Lancashire
Lancashire was a deeply divided county that was fought over heavily during all three civil wars. The first Lancastrian royalist soldiers joined the King’s field army for the Edgehill campaign, leaving James Stanley, Earl of Derby in the county as the local royalist leader and Lord Lieutenant. Stanley was in command of about 2,000 men by December 1642, but his local war effort was weakened by demands for reinforcements from the King’s Oxford-based field army. Parliamentarian strength was concentrated in the clothing districts of south-east Lancashire that were adjacent to Yorkshire’s West Riding. Their largest garrison was at Manchester, but they also enjoyed popular support in Blackburn, Bury, Rochdale and Bolton, dubbed the ‘Geneva of the north’ for its puritanism. Manchester withstood an early siege from 25 September to 1 October 1642, but thereafter the royalists enjoyed some early successes. The royalists captured Lancaster on 18 March 1643 but chose to fire the town rather than attempt to garrison it. The Earl of Derby’s forces were defeated at Whalley on 20 April 1643. Thereafter, the royalist garrisons in Liverpool, Warrington and Wigan fell in little over a month, leaving the parliamentarians controlling much of the county. Derby sought reinforcements from the Queen at York but was instead despatched to defend the Isle of Man.
Lancashire parliamentarians reinforced Lord Fairfax’s army just prior to its defeat on Adwalton Moor on 30 June 1643. The royalist occupation of Calderdale thereafter threatened Manchester once again, prompting the parliamentarian siege engineer Jan Rosworm to fortify a camp on Blackstone Edge to defend the Pennine pass into Lancashire. Further east, Derby’s Huguenot countess, Charlotte de Trémoille successfully defended Lathom House from parliamentarian besiegers from February to May 1644. Rupert chose to advance through Lancashire during May and June 1644, augmenting his forces with local recruits on his way to relieve the siege of York. His forces stormed Bolton on 28 May and Liverpool on 11 June 1644, but much of the royalist infantry were lost in the disastrous battle on Marston Moor of 2 July 1644. Survivors that escaped back into Lancashire were defeated by Sir John Meldrum at Ormskirk on 20 August 1644. Thereafter, remaining royalist garrisons in the county became increasingly isolated, with Lathom House finally surrendering in December 1645.
Lancashire suffered again during the Second Civil War when in August 1648 the Scots Army of the Engagement under James, Duke of Hamilton advanced southward, supported by English northern royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. The invasion was defeated by Oliver Cromwell’s detachment of the New Model Army in a series of engagements now known as the Battle of Preston from 17–19 August 1648. During the Third Civil War, the future Charles II accompanied another Scots invasion through Lancashire in August 1651. The Earl of Derby landed on the Lancashire coast to support him, but his attempt to raise royalist forces in the county ended in disaster. He was defeated at Wigan Lane by forces under Colonel Robert Lilburne on 25 August and the Scots invasion was crushed at Worcester on 3 September 1651. After a period as a fugitive, Derby surrendered himself and was imprisoned in Chester Castle. He was beheaded in Bolton for high treason against the English Republic on 15 October 1651.
Claimants resident in the county
Numbers, types and declared allegiances of claimants
Gratuities paid in Lancashire
| Min | Max | Mean | Median | Mode | TOTAL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maimed Soldiers | 6s | £5 | 19s 2d | 15s 6d | £1 | £24 19s 0d |
| Royalists | 6s | £1 | 14s 4d | 11s | £1 | £16 9s 0d |
| Parliamentarians | £1 | £5 | £2 16s 8d | £2 10s 0d | n/a | £8 10s 0d |
| War Widows | 15s | £1 | 17s 6d | 17s 6d | n/a | £1 15s 0d |
| Royalists | 15s | £1 | 17s 6d | 17s 6d | n/a | £1 15s 0d |
| Parliamentarians | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other Dependents | 6s 8d | £8 | £2 16s 8d | £1 10s | n/a | £11 6s 8d |
| Royalists | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Parliamentarians | 6s 8d | £8 | £2 16s 8d | £1 10s | n/a | £11 6s 8d |
| ALL | 6s | £8 | £1 3s 9d | £1 | £1 | £38 0s 8d |
| Royalists | 6s | £1 | 14s 7d | 11s | £1 | £18 4s 0d |
| Parliamentarians | 6s 8d | £8 | £2 16s 8d | £2 | £1 | £19 16s 8d |
Pensions paid in Lancashire
| Min | Max | Mean | Median | Mode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maimed Soldiers | 5s | £10 8s 0d | 19s 10d | 11s | 6s 6d |
| Royalists | 5s | £5 4s 0d | 17s 1d | 11s | 6s 6d |
| Parliamentarians | 6s 6d | £10 8s 0d | £4 12s 9d | £3 12s 4d | n/a |
| War Widows | 5s 6d | £13 | 19s 8d | 10s | 6s 6d |
| Royalists | 5s 6d | £3 | 13s 5d | 10s | 6s 6d |
| Parliamentarians | £1 6s 0d | £13 | £4 0s 6d | £1 14s 8d | £1 6s 0d |
| Other Dependents | 10s | £7 16s 0d | £1 11s 11d | £1 | 13s |
| Royalists | 13s | £7 16s 0d | £1 10s 9d | 13s | 13s |
| Parliamentarians | 10s | £3 4s | £1 13s 5d | £1 3s 0d | £1 |
| ALL | 5s | £13 | £1 0s 6d | 11s | 6s 6d |
| Royalists | 5s | £7 16s 0d | 16s 9d | 11s | 6s 6d |
| Parliamentarians | 6s 6d | £13 | £3 8s 5d | £2 12s 0d | £1 |
Lancashire was a poor county and suffered severely from wet summers and repeated harvest failures from 1647–1650. This meant that the justices often referred claimants to their parish officers for poor relief. Average pensions were lower than in other counties, although the sums awarded to parliamentarian claimants seem to have been significantly more generous. 55 petitions and certificates survive for war widows of parliamentarians, many of whose husbands were lost serving in Scotland or Ireland.
Further Reading
Emily Alley, ‘A Humble Petition: Lancashire War Widows, 1642–1679’ (MA Dissertation, University of Leicester, 2013).
B.G. Blackwood, ‘Parties and Issues in the Civil War in Lancashire and East Anglia’, in Roger C. Richardson (ed.), The English Civil Wars: Local Aspects (Stroud: Sutton, 1997), pp. 261–85.
B.G. Blackwood, The Lancashire Gentry and the Great Rebellion, 1640–1660 (Chetham Society, 25, 1978).
Ernest Broxap, The Great Civil War in Lancashire (1642–51) (2nd edn., Manchester, 1973)
Stephen Bull, ‘A General Plague of Madness’: The Civil Wars in Lancashire, 1640–1660 (Lancaster: Carnegie, 2009).
David Casserly, Massacre: The Storming of Bolton (Stroud: Amberley, 2011).
J.M. Gratton, The Parliamentarian and Royalist War Effort in Lancashire, 1642–1651 (Chetham Society, 3rd series, 48, 2010).
P.R. Newman, ‘Aspects of the Civil War in Lancashire’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 82 (1983), pp. 113–20.
G.H. Tupling, ‘The Causes of the Civil War in Lancashire’, Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 65 (1955), pp. 1–32.
Neil Wilson, ‘“Aboundance were slayne”: Representation, Remembrance, Rules and Recovery in Civil-War Bolton’ (MSt Dissertation, University of Oxford, 2025).