Not that the Lady of Lathom herself had much of a view on the matter anymore, for she had left for the greater comforts of Knowsley, leaving the defence of the house in the hands of Captain Rawsthorne.
It seemed to the girl that, with the siege finally over, the worst chapter in her life had come to an end. The only thing she missed were the attentions of the kind Parliament man, who had helped her when she most needed it. She had not seen him since the day the mortar was captured, and she wondered what had become of him.
In Nantwich, the very same man, grateful to have been relieved from his onerous position as town constable, blinked in the moonlight and kissed his new wife as he emerged from the Red Cow on Beam Street. Townsfolk had spilled out of the tavern onto the street. The wedding feast was long since over, but many had stayed until the newly-wed couple had decided to retire.
The best man, a tall-built fellow with sandy hair, rang the bell, which was normally used for very different purposes, to propose a toast to his friend, while a young girl and an even smaller boy ran wildly between the knees of the revellers. The groom’s apprentice waved a tankard in the air and cheered, nearly falling on his back, for he was still having trouble getting used to his wooden leg. Even the guest of honour, a slim, severe-looking man, who exuded an air of authority and commanded the respect of all those present, especially those who knew him as Sir William Brereton, Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentary forces in Cheshire, appeared to be enjoying himself.
The only people whose smiles appeared slightly strained were the soberly dressed colonel sat at Brereton’s side and the auburn-haired young woman who was standing on the periphery of the group. The young officer, responsible for the recruitment and payment of Brereton’s army, would have been pleased to join in the celebrations – he considered himself a sociable type. However, his good mood had been tempered by his knowledge of the contents of the letter Sir William had received from Sir Thomas Fairfax that morning. The third wax ball provided by Brereton’s spies in Chester and taken from the bridegroom’s brother by Sir John Meldrum, had finally found its way into Sir Thomas’s hands. Once decrypted, together with the two balls passed on by Colonel Rigby, it had revealed details of a plot involving a royalist intelligencer by the name of Bressy. Brereton had made it clear that urgent action would need to be taken and that the bridegroom’s services would be required again, very soon. The young colonel did not relish breaking this news to the groom the day after his wedding, but duty was duty, and in this regard he would not be found wanting.
As for the young woman, she had willingly attended the celebrations, but was finding it hard to join in, for wedding bells should have been ringing for her too. Her betrothed, however, had followed a different path to the groom. He had chosen to follow his political conviction rather than marry her. He had promised to return for her, but was he to be believed? She honestly did not know any more.
At that moment, she looked across the road and caught the eye of the young tanner’s apprentice, who had been showing her so much attention recently. The youth smiled at her and beckoned for her to come over.
The young woman looked down to her feet and hesitated for a moment, but then she sighed, took a long lingering look at the bridegroom, and crossed the road.
Author’s Note
Considering the dramatic nature of Lady Charlotte de Tremouille’s valiant defence of Lathom House with only three hundred men against a vastly superior parliamentary force, it is a wonder that the story is not more widely known today.
Certainly, up until the end of the 19th century, the tale of Lady Derby’s exploits retained a much more prominent place within the national consciousness, spawning a number of books and poems, the best known of which is William Harrison Ainsworth’s novel The Leaguer of Lathom. Even at the time of the siege, Lady Derby was eulogised by those on the royalist side, the Scottish Dove newspaper, for example, famously pointing out that she had ‘stolen the earl’s breeches’. Over the last hundred years, however, the details surrounding the First Siege of Lathom House (there were, in fact, two sieges) have gradually drifted into the backwaters of history.
This is a shame, because the events which took place between March and May 1644 make up a captivating adventure story. Given the abject incompetence of the parliamentary forces at times, they would also, in my opinion, form the basis for an engaging comedy film – but that is another story. In any case, I make no apologies for purloining this piece of history as the basis for A Soldier of Substance.
Historically, it suited many of those writing about the siege to portray Lady Derby as a defenceless woman, who loyally defended her husband’s house against evil and heartless oppressors. It is, however, clear that Lady Derby was nothing of the kind. In his excellent 1991 book To Play the Man, Colin Pilkington describes her as being ‘as devious as Elizabeth I, as inflexible as Mrs Thatcher and with the physical presence of an Amazon,’ which just about sums her up. Lady Derby, who was a granddaughter of William of Orange (William the Silent) and a cousin of Prince Rupert, was most certainly not a woman to be trifled with.
There are three main contemporary sources for the siege, all of which were written by people who make an appearance in A Soldier of Substance.
The first of these is a comprehensive siege journal written by Edward Halsall, who was a seventeen year old ensign at the time. Halsall, who, incidentally, was injured in the raid on March 18, wrote the siege journal two or three years after the event. Following the siege, he followed an interesting career as a royalist spy. In 1650, he become implicated in the murder of Anthony Ascham, the Commonwealth Ambassador to Madrid, and was later involved in a plot to assassinate Cromwell himself. He survived the Protectorate and by 1663, he was Equerry to the Queen.
The second source is the writing of Samuel Rutter, chaplain to the Countess of Derby. Along with William Farrington, he was one of Lady Derby’s main advisors during the siege. A protégé of the Stanley family, he came from the family which owned the mill at Burscough. Rutter was responsible for a major piece of disinformation early in the siege, when he managed to persuade one of the parliamentary captains, probably Captain John Ashurst, that the countess was terrified of a siege, thereby changing the whole course of Rigby’s strategy. In later life, Rutter became the Bishop of Sodor and Man and died in 1663.
The other major source, and the only one from the Parliamentary side, is A Discourse of the Warr in Lancashire, written in 1655 by Major Edward Robinson.
In describing the course of the siege within the context of the novel, I’ve kept faithfully to the time scale of the historical siege, including all the key events, such as the various attacks on the besiegers by the garrison, Assheton and Moore’s departure, the effort by Stanley to intervene, Rigby’s bizarre sideshow over Easter, etc.
I’ve also taken the liberty of incorporating Daniel Cheswis into some events; for example – six men were taken prisoner by Captain Ogle on March 12 and were later the subject of a prisoner exchange.
The murder plot involving the killings of Katherine Seaman and John Bootle, however, is invented. Both of the murder victims in the story are invented characters, as are the majority of the Seaman, Bootle, Le Croix, and Oulton families. However, there was a spy in Lady Derby’s ranks, referred to as her ‘secret friend,’ who passed important strategic information to her during February and March.
This person, however, most definitely was not William Bootle, and was most probably a senior officer in the ranks of either Assheton or Moore, because the information available to the countess fell away when Assheton and Moore withdrew their support for the siege.
William Bootle was a real person, and my apologies are due to him for how I have portrayed him in A Soldier of Substance. He had been a servant in the earl’s employ and was engaged as an advisor to Rigby on the layout of Lathom House, but he was not engaged as a double agent – that part of the story is a product of my imagination. Bootle, who was probably from Bolton, was an active officer on the parl
iamentary side during the Bolton Massacre and lost his life during the battle. The manner of his death is open to conjecture. In his siege journal, Halsall has him dying ‘by his Lord’s hand’, although other royalist sources say the Earl of Derby happened upon Bootle during the conflict, refused to kill him, but said he could not save him from others. Parliamentary sources, on the other hand, have Derby killing Bootle after quarter had been given. Whatever the truth, Derby was convicted of Bootle’s murder, and, as every Boltonian who has an interest in the town’s history knows, he was executed on Churchgate on 15th October, 1651. The earl is said to have spent his last few hours in Ye Old Man and Scythe, an inn opposite the cross, which to this day contains a chair that the earl is supposed to have sat on before being led outside to be beheaded.
During the siege, the defence of Lathom House was entrusted to six captains, all named in the novel. Each of these had a trusted lieutenant (who I deliberately haven’t named for fear of unnecessarily adding to the already long list of characters in the book). In charge of the garrison was William Farmer, a Scotsman and a professional soldier with extensive experience fighting in the Low Countries. Farmer died at Marston Moor.
Of the others, Chisnall is particularly interesting, having been considered at one time to be a candidate for being the author of the siege journal, due largely to the fact that he penned a book of his own, A Catholike History, several years after the siege. Chisnall, clearly a brave and skilful soldier, was promoted after the siege to the rank of colonel and served at Marston Moor. He died in 1653 at the early age of 35. The storylines relating to his presence in and around Chester during the siege are invented.
The siege was a personal disaster for Alexander Rigby, who not only had to explain his failures to the Manchester Committee, but was forced to pay his men out of his own pocket. His escape from the carnage at Bolton was exceedingly fortunate. As described in the novel, he is said to have mingled with the royalists and managed to flee with one of his colleagues down Tonge Moor Road to the north-east of the town, eventually reaching Bradshaw Hall, where he received shelter. Local tradition has it that he took the wrong turn when he got to Turton Road, and, realising his mistake, turned down a lane to the right and crossed Bradshaw Brook, in order to get back on the right path. This lane is still called Rigby Lane.
A lawyer and MP for Wigan, Rigby was said to have been an able and learned man, but severe in nature and lacking in humour. The exact nature of his hatred for the Earl of Derby is unknown, but exist it did, and it was certainly a driving force for him throughout the siege. Rigby died in 1650 at the age of 56, after contracting gaol fever whilst on circuit in the south of England.
One person whose career prospects were not damaged by the disaster of the siege was Thomas Morgan. The Welshman rose to the rank of major general and was eventually knighted. Towards the end of the Protectorate, he became associated with General Monck and played an important part in the Restoration, eventually becoming Governor of Jersey in 1665. Unfortunately for him, his place in history has been somewhat overshadowed by his more illustrious nephew, Henry, the famous buccaneer, whose memory has been immortalised in the name of a brand of rum.
Less is known about Browne, Rigby’s chief engineer during the siege. Portrayed in the novel as a cynic, but essentially loyal, there were, at the time, questions both as to his competence as well as to his loyalties.
Jenny Reade is an invented character. However, there was a woman called Reade who died under torture after being caught receiving smuggled messages from the house. She is reported to have lost some of her fingers during her ordeal. The message-carrying dog is also documented in more than one account, with some having the dog belonging to Reade. As related in the story, the dog lost its life, being shot by a parliamentary musketeer after trying one trip too many. The other dog mentioned in the novel, Prince Rupert’s famous poodle, Boye, didn’t fare much better. He died at Marston Moor.
The existence of tunnels from Lathom House to outside locations has never been proven, although there have been plenty of rumours and stories that such tunnels did exist. Burscough Priory is one of the places mentioned.
At this point, it is worth saying something about Nantwich, Chester, and Bolton during early 1644.
Nantwich went quiet after the battle on January 25th. Sir William Brereton left for London but he was clever enough to manipulate the committees of local government to such a degree that he was able to maintain total control of local decision-making during the conflict to the detriment of members of the county elite, such as George Booth. Thomas Croxton was one of Brereton’s leading cronies and was responsible for the payment of Brereton’s field army. He eventually ended up as Governor of Chester.
As for the characters in Chester, Francis Gamull is possibly the best known. He was a leading merchant and founder of the town guard. His house on Bridge Street still exists. Robert Whitby was also a real person. As mentioned in the story, his uncle married Gamull’s mother. The divinity lecturer William Ainsworth was also a real historical figure, although his role as a parliamentary collaborator is entirely invented.
As previously mentioned, most of the Seaman family are fictional characters. However, William Seaman was the name of the merchant who organised the first recorded major shipment of Cheshire Cheese to London in 1650. Somehow, Daniel Cheswis’s role in this event has escaped historical record!
The Boot still exists on Eastgate Street and was indeed a new tavern and a brothel in early 1644. The layout inside the tavern as described in the novel, however, has been largely invented by me, in order to fit in with the plot. Thomas and Charles Corbett, Annie, and Roisin are all fictional characters.
The massacre which took place at Bolton on 28 May 1644 was shocking by any standards, and it was certainly one of the most horrific events of the whole civil war. The amount of people killed is open to debate, but it was certainly several hundred and perhaps over a thousand. Ironically, the presence of Rigby and his men in the town contributed to the slaughter, partly due to the strong resistance put up by the small parliamentary force, but also because of the grave error made by the defenders in executing one of the royalists after the first assault.
Many of Rigby’s officers who were present at Lathom died here, including Captains Davie, Duddell, and Dandie, as well as Dandie’s son. As I have suggested, a large number lost their lives at Silverwell Bottoms after fleeing into Silverwell Fields during the royalists’ second assault. Those that escaped fled to the church, where they were taken prisoner. Legend has it that there is a mass grave at Silverwell Bottoms.
It is also certain that a great many atrocities took place in Bolton Town Centre in the immediate aftermath of the battle. The two such events mentioned in the novel were real, documented events. The man killed in front of his pregnant wife was called William Boulton, and the old lady cut down because she had nothing to give her killers was named Katherine Seddon.
Finally, a word about the novel’s most important character – Lathom House itself. In the aftermath of Marston Moor, it did not take long before the house was under siege again, although this time Lady Derby was not present. In command was Captain Rawsthorne, who, under much more difficult conditions than during the first siege, managed to keep Parliament at bay until December 1645, when he was forced to surrender.
Today, not one trace remains of the original house, considered, according to an old ballad, ‘so spacious that it can receive, Two Kings, their trains and all.’ After the Restoration, the house fell into ruin and the Lathom Estate was eventually sold by the Stanleys in 1724, believe it or not to a man by the name of Bootle (Sir Thomas Bootle of Melling), who built a new Palladian mansion on the site, which was finished in 1734. There are not even any contemporary paintings of the old house – only a painting created from the descriptions left by the likes of Halsall and Rutter. It is as though the place never existed, a bitter irony of which Colonel Rigby would have wholeheartedly approved.
Acknowledgements
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br /> Thanks are once again due to Matthew, Tom, and Vanessa at Electric Reads, whose expert advice, editing and design skills helped make this book immeasurably better than it otherwise would have been.
Thanks also to Colin Bissett of the Sealed Knot for helping to iron out the historical errors in my first draft. Any remaining mistakes are entirely down to me. I’m also grateful to Ed Abram, David Casserly, and Kevin Winter for their expertise on Chester, Bolton, and Newark respectively.
I have to give an extra special thank you to Steve and Denise Lawson at the Nantwich Bookshop who have offered me fantastic support ever since the launch of The Winter Siege.
And above all, thanks to Karen, Richard, and Louisa for their love and support throughout.
Bibliographical Notes
In compiling the research for A Soldier of Substance, I referred to a multitude of different books and online resources, the most significant of which I have listed below.
For information on Nantwich, my main source, as always, was James Hall’s A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich or Wich Malbank in the County Palatine of Chester (1883). For specific details of local politics in Nantwich I used JS Morrill’s Cheshire 1630-1660 – County Government and Society during the English Revolution (1974).
For information on the Siege of Lathom House, in addition to the contemporary accounts written by Edwrad Halsall, Samuel Rutter, and Edward Robinson, I referred mainly to four books, these being Stephen Bull‘s The Civil Wars in Lancashire 1640-1660 (2009), Colin Pilkington’s To Play the Man (1991), MB Williams and MJ Lawson’s The Better Soldier (1999) and David Casserly’s The Storming of Bolton (2011). Casserly’s excellently researched book was also my primary source for the Bolton Massacre, although I also used James Clegg’s Annals of Bolton (1888).
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