Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/288

258 THE CASTLE. diction " of the Castle, and that the Mayor was exercising authority not only within his own municipality, but within the precincts of the Castle also. The constables of 1641-3 — Thomas Stokes, Oswald Kingdon, Henry Bennett, Richard Blighe, and others — delivered to his worship their bills for official services, and such bills were allowed and paid by the Corporation. Thus Mr. Stokes, 28th February, 1641 [old style, when the year ended at Lady-day] : For my horse & expenses att Kellington aboute the protesta- tion, 2S. Pd for paper & parchment & ingrossing of the protesta- tion 5s. 4d. Pd for returne thereof unto Mr. Treffussis is. This was a protestation made under the order of Parlia- ment in May, 164.1. It was a solemn promise to maintain and defend the reformed Protestant religion, the powers and privileges of Parliament, and the lawful rights and liberties of the subject, and an undertaking to aid in pre- serving union and peace between the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The protestation was to be subscribed by every member of each house of Parlia- ment, and the Commons directed copies of it to be printed and sent by the members to their several counties and boroughs. It appears from the Calendar of the House of Lords that returns were afterwards required of the names of persons who had subscribed, and that such returns are for the most part dated in February and March, 1 641-2. Launceston is one of the places from which a return had been obtained. Very shortly afterwards — namely, on the 30th May, 1642, — John Estcott, a woollen draper, who a few years before had been mayor of the borough, and who in heart was probably a Royalist, said in a conversation with his fellow- townsmen " that he never knew nor heard of a Parliament that did proceed so basely as this present Parliament now doth ; that many able honest men of the House were