Huntingdonshire

Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, as were several of his children. He and another future parliamentarian, Edward Montagu (later Earl of Sandwich) were educated at Huntingdon Grammar School. The Cromwell and Montagu clans were by far the most influential local landowners in 1642, although the profligacy of Sir Henry Williams alias Cromwell had been so deleterious that his son – Oliver’s uncle, Sir Oliver Cromwell – had been forced to sell their principal seat of Hinchingbrooke to the Montagus in 1627. Oliver owed his election as MP for Huntingdon in 1628 to Montagu patronage. Following a local dispute in 1631, he moved his branch of the family out to St Ives, and then to Ely. Nevertheless, Huntingdonshire’s early association with the future Lord Protector has often obscured the fact that the county was deeply divided by the civil war – not least its two leading families: Sir Sidney Montagu (Edward’s father), and the senior branch of the Cromwell family headed by Sir Oliver were unabashed royalists.

The county’s uncertain allegiance worried parliamentarian activists, given its proximity to the Great North Road, and its overland and waterborne access to East Anglia. Valentine Walton attempted to block the roads through Huntingdonshire in early August 1642, to prevent Cambridge colleges transporting their silver plate to the King. Many locals disapproved of Walton’s conduct, and Oliver’s royalist cousin Henry Cromwell was said to have assembled 50 horsemen to oppose him. In the event, Oliver intercepted much of the plate as it left Cambridge.

Oliver returned to Huntingdonshire in April 1643, tasked with suppressing royalist activity. A particularly pervasive account of ‘Cromwellian’ excesses – the sacking of Little Gidding – has been comprehensively debunked by Trevor Cooper. However, Oliver certainly confiscated arms and plate from royalist sympathisers, including his uncle, although he is said to have shown the old man every courtesy. Meanwhile, Oliver’s sons and other officers induced local men to volunteer for Cromwell’s double regiment of Ironsides. Huntingdonshire was incorporated into the Eastern Association in May 1643, at which time fortifications were erected to safeguard the county’s strategic infrastructure, most particularly navigation of the Great Ouse River. The gun battery and breastwork at Claydon’s Way, and the Earith Bulwark were most likely excavated at this time, part of a fortified frontier to protect East Anglia from royalist incursion from the Midlands.

Huntingdonshire was the smallest county in the Eastern Association, with a population of 34,000, but it bore a disproportionate share of the costs of Parliament’s war effort. Worse still, in 1644 the Earl of Manchester (another Montagu) required the county to provide free quarter for the Association’s army as it assembled for a new campaign. Local leaders lobbied for a more equitable distribution of the burden, as they feared that the royalists would stir up local resentment. These fears were realised in August 1645, when the King’s battered army unexpectedly arrived in the county. Sweeping aside parliamentarian resistance at Stilton and Huntingdon, Charles received an enthusiastic reception from the town’s mayor and bailiffs. Thinking to make good the losses incurred at the battle of Naseby, the King ordered Colonel Henry Cromwell to muster all able-bodied men between 16 and 60 for royal service. Some 400 volunteers obeyed the summons, only to be told that they were not needed at that moment. In all likelihood, this was because the royalist high command had realised that they lacked the resources to feed, clothe and equip their existing army, let alone new recruits. Charles’ half-starved soldiers proceeded to plunder Huntingdon and its hinterlands, alienating the local communities. After the royalists had gone, all the bridges and fords across the Ouse from Earith to Eynebury were further fortified to prevent their return.

The county saw further clashes during the Second Civil War. When Colonel Edward Montagu attempted to deal with local discontent in early July 1648, he was seized by royalist insurgents and held prisoner. He was eventually rescued by parliamentarian reinforcements sent from Norfolk. Meanwhile, the Duke of Buckingham and Earl of Holland, marching to the aid of royalist insurgents bottled up in Colchester, were defeated at Kingston-upon-Thames. They fled northwards to Huntingdonshire, but were trapped in St Neots by New Model units led by Colonel Scrope. During a brief, vicious skirmish, many royalists were killed. Others drowned trying to flee across the Ouse. Some 150 were taken prisoner, including Lord Holland (who was subsequently executed).

Given the anecdotal evidence of divided loyalties and heavy recruiting in Huntingdonshire, it is frustrating that almost no documents have come to light to afford us a glimpse of the experience of the common people in the county. As it is, the haul comprises just one payment warrant issued by the Huntingdonshire county committee in 1644 for Robert Grimber, a sick soldier under Captain Whetstone.

The scant documentation concerning parliamentarian veterans, and the complete lack of any data regarding their royalist enemies, preclude any meaningful statistical analysis of civil-war veterans and widows in this county.

Further Reading

Trevor Cooper, ‘The sack that never happened: Little Gidding, puritan soldiers and the marking of a myth’, The Seventeenth Century, vol. 31, no. 3 (2016), pp. 261-84.

Peter Gaunt, The Cromwellian Gazetteer: an Illustrated Guide to Britain in the Civil War and Commonwealth (2nd edition, Burton-on-Trent, 2000).

Clive Holmes, The Eastern Association in the English Civil War (Cambridge, 1974).

Alfred Kingston, East Anglia and the Great Civil War (London, 1897).