_Blockade of Corfe Castle in 1644._--In Martyn's _Life of Shafetesbury_
(vol. i. p. 148.) it is stated that a parliamentary force, under Sir
A.A. Cooper, blockaded Corfe Castle in 1644, after the taking of
Wareham. I can find no mention any where else of an attack on Corfe
Castle in 1644. The blockade of that castle, which Lady Bankes's defence
has made memorable, was in the previous year, and Sir A.A. Cooper had
not then joined the parliament. I should be glad if any of your readers
could either corroborate Martyn's account of a blockade of Corfe Castle
in 1644, or prove it to be, as I am inclined to think it, a
mis-statement.
I should be very thankful for any information as to Sir Anthony Asteley
Cooper's proceedings in Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire,
during the Civil War and Commonwealth, being engaged upon a life of Lord
Shaftesbury.