A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE not distinguished for excellence. A correspondent of Sir Dudley Carlton heard in Ross that they compared very unfavourably with the pressed soldiers of Monmouth and Glamorgan. They w^ere described as for the most part a naked, poor-conditioned people of the meanest sort. Though
- ^4oo had been levied on the county, the soldiers w^ere only coated, no money
being forthcoming for their conduct. On their way to Ludlow the soldiers expressed their discontent at the want of fit clothing or diet. When their conductor thought to suppress their murmurings, they fell upon him and hurt him. Many of them also ran away.^^ Further levies were demanded in the following year. On 1 1 June, 1 640, the deputy-lieutenants informed the Lord Lieutenant of the county that after impressing 300 men they had provided them good coats and apparel, and that with the assistance of officers sent down by the Lord General "'"' they had been kept under discipline. They were ready to march on 2 June, when their departure was postponed by the council until 2 or 3 July. As the money assessed was too little for their pay during this interval, they were given leave to return to their habitations till i July, and charged to be ready to return at an hour's warning.'"'* At first the disposition of these troops was good, but the delay in their departure gave time for a change, and before they finally marched away they displayed a mutinous spirit,'^' which gave rise to a skirmish with the inhabitants of Leominster.^^^ Representatives were returned to the Long Parliament from the county, the city, and the boroughs of Leominster and Weobley. The county returned Sir Robert Harley and Fitzwilliam Coningsby, two men destined to take a prominent part in the Civil War on opposite sides. The city sent up Richard Weaver, who died before the outbreak of the war, and Richard Seaborne, a staunch loyalist. One of the representatives of Leominster, Walter Kyrle, was a Parliamentarian ; the other, Sampson Eure, was speaker of the Oxford Parliament in 1644. Weobley returned two royalists.^ In making this analysis, however, it must be remembered that the bulk of the royalist party only began to range itself after the execution of Strafford. On 14 July, 1641, a Bill passed the Commons, which was finally sanctioned by the Lords on 9 May, 1642, to exempt the counties of Salop, Hereford, Worcester, and Gloucester from the jurisdiction of the President and Council of the Marches in Wales. ^'^ So far the proceedings in Parliament were in accordance with opinion in Herefordshire. But when subsequently it proceeded to attack the ritual and constitution of the Church of England, a petition in favour of the established order was drawn up and presented early in 1642 bearing the signatures of 3,600 freeholders and inhabitants, sixty-eight knights, esquires, and gentlemen of quality, and i 50 ministers of good report.'"' In spite of the fact that a petition was presented to the Commons on 4 May, 1642, express- ing approbation of the conduct of Parliament,*"" there can be little doubt that ^ Morgan to Carlton, 30 April, 1639, S.P. Dom. Chas. I, ccccxviii, 95. 3"' The earl of Northumberland. "* S.P. Dom. Chas. I, cccclvi, 69. '^^ jb;j_ cccclix, 86. "^ Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley (Camden Soc), 98. '°' Williams, Here/. Members. * Commons Journ. 28 June, 14, 19, 20 July, 1641 ; Lords Joum. 20, z8 July ; 6, 1 1 Aug., 23 Oct. 1641, 15 Feb., 15, 22 Mar., 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 M.iy, 1642. '^' Printed in Webb, Memorials of the Civil War as it affected Heref. and the adjoining Counties (1879), "> 337-8- "" Commons Journ. 4 May, 1642 ; the petition is printed m Webb, Memorials, ii, 338-9 ; Letters of Lady Brilliana Harley (Camden Soc), Nos. cxlii, cvi (misplaced), cxlix, cl. 386
