merit to take this opportunity of stating, that the labour in 1835-40 of ascertaining the resources of the borough, and taking measures for the removal of a long-standing debt, together with the introduction of a variety of other minor measures tending to the general prosperity of the town at an important crisis, is in a principal measure attributable to Paul Anstie, Esq.

1626. One of King Charles's minor expedients for raising money at the commencement of his reign, was a more vigorous mustering and arming of the trained-bands, many persons preferring to pay for grants of exemption. The city of Salisbury was ordered to levy a hundred more men than heretofore. This was in February 1626. (See Hatcher's Salisbury.) The Corporation books of Devizes in like manner testify to extraordinary efforts in the same direction; indicating quite a magazine of arms and armour, kept in the Guildhall. The following is a copy of a document (in the possession of the Rev. Edward Wilton), which has survived the boisterous times which speedily succeeded.

"To the Constables of the Hundred of Potterne and Cannings. 1626.

"These are in his Majesty's name to will and require you forthwith to warn all those within your Hundred to appear before the Deputy-Lieutenants at the Devizes on Tuesday the eighth day of August, who are charged with arrears and do refuse to shew the same or to pay the soldiers their wages after 8d. per diem, such days they are called and exercised, as also those who refuse to contribute their part in private or either towards the wages of those who serve in them or towards the renewing or repairing of armour decayed: as also those who hold themselves overcharged. And to warn all others of ability who are not charged at all to appear then before us. Moreover that you bring with you a true

same.

revenues of the said New Alms- in mind to observe and keep the house, and of the lands to the same belonging; and that the said wardens once every quarter shall publickly read or cause to be read unto the Almspeople these orders in the said Almshouse, to the intent they may be the oftener and better put

The like orders in all points are set down and agreed upon by the said Mayor and his brethren for the poor Almswomen of the Old Almshouse within the said borough, mutatis mutandis."

certificate of such quantities of powder, match, and lead, as you shall find within your Hundred. Hereof fail you not at your peril. Given under our hands the 3rd day of August 1626.

A

"EDWARD HUNgerford, "JOHN DAUNTESEY."

The Civil War.

S this is not a general nor even a county history, we cannot go into the long catalogue of grievances which brought the country into the condition of civil war. If the majority of the wealth and intelligence of the nation declared against the King's measures, we may well be satisfied that they had a legitimate casus belli. The inhabitants of Devizes, following the general rule which prevailed in cities and boroughs, responded to the popular appeal, but were not prepared to make any potent demonstration when the matter came to blows. The late George Bankes Esq., M.P. for Dorset, himself a decided royalist, admits that "Oxford was the only city in England entirely devoted to the King's cause"; while on the Parliament's side, (says a document which Mr. Bankes attributes to one of his ancestors) there appeared, besides some nobility, gentry, and clergy, the greatest part of the commonalty, the corporations, the forts, and the Navy.' History of Corfe Castle. In the House of Lords, Hallam thinks the King had about sixty peers in his party, and that the Parliament could not shew thirty. Constitutional Hist. ii. 171. 7th Edit. To estimate the value of these numbers, we ought also to know the principles at work. Dodd, in his Church History of England iii. 28, declares that no one English gentleman of the Catholic persuasion was in arms for the Parliament, while on the other hand he shews, that out of about five hundred gentleman who fell in Charles's cause, one hundred and

1 The King early sent orders to the Navy to put themselves under Sir John Pennington, but with the exception of four captains whose

ships were immediately brought to, they all declared for the Earl of Warwick, the Parliament's ViceAdmiral.

ninety four were Romanists. Industrious Aubrey, on this as on so many other points, supplies us with an illustration. He gives an amusing account of one of the Earl of Essex's favourite cavalry officers, named Captain Fantum, a Croatian by birth, who spoke thirteen languages and swore that he was shot-proof. He used to say that in Germany the soldiers could render themselves invulnerable by the use of the herb "hardmen". As a Roman catholic would not have been tolerated in the Parliamentary army, he merely admitted that his father was of that persuasion. But his alliance proved worthless, whatever was his creed; and going over, soon after to the King's army, his irregular conduct wrought such scandal even in that irregular camp, that Charles ordered him to be shot. Aubrey's MSS. Protected by the influence of Queen Henrietta Maria, the Catholics were a decidedly powerful faction in Charles's council; and his infantry were, as is well known, largely recruited from Ireland.

Of the clerical incumbents of church livings in Wiltshire, at that period, Mr. Poulett Scrope in his recent article entitled "Wiltshire" in the Quarterly Review 205, gives about sixty to the King. The 350 livings and chapelries (more or less) now appearing on the Church list for this county, do not of course correctly represent the then state of the Church; for, without taking note of chapels subsequently ruinated, the names of lay-impropriators and cathedral officials must necessarily perplex the estimate. They may nevertheless afford us some approximation as to the number of the working clergy, and lead to the inference that the sixty Royalist clergy were but a small minority in the county.

We next turn to the gentry and freeholders. Here, the proportions ranged on opposite sides can never be correctly adjusted. The names of the committees acting in the several counties in the Parliament's behalf, which may be seen in the tenth vol. of the Lords' Journals p. 51, and in other places, seem to indicate that in this respect parties were pretty evenly

balanced. The same Number of the Quarterly Review in which Mr. Scrope's essay on Wilts occurs, has the following remark, "The real practical leaders on both sides in the civil war of Charles were gentry," and "The Court-martial which sentenced to death that most loyal and excellent nobleman James Stanley Earl of Derby comprised some of the best names in Lancashire and Cheshire." "The Historic Peerage" Quarterly Review No. 205. Of the County of Wilts it may in like manner be stated, that of the one hundred and sixty lords and gentlemen sitting on committees or otherwise acting in a public civil capacity under the Commonwealth, the majority are names still in good repute. And yet, names alone cannot always be taken to represent families; for in many instances families were divided. On both sides we discover Bankes, Bennetts, Coopers, Ernles, Estcourts, Eyres, Goddards, Groves, Herberts, Hollis, Hungerfords, Hunts, Leys, Longs, Mannings, Martyns, Nicholas, Raleighs, St. Johns, Wyndhams, and Yerburys. These names belong to Wilts, but the same remark applies more or less to other counties.

THE STAR CHAMBER.

Before the nation sprang to arms, the fortitude of individuals had been sorely tested. Not to mention victims in distant parts of England, Richard Chafin of Meere Esq., was fined in the Star-chamber £500, and an inquisition taken at Hindon to find out and sequester his estate. Hoare's Modern Wilts. Walter Long of Whaddon, for undutiful carriage on the question of tonnage and poundage, was committed to the Tower; and in 1628 tried in the Star-chamber for permitting himself to be returned as a burgess from Bath while holding the office of Sheriff for Wilts. He was sent to the Tower and fined £2000. Jackson's Sheriffs. The wrongs to which Giles Eyre Esq., of Brickworth was subjected for his opposition to Court measures were expressed in such unmeasured terms by the compiler of his monumental epitaph in Whiteparish

Church, that his more prudent executor has caused that part of his tablet to remain a blank. Matcham's Hundred of Frustfield. Oliver St. John's case in the Star-chamber has already been noticed; and every one has heard of Mr. Recorder Sherfield's prosecution in the same court for destroying a painted window at Salisbury. State Trials.

THE LONG PARLIAMENT.

King Charles, who even before he came to the throne had expressed his impatience of parliamentary control, commenced his reign by rapidly dissolving two Parliaments in succession, with the determination that in future he would dispense altogether with their assistance. For an interval of eleven years he adhered to this resolution; till the armed resistance to episcopacy in Scotland and the outcry against ship-money in England compelled him once more to seek supplies in the old constitutional form. A Parliament met on the 5th of April 1640, and was abruptly dissolved in the following month. This was not the way either to overawe the Scots or to conciliate the English: so, another was summoned; and this time a body of men came together whom the King never again had the power to unseat. The Long Parliament met on the 3rd of November 1640. As the members returned to this celebrated Convention are highly suggestive of the state of feeling in the county of Wilts, the entire list is here appended; the letter R indicating those who joined the royalist party in the course of the war.

FOR THE COUNTY. Sir James Thynne, R. Sir Henry Ludlow. BEDWYN. Sir Walter Smith, R. Richard Harding, R.

CALNE. George Lowe, R. Hugh Roger.

CHIPPENHAM. Sir Edward Baynton, Sir Edward Hungerford. CRICKLADE. Robert Jenner, Thomas Hodges.

DEVIZES. Colonel Edward Baynton, Sergeant Robert Nicholas. DOWNTON. Sir Edward Griffith, R. Alexander Thistlethwayte. HEYTESBURY. Thomas Moore, Edward Ashe.

HINDON. Robert Reynolds, R. Thomas Bennet.