tolled for the service, being present at it, and joining in the prayers for James, which mightily encouraged the Highlanders, as it led them to believe, that the whole high church party was theirs, and would instantly join them. Every thing indeed, that could be thought of, was done to conciliate the Highlanders, who now, however reluctantly they had entered England, having partaken of its good cheer, though they had not yet seen the twenty thousand men, that were said to be waiting to join them, appear to have been in pretty good humour. On the fifth, they set out for Kendal, carrying along with them, a Mr. Thomas Wyburgh, a captain of the trainbands, and some others, whom they seized as spies, and carried on to Preston, where they remained prisoners till relieved by the king's troops. On Sabbath, the sixth, they arrived at Kirby Lonsdale, a small market town in Westmoreland, in time to proclaim the pretender, and in the afternoon to go to church, where the indefatigable Mr. Patten again read prayers, the minister of the place having fled.* In the whole march to this town, the last in Westmoreland, though they had traversed two populous counties, only two persons had joined them, one Mr. John Dalston, and a gentleman from Richmond; but being now on the borders of Lancashire, the papists began to join them in great numbers. On the march from Kendal to Lancashire, the whole army was drawn up upon a hill, and lay some time upon their arms, during which time, Charles Widdrington, brother to lord Widdrington, came from Lancashire, (whither he had been sent to inform the gentlemen of that county, of the approach of the insurgents,) with tidings of the great joy which his intelligence had diffused, and that all were ready to support the cause to the utmost. He further informed them, that the chevalier had that very day been proclaimed at Manchester, where the townspeople had got arms at their own proper expense, to equip fifty men, besides numerous volunteers in the service. This had a • Mr. Patten mentions here, a Mr. Guin, who went along with them, and entering into all the churches, scratched the name of king George out of the service book, and placed the pretender's in its place, so neatly, that the erasure was hardly discernible.-History of the Rebellion, p. 87. particular effect upon the spirits of the Highlanders—who, though they were humoured in every thing, were still under some uneasiness on account of the small number that appeared to join them-and giving three huzzas, they resumed with cheerfulness, their march to Lancaster. The notorious colonel Chartres happening to be at this time, along with another officer, in Lancaster, would have blown up the bridge that leads into the town, but was prevented by the inhabitants, who insisted upon the great loss that would accrue to the town from the destruction of so fine a bridge, and to no manner of purpose, as the river was easily forded at low water, and boats could be procured by the rebels to take them over at any time. The probability is, that Lancaster was in the interest of the chevalier, and did not wish to throw any obstructions in his way. The colonel, however, succeeded in having several barrels of gunpowder, lying in the hands of some merchants, thrown into a well, which effectually saved it from falling into the hands of the rebels, the whole body of which, entered the town immediately, marched directly to the market-place, and with sound of trumpet, proclaimed the chevalier, after which, the men were billeted upon the town, "which,” Patten observes, was well able to entertain them.' 66 The same night, a party of horse paid a visit to the house of colonel Chartres, a few miles from Lancaster, where they were reported to have committed great excesses. Patten says, "they did no harm to the house, for they behaved very civily, only they made free with a few bottles of his wine and strong beer.” "If the Scots," he adds, "had been allowed to pay their countryman's house a visit, they would not have scrupled to have set it on fire."* The march of the rebels into Lancashire being certified to the magistrates of Dumfries, the countrymen there assembled, who were paid sixpence each per day, the time they remained, were allowed to return home, all of them promising to return upon twenty-four hours' warning, should there be again occasion for them, and the town was again left to the care of its own inhabitants, with the addition of a few militia from Annandale, * Patten's History of the Rebellion, p. 90. who arrived there only a few days before. The fortifications. however, were still carried on, under the care of lieutenant David Reid, one of the half-pay officers, who caused deepen the trenches, and make the works much stronger than at first, by stockading and palisading the bastions and half-moons, till the news arrived of the total defeat of the rebels at Preston, which put a stop to the work, otherwise the town would soon have been rendered impregnable against a far greater force than the rebels were at any time able to muster.* Lancaster was occupied by the rebels from the seventh of November to the ninth, during which time they seized a quantity of arms which were in the custom-house, some claret, and a large quantity of brandy, which, to encourage and keep up their spirits, was all bestowed upon the Highlandmen, whom it was the great aim of the leaders to sooth and conciliate. They likewise took up all the money belonging to the revenue, which was either in the excise, or custom-house, and a considerable sum that was aboard a ship in the harbour, belonging to Mr. Heysham, a merchant of London, and a member of parliament. Six pieces of cannon, which they found here, they mounted upon new carriages, and carried them along to Preston. They had also prayers read here by Mr. Patten, the minister of the place excusing himself, "though he was not much averse to it, any more than some of his brethren; but he wanted to be sure how the scales would turn, before he committed himself too far." From this town, Mr. Buxton, the Derbyshire clergyman, was sent off with letters for some gentlemen in Derbyshire, where his acquaintance lay; and "it was a lucky errand to him," Mr. Patten remarks, "for by that means, he had the good fortune to escape being taken at Preston. He was a well bred and good humoured gentleman," continues the historian, "but his constitution could not bear the hardships of such an undertaking as this, especially of the long marches in that season of the year. He went to his own country, and there fell ill of the small-pox; but hearing that narrow search was made for him, he was obliged to remove, even in that condition, and has not since been heard of." • Rae's History of the Rebellion, pp. 281, 282. The place of Mr. Buxton was supplied that very day he went off by the notorious William Paul, of St. John's college, Cambridge, clerk, who "came boldly up to Mr. Forster as he sat at dinner with Mr. Patten at the recorder of Lancaster's house, and in a flourishing way made a tender of his service for the cause," which was of course accepted. This gentleman affected to be a walking chronicle for intelligence, and pretended to know all about the movements of the royal armies, particularly of general Carpenter, who appears to have been the only one of his majesty's generals that they had any fears of falling in with. From this source Mr. Forster certified Mr. Patten, that Carpenter was then at Barnard's castle in the bishopric of Durham with his men and horses excessively fatigued; "all which," adds the chagrined historian of his own disappointments, "was true enough, though their being so fatigued did not hinder their march after us." While they waited at Lancaster they had very considerable additions to their numbers, and had they been so prudent as to have continued here, where they could easily have maintained themselves against any force that could have been brought to bear upon them perhaps for months, or had they even placed a garrison in it, they could not have failed to increase still more. Many Lancashire gentlemen with their servants and friends, in the meantime came in to them, but they were all papists, which rendered the Scotish gentlemen and the Highlanders mighty uneasy, for it was the party of the church upon which they had the greatest dependance, and whom they expected to have joined them to a man, but which the access of so many papists rendered every day less probable. "Indeed that party," continues Patten, who himself belonged to it, and was an eyewitness of the greater part of the scenes he has attempted to delineate, "who are never right hearty for the cause, till they are mellow over a bottle, began now to show us their blind side! and that it is their just character, that they do not care for venturing cheir carcasses any further than the tavern! There, indeed, with their high church and Ormond, they would make men believe, who do not know them, that they would encounter the greatest opposition in the world; but after having consulted their pillow, and the fume a little evaporated, it is to be ob served of them that they generally become mighty tame, and are apt to look before they leap, and with the snail, if you touch their houses, they hide their heads, shrink back, and pull in their horns. I have heard Mr. Forster say, he was blustered into this business by such people as these, but that for the time to come he would never believe a drunken tory.' Having now, as they imagined, afforded a fair opportunity for all their friends in this place to come forward, they began to think of advancing, that their friends in other places might have the same privilege. Before departing, however, they relieved some of their partisans who were prisoners here in the castle, particularly the famous Tom Syddal, a mock captain of Manchester, who had been imprisoned for being concerned in the mob in that town, which pulled down a meeting-house, and committed many other acts of violence upon the persons and the property of unoffending individuals. Nor, though they had intelligence daily of troops assembling to oppose them, does it appear to have once occurred to them that this might have been made a place of considerable strength, which, in case of a reverse, with a small garrison would have been of singular service to their interests.+ Warrington bridge and Manchester, where they had assurances of great numbers to join them, and the rich town of Liverpool, which, once in possession of Warrington bridge, they made themselves sure of, seems so completely to have engrossed their attention as to have excluded every other consideration. To take possession of these important places, they evacuated Lancaster on the ninth, taking the route to Preston, which the horse reached that night, but owing to the day being wet, and the roads deep, the foot were left at Garstang, a small market town, half way between Lancaster and Preston, with orders to advance next morning. The horse, on entering Preston, finding that two troops of Stanhope's dragoons, which were quartered there, had withdrawn on their approach, were prodigiously elevated, imagining that not any part of his majesty's forces would dare to look them in the face, an illusion that was very • Patten's History of the Rebellion, pp. 92–94. |