Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/311

CIVIL WAR. 279 March, 1645-6, Master Peter [the Hugh Peters above mentioned] delivered the following message from Sir Thomas Fairfax to the Houses of Parliament : " Divers small skirmishes we had with them. Lieutenant-Generall Cromwell himselfe, with some of his horses, in setting out parties and guards, and attending their motions, adventured himselfe according to his wonted manner." By the 23rd of this month the Royalist troops in Cornwall were disbanded, and the Parliament was master of the county. On the 25th, Fairfax and Cromwell went to Plymouth, leaving their army to march into Devon by way of Launceston. The contemporaneous historians of the Civil War in Cornwall have referred to Oliver Cromwell only by his office of Lieutenant-General. This may account for the omission of his name from the subsequent local histories, and for the doubt, sometimes expressed, whether the Protector ever visited us in person. In connection with this " Castle" division of our subject, our manuscripts relate that on the 14th April, 1646, the Mayor " p d for 4 dayes worke to make up e the Castell wall 4s. 25th. P d Winnocott and his sonne for 4 dayes worke down aboute the towne wall by the Castell gate 6s. ; pd Burte, then, for 2 dayes worke for the gaurde house neere the West Gate 2s. ; pd Pasco Rogers for 3 scone lockes for the gates and for setting them on 5s. ; to Baall and Ratleeffe for work at West Gate 5s. 2d. ; for tymber for the West Gate, for coveringe the West Gate 3s. 6d. ; for lyme about the same 3s. ; for ragges for the same and their carriage £1 15s." The 14th April, 1646, was kept as a thanksgiving-day al Launceston. This was probably done by order of the Parliament for its recent successes. Alderman Thomas Bolithoe had, in 1644, allied himself to the Parliamentarians. For this act his brother aldermen,