Humphrey Mackworth (Parliamentarian)

In 1638, a compromise engineered by Sir Richard Newport finally renewed the charter and left Poole in place, expanding the council and giving both the "religious party" of Mackworth and their opponents representation.

[36] Its first halt was at Bridgnorth, where the king issued a proclamation "for the better peace of our County of Salop," ordering the arrest of "some persons of good quality," accused of spreading sedition and libel, whom Charles intended to put on trial for high treason.

He was appointed to a series of committees and associations, covering Shropshire and neighbouring counties, as Parliament sought to establish a provisional government of the areas captured by the royalists, pending their recapture.

Progress in actually fighting the Shropshire royalists was initially slow – not least because the regional parliamentarian commander, Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh was the object of accusations of disloyalty which he shook off only with difficulty.

An uprising of the townspeople, including women armed with pans, was credited with turning the tide and a popular rhyme declared: Mackworth was present during the royalist assault and seems to have taken part in the fighting.

A damaged letter from the same month, preserved in the state papers and complaining about depredations of the Parliamentarians around Hodnet, name Mackworth, Mytton, Lloyd and Thomas Hunt as "the chief men with us of the Committee.

[50] Robert Corbet and Andrew Lloyd, committee members who remained at Wem, wrote to Mackworth, asking him to "represent our forlorne condition to the Parliament, for whom we have desperately engaged our estates and lives.

[52] On 18 February Prince Rupert arrived in Shrewsbury, shook up the garrison[53] and then launched a brutal campaign, defeating a force under Mytton at Market Drayton[54] He left on 14 March to relieve Newark.

However divisions began to emerge between the military and the civilians, setting Mytton against the rest of the county committee, which seems to have resented his being in London during this further onslaught: he returned on 24 May[56] – just after Rupert moved away to the relief of York and a shattering defeat at the Battle of Marston Moor.

Mackworth was subject to implicit criticism from Parliament: on 11 September the Committee of Both Kingdoms resolved to tell him that he should prioritise his work in Shropshire over his responsibilities at Coventry[59] and on 17th despatched a letter to this effect via Pierrepont.

It found that he had violated an agreement made with the Coventry Committee and "The Question being put, Whether this House doth concur with the Lords, in sending down the Earl of Denbigh to his Command in his Association: It passed with the Negative.

[65] However, on 27 February, immediately after news of the town's capture arrived in London, the Commons voted £4000 for Shrewsbury's defence and resolved: On 26 March the committee replied that "Wee have upon serious consideration made choyce of Colonell Humfrey Mackworth.

The uncertainty caused Mackworth to write urgently to members of the county committee on 5 June: However, there were already rumours that the ruling group moved more slowly than the situation demanded because they secretly favoured the army.

The discontinuation of the plans for classical presbyteries during the year suggests the same: the functioning fourth classis was dominated by Sir John Corbet,[85] who was part of the moderate Presbyterian group in Parliament.

Mackworth learnt through an informer that several troops of royalist cavalry would meet at various locations across the north of the county, close to the Welsh border, including Wattlesborough, before proceeding to a general rendezvous at Prees Heath.

[94] Mackworth reported to this on 5 August to William Pierrepont, a member of the Derby House Committee, which oversaw the war effort, requesting extra funds to reinforce Shrewsbury's defences.

His response to Pride's Purge of parliament was entirely positive and a letter from Mackworth and his officers to Fairfax was read on 26 December in the House of Commons, asking that "his Excellency would endeavour that justice may done upon the Authors of our troubles and bloodshed in the three Kingdoms in some exemplary way.

[103] However, there was a serious incident of internal dissent in August, when a cavalry troop heading for Ireland were attacked by a mob led by Robert Clive, disarmed and robbed of their horse – a protest against continuing militarisation.

[109] Mackworth was ordered to eject the Presbyterian ministers who refused the Engagement in August, including Samuel Fisher at Mary's and Thomas Blake of Alkmund's,[110] although both were active in pastoral care during the plague.

He flatly rejected all attempts to win him over and declared: On 27 August both letters were read in the House of Commons, which voted to send Mackworth a medal attached to a gold chain valued at £100, "as a Mark of the Parliament's Favour, and good Acceptance of his Fidelity.

In September 1647 Mackworth added the recordership of Wenlock to that of Shrewsbury and, at some stage, he also became recorder of Bridgnorth, although this is not attested before December 1653, when he was ordered to consider a petition concerning compensation for the burning of the town more than seven years earlier.

[129] In June Mackworth was granted a commission of oyer and terminer to sit with Peter Warburton and Robert Duckenfield to try conspirators arrested by William Brereton in connection with a royalist plot to seize Chester Castle.

[146] At the assizes of April 1652 Mackworth and Fell presided over the case of a Quaker or Ranter named Harrison,[147] who had proclaimed a radically interior interpretation of Christianity, denying the reality of the afterlife.

As early as 9 February he was deputed with three other members to prepare a report on the complex financial legacy of Sir Peter Temple, 2nd Baronet, whose widow Christian née Leveson, had Shropshire connections.

[162] On 23 March he was put on a committee to investigate the dispute between Elizabeth, Countess Dirletoun, and a group of improvers concerned in the construction of the River Wey Navigation, headed by James Pitson.

Sometimes he was deputed to deal with regional matters in which he had specialist knowledge, as when a law had to be passed allowing Sir George Warburton, the High Sheriff of Cheshire, to move his court to Nantwich because of a plague outbreak in Chester.

On 15 September he was appointed to a committee to examine the proceedings of the judges at Salters' Hall:[173] the very great powers of the livery company, which was able to regulate many aspects of the daily life as well as the work of its members, seem to have become controversial and Mackworth had considerable experience in dealing with City institutions.

[178] Further committees were on Scotland,[179] the Court of Chancery,[180] a petition from William Killigrew (1606–1695) over problems developing the Lincolnshire Fens,[181] and another from Lord Craven[182] an immensely wealthy royalist who was seeking the return of his property.

The last mention of him in action has him presenting to the council the papers of "Emanuel Martyns Dorindo, alias David Abrabanell, a Hebrew,"[185] about a year before the tacit acceptance of the resettlement of Jews in England.

[187] Edmund King, who acted as an assistant to Mackworth in his work for the State, also seems to have suffered financially and was given £30 by the Council in June 1655, with the recommendation that Cromwell find him a suitable post, possibly in the customs service.

ruined building in reddish sandstone
The gatehouse of Mackworth Castle.
Shrewsbury School's original building, which now serves as Shrewsbury's library.
Queens' College, Cambridge, as pictured by David Loggan , 1690.
Layout of Gray's Inn, taken from a birds-eye view, showing the Inn as a single walled compound still surrounded by fields.
Gray's Inn, in an enclosed area to the left of "Greys ynne la.", shown on the "Woodcut" map of London of the 1560s.
John Preston, Puritan preacher, from Samuel Clarke's Generall Martyrologie , 1651. Woodcut, artist unknown.
Portrait of William Laud in clerical garb.
William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose intervention in the religious conflicts at St Chad's was later used in his trial.
Print of a rather generic Cavalier, with long moustache and pointed beard.
Francis Ottley, first of the royalist governors of Shrewsbury and a relative of Mackworth.
Half-length portrait in a cartouche of slightly rotund man, with slight moustache, in deep red velvet robe with white collar.
William Pierrepont of Tong Castle , a moderate but steadfast Parliamentarian who seems to have enjoyed the confidence of Mackworth and Cromwell.
Sir William Brereton, Parliament's commander in Cheshire and a valuable ally of the Shropshire committee.
Arthur Capel, 1st Baron Capel, who commanded the royalist armies in the region.
Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar of Laud's trial, which forced Mackworth to go to London in 1644.
Wenceslas Hollar's portrait of Basil Fielding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh, Parliament's commander in the Midlands, who considered himself socially superior to the gentry county committee men.
Sketch map of infantry, cavalry and shock force attacks on Sahrewsbury, 21 February 1645
Plan of the capture of Shrewsbury by parliamentarian forces, 21 February 1645. The route used by Reinking's force is marked as "Benbow's Detachment."
Head and shoulders colour portrait of haughty Cavalier, wearing yellow, with breastplate, lace collar and elaborate black cockade.
Lord Byron, the king's agent in the Welsh Marches during the renewed of civil war in 1648.
Gatehouse to Madeley Court, one of the probable targets of the June rebellion.
Grey stone ruins, with tall upstanding remains of tower, on a grassy hill, pictured against blue sky.
Ruins of Montgomery Castle, which Mackworth secured for Parliament. It was later slighted to prevent its reuse.
Sir Robert Harley, a distant relative of Mackworth, who was refused permission to settle in Shrewsbury.
English satirical view of Charles Stuart's relationship to his Scottish supporters.
The Earl of Derby, executed after Mackworth presided over his trial.
James Nayler , a Quaker leader, being pilloried and whipped, in stark contrast to Harrison's treatment by Mackworth and Fell.
John Lilburne. Mackworth was one of the committee that recommended his internment on Jersey.
Oliver Cromwell in 1656 by Samuel Cooper .
Memorial to the exhumed and reburied Parliamentarians at St Margaret's, Westminster.