Barwick-in-Elmet Parish's Civil War Royalist Soldiers PART 2 Back to the Main Historical Society page
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Barwick-in-Elmet Parish's Civil War Royalist Soldiers
PART 2

JOHN HAGUE, MARTIN HAGUE, GEORGE BOLLONDS & others.


from The Barwicker No.83



JOHN HAGUE

A petition to the Justices of the Peace states that John Haigue served under the command of Sir Phellix Monkton in his own Troop. It cites that he was at "Willowby" and at Pontefract Castle under "Colonell Morris". He received "divers wounds" at both places.

Haigue's date of birth is unknown but we know that he was married to Elizabeth (?) prior to April 1635. He had Edward a son baptised 12 April 1635, John a son baptised 30 April 1637, Marie a daughter baptised 25 May 1639, Alice a daughter baptised 7 November 1641 before the conflict. He went to fight, a mature man with a large young family. One wonders how they managed to live without a regular income. On his return from his service the Haigues had another son, Joseph, born 3 February 1653. His wife died two years later and was buried 17 June 1655. He remarried but we don't know where. The death of his second wife, referred to as "Alice, wife of John Haigue senior" was recorded and she was buried 9 December 1667. There is a record of a John Haigh, pauper, buried 10 August 1707. This is more likely to have been his son, John.

John Haigue's service differs from the others in one respect. He appears to have joined the Royalist cause late for the action at "Willowby" (now known as Willoughby Field) was in July 1648. This was three years after the end of the First Civil War when royalist supporters rose again on behalf of King Charles. On June 1st 1648, Pontefract Castle fell to a local Royalist rising led by Colonel John Morris one of Sir Marmaduke Langdale's officers. The main parliamentary army was busy confronting Scottish troops under the Duke of Hamilton at the time. After a victory over the Scots at Preston, Cromwell and General Lambert came to Pontefract and lay siege to the castle which surrendered in March 1649. However before the siege was started, a detachment of about 1000 men went from Pontefract on a raid into Lincolnshire (described by a Parliamentary Officer, Col. Rossiter, as a "plundering voyage"). After Lincoln, the force appears to have been heading towards Loughborough on the Fosse Way when it encountered a parliamentary force at a place called Willoughby Field and was routed but without many deaths. One of the casualties was John Haigue. We don't know the extent of his wounds but he lists the wounds received at Pontefract second in his appeal for a pension so it is likely that he returned to Pontefract, wounded, but able to continue fighting.

He appears to have got the name of his commander incorrect, for there is no trace of a Sir Phellix Monkton. However there was a "Sir Philip Monckton, Knight, of Caval and Holdroyd in the County of York" who served in the Royalist army under both Charles I and Charles II. He was imprisoned several times, twice banished, and also fined during the Civil War. It is almost certain that he was Haigue's commander.

MARTIN HAGUE

The submission for a pension for Martin Hague tells us that he served under Sir Richard Hutton in his second Company of foot. He was at Atherton, Bradford, Burlington Key, Rotherham, and Tadcaster and he received wounds in his hands, head and body. It would appear that he never left Yorkshire in his active service. Unlike the other parishioner soldiers, he remained in the infantry in the original unit throughout his service. His wounds, in his hands and the upper part of his body, are what you would expect an infantryman to receive from attacking cavalry.

The list of active service which he gave in his submission for a pension is not in chronological order so it is difficult to piece together his service. It would seem that he saw active service in the following sequence:


Late in 1642 Lord Fairfax, the commander of the parliamentary forces in Yorkshire had set about recruiting and training an army. At the end of November, he occupied Tadcaster with 900 men, while his son Sir Thomas Fairfax occupied Wetherby with 300 foot and about 40 horse controlling important crossings over the River Wharfe and he seemed in a strong position to threaten York. However, they were greatly outnumbered by the Earl of Newcastle's royalist army of more than eight thousand men. On 6 December, Newcastle attacked Tadcaster. Short of ammunition and outnumbered, Lord Fairfax was unable to hold the town and fell back to Selby the following day. In spite of this the parliamentary army in Yorkshire remained a threat and the Earl of Newcastle abandoned plans to advance into the Midlands towards the King in Oxford. He fell back to York to consolidate his position, leaving advance garrisons at Pontefract and Newark. His forces were strengthened by the arrival of weapons, munitions and troops sent over from the continent by Queen Henrietta Maria on 2nd February, the Queen herself set sail for Yorkshire with a final convoy of arms and a supply of money for the King's cause.

Martin Hague was in a body of troops sent from York to Bridlington to provide an escort for the queen and the arms and money which she was bringing with her. Initially driven back by storms in the North Sea, the Queen's convoy landed at Bridlington on 22 February, escorted by the Dutch Admiral Tromp. The next day, a squadron of parliamentarian warships bombarded Bridlington, endangering the Queen's life and threatening her supply convoy, until a threat by Admiral Tromp forced the parliamentarian warships to withdraw. The Queen rested for a few days and was then conducted to York, where she arrived on 5 March.

Martin Hague must have been sent from York to Wakefield, for a month later, April 1643, a force left there to attack Rotherham and Sheffield. Although Rotherham offered some resistance, the town was entered by storm and taken on 4th May. A few days later, the troops marched on to attack Sheffield but Martin Hague does not list this in his submission. He may have been injured or else was left in Rotherham as part of a protective garrison.

Within two months, we know that Hague was with the main Yorkshire royalist army at Adwalton Moor, 30 June 1643. On 22 June, the Royalists had stormed and captured the Parliamentarian garrison at Howley Hall between Pontefract and Bradford, then marched on Bradford itself. With provisions for no more than twelve days in an unfortified town, the Fairfaxes were in no position to withstand a siege as they had supplies for only twelve days. On 30 June, the parliamentary army marched out to challenge the advancing 10,000 strong Royalist army, hoping to mount a surprise attack. A delay in the mobilisation of the Parliamentarian army gave Newcastle advance warning and he deployed his troops on the heights of Adwalton Moor, five miles south-west of Bradford. The royalist army won the battle and prepared to attack Bradford the next day. Realising that Bradford was untenable, Lord Fairfax broke out with most of the Parliamentarian army and marched for Hull on the night of 1 July. Sir Thomas Fairfax stayed behind with a small force to cover the withdrawal, then broke out himself two days later accompanied by his wife and daughter and about 50 cavalry troopers. It must be presumed that Martin Hague received serious injuries in the capture of Bradford for that seems to have brought his active service to an end. Had he remained fit it is almost certain that he would have been at Marston Moor a year later which saw the break-up of the Yorkshire royalist army. After that the royalist forces were either garrison troops or cavalry which roamed the north of England trying to harry the ever stronger parliamentary troops.

Sir Richard Hutton was High Sheriff of the West Riding at the outbreak of the war and as such it would have been his duty to call upon the militia of the county to serve their king. With the lord of the manor being a catholic it is almost certain that the order would have been relayed to the able bodied parishioners to take up arms in support of the king. Sir Richard lived at Goldsborough Hall near Knaresborough which he built in about 1625. After the taking of Tadcaster by Sir Thomas Fairfax, Sir Richard issued a warrant against Fairfax naming him as a traitor. On hearing this Parliament impeached Sir Richard for high treason. Sir Richard was killed in a skirmish at Sherburn-in-Elmet 15th October 1645.

There is one entry for him in the parish register:

He never seems to have been married and, assuming that he was about twenty when hostilities broke out, he would have lived until he was about sixty. The specific mention of Barwick in the entry of his burial implies that he came from the township of Barwick rather than from other parts of the parish.

GEORGE BOLLONDS

George Bollonds applied for a pension to the General Sessions of the Peace held at Leeds 15th July 1673 before Henry, Lord Fairfax, John Hennlaye, baronet, William Lowther, knight, and William Hammond, William Lowther and Walter Ellis, Justices of the Peace.

The decision is recorded as:


The petition said



He served initially in the infantry and appears to have been transferred to the cavalry serving in Sir Marmaduke Langdale's Brigade and also under Sir Walter Vavasour. There are a number of unclear aspects about Bolland's service. Hull was besieged first by the king in July 1642 with 3000 infantry and 1000 cavalry. The royalists were driven back by the city's defenders assisted by Sir John Meldrum and 1,500 troops who came by sea to defend the city. At that stage Lindsey was the commander of the royalist infantry. Astley did not come to the support of the king until August 1642 at Nottingham. Astley replaced Lindsey as commander of the royalist infantry on the morning of Edge Hill (October 3rd 1642) and Lindsey was killed at that battle. There is no mention of Edge Hill in Bollands' petition which raises the question as to his presence at the time of Edge Hill - had he been injured at Hull and when did he serve under Astley? Astley was in command of the infantry in the North of England in the previous three years during the Bishops' Wars against the Scots. Was Bolland serving with him at that time?

Under a local commander Sir Walter Vavasour, Bollands fought as a cavalryman at Adwalton Moor (Atherton) on 30th June 1643 and was not wounded for he fought the following day at Bradford and received wounds. A year later he appears to have been assigned to Sir Marmaduke Langdale's Brigade and was recovered sufficiently to fight at Marston Moor (2nd July 1644). Initially the Langdale's cavalry, on the royalist's right flank under Lord Goring, was successful against Sir Thomas Fairfax but came under heavy pressure towards the end of the battle. As with Thomas Cowpland, George Bollands appears to have taken no further part in the civil war, following wounds received in that battle. Langdale took command of the royalist Northern Horse and continued fighting until the end of the Second Civil War.

Captain Thweng may be the same person or, possibly a relation of the same Thomas Thweng who used to celebrate mass at Barnbow, coming disguised as a butcher. He was tried at York for taking part in the Barnbow Plot. Found guilty he was hanged and quartered. The sentence was carried out on 23 October, 1680, at York when Thweng publicly thanked God that for fifteen years he had been able to discharge his priestly functions. Thomas Thweng was described in 1680 as "late of Heworth in the County of York, Clerk,"

The parish registers refer to George Bollands as being "of Barwick". Neither the details of his birth or occupation are known nor when he was married. He does not appear to have any children before 20th October 1655 when his daughter Margaret was baptised. His wife Margarett was buried eleven days after his daughter was baptised. On 7th February 1675 George Bollands was buried.

OTHER COMBATANTS

In the petition for a pension for Martin Prince, Alvary Daniel is listed as a pensioner who had died thereby releasing a pension for the next person waiting on the list. From the testimonies submitted on behalf of the pensioners, we know of two parishioners who served in the royalist cause and were not maimed. Robert Dineley is referred to as Corporall to Sir Richard Hutton in the submission of Martin Hague.

John Prince "Being in the same troup" as Thomas Cowpland, which was Sir Walter Vavasour's Regiment.



HAROLD SMITH


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