POLITICAL HISTORY
Royalist feeling was really strong in the county, as is shown by an examination of the Parliamentary returns during the Commonwealth. In July, 1653, the county and city returned two members respectively to the Nominated Parliament. In spite of the fact that the members were not freely elected, one of the city representatives, Bennett Hoskins, was after- wards accused of having borne arms for the king.* With the establishment of the Protectorate, the Royalist feeling became more marked. In July, 1654, the county returned four members to Cromwell's first Parliament, while the city and Leominster furnished one each. Bennett Hoskins sat for the city, and Colonel Birch, by this time a known reactionary, for Leominster ; while one of the county representatives, Richard Reade, was accused, in a petition to the Protector, of having been on the king's side, and of still associating only with malignants.**
In March, 1655, the rising of Grove and Penruddock occasioned the division of England into administrative districts under the major-generals. The counties of Hereford, Worcester, Salop, and North Wales were placed under James Berry. On 24 November, 1655, he wrote to Thurloe that he found the gentry well disposed to the existing government, and that Birch, who on the news of Penruddock's outbreak had been promptly placed in Hereford gaol by Colonel Wroth Rogers, the successor of Moore as governor of Here- ford Castle, was still in custody, but seemed desirous of peace and settlement.**
Berry's rule was kindly and indulgent, in accordance with Cromwell's wishes. In 1656 Colonel Edward Harley was returned to Parliament for the county, but was among those secluded by Cromwell,*'^ while Colonel Birch was not permitted to take his seat for Leominster.**^ In 1658 the excise was only collected with difficulty, in consequence of the reluctance of the justices of the peace to support the collectors.*** In July parties of insurgents appeared in the neighbourhood of Hereford.**^ Never- theless, the representatives sent to the Parliament of January, 1659, were none of them pronounced opponents of the existing government. The country was so weary of war that in the last rising of the Royalists under Sir George Booth in 1659, the arrest and imprisonment of a few persons by Hugh Jenkins, the deputy-governor of Hereford Castle,**° under Rogers, sufficed to keep it quiet. When Monck seized the reins of government early in 1660 he replaced Colonel Wroth Rogers as governor of Hereford by Captain Green. Green, however, being inimical to the restoration of Charles II, was in turn superseded by Captain Henry Leicester.**^ When he heard of his displacement he fetched arms by night from the garrison and gave them to friends of the Commonwealth. He did not, however, venture openly to resist Leicester.*** Colonel Birch actively assisted Monck, and was one of his Council of State.**^ After the Restoration he took up his residence at the Homme near Leominster, which borough he represented in the Convention Parliament, afterwards sitting for Weobley from 1678 till his death in 1691. {{nop)) "' S.P. Dom. Interregnum, Ixxiv, 8;, no. "o g.p. Dom. Interregnum, Ixxiv, 109, no. «" Thurloe, State Papers (l 742), iv, 237. <" Whitelocke, Memorials, 65 1-3.
- " Thurloe, State Papers, v, 453. <«* Cal. S.P. Dom. 1658-9, p. 76.
- Ibid. 1659-60, pp. 55, 68, 81, 87, 172. *^ Com. Journ. 30 July, i6cq.
"' S.P. Dom. Chas. II, xxviii, 34.
- »^ Ibid, xxiii, 71, I. "» Kennett, Re^ster, 66.
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