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Barwick-in-Elmet Parish's
Civil War Royalist Soldiers
Part 1. Thomas Cowpland and the Prince family


from The Barwicker No.82

In a previous article, (Barwick-in-Elmet and the Civil War), reference was made to the recent discovery of documents held in the West Yorkshire Archives relating to the payment of pensions to royalist soldiers from the parish who had served in the first part of the Civil War (1642 - 1645). The documents reveal the names and some of the war record and injuries of the following former combatants:
Pensioners:
Thomas Cowpland
Martin Prince
Robert Prince
*George Bollonds
*Alvary Daniel
*John Haigue
*Martin Hague
Serving Attestants from the parish:
*Robert Dineley "Corporall" to Sir Rich: Hutton
John Prince "Being in the same troup" as Thomas Cowpland
* subjects of part 2.

With one exception, they all appear to have served in the Northern Royalist Army which was formed at the start of the war. This article gives all the known details of those listed above.

Thomas Cowpland

The affirmation of service submitted to the county Justices of the Peace to request a pension reveals that Thomas Cowpland served under Sir Richard Hutton in his company of foot at Wakefield, Atherton & Bradford. At the end of 1642 the royalist forces occupied Wakefield and Bradford under Sir William Saville. Presumably, this was the activity to which Cowpland's service record refers. After this action, Cowpland joined the cavalry for he served under Sir Walter Vavasour in his Regiment of Horse at the siege of Kingston upon Hull, Selby, "Bowton" (Bolton), "Bonnoy"(Bury), "Loayonl" (probably Liverpool), "Hassomemoors fight" (probably Marston Moor) where he received wounds, in his thighs, legs and body. His wounds were mainly in his lower limbs which are the type of wounds one would expect of someone mounted on a horse.
Cowpland's birth is unrecorded in the parish registers but he is described in November 1655 as living in the "towne of Barwick" when he married Anne Haigue. The register records him as being a carpenter. The parish records of births at that time are missing but they do record that the Cowplands had a stillborn child buried 11 July 1662, a daughter, Anne, buried 13th July 1662 and another daughter also called Anne buried 30th October 1663. His wife Anne had died some six months before and was buried 20th March 1663. There is no record of Cowpland's death.
Another Barwick pensioner, Martin Hague, is described as in Hutton's second company of foot at some of the same battles and it is quite possible that Cowpland was in the second company as well. The regiment was a local Yorkshire regiment and Sir Richard Hutton was Governor of Knaresborough Castle for four years, MP for Knaresborough in 1625, and High Sheriff of Yorkshire in 1642. At Marston Moor Hutton escaped to York when the Royalists were defeated and was killed in a skirmish at Sherburn on the 15th of October, 1645.
Atherton in Lancashire was the site of a skirmish in 1642 when the area was attacked by Royalists under the command of the Earl of Derby. They were repulsed by 3,000 horse and foot and were chased to Lowton Common where several Royalists were killed and 200 taken prisoner.
From 16 May -1 July 1644 Prince Rupert, the King's nephew, marched for the relief of York from Shrewsbury on 16 May with 6,000 foot and 2,000 horse. His "York March" could not go directly to the siege because he needed to pick up reinforcements along the way and to secure Lancashire for troops which were expected from Ireland. Rupert captured Stockport on 25 May, by-passed the well-fortified town of Manchester and stormed Bolton on 28 May. It must have been at this point that the cavalry in which Cowpland served joined Prince Rupert. Bolton was known for its austere Puritanism. It fell to Prince Rupert after two hours fighting and the Royalists slaughtered the defenders (1,500 were killed and 700 were take prisoner) and sacked the town. At Bury, the army was expanded by 5,000 men the arrival of two forces of cavalry under Lord Goring and Sir Charles Lucas, who both had been part of the Royalist forces in Yorkshire, and a force of raw local infantry under the Earl of Derby. On 6 June, Rupert approached Liverpool. The Parliamentarians held out for five days against intense artillery bombardment and Rupert stormed into Liverpool on 11 June.
Following the securing of the port, Rupert's force crossed the Pennines to York and then to Marston Moor where it was defeated. This battle effectively ended the Royalist domination of Yorkshire. It is quite possible that Marston Moor saw the last of Cowpland's service to the king. While Goring's cavalry was effective at Marston Moor, Sir Charles Lucas's cavalry suffered heavily fighting against the Scottish infantry and it could well be that this was how Cowpland received his wounds.

John Prince

We know nothing about John Prince except that he signed the attestation of Thomas Cowpland with the addendum that he signed as "Being in the same troup". From that we can infer that he was a cavalryman. The fact that he did not apply for a pension (as far as we know) may imply that he was either not wounded or made sufficient recovery that he was not incapable of supporting himself in later life. Can we also conclude that, if this is the case, he was able to serve until at least Marston Moor or later.
The parish register refers to several John Princes in the period before the civil war and some fifty years after. Only one entry seems to apply to the John Prince with whom we are concerned:

marriage of "John Prince of Barwicke in Elmett and Marie Jennisonne of Garfourth" on 20th October 1641.
burial of "William, the sonne of John Prince of Barwicke in Elmett" on 14th September 1641


It would appear that he had no children born in the parish and that he died elsewhere. There is no indication that he is related to the two other Princes who are in this article.

Robert Prince

Robert Prince served under "John Bellasses Regiment of foot in Captain Vouls Company at Edgehill battle also in Captain Thwengs Troop in Sir Walter Vavasour Regiment". He was also at Pontefract Castle in Captain Musgrave's Troop in Sir John Kidmans Regiment "during which time he received divers hurts".
The parish registers record the following:

Margaret Prince wife of Robert Prince of Barwick buried 5th May 1672
Robert Prince of Barwick buried 3rd January 1693

In the submission for a pension in October 1672 it describes him as "now being aged above sixty two years and growne very poore". Thus he was born about 1610 and was over 80 when he died. It makes no mention about him being incapacitated by his wounds. Does this imply that being 62 he was regarded as being too old to earn a living?
He joined the royalist army right at the start of hostilities as an infantryman. The royalist infantry came under heavy cavalry attack from the rear at Edge Hill but he does not appear to have been wounded in that battle. He was in a regiment founded by John Bellasses who was born at Newburgh Grange and baptised in 1614 at nearby Coxwold although he was a roman catholic. He raised six regiments of horse and foot soldiers at his own expense at the outbreak of war. Before that he held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Thirsk between 1640 and 1642. He became a prominent commander in the royalist army and survived the war.
Robert Prince transferred from the infantry to the cavalry at some stage to a troop commanded by a local catholic landowner, Sir Walter Vavasour. It is uncertain whether this regiment was one of those formed by John Bellasses. Sir Walter signed an attestation for Robert Prince in 1672. The submission informs us that while a cavalryman he served under Captain Thweng. We know of a roman catholic, Thomas Thweng (Thwenge or Thwing) who was the son of George Thweng of Kilton Castle, Cleveland and Heworth Hall, Yorkshire, and Anne, the daughter of Sir John Gascoigne, the first baronet. Thomas was born in 1625 and was ordained at Douai, coming to the mission in England in 1665 (see Barwick No. 74). It is possible that it was the same person although he would have been 19 years of age when the war began. He was a catholic in a catholic-led cavalry regiment and was well connected with local catholic families.
At the end of his service, Robert Prince served at Pontefract Castle in a different cavalry regiment. We know little about his service there nor about his commanding officers. Held by royalists, Pontefract castle was besieged by a parliamentarian army from Christmas Day 1644 until 1st March 1645 when fresh royalist forces came to the relief of the garrison in the castle. Just 10 days after the raising of the first siege, the second siege began and lasted until 19th July 1645, the royalist garrison having been starved into submission. In July 1648, Pontefract was recaptured by local Royalists during Second Civil War. The third siege of Pontefract finally ended in March 1649.
While there may have been some cavalry there during the siege, it is more likely that he was there during the actual fighting at Pontefract in March 1645. We can find no trace of a Sir John Kidman who commanded his regiment. There is a reference in parliament in 1647 of a Captain Musgrave being indicted, at the King's-bench Bar, of High Treason. We know of no other Captain Musgrave at that time. He may well have been related to the Musgrave family of Cumberland, among whom Sir Philip Musgrave served the royalist cause and ended as Governor of Carlisle.

Martin Prince

Martin Prince joined the royalist army from the very start of the First Civil War and continued until the surrender of the Royalist forces at Oxford. His appeal lists him as serving under Captain Richard Duvall, his lieutenant William Blisleman (?) and his Corporall, Seth Hosall (?). He was Captain Duvall's Drummer. He was wounded at Edgehill in his hand, wounded at the "Storminge of Bristol" in his shoulder and "wounded againe at Alesforth in a fight with Waller" in his knee "of which he was ever since Lame". His testament said that "he continued in his Majesties service constantly from the beginning and before Edgehill Battle, until the surrendering of Oxford".
There is no record of his birth in the parish registers. There are, however, the following entries:-

Martin Prince & Jane Addison of Barwick married 17th November 1641
John son of Martin Prince of Barwick born last day of June 1656
Martin Prince of Barwick buried 19th May 1694

If he married at twenty or older he would have died in his seventies, a good age for the times. He went away to war, a newly married man, in the very early days of the conflict so presumably didn't hesitate to offer his service. His attestation revealed that all his immediate officers, Captain Udall and Lt. Blitheman(?) were dead and he had to rely upon the word of his corporal. Because of this he had to appear before a panel of local men of rank who judged whether he was truthful in his account of his service. The panel consisted of:

We do not know which regiment Martin Prince served in. Robert Prince, another Barwick pensioner and possibly related to Martin, was at Edge Hill, on October 23, 1642 in Sir John Bellasses' Regiment of Foot and Martin may have been in the same regiment, which was a Yorkshire regiment of foot. As Martin Prince was a drummer at Edge Hill, he would most likely have been an infantryman. Carrying a drum, Martin Prince would have had little opportunity of avoiding the injury to his hand - a wound no doubt intended to stop him from beating his drum.
Nine months after Edge Hill, on 26 July 1643, Martin Prince took part in the "Storming of Bristol". Prince Rupert marched from Oxford with three brigades of foot, two of horse and a formidable train of artillery to join with Sir Ralph Hopton's Cornish army to besiege Bristol. It is likely then that Martin Prince had gone to Oxford after Edge Hill recover. Sir John Bellasses' regiment was in action at Bristol, which makes it a further likelihood that this was Martin's regiment. Bristol was undermanned (just 1,800 defenders) as many of the parliamentary garrison had been sent to the battle of Roundway Down shortly before. Bellasses' Regiment attacked from the north and received heavy casualties including martin Prince. The wall was breached elsewhere and the city was taken.
The fight at Alesforth, was at what is now known as Alresford, which is some 3 miles east of Winchester. The battle is now referred to as the battle of Cheriton. It took place on 29th March 1644. The Earl of Forth, the commander of the royalist forces at Oxford brought troops to boost a force which Lord Hopton (Sir Ralph Hopton before receiving a peerage) had gathered together to advance towards London. Sir William Waller opposed the force at Alresford with superior numbers. The royalist losses were heavy and the Earl of Forth withdrew with what force he could towards Winchester. Martin Prince, wounded, must have been part of this withdrawing force for he appears to have ended his service at Oxford when it surrendered on June 24th 1646. Martin Prince appears to have been the only Barwick royalist soldier, applying for a pension, to have served in the south of England.

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