Dorchester

The county town of Dorchester was located on a chalk plateau above the River Frome, and its origins as a Roman settlement could be seen in the ‘Walks’ which followed the old boundary walls, and in the straight main streets, West, East and South Streets, which met at the central market place. Historic Towns in Dorset, 53-4. In the early seventeenth century, Dorchester was in many ways an unremarkable place: a modestly prosperous town with a population of about 2,000, run by an oligarchic council, whose inhabitants were said to ‘gain much by clothing and altogether trade in merchandise, [the port of] Weymouth being so near a neighbour unto them’. D. Underdown, Fire from Heaven: Life in an English Town in the Seventeenth Century (1993), 2; T. Coker, Survey of Dorsetshire (1732), 69. Yet in social and religious terms, the town was highly distinctive. A devastating fire in August 1613 had destroyed half the houses, and had caused the leading inhabitants, led by the rector of Holy Trinity parish, John White, to embrace an overtly godly way of life. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 2-3, 14. This change can be most easily seen in material terms. The inhabitants established a new hospital, which taught 50 poor children useful trades, and made increased provision for poor relief; the school was placed firmly under godly control, and the three town churches were enlarged. Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, ff. 6v, 12v. The various charities were financed by the brewhouse, built in 1622, which supplied, and in effect regulated, the town taverns. The townsmen also looked outwards, establishing the Dorchester Company at Cape Ann, near Boston (which was later incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Company) and investing in the Providence Island scheme. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 90, 114-5, 131-7. The puritanical stand made by White and his friends attracted other godly families to move into the town, including the Bushrods, Goulds, Bonds and Whiteways. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 42-3. Under their influence the corporation became noted for its ‘severe government and administering justice’. Coker, Dorsetshire, 70. The puritan elite also came into conflict with the government and its policies in the 1630s. John White refused to countenance the Laudian Book of Sports, and was investigated for sedition in 1634-5. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 173-4. The mayor in 1637, James Gould*, steadfastly refused to pay Ship Money, and was hauled before the privy council in 1640. PC2/52, p. 585.

The elections for Dorchester in 1640 show the town’s leaders in confident mood. The Short Parliament had long been anticipated, and Theophilus Howard, 2nd earl of Suffolk, as lord lieutenant of Dorset, asked the borough to elect the courtier Dudley Carleton as one of their MPs. This request may have prompted the council to make its own, rival declaration on 24 January 1640 that their MP from the 1627-8 Parliament, Denzil Holles, and one of their own number, Denis Bond, were the ‘fittest men’ to serve the borough in the forthcoming Parliament. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 17. In any case, they were not going to cooperate with Suffolk. On 7 February the corporation sent a formal reply to the earl, saying that they would present his choice to the townsmen, but warning that ‘by a constitution of this town heretofore made, none can be chosen a burgess for a Parliament for us, but one that shall be a free burgess of the borough’. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/2, p. 19. When the inhabitants were consulted, they reputedly declared ‘their resolve to propose townsmen’, and the mayor was instructed to break the news to the earl of Suffolk. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 20. The election was made on 13 March by the mayor, burgesses and freemen, but it was not until 20 March that the indenture was signed by the mayor, apparently on behalf of the burgesses only, and Holles and Bond were legally returned. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 21; C219/42/95. The Long Parliament elections did not need such careful management, but the result was the same, and on 22 October 1640 Holles and Bond were again returned for the borough. Dorset RO, D/BOC/22, f. 53; D/DOB/16/3, f. 72.

At the onset of civil war in 1642, the Dorchester council was firmly on Parliament’s side, and was quick to make provisions to counter any royalist attempt on the town. A ‘band of soldiers’ had already been raised by the town in January 1642, when Denis Bond was consulted about a suitable captain, although this proved an unnecessary precaution. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 53. The next scare came in the summer. On 1 July the ‘town store’ of gunpowder, kept with the county store in the shire hall, was moved to the brewhouse, along with a quantity of lead and match. Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 578-9. The Militia Ordinance, received by the town on 19 July, prompted a burst of activity, including an armed guard on the county magazine, and a ‘strong watch’ was ordered to prevent a ‘surprise’ during the assizes in August. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, pp. 61-2. The execution of a Catholic priest in the same month brought an upsurge of religious hatred, which fuelled the sense of unease, and Dorchester provided many volunteers for the attack on royalist-held Sherborne Castle, in the north of the county, in early September. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 197-200. In the winter of 1642-3, 160 soldiers were paid by the council to defend the town, while defences were built along the line of the old Roman walls. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, pp. 67-8, 70-3. Despite these preparations, a direct threat against the town did not emerge until the summer of 1643, when the royalist army, fresh from the successful siege of Bristol, marched south into Dorset. After viewing the elaborate fortifications at Dorchester, one visitor tactlessly told the inhabitants that ‘those works might keep out the cavaliers about half an hour’. Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 681. This gloomy prediction was never put to the test. When the cavalry of Robert Dormer, 1st earl of Carnarvon, arrived before the town on 2 August, it surrendered without a shot being fired. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 204.

For the rest of the 1640s Dorchester was in crisis. Although in August 1643 Carnarvon had promised to spare the property of the townsmen, he was overruled by Prince Maurice, who allowed his troops to plunder unhindered. A fresh assault in February 1645, this time led against the undefended town by George Goring’s* notorious cavalry, left the inhabitants stripped, and the brewhouse in ruins. Outbreaks of plague followed each visitation. Economic decline led to a fall in poor relief contributions in the town parishes; fee farm rents were respited by the government for 1643-5, and the dues from 1646-8 remained unpaid in 1649. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 204-5, 208-9; Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 89. Physical destruction was matched by the temporary collapse of godly rule. The council minute book was discontinued for four years ‘by reason of the wars’; John White did not return to his living until November 1646; and in December of that year it was recorded that the hospital ‘hath had no children in it for this three years last past’. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 23; Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 210; Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 517-8. The year 1646 marked the turning-point, however. In that year, the brewhouse was repaired, and in 1647, under the mayoralty of John Whiteway*, the school was re-established, and moves were made to resurrect the hospital. White died in 1648, but he was replaced, in January 1649, by an equally vigorous rector, the Presbyterian Stanley Gower, who served the town until his death in 1660. Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, ff. 34, 37v; D/B2/16/4, p. 77. Economic recovery was gradual, but in 1648-9 there were schemes set up to settle the town’s debts, and by 1650-1 the council was solvent, being able to lease crown lands, and lend money to individuals as well as to the government. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, pp. 90, 110, 111, 128, 1333, 140, 147, 166.

The commonwealth regime was not welcomed by the conservative puritans of the town. One of the borough MPs, Denzil Holles, had been secluded from Parliament as a Presbyterian in 1648, and although his counterpart, Denis Bond, remained at Westminster during the Rump, relations between him and his constituents were strained. The great Cromwellian victories at Dunbar and Worcester were duly celebrated by the churches, but the collections were abnormally low, suggesting a cool response to the defeat of the Scots. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 212-5. There were also problems within the Dorchester council, with many burgesses absenting themselves. The moderate former mayor, James Gould, refused to serve again in October 1653 and was removed as a burgess in July 1654. Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, f. 44r-v. Gould’s opponents were a group of burgesses led by John Whiteway, who continued to push for godly reform within the town. Whiteway and his friends were prepared to co-operate with the protectorate, and under their influence, the council maintained good relations with the authorities, especially the local major-general, John Disbrowe*, who was sent presents in 1656, and they continued to ask him for help even after the major-generals’ scheme had come to an end. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/4, p. 246; B2/16/5, p. 30. Whiteway’s prominence as a persecutor of the local Quakers was no doubt popular. CSP Dom. 1656-7, pp. 123, 262. There was also widespread support for officially-sponsored collections to relieve the sufferings of Waldensian Protestants in June 1655, and Poland and Bohemia in May 1658, with the former collection raising more per capita in the town than anywhere else in the west country. This upsurge of Protestant fellow feeling did not extend to the protectorate itself, however, and the fast day to mark Oliver Cromwell’s* death, held in October 1658, raised a minuscule collection. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 216, 228-9; Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 548, 551.

The elections for the protectorate Parliaments reflect the mixed feelings in the town. On 17 July 1654 John Whiteway ‘was elected and chosen burgess of Parliament for this town, at the town hall by the voices and consent of all that were present upon a full and fair summons’. Dorset RO, D/DOB/16/3, f. 44v; Recs. of Dorchester ed. Mayo, 436. Despite the wording of the council records, this election did not witness a widening of the franchise, as the indenture makes it clear that the electorate consisted of the usual combination of mayor, burgesses and inhabitants. C219/44, unfol.; cf. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 217. In 1656 Whiteway was again returned, but in the later years of the protectorate his authority over the town seems to have declined, and when new elections were held on 7 January 1659 the controversial townsman, James Gould, was elected alongside John Whiteway’s protégé, John Bushrod, in a meeting ‘at the shire hall’. Dorset RO, D/B2/16/5, p. 59. Whiteway was again returned in April 1660, but his power was now much reduced, and the Restoration marked the end of godly rule in Dorchester. The return of the king was greeted with apprehension rather than enthusiasm, and efforts were made to safeguard the town against reprisals. The new lord lieutenant of Dorset, Charles Stuart, 6th duke of Richmond, was made high steward of the borough; Denzil (now Lord) Holles was looked to as a patron; and the new recorder chosen in January 1662 was the royalist turn-coat, William Constantine*. When the corporation was purged later in 1662, Bushrod and Whiteway were removed, and a number of prominent royalists, including Richard Churchill, replaced them, with James Gould as one of only three old councillors retained by the commissioners. Dorset RO, B2/16/5, p. 140. As a final blow, the two puritan ministers who still served the town parishes, William Benn and George Hammond, were removed in 1663. Underdown, Fire from Heaven, 237-8.