Throughout the summer the Commissioners of Array for the King and Deputy Lieutenants for Parliament attempted to raise the Trained Bands and to seize the magazine in every county.

During the confusion caused by the troops waiting to be shipped from Chester to Ireland to suppress the rebellion there, Sir William Brereton, the Parliamentary representative in Cheshire, turned to what was virtually recruiting.

Charles made it unnecessary for Aston to leave for Shrewsbury as he instead came to Chester and it was from here that he issued, on 26 September, an order for the seizure of arms and horses from those people who had carried out Parliament's Militia Ordinance in Cheshire.

He was also to seize arms and ammunition for the King's use and "put into execution the laws and customs martial upon all offenders.....for the better preventing of disorders, plunderings and outrages which are often committed by soldiers."

However Aston did not neglect his prime objective and ordered the Cheshire Commissioners of Array to defend Nantwich with 150 musketeers and to inform him of Brereton's progress.

He had wide powers to construct fortifications and raise more men and was to finance the whole enterprise by voluntary payment and distraint upon the rent and goods of local Royalists.

not just "to releave the town, beinge in greate danger to be plundered and destroyed by the Kings Armye and Commissioners of Array",[4] but also because it offered the only alternative to Chester as a county headquarters.

It had sufficient wealth and housing to accommodate a large garrison and staff and was the centre of a network of roads leading to the Midlands and London, to North Wales, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland.

A company of Brereton's dragoons dismounted but failed to leave anyone to control the horses which bolted into the fields and were taken by the Royalists for charging cavalry.

This does not seem to have caused any injury but the flash and the roar amid the general confusion frightened the Royalists so much "that they weire all scattered and quyte Rowted".

An agreement was made to raise a contribution in the county to pay the soldiers but most was paid to the upkeep of the Chester garrison, not to Aston's regiment or to the trained bands.

Apparently the money and provisions were issued on Saturday but it was so late that Aston had to leave two troops of horse in the forest to guard it - "though they lay in danger that night.

Although reluctant to linger in Middlewich, Thomas, after consulting with the sheriff, Sir Edward Fitton and Colonel Ellice, decided it was worth waiting for another day.

Thomas believed that Lord Brereton's presence in Middlewich led to the attack by the Parliamentarians because they wanted to prevent the Royalists from joining forces.

Sir William Brereton however, in his account of the battle, made it clear that he attacked because he believed a Royalist presence in Middlewich posed too much of a threat to be ignored.

In order to confer with Lord Brereton and also the sheriff's desire to "sumon the countrey with theire contribucon and assistance, necessitated a ioynt consent to stay there on Monday.

Aston's fears were well founded as Brereton arranged to meet the Nantwich forces at six o'clock the next morning and to make a joint attack on Middlewich.

He "with the best forces hee had theire came early in the mornynge backe to Midlewiche, & vpon Sheathe Heathe att the west end of the said Towne, Sr Thomas Aston havinge taken the advantage of the said ground & wynde, & planted his ordnance, sett upon him".

[4] Thomas sent a party of dragoons and horse under Captain Spotswood to give an alarm at Northwich, presumably to draw off some of Brereton's force.

About 800 foot and 300 horse came down Booth Lane and entered into Newton at the south end of the town, where Aston had placed "a good Brasse peece of ordnance" and two trained bands of 200 men who were "well advantaged by ditches and bankes on both sides."

The Parliamentarians were advancing towards the St Michael and All Angels church from three directions so Aston ordered a party of Captain Spotswood's dragoons to secure and defend the churchyard.

Relying on his two cannon to cover two streets, Aston ordered his cavalry, being exposed to the advancing enemy on three sides, to regroup in a field at one end of the town.

With all the other men, including Ellice, in the church and refusing to come out, Aston was now alone: "The enimy falling directly in three streets upon me, and discharging upon me in the church-yard, the horse marched out of sight.

He summed up his feelings about the battle thus: "It is the plain truth, the enemy having no diversion, but att liberty with their full power to fall on us from all parts, were much too hard for us in a place not defensible.

At the beginning of November he was captured by a Parliamentary force under the command of a certain Captain Stones "att or neere Banke" (possibly near Walsall) along with about 60 Royalists - presumably Cheshire men who had fought in Aston's regiment and who were also returning home.

From this time on through to February 1646, when the last remaining Royalist base at Chester surrendered to him, the county was dominated by Brereton and he proved to be a dynamic war-time leader not just militarily but also politically and administratively.

In 1651 he received the tenancy of the former archbishop's palace at Croydon in Surrey and he spent the last nine years of his life commuting between there and his ancestral home at Handforth, in Cheshire.