Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The high sheriff of the county, with many of the chief of the gentry, came to York to consider which way to take to secure the peace of the county in case of ill news. That night we sat up together till one in the morning, expecting the coming in of the post, which acquainted us at the last of the King’s relapse, and the fears of his physicians that he might not recover. Upon this the sheriff, myself, and all the deputy-lieutenants there present, resolved to do our utmost, should the King die, to obviate all things to the best of our power that should anyways obstruct the Duke of York’s just claim to the Crown; and considering that the safety of the county did most depend upon that of this city (for this they unanimously agreed to), they issued out orders that night for four companies of Sir Thomas Slingsby’s regiment to be raised, and to relieve one another, by way of additional guard to the garrison under my command as governor.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

The high sheriff of the county, with many of the chief of the gentry, came to York to consider which way to take to secure the peace of the county in case of ill news. That night we sat up together till one in the morning, expecting the coming in of the post, which acquainted us at the last of the King’s relapse, and the fears of his physicians that he might not recover. Upon this the sheriff, myself, and all the deputy-lieutenants there present, resolved to do our utmost, should the King die, to obviate all things to the best of our power that should anyways obstruct the Duke of York’s just claim to the Crown; and considering that the safety of the county did most depend upon that of this city (for this they unanimously agreed to), they issued out orders that night for four companies of Sir Thomas Slingsby’s regiment to be raised, and to relieve one another, by way of additional guard to the garrison under my command as governor.

179 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.

• Catholic Church (57) ·
• Charles II (1630-85) (25), King of Scotland 1649-51, King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration until his death ·
• James II (20) ·
• Reresby, John (1634-89) (23), Thrybergh-born, politician and diarist, governor of York 1682-88, 2nd baronet ·
• Sir Thomas Slingsby, 2nd Baronet (2) ·
• 📌York Castle (36) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 5 October 1665: John Reresby finds that Charles II has broken a promise and made someone more generous than him sheriff of Yorkshire
• 21 February 1688: On Shrove-Tuesday, cock-throwing York apprentices break a Catholic window, and the militia intervenes, torturing citizens and violating their civic rights
• 24 June 1687: John Reresby, governor of York, protests James II’s plans to turn his residence into a Catholic school
• 24 April 1688: At Pontefract, the new Catholic and Dissenting members of the judiciary send James II thanks for permitting freedom of conscience, leading him to believe it has popular support
• 2 September 1686: John Reresby describes his organisation of the York garrison
• 17 October 1688: York on the eve of the Glorious Revolution: “an archbishopric without a bishop, a city without a lord mayor, a garrison without a soldier”
• 2 August 1680: William Dolben, perhaps reluctantly, condemns Thomas Thwing to death at York for his part, without co-conspirators, in a fictitious conspiracy – the Popish Plot
• 6 January 1687: Perhaps violating the discriminatory Test Acts, James II replaces Protestant justices of the peace by Catholics in the West Riding
• 7 March 1687: Governor John Reresby records a perjurious witch trial at the York assizes, and the absurd tale of the old woman’s guards
• 15 September 1679: The election at York for the Exclusion Bill Parliament is dissolved to more convenient locations