Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

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Being in the Minster, I found the cushion which used to be in my seat removed into the next where Sir John Brook was to sit (a person that I, with other deputy lieutenants, had thought fit to disarm in our late search for arms). This person rising at the psalms, I took up the cushion and replaced it in my seat. Service being ended, Sir John asked me if I had the same commission to take his cushion that I had to take his arms. I said I took it as my own, as I should always do when I saw it misplaced; and if he took his being disarmed ill from me, he made choice of an ill place to quarrel in, and that he durst not say those things in any other. The next day I expected to hear from him, he seeming very much disturbed with this treatment; but not sending to me for reparation, the next morning I sent the captain that then commanded a company in York, to tell him that I had stayed some time at home, thinking to hear from him, and believed the reason why I did not to be the character I bore in that city, and did therefore now send to him to tell him, that if he had any resentment either for my taking his cushion or arms, I was ready to give him satisfaction as a private person. He returned me this answer – that he was most concerned at my taking away the cushion, because it did prevent his giving it to me, which he intended, but that for satisfaction he thought what had passed between us did not oblige him to ask it in his circumstances, and he was willing to be quiet. So that the substance of the matter was this, that he was foolishly placed under such circumstances as to own himself offended, but not to see himself righted. I could have been very well content that no occasions of such disputes had offered themselves, but when they do. I have found that the best way to prevent them for the future is not to seem too backward in seeking reparation.

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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

Being in the Minster, I found the cushion which used to be in my seat removed into the next where Sir John Brook was to sit (a person that I, with other deputy lieutenants, had thought fit to disarm in our late search for arms). This person rising at the psalms, I took up the cushion and replaced it in my seat. Service being ended, Sir John asked me if I had the same commission to take his cushion that I had to take his arms. I said I took it as my own, as I should always do when I saw it misplaced; and if he took his being disarmed ill from me, he made choice of an ill place to quarrel in, and that he durst not say those things in any other. The next day I expected to hear from him, he seeming very much disturbed with this treatment; but not sending to me for reparation, the next morning I sent the captain that then commanded a company in York, to tell him that I had stayed some time at home, thinking to hear from him, and believed the reason why I did not to be the character I bore in that city, and did therefore now send to him to tell him, that if he had any resentment either for my taking his cushion or arms, I was ready to give him satisfaction as a private person. He returned me this answer – that he was most concerned at my taking away the cushion, because it did prevent his giving it to me, which he intended, but that for satisfaction he thought what had passed between us did not oblige him to ask it in his circumstances, and he was willing to be quiet. So that the substance of the matter was this, that he was foolishly placed under such circumstances as to own himself offended, but not to see himself righted. I could have been very well content that no occasions of such disputes had offered themselves, but when they do. I have found that the best way to prevent them for the future is not to seem too backward in seeking reparation.

369 words.

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• Duel (4) ·
• Reresby, John (1634-89) (23), Thrybergh-born, politician and diarist, governor of York 1682-88, 2nd baronet ·
• 📌York Minster (27) ·
• 📌York (164) ·

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