A HISTORY OF RUTLAND Greenham and Whitwell Manors, part of Sir George Benyon's estate, and threatened to distrain a tenant if he paid rent to the new owner — a pro- ceeding which was peremptorily forbidden in a letter from London.^'" Lastly, in 1653, the conduct of Colonel Waite, who in 1650 bought the manor of Hambleton from the county commissioners, forced the tenants and inhabitants, who 'were unwilling to remedy themselves by tumultuous means,' to petition the Council of State for relief Waite, they complained, besides lessening their farms, forcing them to inclose their pastures, in- closing water springs, turning the brook, and prohibiting the reaping of corn sown by his consent unless loj. per acre was paid to him, refused to renew their leases except at double rents, and threatened to pull down the tenants' houses as they fell in ; and thus, concludes the petition, ' 80 families of tenants would be undone and 30 families of labourers out of work.' On the appointment of a committee by Parliament — to whom the Council referred the matter — Waite offered an agreement, which was accepted for the sake of peace ; but his prompt repudiation of it directly after the dissolution of the Rump by Cromwell necessitated the appointment in April 1654 of Sir Thomas Hartopp and Major Edward Horseman as arbitrators, and William Shield as umpire, with orders to finish the business within eighteen days.^" To the small assembly known as ' Barebone's Parliament ' Rutland sent one representative, Edward Horseman. It was the only county whose representation was unaffected by the Parliamentary reforms of the ' Instru- ment of Government ' in 1653, and to the Parliament of 1654 Horseman was returned with William Shield, while the members in 1656 were Shield and Abel Barker. ^'^ On Cromwell's division of the kingdom in 1655 into districts under major-generals, Rutland, in conjunction with the counties of Northampton, Bedford, and Huntingdon, was assigned to William Boteler, who, two years later, was also made major of the Protector's old regiment of Ironsides. ^^* The complaints made against Boteler in Richard Cromwell's Parliament for his arbitrary conduct during his administration of these counties were so loud that a committee was appointed to draw up an impeachment against him.'*' Some indication of its arbitrary character is to be found in the fact that he not only advised Thurloe, on 16 November 1655, ^^ ^^ ^^^^ choice of a sheriff for Rutland — ' propounding ' Christopher Browne of Tolethorpe or Benjamin Norton of TinwelP^* — but also informed him, on 16 February 1656 that he had prepared a list of jurors in each of the counties within his charge, the acceptance of which he expected ' easily to procure with the sheriffs.' '^^ In November 1655 he reported to Thurloe the capture, in Rockingham Forest, of Edward Anderton, of Dene, Northamptonshire, on his way to Charles Upton, a ' recusant ' of Dry Stoke, in Rutland.* Nothing more damaging was, however, found on Anderton — who proved to be 'one of those priests who wander up and down from one catholic's house to another ' — than some catechisms, an Agnus Dei, beads, and a medal of the Virgin ; and "" Cal. of Com. for Compounding, 612, 613 (7 and 14 Oct. 1652). "' Cal. S.P. Dam. 1653-4, P- 33° ; ibid- 1654, pp. 27, 83. Cobbett, Par/. Hist, iii, 1408, 1419, 1430, 1481. '" Thurloe Pap. iv, II7 ; cf. iii, 50. "* C. H. Firth, 'The Later History of the Ironsides,' Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc. (new ser.), xv, 17. ^ Commons' Joum. wu, 6t,6. ^^ Ikurloe Pap,h, zo-j. '" Ibid. 541. "' Ibid. 247. 198
