Читать книгу History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Shropshire [1851] - Samuel Bagshaw - Страница 12

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SHREWSBURY is a market town, and borough corporate and parliamentary, situate 153 miles N.W. of London, 40 miles S. from Chester, 40 miles W. from Lichfield, 44 miles W.N.W. from Birmingham, 53 miles N. from Hereford, 58 miles S. from Liverpool, 109 miles N. from Bristol, and 108 miles S.E. from Holyhead. The town stands nearly in the centre of the county of which it is the capital, and occupies two hills of gentle ascent, which gradually rise from the bed of the river Severn, whose stream gracefully bends its course around three sides of the town; thus forming a peninsula, having a narrow isthmus, not more than three hundred yards across, to the north east. Shrewsbury covers nearly the whole peninsula, excepting a narrow margin of meadow and garden grounds, which runs between the walls and the river. It has gradually extended beyond the boundaries of the river, forming the populous suburbs of Abbey Foregate and Coleham on the east, Frankwell on the west, and Castle Foregate, beyond the neck of the isthmus, stretching towards the north. The bold situation of the town, rising amidst a vast plain, backed with mountains—the frowning castle—the elegant towers and tapering spires of the churches—the noble bridges, and picturesque buildings, produce, altogether, a scene of singular beauty and grandeur. The delightful prospects from every side of the town, over a rich and finely wooded country, adorned by the meanderings of the Severn, are surpassed by none, and equalled but by few other towns of our island.

The streets, in common with those of almost all our old towns, are irregularly disposed, some of them steep and narrow, and indifferently paved. In this respect, however, considerable improvements have been made in some of the principal thoroughfares. Many of the houses have the characteristics of high antiquity impressed upon them; and the domestic architecture of former days, with projecting gables, is often intermixed with that of modern erection, and of elegant appearance. The close wooden-built alley, called a “shutt” in the provincial dialect of the place, is everywhere seen connecting the principal streets with each other. Although the gravelly banks on which the town stands afford a fall in every direction, by which it might easily be kept from filth and damp, yet the peculiarly pleasant situation was for a long period but little regarded. Many important alterations have, however, been made under the provisions of an Act of Parliament obtained in 1821, for removing obstructions, watching, lighting, and the general improvement of the town; the powers of which are vested in trustees, who must be persons occupying property rated at £50 per annum, or worth £2,000. The streets are now lighted with gas, and the town is supplied with an abundance of excellent water. Its elevated situation, the natural dryness of the soil, and its pure water, contribute, doubtless, to the salubrity for which it is so remarkable. Speed quaintly observes:—“Wholsom is the aire, delectable and goode, yeelding the springe, and the autumne, seed time and harveste, in a temperate condition, and affoordeth health to the inhabitants in all seasons of the yeere.” The ancient Britons gave the place the name of Pengwern, the Saxons, Scrobbes-byrig; both of which imply a fenced eminence planted with shrubs. The poet and antiquary, Leland, thus beautifully accounts for its name:—

Built on a hill, fair Salop greets the eye,

While Severn forms a crescent gliding by;

Two bridges cross the navigable stream,

And British alders gave the town a name.

At the census in 1801, the borough of Shrewsbury contained a population of 14,739 souls. In 1841 there were 18,285 souls; of whom 8,444 were males, and 9,841 females. Of the former, 3,589, and of the latter, 3,803 were under the age of twenty years. Of the entire population, 14,341 persons were born in this county, and 3,944 elsewhere. At the same period, there were 3,727 inhabited houses, 342 uninhabited, and 23 building.

Shrewsbury is supposed to have been built by the Britons, between the years 520 and 594, as a refuge from the Saxons, who levelled their ancient fortress of Wroxeter with the ground, and forced them to retreat beyond the Severn; which river then became the boundary of the kingdom of Mercia, the most considerable of all the kingdoms of the Heptarchy. On this subject, the celebrated historians of Shrewsbury, Messrs. Owen and Blakeway, observe: We conceive that our town was built after the Saxon invasion; but that it owed its foundation to the Britons. We cannot claim any pretensions to the dignity of a Roman station. No vestige of that imperial people has ever been discovered within its circuit. But a few miles lower down the river, at the present village of Wroxeter, was the flourishing town of Uriconium; and here, doubtless, after the Romans had finally withdrawn their forces from the island, the Britons continued to occupy the seats deserted by their ancient masters, until they were driven from them by superior force, to the time of which we may approximate within no very wide range of years. We are in possession of the valuable poems of Llywarc Hên,—valuable, notwithstanding their great obscurity, for the few rays of light which they scatter over the darkest period of our history. He was a prince of the Cambrian Britons; who, pressed by the Northumbrian Saxon, retired towards the end of the sixth century to his countrymen in Powis, among whom he is said to have protracted his life to the unusual extent of 145 years, deriving thence the epithet of hen or the old. His writings contain several proofs of his acquaintance with the district now called Shropshire. Its streams, Severn, and Morlas, and Tern; its mountains, Digoll, Nescliff, and Digon; its towns, Baschurch, Ercall, Hodnet, all appear in his poems. And when he speaks also of Pengwern, and when it is known that this was the Welsh name for Shrewsbury, we need not doubt that he designed by that to mark our town, and consequently that it had then arisen.

At the time the Britons abandoned Wroxeter, the situation of Pengwern was one of eminent natural strength. We must not estimate the degree of protection imparted to the place by the Severn from our ideas by the condition of the river in the present advanced state of cultivation. Whenever any country is thinly inhabited, trees and shrubs spring up in the uncultivated fields, and, spreading by degrees, form large forests, which, confining the exhalations of the soil and obstructing the course of streams, cause the rivers to overflow and stagnate into lakes and marshes. The Severn, on the eastern side of Shrewsbury, formerly ran in five channels, and spread into a marshy lake from the foot of Wyle Cop as far as the site of the Abbey. Thus the fugitives were protected by the deep bed of the river, its sinuous windings, and the morasses of its banks, where they might shroud themselves in the underwood which hid the foot, and the thickets which crowned the summit of the lofty and peninsular knoll now covered by the capital of Shropshire. How long the fugitives remained in possession of their new seat it is vain to enquire. But they were followed hither by the Saxons, who reduced the place to ashes, and the elegy of Llywarc calls upon the maidens of Pengwern “To quit their dwellings, and behold the habitation of Cynddylan, the royal palace of Pengwern, wrapped in flames.”

The importance of the peninsular situation of Pengwern could not long remain without an occupant; and a few years after its destruction under Cynddylan, we find it inhabited by a king of Powis, the capital of his kingdom, and even ranking among the twenty-eight cities of Britain. The kingdom of Powis at this time comprised the south-western parts of the counties of Cheshire, Flint, and Denbigh, the whole of Montgomeryshire, with portions of the counties of Radnor, Brecon, and the adjoining parts of Shropshire, as far as the river Severn. Of the state of the town, under its native princes, we possess no information. The arts of civil life, which the Britons had cultivated under their Roman masters, had totally disappeared in the course of three centuries of uninterrupted warfare. A ditch, or a rude rampart of unhewn logs, inclosing a few hovels for the residence of the prince and the offices of religion, some wattled huts, with a fold or two for sheep and cattle, probably composed the whole of Pengwern Powis. On the invasion of the Saxons, the new possessors gave it the appellation of Scrobbes-byrig—a fenced eminence, but overgrown with shrubs.

King Ethelred, in the year 1006, kept his court at Shrewsbury; and in 1016 the inhabitants revolted to the Danish chief, Canute. They were afterwards compelled to return to their allegiance, and were severely punished for their defection by Prince Edmund, son of Ethelred. Alphelm, a prince of the blood, having been invited by Edric, duke of Mercia, and son-in-law to Ethelred, to a banquet at Shrewsbury, and afterwards to a hunting party, was treacherously murdered during the chase by one Godwin, a butcher of the town, whom Edric had hired for the purpose. This circumstance probably gave rise to a custom prevalent during the reign of Edward the Confessor, of twelve of the principal persons keeping guard over the king’s person when he came down to Shrewsbury, and the same number attending him whenever he went out a hunting. In this reign Shrewsbury had two hundred and fifty-two houses, besides the mint, which was under the direction of three officers, who were compelled to pay into the royal treasury twenty shillings at the end of every fifteen days, while the money was current. After the Norman conquest, Owen Gwynedd, Prince of Wales, laid siege to Shrewsbury; but William the Conqueror, who had just returned from a visit to his native country, in order to quell the rising tumults which everywhere began to threaten his British dominions, soon raised the siege, and punished the English chiefs, while he took ample vengeance on the Welsh. In this reign, Roger de Montgomery, the relation and favourite of the Conqueror, was created Earl of Shrewsbury, Arundle, and Chichester, and had a grant of nearly the whole of the county of Shropshire, besides a hundred and fifty manors or lordships in other parts of the kingdom. In one of the deeds transferring these manorial grants, Roger styles himself Rogerius, Dei gratia, Scrobesburiensis Comes—Roger, by the grace of God, Earl of Shrewsbury.

At the Doomsday survey, 1086, Shrewsbury is styled a city, and the Abbey is said to have been founded where the parish church of the city stood. This book also contains a summary of several municipal laws, customs, and usages, for the internal regulation of the place, and for increasing the king’s revenues. The amount of taxes at this period was £20, of which the king had two-thirds and the sheriff one, Hugh de Montgomery, who had succeeded his father Roger in the earldom of Shrewsbury, having been shot by an arrow from the skilful hand of Magnus, King of Norway, was succeeded by his brother, Robert de Belesme. Earl Robert united with the party who opposed the pretensions of Prince Henry, son of William Rufus, and espoused the claims of Robert, Duke of Normandy. He afterwards broke out into open rebellion, strengthened his castles in Shropshire, and at Shrewsbury built and fortified a flank wall, from each side of the castle across the isthmus, down to the side of the Severn. Upon this, the earl was publicly declared a traitor, and King Henry marched against him with a considerable force. The surrender of Bridgnorth to Henry induced the earl to quit Shrewsbury, and to commit its defence to three generals and eighty soldiers hired expressly for the purpose. With the assistance of a few Welsh, with whom he had made peace, he frequently disturbed the royal forces, till, being much harassed, he was compelled to return to Shrewsbury. Soon afterwards, the town was surrounded with an army of 60,000 men; and Robert de Belesme had scarcely seated himself in the castle, when the king demanded the immediate surrender of the place, threatening, in case of refusal, in three days to besiege the town, and hang every one found in the castle. The earl, perceiving that he had no forces to withstand the attack of the king, confessed his treason, implored the royal clemency, and sent the keys of the castle by the hands of Ralph, Abbot of Seez, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, which the king accepted, and banished the restless earl to Normandy. The spirit of revenge and ambition, however, rekindled in his breast, and he contrived once more to appear in arms against Henry; but was at length taken prisoner, and ignominously conveyed in chains to England, where he ended a miserable life a close prisoner at Wareham.

In 1139, William Fitz Allan, a powerful baron, was governor of the town and sheriff of the county. During the wars between Stephen and the Empress Maude, this baron espoused the cause of the empress, and with several noblemen opposed the forces of the king. He left the castle, which he had strongly fortified, under the command of a deputy governor, whom he compelled to swear never to deliver his trust to the king. This, however, did not prevent the monarch from taking the castle: after which the king hanged several of the garrison for their contumacy. In 1260 the English army rendezvoused at Shrewsbury, and shortly after the town and castle fell once more into the hands of the rebels. They soon after reverted to their former owners, and the government of the town and castle was conferred by the king on his eldest son Edward. In 1277 the Courts of Exchequer and King’s Bench, during the reign of Edward I., were removed to Shrewsbury, in which place they appear to have been held at least for some months.

David, Prince of Wales, the last of the princes of the ancient Britons, having at length become a prisoner in the hands of Edward, in 1283, was sent in chains to Shrewsbury. A writ having been issued for assembling the parliament on September 30th at this place, for the express purpose of taking into consideration the measures necessary to be adopted with respect to this rebellious prince. This is remarkable, as “the first national convention in which the commons had any share by legal authority.” Twenty cities and towns, Shrewsbury being one, were directed to send two deputies, and every high sheriff to send two knights. The parliament met in the chapter house, or refectory of the abbey, where David was condemned to be drawn about the town at the tail of a horse, then hanged, afterwards quartered, his bowels burnt, his four quarters sent to York, Bristol, Northampton, and Winchester, and his head fixed near that of his brother Llewelyn, on the Tower of London. Thus, with the death of the last of the ancient British princes, commenced a mode of execution, usually exercised on traitors, disgraceful to humanity, and barbarous in its example.

In the 20th of Richard II. the parliament was adjourned from Westminster to Shrewsbury. On the king’s arrival, he gave a sumptuous feast to the peers and commons in the abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. The parliament was held in the Chapter House, and so numerous were the members and their retinues that Speed calls this “THE GREAT PARLIAMENT.” It was certainly an important one. Chester was on this occasion made a principality, and among the articles of accusation afterwards brought against the king by Henry Bolingbroke were the oppressive laws which it enacted. The next account on record relative to this place is the memorable Battle of Shrewsbury; the skirmishing of which began under the walls of the castle gates, but the principal scene of action was at Battlefield. This engagement between Henry IV. and the Earl of Northumberland, fought on the plains and heaths of Battlefield and Albright Hussey, was one of the most important recorded in English history. The origin of the quarrel was a mandate from the monarch to the earl not to ransom his Scottish prisoners taken at Homedon, which that nobleman deemed an infringement of his rights. The jealous policy of Henry in this proceeding, and his ingratitude for the services which raised him to the throne, roused the indignation of Northumberland, and inflamed the high soul of his son, Lord Henry Percy, whose warlike disposition had gained him the characteristic appellation of Hotspur. Thomas, Earl of Worcester, younger brother to Northumberland, participated in their discontents, entered into their views of revenge, and offered his assistance to overthrow the usurper whom they had united to establish. Hotspur, who was the life of the conspiracy, released and made a friend of his valiant rival, Douglas, entered into a correspondence with Glyndwr, and reared the standard of rebellion, around which all his vassals and adherents rallied. He was joined by a powerful army from Scotland, under Earl Douglas and other chiefs, who, impelled by a rooted animosity to the King of England, warmly espoused the cause of the conspirators. Henry, who was apprised of their movements, placed himself at the head of a body of troops, and hurried into Shropshire, having previously ordered his sons, the Prince of Wales and Lord John of Lancaster, and his steady adherent, the Earl of Westmorland, to meet him with reinforcements at Bridgnorth. Aware that every thing depended on celerity of movement, he took possession of Shrewsbury, just as the forces of Lord Percy were preparing to assail it. Owen Glyndwr having mustered a numerous levy of Welshmen at Oswestry, sent off a detachment of 4,000, but, on being apprised of the king’s success, thought proper to suspend the march of his main body. Had the valour of Hotspur been tempered by discretion, he would have paused until the junction of his ally had given him better assurance of success. His army consisted of 14,000 chosen men; but the king’s army is said to have been nearly double that number. Had Glyndwr made good his engagements, the armies would have been about equal. Percy, however, had confidence in his own prowess, and his experience of that of his compeer, Douglas, banished every doubt of victory from his mind. His ardour received a momentary check from the following incident, which strikingly exemplifies the universal superstition of the times:—In preparing for the field, he called for his favourite sword, when he was informed that he had left it at the village of Berwick the preceding night. The name of the place startled him, and heaving a sigh, he exclaimed, “Alas! then, my death is near at hand; for a wizard once told me that I should not live long after I had been at Berwick, which I thought was a town in the north so called. Yet, I will not be cheaply won.”

The abbot of Shrewsbury and one of the clerks of the privy seal, were sent by the King to offer pardon to Hotspur if he would lay down his arms, but to no purpose. Percy completed all his military arrangements, and stationed his troops in a field still called the Hateleys—the royal forces occupying ground immediately opposite. A flourish of trumpets, mingling with the contending shouts of “St. George and victory,” and “Esperance Percy,” was the signal of onset, which was answered by a tremendous discharge of arrows from both sides. The Scots, who were too impatient to fight at a distance, rushed with great fury upon the centre of the royal army, and threw it into disorder; but the King hastening with fresh succour rallied his broken troops and recovered their ground. He frequently exposed himself in the thickest of the battle, which indeed he might the more safely do, since he had diminished the chances of personal danger, by investing several of his knights in regal habiliments. Events soon proved the prudence of the stratagem. Percy sought him in every part of the field, and Douglas with equal impetuosity slew three of these mock-monarchs with his own hand. The fight extended from Berwick westward, to the vicinity of Haughmond Abbey in the east, and continued for three hours with various success. The bravery of the King was nobly seconded by the valour of his son, Prince Henry, who that day performed his noviciate in arms, and gave earnest of the future glory of Agincourt. The Scottish champion, seconded by Hotspur, made another furious attack on the royal station—slew the standard bearer, and came within a sword’s point of the king, who fled for his life. In one of these charges Hotspur was shot through the brain by an arrow, and fell gloriously in the midst of his foes. Shortly after his army gave way on all sides, and a total rout ensued. Douglas fled, and being hotly pursued, he was thrown down from his horse while taking a desperate leap on Haughmond-hill, and seized by the enemy. Phillips, the historian, says, “1,600 royalists were slain, and 3,000 wounded; on the side of Percy 6,000 were killed, among whom were Lord Percy and most of the knights and gentlemen of Cheshire; there fell on that day 2,291 men of note.” Henry having put a period to the slaughter, halted to return thanks on the field of battle, and decreed the erection of a collegiate church at Battlefield. The pious gratitude of the victorious monarch but ill accorded with the punishment he subsequently inflicted on the vanquished. The Earl of Worcester, Sir Theobald Trussel, and Sir Richard Vernon, were executed at the high cross of Shrewsbury, and their heads exposed to public view on London bridge. Hotspur’s body, which was found among the slain, was placed between two mill stones, in the market place, after which it was quartered, and hung on the gates of Shrewsbury, and other places in the kingdom. The King released Douglas without ransom, because he feared the Scots would avenge the death of a man so dear to them, and from similar motives he afterwards accepted the submission of Northumberland.

During the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, which deluged England with blood, almost to the total extinction of her ancient nobility, the town of Shrewsbury espoused the party of the White Rose. In the records of the corporation is preserved a letter from Richard, Duke of York, requesting the burgesses to assist him with men in the enterprise he meditated of removing his rival, Somerset, from power. After his defeat and death at Wakefield, his son Edward, Earl of March, went to Shrewsbury, and obtained in its neighbourhood a powerful levy, which enabled him to revenge his father’s cause, in the great victory of Mortimer’s Cross. He was shortly after proclaimed king. The attachment of the inhabitants, and the great strength of the town, induced him to choose it as the asylum for his queen during the subsequent vicissitudes of the war. Whilst she resided here she had two sons, Richard and George Plantagenet; the latter died young, and the former, with his elder brother, Prince Edward, was, according to history, murdered in the Tower, at the instigation of their uncle, the Protector. On the usurpation of the crown by Richard III. his agent, the Duke of Buckingham, deserted him and fled into Wales, where he took up arms, and endeavoured to excite a general insurrection against the tyrant whom he had formerly served. Being abandoned by his followers, he fled in disguise into Shropshire, and concealed himself in the house of his steward, who, tempted by the price offered for his apprehension, betrayed him to John Mytton, sheriff of the county. He was immediately taken to Shrewsbury, where, by the king’s peremptory order, and without trial, he was executed on a scaffold erected before the High Cross.

The despotisms of Richard soon alienated the hearts of his subjects, and disposed them to receive his rival, the Earl of Richmond, with open arms. That prince, afterwards King Henry VII., landed at Milford Haven in August, 1485, with a force of about 2,000 men. The Welsh, who regarded him as their countryman, flocked to his standard and gave him every assurance of support. Having mustered his army he determined to march for Shrewsbury. On arriving at the Welsh bridge, he found the place in a posture of defence; and on summoning the town he was unexpectedly refused admittance by the head bailiff; a curious conference ensued, of which an account is given in a manuscript belonging to the school library. “The head-bailey Maister Myttoon, being a stout wyse gentilman, on demand being made of entrance, answered, sayinge that he knew no kynge but only kynge Richard, whose lyffetenants he and his fellows were; and before he should entir there, he should go over his belly, meaning thereby, that he should be slayne to the ground, and that he protested vehemently on the othe he had tacken; but on better advice Maister Myttoon permitted the kynge to pass; but to save hys othe, the sayd Myttoon lay along the ground, and his belly upwards, and soe the said erle stepped over hym and saved his othe.” The earl was first proclaimed king on his entrance into Shrewsbury; the inhabitants testifying their joy at his coming, and their vows for his success. He is said to have lodged in a house in the Wyle Cop, three doors below the Lion Inn. In 1488, when quietly established on the throne, he paid a visit to Shrewsbury, in testimony of his gratitude for its services to his cause; and in 1490, he, with his Queen and Prince Arthur, were present at a solemn festival, and attended mass in the collegiate church of St. Chad. Five years after, Henry again visited the town, and was nobly entertained in the castle by the corporation. The spring of the year 1551 was fatally distinguished by the commencement of a dreadful epidemic in this town called the “sweating sickness.”

In the year 1642, the ill-fated Charles I. came hither from Nottingham, at the head of his army, which was here amply reinforced and provisioned. The King was joined by Prince Rupert, Prince Charles, and the Duke of York, and many other noblemen and gentlemen of the neighbouring counties. Charles set up a mint here, at which was coined money for his own use, from the voluntary contributions of plate which were sent by the inhabitants and others. The corporation about this time filed a bill in Chancery against Richard Gibbons, late mayor, and Thomas Challoner, schoolmaster, who kept the keys of the free school chest, to recover the sum of £600, which they had surreptitiously taken from the funds of the charity, and lent to his Majesty. It appears the bill was dismissed without any relief, but it took the right honourable the Commissioners of the Great Seal eleven years before they could decide on its rejection. What, however, of justice was wanting to the plaintiffs in this cause was made up in assurances of thankfulness, and gracious promises by the royal receiver, who had given his note of hand, to refund the money whenever it should be called for. Some time after the king’s arrival he summoned the gentlemen and freeholders of the county, and addressed them in the following terms, on a plot of land called the Soldiers’ Piece, now converted into a race course:—“It is some benefit to me, from the insolence and misfortunes which have driven me about, that they have brought me to so good a part of my kingdom, and so faithful a part of my people. I hope neither you nor I shall repent my coming hither; I will do my part that you may not; and of you I was confident before I came. The residence of an army is not usually pleasant to any place, and mine may carry more fear with it, since it may be thought (being robbed and spoiled of all my own, and such terror used to fright and keep all men from supplying me), I must only live upon the aid and relief of my people. But be not afraid, I would to God my poor subjects suffered no more by the insolence and violence of that army raised against me (though they have made themselves wanton even with plenty), than you shall do by mine. And yet I fear I cannot prevent all disorders; I will do my best; and this I promise you, no man shall be a loser by me, if I can help it. I have sent hither for a mint; I will melt down my own plate, and expose all my land to sale or mortgage, that if it be possible, I may not bring the least pressure upon you. In the meantime, I have summoned you hither to do that for me and yourselves, for the maintenance of your religion, and the law of the land (by which you enjoy all that you have) which other men do against me. Do not suffer so good a cause to be lost, for want of supplying me with that, which will be taken from you by those who pursue me with violence. And whilst these ill men sacrifice their money, plate, and utmost industry to destroy, be you no less liberal to preserve. Assure yourselves, if it please God to bless me with success, I shall remember the assistance that every particular man here gives me to his advantage. However, it will hereafter (how furiously soever the minds of men are now possessed) be honour and comfort to you, that with some charge and trouble to yourselves, you did your part to support your king and preserve the kingdom.” During the king’s residence here he kept his court at the Council House. The Princes Rupert and Morris were stationed with the army, which exercised in the fields near the Hall. The king caused the castle gates to be repaired, pulled down many houses near the castle, and brought the water from the Severn up to the gate, by means of a draw bridge. He also built a strong fort at the upper end of Frankwell, in which he planted cannon.

Sir Michael Earnley was governor of the castle in 1644, and during the storming of the town by the parliamentary forces had command of the garrison. At this time, Colonel Mytton, a soldier of great valour, was governor of a small garrison at Wem, and general of Cromwell’s army in this county. Having made two unsuccessful attempts, on the night of the 3rd of February, he came with his forces consisting of two hundred and fifty foot, and the same number of horse, and marched towards Shrewsbury, where they arrived about three o’clock on Saturday morning. Eight carpenters went up the river in a little boat, and landed within the enemy’s breast work, under the castle hill on the east side. The sentinels, after some pause fired upon them, but they very soon sawed down so many of the palasades as gave the men a free passage.

The first that stormed were forty-two troopers dismounted, with their pistols, and about as many firelocks. They were led on by Mr. Huson, a puritan preacher, Captain Willers, and Lieutenant Benbow; then followed some other musqueteers along the side of the Severn, under the Castle Hill, and entered the town at the Water-lane Gate; after these marched three hundred and fifty infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rinking. Having entered the streets of the town they marched to the market place, surprised the guard, and put the captain to death; the rest marched to the castle Foregate, which was also soon gained; the guard having basely deserted it. The town being in possession of the parliamentary forces, they let down the draw bridge, near the castle, and the horse immediately entered under the command of Colonel Mytton and Bowyer. It was now about break of day, and the inhabitants were filled with consternation and surprise at beholding the enemy in the very heart of the town, which, on retiring to rest the preceding night, they thought the most secure in the island. About twelve o’clock the castle after a feeble resistance surrendered, on condition that the English part of it should march to Ludlow, but the Irish were delivered up to the conquerors. At the time of the assault the governor, Sir Michael Earnley, was confined by sickness to his bed; but waked by the noise of the tumult, he sprang up at the moment the enemy were rushing into his chamber, and with great courage refused to submit to the conquerors, rejecting all quarter, he wantonly perished, covered more with wounds than with glory. The loss in killed and wounded was inconsiderable; but the prisoners and property seized by the victors was of great importance, for here were taken eight knights and baronets, forty colonels, majors, captains, and others of quality, besides the common soldiers, also fifteen pieces of ordnance, several hundred stand of arms and powder, &c. For these important services the general received the thanks of parliament, and was made governor of the castle. The late lieutenant governor was tried by a court martial at Gloucester, and afterwards hanged, for negligence and cowardice, in suffering the place to be surprised without his having made a suitable resistance. Prince Maurice made his escape before the castle surrendered, but the whole of his magazine fell into the hands of the victors.

In the contest between the king and the parliament, Colonel John Benbow, uncle to the celebrated Admiral Benbow, united with the parliament forces; but afterwards deserted his principles, and espoused the cause of the monarch. He distinguished himself by opposing his former associates at the taking of Shrewsbury, for which vacillating conduct he was condemned by the parliament, and shot on the green before the castle, October 15th, 1651. At the same time the parliament in order to strike terror into those who favoured royalty, adjudged the Earl of Derby to suffer at Bolton. Several other gentlemen of the first families in England were also sentenced to death at the same period. An attempt was made to reduce the town to loyal obedience, after the death of the protector Cromwell, but the governor of the castle secured the place in the interest of parliament.

At the restoration, notwithstanding the joy which was diffused through the kingdom, it is probable there were some in every county who still sighed for the Commonwealth. The municipal bodies of the realm, terrified by the example of London, made haste to surrender the charters they had received from former monarchs into the hands of the sovereign. The corporation, however, of Shrewsbury stood out for a twelvemonth. At length, on the 13th of June, 1684, it was agreed unanimously, that the charter of the town should be surrendered and yielded up to his majesty, when his pleasure should require it. On the 20th of August, it was “Ordered that the mayor and committee attend the Lord Chief Justice Jones, to discourse him, touching the renewing of the charter, and unanimously agreed, that in the new charter there shall be only twelve aldermen and twenty-four assistants.” The king’s death prevented this instrument from passing the great seal in his name. Within a week after that event, the corporation sent up an address to their new sovereign, expressive of “their joyfulness in his succession, and humbly thanking him for his gracious declaration in preferring the Protestant religion;” no obscure intimation of their wishes on that momentous subject, which engaged all ranks with an intensity of interest difficult to be conceived by the present generation. On the 17th of March, 1684, the corporation received their new charter, in which the king expresses his gracious affection for the melioration of the town of Salop, and hopes that, if the burgesses and inhabitants have more ample liberties and privileges, they will be the better enabled and the more bound to render him the more special service. He grants that the town shall be “a free town of itself, and the burgesses and inhabitants shall be a body corporate, and sue and be sued; that there shall be one good and discreet man of the aldermen of the town who shall be mayor; twelve good and discreet men (the mayor being one) who shall be aldermen; and twenty-four good and discreet men, assistants.” Then follow various other officers, and a clause empowering the corporation to supply vacancies occasioned by death, &c. When James II. made a progress through this part of his dominions, the corporation resolved to expend £200 in entertaining and making a present to the king. They despatched two gentlemen to Gloucester and Worcester for the purpose of ascertaining the manner in which the royal traveller was entertained in those cities. They resolved that the conduits should run with wine on the day of his majesty’s entrance, and that the corporated companies should appear with their drums, colours, flags, and streamers. The king arrived on the 24th of August, and took up his abode at the Council House, where the corporation presented him with a purse of gold containing one hundred guineas. On the following morning, he exercised the gift of healing, by touching several persons for the king’s evil. The king issued a proclamation on the 17th of October for restoring corporations to their ancient charters and franchises, and orders were the same day made in council for removing all corporate officers, who had been put in by the crown since 1679. Richard Mickleston was at this time mayor of Shrewsbury; under the new charter of 1685 he was discharged from his office, and John Hill, Esq., elected in his room, under the charter of 1638.

The various “compositions” which the burgesses of Shrewsbury appear to have entered into amongst themselves for the government of this borough, clearly indicate that a large share of power was exercised by “the commons” in its municipal institutions. The liberties and customs of the burgesses or commons were confirmed by the charter of Henry II., and by various others granted before and after the date of the compositions alluded to. But the constitution of the borough was materially altered by a charter of the 14th of Charles I., transferring to a select body the functions previously exercised by the commons. This charter continued to be the governing one till the passing of the new municipal act, in 1835. The corporation by it was appointed to consist of a mayor, twenty-four aldermen, and forty-eight assistants, with an indefinite number of burgesses or freemen, under the style of the “mayor, aldermen, and burgesses of the town of Shrewsbury, in the county of Salop,” instead of the “bailiffs and burgesses,” as in the old charter. The ministerial officers named in the charter were, the recorder and his deputy, the steward, town clerk, two coroners, four auditors, two chamberlains, a sword bearer, three serjeants-at-mace, and three serjeants-yeomen. Exclusive jurisdiction in the borough was granted, the magistrates being the mayor and ex-mayor, the bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, the chancellor of the diocese, the recorder, steward, and three senior aldermen. Few of them, however, continued to act. Petty sessions were authorised to be held weekly, quarter sessions for all criminal actions not capital, a weekly court of record for all personal suits to any amount, and for ejectments, and a court leet, with view of frank-pledge. A court of requests was established in the 23rd of George III. for the recovery of debts under 40s., which was held every alternate week. The number of suits in the court in 1839 was 1011. This court has been superseded by the new county court act.

Under the new municipal act, the borough is included in schedule A, amongst boroughs to have a commission of the peace, which has accordingly been granted, and the court of quarter sessions and recorder re-appointed; and in section I. of that schedule among those the parliamentary boundaries of which were to be taken till altered by parliament. The limits of the borough extend considerably beyond the ancient boundaries, and now include the whole town and its suburbs. It has been divided into five wards, and appointed to be governed by ten aldermen and thirty councillors under the usual corporate style. The income of the corporation in 1840, was £1903. 10s. 8d. The income for the year ending September 1st, 1850, was £3184. 6s. 9d. of which £515. 11s. 3d. arose from the rental of premises; £1750. 1s. 11d. from the borough rate; and the remainder from miscellaneous sources. The principal items of expenditure for the same period are—police, £832. 1s. 4d.; salaries, £346. 14s.; rent and taxes, £42. 8s.; reparations, £187. 6s. 5d.; turns in the quarry and other annual payments, £267. 19s. 2d.; prosecutions, £217. 19s. 5d.; maintenance and removal of prisoners, £245. 17s. 11d.; expenses at sessions, including fees, &c., £395. 1s. 4d.; inquests and coroners expenses, £72. 4s. 6d. There was also a balance of £265. 0s. 9d. in the treasurer’s hands. Shrewsbury has regularly returned two members to parliament since the reign of Edward I. Previous to the passing of the reform act the franchise was in the burgesses inhabiting within the ancient limits of the borough, paying scot and lot, and not receiving alms or charity. The county assizes, and quarter sessions, are held here; petty sessions are held every Tuesday, and the borough magistrates sit daily.

The following is a list of the members of parliament, the corporate body, and the municipal officers of the borough of Shrewsbury for the year 1851:—

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Robert Anglionby Slaney, Esq., and Edward Holmes Baldock, Esq.

BOROUGH MAGISTRATES.

Edward Hughes, Esq., mayor; Joseph Birch, Esq., ex-mayor; Robert Burton, Esq.; Edward Haycock, Esq.; William Henry Perry, Esq.; James Watkins, Esq.; T. G. Gwyn, Esq.; Edward Morris, Esq., John Hazledine, Esq.

Mayor—Edward Hughes, Esq.

Aldermen—John Thomas Smitheman, Esq.; Edward Haycock, Esq.; William Wyburgh How, Esq.; John Loxdale, Esq.; James Watkins, Esq.; John Bowen, Esq.; Robert Burton, Esq.; Thomas Groves, Esq.; John Legh, Esq.; Charles Lloyd, Esq.

COUNCILLORS.

Castle Ward Within—William James Clement, Joseph Birch, William Henry Perry, Edwin Foulkes, Thomas Hall, Richard Jeffreys Mulckleston.

Castle Ward Without—James Smith, Thomas Birch, John Bishton Minor, Joseph Chune, Benjamin Birch, James Moore.

Stone Ward Within—Thomas Campbell Eyton, William Richard Stokes, David Evans, James Burrey, Edward Hughes, Lewis Meredith.

Stone Ward Without—William Burr, Charles Bowen Teece, John Hazledine, George Harper, Richard Taylor, William Butler Lloyd.

Welsh Ward—Thomas William Trouncer, Robert Mortimer Healing, Robert Baugh Blakemore, William Onions, Robert Haycock, Henry Keate.

Recorder, Charles Harwood, Esq. Coroner (borough), Henry Keate, Esq. Town Clerk, J. J. Peel, Esq. Clerk of the Peace, G. Gordon, Esq. Magistrates’ Clerk, W. H. Cooper, Esq. Chief Constable, Captain Mayne. Borough Treasurer, Mr. Henry Pidgeon. Surveyor, Mr. Thomas Tisdale. Governor of the Gaol, Mr. John Sheppard, Town Marshall and senior Serjeant, S. Farlow. Chief Constable, William Harper. Serjeant of Mace, John Thomas. Town Crier, George Rowe.

The Borough Police Force consists of a chief constable, two superintendents, two inspectors, and thirteen constables.

The County Constabulary consists of a chief constable, two first class superintendents, four second class superintendents, ten first class constables, and forty second class constables.

In the year 1756, thirty-seven colliers were brought to gaol for rioting and committing outrages in the county, it being a time of scarcity for all kinds of provisions. The trial took place at the spring assizes of the following year. Ten of the rioters were left for execution; but the judge sent his report express to the attorney-general, with an intimation fixed for the day of execution, and the individuals two in number, who, as he deemed it should suffer the sentence of the law. The report having been transmitted to Mr. Pitt, then secretary of state, it lay there untouched, and was never laid before the king. The day of execution arrived, without any reprieve, and Mr. Leek, the deputy sheriff, was advised by several of the principal gentlemen in the town to leave the prisoners to their fate. But he was so much shocked at the thought of executing so large a number, which he was convinced could not be the intention of the judge, that he ventured to postpone the execution, and sent off an express to London, on the return of which he had the satisfaction of finding that his conduct was highly approved of, and still more, the consciousness that he had saved eight lives. The following is part of a letter written to him on the occasion by Lord Chief Justice Willes:—“Till I saw your letter I was under the greatest uneasiness,—for I took it for granted that all the ten rioters had been executed on Saturday last; and, upon my return from the Home Circuit, on Thursday last, I found that by a shameful neglect in one of the secretary of state’s officers, no reprieve had been sent down; and, as it was then too late to send one down, I saw no reason to hope that their execution would be deferred to a longer time. But though, to be sure, you have acted contrary to your duty, you have acted a wise, prudent, and most humane part; and you have not only my thanks, but the thanks of some of the greatest men in the kingdom, for the part you have acted on this occasion.” In a letter from Mr. Leek’s agent in town it is stated, “My Lord Commissioner Willes was so afflicted . . . that it really made him ill; and he did not for two days go into the king’s closet, so much he feared the effect it might have upon the king’s mind, if the affair was communicated to his majesty while it was under that state of uncertainty. Thank God, your prudent and well judged respite has prevented all the uneasiness and mischiefs that might have happened; and I have the pleasure to assure you that no step was ever taken that has given more satisfaction, than this of yours has done. My Lord Commissioner Willes waited this day upon the king with your letter, and has directed me to acquaint you, by his majesty’s orders, that his majesty entirely approves of what you have done.”