POLITICAL HISTORY the ecclesiastical question restored the loyalty of the county which the exactions of ship money had shaken. The feeling of the county was expressed in ' A Declaration or Resolution of the Countie of Hereford,' *"' which attacked Parliament with great pungency and bitterness. The Com- mons immediately committed to Newgate two persons who were concerned in publishing it, and endeavoured, though unsuccessfully, to ascertain the author.*"^ According to Richard Baxter, long resident in the counties of Salop and Worcester, and John Corbet of Gloucester, Herefordshire at the out- break of the Civil War was wholly for the king, and a variety of evidence shows that nowhere were the gentry and their dependants more loyally incHned. The attitude of the county was due to the great influence of the older families, who had not been displaced as in many parts of England by new landed proprietors who had made their money in commerce or trade. The greater part of the labourers employed on a farm were servants of the household, dwelling under the same roof and eating at the same board with their masters. The gentry lived and died chiefly among their own people and were related by constant intermarriage.*"^ The county in fact was socially one of the most conservative in the kingdom, and while the gentry had not lost their hold on the yeomanry, they had no sympathy with — hardly, in fact^ any comprehension of — the changes demanded by the parliamentary party. To them the monarchy was still the Tudor monarchy which had restored peace and good government after the insecurity of the fifteenth century, and had removed the danger of Welsh inroads. The Puritan movement had taken little hold on the county, and Laud's report of his visitation in 1637 related more to proceedings against Roman Catholic recusants than against Protestant Nonconformists.*"* The only nobleman residing in the county was John, Viscount Scudamore, whose father. Sir James Scudamore, was knighted at the siege of Cadiz in 1596 with John Rudhall and John Scudamore of Kentchurch, and was the Sir Scudamore of Spenser's ' Faerie Queene.' A friend of the duke of Buckingham, the younger Scudamore was made a baronet on i June, 1620, and Viscount Scudamore of Sligo on i July, 1628. He was heredi- tary High Steward of the city and cathedral of Hereford. His seat was Holme Lacy on the Wye. Both his rank and his personal character marked him as the leader of the royaHsts in the county. Among his staunchest supporters were Henry Coningsby of Hampton Court near Leominster, Sir WiUiam Croft of Croft, Sir Henry Lingen of Sutton Frene, and Sir Walter Pye of the Mynde, These gentry carried the bulk of the county with them.*"' Scudamore's chief opponent was Sir Robert Harley, already mentioned, a man of strong Puritan principles. In the spring of 1 642 he commenced to repair and strengthen the fortifications of his fortress of Brampton Bryan. On 29 August, while in London, he was appointed one of a committee for considering for a speedy defence for the counties of Salop, Hereford, "" Reprinted in Webb, Memorials, ii, 393-4.
- "' Old Pari. Hist, xi, 256, &c.; Commons Journ. 8, 18, 26 July, 16+2 ; Lords Joum. 8, 26 July, 1642.
'" Webb, Memorials, i, 5, 14. «i ^^^j^ ]^g_ ^g^^ ^^^^ ^^^_
- "' Symonds's Diary (Camden Soc), 195-6.
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