HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH DONCASTER. THOMAS, EARL OF
LANCASTER. EDWARD IV. ASKE'S INSURRECTION. ILLUSTRIOUS VISITORS. JAMES
I. BARNABEE. CHARLES I. CHURCH LIBRARY.
They unto whom we shall appear tedious, are in no wise injured by us,
because it is in their own hands to spare that labour which they are
not willing to endure.
HOOKER.
Nothing more than the scanty notices which have already been mentioned
is recorded concerning the history of Doncaster, till King John
ordered it “to be enclosed with hertstone and pale, according as the
ditch required; and that a light brecost or barbican should be made
upon the bridge, to defend the town if need should be.” The bridge was
then of wood; in the following reign the townsmen “gave aid to make a
stone bridge there:” in that reign a hospital for sick and leprous
people was built there, the priories of St. James and St. Nicholas
founded, a Dominican convent, and a Franciscan one. Henry III. slept
there on his way to York. In the 23d year of Edward I. the borough was
first summoned to send members to Parliament, from which burthen as it
was then considered, it was relieved in the ensuing year.
In 1321, Thomas Earl of Lancaster held a council here with other
discontented Barons against Edward II.; in its results it brought many
of them to an untimely death, and Lancaster himself suffered by the
axe at Pomfret, as much in revenge for Gaveston, as for this
rebellion. “In this sort,” says an old chronicler, “came the mighty
Earl of Lancaster to his end, being the greatest Peer in this realm,
and one of the mightiest Earls in Christendom: for when he began to
levy war against the King, he was possessed of five earldoms,
Lancaster, Lincoln, Salisbury, Leicester and Derby, beside other
seigniories, lands and possessions, great to his advancement in honor
and puissance. But all this was limited within prescription of time,
which being expired both honor and puissances were cut off with
dishonor and death; for (O miserable state!)
_Invida fatorum series, summisque negatum
Stare diu._
“But now touching the foresaid Earl of Lancaster, great strife rose
afterwards amongst the people, whether he ought to be reputed for a
saint, or no. Some held that he ought to be no less esteemed, for that
he did many alms-deeds in his lifetime, honored men of religion, and
maintained a true quarrel till his life's end. Also his enemies
continued not long after, but came to evil ends. Others conceived
another opinion of him, alledging that he favoured not his wife, but
lived in spouse-breach, defiling a great number of damsels and
gentlewomen. If any offended him, he slew him shortly after in his
wrathful mood. Apostates and other evil doers he maintained, and would
not suffer them to be punished by due order of law. All his doings he
used to commit to one of his secretaries, and took no heed himself
thereof; and as for the manner of his death, he fled shamefully in the
fight, and was taken and put to death against his will; yet by reason
of certain miracles which were said to be done near the place both
where he suffered and where he was buried, caused many to think he was
a Saint. Howbeit, at length by the King's commandment the church doors
of the Priory where he was buried, were shut and closed, so that no
man might be suffered to come to the tomb to bring any offerings, or
to do any other kind of devotion to the same. Also the hill where he
suffered was kept by certain Gascoigners appointed by the Lord Hugh
Spenser his son, then lying at Pomfret, to the end that no people
should come and make their prayers there in worship of the said Earl,
whom they took verily for a martyr.”
The next confederacy at Doncaster was more successful though it led
eventually to bloodier consequences. Bolingbroke after landing at
Ravensburg, was met here by Northumberland, Hotspur, Westmorland, and
others, who engaged with him there, some of them probably not knowing
how far his ambitious views extended, and who afterwards became the
victims of their own turbulent policy. The Dragon's teeth which were
then sown produced a plentiful harvest threescore years afterwards,
when more than six and thirty thousand Englishmen fell by each others
hands at Towton, between this town and York. Edward IV. beheaded Sir
Robert Willis and Sir Ralph Grey here, whom he had taken in the rout
of Lose-coat field; and when he mustered his people here to march
against Warwick and Clarence whose intentions began then to be
discovered, “it was said that never was seen in England so many goodly
men and so well arranged in a field.” Afterwards he past through
Doncaster when he returned from exile, on the way to his crowning
victory at Barnet.
Richard III. also past through this place on the way to York where he
was crowned. In Henry VIII's reign it became the actual seat of war,
and a battle would have been fought there, if the Don had not by its
sudden rising twice prevented Aske and his army of insurgents from
attacking the Duke of Norfolk, with so superior a force that success
would have been almost certain, and the triumph of the popish party a
probable result. Here Norfolk, profiting by that delay, treated with
the insurgents, and finally by offering them a free pardon, and
engaging that a free Parliament should be held in the North, induced
them to disperse.
In 1538 John Grigge the Mayor, lost a thumb in an affray at Marshgate,
and next year the Prior of Doncaster was hanged for treason. In 1551
the town was visited by the plague: in that of 1582, 908 persons died
here.
The next noticeable circumstance in the annals of Doncaster, is that
James I. lodged there, at the sign of the Sun and Bear, on his way
from Scotland to take possession of the Crown of England.
The maypole in the market place was taken down in 1634, and the market
cross erected there in its place. But the removal of the maypole seems
to have been no proof of any improved state of morals in the town; for
Barnabee, the illustrious potator, saw there the most unbecoming sight
that he met with in all his travels. On his second visit the frail
Levite was dead; and I will not pick out a name from the succession of
Vicars which might suit the time of the poem, because though Doncaster
was the scene it does not follow that the Vicar was the actor; and
whoever he may have been his name can be no object of legitimate
curiosity, though Barnabee's justly was, till it was with so much
ingenuity determined by Mr. Haslewood.
When the army which had been raised against the Scots was disbanded,
Charles I. dined there at the house of Lady Carlingford, and a pear
tree which he is said to have planted is now standing there in Mr.
Maw's garden. Charles was there again in 1644, and attended service in
the church. And from a house in the butter market it was that Morris
with two companions attempted to carry off the parliamentary commander
Rainsborough at noon-day, and failing in the attempt, killed him upon
the spot.
A Church Library was founded here by the contributions of the clergy
and gentry of the surrounding country in 1726. A chamber over the
church porch was appropriated for the books, with the Archbishop's
licence; and there was one curate of this town whose love of reading
was so great, that he not only passed his days in this library, but
had a bed fixed there, and spent his nights there also.
In 1731 all the streets were new paved, and the sign posts taken down;
and in 1739, Daniel Dove, in remembrance of whom these volumes are
composed, came to reside in Doncaster.