Broadoak is situate in the hundred of West, and hath upon the south
Boconnock, west St. Winnow, east St. Pynock, north Cardinham; and by
the name of Bradock it was taxed in Domesday Roll, 20 William I. 1087;
which word, if it be single, signifies a rebel or traitor, one that
betrays the trust and fidelity reposed in him by another; otherwise if
it be commonly understood of Brad-ock or Brodock, it signifies broad
trees of oak (Saxon).
In the Pope’s Inquisition into the value of Benefices before-mentioned,
1294, Capella de Bradock in decanatu de Westwellshire, appropriata
Domui de Lanceston, was valued at xiii_s._ iv_d._ from whence it
appears the church was endowed by the college of St. Stephen’s or
Lanceston; in Wolsey’s Inquisition or Valor Beneficiorum at £8. 13_s._
4_d._; the patronage in the Bishop of Exon, the incumbent Pearce, the
rectory in possession of ――――; and this parish was rated to the 4_s._
per pound Land Tax for one year, 1696, £57.
Here let it be remembered that Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, General
of the Parliament Army, being in Devon, received orders from his
masters, 1644, to march from thence with the same towards Plymouth, in
order to raise the siege thereof, it being then greatly distressed by
Sir Richard Grenville, as was the west part of that county, who
immediately set forward with his army, and marched on towards that
place; yet not so quickly but that Grenville had notice of his motion,
and, fearing he was not strong enough to engage his great army, he by
night privately dislodged from the siege of Plymouth with his own
regiment, Colonel Fortescue’s, Colonel Carew’s, and Colonel Acland’s;
and the better to shun or avoid his enemy, marching down by way of
Plympton, he turned aside towards St. Botolph’s and Saltash Passage,
where with boats he passed over his troops, and so entered over the
Tamar river into Cornwall; which Essex understanding as soon as he
came to Plymouth, having thus raised the siege and relieved the town,
forthwith marched after Grenville as far as Lestwithell and Bradoak
Downs, himself quartering at Lanhydrock, the Lord Robartes’s house,
and sending out troops of horse westwards if possible to attack him.
In the mean time, King Charles I. being then in Somerset with his
army, and having notice of those facts of Essex’s, forthwith marched
out of Somerset through Devon with his army for Grenville’s relief,
and entered Cornwall by way of Polston bridge, the 11th of August
1644; from thence advanced to Lanceston, and so directly to Liskeard,
which place for some time he made his head quarters, where the
townsmen and contiguous countrymen shewed themselves very zealous and
loyal towards his service, especially for that the town or borough and
manor of Leskeard was his son the Duke of Cornwall’s lands, in right
of his Duchy of Cornwall.
Soon after which the country people gave private notice to the King,
that on a certain day the quarter-master, General Dalbier,
Lieutenant-Colonel Charleton, Colonel Allured, Colonel Barkley, and
some other officers of Essex’s army were to dine at the Lord Mohun’s
house, not far from Lestwithell.
At the day appointed the King dispatched a party of horse, and by
surprise took them all prisoners (except Dalbier, who made his escape)
and brought them all prisoners to Leskeard, where soon after Prince
Rupert arrived at the King’s army, which gave great hopes of a notable
victory over Essex; and, in order to give him battle, the King soon
after drew forth his army from Leskeard, and marched west to Bradock
Downs in this parish, opposite to St. Winnow and Boconnock Downs,
where Essex lay encamped, on the east side of Lestwithell town, and
there pitched his camp and standard, he himself, Prince Rupert, and
Grenville quartering at the Lord Mohun’s house; from whence he sent a
letter August 16th, as he had sent another before from Leskeard by the
Lord Beauchamp’s nephew, to Essex, for a treaty of peace, to which he
received no answer; then he sent another letter to him in the name of
the officers of his army, to which Essex sent a negative answer
directed to the Earl of Forth, purporting that he had received a
letter from his lordship, and other commanders of the King’s army, by
which a treaty with him was desired for a general peace, which he
could not admit of without a breach of the trust reposed in him by the
Parliament, having no power by his commission to treat in a matter of
such importance.
Whereupon happened several skirmishes between the cavaliers and
parliament troops; and in particular that challenge and sharp charge
between Colonel Straughan’s for the Parliament and Colonel Digby’s for
the King, was most remarkable. Straughan’s troop consisted of a
hundred young men from sixteen to twenty years of age, on whose faces,
as was said, never razor had past in order to shave their beards, all
double, if not treble armed for this encounter. This troop of
Straughan’s was led forth by himself on Bradock and St. Winnow Downs,
having nothing on his head but a hat, and on the trunk of his body
nought but a white linen shift, where they braved it for some time
as was said before, giving defiance to a like number of the King’s
party in sight of the King and both armies; whereupon soon after
dislodged the Lord Digby’s troop for the King, to accept and fight
this challenge of Straughan’s, who with great resolution and bravery
advanced towards him, and gave the first onset or charge, but firing
their pistols at too great distance, it did little harm to his
adversary, whilst instantly Straughan, like a firebrand of hell, with
a led horse by his side, had before commanded his boys, as he called
them, to take their adversary’s fire, which they then did with
unspeakable hardiness, and rushed on to the very horse heads of
Digby’s troopers, that before had spent their shot, himself leading
the fore front to the very points of their swords, when he discharged
his double-barrelled pistols, and was in like manner seconded by his
troopers, who had all the same sort of pistols, and most of them laden
with three or four bullets each, which proved so fatal and disastrous
a blow to Digby’s troopers, that the one half of them were slain on
the spot or mortally wounded; and it was further observable, that
scarce horse or man that escaped went not off without some hurt or
damage, as I was told by one Mr. William Maye, a gentleman that was
one of Digby’s troop, and sorely wounded in this battle, the marks of
which through his hands, arms, and legs were visible, though cured to
a large degree, till his dying day, 1672; and much the like account I
had of this battle or combat from Mr. William Upcott, of Truro, and
Mr. Joseph Upcott, of Morval, brothers, that were parcel of
Straughan’s troop, who there took some of the King’s horses alive,
their riders being slain, upon whose furniture was his proper arms,
the star and the letters C. R.
But, alas! notwithstanding this success of Straughan’s troop, the King
with his army had so hemmed in or surrounded Essex in his head
quarters at Lestwithell, that he could not long subsist or have relief
for his soldiers, for the Lord Goring and Sir Thomas Basset, Knt.
stopped all provision with a great body of horse, that was coming to
him by way of St. Blazey from the west, as Sir Richard Grenville did
the like by way of St. Colomb, Bodmin, and Lanhydrock from the north;
whereupon it was resolved by Essex’s council, that he should desert
his army, and privately by night in a boat go down the river to
Fowey, and from thence take ship for Plymouth, which expedient was
accordingly put in execution, and the General Essex, the Lord
Robartes, and some others the next day got into Plymouth, being the
31st of August 1644. On the same day Sir William Balfour with two
thousand five hundred of the Parliament horse, with divers officers,
viz. Colonel Nicholas Boscawen, his Lieutenant-Colonel James Hals, of
Merther, Henry Courtenay, of St. Bennet’s in Lanyvet, Colonel John
Seyntaubyn, of Clowans, and his Lieutenant Colonel Braddon, Colonel
Carter, and several other officers and gentlemen of quality, early in
the morning forced their passage over St. Winnow, Boconnock, and
Bradock Downs, though the body of the King’s army, which lay encamped
on the heath in those places, maugre all opposition to the contrary;
from thence they rode to Leskeard, from thence to Saltash Passage, and
from thence to Plymouth safely the same day, amidst their own garrison
and confederates.
Notwithstanding this desertion of the general and other officers as
aforesaid, Major General Skippon (a Londoner), like a good commander,
resolved to live and die with his soldiers; and in order to their
preservation, being at least twelve thousand men, he led them down the
banks of the river on the west side thereof towards Foye, in order to
transport them over the passage or river to Lanteglos, or ship them
from thence for Plymouth, all other roads and high ways being stopped
up by the King’s army as aforesaid, during which march Skippon’s men
were sorely distressed in the rear by the King’s soldiers, so that
five of their field pieces were taken in the lanes, whereupon the next
morning his men made a stand, and with a brigade of horse that never
deserted the infantry, charged the King’s troops with great courage
and animosity, and beat them out of the field which they had lost the
day before, with some loss; whereupon immediately the King sent
Captain Brett with the Queen’s troop to attack them, who in the King’s
sight charged Skippon’s brigade with that fury and violence as forced
them to retire from the field aforesaid, whereby not only he regained
the ground that was lost, but got some other fields from his party,
and then returned in good order, having lost only four men, himself
being shot in the arm, for which brave adventure the King knighted him
on the spot. After which the Parliament soldiers were so dispirited
that they could hardly be brought to stand to their arms; upon which
dismay Colonel Butler and a trumpeter came to desire a parley with the
King, which was forthwith granted, and a treaty followed on the first
of September, when the Commissioners on the King’s part were Prince
Maurice and the Earl of Bramford, for Essex’s soldiers Major-General
Philip Skippon, Colonel Christopher Whichcott, and others, by whom a
cessation of hostility was agreed upon in these terms――