issue for the

1691]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

463

reinstatement of Roe in his former position, Avhereupou
it aviis resolved to put in an ansiver repelling the claim,
No furthe rmention of the case occurs for some time, but,
according to ShoAver's King's Bench Reports, the dispute
came before the Court for judgment in Michaelmas Term,
1691. (There is admitted confusion in the chronological
order of these reports, and this cause is probably ante
dated.) The defence of the Corporation Avas based on
Roe's absence from his duties, and especially on his out
lawry after the, Rye House plot. As to the. latter plea,
Roe rejoined that the outlaAvry had been reversed. The
Court determined that mere absence Avas no forfeiture of
tho place, and that it had not been proved that Itoe Avas
absent Avhen the Mayor Avas " iu his progresses " officially.
But outlaAvry was an undoubted disability, and Roe must
sue out a new writ, reciting the outlawry and its reversal.
" And aftenvards," adds the reporter, " he brought such a
special Avrit, and Ave amended the return, etc." Strange
to say, the matter again drops out of sight until a meeting
of the. Council in January, 1695, Avhen the folloAving
minute is recorded: — "Resolved that Mr. Laue, avIio is
sued by Mr. John Roav for not restoring him, be defended
at the city's charge." In the following April, Roe peti
tioned for restoration to his place, or compensation : and
a committee then appointed to negotiate Avith him re
ported a feAv clays later that they had offered him £40, but
that he insisted on £150. Both parties being stubborn,
Roe renewed legal proceedings, and on June 1st the Mayor
announced that he had been subpcened by Roe to appear
at the trial of the case. The rest of the minute offers a
striking example of the frequent negligence of the city
scribes:—" Upon debate of the matter  " and there the.
Avriter stops! The truth appears to be that the, Corpora
tion had no valid defence to offer, and determined on a
compromise. On June 5th. the Chamberlain paid Roe
£100, " by order of the Common Council," and brought the
long dispute to an end.
The State Papers for 1691 contain an account of an
a flair that must haA'o caused much excitement in the city,
though no local Avriter condescended even to allude to it.
In a report to the Treasury, dated November 12th, the
Customs Commissioners commended the petition of John
Dutton Colt, Collector at Bristol, avIio had succeeded, by
the help of an informer on board the ship Bristol Mer
chant, iu detecting certain Customs officers and lecal mer-

404

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1691-92

chants in a conibination for defrauding the revenue. He
had recoA'ered £2,772 from the incriminated merchants,
and £500, as a fine, from the officers, and the latter had
moreover been convicted in the Court of King's Bench,
and condemned to stand publicly upon the Back, placarded
upon their breasts Avith a paper declaring their crime.
(This punishment, according to a London noAvsdetter, Avas
remitted by the Government.) The Commissioners recom
mended that Colt should be generously recompensed, Avith
what result, docs not appear. Subsequently, charges of
misconduct against Colt himself Avero made by Bristolians,
but the Government seem to haAre taken no steps against
him. An unexpected resolution Avas passed by the Council m
December. Impressed, perhaps, by the pacification of Ire
land, and by the increased security of commerce due to a
reorganized Navy, the House had at length begun to mani
fest "some respect for the neAV occupants of the throne, and
the Chamberlain avus directed to pay £13 5s. "for the
King and Queen's pictures uoav set up in the Council
Chamber." The portraits had been evidently ordered by
some previous resolution of which there is no record. The
money Avas paid to " Mr. More," probably the well-knoAvn
Dutch painter, Karel de Moor.
The corporate Bargain Book, in March, 1692, contains an
interesting reference to an ancient building then belonging
to Edward Colston. The entry recites a lease granted, in
1682. to Captain Richard Ham, of the White Lodge and
gardens, on St. Michael's Hill, part of the estate of the old
Hospital of St. Bartholomew. This lease had become vested
in Mr. Colston, and on its surrender by him, and the pay
ment of £24, a ucav lease for forty-one years was granted,
at his request, to John Price, mariner, at a rental of 56s. 8d.
The White Lodge stood at the bottom of the Hill, nearly
facing the King David inn. But there was another White
Lodge, adjacent to the Red Lodge, and both are men
tioned as being still in existence at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. . .
Sir William Merrick, who had taken little part in civic
affairs for some time, petitioned in August to be discharged
from further service, and the Council consented to his
retirement on payment of £100. The fine was paid in the
folloAving year' Avhen an objection Avas raised to the dis
missal. A civic bye-kaAV Avas then in force requiring every
member to record 'his A'ote, either in person or by proxy, on

1693]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

465

the election of Mayor. On September 15th, the entire
Council, Avith a single exception, assembled under these
conditions, and the Chamberlain was elected a Councillor
for the day to make the roll complete. By inadvertence,
some ono previously holding Merrick's proxy voted again
in his name, and it was contended that the discharge
had thus become invalid. After a solemn deliberation, Sir
William avus finally liberated.
The Council Avere again in financial trouble in Novem
ber, 1693. A creditor holding bonds for £1,000 threatened
to distrain for tho amount, and a scandal Avas averted only
by begging a loan of £350 from a lady, the balance being
reluctantly contributed by three members of the House.
The embarrassment brought about a reform in the manner
of keeping the city accounts, which had undergone
scarcely any alteration since the middle ages, and Avas
extremely obscure and imperfect. It Avas resolved in
December to provide the Chamberlain with a ledger, journal
and cash book, Avhich he Avas instructed to make up
monthly. Previous reference has been made to the French Protes
tants driven from their country by Louis XIV. A con
siderable number of the Huguenots settled in Bristol, and
some attained a good position as merchants. In September,
1693, one of these, Stephen Peloquin, Avas admitted a free
burgess, on the nomination of the Mayor. A member of
this family, David Peloquin, Avas elected Sheriff in 1735,
and Mayor in 1751, and another, Mary Ann Peloquin,
bequeathed £19,000 to the Corporation for charitable
purposes. Other Huguenot names, such as Daltera and
Piquenot, are found in the lists of civic officers, Avhilst
some families Avere lost in tho general population by the
Anglicising of their surnames, Levraut being changed to
Hare, and Leroy to King. There is no record in the
corporate minutes of the grant to the refugees of the use
of the. Mayor's Chapel as a place of worship ; but they
certainly Avere in possession of it soon after the Revolution,
aud Avere then a numerous congregation.
Wealthy Huguenots desirous of becoming English sub
jects could attain that end by obtaining a special Act of
Parliament ; but this process Avas beyond the means of the
bulk of the refugees, Avho therefore suffered under the
disabilities of aliens. Besides the French exiles, moreover,
great numbers of industrious German Protestants, drh-on
from their homes by tho French devastation of the
n n

46(1

THE ANNALS OF BHISTOL

[1694

Rhenish proAunces, had sought shelter in this country.
A feeling arose in Parliament that the rigour of the alien
laAvs might be relaxed in favour of the sufferers for re
ligion, and in December a Bill to sanction their natural
isation Avas read twice in the House of Commons Avithout
a division. The enemies of the Government, however,
seized the opportunity to inflame the national hatred of
foreigners, and on January 4th, .1694, Avhen it was proposed
to consider the Bill in committee, it Avas furiously de
nounced by the Opposition. It Avas, they alleged, a
fraudulent device, under Avhich the countiy Avould bo
flooded by Dutchmen, Avho would adopt any faith for
money, and would soon be a greater curse than the plagues
of Egypt. Amongst the most virulent of the speakers,
according to the measure of his ability, was Sir John
Knight, Avhose coarse ranting Avas afterwards dressed up
into decent English by abler Jacobites in the background.
After much irreleA'aut rigmarole about the liberties of
England, the miseries of our troops in Flanders, and the
cunning and meanness of our Dutch allies, Knight pro
fessed to speak on behalf of his constituents. He could
not hope that his city avouIc! be saAred from the general
inundation that this Bill Avould bring upon the liberties
and property of the nation. Supporters of the Bill Avere
stigmatised as wanting in patriotism, and on the remark
provoking protests, the orator alleged he had offended
them by concluding that their religion Avas from the Bible.
" If it be that which displeaseth, I heg pardon and promise
not to offend again on that score, and couclttde Avith this
motion: — 'That the sergeant be commanded to open the
doors, and let us first kick the Bill out of the House, and
then kick the foreigners out of the kingdom.' " This
diatribe, with its incoherence pruned and its offensiveness
aggravated, was printed secretly at Jacobite presses, and
circulated by tens of thousands, undoubtedly winning
much approval and assent. But Avhen a copy of the con
cocted ribaldry Avas laid before the House on March 1st
(not fifty years later, as is strangely asserted by a local
historian), It caused an outburst of disgust, and its pre
tended author, in dread of the consequences, lyingly
disclaimed all knoAvledge of the publication. The House
resolved that the libel Avas false, scandalous, and seditious,
and ordered it to be burned by the hangman. The Bill
was Avithdrawn. That Knight Avas incapable of making
such a speech as was attributed to him is sufficiently

1694]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH OENTUliy

467

attested by a note he addressed to a brother alderman, a
copy of which is given by a local annalist: — "Sir John
Knight presents his compliments to Sir Richard Crumpe
and have a hat which are not mine. If you has a hat
which are not yourn, probably it are the missing ono."
Amongst the records of the Corporation is an interesting
memorandum, showing the amount of a neAV tax collected
from the property owners of the city in the last three
months of 1693. Parliament in the previous year had
ordered au accurate valuation of real estate to bo made
throughout the kingdom, and directed that a tax on the
yearly value— which soon obtained the name of Land
Tax— should be assessed for the support of the Avar. The
valuation of parishes then made remains unaltered to the
present day, so that the tax, which Avas originally four
shillings m the pound, has fallen in some parishes to a
fraction of a farthing. The total sum collected in Bristol
for the last quarter of 1693 was £1,617 8s. lid., represent
ing the annual value of the city at £32,349. The yearly
rental of St. Nicholas parish Avas fixed at £3,443; St
S?gmn\ £3'26^' ; St' Thomas's- £3,138; St. James's,
£2,742 ; Christ Church, £2,000 ; St. Augustine's, £1 856 •
Temple, £1,804; St. Ewen's, £1,681; Castle Precincts'
£1,681 ; Redcliff, £1,566 ; St. Peter's, £1,526 ; St. John's
£1,339; St. Philip's, £1,237; All Saints, £1,200; St.
Michael's, £1,124; St. Mary-le-port, £1,019; St. Leonard's,
£882; and St. Werburgh's, £840. The figures must
roughly indicate the proportionate population of each
parish. Much distress prevailed during the Avinter of 1693-4
owing to the high price of bread. In January, the Cor
poration petitioned the Government to bo permitted to
import 5,000 bushels of grain from Ireland for the, relief
of the poor, free from the oxisting duty of 8.v. per quarter;
but the Ministry replied that it had not poiver to assent,'
the Customs duties having been mortgaged for the repay
ment of a loan.
At a meeting of the Council, on March 20th, 1694 a
resolution was adopted, setting forth that the main streets
aud avenues within the precincts (alluding to Old Market
Street, St. Michael's Hill, and similar thoroughfares) were
otd of repair, though they had been mended by the
parishes to the utmost of their ability, and needed much
more outlay to make them decent and safe; wherefore
the House, considering that the city parishes had the

'JOS

TIIK ANNALS OK BRISTOL

11094

advantage and credit of these roads, ordered that all the
parishes should contribute to their reparation, in propor
tions to be fixed by a committee, the Corporation under
taking to assist in mending the Avay to LaAvford's Gate.
As the Council had no legal power to assess rates for such
a purpose, the resolution probably came to nothing.
A project of much importance was laid before the Council
in August. Theminute recorded is as follows : — " Mr. Mayor
produced the proposals made by Mr. Goddard and others for
the bringing in of Avater from some adjacent stream or river
into the city, to serve the inhabitants, at rents between the
undertakers and tenants or inhabitants, was read. A com
mittee appointed to treat with the undertakers." In
January, 1695, the committee presented a report, stating
that the undertakers had refused to assent to the terms de
manded by the Corporation. What those terms were, and
Avhat the Council iioav determined upon, are points left in
obscurity through the slovenly language used by the
minute-writer. Apparently the committee had proposed to
grant a. lease for a line of £200, renewable every seven
years on payment of £266 13s. Ad. on each occasion ; and it
may be conjectured that the projectors had offered £100 for
a lease, and £201 for each septennial renewal. On Febru
ary 27th the committee brought up another report recom
mending that the fines shoidd be fixed at £150 and
£166 13s. Ad. respectively. It would seem that the under
takers assented to these terms, for in April the Council
ordered that they should be prosecuted " with vigour, for
breach of articles." But by some means the contract was
annulled by consent, and on August 1st the Town Clerk
read the clauses of another agreement arranged by the com
mittee on the same pecuniary terms. One clause, giving
the undertakers liberty to make a cistern on the Market-
house in Wine Street, Avas struck out by the Council ; the
rest of the articles Avere approved, subject to the projectors
paying all the costs incurred, and rewarding the Town
Clerk "for his pains." The fine of £150 was paid a few
days later, when the lease Avas doubtless executed. The
prospect of amicable relations, however, soon vanished, for in
January, 1696, the Chamber directed the city members to
oppose the Bill for carrying out the works, which was
being "laboured at" in the House of Commons by Daniel
Small and others. The policy of the Corporation on the
subject is somewhat inexplicable. A clear desire was shown
to extract- as much money as possible out of the company,

1691]

IN THE HBVKNTKENTI1 CKNTIillY.

46i)

Avhile obstacles were repeatedly raised to the progress of the
undertaking. The opposition to the Bill was unavailing,
and it received the Royal Assent. Tho promoters, Daniel
Small, of London, Richard Berry, silkman, Bristol, Samuel
Sandford, wine cooper, Bristol, and two other Londoners,
subscribed a capital of £6,175, divided into 95 shares of £65
each, and purchased, for £900, a lease of extensive flour
mills at Hanham Weir, for Avhich they paid a rent of £95
per annum. The water drawn from the Avon at that spot was
convoyed to near Crews Hole, whence it Avas driven by " an
ingenious machine "—possibly k primitive steam-engine—
to a reservoir at LaAvrence Hill, and thence floived by gravi
tation into the city. The Avhole of the pipes were bored
out of trunks of elms. The Avorks Avere completed in 1698,
and in 1700 the Water Company, in petitioning against an
Avon Navigation Bill, alleging that the scheme would
destroy their property at Hanham, informed the House of
Commons that they supplied Avater to " many hundreds of
tenants " — a statement that must be accepted with reserve.
The water rent Avas a fixed charge of £2 per house, and
" many hundreds " of customers would have produced sub
stantial profits on the small capital, Avhereas in point of
fact the concern Avas never prosperous, and Avas ultimately
abandoned. In 1700, the Corporation deigned to patronise
the Company by ordering a supply of Avater for the gaol,
and by offering £50 toivards the erection of a cistern over
the Meal Market " to contain 40 tons of Avater to extinguish
fires." The. vestry of St. Stephen's parish resolved in December,
169-1, that a vestry room " of a convenient bigness " should
be constructed over tho porch of the church. As church-
Avardendom had then reached almost the lowest depths of
barbarism, the fate of the beautiful porch, had the project
been carried out, may bo safely surmised. But at the ensuing-
Easter gathering "it Avas found proper," says the minute^
book, to have the vestry built over the " Scull House " at
the east end of the church. This building, which still
deforms the fabric, was completed in 1696, at a cost of £101
"Bone houses," necessitated by the overeroAvded state of the
burial grounds, Avere an ordinary feature of the parochial
cemeteries. An unusually large one stood in the area before
St. James's church. Hour-glasses, as admonitions to prolix
preachers, were also common. St. Philip's vestry paid half
a crown this year for " mending the hour-glass."
An amusing illustration of the selfishness of the age ap-

470

THE ANNALS OF, BRISTOL

[1694-95
pears in the Journal of the House of Commons for Decem
ber 17th. Tho members for Bristol presented a petition
from the merchants and traders of the city trading to the
plantations, complaining that, contrary to laAv, divers ships
of British subjects Avere carrying goods from the American
settlements direct to Scotland and Ireland, to the great pre
judice of the petitioners, and praying that the evil should bo
remedied. The petition met Avith much approval, and a
Bill dealing Avith the grievance passed both houses unop
posed, and 'received the Royal Assent. It enacted that from
December 1st, 1696, it should be unlawful, under pretence
of stress of Aveather or any other pretext, to land any
American products iu Scotland or Ireland, unless they had
been first imported into England and re-shipped, under
penalty of forfeiture of both ship and cargo. It Avas further
provided that if a ship through stranding or leakmess was
driven into an Irish port, and could proceed no further, the
Customs officers were to take possession of the cargo, and to
ship it, at the expense of the owners, into another vessel
bound for England. The members for Bristol displayed
great energj' and incurred some expense in carrying the
Bill through Parliament, and received the hearty thanks of
local merchants. The statute remained long in force.
The Christmas season of 1694 was saddened by the death
of Queen Mary, who, as an Englishwoman, enjoyed much
more popularity than Avas ever accorded to her husband.
The Jacobites, "however, displayed rancorous exultation at
her demise. To the disgrace of the Bristol clergy, the bells
of several of the city churches rang merry peals instead of
funereal knells, whilst a drunken rabble danced about the
streets, accompanied by musicians playing " The King shall
enjoy his own again." The Council, hoAvever,' adopted an
address of condolence to the King, and on the day of the
funeral the High Cross Avas covered with black cloth.
The Chamberlain, in March, 1695, paid £6 5s. to a
carpenter " for making a wooden cage to put rude people
in." This structure, sometimes styled "the hutch," ap
pears to have stood near the Guildhall ; but was removed
after a feAv years' trial.
A momentous event, though unrecorded in all English
histories until the time of Macaulay, occurred in the spring
of 1095. Parliament, in passing a Bill for the continuance
of several temporary Acts, omitted the statute which
subjected prinlers and printing-presses to many annoying
restrictions. 'No pamphlet or Icok could be published un-

1695]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

471

less it had received the approval of an officia censoi and as
printing-presses were practically interdicted in all provin
cial towns except Oxford, Cambridge, and York, the
Stationers' Company in Lonclon enjoyed an almost complete
monopoly of the trade. Anticipating the decision of the
tAvo Houses on the subject, one William Bonny, Avho had
been carrying on a printing business in London came down
to Bristol, and presented a petition to the Council 'tor
liberty to set up a printing press in this city," and for
admission as a free burgess to further his enterprise.
On April 24th, the Chamber, after grave consideration,
came to the conclusion that a printing-house might "be
useful in several respects," but Avas not disposed to allow a
" foreigner " to compete Avith local booksellers in their
especial business, and the freedom Avas conferred on Bonny
on condition that he dwelt in the city and exercised no
trade save that of a printer. It avouIcI seem that the liberty
conferred on the press Avas forthwith abused by the Jaco
bites, for towards the close of the year a Bill Avas brought
into the neAvly elected House of Commons to "regulate
printiire — in other avoitIs, to revive some of the old restric
tions On December 2nd, Avheu the measure had made
some progress, Mr. John Cary, a Bristol merchant and
Bonny 's earliest patron, Avrote in some alarm to the members
for the city, urging them to get a clause introduced 'to
establish a press for printing here," pointing out that
Bonny hacl " lately settled amongst us, and it will be to the
interest of the city that he should be encouraged. Mr.
Yate replyiire on the 5th for himself and his colleague,
stated that it was not intended that the Bill should debar
York, Bristol, and other great places from the privilege of
printing. Fortunately, lunvevcr, tho session closed before
the Bill could be, further considered. Cary's relations Avith
Bonny will be. dealt with presently.
The groAving fame of the Hot Well for the curatrve
properties of its Avater appears to have attracted many
persons to Bristol during the later years of the century, m
spite of the difficulties that had to be encountered m
reaching the spring, Avhich rose betAveen high and. Ioav
Avater mark on the muddy batik of the Avon, and was
entirely unprotected. Anticipating profit by rendering
assistance to visitors, two men, in 1687. rented the A\ ell
from the Merchants' Society, at 40s. per annum, and in IhJl
a, Avail Avas built around the spring, at the expense, it is
said, of Sir John Knight, with a view of barring out the

472

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL

[1695
tidal Avater and facilitating access, but the results Avere
disappointing. At length, in the early months of 1695, Sir
Ihomas Day, Mr. Robert Yate, and a few other public-
spirited men, entered into negotiations with the Merchant
Venturers' Society ivith a view to providing suitable
accommodation for persons visiting the spa. In the result,
the Society, on April 4th, 1695, granted to two of the above
confederacy, Charles Jones, soap-boiler, and Thomas Callow
hill, draper, a lease of the Well; and of some adjoining rocks
and land, for a term of ninety years, at a rent of £5, the
lessees covenanting that £500 should be expended in erect
ing a convenient pump-room and lodging-house, and in
making Avalks to shelter aud entertain visitors. The right
of citizens and Cliftonians to consume the water Avithout
payment was reserved. It appears from the Avill of Mr.
Yate, dated in 1734, that the undertaking was divided into
forty shares, nine of Avhich were held by that gentleman.
The improA-ements at the spa effected under the lease soon
became known in fashionable circles, and many persons
sojourning at Bath Avere accustomed to make a short stay
at the Hot Well, Avhich was managed with great liberality,
only a nominal charge being demanded from frequenters of
the pump-room.
Influenced perhaps by the activity of the neAV Water
Company, the Corporation resolved in August on extend
mg the advantages of their spring at Jacob's Wells.
This source had been previously made available to the
corporate tenants in College Green by means of "foun
tains," but the supply Avas inadequate. It was noAv
resolved to build a cistern near the old Gaunts' Hospital,
from Avhich pipes could be laid to the neighbouring dAvel-
bngs. In October, 1696, another resolution was adopted,
stating that the Chamber had incurred great expense [£60]
m enlarging the supply, which was not only sufficient to
provide for the city tenants, but for all the locality, and a
committee was instructed to treat with other applicants.
ihose supplying water to non-paying neighbours were to
be deprived of their pipes. The reservoir, afterwards re
built on a larger scale, still exists in the house at the
corner of College Green and Unity Street.
due ancient laAv requiring constituencies to pay "Avages"
to their members of Parliament had now become virtually
obsolete. The town of Hull, the only borough save Bristol
that had clung to the usage, gave it up in 1678, and the
example Avas attractive to a debt-ridden Corporation. The

1095J

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

473

Council, it is said, bad demurred to Sir John Knight's claim
in 1694, but had given Avay Avhen that Avorthy threatened
them Avith law proceedings. As a general election was ap
proaching, the Chamber thought it advisable to bar further
demands, and on August 26th it ordained that the sitting
members should be paid as usual, but that no further salary
should be allowed either to them or their successors. Sir
John Knight received £95 13s. Ad. iot 287 days' attendance,
and Sir Richard Hart £101 13s. Ad. "in full." In 1700, a
gift of Avine Avas made to the representatives, and presents
of this kind soon became an annual civic charge.
Tho election just referred to took place on October 28th,
Avhen the annalists curtly record that Sir Thomas Day,
then Mayor, and Robert Yate, Avhose mayoralty had ended
at Michaelmas, Avere returned — no mention being made of
rival candidates. The new members Avere zealous Whigs,
and it seems unlikely that the hitherto dominant party
would alloiv both seats to be Avrested from them without a
struggle. Possibly the retiring members Avere irritated by
the abolition of "Avages," and refused to stand, but it is
still improbable that the Whig candidates Avere permitted
to "walk over." It must be noted that the, four Tory
members for London Avere ousted by four Whigs, that sym
pathisers Avith the Jacobites lost many seats, and that
Revolution principles were steadily gaining ground in the
Corporation of Bristol, which, though vehemently Tory at
William's accession, was governed by Whigs before his
death. Sir Thomas Day, one of the wealthiest merchants
iu tho city, dwelt in the "Great House at the Bridge,"
already frequently mentioned. He hacl also a handsome
country mansion called Tilly's Court, at- Barton Hill (demo
lished 1894). Notwithstanding his riches and position, Sir
Ihomas carried on a retail business on the ground-floor of
his house. By his will, dated in 17( IS, he directed his Avirkrw
to retire from trade " and immediately to gi\-e over keeping
shopp, and to lett my shopp, and to sell all my goods and
wares His colleague in Parliament, Mr. Yate, resided in
VVme Street, over the handsome archway built by a member
of his family, and long knoAvn as Guard House Passage
(removed 1880). '
During the autumn, Mr. Echvard Colston, from his retire
ment at Mortlake, announced his intention of conferring
further benefactions on his native city. At a meeting of
the Merchants' Society in October, it was announced by
the Master that Mr. Colston had forAvarded a, proposal to

474

ANNALS Ol' BHISTOL

[1095

maintain six aged sailors as additional pensioners in the
Society's almshouse, provided qonvenieiit rooms Avere built
to receive thorn. The executors of a Mr. Richard Jones
having determined to folloAv Colston's example by settling
funds for the maintenance of six more almsmen, orders Ave re
given for the erection of the necessary buildings, and two
wings, bearing the respective dates of 1696 and 1699, Avere
joined to tho original almshouse, the Corporation alloAving
part of the old town Avail ter- bo demolished to provide an
adequate site. Another benefaction Avas announced to the
Council in November, Avhen thanks Avere voted to Mr.
Colston for "having added six boys unto Queen Elizabeth's
Hospital." He had, in fact, promised to give £70 a year
to the school for the maintenance of six lads until he had
found a suitable estate in real property for a permanent
endoAvment. In 169S he conveyed to the trustees two farm
houses and 123 acres of land at Yatton and Congresbury
for carrying oiit his proposal, expressly providing that if
the number of scholars Avere reduced below the thirty-six
to which his donation had augmented the roll, the premises
conveyed by his deed should pass to the Merchants' Society.
How disingenuously this injunction was evaded by the
Corporation is narrated in the Annals of the Eighteenth
Century. The first volume printed at a permanently established
press in Bristol was produced by William Bonny in Novem
ber, 1695. It Avas entitled "An Essay on the State of
England, in relation to its Trade, its Poor, and its Taxes.
For carrying on the present War against France. By John
Cary, Merchant in Bristoll. Bristoll : Printed by W. Bonny,
for the Author, and are to be sold in Lonclon . . . also
by Tho. Wall and Rich. Gravett, near the Tolzey, in
Bristol. Novem. 1695." The work extends over 188 pages,
and as Bonny's establishment was of limited dimensions,
its production must have been begun almost as soon as the
printer had set up his press. His employer, John Cary,
avIio Avas the son of a Bristol merchant named Shershaw
Cary, and Avas admitted as a freeman in 1672, having served
an apprenticeship to Walter Stephens, linen draper, Avas
a man of great intelligence, some of his views on trade,
finance, and pauperism being much in advance of his age.
He advocated, for example, the stimulating of domestic
manufactures by freeing raAV materials from Customs duties,
aud by abolishing the. Excise burdens laid on glass and
other articles. He also strongly deprecated the trade mono-

16951

IN Tlll-l SEVENTEENTH CKNTUHY.

•175

polios granted to the East India and Africa Companies,
pleading for the concession of free trade to those regions.
Aud he even urged the free admission of Irish food products
into England, a policy then regarded as monstrous by the
landed interest. On the other hand, he advocated the pro
motion of the English clothing trade by the suppression of
tho rising manufactories of Ireland, a course Avhich unhap
pily met Avith the, Avarm approval of Parliament. On
another .subject he also adopted the ideas of his contempo
raries. The commerce) Avith Africa, especially the traffic
in human beings from that coast to America and the West
Indies, Avas, he maintained, "a trade of the most advantage
to this kingdom of any Ave drive, and as it Avere all profit ; the
first cost being little more than small matters of our OAvn
manufactures, for Avhich Ave have in return gold, [elephants']
teeth, Avax, and negroes, the last Avhereof is much better
than the first, being indeed the best traffic the kingdom
hath, as it doth occasionally give so vast an employment to
our people both by sea and land." Turning to other sub
jects, tbe author laments the growth of luxury and the
"increasing desire for idleness iu the community generally,
the "sAvarms of idle drones that fill the streets," and the
multitudinous beggars that refuse to Avork, prey upon the
public, and bring up their families to lead a similar life.
(Mr. Cary's sound ideas in reference to pauperism will be
dea.lt Avith presently.) He further advises that maid
servants should be " restrained from excess of apparel," and
should not be engaged unless they bring testimonials, wdiich
'• will make them more orderly and governable than they
now are"; and suggests that no man-servant should be
permitted to Avear a, sword, except Avhen travelling, " and if
all people of mean qualifies Avere prohibited the same,
'twould be of good consequence." The author's ideas on
trade Avere stamped by John Locke as "the best I ever read
on the subject." The book passed through three editions, and
the last, iu 1745, Avas translated into French and Italian.
The founder of Pennsylvania paid another visit to Bristol
in the, closing Avecks of 1695. On January 5th. 1696, he
married, at tho Quakers' meeting-house in the Friars,
Hannah, daughter of Thomas CalloAvhill, recently mentioned
in connection with the Hot Well. Miss CalloAvhill, Avhose
mother Avas Hannah, daughter of Dennis Hollister, Avas the
heiress of the latter gentleman, and as such possessed most
of the estate once belonging to the Dominican Friars. Penn
settled in Bristol in 1697, and resided for about two years.

476

THE ANNALS OE BHISTOL

[1696

during Avhich period, it is supposed, the Friary gardens and
land were laid out for building the streets still bearing the
names of Penn, Pennsylvania, Hollister, and Callowhill. In
1698, William, one of Penn's sons by his first Avife, was
married in the above chapel to Mary, daughter of Charles
Jones, the other lessee of the Hot Well. The union was
an unfortunate oue, as the husband, a few years later, de
serted his wife, and by renouncing Quakerism rendered the
marriage invalid. The founder of Pennsylvania left his
American property to the children of his Bristol wife.
(Amongst the many curious manuscripts in the collection
of tho late Mr. Sholto Hare is a letter of which the begin
ning and end have been lost, but which appears to have
been written during the reign of James II. The writer
asserts that, notwithstanding Penn's professions of piety, he
long maintained an improper connection Avith the wife of a
London haberdasher ; that he afterAvards pensioned her off',
when she grew old, Avith £40 a year ; and that he had then
taken as a mistress the sister of a titled lady, whose name
is given in the letter.)
In January, 1696. Avhen the ordinance of 1666, forbidding
" foreigners " to trade in the city, had become a dead letter,
the Council, moved by Sir John Knight's invectives against
iutrttders, solemnly revived the law issued thirty years be
fore. A slight interpolation in the text is of interest, as
denoting the march of improvement. It was ordered that
after March 25th no stranger or foreigner should presume
to open a shop, "either Avith or Avithout glass windows,"
Avhich were evidently a novelty, on pain of forfeiting £5
for each such offence. It Avas much easier to pass such an
ordinance than to carry it into execution. As no fines Avere
receiAred by the Chamberlain, it is clear that little vigour
Avas shoAvn in prosecuting offenders ; aud in October, 1699,
the Chamber feebly desired the magistrates to " consider "
the number of foreigners keeping shops and alehouses.
The history of the rise and progress of glass-making in
Bristol seems to be entirely lost. From an official return
amongst the State Papers, showing the produce of the
duty on glass for the year 1695-6, it would appear that
the city Avas one of the chief centres of the industry.
The gross receipts of the duty Avere £17,642, but a "draw
back " Avas allowed on the glass exported, and this deduc
tion amounted to £2,976 at Bristol, £1,020 at NeAVcastle,
and £840 at London.
For an adequate description of the paralysis of trade

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY.

477

1696]
and industry caused by the debased state of the currency
at this time reference may be made to Macaulay's History.
It must suffice to say here that through the clipping of the
silver coinage by multitudes of knavish people, avIio
profited largely by the roguery, the words pound and
shilling hacl ceased to have any definite meaning.
Twenty shillings of new coin Aveighed four ounces. But
no person Avould pay wages or debts in netv coin Avhen old
dipped shillings served his purpose; and clipped shillings
avi -re worth, on tho average, less than sixpence each. As
the result of a Government inquiry, it Avas found that
£10() in silver, Avhich Avhen issued weighed 4(X) ounces,
actually Aveighed 208 ounces in London, 240 ounces in
Bristol, and only 116 ounces in Oxford. In a local test,
recorded by a' Bristol annalist, sixteen clipped shillings Avere
found to be of less Aveight than a croivn-piece of Charles
II. As a natural consequence, the price of the necessaries
of life greatly increased, and Avorkmen, Avho had to accept
their ivages by tale, while their food had practically to be
bought by Aveight, suffered lamentably under the double
[ullage. All classes, hoAvever, Avere afflicted, for as silver
Avas the legal standard of \-altte, business transactions
of every kind fell into a state of bewilderment. Amongst
tho State Papers of February, 1696, is a statement of the
Customs officials in Bristol to the head office in London,
to the effect that they were unable to remit their receipts,
as usual, by bills of exchange, business of that kind
being stopped by the badness of the coin. The endea
vours made to repress clipping by dealing ruthlessly with
the criminals proved of little avail. In the summer of
1695, a Avidow named Scarlett, a shop-keeper in Thomas
Street, was convicted of uttering a debased shilling, and
of having instruments for clipping concealed in her house,
for Avliich offence, then called petty treason, she Avas
sentenced to be burned in the street ; but she succeeded
iu making her escape, and other criminals continued
their practices undismayed. Urged by universal cries
of^ distress, the Government at length resolved on an
effectual reform, details of which must be sought elsc-
Avhere. Learning that the Ministry proposed to supple
ment the coinage at the Tower by the establishment
of branch mints in some, leading provincial toAvns, an
application on behalf of Bristol Avas privately made to
the Treasury by the. members for the city, and in June.
1696, the Mayor informed the, Council that works avou Id

478

THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[ 1696

be set up here, providing a suitable house was furnished
at the charge ol the Corporation or the inhabitants. A
committee was thereupon appointed " to make a bargain
with Sir Thomas Day for tho sugar house, and the House
will hnd the way to pay tho rent." The " sugar house "
Avas^ really the hue mansion near St. Peter's church
originally built by the Nortons and reconstructed by
Robert Alchvorth lSee p. 44). At the time under review
it belonged to four co-partners, EdAvard Colston and
Richard Beacham of London, and Sir Thomas Day and
Nathaniel uay, of Bristol. (The share of tho house
belonging to Nathaniel Day Avas soon afterAvards bought
by the Corporation for £230.) The coining apparatus
arrived m August, amidst demonstrations of joy In tho
British Museum is a unique placard, issued by the Mayor
and Aldermen cm August 15th, giving notice that the
Government had scut doAvn, for the benefit of tho city
^n,eAntwUSi1Kl"W0,S',ht °f silver> valued at upwards of
£3,000, to be coined at the new mint, aud requesting the
inhabitants to further the operations by furnishing old
plate, for Avhich a reAvard of sixpence per ounce would be
paid m addition to the standard value of 5s. 2d. Holders
of old hammered money were also promised a premium on
the amount they sent in. How largely the invitation
Avas responded to is attested by the fact that Avithin about
sixteen months the Bristol mint dealt with nearly two
million ounces of silver, which were converted into
£473,728 in coin. The produce of the other provincial
mints— at York, Norwich, Chester and Exeter— reached a
total of £1,340,000. Before the neAV coin could be put
into circulation, the public, and especially the poor, were
thrOAvn into extreme distress through the want of cur
rency to pay wages or to purchase the bare necessaries of
life. In the Record Office are two petitions from Bristol
to the Government : one from the Mayor and Aldermen,
representing that the want of half-pence and farthings
caused great clamour amongst the poor, and praying that
some copper coin might be struck at the local mint ; while
the other, from Abraham Elton, a prosperous merchant
concerned in copper-smelting, begs for permission to coin
farthings and half-pence, offering £10 per ton for the
prhdlege, 2d. per pound for making the blanks, and 3d.
per pound for coinage. No response was made to either
of these requests, and the suffering was protracted for
several months. Near the close of 1697, when the great

16961

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUHY.

479

Avork had been achieved, a Bill Avas brought into Parlia
ment, providing that, after January 10th, 1698, hammerei
money should cease to be a legal tender, but on Decembe
30th a petition from the Corporation of Bristol Avas pre
sented to the House of Commons, setting forth that le
computation there Avould be at least £150,000 Avorth o
old coin brought in at tho approaching fair from AVale
and other places, and that great loss Avould be sustainec
if no provision were made for its re-coinage. A pro vise
Avas accordingly added to the Bill permitting old coin te
lle taken to the mint for re-coinage until March 1st. The
estimate of the Corporation seems to have been fallacious,
as no local pieces bear a later date than 1697. The mint
officials, hoAvever, did not Aracate the premises until June,
1698. Early in 1696, Mr. John Gary followed up his Essay ou
Trade by printing at Bonny's press a folio sheet entitled ; —
" Proposals for the better Maintaining and Imploying the
Poor of the City of Bristoll. Humbly offer'd to the
consideration, of the Mayor." The copy of this broadside
in the British Museum has the following note, signed by
Cary :— " These were the Result of the Court or Meeting
of the Citizens on the first proposalls, being as soe many
Heads Avhereon to ground a bill to be offer'd in Parlia
ment." This is the only record of the meeting- in question
— the first public meeting known in local annals. In
brief, tho " proposals " offered by Cary suggested that the
poor rates paid by the various city parishes should be
"united into a common fund," and that one central
Avorkhouse should take the place- of the Arariotts parochial
rccopfa.cle.s, by which arrangement the endless and costly
litigation respecting "settlements" would be obviated;
Avhilst able-bodied paupers avou Id be compelled to Avork,
the infirm Avould bo properly maintained, and the young
trained for honest employment. Tho project Avas discussed
by the Council on February 3rd, when the magistrates
Avere requested to sit daily, and to call for such information
as they should think necessary. A Bill, "for the erecting
of Hospitals and Workhouses, in the, Cit}-* of Bristol, for
the better employing and maintaining of the Poor," was
laid before the House of Commons by Sir Thomas Day
early in March, and became law during the Session ; some
amendments, the nature of which is unknoAvn, being
made in the Loiver House. The Act ordained that on
May 12th, 1696, a corporation should be established,

480

THE ANNALS OI" BRISTOL

[1696

consisting of the Mayor and Aldermen for the time being,
and of forty-eight persons to be chosen, in batches of four,
by the eleven ancient wards and by the Castle Precincts
(henceforth to become a Avard), together with such other
charitable persons as should be elected at a meeting in
each ward of householders, paying one penny or more
weekly of poor rates. The rate that the new corporation
Avas empowered to levy annually Avas not to exceed the
sum raised for the poor in 1695, save that £5,0(10 additional
might bo collected for building a Avorkhouse, Cn May
19th, the date fixed by the Act, the newly elected members,
amongst Avhom Avere John Cary, Sir William Daines,
Thomas Callowhill, and Nathaniel Wade; assembled for
the first time in St. George's Chapel, Ouildhall, when
Samuel Wallis, Mayor, Avas elected Governor ; Alderman
William Swymmer, Deputy-Governor ; and James Harris,
Treasurer. A Aveek later a pattern for the common seal,
bearing the device and motto still retained, was approved ;
and two committees Avere appointed, one to select houses
in which to employ the poor, and the other to apply to
the justices for the reparation and loan of "the Avorkhouse
called Whitehall,"' adjoining Bridewell, for the same
purpose. (The Council forthwith acceded to this applica
tion.) In June it was reported that the poor-rate
assessments during the three previous years had averaged
£2,230 per annum, Avhich was about £180 less thau the
expenditure, and the assessment on the city was soon
afterwards fixed at £44 8s. per week, or £2,308 per annum.
The new body went on Avith its preliminary labours until
September, Avhen, to its own astonishment and that of
the citizens, it was stricken with paralysis. No explana
tion of the collapse is to be found in the minute-books,
but it appears from other sources that John Hine, who
became Mayor at Michaelmas, was so bitterly hostile to
the. infant institution that he refused to sign the docu
ments required to put the rating scheme in operation, and
as the Act made his signature indispensable, affairs came
to a deadlock for a twelvemonth. On the removal of the
obstruction, the guardians resumed their labours. The
furnishing of Whitehall entailed an outlay of £260,
which was subscribed on loan, and 100 girls were soon
lodged in the building, and taught the_ work of car-
din^ and spinning wool, the cost of their maintenance
being fixed at 2s. per head, Aveekly. Dr. Thomas Dover,
Avhose " fever poAvder " is still in medical repute, offered

1696]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTUBY,

481

his gratuitous services as physician to the workhouse.
An economical arrangement was also made for the educa
tion of the children. A pauper widow in St. Thomas's
parish Avas appointed to teach them to read at a
salary of 6s. per week ; her previous relief of 2s. (id. a
week being stopped. The house being inadequate to
contain ali the children needing help, a committee Avas
appointed to select another, and this body reported, in
December, that they found " none so fit or convenient for
the purpose as the Mint." Negotiations ivcre soon after
entered into Avith tho owners of the fine old mansion,
already described, and it was purchased for £800; but the
Mint authorities Avere very unwilling to give up possession,
and the Council generously voted £60, being a year's
rental, pending the completion of the conveyance. The
house being at length acquired, it was resolved, in
September, 1698, to fit up a chamber for the meetings of
the board. The beautiful Jacobean sitting-room, erected
by AldAvorth, Avas selected for this purpose ; and the
members, on October 30th, began an occupation that Avas
continued by their successors for almost exactly two
hundred years. The guardians were soon plunged in fresh
troubles. Under the old system of pauper relief the paro
chial overseers had control of the funds, and enjoyed the
prestige of alms-givers. Annoyed at the loss of their
influence, the officials of fifteen out of the eighteen parishes
flatly refused to collect the rates, and the provisions of the
Act iverc again found defective. But the obstacle was
speedily overcome by legal ingenuity and the sympathy
of Parliament. Tavo clauses were introduced (at a cost of
£7 Vs. Ad.) into a Tiverton Workhouse Bill, then before
the House of Commons, under Avhich the Bristol Corpora
tion of the Poor Avero empowered to over-ride the obstruc-
tiveness of a stupid Mayor, and to kny distresses upon
recalcitrant overseers. Vigorous measures were then taken
for the training of 100 boys to Aveave " fustians and
calimancoes " ; the lads were dressed in blue coats and
Avhite leather breeches ; the porter's Avife Avas ordered to
teach them to read ; and a due provision Avas made of dis
ciplinary apparatus, including a pair of stocks, a whipping
post, and a place of confinement, significantly stjded Pur
gatory, garnished Avith chains and fetterlocks. Severe.
punishment was not reserved for juvenile delinquents
alone. In January, 1698, a vagrant from the county of

Durham was brought before

the board,

and haAuug
i l

4S2

THE ANNALS OB' BRISTOL

[1690

admitted that he had long lived by begging, ho was
ordered to be committed to Bridewell, and there kept at
Avork " for the space of three years, unless this Court doth
otherwise order." Several other tramps received a similar
sentence, and the severity of the proceedings led to a
"•eneral flight of roving mendicants ; but the board
probably discoA^ered that they were exceeding their poAvers,
or complaint Avas made as to the cost of maintaining the
vagabonds, for the commit ments were soon abandoned.
The expenditure of the new institution considerably
exceeded the amount collected from the ratepayers, and a
subscript-ion Avas started by its leading supporters to meet
the deficit. The sum thus raised reached about £1,800, of
Avhich Sir John Duddleston, Sir William Dames, Samuel
Wallis, Edward Tyson. M.D., Edward Martindale, Robert
Yate, Thomas EdAvards, George Mason, R. Bayly, Abraham
Elton, Thomas Callowhill, William SAvymmer, Peter Saun
ders, and Edward Colston contributed £100 each, and were
elected honorary guardians. Out of these donations, £160
Avere paid for the purchase of a house adjoining the Mint,
Avhich was fitted up as a school. In 1700 a pamphlet,
dedicated to both Houses of Parliament, was published in
London, entitled " An Account of the Proceedings of the
Corporation of Bristol in Execution of the Act of Parlia
ment for the better Employing and Maintaining the Pool
ed that City." The author, John Cary, narrated the story
of the institution in moderate yet forcible terms. The
boys, be said, Avere being trained to gain an honest liveli
hood, and their labours Avere bringing in £6 per week
toAvarcls their maintenance ; the girls Avere also doing Avell,
and the aged poor and beggars Avere kept from idleness
and mendicity. About 300 persons were under the care of
the guardians. "The success hath answered our expec
tation. . . . The face of our city is changed already ; " and
the Avriter ventured to hope that the example of Bristol
Avould be. Avidely followed. A continuation of the history
of the incorporation will be found in the Annals of the
Eighteenth Century. All that need be added here is that
the establishment of the first "Poor Law Union in
England Avas creditable to the intelligence and public
spirit of its promoters, and was, both socially and econo
mically, a step far in advance of the narrow prejudices of
the, age.
In the last week of February, 1696, the country was
startled by the discovery of a Jacobite plot for the assassma-

1690]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

483

tion of tho King and the overthrow of the Government. As
in the case of the Rye House affair, it was soon found that
there were two plots, one within the other. The design of
the original and greater confederacy was to promote an
open insurrection, to be supported by a French army; and
of this plot all the leading Jacobites had full knoAvledge,
and many had promised their co-operation. The inner plot
was carried on by about forty bravoes, and had for its main
object the cold-blooded murder of King William. This
project had the usual fate of English assassination schemes.
Some of tho villains betrayed the rest, and about half the
gang Avero arrested a feAv hours before the time fixed for
the tragedy, when much information as to the insurrection
scheme was at once brought to light. The disclosures caused
a national thrill of horror unprecedented since the time of
Guy FaAvkes. The magistrates of Bristol ordered the city
gates to be closed, suspicious -looking strangers were
arrested, and the zeal of the Avorking classes, stimulated by
the rewards offered for traitors, outran that of the author
ities. The Government, in the meantime, Avere not idle,
and the minutes of the Privy Council shoAv that some
Bristol Jacobites Avere suspected of as much complicity in
the insurrection plot as was proved against Sir John Friend,
the rich London breAver, Avho Avas afterAvards executed. On
February 28th their lordships issued a Avarrant for the
arrest of Sir John Knight, Sir Richard Hart, and two men
named Davis and Moor. Subsequently Sir William Clutter
buck was carried up to Lonclon in custody. No record is
preserved of their examination, but it would appear that
evidence against them Avas not forthcoming, and they Avere
liberated afl or several Aveeks' detention. On May 13th,
however, the Privy Council sent (Ioavii a fresh Avarrant
against Sir John Knight, who was immured in a Loudon
gaol until August 27th, Avhen the Privy Council ordered
his discharge, " he being dangerously ill.'" In the British
Museum is a broadsheet, printed by Bonny, head"',]
" The Humble Presentment of the Grand Inquest at Mid
summer Sessions, 1696," in Avhich thanks are tendered to
the Mayor (Samuel Wallis) and the Aldermen for their
" zealous and prudent administration of the city during a
crisis of great danger." The " Association " for defence of
the Government— a movement common to the Avhole kingdom
— met with enthusiastic support, and the Bristol printer
Avas required to provide seventeen large sheets of parchment
for the signatures of those who rushed to volunteer their

484

THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[1696

adherence to the royal cause. Although the matter for a
time so completely monopolised public attention as to sus
pend commercial business, the local chroniclers refrained
from even an allusion to it, and it is ignored by Barrett and
other historians.
A Bill promoted by the Corporation of Bath, for powers
to make the Avon navigable from Bristol to that city^was
laid before Parliament in December ; and a petition in its
favour Avas presented from merchants and tradesmen of
Bristol, avIio alleged that the scheme would be advantage
ous to trade. But a strong opposition Avas organized by
the JandoAvners around Bath, avIio contended that the
markets Avould be glutted Avith cheap provisions from
Bristol, causing a fall of rents, Avhilst carriers, innkeepers,
and labourers Avould be utterly ruined. The justices and
grand jury at Somerset Assizes re-echoed these predictions,
averring that landoAvners were already suffering greatly
from the glut of com carried from Bristol on horseback to
the markets at Warminster, Chippenham, and Devizes.
The Bill Avas dropped, but Avas revived in the session of
1699-1700, the promoters avoiving that their chief object
Avas to reduce the excessh-e price of provisions in Bath.
The Corporation of Bristol petitioned in favour of the
scheme, but it Avas unpopular amongst the citizens, and a
petition against it professed to represent the feelings cf
"many thousands"; Avhile the bakers alleged that they
Avould be unable to grind their corn if deprived of the mills
on the Avon, and the innkeepers complained that they
Avere threatened Avith ruin. The really formidable opposi
tion, however, Avas that of the county gentry, who repeated
their former lamentations with increased vigour ; and as a
Parliament of landlords naturally sympathised with the
monopolists, the Bill Avas again withdrawn.
An attempt to maintain a monopoly in another branch
of trade met with a very different reception in the city.
Commerce Avith the Avest coast of Africa, which consisted
largely in bartering metals, cotton goods, and spirits for
negro slaves destined for the plantations, had been vested
by Charles II. in the hands of a feAv London merchants,
to whom he granted a patent of exclusive privileges tinder
the style of the Royal African Company. As the trade
of Bristol Avas rapidly developing with the West Indies,
local merchants naturally felt aggrieved at being excluded
from a share in Avhat Avas the most lucrative traffic with
the islands ; and although positive evidence on the point

16961

IN THK SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

485

has perished, it is certain that they, and others, sent vessels
to the Slave Coast, and carried on a large contraband busi
ness, in despite of the Company's denunciations of inter
lopers. The passing of the Act of 1689, known as the
Declaration of Rights, put an end to all trade monopolies
created by royal charters, and Bristol merchants lost no
time in entering largely into slave enterprises. The Com
pany nevertheless possessed great advantages in holding the
forts and settlements on the coast, the protection of which
Avas refused to outsiders, and sometimes set the laAv at
defiance by driving off their competitors. These measures
proving ineffectual, tho Company, in 1696, applied to Parlia
ment for a statutable revival of their former chartered
rights, and forthwith met with a determined opposition.
The Bristol merchants, in a petition to the Commons,
alleged that the prosperity of the West India planters
depended upon a plentiful supply of negroes (the annual
shipment of the Company was limited to 3,000 slaves), and
that the deficient import could be remedied only by the
enterprise of English merchants generally. The clothiers
and weavers of the city, in another petition, expatiated on
the importance of their exports to the Slave Coast, and
on the disastrous consequences that would arise if this
market were closed. Similar appeals Avere made by other
ports, and the West India planters Avere of course in favour
of a free trade in slaves. After a struggle at Westminster,
an Act Avas passed, in 1698, leaving the trade open to
provmcial ports, but requiring non-members of the Com
pany to contribute a moderate sum toAvards the main
tenance of tho forts. The bitter controversy of the
following century is narrated elsewhere.
( Owing to great depression in the clothing trade, the
Society of Friends established an independent " workhouse "
m 1696. Tho chief object aimed at Avas to assist unem
ployed Quaker Aveavors, but in addition to the workino-
inmates accommodation Avas provided for some aged and ii£
firm members. The Avorkhouse, still standing, Avas com
pleted m 1698, at a cost of £1,300. Somewhat later, a
number of boys were admitted, avIio received some educa
tion, and were taught to weave " cantaloons " ; but the
manufacture Avas abandoned about 1721, when the building
was given up exclusively to the aged and impotent.
ihe civic accounts for December, 1696, contain the folloAV-
mg item :— " Paid for a bull rope, 5s. Id.," which is foUowed
a few months later by :— " Paid for a collar to bait bulls in

4S6

THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL

[1696-97

the Marsh, 6s." Bull-baiting was then a fashionable sport
in England, and continued long popular. A Bill to suppress
the practice was rejected by the House of Commons in 1802,
and in 1S04 the Rev. Thomas Jolmes, rector of St. John's,
Bristol, and City Librarian, read a paper before a local
literary club, in Avhich he contended that bull-baiting " was
not only legal but exceedingly correct and useful to society "
(R. Smith's MSS.). After the laying out of Queen's Square,
the city bull-ring Avas removed to some vacant ground in
St. Philip's parish, iioav the site of St. Jude's Church.
The loss of the early Quarter Sessions records has deprived
posterity of much curious information. The earliest sur
viving book begins in 1696, when, by order of the justices,
a three months' contribution from St. Philip's parish
toAvards the poor rates Avas ordered to be levied on five of
the central parishes on account of the poverty of the eastern
district. In August, l£i97, the Sheriffs wrere fined five
nobles (£1 13s. Ad. i for " not burning Isaac Tucker, accord
ing to sentence." This really means that Tucker, a thief,
had been sentenced to be branded on the cheek with a red-
hot iron, and that the Sheriffs' officers, probably for a bribe,
had applied the branding-iron in a cold state. Soon after
wards, the Sheriffs Avere fined 40s. " for not causing two
women to be well burnt " ; and the increased fine being still
ineffectual, it was on the next occasion raised to £5.
Whipping, often carried out to an extent that threatened
the life of the culprit, Avas much in the favour of the jus
tices. In May, 1698, a man, whose offence is not stated,
Avas ordered to stand in the pillory for three hours as a
target for the malevolence of the rabble, and to be thrice
Avhipped — once from NeAvgate to St. Mark's Lane, once from
Newgate to the great sun-dial on the Broad Quay, and a
third time from the gaol to Lawford's Gate, " and back
again." At the same session, a woman, for forging a marriage
certificate, was ordered to be lashed on the naked back
from the Council House to the bottom of the Quay. House
holders Avere frequently fined for allowing their pigs to
rove about the streets. In addition to their ordinary func
tions, the justices continued to fix the price of bread, and
punished bakers Avho presumed to disobey the regulations.
One of the many ill-devised schemes of Parliament for^the
suppression of pauperism, became law in the session of 1697.
It enacted that ab persons recehdng parish relief, irrespec
tive of age or sex, shottkl ivear, upon the right shoulder of
their outer garment, a badge of red or blue cloth, bearing

1697-98]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

487

the letter P. and the initial letter of their parish, on pain,
in default, of forfeiting their relief, or of being committed
to prison, Avhipped, and kept for three weeks to hard labour.
ChurcliAvardens relieving an unbadged person Avere to for
feit 21 Is. The St. Stephen's vestry, on August 31st, resolved
that the poor of that parish should " ware bages " Avith the
letters '£•£• The orthography indicates the educational
standard of the time, when it Avas not uncommon for a
churchwarden to be unablo to Avrite his name.
The Peace of Ryswick, by Avhich France acknoAvledged
William III. as King of England, was proclaimed at Bristol
on October 29th amidst great demonstrations of joy. The
corporate body, \vith a long train of citizens, accoinpanied
the Sheriffs to the High Cross, St. Peter's Cross, Temple
Cross, St. Thomas's Conduit, and the conduit on the Quay,
at each of which places the glad tidings Avere proclaimed
amidst the roaring of cannon, the firing of salutes by the
militia, the fantasias of musicians, and the pealing of bells.
Flags Avere plentifully displayed (except upon the church
toAvors) ; the conduits ran wine, and many leading citizens
feasted their friends ; Avhile at night the city Avas ablaze with
bonfires, fireworks and illuminations. The Jacobites were
deeply mortified by the French King's desertion of their
cause, and refused to join in the general display, but the
populace Avere good-humoured, and the clay passed over
Avithout disturbance.
On the petition of many Quakers, still debarred from the
freedom owing to their objection to take the oath of a bur
gess, the Council, in November, alloAved them to be admitted
on making a solemn affirmation. The Society of Merchants
Avere more conservative in sentiment. Quakers Avere for
some years regarded as absolutely inadmissible to the Com
pany, Avhich even rejected the application of Stephen Pelo
quin, tho wealthy Huguenot merchant.
From the establishment of posts in the reign of Charles
II. down to this time, letters from Devon and Cornwall
to Bristol Avere sent from Exeter, by Avay of Salisbury,
to London, and thence forwarded to their address, involving
extra postage and much delay. After repeated appeals to
the Government, a " cross post " Avas established between
Exeter and Bristol for inland letters in 1698, thus substi
tuting a journey of under 80 miles for one of nearly 300.
But the mails from the West Indies and America, landed at
Falmouth, Avere excluded from the arrangement, to the
great prejudice of local merchants, nor Avas any reform con-

4SS

THE ANNALS OC BHISTOL

[1698

ceded in this respect for nearly a century. The cross post
was a financial success, as it captured the large correspond
ence previously conducted by carriers ; and at Michaelmas,
1700, the postal authorities started a similar mail between
this city and Worcester, Shrewsbury, and Chester, supersed
ing the roundabout journey via London. In this case also,
hoAvever, Bristol letters to and from Ireland were excluded
from the scheme. Even so __ late as 1746, Avhen strong
expostulations ivere addressed £6 the Post Office, Ralph Allen,
of Bath, who had the control of the western mails, refused
to alloAV a direct communication, but offered, if the postage
from Dublin to London Avere paid, to convey the letters
to Bristol gratis !
Under the provisions of the Triennial Act, the writs for
a new Parliament Avere issued in the summer of 1698. The
election proceedings at Bristol began early in August, and
concluded on the 10th. Five candidates entered the field — ¦
the retiring Whig members, Sir Thomas Day and Robert
Yate, the two High Tories, Sir John Knight and Sir
Richard Hart, and John Cary, Avho was probably brought
forward by a section of the Whigs dissatisfied with Sir
Thomas Day. The suspected complicity of Knight and
Hart in the Jacobite conspiracy of 1696 seems to have
lost them many supporters, and their former popularity did
not save them from a crushing defeat. The final state of
the poll was as folloAvs :— Mr. Yate, 1,136 ; Sir Thomas Day,
976 ; Sir John Knight, 785 ; Sir Richard Hart, 421 ; Mr.
Cary, 279.
The first local allusion to gin-drinking appears in the
presentment of the grand jury at the autumn quarter
sessions. The document set forth the great distress of tho
poor caused by the high price of grain, an evil alleged to bo
due to the large quantity of malt used for the distillation of
spirits, teding the more heavily on the labouring man, inas
much as his bread and his favourite drink were chiefly made
from barley. The presentment was approved by the Council
in November, when a petition to Parliament was resolved
upon, and soon afterwards an Act was passed restraining
distillation and prohibiting the export of beer. Gin-drink
ing nevertheless became a mania in the following century.
At the Council meeting just referred to, Mr. Yate, M.P.,
brought forward a serious indictment against the civic
Chamberlain, John Cooke, whom he charged with injustice,
negligence, and incapacity in fulfilling the duties of his
office The minute-book states that "Mr. Chamberlain was

1698-99]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

489

present at the time, but gave no satisfactory ansAver. A
resolution that he should be "removed and displaced seems
to have been carried unanimously. He was succeeded on
November 22nd by Edward Tocknell, a Councillor. (James
Millerd, the author of the plans of the city, was a defeated
candidate.) Cooke, whose delinquencies Avere not of a
financial character, and Avho was Master of the Merchants'
Society in 1691-2, has won a lasting fame by adding, in
1693, the tower known as his " Folly " to his country house
at Sneyd. A few Avords as to this mansion, based on deeds
in tho 'Council House, may perhaps be of interest. In 1590,
ono of Cooke's ancestors, Bartholomew Cooke, obtained tAvo
separate, leases of land for long terms, comprising Sneyd
Park proper, Sea Mills, and the pastures on Avhich the
suburb iioav known as Sneyd Park Avas afterwards built.
The entire estate had originally belonged to the bishopric of
Worcester, but hacl been Avrested from the see by that
insatiable church plunderer, Sir Ralph Sadleir, in the reign
of Henry VIII. The leases Avere at later periods succeeded
by conveyances in fee ; indeed, so early as 1615, John Cooke,
son of Bartholomew, apparently dealt with part of the
property as OAvner. From the outset, the mansion and park
knoAvn as Old Sneyd Avere distinguished from a pasture of
forty acres, together Avith some adjoining closes, described in
a deed of 1619 as " lying in a corner of the park, on the top of
the hill, adjoining Durdam DoAvn, or the Spectacles, and the
river of Avon," where John Cooke had already built himself
a house. (The Spectacles, called in other records the Giant's
Spectacles, was a quarry, known in later times as the Black
Rock.) Old Sneyd Park Avas not alienated until about the
time of tho Civil War by Sad loir's representative, the pur
chaser being Alderman Joseph Jackson, of Bristol, avIio re
built or greatly extended the "capital mansion" there, the
present portal of Avhich bears the Jackson arms. But that
Mr. Chamberlain Cooke retained the bouse and lands " on
the top of the hill" is proved by his erection of the "Folly."
Early in 1699, the High Cross Avas restored and elaborately
decorated at the cost of the Corporation. The sum of £61
Avas paid for gold-leaf, oil and colours, a shop Avas hired in
Avhich to grind the paint, and £67 Avere disbursed for Avages.
These and other items indicate the reviA'al of the old chic
predilection for display. In April, John Cosley, goldsmith,
received £8 5s. for "gilding the Sunday scabbard." and in
May, Richard Cosley Avas paid £6 3s. for " hoav making and
gilding the Mourning scabbard," Avhilst £29 Avere laid out

40O

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[1099

on neAV and gorgeous dresses for the tAvo city trumpeters. In
the summer the 'unprecedented outlay of £38 Avas incurred in
a perambulation of the civic boundaries in the Severn, and
in autumn the ancient pastime of fishing in the Froom
Avas revived at a cost of £5 3s. Ad. In the result, the year's
expenditure exceeded the income by nearly £450, and re
trenchments Avere found necessary. The trumpeters' old
trappings Avere ordered to be sold, and the gold lace Avith
Avhich they Avere bedizened", together Avitli the silver
trumpets, Avas disposed of for £24 16s. Tho musicians had
to fall back on the old copper trumpets of earlier days, and
doubtless met with many jeers on tho diminution of their
finery. A ucav source of income, discovered towards the end of tho
year, soon helped to alleviate the civic embarrassment. On
October 23rd the Mayor acquainted the Council that the
Rev. John Reade, D.D., vicar of St. Nicholas, had made a
proposal to build a house in the Marsh, and his worship
added that, from reports he had received, several other
citizens Avere desirous of following this example. A
committee Avas therefore appointed to lay out the ground
for building sites, and to treat for their disposal. Such Avas
the origin of the stately pile of buildings, afterwards styled
Queen Square, as it is recorded in the Council minutes.
But it is clear that the design must have been carefully elabo
rated before the Mayor's statement Avas made, for on October
27th, only four clays later, an agreement Avas executed, by
Avhich a plot of ground Avas demised on lease to Dr. Reade,
" as it is now laid out and allotted by the city officers." The
site had a frontage, of 40 feet with a depth of 105 feet. The
house was to be cd brick (the first authentic mention of that
material for local building purposes), with stone quoins, Avas
to be 40 feet in height, and Avas to form one corner of the
eastern side of an intended square. The lease Avas for five
lives, at a rent of 40s., being one shilling per foot of frontage.
(At a later date the lease was converted into one for 53 years,
and by another alteration, in 1732, all the leases were made
renewable every 14 years in perpetuity, on payment at each
renewal of one year's rack-rent.) The second applicant for
ground was James Hollidge, one of the Sheriffs, and after
Avards Mayor, who took three sites on the east side of the
square. The Bowling Green covered part of this ground,
and Hollidge, paid £100 for the "house of entertainment"
erected there for the players. He subsequently built several
houses on the south side. Amongst the next lessees Avero

1699-17011] IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

491

some leading merchants — John Day, Joseph Earle, Abraham
Elton, Nathaniel Day and Woodes Rogers. The last-named
became afterwards famous for his privateering voyage round
the Avorld.
Disabled by pecuniary difficulties from reconstructing the
Council House, the Chamber, in October, 1699, ordered that
the building should be ' amended and repaired." The
resolution Avas never acted upon, and it must have been
evident that nothing short of demolition would effectually
remedy the discomforts so long endured. See Annals of the
Eighteenth Century, p. 59.
Mention has been made of the journey to Lonclon taken
by each successive Mayor for the purpose of being sworn in,
entailing a yearly outlay of £30. The Recorder, Serjeant
Powlett, residing within easy distance in Monmouthshire,
the Council from motives of economy invited him to Bristol
to tender the oaths, which he was legally entitled to do ;
and in October, Avhen he had thrice complied, he Avas voted
£20 for his trouble.
The Jacobite principles cherished by the Duke of Ormond
disabled him from rendering those services at Court which
Avero always expected from a Lord High Steward, and his
official connection Avith the city seems to have been ignored
for some years. At Whitsuntide, 1697, however, the
Corporation Avere lucky enough to obtain two butts of
sherry as prisage, when three-fourths of this windfall
appear to have been despatched to the Duke. And in
December, 1699, the Council gave orders that a gross of the
best, sherry should be sent to his grace "in lieu of all arrears
of salary." A gift of wine Avas also made on that occasion
to the members of Parliament for the city, the total outlay
being £30.
In the Parliamentary session of 1699-1700, the Corpora
tion made an apparent effort to fulfil their functions by
seeking powers "for cleansing, paving and enlightening
the streets " of the city. No information as to the framing
of the scheme is to be, found iu the civic minute-books, but
an examination of the clauses of the Act clearly demon
strates that the. real object aimed at Avas to re'lieA-e the
Cor [Miration from all responsibility or expense in regard
to street police. The statute required householders "and
churcliAvardens to cleanse the thoroughfares adjoining their
chvellings and churches tAvice a Aveek, and to maintain a
scavenger to remove, refuse. As regarded paving, occupiers
and churchAvardens Avere to pitch or pave one half of the

492

THE ANNALS OE BHISTOL

[1700

streets fronting their premises, but tenants were empowered
to deduct the outlay from their rent. (No provision avus
made for thoroughfares that had houses only on one side.
The Horse Fair, from this cause, soon became " very
fotuidrous and ruinous," and the Council were forced to
vote £15 for its repair.) The civic rulers did not at first
propose to interfere with the existing systeni of lighting,
by which a feiv hundred candles Avere exhibited until nine
o'clock at night; but on second thoughts additional clauses
were introduced during the progress of the Bill, one of
which enacted that householders paying tAvopence or more
Aveekly as poor rate should, from Michaelmas to Lady Day,
set out candles, in lanterns, nightly from dusk to midnight,
on pain of forfeiting 2s. for each default. If the house
holders of any parish chose to carry out this lighting
arrangement by means of a rate, they Avere empoAvered to do
so, but the Council disclaimed all responsibility in the
matter. It Avill Ik1 seen that the streets Avere to remain in
utter darkness at night for six months in every year. The
Bill receh-ed the Royal Assent in March, 1700, but its pro
visions did not come into operation until January, 1701.
In the meantime, the Corporation made the customary grant
of £1 4s. for two lights — at the Quay and Blind Gate —
then its only effort to lessen the nightly perils of wayfarers,
the lamp at the Council House having been discontinued.
The new Act further empowered the civic body to levy
fines on glass-makers, copper-smelters, and others, ror throw
ing refuse into the tAvo rivers, which, says the preamble of
the statute, were the receptacles of most of the ashes and
filth of the. city. The cost of obtaining the Act Avas £121 .
The Council, in January, 1700, resolved on relieving the
treasurer of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital of the duty of
supervising the maintenance and clothing of the boys, and
made an agreement Avith Mr. Cobb, the schoolmaster, under
which the thirty-six lads Avere " farmed " to the latter at
£9 3s. Ad. per head yearly, for which they Avere to be fed,
clothed, and educated. The master received no salary tinder
this arrangement, and he had also to pay the wages of three
female servants. As Mr. Colston provided £70 a year for
the maintenance of six boys, Cobb's bargain was evidently
a very good one for Ids employers. In compensation, the
Council allowed the master a further sum of £8 per annum
for collecting the rents of the charity, not merely in the
city, but from numerous tenants at Congresbury and
Yatton — an occupation somewhat incompatible Avith atten-

170O]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURA'.

493

tion to his proper duties. It is not surprising to find
indications that tho scale of education in the school hacl
sunk below the original standard. A Aveekly visitation by
members of the, Council Avas ordered, to see that the boys
were properly treated, and the Mayor and Aldermen made
an annual inspection, when one of the lads sang an anthem,
instead of delivering an oration, as in former times. The
performer, Avith each of the eight senior boys, had a gift of
a shilling ; the others received threepence each, and there
Avas a distribution of cake and fruit. The plentiful supply
of Avine sent in on each occasion Avas doubtless consumed by
the visitors. Iu December, 1700, the Council increased the
number of scholars to forty, and raised the master's allow
ance to £9 10s. per head.
Down to this period, letters forwarded by post to Bristol
Avere dealt Avith at the Post House — namelj'-, the house at
Avhich the postboys stabled their horses : and local letters
for London, and elsewhere, Avere left at the same place for
the next despatch. The Post House Avas for several years
at the Dolphin inn, Avhich long afterwards gave its name
to Dolphin Street. In 1700 the Government found it
desirable to establish an independent Post Office, and
negotiations Avere entered into AAuth the Corporation, the
result of which appears in the civic Bargain Book, dated
June 22nd : — "Then agreed by the sttrAreyors of the city
lands Avith Henry Pine, Deputy Postmaster, that he the
said Henry Pine shall have hold and enjoy the ground
Avhercon now stands a shedd having therein four severall
shopps, seituate in All Saints Lane, and as much more
ground at tho loAverend of the- same shedd as that the whole
ground shall contain in length tAventy seven foot, and to
contain in breadth from the outside of the churchyard wall
five foot and a half outward into the lane, Avith liberty to
build upon the same for the conveniency of a post office
(viz.) tho first story to come forth into the said lane to the
extent of that ground and no farther, and the second story
to have a truss of 18 inches over the lane, or more, as the
said surveyors shall think fitt, that persons coming to the
post office may have, shelter from the, rain and stand in the
dry. To hold the same from Michaelmas next for 50 years
absolute, under the yearly rent of 30s. clear of taxes." " The
subsequent history of the office is given iu the annals of the
following century. The accommodation provided in the
above bargain, limited as it was, doubtless met all the
requirements of the time. Only three mail bags Avere

494

THE ANNALS OE BRISTOL

[17(K>

received from and despatched to London Aveekly, and the
only other mails of which there is a record were those to
Chester and Exeter, bi-weekly. With the exception of tho
intermediate towns on the three routes, Bristol letters from
and to all parts of England, as well as Ireland and Scotland,
were transmitted via London, often involving double post
age rates and much delay. Cirencester, for example, was
then an important centre of tbe wool trade, and was only
about forty miles distant, yet'correspondcnco had to travel
unwards of Iavo hundred miles, and ten days frequently
elapsed between the despatch of a letter and the receipt ol
an answer. , . . , , -, i • 1
The merciless severity of the criminal code, under which
youire- children, if convicted of petty thefts, Avere necessarily
sentenced to death, has been noticed in a previous page.
As the carrying out of such sentences would have been
revolting to public feeling, it became the practice
after every assizes to draw up a memorial to the Kmg, con
taining the names of those thought worthy of a reprieve
and praying for their pardon. The expense of such acts ot
o-race was, however, considerable, owing to the fees
demanded by legal and Court officials. In June, the Council
ordered that £14 should be paid towards the charges of the
local pardons for the previous tAvo years, but that no further
o-rant should be made on that account. The intention was
obviously to lay the burden on the friends of the convicts,
but many had no friends capable of meeting the charge, and
the Corporation were frequently compelled to intervene.
It is probable that many of the " pardoned " felons were
ultimately transported as slaves to the plantations.
The Council, in August, voted £100 to Balhol College,
Oxford, toAvards the charge of building chambers for the
accommodation of exhibitioners sent up from Bristol
Grammar School to the University. The College returned
a cordial letter of thanks, and promised to take every care
of the young men, many of whom were subsequently edu
cated there. . ,,-,¦, l i • ;
An odd item occurs at this time m the Chamberlain s
accounts:— "Paid Alderman Wallis for the scarlet cloth
which is put on the Mayor's pew Sundays, £5." The
Mayor attended many churches m the course of his year ot
office, and presumably the emblazonment was earned about
from one building to another, according to his directions.
In an age when business ordinarily began at six o clock
in the morning it is not surprising that the Corporation
were promoters of early closing. In 1699 the Council had

171X1]

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

495

ordained that butchers and greengrocers should, remove
from the streets at seven o'clock in the winter half-year
and at eight iu summer. These hours bemg considered
demoralizing, it Avas now ordered that the dealers m the
Broad Street market should depart one hour earlier m each
half-year. Inns and alehouses Avere closed at nine o clock
iu the winter and ten in the summer months. As nearly
all tho shop fronts Avere unprotected with glass windows,
candles could not be kept lighted in windy weather, and
thieves were offered such facility for stealing that many
traders appear to have closed at dusk. _
The Council, in the autumn, resolved on reviving the
entertainment of the judges of assize and £22 4s. were paid
lo Sir Thomas Day, whose "great house at the Bridge
Avas offered for the occasion to Mr. Justice Powell. Ihe
i ud to must have had an enormous retinue, for £o los. were
'mid for the stabling and food of his horses. Looking about
for funds to meet these and other expenses, the city rulers
laid for the last time a heavy hand on "foreigners, appa
rently more, numerous than ever. Having been given the
option of taking up the freedom on payment of fines, or ot
having their places of business " shut down, many of the
intruders consented to the former alternative, and upwards
of £160 was netted by the Chamberlain. A merchant paid
a fine of £35, a chirurgeon £20, a cork-cutter and a saddler
£15 each, a tailor, a bricklayer, and a stone-carver £10
each, and a milliner and tAvo wigmakers £8 each. A leAv
tradesmen Avere more liberally dealt with under exceptional
circumstances. Thus a brttsbmaker was admitted gratis
because there Avas no other in the, city, and a similar grace
accorded to a, furrier and a patten-maker Avas probably due
to the same cause. Then a watchmaker Avas permitted to
open a shop, and was eventually voted the freedom, in con
sequence of his offering "a, curious watch and ctyall plate,
to bo set up in the Tolzey, and ttnd.n-taking to keep same
in repair during his life." (This time-piece still m excel
lent order, is iioav in the office of the city Treasurer.) In
November a curious entry occurs in the minutes :— " 1 here
beiire a confederacy betAveen the cooks now m the city, it-
is ordered, that in case any able cooks come from Lonclon,
the Mayor and Aldermen have liberty to admit them into
the freedom." As there is no further reference to the
matter, the " confederacy " Avas probably broken up ; but
the glaring inconsistency of the corporate decree Avith the
general policy adopted towards strangers seems to have
^ivcn a final 'blow to the long-cherished system of persecu-

40(5

THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL

[l70O
tion. In 1703, Avhen all the civic bye-laAvs were revised by
a committee for the purpose of cancelling such as Avero obso
lete or prejudicial, the ordinance forbidding the intrusion
of " foreigners " Avas significantly ordered " to be left out."
A few remarks on the general condition and policy of the
Corporation Avill bring the annals of the century to a close.
It seems only too certain that the ciAic body had deterio
rated during the, period that has been under revieAV. In
the year ending Michaelmas, 1601, tho corporate income
amounted to only £928, which Avas about £3tX) IioIoav tho
average in the later years of Elizabeth ; while the expendi
ture Avas £690, or about the normal amount of the period.
As a general rule there was a considerable surplus, and by
dint of continuous prudent management the Council were
from time to time enabled to add largely by purchases to
the civic estates. The Civil War necessarily entailed heavy
burdens on the Corporation, but the liabilities thus incurred
might have been cleared off if the large receipts lloAving
from the Castle Precincts and new King Street had been
deA'oted to that purpose. At the Restoration, however, the
economy of the Puritan age became as distasteful to the
Royalist Council as its political sentiments, and chronic
recklessness and extravagance brought about their cus
tomary results. In the ten years ending 1700, the average-
yearly income had increased to about £3,000, hut although
all the charges for police, paving, lighting, and other muni
cipal services were repudiated, the expenditure Avas greater
than the receipts. Property to the value of about £8,000
had been disposed of, yet the Corporation, at the end of the
century, were burdened Avith a debt of over £10,000, and
had moreover to pay about £190 yearly to various charities,
the original capital represented by that sum — -about £3,800
— having in some way disappeared. The effect of monetary
troubles on civic morality is eloquently attested by one of
the latest entries in the minute-book of the year. Pressed
by clamorous creditors, the Council thought proper to make
a raid on the funds of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital. The
sum of £700 had been borrowed from the Hospital in 1682,
and £630 had become due for eighteen years' interest on the
loan. But the Chamber, reviving the old fiction of a debt
due from the charity — of Avhich nothing had been said for
ninety-four years, and which, if a fact, Avould have justified
the, appropriation of the £700 as a repayment on account —
repudiated payment of the interest, and coolly alleged that,
such repudiation was "clone Avith very great equitAr and
good conscience."

CATHEDRAL AND CIVIC DIGNITARIES.

497

CATHEDRAL AND CIVIC DIGNITARIES.
BISHOPS,
IV ITU DATE OI' CoNSKCUATION.
Tin' see was vacant from 1593 to 1003.
1(in:i August. John Thornborough, translated to Worcester, 1617.
1(117 December. Nicholas Fulton, translated to Ely, 1(318.
1019 May. Rowland Soarohfield, died October 11, 1622.
1023 March. Robert Wright, translated to Lichfield, 1033.
1033 February. George Coke, translated to Hereford, 1630.
1037 January. Bobert Skinner, translated to Oxford, 1641.
1012 June Thomas Westfield, died June 25, 1644.
1015 April. Thomas Howell, died 16-16.
1001 January. Gilbert Ironside, died September 19, 1671.
1072 February. Guy Carleton, translated to Chichester, 1679.
10711 February. AVilliam Gulston, died April 4, 1684.
10S-1 August. John Lake, translated to Chichester, 1685.
10H5 November. Sir Jonathan Trelawny, Bt., translated to Exeter, 1689.
lli'Hil Oetober. Gilbert Ironside, translated to Hereford, 1691.
1091 August. John Hall, died February 4, 1710.
DEANS.
159.4 March. Simon Hobson, died June, 1617
1017 June.
1639 Juno.
1001) Julv.
1007 Slav.
10S3 jAIav.
10H1 May

Edward Chetwynd, died May 13, 1639.
Matthew Nicholls, resigned, 1660.
Henry Glemham, appointed Bishop of St. Asapli, 1667.
Richard Towgood, died April 23, 1683.
Samuel Crossman, died February 4, 1084.
Richard Thompson, died November 29, 1685.
1080 January. William Levett, died February 11, 1694.
1094 March. George Eoyse, died April, 1708.

MAYORS AND SHERIFFS.

(T
Sepl, i oi in
JOIH
1002 I oo:i
1001
100510061007 loos
1009
J010
Kill10121013 Kill
1015

ie civic dignitaries, under the old charters, entered upon office on
-inbi-r 291 h.)

Mavohs.
John Hopkins, merchant
AVilliam Vawer, enrdnraker
Ralph lloite, grocer
John AVhilson, merchant
Christ. Kedgwin, grocer
Thomas James, merchant
John Barker, merchant ; Rich
ard Smith,* tanner
Matthew llaviland, merchant
John Butcher, draper
Robert Aldworth, merchant
John Eaglesdeld, mercer
AVilliam Cary, draper
Abel Kitchen, merchant
Francis Knight
Thomas James, merchant
John Whitson, merchant

SlIKIttl-TS.
John Boulton, Thomas Hopkins
William Hopkins, John Fnwens
John Aldworth, Thomas Farmer
AA'illiam Barnes, George Richards
William Cole, George Harrington
John Rowberowe, John Guy
Thomas Packer, John Doughty
Robert Rogers, Arthur Needes
Thomas Moore, AA'illiam Young
Thomas Aldworth, Wm. Chaltouer
Thomas Whitehead, AVilliam Pytte
William Burrus, Henry Gibbes
Christopher Gary, John Barker
Christopher Whitson, John Conning
John Langton, Humphrey Hooke '
William Baldwvnc.lohu Tomlinson

See page 33.

K K

49S

TIIK ANNALS OF BHISTOL,.

Mayohs.
1616 Thomas Farmer
1617 George Harrington, brewer
1618 John Gua', merchant
1619 Thomas Packer
1620 John Doughty, mercer .
1621 Robert Rogers, sonpmakcr
1622 AA'illiam Young, draper
1623 William Pitt, drain-r ,
1624 Henry Gibbes, brewer
1625 John Barker, merchant *
1626 Chris. Whitson, sugar refiner '
1627 John Gonning, merchant .
1628 John Langton, merchant >
1629 Humphrey Hooke, merchant "
1630 John Tomlinson, merchant- ,
1631 Henry Yate. soapmaker
1632 Henry Hobson, innkeeper
1033 Matthew Wan-en, clothier
1634 Andrew Charlton, merchant- »
1635 Rich. Hoi worthy, merchant .
1636 Richard Long, merchant •
1037 AA'illiam Jones, grocer ,
1638 Ezekiel AA'allis, draper
1639 George Knight, draper
1640 John Taylor, merchant
1041 John Lock, merchant ,
1642 Richard Aldworth, mercer
1643 Humph. Hooke, merchant
1644 Alex. James, merchant
1045 Francis Creswick, merchant. ;
John Gonning,* merchant
1646 Richard Vickris, merchant.
1647 Gabriel Sherman, merchant
1648 William Cann, merchant
1649 Miles Jackson, merchant
1650 Hugh Browne, merchant
1651 Jos. Jackson, merchant
1652 Henry Gibbes, draper
1653 George Hellier, ironmonger
165-1 John Gonning, merchant
1655 "Walter Deyos, merchant
1056 Richard Balman, brewer
1057 Arthur Farmer, brewer
1658 Walter Sandy, ironmonger
1050 Edward Tyson, merchant
1660 Henry Creswick, merchant
1001 Nathaniel Cale, chandler
1602 Sir Robt. Cann, Bart., mer
chant
» 1663 Sir John Knight (I.), merchant
1664 John Lawford, grocer
.1665 John Willoughby, merchant
1666 (Sir) Thos. Langton, merchant

SlIEIIII-'l-'S.
Henry Yate, Henry Hobson
Matthew Warren, AVilliam Turner
Thomas Cecill, Thomas Wright
Wm. Lyssett, Humphrey Browne
Andrew Charlton^- Peter Miller.
Richard Hoi worthy, .Richard Long,
Edward Coxe, AVilliam Jones •
Oliver Snell, Ezekiel AVallis
Win. Pitt, jun. (died),'Nath. Biit-
"'¦ cber,'Thos. Clements
George Knight, John Taylor*
John Lock, 'Walter Ellis'.
Richard Plea, .Richard Aldworth'
Alex. James, Francis Creswick'
(iiles Elbridge, Thomas Colston'
Derrick Popfey/Gabriel Sherman '
John Gonning, jun.; Miles Jackson-
Thomas Jackson, .Win. Fitzherbert <
Robert Elliot, Thomas Lloyd
John Langton, 'Thomas Hooke'
AA'illiam Cann,- AA'illiam Hobson >
Richard Vickris; Thos. Woodward
Edw. Peters (died), • Wm. Wyat,-
Ab. Edwards
Luke Hodges, George Hellier
Matthew Warren, Walter Deyos '
Henry Gibbes, Edward Pitt .
Richard Balman, Robert Yeamans /
Joseph Jackson, Hugh Browne
Henry Creswick, William Colston
Nathaniel Cale, William Be van
John Young, Walter Stevens
Walter Sandy, 'Edward Tyson <
Arthur Fanner, George White .
Robert Challoner,. Robert Yate ,
AVilliam Dale, 'William Yeamans ,
James Croft, George Hart
George Lane, Robert Cann
Thos. Amory, Jonathan Blackwell
John Pope, Thomas Bubb
John Lawford, Christopher Griffith
Thomas Harris, John Bowen
Robert Vickris, John Harjx-r
John Willoughby, Henry Appleton
Edward Morgan, Nehemiah Collins
Francis Gleed, Timothy Parker
Richard Gregson, Thomas Langton
Thomas Stevens, John Hiokes
John Wright, Robert Yeamans
John Bradway, Richard Streamer
John Knight, jun., Ralph Olliffe
William Crabb, Richard Crumpo
John Lloyd, Joseph Creswick

See page 294.

MAYORS AND SHERIFFS.

49'J

Mayohs.
1007 Edward Morgan, upholster
1008 Thomas Stevens, grocer
1009 Sir Robt. Yeamans, Bt.
t 1070 John Knight (jun.), sugar
baker
1071 John Hiokes, mercer
1072 Chris. Gri (lithe, merchant
1673 Richard Streamer, merchant
1071 Ralph Ollillo, innkco|>er
1675 Sir Robert Cann, Bart.
1070 William Crabb, merchant
J077 (Sir) Richard Crumpc, chand
ler
1078 (Sir) John Lloyd, brewer
1079 Joseph Creswick, merchant
1080 (Sir) Richard Hart, merchant
1081 (Sir) Thos. Earle, merchant
1082 Thomas Eston, merchant
1683 Ralph Olliffe, (Sir) Wm.
Clutterbuck*
1081 (Sir) Will. Hayman, merchant
1085 Abraham Saunders, soapmaker
1080 AVm. Swymmer, merchant
y^r (Richard Lane,f sugar baker
(Thomas Day, merchant
jgggf William Jackson, merchant
( AV i 1 1 i am Jackson
108!) Arthur Hart, merchant
1090 Sir John Knight (II.)
1091 Richard Lane
1092 Edmond Arundell, merchant
1093 Robert Yate, merchant
1001 (Sir) Thomas Day
1095 Samuel Wallis, ironmonger
1090 John Hine, sugar baker
1097 John Bubb, draper
lO'.IH John Hlaekwoll, vintner
1090 .John Bachelor, draper
1700 (Sir) Wm. Dailies, merchant

SllKllIFI'S.
Hy. Gough, John Aldworth (died),
Wm. Willett
Hum. Little, Rich. Hart
Charles Powell, Edward Hume
Thomas Day, Thomas Eston
Richard Stubbs, Thomas Earle
Edward Young, John Cooke
John Cecil, John Dymer (died), AVm.
Hasell
Samuel Wharton, Edward Feildiug
Charles Williams, George Lane
Henry Gleson, Henry Merret
William Donning, John Moore
Wm. Jackson, Wm. Clutterbuck
Wm. Hayman, AVm. Swymmer
Abraham Saunders, Arthur Hart
Richd. Lane, (Sir) John Knight (II.)
George Hart, John Combes
Nathaniel Driver, Edmond Arundell
Giles Merricke, James Twyford
AVilliam Merricke, Robert Yate
George Morgan, Edward Tocknell
John Sandford, Samuel AVallisf
Thomas Saunders, John Hine
Thomas Liston, Joseph Jackson,
Thomas Cole, George White
John Bubb, John Blackwell
Robert Dowding, John Yeamans
John Bradway, AVilliam Opie
James Pope, Henry Combe
Marmaduke Bowdler, John Bacheler
John Hawkins, (Sir) AVm. Daines
AVilliam Lewis, William French
Peter Saunders, Francis Whit
church
Nathaniel Day, John Pay
Ueorge Stephens, John Swymmer
AA'illiam Whithe.id, James' Hollidge
Robert Bownde Isaac Havies

See page 419. f See page 416. \ See page 450.

eoo

THE ANNALS OP BHISTOL.

MASTERS OF THE SOCIETY OF MERCHANT VENTURERS.
(Compiled by Mr. G. II. Porn, Treasurer. "Aid." are Aldermen; "C,"
Councillors.) Joseph Jackson, Aid.
Joseph Jackson, Aid.
Robert Yale, C.
AA'illiam Yeiunans, C.
Robert. Cann, 0.
John Bowen, C.
Henry Creswick, Mayor, Aid.
Henry Creswick, Aid.
(Sir) Robert A'camaus, C.
Sir John Knight (I.), Mayor
Thomas Langton, Aid.
John A\rilloughby, Mayor
John Knight (jun.), C.
Walter Tocknell
Walter Tocknell
Robert Vickris, C.
William Willett, C.
Shersbaw Cary
Richard Streamer, Ald.,Mayor
Thomas Earle, C.
William Lysons, C.
Richard Hart, C.
Richard Hart, C.
George Lane, C.
G. Lane, C. (died), Wm. Hay
man, C.
William Hayman, Sheriff
William Jackson, C.
Thomas Eston, C, Mayor
AVilliam Merricke, C.
(Sir) Wm. Clutterbuck, Mayor,
Aid.
Richard Lane, C.
Edward Tocknell, C.
Edward Tocknell, C.
William Donuiug, C.
Arthur Hart, C, Mayor
Giles Merricke, C.
AVilliam Swymmer, C.
John Cooke, Chamberlain
Robert Yate, C.
Robert Yate, Mayor
Samuel Price
Samuel Price
Peter Saunders, C.
Peter Saunders, C.
Sir William Daines, C.
Sir Wm. Daines, O, Mayor
James Hollidge

1005 John Hopkins, Aid. 165-1
1000 John Whitson, M.P, AM. 1055
1007 Thomas James, M.P., Aid. 1050
1608 Matthew Haviland, C, Aid. 1057
1009 Robert- Aldworth, Mavor 1058
1010 Abel Kitchen, C. 1659
1011 John AVhilson, AM llitiO
1012 Robert Aldworlh, C. 1001
1013 Matthew Haviland, Aid. 1002
101 1 John Aldworth, C. 1003
1015 Thomas James, Aid. 1064
1010 Matthew Haviland, Aid. 1005
1617 John Barker, C. 1666
1618 John Barker, C. 1607
1619 John Gonning, C. 1668
1020 John Langton, C. 1009
1621 Humphrey Hooke, C. 1070
1622 John Guy, Aid. 1671
1623 John Doughty, Aid. 1072
1021 AVilliam i'itt", Aid. 1078
1025 Robert Aldworth, Aid. 1674
1020 John Barker, C. 1675
1627 John Tomlinson, C. 1676
1628 Thomas AA'right, (.'. 1077
1629 Humphrey Browne, C. 1678
1630 Humphrey Hooke, ('.
1631 Humphry- Hooke, C.. Aid. 1679
1632 Humphrey Hooke, Aid. 1080
1633 Humphrey Hooke, Aid. 1681
1634 Humphrey Hooke, Aid. 1682
1635 Richard Holworthy, Mayor 1683
1636 Richard Long, Mavor
1637 Richard Long, Aid. 1684
1638 Humphrey Hooke, Aid. 1085
1639 Andrew Charlton, Aid. 1686
1640 John Gonning, Aid. 1687
1641 AVilliam Jones, Aid. 1688
1012 Alexander James, C. 1689
1013 Francis Creswick, C, Aid. 1690
10-11 Thomas Colston, C, Aid. 1691
1015 William Cann, C. 1692
1646 Hugh Browne, Aid. 1693
1647 Joseph Jackson, AM. 1694
1018 Richard Vickris, Aid. 1695
1049 Hugh Browne, Aid., Mayor 1696
1650 M iles Jackson, A Id. 1697
1651 Hugh Browne, Aid. 1698
1652 Hugh Brown.-, Aid. 1699
1653 Joseph Jackson, A Ul, 1700

INDEX.

. Abbot's Leigh, Charles II. at, 234.
Admiralty Court, 138, 400.
African trade, monopoly, 121, 368.
•175,481. '
Alderskey Lane, 88.
Aldworth, Robert, sugar refiner,
¦It, 481; his docks, 88; Richard,
M.P., 185,208,211, 219, 220, 235
Robert, J\I.j>., 250, 208, 281, 285,
289, 297, 299, 373.
Alehouses, 8,3; unlicensed, 287;
.nullification of tenants, 359. See
Beer.
Ale tasters, 81.
Algerine corsairs, we Pirates.
Almshouses, Foster's, -10; White's
-jl7; Merchants', 143, 473; St.
Nicholas', 237; Stevens'.393; Col
ston's, -157 ; Quakers', 485.
America, exploring and colonizing
19, 27, 38, 07, 72, 117, 317, 405;'
emigration to, 110, 405; kidnap
ping for, 250; ,-xlensivc trade
Willi, H.HI, 1711.
Anchorage ilues, 17, 305.
Angel Gabriel, privateer, i).)
Anno of Denmark, Queen, visit of,
48; her Bristol players, 50.
Anne, Princess (Queen), 418
Anne's, St., in the Wood, 413.
Apprentices, laws as to,' 2, -16 d''fi •
riotous, 290, 353.
Archery, l(l|, 289.
Arctic expedition, 1i(>.
Arlington, Lord, gift to, 319.
Armour, civic, 10, 70.
Arundel, Earl of, gifts to 70 n-
¦ro. '
Ashburnham, Lord, 185.
Atkyns, Sir Robert, 312-13 H78
;W5^400; charged with riiting,'
Attorneys, local, 07, 275, 457.

Augustine's, St., see Great House.
Avon, perils of the, 43, 110; nui
sances, 492. See Pill.
Avon navigation, plans, 71, 208,
484.

Baber, William, 119, 298.
Baize-making, 40.
Bakers' Company, 22; revolt of, 58;
restrictions ou, 59, 443.
Balliol College, grant to, 494.
Ballot, voting by, 234, 296.
Banker, early, 395.
Baptists, rise of the, 239. See Dis
senters.
Baptist Mills, 239.
Barber Surgeons' Company, 239,
357.
Barge, corporation, 282.
Barker, John, Mayor, death of, 33:
John, M.P., 85, 101; bis protest
against oppression, 130.
Barristers' fees, 121.
lUu-lholomowV, St., Hospital, 37,
227, 10 1.
Bath, Corporation of, 71, 311, 481.
Balhavou ferry, 233.
Bay lie, Francis, shipbuilder, 217,
340, 349.
Bear-baiting, 5.
Beaufort, Duke of, see Worcester,
Marquis of, aud Carolina.
Beauty spots, ladies', 196.
B.-dloe, AVilliam, infamy of, 380,
395.
Bedminster, manor of, 26 ; villa-'--
burnt, 197, 211; road to, 209.
Beer, price of, 45, 83, 91. Ser Ale
houses.
Bell-ringers, St.. Stephen's, 71.
B,'lls, Royalist demand for citv,
1*5; tolling, ws.

502

" Benevolences," royal, 18, 54, 88,
189.
Berkeley, Sir Maurice, 210.
Berrv. Richard, 469.
Bickham. Richard, 431, 437.
Bishop, Capt. Geo., 250, 260, 319,
319.
Bishops, list of, 497; J. Thorn
borough, 80; R. Searchtield, 75;
R. W right, 84, 110, 124 ; C. Coke,
121; R. Skinner. 115; T. Howell,
211; G. Ironside, 355. 361 ; G.
Carleton, 300,309, 378,385, 389; W.
Goulston, 390, 405; J. Lake, -128 ;
Sir J. Trclawnv, 428, 429, 4-10,
44 1, 450, 452, 454; G. Ironside,
454.
Bishopric, poverty of the, 361, 390,
441.
Bishops' Palace sold, 212 ; discom
fort of. 390.
Blackwell, Jonathan, 264, 352.
Blake, General and Admiral, 178,
241.
Bloody Assize, the. 431-7.
Bone-houses, parish, 469.
Bonny, AA'illiam, printer. 171. 474,
479; 483.
Books, chains for, 52.
Bookseller, first, 72.
Boundaries perambulated. 29. 214,
295. 490.
Bowcher, George. 52, 143, 171 ; exe
cuted, 175; Mrs., 54; Mrs., 175;
John, 215; family, 298.
Bowling Greens, 42, 272, 390. 490.
Branding of felons, 480.
Brandon Hill, windmill on, 92;
Fort, 162, 176.
Brass pillars, 56, 64, 126, 249.
Brayne, Henry, 350.
Bread of the poor. 3, 34, 486, 488 ;
country, 22, 58, 59; price of, 230,
365. 480.
Brewers oppressed by Crown, 122.
Brick buildings, early, 490.
Bridewell. 72, 84, 326, 446.
Bridge, Bristol, 33, 216 ; Chapel on,
224: (see Great Houses) ; Needless,
270: Castle, 284,375.
Bridges, Sir Thomas, 230, 323, 368.
Brislington Heath, 01.
Bristol, iu 1601, 1 : population, 2, 34;
rateable value, 302, 467 ; the
Queen's Chamber, 56, 90 ; eulo
gised by prelates, 112. 125; de
scribed by visitors, 129, 338. 348,
359 : " Milk," 129, 320, 348 ; sieges,
177-181, 197-203; under martial

law, 429, 497 ; plans and view of,
248,861; idiom, 415.
Bristol diamonds, 180, 250.
Bristol Drollery, 867.
Bristol Hope colony, 68.
Bristol, John, Earl of, 87.
Brushmaker, first, 495.
Bubb, John, 443, 455.
Bull-baiting, 485.
Butcher family, see Bowcher.
'Butchers, country, 46; in Lent, 53.
80.
Butter, civic, transactions in, 05, 76,
85, 94, 102, 149, 214, 300; mono
poly, 76, 136, 149, 242, 240; price
of, 41, 150,221.

Cable, Matthew, 57.
Cage for vagrants, 13 ; for the un
ruly, 470 ; at Lawford's Gate, 218.
Cale, Nath., 152, 296, 297, 310, 323,
327-8.
Calf-skin leather monopoly, 14, 55,
150, 2 12.
Callowhill, Chris., 96 ; Thomas, 472,
475, 480, 482.
Canada trade monopoly, 121.
Cann, William, 155, 182, 225; (Sir)
Robert, M.P., 222, 223, 310, 812.
, 319, 321, 350, 872, 373, 377, 384 ;
1 his outbreak in Parliament, 391;
l 405, 421, 424, 436 (2) ; Sir William ,
319, 380.
Canons' Marsh, 49, 309; Little
Marsh, 390.
Cardiff iron, 92.
Carleton, Bishop, 360, 369, 378, £85.
389.
Carolina, colony of, 317.
Carpenters' Company, 346.
Carpets for tables, 64.
Carr, John, see Queen Elizabeth's
Hospital.
Carts prohibited, 58, 214, 230, 348.
Cary, Shershaw, 330 ; John, 447, 471 ;
his Essay on Trade, 474; on
pauperism, 479, 482, 488.
Casbeard, John, 318.
Castle, Bristol, in ruins, 43, 130; an
Alsatia, 43, 90; civic efforts to
purchase, 43; purchased, 113:
precincts united lo cit y, 90; Mili
tary House in, 114, 258, 267 ; re-
fortified, 150, 161 ; plundered, 181 :
victualled, 195 ; rentals lost by
Avar, 237; keep demolished, 257;
chapel in, 267 ; property sold.
441.

INDEX.

50S

Castle dates, 281 ; bridges, 284, 375.
Castle Street laid out, 258,276.
Cathedral, corporate seats in, 29,
81, 128, 221, 444; state of, 127;
during Civil War, 207, 212, 221,
264 ; corporate pretensions in, 889 ;
new organ, 414; a model organist,
41 1.
Catherine, Queen, visits of, 319,380.
Catherine's, St., Hospital, 829.
Cecill, Thomas, bribed, 79; unruly,
82.
Census of city, 31.
Chairs introduced, 227.
Cha|>ols: on the Bridge, 224; first
Dissenting, 239; Quakers', 259,
310; Broadmead, 340, 372, 444;
Castle Green, 370, 388, 419;
Lewin's Mead, 370, 406; all de
stroyed, 400.
Charities, obsolete, 78. Sec Alms
houses.
Charles I., accession, 89; illegal
exactions, 89,94, 101,107, 121,122,
lit", 134, 110, 112, 145, 148; ship-
money, 95, 132, 148; grants char
ters, 90, 90 ; forced loans, 98, 108.
189 ; rapacity of courtiers, 97,
102, 112, 113: grants the Hot
Well, 100; exacts fines, 118, 131 ;
demands troops, 144, 148; forbids
admission of troops, 155; attempts
to secure the city, 157 ; city peti-
t ion to, 106; approves of Yeamans'
plot, 171, 175; civic gift to, 181;
visits Bristol, 183 ; " pardons " it,
1RI ; d  amis more money, 193;
his remarks on I hi' siege, 204;
loyally lo, 149, 151, 212; his
slatue and picture, 23(1, 295.
Charles 11., birth of, ill; visits of,
l!ll, 318; escape after Worcester,
233; Restoration, 291; petitions
to for places, 298 ; grants charters,
824, 421 ; dictatorial policy, see
Corporation; extorts the surren
der of charters, 415, 420, 424 ;
forced loans, 338, 343 ; rapacity
of his Court, 420 ; his statue,
310; his picture, 345.
Chailton, Andrew, 117.
Charters, new royal, 22, 90, 96, 324,
421.
Chatterton family, 348.
Chauncy, Ichabod, 388, 418.
Cheese, price of, 41.
Chester family, 60, 215, 300, 303.
Chewton Mendip fight, 158.
Christ. Church, 237, 275 ("-), 425.

Christmas feasts forbidden, 254, 250.
Christmas Steps made, 352.
Churches, advowsons purchased, 97 :
ravaged by soldiers, 211 ; hour
glasses, 469.
Churchill, (Sir) John, M.P., 308, 375,
379, 413, 427, 428.
Cirencester, mails to, 494.
Civil War, opening of, 154-6, 160,
162 ; parties in the city, 165 ;
burdens on citizens, 162, 109, 170,
181, 182, J87, 190, 192-5, 205, 209,
211, 213 ; panics, 220, 233.
Clarendon, Lord, ser Hyde, Sir E.
Clark, Major, 230, 2-17.
Clergy, incomes of, 14, 75; during
and after Civil War, 169, 208,
209, 227, 247, 273 ; civic chaplain,
262; curious petition, 384; pas
sive oliedieuce preached, 399, 410 ;
Jacobitism, 470, 487.
Clifton, wine license for, 105 ; burnt
by Rupert, 197 ; manors of, 374.
See Hot \\rell.
Clot ll ing trade, decline of, 2, 40, 393,
485.
Clubmen, the, 198.
Clutterbuck. (Sir) William, 420,
440,454,483.
Coach, first public, 302 ; private,
320, 306.
Coal, Kingswood, 29, Rl, 94, 154.
Cock-pit, 42.
Cock-throwing. 260, 292.
Coffee houses, 336, 387, 403.
Coinage, debased, 477. See Mint.
Coke, Bishop, 124.
Cole, Alice, 250.
College Green, state of, 127 ; conduit,
290, 172.
Colston, Thos., 17: Thos.. 152, 156,
105, 181, ion, 200, 207, 215; AVil
liam, 39; AA'illiam, 00, 183, 185.
207, 297, 298, 310, MiO, 320, 321,
332. 342, 377, 379, 409; (Sir)
Richard, 298, 320, 409; Robert,
372; AA'illiam, murdered, 379;
Thomas, 409; Edward, reappear
ance in Bristol, 409 ; his alms
house, 457; the White Lodge,
404; his benefactions, 473, 482;
sugar house, 478.
Colston Fort, 190, 197.
Colt, John Dutton, 454, 463.
Commonwealth proclaimed, 225 ;
corruption under, 276. »Scc Civil
War, Clergy.
Companies, trade, laws of, 4, 17, 25,
•12, 40, 148, 217, 239.

504

Conduits, public, 252, 254, 207, 289,
396, 472.
Conscience, Court of, 446.
Constables' staves, 303.
Cooke, John, his Folly, 488.
Cooks' confederacy, 495.
Coopers' Company, 25.
Corn trade regulations, 230, 332.
Coroners, salary of, 81, 230.
Corporation: treatment- of
straugers, 4 (sec Foreigners) ;
treatment, of Queen Elizabeth's
Hospital, 8, 490 ; burdens ou mem
bers, 16 (2), and see Civil AArar;
imposes new dues, 17,28 ; penalty
for taking bribes. 23,79 ; poverty
of minor officers, 26; fines for ex
emption from otliee, 33, 35, 223,
228, 262, 3 17, 426, 404 ; fines for
refusing office, 136, 229, 269, 277,
289, 307, 431,450, -158; economy,
35 ; presents of wine, plate, etc.,
23, 35, 30, 41, 43, 52, 65, 79, 84, ill,
97. 115, 123, 124, 125.135,139, 182,
18 1, 191, 201, 208, 226, 2K1, 319,
385, 420, 448, 450, 491 ; treatment
of Grammar School estates, 37 ;
treatment of Owen's Charity, 46 ;
insignia, 49 ; pensions to members,
51. 329, 426; absentees. 53, 110,
350; proxies, 56, 465: precedency
quarrels, 63, 312, 457 ; royal and
aristocratic dictation, 23, 78, 135,
145, 181, 290, 297, 299, 311,' 330,
335, 356, 440, 443 ; disfranchises
freemen, 93, 147, 148, 307; pur
chase:--, advowsons, 97 ; corporate
robes, 109 ; civic account-books,
140, 465 ; attitude at opening of
the Civil War, 149, 154, 156 ; pre
pares against a siege, 158-9 (see
Fortifications); loans to Parlia
ment, 100, 160, 169 ; attempts re
conciliation and neutrality, 161,
163 ; receives Parliament, troops,
164 ; assessments, see Civil War ;
gift, to the King, 181 ; Puritan
members ejected, 185; gift to
Queen, 191 ; gift to Prince of
Wales, 194 ; Puritans reinstated
nod elected. 205, 214; Royalists
ejected, 207,265; purchases' Chap
ter lands, 226, 279; voting by
ballot, 234, 296; secrecy of de
bates, 244; defends city privi-. .
leges. 247 ; anti-Cromwellian, 232j_|!
249, 251 : usurps private rights, |
252, 253, 284 ; civic chaplain, 262 ; j
debts, 263; " Sabbath" laws, 267,

887 ; purchases wine licenses, 272 ;
rules of debate, 277; unpopular
ity, 277; indebtedness, 279, 1191,
¦I 11, 457, 461, 405, 190 ; last- effort,
for Puritanism. 292; gifts to
Charles II., 291-5; Royalists
reinstated, 295-0; Puritans ex
pelled, 290, 310; wharfage dues
leased, 300, 438; charters at
tacked, 300 ; entertains the King,
319; obtains new charter, 321;
excessive clcctious, 330, 410 ; in
ertia, 362, 367; costly litigation,
876, 381 ; disputes with Dean and
Chapter, 378, 889; linen-weaving
scheme, 894; political exaspera
tion, 401, 412, 413, 416; Mr. Col
ston's loan, 409 ; members excom
municated, 415; new attack on
the charters, 415, 419; charters
surrendered, 120 ; city in the
King's bands, 421; new Council,
424; Church patronage, 425;
ollicers' robes, 412; .-slates sold,
441, 457, 496; Council purged by
James II., 440-8; the charters
restored, 449 ; the Revolution,
450-2 ; Jacobite factiousness, 455,
457, 400, 162 ; admits a printing-
press, 471 ; abolishes M.P.s' wages,
172; love of display, 489; the
Marsh let for building. 490: state
of the civiclxnly in 170O, 490.
Corporation of the Poor, see Poor.
Corsley, R., banker, 395 ; Hum., 417.
Council House, 275, 342, 491.
Councillors excommunicated, 415.
Courts of law, local, 67, 275, 446.
Cranes, city, 125, 438.
Creswick, family mansion, 115, 188,
331, 409 ; Francis, 205, 207, 208,
203 ; (Sir) Henry, 290 ('-'), 316, 319,
321, 342, 313 ('-), 349 ; Francis, 445 ;
Joseph, 330.
Criminals, juvenile, fate of, 455, 494.
Cromwell, Oliver, in Bristol, 202,
225; letters of, 278; Protector,
249; death, 283; Richard, visit
of, 280 ; proclaimed, 283.
Cross, see High Cross ; St. Peter's,
487 ; Temple, 487.
Crossman, Prebendary, 389.
Crump, Sir Richard, 427, 445.
Clicking Stool, 79, 295, 311. 336.
Cupoloes, the, 442.
Currency, debased, 477.
Custom House, receipts. 80, 334,
345, 383; abuses of officers, 85,
122, 130, 139. 152 ; frauds on, 403.

INDEX.

505

Customs duties, illegal, 20, 86, 58,
82 ; and see Charles I.

Daines, Sir William, 480, 482.
Day, (Sir) Thomas, 3J0, 401,424, 447,
453, 454, 472, 473, 478, 479,488, 495 ;
Nathaniel, 447,478, 491; John, 491.
Dean and Chapter, absentees, 110,
127 ; abuses, 127, 309 ; estates sold,
220, 209; arrogant pretensions of,
378; revenues, 414 ; quarrel with
Corporation, 389; treatment of
Bishop Goulston, 890.
Dean, Forest of, 120, 128, 223.
Deans, list of, 497.,
Dearth, sen Distress.
Death, punishment of, 03, 91, 408,
155, 494.
Debt, imprisonment for, 45.
" I)elin.|iients " fined, 215.
Dcodauds, law of, 231.
Desbrowe, General, 261, 265, 280.
Disaffection in city, see Royalists,
Anti-Royal ist s ; "398.
Dissent, religious, rise of, 151, 209,
239-11, 274, 30L
Dissenters persecuted, 301, 323-1, !
328, 351, 354 ; transported, 335; !
sentenced to death, 408; chapels j
wrecked, 355, 406 ; tolerated, 364 ; ;
renewed persecutions, 369, 406, ',
-125 ; " Indulgence," 444, 449, 450 ; ;
ministers die in prison, 370, 425.
Distilleries, 384, 488.
Distress of poor, 34, 41, 64, 85, 94,
102, 135, 214, 221, 285, 366, 467.
Docks, early, 88.
Doddridge, John, M.P., 261, 268.
Dorset, Earl of, High Steward, 8.
Doughty, John, M.P., 82, 94, 101.
Dover, Dr. Thomas, 480.
Drama, the, see Playactors.
Duck-hunting, civic, 159, 214.
V Ducking of scolds, 79, 91, 295, 311,
336.
Dnddleston, (Sir) John, 447, 460, 482.
Dutch in the Med way, 343.
Dutch prisoners of war, 337.

(1026) 94 ; (1628) 101 ; (16)40) 147,
149: (1042) 157 ; (1040)210; (1653)
214 ; (1654) 250; (1656) 26-8; (1659)
285 ; (1600) 293 ; (1661) 305 ; (1077)
381; (1079)391-3; (1081 )400; (1685) '
427-8: (1089)453; (1090)450; (1095) /
473; (1098) 488.
Elizabeth, Queen, her bears and
actors, 5; intended visit, 18.
Ellsworth, (Sir) Richard, 290, 297,
299, 300, 328, 31 1, 317, 373, 384.
Elton, (Sir) Abraham, 478, 482, 491.
Emigration to America, 140, 405.
Essex, Colonel, Governor, 164, 166,
167, 108.
Essex, Earl of, 168.
Essex Fort, 178.
Eston, Thomas, 113, 419. 4 10, 454.
Evelyn, John, visit of, 250.
Ewens", St., Church, 273, 275.
Eweus, Thomas, 27 I.
Excommunicated councillors, 415.
Executions, 03, 91 : of Yeamans and
Bowcher, 175, 408; after Bloody
Assize, 432, 434.
Exeter, shooting matches, 62 ; Cus
toms at, 383.

Earle, (Sir) Thomas, 388, 400, 402,
400, 411, 411, 410, 417, 421, 454,
458; (Hies, 281); Joseph, 491.
Faster holidays, 101.
Elbridge, (Hies, 100, 181, 207.
Elections, Parliamentary (1001), 15 ;
(lOli-l) 20; (1005) 22; (1014) 53;
(1020) 70; (1624) 85; (1025) 89;

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, captures city,
197. 200-3.
Fairs, the great. 01, 110. 137, 193,
341, 381,402, 479.
Farley, Samuel, 298.
Farmer, Rev. Ralph, 202, 274. 282;
Arthur, 206, 294. 310, 321.
Farthings, Bristol, 11-13, 50, 128,
188, 235, 251, 358, 394 ; petitions
to coin, 478.
Fee-farms, the Royal, 92. 231-2, 237,
276, 282, 360 : for Castle, 113, 232 ;
surrendered, 295 ; repurchased,
360.
Fee-farms, corporate, 300.
Feilding, Edwd.. 422, 424, 454.
Fell. Margaret, 301, 851.
Felons, pardons for, 494.
Feltmakers' Company, 26, 376.
Ferry, Temple Back." 283. 251.
Fiennes. Nath., Coyernor. 1i-8, 172,
174, 170, 177, 179 ; his surrender,
180, 205 ; trial. 180.
Fillwood Chase, 61, 302.
Fire on the Bridge, 210 ; others, 248,
342, 358, 303, 404, 430, 456.
Fires, provisions against, 210. 343,
358, 363, 404,4.09; fire engine,
415.
Fish, a strange. 32.

50(1

INDEX.

Fishing sports, civic, 159, 214, 875,
•190.
Kit/.herbcrt, John, 29s.
Flood, great, 82.
"Foreigners," treatment of, 4. 18,
90, 230, 259, 261, 280, 301, 311, 840,
358, 308, 897, 476, 495; persecu
tion abandoned, 490.
Fortifications of citv, 158, 101, 168,
176, 190, 197: destroyed. 217; re
paired, 220, 225, 233.
Foster's Almshouse, 40.
Founder, first local, 201.
Fox, George, visits of, 259, 851.
Free burgesses, admission of. 31. 40,
55, 230, 280, 289, 315,317,305, 375,
381, 405, 413, 420, 437, 413, 449,
401, 471, 495: deprived of votes,
98.147.118; freedom refused, 375,
420; treatment of non-freemen,
see Foreigners.
Froom, filthiness of the, 213, 492 ;
obstructed, 362; fishing in, 159,
214, 375, 490.
Froom Gate. 105, 172, 179, 388. 400.
Funeral customs, 33, 71, 120, 138,
260, 349, 371.
Gale, Thomas, Postmaster, 443.
Gallows, the, 91.
Gambling licensed, 327.
Gerard, Sir Charles, 97.
Gibbs, Henry, 449.
Gin drinking, rise of, 232, 488.
Glanville, (Sir) John, M.P., 114, 145,
147, 157, 189, 210, 214.
Glass making, 421, 470.
Glass windows, 3, 470.
Glemham, Dean, 309, 337.
Gloucester, siege of, 184.
Gloucestershire during Civil War,
170, 176, 184, 190, 198, 20(5, 213.
Gloucestershire Society, 282, 319.
Glovers' Company, 26.
Goldney, Thomas, 267. 431.
Gonning, Aid. John, 156, 159, 181 ;
John, jun., 169, 181, 207, 208, 262,
310.
Gorges, Sir F., 27. 72, 157.
Cough, Giles, 276, 277: Henry, 426.
Coulstou, Bishop, 390, 405.
Governors of Bristol, see Essex,
Fiennes, Hopton, Prince Rupert,
Skippon, Scrope, Shrewsbury.
Ci-ann uar School, founded, 37; estate
alienated, 38; endow ments, 47,48;
master's salary, 80, 27!) ; masters,
135, 279; regulations, 281; stu
dents at Oxford, 491.

Grandison, Lord, killed, 178; Vis
count, 112.
Grand J urics, factious, 397, 401, 403,
408, 416.
" Great Houses " : St. Peter's, 44, 478,
481; St. Augustine's, 48,74, 157 J
191, 194, 252, 440; at the Bridge,
107, 174, 282, 319, 478, 495; at the
Castle, 258, 207 ; Small Street, 115,
183, 331, 880, 400, 442; Broad
Street, 281; St. James', 850.
Grigge, AVm., 272.
Guard House Passage, 173.
Gunpowder, city store of, 71, 92, 867 ;
monopoly, 92, 119.
Guy, John, M.P., 27, 39, 76, 80, 85.
Guy Fawkes' Day, 81, 445.

Haggett, Col. John, 225, 246, 250,
287 (-), 311.
Hamburg trade monopoly, 852.
Hanham Mills, 469.
Harsnett, Archbishop, visit of, 112.
Hart, (Sir) Richard, M.P., 310, 330,
393, 400, 401, 417, 428, 440, 440,
453, 456, 462, 473, 483, 488 ; Arthur,
455, 458, 488.
Harvests, bad, see Distress.
Hatters, laws respecting, 26, 376.
Haveu Master appointed, 354.
Haviland, Aid., his will, 74.
Hawks, Aid. Whitson's, 5.
Hawksworth, Richard, 453.
Hawley, Sir F. (Lord), 192.
Hayman, Sir William, 427; in
dicted for kidnapping, 485 ; 454.
Haystacks in city, 260, 830.
Hazard, Rev. Mat, 148, 151, 170;
Dorothy, 151, 179, 186.
Hearth Tax imposed, 836.
Hellier, John, 870-2, 406.
Henley Robert, 891, 418.
Henrietta, Queen, visit, 191.
Heroism. Bristol, 81, 99, 268.
Hertford, Marquis of, 157, 178, 183.
High Cross heightened, 125 ; statues,
230, 295, 470 ; redecorated, 489.
Hine, John, obstructive, 447, 480.
Hodges, Anthony, 92 ; Luke, iM.P.,
185,208,211; John, 442.
^Holiday sports forbidden, 254';
school holidays, 284.
Hollidge, James, 490.
Hollister, Denis, 151, 239, 241, 245,
251, 320, 346, 475.
nolloway,Jamos,39l,418; gibbeleil,
423.
Holworlhy, AM. Tt„, 1 18.

507

Hooke, AM. Humphrey, 54, 105, 109,
117, 147, 119, 157, 181, 185, 202,
207, 215, 374 ; (Sir) Hum., M.P.,
302, 305, 814, 321, 884.
Hopkins, John, 15.
Hopton, Sir Ralph (Lord), 183, 184,
Horse Fair, state of, 492.
Horse-racing, 74.
Hot-water houses, 232.
Hot Well, early visitors, 105, 130,
381; road to, 800; pump - room
built, 471.
Hour-glasses in clinrclies, 400.
House construction, 3, 112.
House of Correction, see Bridewell.
Houses, see. Great Houses.
Howell, Bishop, ill-treatment of,
211.
Hucksters, 135, 278.
Huguenots, arrival of, 411, 405;
Mayor's Chapel granted to, 405.
Hurle, Simon, 447, 4-19.
Hutchinson, Samuel, 442.
Hyde, (Sir) Laurence, 23 ; Sir
Nicholas, M.P., 57, 89, 114; Sir
Edw. (Lord Clarendon), 185, 286,
296, 315.

Idiom, west country, 415, 459.
Incontinence, punishment of, 253,
312.
Independents, see Dissenters ; peti
tion of, 218.
Innholders' Company, 25, 124, 347 ;
hall, 72.
Inns and taverns: Guilders, 32, 51,
129; Rose, 152, 172; White f,ion,
270,382, 450; George, 276; Star,
338 ;G< -org,-, 817; Sun,9IH; Three
'I'll ns, 308, 809, 372, 375, 127, I 15 ;
Lamb, 888; Three Cranes, 897;
I lorse Shoe, 3 18, 4 18 ; AV Into Hart ,
418; Bell. 303; Mermaid, 1 18; Vir
gin, 444 ; Dolphin, 493; hours of
closing, 203, 495.
Interest, rate of, 88, J 02, 219.
Ireland, trade with, 1; troops for,
15, 102, 159; Royalist mercenaries
from, 191; food sent to, 102;
vagrants from, 18, 102 ; trade
oppressed, 393, 467, 470, 475; dis
tressed Protestants, 155, 170, 215;
mails to and from, 488.
Iron, smelting works, 8; Cardiff,
92; price of, 129, 881.
Ironside, Bishop, and Dissenters,
355, 801 ; 151.

Jackson, Miles, M.P., 117, 120, 15i
181, 250, 268, 310; Joseph, M:B
J 59, 285, 294, 297, 810, 489
AVilliam, 449, 450.
Jacobites, local, 455, 457, 400, 401
tumults, 402, 470; assassination
plot, 482.
Jacob's Wells, 130, 290.472.
j James I., accession. 18; illegal ex-
i actions, 20, 29, 36, 53, 68, 78, 82,
85 ; grants a charter, 22 ; demands
| a gift, 51 ; his debts to the city,
08; rapacity of courtiers, 01,82.
James II., accession, 427 ; lauded bv
clergy, 399, 428 ; by Jeffreys, 433 ;
his visits, 412, 445 ; arbitrary
acts, 439. 414, 449; his "Indul
gence," 411; purges the Corpora
tion, 440-7; birth of the Pre
tender, 448: collapse of the reign,
419 ; picture of, 427.
James. Thomas, M.P., 20, 27, 29, 53,
63 : Thomas, explorer, 116 ; Alex
ander, 118, 207, 215, 330.
James's, St., Priory estate, 97, 135,
350 : Barton, 350.
James's, St., Church, 287, 385; dis
pute as to Churchyard, 381 ; bone
house, 469.
Jeffreys, Chief Justice, 431-7.
Jessop, Rev. Constance. 212, 229.
John's, St., conduit. 252.
Joiners' Company, 25.
Jones, Charles, 472, 476 : Richard,
474.
Judges, entertainment of, 107, 119,
444; withdrawn. 401: revived,
495: judge insulted. 402.

I Kem. Major Sam., 209, 211.
j Kersey making. 0 I.
I Kcvnsliam, loll, 482.
j Kidnapping practices, 251, 311:
Jeffreys on, 481-0.
j King's Bench prison, 385.
j King's Evil, " touch ing " for, 4 12.
| Kingsweston, 54, 381. 459.
I Kingswood Chase, lost to the Crown,
! 59, 224. 308. 857, 400; area and
lire-tended owners. 01 ; cheiniu.-igi-.
01; grants by Charles II., 302-1 ;
! deer in, 301, 415; rioting, 357:
civic petition for Rangership.
¦1110, 421 ; the colliers, 29, 61 1, 81.
91, 151, 115, 102.
! King Street, Marsh, 237, 317.
I Knight, Aid. George, 205.
| Knight, (Sir) John, I. .MP, 225, 252,

¦508

293, 296, 305, 309, 810, 319, 321,
323-6, 343, 844, 355, 857, 372, 885,
891, 394, 400, 408; death, 422.
Knight, John, sugar refiner, 252 (3),
310, 321, 325, 330, 855.
Knight, (Sir) John, II., M.P, 402,
408, 412, 413, 416, 422, 426, 438,
440, 453, 456, 458, 461 ; his speech
burned by hangman, 466; 467,
472, 473, 476, 483, 488.
Knighthood, fines for refusing, 118.
Knights, local, 302, 312,313,319-20,
313, 386, 400, 408, 427, 443, 460,
480; their claim to prccedonev,
312-15.
Knowles, Rev. John, 2 17, 267.

Lake, Bishop, 428.
Lamprey pies, gift of, 128.
Lancaster, claim of mayor, 39,
Land Tax imposed, 467.
Lane, Richard, 446.
Langton, (Sir) Thomas, 319, 321,
343 C).
Laud, Archbishop, visitation, 127.
Lawford, Aid. John, 372, 135, 447,
453.
Lawford's Gate, statues at. 41 ;
Crown toll at, 61; fortified, 177,
197; stormed, 200; Cage at, 218 ;
growth of district, 300, 807.
Lawrence Hill, reservoir, 409.
Leaden Walls, 3.88.
Lead-works, 81, 442.
Leigh Court, Charles II. at, 234.
Lent, observance of, 52. 80, 305.
Leonard's, St., church, 274.
Levant trade monopoly, 65, 332,
351.
Leu-is, AVilliam, 15. 55 : Hugh, 243.
Library, City, founded, 52 ; 273,461.
Licenses, illegal, 102,105; corporate
wine. 272.
Lieutenancy, Lord, 304. 459.
Lighting Regulations, 31, 203, 301 ;
Act, 491.
Limerick, abuses at. 51.
Linen-weaving scheme, 391.
Liverpool, 132, 383.
Lloyd, (Sir) John, 380. 388, 395,
401.
Loans, forced, 99, 108. 189, 338, 313.
Lock, Aid. John, 205, 295.
London, travelling to, 10, 50, 03, 94,
302,491; rapacity of merchants,
105, 112, 152; and see Africa,
Canada, Hamburg, and Levant
Companies; grant to gaols, 385.

Long, Richard, M.P., 149, 157, 181,
207, 215 ; Sir Walter, M.P., 898.
Lottery swindles, 827.

Macclesfield, Earl of, Ld.-Lieul.,
459.
Mansion House, proposed, 281.
Mansions, see Great Houses.
.Markets: Com, 83, 438; Butcher,
40 ; Vegetable, 72 ; St.. Thomas,
311 ; Meal, 109 ; early closing, 40,
495 ; regulations, 805.
Marlborough, great tire at, 212.
Marriage laws, I'urilan, 253.
Marsh, the, a popular resort, -11,
129,359; bowling green, 42,272,
390,490; storm, 312; bull-ring,
480. See Queen Square.
Mary II., picture of, 404 ; Jacobite
insults to, 470.
Mary of Modeua, Queen, 445 ; visit,
440.
Maryleport, St., church, 284.
Matthew, Archbishop, his gift, 52.
Mayors, list of, 497 ; deaths of, 33,
419; insulting the, 41, 57, 82,
202; ejected, 207-8, 440; royal
nominees, 419, 420, 417 ; robes
and chain, 120; hat, 58; salary,
40, 153, 193, 223, 441; pew hang
ings, -lilt ; the Father of Orphans,
5 ; arrested, 378 ; civic desire for
a Lord Mayor, 400.
Maypoles, 101, 293.
Measurer, public, 280.
Measy, Michael, 243.
Meat, price of, 94.
Medical charity, 81.
Members of Parliament: see H,
Aldworth, John Barker, Sir It.
Cann, Sir J. Churchill, Sir R.
Crump, Sir T. Day, J. Doddridge,
J. Doughty, Sir T. Earle, Sir J.
Glanville, J. Guy, Sir R. Hart,
L. Hodges, D. Hollister, Sir H.
Hooke, J. Hopkins, Sir N. Hyde,
M. Jackson, J. Jackson, T. James,
Sir John Knight, I., Sir John
Knight, II., R. Long, Sir AV.
Long, Lord Ossory, Sir G. Snigge ,
J. Stephens, J. Taylor, J. Whit
son, Robt. Yate ; members ex-
- polled, 157, 189, 392; wages of
members, 22, 41, 94, 154, 189, 219,
227, 208, 445, 453, 472.
Men-of-war built, see Ships.
Mercers' Company, 218.
Merchants, local, oppressed by

500

Crown, 180; see Monopolies;
cherish monopolies, 151, 243, 240,
470; foster kidnapping, 254, 484.
See. Slave Trade, white and
negro.
Merchant Venturers' Society: an
chorage dues granted to, 10 ; re
organized, 21; attempted mono
poly by, 44, 77, 143, 806, 808;
Levant t radii, 05, 332, 851 ; granted
new charters, 143, 187, 308, 348 ;
oppressed, sec James I., Charles
I.; losses, 187, 222 ; wharfage dues
granted to, 306, 438; purchase
manor of Clifton, 874 ; treatment
of Quakers, 487 ; see Privateers ;
list of Masters, 500 ; Almshouse,
1 13, 473.
Mermaid's hand and rib, 109.
Merrick, (Sir) AVm., 424, 443, 464.
Aletheglin maker, 381.
Michael's, St., Hill, 400, 467.
Millerd, James, his plans of city,
361, 489.
Ministers' stipends, see. Clergy.
Mint established, 188, 477; appeal
for silver, 478; quantity coined,
478.
Monmouth, Duke of, 319 ; rebellion,
428; Bristol victims, 434.
Monopolies, royal, 1, 53, 71, 72, 119,
121, ill.
Morgan family, of Pill, 111, 123,
ill, 152,236.

.Naturalisation Bill, Protestants',
100.
Nayler, James, fanatic, 259, 200.
Nelhewav, llichard, knave, 210.
Newfoundland colonies, 38, 67,73;
trade to, I 17, 315.
Newgale prison, 83, 45, 370, 881,
107; drinking in, 45; salary of
Keeper, 261; rebuilt, 440.
News letters, cost of, 410.
Newton, Lady, funeral of , 260 ; Sir
John, 303, 357.
Nicholas', St., church, 359; alms
house, 237 ; school, 359.
Nonconformists, see Dissent, Dis
senters.
Norris, Sarah, petition of, 286.
North-west Passage, 116.
North, Roger, 312, 391, 392, 898,
421,428,431, 437; Chief Justice,
387, 390, 424; Sir Dudley, 421,
428.
Norton mansion, see Great Houses.

Noy, (Sir) tWilliam, 113, 114, 125
124.

Okey, Col. John, 199, 288, 291.
Old Jewry, 221.
Old Market, state of, 267, 467.
Olliffe-, Aid. Ralph, 310,369-71, 407,
419. .
Orange, Prince of, see William III.
Organs, church, 129 ; cathedral,
310.
Ormond, Duke of, High Steward,
309, 331, 374; his sherry, 304:
111,491.
Orphans, treatment of, 4.
Ossory, Earl of, M.P, 305, 381:
Earl of, 437.
Owen's charity abused, 40.
Pack Horses, corn carried by, 481.
Palatine, Prince, subscription for
78.
Panics, 233, 452, 483.
Paper making, 342.
Pardons granted to felons, 455.
Parliaments, see Elections, Mem
bers.
Parliament, Long, engages Bristol
ships, 155 ; loans to, 156, 159,
160; ejects Bristol members, 157;
occupies citv, 102, 103, 105.
Paul's, St., cathedral, 125.
Paul, Rev. John. 274, 287.
Paving regulations, 11, 336; Act,
491.
Peine forte el (lure. 63.
Peloijuin family, 405, 487.
Pembroke. Earl's of, High Stewards,
52,05, 97, 135. ,
IViiarth, odd claim of vicar, 99.
Penn, Giles, 00, .187, 293; Sir AVil
liam, 292, 298 (¦¦<), 858; AA'illiam,
•IOD; visits of, 405, 175; marriage
of, 475, and of his son, 470; his
estate iu Bristol, 476.
Pennington, Sir John, 185.
Pennsylvania, Bristol colony iu.
405.
Pcusford, Monmouth at, 430; exc
cutions, 432.
Pepys, Sam., visit of, 348, 3S5.
Pester, John, 309.
Peter's, St., Cross, 487.
Petitioners and Abhorrers, 397. 399,
Philip's, St., out parish, 390; bull
ring, 186; poverty of parish,
¦180.

510

Physicians, local, 125.
Pictures in the Council House:
Lord Burgh ley, 8; Earl of Dor
set, 8; benefactors, 86; Earl of
Pembroke, 97; Charles I., 128;
Lord Weston, 123: Charles II.,
315; James II., 427; AVilliam
til. and Mary, 461.
Piepowder Court, 120.
Figs, wandering, 80, 180.
Pill, abuses at, 111, 123, til, 152,=
230.
Pilots, mutiny of, lilt.
I'in making, 32, 85.
Pine, Henrv, Postmaster, 193.
Pirates, 45,"7S, 91, 105.130,308,373;
expeditions against, 08, 137; a
capture by Bristol youths, 81.
Plague, visitations of, 18, 32, 40,
89, 137, 158, 195, 201, 228, 833, 8-11.
Plaus of city, 248, 801.
Plate, corporate, 54, 201, 295. 305.
-Playactors, 5, 37, 114, 330, 349, 402;
Bristol company. 56.
Player family, 8, 84. 308. -107.
Plots, see. Royalists, Anti-Royalists,
Popish, Rve House, Jacobites.
Poll Tax levied, 388.
Poor, Corporation of the, 479 ;
paralysed, 480, 481 ; purchase the
Mint, 481 ; punishments ordered
by, 481; subscriptions in aid of,
482: results, 482.
Poor Rates, 277, 282, 366 ; in 1696,
480 ; 486.
Poor, treatment of, 32, 64, 84, 100,
249, 394 ; pauper badges, 486.
Pope, John, 310, 322; Michael, 447.
Pope's Nuncio, visit of, 445.
Popham, Alexander, 158, 162, 236,
288.
Popish Plot, 386, 391, 395, 397.
Popley, D., engrosser, 115.
Population of city, 2, 34.
Portcullis at Gates, 58, 211.
Porter, Endymion, 139.
Portishead, manor of, 35, 86 ; rec-
tory, 79; fort, 199,442.
Post House and Office, 135,316, 493.
Postboys, speed of, 340.
Postman, earl}', 56.
Postmaster's salary, -1 13.
Posts to Exeter and Chester, 187.
Pottery, early, -113.
Powell, James, 289, 290. 811.
Powlett, AVm., Recorder, 450, 455,
450, -191.
Pownell, Nicholas. 378.
Poyntz, Sir Robert, 210, 219.

Presbyterians, intoleranco of, 221,
229, 272. See Dissenters.
Prideaux, Edm., Recorder, 210, 486.
Pring, Martin, explorer, 19, 27, 91.
Printing Press in Bristol, 188 ;
established, 471, 474, 479.
Prior's Hill Fort, 162, 177, 178, 197,
201.
Prisage of wines, 30, 87, 97, 135,
370, 191. See Purveyance.
Prisoners of war, 223, 337.
Privateers, Bristol, 45, ill, 98, 109,
.137, 155, 187, 217; hostile, 222,
208.
Prizes captured at sea, 81, 91, 99,
109, 208.
Property, tax on, 362.
Protestants, foreign, 261, 411, 465 ;
Irish, 155, 176, 215.
Prynn, William, 186.
Pugsley, Mrs., 202.
"Purgatory," 481.
Puritanism, rise of, 6; preachers,
145, 148, 151 ; emigration, 147 ;
severe laws of, 221, 254 ; fall of,
298.
Purveyance, grievance of, 20, 29, 36,
48, 50, 57, 63, 82, 107, 134.

Quakers, rise of the, 239 ; eccen
tricities, 240, 256; suspected to
be Papists, 259 ; imprisoned, 300 ;
persecuted, 323-5, 328, 355, 363,
406-8, 411, 425 ; transported, 335 ;
sentenced to death, 408; fleeced,
431 ; holding tithes, 453; chapels,
259 (2), 346 ; workhouse, 485 ;
admitted to freedom, 487.
Quay Pipe, 289, 396.
Quays, extension of, 305, 438.
Queen's Orchard, 375.
Queen El izabeth's Hospital, founded ,
8-10; benefaction, 17; boys re
quired to ivork, 32 ; boys farmed
to the master, 492 ; number in
creased, 232, 289, 474, 493 ; salary
of master, 262, 492; Colston's
gift, 474 ; defrauded by the Cor-
poration, 496.
Queen Square designed, 353, 490.

Raglan Castle taken, 214, 217.
Rainsborough, Colonel, 137, 201.
Rainstorp, Waiter and John, 279.
Ramsay, Lady Mary, 17.
Fawdon, M., tourist, 338.
Reade, Rev. John, 490.

INDEX.

511

Recorders: Thos. Cromwell, 7; T.
Hannain, 11 ; (Sir) G. Snigge, 15 ;
(Sir) L Hyde, 23; (Sir) N. Hyde,
57; (Sir) J. Glanville, 114; E.
Prideaux, 210 ; B. AVhitelock,
235; J. Doddridge, 261; J. Ste
phens, 286; Sir Robert Atkyns,
K.B.,312; Sir J. Churchill, 413 ;
It. North, 428 ; AV. Powlett, 450
(and sec under respective names);
entertainment of, 107, 211, 401,
413.
K-edcliff Gate fortified, 177, 178 ;
ass.
Red Maids School, 104, 131, 262.
Redwood. Robert, 52, 120.
Restoration, the, 291.
Revolution, the, 450, 451.
Riots, 250 ; ' apprentice, 290, 353;
anti-Popery, 439, 451-2.
Roads, state of, 10, 86, 130, 318,
467 ; citizens required to work
on, 11.
Roe, Henry, 262, 298 ; John, Sword-
bearer, -391, 396, 399, 404, 417, 429,
133, 402.
Rogers family, [107, 118 ; Woodes,
191.
Roman Catholics, 359, 438, 440, 445,
452 ; riots, 439, 451-2.
Romsey, John, Town Clerk, 373, 423,
431, 435, 437, 439, 440, 446, 450.
Romsey, Colonel John, 418.
Roval Fort, 182, 190, 194, 195, 197,
203,220; demolished, 257-8; 267.
Rovalisl, plots, 170, 176, 260, 200,
278, 280, 287, 290; risings, 200,
288, 290; quarrels, 188, 185; fines
ou Royalists, 215; Anti-Royalist
plots, '195, 310, 318, 322, 312,'41-S.
Rupert, Prince, .170,171; siege by,
177, 181; Governor, 183; presents
to, 182, 193; his defence against
fairfax, 19(1, 200; surrender, 202,
201; visit, 319.
.Rye House Plot, 418,419.
Ryswick, Peace of, 487.

Sabbatarianism, rise of, 58, 08; ab
surd laws, 251; 267, 337, 390.
Sadleir, Sir Ralph, 374, 489.
Sailors, see Seamen.
Salisbury, Earl of, High Steward,
35.
Salt, price of, 115.
Saltpetre monopoly, 119.
Sandford, Samuel, 469.

Scarlett, Mrs., sentenced to b
burned, 477.
Scavenging regulations, 11, 61, 108
187, 213, 833, 380, 441, 456 ; Act
491.
School, Red Maids, 101, 131, 262
first day, for poor, 250 ; first paro
chial, 359. See. Grammar School,
Queen Eliz. Hospital.
Scotch army at Worcester, 233.
Scrope, Adrian, Governor, 225, 251,
258,271; Thomas, 418, 417.
Seal, Chamberlain's, 395.
Seamen impressed, 242, 331, 838;
killed, 282.
Searehfield, Bishop, 75.
Sedgemoor, fight at, 430; 442.
Sermons, love of, 14, 23, 30, 48, 66,
128, 448.
Servants, complaints as to, 475.
Settlements, law of, 100.
Sham fight, grand, 49.
Shaving on Sundays. 337.
Sheriffs, election of. 46; nominated
by James II., 447 ; a bribed sheriff,
79 ; list of, 497.
Sherman, AM. G., 265, 295.
Shipbuilding, 98, 129.
Ships of war, 91, 101, 155, 161, 247,
330, 340, 349.
Ship Money imposed. 95, 132.
Shipping regulations, 42,218, 253;
impressed, 100.
Shipping trade, depressed. 1; re
vival of, 98; during Civil War,
185, 187 ; in 1667, 345-0.
Shooting match, great, 02.
Shops, glass windows in, 470, 495;
a knightly shopkeeper, 473.
Shrewsbury, Earl of, Governor, 451 ;
155,458."
Sh rovet ide sports, 200, 292, 353, 481.
Sieges of oit\, (1018) 177, 180; con
duct of victors. 181; cost of gar
rison. 182. 190, 192. (1615). 197-
208; state of city after, 2o8, 200.
Skinner, Bishop, 145.
Skippon, General. Governor, 204.
209, 213, 225, 231.
Slave Trade, white, 223, 254, 432,
131, 136. 491; negro, 80S; eulo
gised, 475, 485.
Slavery in Bristol, 344.
Smiths' Company, 20; hall, in,
219(2).
Smvth, Sir Hugh, 20, 01. 71: Sir
Hugh, 323; Sir John, 121.
Smoking, tobacco, 0, .2, 281, 800,
805. 105.

512

INDEX.

Snevd Park, 489.
Snigge, (Sir) George, 15, 20, 22, 23,
36.
Soap-making, 67 ; monopoly, 121.
Social life in 1601, 4 ; (1669) 858.
Soldiers, unruly, 15, 102, 181, 2*8,
437 ; impressed, 91, 144, 148, 462 ;
charges for, 249 ; maimed, 285 ;
panic, 452.
Somerset Rovalists, 158; loau to,
193; 195,197,235; Clubmen, 198.
Southwell, Sir Robert, 381, 423,
460.
Spain, trade with, 1, 51, 95, 315;
children sent to, 51.
Spectacles quarry, 489.
Speed, Thomas, 175, 223, 247, 319,
431.
Sports of the people, 5 ; Book of, 68 ;
sports forbidden, 251, 260, 292;
bull-baiting, -185. See Shrovetide.
Stamford, Earl of, 165, 167.
Standfast, Rev. Rich., 150. 161, 209,
275, 299.
Stapleton, Sir AVm., 428.
Star Chamber, Court, of, 41, 59, 120,
131, 184, 140.
Starch monopoly, 72, 111.
Steep Street, 400.
Stephen's, St., church, 409 ; riugers,
74; cemeteries, 375 ; scavenging,
450 ; poor, 487 ; bone house, 469.
Stephens, Walter, 224 ; John, M.P.,
286, 293, 312 ; Walter, 395, 447.
Stevens, Thomas, his almshouses,
393.
Stewards, Lord High, earl v appoint
ments, 8 ; Earl of Dorset, 8 ; Earl
of Salisbury, 35 ; Earl of Pem
broke, 52 ; Lord AA'eston, 114 ; Earl
of Pembroke, 135 ; Sir Hem v
Vane, 232, 283 ; Dukes of Ormond,
309, 419.
Stocks, punishment by, 45, 254, 267,
347, 481.
Ste'ce House, Stapleton, 197, 216.
Srokes Croft, 66; combats at, 178,
201.
Strangers, see Foreigners.
Streamer, Richard, 310, 325, 372.
Streets, foulness of Ihe, 11, 48, 64,
108, 187, 212, 333, 330, 456, 467.
Street improvement, 388.
Subsidies, royal, 320.
Sugar, price of, 2, 97: presents of,
4 I, 97, 121, 181. 281. 019 ; refineries,
11, 250, 252, 812. 351.
Sunday observance, 08, 337, 303, 396.
See Sabbatarian ism.

Surgeons and the Church, 857.
Swearing, profane, 254.
Swords, wearing of, 825, 452, 470.
Swords, civio, 889, 489.
Swordbearer, his hat, 57.
Swymmer, Aid. Wm., 486, 480, 482.

Tailors' Company, 17, 42, 148.
Tavlor, John, M.P., 157, 158, 181,
189, 205.
Temple Gale fortified, 177, 178,227.
Temple Hospital, 47; Almshouse,
393: Cross, 487.
Temple Street, old house in, 8.
Tenuis courts, 72, 127.
Tewkesbury, burgesses of, 438.
Thatched houses, 8, 336.
Theatre, see Playactors.
Thompson, Rev. John, death in gaol,
370 ; Rev. Rich. (Dean), 398, 399,
428.
Thornborough, Bishop, 30.
Thorne family, 87, 86.
Throckmorton, Sir B., 304, 357.
Thruston, John, 299, 311.
Tilers' Company, 361.
Till Adams, Rev. — , 275.
Tilly's Court, 473.
Timber houses, 3, 142, 361.
Tin-plate making, 426.
Tobacco trade, 80, 116, 144, 152, 345 ;
price of, 6, 80, 142, 405.
Tobacco, English, 116, 141, 245, 251,
266, 317, 339.
Tobacco pipes, 6 ; monopoly, 71 ;
taxed, 72 ; Pipemakers' Company,
239. See Smoking.
Tobacconists (smokers), 83.
Tolzeys, the, 55, 01, 275; time-piece
for, 495.
Tower Harritz, 101, 177, 219.
Towgood, Rev. Rich. (Dean), 156,
161, 170, 209, 299.
Town dues, exemptions from, 39,
438. See Anchorage, Wharfage
dues.
Trade, decay of local, 1, 80 ; great
revival, 98 ; development, 305, 334,
438.
Trained bands, 16, 49, 70, 115, 192,
196, 220, 261, 289, 364, 429, 451.
Tramps, punishment of, 481.
Translators, trade of, 304.
Transportation of felons, 432, 434,
455, 494.
Travelling, excuses, 16, 03, 80, 91,
302, 359; slow rate of, 302, 340,
420.

INDEX.

&13

Trelawny, Bishop, 428, 429, 440,
444, 450, 452, 464; Colonel, 487,
452.
Trumpeters, city, 865, 490.
Turkey trade, see Levant Co.
Turkish pirates, 68, 81, 91, 105, 186,
868, 378, 421.
Tyley, Jos,, 896 ; Thos,, 418, 429,
433.
Tyndall, Onesiphorus, 415.

Vagrancy, treatment of, 13, 481 ;
prevalence of, 475.
Vane, Sir II., High Steward, 232,
283 285.
Vickris, Richard, 52, 184, 208, 231 ;
Robert, 272, 310, 311, 321 ; Richard,
condemned to death, 408.
Virginia Company, 27 ; trade, 334,
345-6, 428.
Visitors, distinguished: Charles I.,
183; Charles II., 194, 234, 319;
James II., 319, 442, 445 ; William
III. ,459; Queens — Anne, 48; Hen
rietta, 191; Catherine, 319, 380;
Mary of Modena, 446. Oliver
Cromwell, 225; Richard Crom
well, 280; Duke of Ormond, 331,
374 ; Marquis of Worcester, Duke
of Beaufort, 366, 405, 412, 429,
451 ; Duchess of Monmouth, 349 ;
Earl of Arundel, 70, 115 ; Arch
bishop Laud, 127 ; Archbishop
Harsnett, 111 ; Earl of Denbigh,
93 ; Earl of Shrewsbury, 451 ;
Countess of Castlcmaine, ,367; M.
Raw.lou, 338 ; John Evelyn, 250 ;
Sam. Pepys, 318; AVilliam Penn,
405, 475;' George Pox, 259, 351;
Papal Nuncio, 445; M. Jorevin,
359; Sir Henry Vane, 232; Sir
John Guest, 451; Norwich tour
ists, 129.
Volunteers, Bristol, 93, 129, 383,
390.

Wade, Nathaniel, 398, 418, 429. 432,
433, 417-8, 450, 480.
Wages, rate of, 2, 125, 310.
Waits, the city, 35, Iii, 219, 441.
Waller, Sir William, 177, 370.
Wallis, Ezekiel, 182, 207, 215;
Oliver, 232 ; Sam., 480, 482, 483.
Walls, the old city, 237, 270, 359,
307. 171 ; see Fortifications.
War, with Spain, 94, 98, 109;
France, 95, 98, 100, 109, 338;

Holland, 241, 834, 337, 343 ; see
Civil War; losses to commerce,
95, 101, 222, 834, 345(-'). See Pri
vateers.
Warner appointed, 218.
Warren, Matthew, 134.
Washing places, public, 836.
Washington's breach, 178, 199.
Watching regulations, 77, 218, 263,
344, 366, 88-1, 395.
Water Company formed, 468.
Water Fort, 162, 170,201.
Water supply, sec Conduits; foul
ness of, 289, 390.
Waterford, Corporation of, 71.
Weavers' Company, 17, 40.
Weeks, Rev. John, 364, 370.
Westbury burned by Rupert, 197.
West India trade, 334, 350, 428,
484; white slaves for, 223, 254,
432, 434, 436, 494 ; negroes, 475,
485 ; mails from, 487.
Weston, Lord (Earl of Portland),
High Steward, 114, 116, 123, 131.
Weston, North, purchased, 35, 138.
Wharfage dues imposed, 28 ; leased,
306, 438.
Whipping, punishment by, 270-1,
365, 486.
White, Dr. Thomas, his almshouse
and charities, 47, 219; George,
126 ; Sir Thomas, 220.
Whitehall workhouse, 480.
Whitelock, Bulstrode, 106, 235, 245.
White Lodges, 464.
Whitson, John. M.P., 5, 19, 20, 23,
58, 63, 76, 89, 94 ; his boldness in
Parliament, 53; attempted mur
der, 96; death, funeral, and
memoir, 102; his charity school,
101, 131, 202 ; Christopher, 118.
A 'hilsiin Courl, 351.
AVilliam III., letter to the Ma3'or,
451; proclaimed, 158 ; in Bristol,
4:i9; picture of, 461; assassina
tion plot, 482.
Willoughby, John, 310, 312, 335.
Windmill Fort, 102, 170. .See Royal
Fort,
AVindmills, 92, 162, 20-1.
AVine, presents of, see Corporation ;
price of, 94, 123, 375, 444; prisage
of, 36, 87, 97, 135, 376, 491; see
Purveyance ; illegal duties levied,
36, 85, 89, 107, 142, 152 ; licenses,
272.
Winter, Sir John, 187.
AVitchcraft, executions for, 91.
Wood fuel, 29, 24S. Ii t,

514

INDEX.

Worcester, battle of, 233.
Worcester, Marquis of, 864, 873,
il83, 387, 392, 390; splendour of
his bouse, 898 ; entertained, 366,
405, 412 ; created Duke of Beau
fort, 416; -119, 420, 426-9, 480, 487,
430,450,451,459; his son enter
tained, 424.
Wright, Bishop, 8-1, 110, 124.

Wye, navigation of the, 204.
Yate, Robert, 223; Robert, M.P.,
458, 456, 472, 473, 482, 488 («).
Yeamans, Robert, 149, 1B6, 165; his
pilot and execution, 170-5; (Sir)
Robert, 247, 813, 820, 821, 854,
866, 872, 891 ; Richard, 208.

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