Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet
Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet (13 June 1617 – 28 December 1656) was an English lawyer and politician who sat for Shropshire in the House of Commons in the Short Parliament of 1640.
[6] After supporting George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham in the reign of James VI and I, he became a strong opponent of absolute monarchy under Charles and voted for the Petition of Right.
[18] We whose names are hereunder written, do hereby engage ourselves, each to the other, and promise upon the faith and word of a Gentleman, that we will do our utmost endeavours, both by ourselves and friends, to raise as well for the defence of our King and country as our own particular safeties, one entire Regiment of dragooners, and with our lives to defend those men's fortunes and families, who shall be contributors herein to their abilities.
Orlando Bridgeman, the chief justice and effective deputy governor of Chester, rehearsed these problems in a letter to Sir Francis Ottley on 20 January:[20] Corbet, he complained, had been instructed to advance from Whitchurch, Shropshire to Tarporley, well inside Cheshire, but had refused on the grounds that his force was too small.
Bridgeman urged Ottley to appeal to the Shropshire gentry for reinforcements, as he believed an attack by Sir William Brereton, the main Parliamentarian commander in the region, imminent.
Corbet's account, written the following morning at Market Drayton, also sought to portray the encounter as a draw, but ominously asked not for soldiers but surgeons.
[26]However, experience was making Corbet's force more effective, so that Brereton remarked of one encounter: "the Shropshire horse and Dragoons came on with great resolution and boldness, and in very good order."
The enlarged and more versatile force was able to make a much more effective contribution to Royalist efforts in the region, where the tide of battle flowed to and fro constantly, but the progress of the war was ultimately a question of taking and holding ground, particularly the patchwork of fortresses and strongpoints.
The propaganda war was also important in holding territory and populations, and Ottley at Shrewsbury was accused by Royalist headquarters at Oxford of slacking in the face of a torrent of Parliamentarian newspapers and pamphlets.
[7] In April it was federated with its counterparts in Warwickshire and Staffordshire, and in late summer, the support of Brereton allowed the committee to gain its first foothold in its native county, at the unfortified market town of Wem.
Early in 1644 Prince Rupert brought a large cavalry force to the area, ousted Ottley and set about reconquering Shropshire and Cheshire.
An incident involving Sir Vincent Corbet, probably in the early summer, illustrates his continuing humanity and respect for family in a situation of now total war.
They cast the dice on a drum head, to see who should dye, and amongst them there was one Phillip Litleton, who had been servant and keeper of the parke to my old master, Robert Corbett of Stanwardine, Esqr.
[32]He seems to have spent the summer and autumn of 1644 fighting to hold back the slow Parliamentarian advance while constantly hampered by lack of accurate information or clear strategy.
[33] This morning I heard from Wem and there strength is not above five hundered foote and foure troopes of Horse theire largest peece is two thousand weight, ye other two are small ones they make noe preparation for removing yet.
[35] Mounting one of the fortifications by surprise, five determined attackers made as much noise and confusion as possible, hurling hand grenades at the defenders to pen them indoors and convince them that a large force had broken in.
[36] This reflected increasing disenchantment at lower levels: when the Bridgnorth garrison tried to requisition supplies at Tong and Shifnal, Sir Morton Brigges encouraged the Parishioners to resist and a scuffle ensued, in which most of the soldiers were wounded, and disarmed, and called Popish Dogs.
They were kept Prisoners for five or six hours...[26]By the end of the year, groups of "clubmen" were operating in the south of Shropshire as a more organised response to the plunder and extortion practised by the soldiers.
As Corbet was away on campaign, probably with Maurice, he avoided capture by Parliamentarians, who surprised a meeting of the county's commissioners of array at Apley Hall,[27] home of Sir Thomas Whitmore, 1st Baronet, on 21 February and took them prisoner.
However, Reinking exploited an entrance provided by Sir William Owen, a former MP and tenant of the council house, and seized control with minimum bloodshed, opening the gates to the main force.
The defenders retreated into the castle and Sir Thomas Wolryche, 1st Baronet ordered the town itself to be burnt to ground to deny it to the enemy, allegedly making more than 300 families homeless.
Corbet had placed the estates under the management of trustees: his brother-in-law, Francis Thornes; his younger brother, Arthur; and Richard Baddeley, a friend.
[44] As his eldest surviving son and heir, Sir Vincent Corbet, 2nd Baronet, was well below the age of majority – probably 14 or 15 – the trustees now took over active management of the estates.
Shortly before his death, Corbet had made an indenture committing the family lands in Buckinghamshire, to his trustees specifically to generate marriage portions for his daughters: £2000 for Elizabeth and £1000 each for the others.
[45] These estates were centred on the manor of Linslade, now in Bedfordshire, which had returned to Sir Vincent's control after the death of his grandmother and great-aunt, Judith Austin, in 1642.
