Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

They came down into Barker End, a place within a very little way of the church, and they placed their guns directly against the steeple; and they were also in a line with a street called Kirkgate, and would probably therefore have done a great deal of mischief in the town. In the next place a stout, gallant officer, commanding a company of foot, came running down a field, shaded with a hedge, intending to come running into the church, and so cut off the men both in the church and steeple; but the men in the steeple having a full view of their design, ordered a few men to meet them, and give them a charge. And the commander coming first, two of the townsmen met him, and struck him down. He cried out for quarter, and they poor men not knowing the meaning of it, said, “Aye, they would quarter him,” and so killed him. I think they said he was the Earl of Newport, or his son, as I remember; and they sent a trumpeter to request his corpse, which was the next day delivered to them.

Comment

Comment

Just as Bradford quarter is no quarter, so “a Scarborough warning is a Yorkshire idiom now meaning last warning, but originally no warning at all” (Duhig 1991).
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John Hodgson helps us picture the clubmen, a feature of the Civil War, who I naively thought to be men armed simply with clubs:

Sir William Saville, this Lord of Halifax’s father, draws up an army of horse and foot, with two great guns, on a Sabbath-day, in the morning, against Bradford church, the town’s-people that had arms having fled into it to secure themselves. Several neighbours came into Halifax vicarage to the chapels, to crave the assistance of such as were able and willing, that they would afford their help to rescue their poor besieged neighbours who were threatened with nothing less than destruction, viz. burning, disarming, imprisoning, killing, and what not. A good man, one Isaac Baume, comes in haste to Coalley-chapel, and there acquaints the minister, one Mr. Latham, what their condition was at Bradford; and he enlargeth upon it to the congregation, with a great deal of tenderness and affection, so that many of us did put our hands to the plough with much resolution, being well appointed with necessary weapons; and coming down to Bradford kirk, found the enemy ready to make an attempt upon them in the kirk. But we gave them no time: but with a party of club-men, or such as had scythes layed in poles, fell upon their horse on one side, and the musketeers on the houses, that were ready to storm the church, on the other side, and so beat them off; took most of them prisoners that were got into the houses; and had taken their guns, but that we wanted a scattering of horse. We had a sore brush with them, and made an honourable retreat, after an hazardous pursuit (Hodgson 1882).

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Original

When the enemies approached the town, horsemen were sent to Halifax, Bingley, and the small towns about, who presently took the alarm, and came with all speed, and such arms as they had, and stuck close to the inhabitants, and did very good service. The enemies lay at Leeds, Wakefield, and Pontefract Castle, and so were near Bradford. I remember one day [October 1642] they came to a hill called Hunderscliffe, and brought two great guns with them, and planted them directly against the steeple, where we had men with several long guns, that did much execution when they came within our shot; but God so ordered it, that a great snow shower fell just then, and one of the great guns burst, which so disheartened them, that they went away of their own accord.

Another day [18 December] they came down into Barker-end, a place within a very little way of the church, and they placed their guns directly against the steeple; and they were also in a line with a street called Kirk-gate, and would probably therefore have done a great deal of mischief in the town.

In the next place a stout, gallant officer, commanding a company of foot, came running down a field, shaded with a hedge, intending to come running into the church, and so cut off the men both in the church and steeple; but the men in the steeple having a full view of their design, ordered a few men to meet them, and give them a charge. And the commander coming first, two of the townsmen met him, and struck him down. He cried out for quarter [safe conduct], and they poor men not knowing the meaning of it, said, “Aye, they would quarter him,” and so killed [dismembered] him. I think they said he was the Earl of Newport, or his son, as I remember; and they sent a trumpeter to request his corpse, which was the next day delivered to them.

He being now fallen that was their champion, his men that had followed him thither were more easily driven back to the body of their army, which stayed within a little of where their guns were planted. So presently a panic fear fell upon Sir William Savile, their commander, and they did not fire a gun more that I remember; but immediately ran away to Leeds, their den; and the townsmen fell in the rear of them, and some little skirmish was made, and some little work was done, but not much.

429 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• 📌Barkerend (1) ·
• 📌Bingley (10), market town on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal six miles northwest of Bradford in the West Riding ·
• Bradford Cathedral (2) ·
• Bradford quarter (2) ·
• 📌Bradford (72) ·
• Cavalier (17) ·
• Club-man (2), untrained countrymen with bludgeons and the like, sometimes extended by sickles ·
• Dismemberment (2) ·
• Drawn and quartered (1) ·
• English Civil War (1642-1651) (27), a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom ·
• Firearm (15) ·
• First English Civil War (18), August 1642-June 1646 ·
• 📌Halifax (43) ·
• Hanged (1) ·
• Hodgson, John (3) ·
• Joseph Lister (3) ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• 📌Pontefract Castle (6) ·
• Prisoner of war (2) ·
• Pun (2) ·
• Roundhead (20) ·
• Safe conduct (2) ·
• Savile, William (1612-44) (2), 3rd Baronet of Thornhill, MP 1640-2, fought on the Royalist side in the Civil War and was killed in action ·
• Sieges of Bradford (2) ·
• Snow (16) ·
• Trumpet (2) ·
• 📌Undercliffe, West Yorkshire (1) ·
• 📌Wakefield (36), cathedral city on the River Calder in the West Riding/West Yorkshire ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·
• Wool (28) ·

All tags.

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