long afflicted the English and Welsh Borders. The superstitious charm
with which Owain’s name had been invested by his countrymen soon faded
away, and his life, though startling in a rude and ignorant age, soon
proved that he was “in the common roll of men!” Shakspere was justified
in creating him, poetically, as self-idolatrous, for his daring
incursions and fiery movements indicate that he believed himself to be of
the meteoric class, to curb oppression and give liberty to the enslaved.
For years after Glyndwr’s fall Oswestry, for aught that history tells us
to the contrary, lay in comparative repose, entirely free from foreign
aggression. Intestine feuds and disorders seem to have been the chief
disturbers. The Welsh were arrayed against the English, and the latter
appear to have had no less enmity against their Cambrian neighbours. To
Pennant’s industrious and accurate research we are indebted for the
scanty notices collected of the history of this period. Among the
records of the Drapers’ Company of Shrewsbury, he tells us there is the
following order:—“25 Eliz. 1513. Ordered, that no Draper set out for
Oswestry on Mondays before six o’clock, on forfeiture of six shillings
and eightpence; and that they wear their weapons all the way, and go in
company—not to go over the Welsh Bridge before the bell toll six.”
However numerous and fierce marauders were in the days here referred to,
it would seem that peaceful employments were nevertheless pursued by the
inhabitants of Oswestry, and that their manufactured cloth was of so good
a quality as to be held in high repute among the Shrewsbury Drapers. The
“contests, robberies, and disturbances in the Marches of Wales” still
continuing with unabated force, and both Welsh and English seeming to
have considered everything as lawful plunder which they could seize in
each other’s territory, the Stewards, the Constable, and Lieutenant of
Oswestry and Powys entered into covenants in the year 1534, to restrain
these plundering excursions. It was agreed, that “if, after a certain
day then fixed, any person of one lordship committed felony in the other,
he should be taken and sent into the lordship where the offence was
committed, to receive punishment; and that if any goods or cattle were
stolen from one lordship and conveyed into the other, the tenants and
inhabitants of that lordship should either pay for the same within
fifteen days, or otherwise four principal men should remain in bail, a
main-prize, till they were either paid for or recovered.”
Notwithstanding these rigorous measures, the evil still continued; and so
alarmed were certain of the inhabitants of Shrewsbury, and regardful of
the safety of their fellow-burgesses who had to visit Oswestry market
weekly, that prayers for their preservation were offered up in one of the
churches, on Monday mornings, before they started on their perilous
journey. A timid gentleman, William Jones, Esq., left to the Drapers’
Company “one pound six-shillings and eight-pence, to be paid annually to
the Vicar of St. Alkmond’s Church, for reading prayers on Monday
mornings, before the Drapers set out for Oswestry market!” Pennant
informs us that at this period “Oswestry was the great emporium for Welsh
cloth; a privilege to which it was well entitled from its vicinity to
those districts of Wales in which that important branch of commerce was
manufactured, at a period when the English trader could not, with any
degree of safety, trust himself in the Principality. To this town
(Oswestry) the Drapers of Shrewsbury repaired every Monday. We learn the
fact from a curious MS. Chronicle of the last-mentioned town, which
relates that ‘on Monday, Dec. 5th, 1575, the Drapers of Shrewsbury had
like to have been robbed, if they had not been privately warned; but the
bailiffs and a great company went, strongly aimed, upon their usual trade
toward Oswestry. The robbers proposed to rob them in the dale between
Shelton and Shrewsbury, and lay over night in Master Sherar’s barn, on
the other side of the water.’ The whole narrative, which is told much at
length in the Chronicle, exhibits the unsettled police of a country
slowly emerging from a state of barbarism, and strongly reminds the
reader of the inimitable scene at Gadshill, so admirably pourtrayed by
our great dramatic bard in the first part of Henry IV.” The same writer
adds, “notwithstanding, however, this and similar proofs of the general
insecurity of the country, the Welsh manufacturer was unwilling to meet
the purchaser even half way with his commodities. ‘Not satisfied,’ says
our countryman Dr. Peter Heylyn, in his _Cosmography_, ‘with having fixed
the market at Oswestry, they sought to draw the staple more into their
own country.’ The MS. quoted above informs us, under the year 1582, that
it would have been removed thence, ‘to the great decay of that town and
of Shrewsbury, yf Sir Thomas Bromley, being Lord Chancelor, had not by
his great wisdom opened the same to the Queen’s Majestie, for which godly
deede theye of the said townes are contynewally bownde to praye daylye.’
Lord Chancellor Bromley was a Shropshire man, and possessor, by purchase
from the Earl of Arundel, of the Castle and Lordship of Shrawardine; he
was therefore personally interested in the prosperity of the county, and
by his influence at Court enabled to promote it.” It would further
appear, that the market was continued at Oswestry, so that it is likely
that Lord Bromley’s interposition at Court prevailed. In 1585 the Welsh
cloth market was removed from Oswestry to Knockin, the plague having
broken out in this borough, and destroyed “three-score and four persons,
and no more;” according to the parish register. The plague continued
from April to August, when it entirely disappeared, and the market was
held, as before, in Oswestry.
Oswestry was visited with other calamities some few years before this
period. In 1542 a fire broke out in the town, which was so destructive,
that “two long streets with great riches” were consumed; and in 1567
there was another fire, which destroyed “seven-score within the walls,
and three-score without.” The suburb still known by the name of
_Pentre-Poeth_ (the burnt end of the town) suffered severely, and may
have derived its designation from this destructive fire; or, as Price
intimates, from the frequent fires that may have occurred there during
the conflicts between the Welsh and English. These accidents were looked
upon, at the time, through astrological telescopes, by Camden, the
historian, and a Dr. Childrey. They both gravely ascribed these events
to astrological phenomena, Camden seriously remarking, “that the eclipses
of the sun in Aries have been very fatal to this place; for in the years
1542 and 1567, when the sun was eclipsed in that sign, it (Oswestry)
suffered much by fire!” After reading such absurdity as this from men
professing to be learned, we have reason to be thankful that we are
living in a more enlightened and scientific age.
A few years before the conflagration last referred to, the town was
visited by a no less alarming evil. In 1559 pestilence consigned to the
grave, within one year, more than five hundred of the inhabitants. The
disease which thus afflicted the people is stated to have commenced with
profuse perspiration, (from which it was called “the sweating sickness,”)
and to have continued until the death or recovery of the patient. Its
operation was quick and powerful, and cure or death occurred within
twenty-four hours. Those persons who were seized in the day were put to
bed in their clothes to wait the issue; and those seized in the night
were desired to remain in bed, but not to sleep. The desolation of the
town during the long continuance of the plague is described in affecting
language by the writer of the clever historical sketches, on the History
of Oswestry, that appear in Mr. Roberts’s publication, entitled “Oswald’s
Well:”—
“It was then that Croeswylan received its name. _Croes wylan_, or
the Cross of weeping, was there erected, the base of which still
remains to be seen. To this, with superstitious reverence, all the
people resorted. The diseased and dying sought in grief beneath its
sacred shadow a preparation for the doom to which they were
appointed, and there they languished till that doom was fixed.
Before it, the whole and healthy ones confessed and deplored their
sins, and deprecated the vengeance of heaven. Throughout the
succeeding century this foul contagion lurked on our shores, and at
intervals visited our town, converting it into a vast charnel house.
Its attacks were so insidious and sudden that the glow of health
suffered no process of removal, but instantly fled, as scared and
affrighted on the approach of the fell devourer. During its presence
no sights were to be seen but the wan and sickly visage of those who
were dying, or the panic-stricken gaze of the man yet uninfected,
almost delirious with alarm, and starting from the touch of the
dearest friend of his heart. The air was rent with shrieks and laden
with lamentation. Death alone seemed contented and satisfied, and
sat like a monster unmoved as he banqueted on hundreds of his
victims. All commerce was at a stand-still. Every house was locked,
the inmates scarcely venturing upon a communication with each other,
much less exposing themselves to contact with those without. With
foreboding reluctance they breathed the breath of heaven, pregnant as
it was with the seeds of death. If one of their number was attacked,
no consideration of friendship or kindred spared him the aggravation
of being hurled into the street, there to await the regular arrival
of the dead-cart. That sad accompaniment of the contagion, the
gibbet of the scene, rolled sullenly along the death-smitten streets
upon its gloomy mission, and never returned without the sad evidences
of the rapid progress of the desolating scourge. In the ears of the
expiring it must have sounded like the toll of the passing bell, the
knell of their speedy departure. Upon it, whether dead or just
gasping for life, the diseased victims were heaped, and hurried off
to the brink of a huge pit, dug, probably, in a corner of the Old
Churchyard, into which they were remorselessly thrown. Everything
bespoke the presence and working of a mighty power, in league with
‘the King of terrors.’ All human ties were forcibly disrupted, every
human sympathy was sacrilegiously immolated, until the people were
reduced to that extremity of sadness, in which life is burdensome for
its sorrows, and death terrible for the grim and ghastly shroud in
which it lies hid.”
The market was held, during the Plague, at _Croes wylan_, that the people
from the surrounding country-places should not visit the town, and
thereby suffer from the infection. No doubt that with the dreadful
scourge stalked, hand in hand, gaunt poverty. It may be easily imagined
that the poor suffered severely from the sickness, and that many of them
required relief. We have some testimony before us that the public
authorities of the time sympathized with the sufferers. The following
extracts from the “Accompt of Richard ap Lley, Muringer of the town of
Oswestr, for and from the xvj day of September, in the 2nd yere of our
sovraynge Lady Elizabeth,” show how pecuniary aid was rendered to certain
parties:—
The sayde accomtante doth asc alowaunce for rent bayted to the
Towlers (toll-takers) for one qr. in considracion of the PLAGE:
_s._ _d._
Fyrst to the executors of John Vyghan xx
Allso, &c. rent bayted to Thomas ap Rc. for xx
Wolyws-gate
Allso, &c. to David Glover the elder, for xiij iiij
Newe-gate
Allso, &c. to Wyling Lloyd, for Betresce-gate x
Allso, &c. to David ap David, for Blak gate iiij ij
Allso, &c. rent of Crofft-pystil, in the hande ij
of Rc. ap Mrdyth, dyssessed
Allso, &c. money payde for wrytinge of a xij
suplycacion to my lord of Arundell
Allso, &c. for Lewys Tayler, and Guttyn Furbur, xiiij
beinge unpayde for setting of stales, by reason
of the Plage
Allso, &c. for Rc. Lewther, for one qr. beinge xx
absent from the towne
_Tanners_. Allso, &c. for a qr. rent unto xiiij
tanners beinge apsent in in
tyme of the plage; and fyrste,
Thomas Baker (2 other similar
items)
_Glovers_. Itm. The sayde accomptaunt xij
dothe asc alowaunce for them
that are deade or fled, and
them that are in decaye; and
fyrst, Thomas ap John Wyling,
beinge a poore man (five
others fled, &c.)
_Buchers_. Imp. the sayde accomtant, &c. v
Lewys, bucher, that is dead
(one for the like and 7 fled)
_Corvsers_. Edward Gorg, fled (2 others iij
fled)
_Backers_. David ap sr. Rc. saythe that vi
he dothe not occupey his
backhowes, and prayth alowance
David Bobyth hathe ben longe iij
secke, and asc alo
_Hucksters_. Jonet vrch. David ap Morys asc x
alowance for a qr. Rent (1
other)
_Alle Selers_. Edward Lloyd pray the alowance xjj
for a qr.
David Glover the elder, in xiiij
lycke manner
Richard Salter was longe xiijj
sycke, and praythe alowance
Thomas Glover praythe xx
alowaunce for half a yere;
aledginge, that he sold no
alle for that space (3 others)
Payments for the provision of the genrall Feast unto the Coo-burgesses
according to the aunsient costom, holden the vth day of Desember, in the
thryde yere of the raynge of our sovraynge layde Ellizabeth, by the grace
of God quene of England, &c. at the making of this accompt:
_s._ _d._
_Whete_. Fyrste, the saide accomptaunt xj
hathe payde for ii stryckes and
a hoope of whette for brede and
for peys
_Maullt_. Allso payde for iii strycke of xij
maullt
_Boochers_. Allso payde for a qr. and ii vj viij
rybes of byff
Allso payde for mytton for to ij vj
make peys for this feast
. . . for iij_lb._ ressyns xij
. . . s pep v ij
_Cloves_, _&c._ Allso payde for cloves, masses, vj
aud saffrone
Allso payde for synamon and vij
sugr.
Itm. pd. for buttr. spent at viij
this feast
_Chese_. Allso payde for chesses ij ix
_Nyttes_, &c. Allso pd. for appells and nyttes xvj
_Saullt_. Allso payde for a hoope of sallt x
for the byff
_This Accompt was made before us_, _the persons under-named_, _then
Bailiffe of the said Towne_, JOHN STANNEY, THOMAS EVANS.
* * * * *
With these awful calamities the people endured severe privation, both as
to food and clothing. Provisions had risen so enormously in price as to
place even the coarsest food beyond the reach of the poor. We are told
that so deficient were the working-classes of the commonest provision,
that they were glad to resort, for subsistence, to horse-bread, composed
of beans, oats, and bran. “The good old times” are too frequently quoted
as periods of comfort, compared with the present days; but such facts as
have been now related must convince every Englishman of right feeling
that, however humble his lot, he still possesses “a goodly heritage.”
For a considerable time no event occurred in Oswestry worthy of detailed
notice. In the 42nd of Elizabeth, Coke, Attorney-General, acknowledges
all the liberties and franchises of Oswestry, by an order that all
further proceedings on the part of the Crown, on a writ of _Quo Warranto_
against the Bailiffs and Burgesses of Oswestry, should wholly cease. In
1603 a dispute took place between the Bailiffs, Burgesses, &c. and the
Earl of Suffolk, then lord and owner of the town and manor, the former
body having, in numerous assembly, resolved to maintain the rights and
privileges granted to them by Richard II., and confirmed by their “late
sovereigne of famous memorye, queene Elizabeth.” A petition setting
forth their grievances, mainly caused by the Earl of Suffolk’s steward,
had been presented by them to the Lord President of the Marches; to which
Lord Suffolk replied as follows:—
“_To his good freinds_, _the Burgesses and Townesmen of his Towne and
Manor of Oswester_:
I HAVE of late receaved a Letter from my honble good Lord and freind,
the L. President of Wales, wch declared unto mee, a great desire in
his Lpp to give some satisfaction to you uppon a Peticon given him
from yor Towne, as exceptinge against the Course wch Mr. Lloyd, my
Officer, healde with you. Nowe you must knowe, that I doe, and will
avowe him in such things as he, in his discreation, shall find to bee
profitable for mee wch, perchaunce, may bee displeasinge to you, but
herin you may further wronge yor selves then you are aware off; for
yf you shall deny to yeald mee thoes Rights & Proffits that are due
unto me, as Lord of the Manor, you must then knowe, that I doe look
for at Mr. Lloyds hands such a resistance of yor wills as I may not
bee prejudized thereby: & I knowe his understandinge & discreation is
such, as he would not drawe mee into frivolous and needles
questions.—Therefore I must tell you, that yf you have refused the
duties whch belonge unto mee, that I will execute my remedies as the
lawes of the Land will allowe mee. But, becawse I wolde not be
thought rigorous, and that yt may appeare that my L: President hath
the powre of an honorable & kind ffreind in mee, I am contented that
yf you doe sende upp to the Tearme at Winchester, such as shall have
powre to followe the cawse in the behaulf of you all, that then the
questions wch are risen between the Steward & you shall, yf yt may
be, have an end; by Councill chosen of each syde; wch Course shall
please mee well: but yf yt happen otherwise, the fault shall not be
myne, for I desire not contencons; but then of necessety, Lawe must
determyn them. In the meane tyme, I charge you all to carry yor
selves respectively and duetifully to my Officers; for you must learn
to obey, yf you will desire to be obeyed; wch you, being a Corporate
Towne, should principally desire. And soe I leave you for this tyme,
untill I heare further from you. From the Court at Wylton, this 25th
of October, 1603.
Yor Lovinge freind & Lord,
SUFFOLKE.”
James I. in 1616, granted a Charter to the town, thus removing “divers
doubts and ambiguities” which had “arisen concerning the ancient
liberties, francheses, &c., of the town and borough of Oswaldstre,” and
extending their liberties and privileges, as well as confirming them a
body corporate, by the name of “the Bayliff and Burgesses of Oswestry, in
the Countie of Salope.”
About this period a heavy blow was struck at the commerce of the town, by
the Drapers of Shrewsbury (a reference to whose complaints and
apprehensions has already been made), “who weary,” says Pennant, “of
their weekly journeys to Oswestry, determined to transfer the market to
their own town, from that in which Queen Elizabeth had established it.
But this attempt proved in the first instance abortive. The Lordship of
Oswestry was enjoyed at this time by Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk, to
whom it had been granted by the late queen, in the 43rd year of her
reign. He was in great favour with James, in whose Court he held the
office of Lord Chamberlain, and to whom he had recently recommended
himself by his vigilance and promptitude in the discovery of the
Gunpowder Plot. Possessed of the highest notions of the privileges of
the peerage, and jealous of the infringement of his rights by the traders
of Salop, he issued his mandate to them by one of their own body,—Arthur
Kynaston, merchant of the staple, a younger brother of the house of
Ruyton,—to desist from such attempts in future. Their answer is recorded
in their own books: it is entitled ‘The copy of a letter sent by the
Company to the Earle of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain of his Majestie’s
househoulde, ye 24th June, 1609.’ ‘Right Honerabell,—Your letter bearing
date the second of this June, by the hands of Mr. Kiniston wee have
received: wherein ytt appereth yor Lordship was informed that wee the
Societie of Drapers wentt aboute by underarte and menenesse to withdraw
your markett of Walsh clothe from your towne of Oswester;’ and they
proceed to exculpate themselves from the charge in those phrases of
submission which were in that day the established usage of inferiors in
their addresses to those above them. This was their tone during the
plenitude of the Earl’s power, which, five years after the date of this
letter, received a great increase by his appointment to the exalted post
of Lord High Treasurer of England. During this time we may be sure ‘the
market for frize and cottons continued, where, according to Heylin, it
was originally fixed, at Oswestry.’ But in 1618, the King’s necessities
caused an enquiry into the management of the treasury, and Suffolk, whose
unbounded expenses in his magnificent palace at Audley-End, had brought
him into pecuniary difficulties, was fined by the Court of Star Chamber
in the vast sum of £30,000, and dismissed from all his employments. The
clemency of James mitigated this enormous fine, but the influence of the
Earl of Suffolk was gone; and in 1621 the Shrewsbury Drapers made an
order upon the books of their Company, ‘That they will not buy cloth at
Oswestry, or elsewhere than in Salop.’”
As we have shewn in a preceding page, the struggles of the Welsh, to
recover the freedom they had lost, terminated with the death of their
last great leader, Owain Glyndwr. “Their wild spirit of independence,
and their enthusiasm for liberty,” says the eloquent historian whom we
have already quoted, “from this period gradually declined. The blood of
their beloved Princes was nearly extinct; and their native bravery was
subdued, or rendered ineffectual, by their intestine divisions and by
their repeated misfortunes. When fierce valour and unregulated freedom
are opposed to discipline, to enlarged views, and to sound policy, the
contest is very unequal: it is not therefore surprising that the genius
of England at length obtained the ascendancy. It was, indeed, an
interesting spectacle, and might justly have excited indignation and
pity, to have seen an ancient and gallant nation, falling the victims of
private ambition, or sinking under the weight of a superior power. But
such emotions, which were then due to that injured people, have lost at
this period their force and their poignancy. A new train of ideas
arises; when we see that the change is beneficial to the vanquished—when
we see a wild and precarious liberty succeeded by a freedom which is
secured by equal and fixed laws—when we see manners hostile and
barbarous, and a spirit of rapine and cruelty, softened down into the
arts of peace, and the milder arts of civilized life—when we see this
Remnant of the Ancient Britons uniting in interests, and mingling in
friendship with their conquerors, and enjoying with them the same
constitutional liberties; the purity of which, we trust, will continue
uncorrupted as long as the British Empire shall be numbered among the
nations of the earth.”
We now approach a period in our national history which has ever been
viewed, by opposing political parties, in a conflicting spirit. The
turbulent elements of
THE CIVIL WARS
were not allayed until Death had silenced the two great actors in the
tragic and murderous drama. The present volume, devoted principally to
local history, is not an appropriate organ in which to discuss the merits
and demerits of Charles I. and his sturdy rival Cromwell. Charles was
doubtless guilty of many gross violations of his prerogative, and plunged
into a reckless course of misgovernment, accompanied with galling
taxation, which the people, beginning to learn the lessons of liberty,
and to understand the genius of the British constitution, would not
tamely submit to.