rapidly by floods; a few days' heavy rain during the siege made communication between the two banks impossible except by the bridge which the townsmen had fortified. The Irk had four bridges over it between Red Bank and its junction with the Irwell. Salford consisted of three streets, the names of Sergeant Street (Chapel Street), Back Salford, and Gravel Lane being as old as this period. Trinity Chapel, at the end of Salford Street, had been erected by Humphrey Booth in 1634.3 The two parties were evenly divided in the country round Manchester at the opening of the war. The Hundreds of Blackburn and Salford stood mainly for the Parliament, and the district round Bolton was named 'the Geneva of the North' for its Presbyterian sympathies, but many among the local families, as the Mosleys, Traffords, and Radcliffes of Ordsall, were Royalist. The loyal house of Derby, whose real head at this time was Lord Strange, eldest son of the sixth earl, possessed much influence all over the county, and had held for generations the office of Lord Lieutenant. In Manchester itself there were a good many people of Royalist sympathies; but the bulk of the townspeople were opposed to the King, and round Manchester there was a whole circle of Parliamentarian families. The Radcliffes of Radcliffe Hall, the Birches of Birch, Hollands of Denton, Hydes of Denton, Ashtons of Ashton and Middleton, and Worsleys of Platt, were perhaps the most important. Manchester in 1642 was the only place in South Lancashire, not in Royalist hands, which was capable of defence, though before the war unwalled and without fortifications of any kind. Its importance was realised by the local Parliamentarian leaders. As the relations of King and Parliament grew more strained and war became certain, each of the opposing forces in Lancashire attempted to secure itself by the possession of magazines. Preston was seized for the Crown by Mr. Ffarington of Werden, and Lord Strange occupied Liver "The original tower was square. Early in the eighteenth century a steeple was added. The church was rebuilt in its present form about 1752. (Everett, p. 88.) There is a useful account of the chief families of the district in Dr. Halley's Lancashire Puritanism and Nonconformity, i. 289–295. 5 pool; he also obtained possession of Bury, but he was anticipated at Manchester, and during the summer of 1642 the militia there was diligently drilled. It was owing to this fact that it was the scene, on July 15, 1642, of a skirmish between the opposing forces, which is usually said to have brought about the first bloodshed of the war. Lord Strange, having been at Bury, was invited to a banquet by his adherents in Manchester; and the militia, led by Captain Birch and Captain Holcroft, took the opportunity of making a hostile demonstration by passing through the streets with loaded muskets. Sir John Girlington, sheriff of the county, attempted to disperse them, and the Royalists asserted that Captain Birch ordered his men to fire, but that the rain put out their matches. There seems to have been no serious fighting, and only one man was killed; but Lord Strange was several times in danger, and he did not spend the night in the town, but with Sir Alexander Radcliffe' at Ordsall Hall, about two miles from the town. The townsmen thought that they had good reason to fear the designs of the head of the Royalist party, and during the next few months were carefully on the watch. On September 16, 1642, Lord Strange's impeachment was ordered to be published by the House of Commons, but before this his opponents had taken action in Lancashire. A meeting of the local Parliamentarian leaders was held, and they decided to place Manchester in a position to withstand the attack which it was feared would be made upon it. One John Rosworm, a German military engineer who had seen service on the Continent and in Ireland, had settled in Manchester in the spring of 1642. He was now engaged to defend the town during six months for the sum Captain (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel) Holcroft was head of the family of Holcroft of Holcroft. There were junior branches at Hurst, and at Vale Royal in Cheshire. Civil War Tracts of Lancashire, pp. 32–33 (Chetham Soc.). This collection includes reprints of the chief contemporary authorities for the present article. Rosworm's Good Service is also given in full in Palmer's Siege of Manchester (1822). 'Sir Alexander Radcliffe of Ordsall, son of Sir John Radcliffe and kinsman of the Earl of Sussex, belonged to a different family from Richard Radcliffe of Radcliffe Hall, Poolfold, Parliamentary captain and sergeant-major. The affray at Manchester on July 15 was the chief item of the impeachment (C. W. T. p. 36). of 301., guaranteed by twenty-two gentlemen, at whose head was Robert Heyrick, warden of Manchester and first cousin to Robert Herrick the poet. Next day Rosworm received a present of 150l. from Lord Strange and an invitation to Lathom House, but he honestly returned the money. The German seems to have been a capable if somewhat calculating officer; it is his misfortune that we hear of his achievements chiefly from himself, in petitions to Parliament about the stinginess of his employers; but he served the town well, and deserved of it a good deal better than he received. Rosworm began at once to make Manchester defensible, but the work went on slowly until it received an unexpected impetus; for, the Cheshire Royalist landowners beginning to disarm their Parliamentary tenants, the Puritan party in and round Manchester rose in arms and overpowered the resistance which the Royalists had hitherto made. Rosworm says that these far outnumbered his party in the town, but this must be an exaggeration. The defences consisted merely of mud walls hastily thrown up at the exposed street-ends, at Deansgate, Market Stead Lane, and probably the Millgate and Withy Grove, in order to check the enemy's horse. The bridge, which Rosworm calls the 'onely place of manifest danger,'' was secured by posts and chains, but its slope made it difficult of attack from the Salford end, and it was moreover commanded from the higher ground of the churchyard. None of the fortifications survived for any length of time; it is probably to their demolition that Hollingworth refers in 1652.10 At the end of September (1642) it was reported in Manchester that Lord Strange definitely intended to undertake a siege, and he was soon known to be at Warrington with a considerable force. The Parliamentarian estimates gave from 3,000 to 4,000 foot, besides cavalry and ordnance, but probably the siege was formed by not more than 2,000 or 2,200 men. The Perfect Diurnall gives 2,000 foot, "Rosworm's Good Service, C.W.T. p. 221. 10 The town dismantelled, the walls throwne downe, the gates sould or carried away' (Mancuniensis, p. 124). The defences were considerably strengthened after the siege. No gates are mentioned in 1642. 300 horse, and six pieces of ordnance, and these numbers seem more reasonable. There are said to have been 1,000 men fully equipped within the town; they included 150 tenants of Mr. Richard Assheton of Middleton in compleat arms, under the command of Captain Bradshaw.' The forces were disposed beforehand in readiness for the attack. Rosworm commanded at the bridge, Captain Bradshaw at the end of Deansgate, and Captain Richard Radcliffe in Market Stead Lane, which was the nearest position to his own house. Captain Booth was posted in Millgate, and Shudehill was held by a 'company of resolute soldiers without any commander.'" By Saturday evening (September 24) all preparations were complete. It was, perhaps, early on the same day that the Royalist army left Warrington. Lord Strange was in chief command, and with him were Sir John Girlington, Sheriff of Lancashire, Sir Alexander Radcliffe of Ordsall, Mr. Tyldesley (afterwards Sir Thomas Tyldesley) of Myerscough, Sir Gilbert Hoghton, Captain Standish of Duxbury 12 (whose father was a Parliamentarian), and other prominent Royalists. Their route is nowhere exactly described, but part of their force came through Cheshire and part on the other or northern side of the Irwell. The latter was the more direct route, and this no doubt made Rosworm judge that the chief attack would be delivered at Salford Bridge. Salford was entirely Royalist in sympathy, and it might have been expected that the besiegers would occupy it. But Lord Strange himself, and probably Thomas Tyldesley, seem to have marched on Manchester by the other route, and approached the town by the road passing Alport Lodge. "A True and Exact Relation of the Several Passages at the Siege of Manchester &c. 1642 (summarised in C.W.T. p. 333). This is one of three contemporary accounts. The other two are given in full in the Civil War Tracts. 12 The Standishes, of Standish and Duxbury, were descended from Ralph Standish, who was with Walworth, the Mayor of London during Tyler's rebellion in 1381, and himself, according to two contemporary authorities, gave the final blow to Wat. They were mostly Royalists and Roman Catholic, but the head of the younger branch in 1642 was a staunch Puritan, as must have been another member of the Duxbury family the famous Myles Standish of the New Plymouth Settlement. With Lord Strange at Manchester was also Mr. Standish of Standish, either uncle or cousin to Captain Standish of Duxbury.-Halley's Lancashire Puritanism and Nonconformity, i. 279, 280. |