During the ensuing winter Seymour repaired to the King at Oxford, returning through Exeter, and then journeyed into Cornwall, returning through Tavistock. The object of these journeys is not mentioned in any of his letters. On January 10 he was authorised to erect a powder mill at Totnes, which was soon completed.* He 1644. had already a great magazine at Dartmouth, which the new powder mill was to keep supplied, but the demands upon his store were great, for he had to supply the Cornish army, as well as the forces and strongholds in his own neighbourhood, and, on August 3, he received a further order from the King to supply Sir John Berkeley, the Governor of Exeter, with all the powder and match he might require. He seems to have been a very able and diligent manager of these stores, and to have kept all receipts and delivery notes for the various kinds of arms and ammunition he supplied with the greatest care.† (Appendix L.) În April the King's forces were besieging Plymouth and Sir Richard Grenville, who was in command, sent to Colonel Seymour asking for all the assistance the latter could spare from Dartmouth. Seymour sent him 300 men and such stores of arms and ammunition as he could, though not nearly as much as he would have desired to send or as were required. So numerous of late had been the applications from all quarters that even the large stores at Dartmouth had been unable to supply them all, and, as the stores in other places grew less, so did the demands upon Seymour become greater.‡ On March 21st, by an order from Bedford House, Seymour was authorised to appoint watches at the beacon fires, and to distribute horsemen and musketeers at convenient places along the coast between Teignmouth and * Warrant for erecting powder mill.-Papers, 11th Duke of Somerset. + MS. Warrant.-Papers, 11th Duke of Somerset. Corresp. of the Seymours, coll. by 11th Duke of Somerset. Plymouth. He was also to call the inhabitants together and enlist them, if necessary, to raise fortifications, appoint officers, and provide arms and ammunition. Such was the general order, the details and carrying out of which was left entirely to his own discretion. Sir Edmund Fortescue and Colonel Henry Cary were associated with him in this matter, but each of them was to act independently of the others in his own particular district.* On May the 7th Seymour was ordered to send his regiment to join Prince Maurice, and he elected to take the command himself, leaving his brother-in-law, Sir Amos Ameridath, as his deputy in command at Dartmouth. He joined Prince Maurice before Lyme, but appears to have returned to Dartmouth at the end of the month or the beginning of the next.* Towards the latter end of June the King's party in the West found themselves hard pressed. Sir Amos Ameridath, who had returned to his command, wrote to Seymour in the most pressing manner for some more culverins for his fort, as he was apprehending an attack from the Earl of Essex, then at Crediton; Prince Maurice, who was at Heavitree, about 2 miles from Exeter, wrote to inform him that Weymouth had been captured, and that he might shortly expect an attack on Dartmouth; and Sir John Berkeley, Sir Peter Ball, and others, wrote in some alarm giving him the latest intelligence of the movements of the contending armies, by which it appeared the King had come to Chard, and exhorting him to see to the careful victualling of his garrison, and above all to secure all persons who refused the protestation. On this last point Seymour appears to have been very careful, perhaps more so than Sir John Berkeley and his friends really desired.* The siege of Plymouth still continued, and again, July 19, Sir Richard Grenville wrote asking for reinforcements. Before these could be raised, however, the aspect of affairs was completely changed by the receipt of the news of the disaster at Marston Moor, which caused the *Corresp. of the Seymours, coll. by 11th Duke of Somerset. greatest alarm to the King's party in the West. Sir Francis Fulford at once came to Seymour for protection (July 22); Colonel Arundel wanted to bring his regiment to Dartmouth; and Sir John Berkeley wrote for all the match and oakum that could possibly be spared, for the defence of Exeter, where he should have kept a supply.* Colonel Seymour, however, was now himself in difficulties. Hitherto he had done his best to assist others by meeting their demands, even at the risk of seriously reducing the strength of his own garrison, to strengthen which he had applied, some time before, to the King, through Sir Edmund Fortescue, who was with him. That knight had done his best to persuade Charles to send some reinforcement to the West, and had used all the interest he could command amongst friends at Court for the same purpose, but hitherto without effect. He now (August 23) wrote again to Seymour telling him not to despair, as he felt confident he would soon succeed in obtaining the necessary supplies. Such a letter at this time can but have been intended as friendly encouragement, for, had it been possible for him to obtain any supplies, they would have now been too late to be of any great service. Colonel Seymour remained at Dartmouth for some time after this, and we find him mentioned in his capacity as Governor of that place on October 26.* He appears, however, to have been in Exeter, engaged on some other duty, at the time of the surrender of Dartmouth. As Colonel Seymour had all along stood forward as the most conspicuous and active member of the elder branch of the Seymours, it is not to be wondered that he should be specially selected for punishment by the Parliament, now that victory was theirs. His Maiden Bradley estate and other properties in Wiltshire were now seized and sequestered (October 27), and the rents owing at Michaelmas and still unpaid were also taken. These amounted to £166 10s. od. The estate itself was let by Parlia *Corresp. of the Seymours, coll. by 11th Duke of Somerset. |