Memoires of the lives, actions, sufferings & deaths of those noble, reverend and excellent personages that suffered by death, sequestration, decimation, or otherwise, for the Protestant religion and the great principle thereof, allegiance to their soveraigne, in our late intestine wars, from the year 1637 to the year 1660, and from thence continued to 1666 with the life and martyrdom of King Charles I / by Da. Lloyd ...

Sir HENRY BERKLEY.

THis Gentleman was well known for his Ancient and Ho∣nourable Family, his good Education, his great Observati∣ons and Experience, his famous Hospitality, his rich and happy Tenants and Dependants, whereof he carried 500 to the Kings side; the orderly Government of his Family, where, as it is said of Theodosius, his Court-Votaries themselves might learn Dis∣cipline; the exemplariness of his Devotion, honouring God as sincerely, as God had graciously honoured him; the plainness of his temper, his word being parchment, and his very yea, an obli∣gation; the humility of spirit, which made him like a fixed Star, the higher he was, the less he seemed; his Zeal for the Church, both as Patriot, Patron, and Parishioner; his word was, All the service I can do, I will do for Gods Church; for all the comfort I look for, I hope for in Gods Church; his serviceableness in the Countrey in all publick Capacity that found him out, deciding an hundred controversies at a cheaper rate in his Hall, than one is ended at West∣minster; keep up he did indeed the Authority of the Law, Order, and good Government, but cavils and brawls he discountenan∣ced; that reputation that was the result of all these Vertues, ena∣bled

him to do so much towards the assistance of his Dread Sove∣raign, now cheated of all the Supports and Ornaments of Govern∣ment, but those Subjects hearts, who when the King had yeelded all that in reason could be expected from him, ventured Lives and Fortunes, rather than he should do as Hampden said, when he was asked what they would have the King do more, answered, Throw himself and all his concernments upon our good affections. In good time! Kings are intrusted by the great Governour of the World in a way of deputation, and by the Inhabitants of the World in a way of consent, with the Lives, Liberties, and Estates of all their Sub∣jects: and those Kings shall intrust themselves and all their charge back again with the worst of those Subjects, as with Sir Iohn Stowel, Sir Ralph Hopton, and the Lord Pawlet, to help the Marquess of Hertford to the first Army that was able to face potent and success∣ful Rebellion, and clear Somerset-shire and Dorset-shire of it; until the Loyal Party was besieged in Sherburne many weeks; in which time (to borrow the words of their own Historian May) Many Sallies were made out of that Garrison, and sharp Encounters performed with great courage; the Parliament side, so he cal∣leth the Faction, being in firm hope to have taken them at last; which was conceived a thing of great moment, and advantage to their affairs, if they could have possessed the persons of so many men considerable both in their Persons and Valour, and who (mark it) proved afterwards very strong and cruel Ene∣mies; yet (saith he) that hope was frustrate: for about the be∣ginning of October they all escaped out of Sherburne: The Earl nevertheless pursued after them, and in the chase took Mr. Pal∣lart, Sir Henry, Sir Iohn, and Sir Charles Berkley, Prisoners; and in them, as they imagined, the strength of the Kings Cause in those parts.

The good old Gentleman Sir Henry being neither consined in his affections, nor yet disabled in his Estate, attendeth that Cause with considerable supplies, that he could not wait on in person, 1. With that zeal Amilcar made his son Hannibal swear at thirteen, to be an irreconcileable enemy of Rome, engaging all his sons to a constant service against the Conspiracy, upon the blessing of a fa∣ther, obliging them to serve the Father of their Countrey; usu∣ally saying, That in vain did they look for an Estate from him, unless they could be protected in that Estate by the King and the Laws. There was nothing more usual since the faction raised tumults, and redu∣ced and listed those tumults into Armies, to force the King to that which they despaired with reason to convince him of, but they en∣deavoured to cant most of his Subjects out of their Loyalty; and against that artifice, it was observable what advantage His Majesty had on his side: for whereas the combination was forced to flie to the shifts of some pretended fears, and wild fundamentals of State, with the impertinent as well as dangerous allegation of self-defence, since they who should have been Subjects, were ma∣nifestly the first assaulters of the King and the Laws, first by un∣suppressed tumults, and then by listed Forces. His Loyal Subjects

had the Word of God, the Laws of the Land, together with their own Oaths, requiring obedience to the Kings just Com∣mand; but to none other under heaven, without or against him, in the point of raising armes. And those that would not be jug∣gled out of their duty, they indeavoured to disgrace out of a ca∣pacity of an effectual performance of it, by a bold and notorious falsehood, viz. That there was not one godly man with the King, and, as God would have it, most of the eminent men in this Coun∣ty for his Majesty, were in as much repute with the people before the war for their piety (by the same token, that notwithstanding the partiality and the popular heats, wherewith the elections to that Parliament 1640. were carried in many places, most of them were Members of that Parliament) as they were after in disgrace with the Rabble for their Loyalty: For to avoid a scandal upon the Kings government, and the individious consequences of maintain∣ing too stiffly, even a just Liberty upon the Lords day. We find Orders drawn up, and sent in a Petition to the Kings Majesty, by Iohn Harrington Esq. Custos Rotulorum, to be delivered by the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Lieutenant of that County. To the first of which we find subscribed,

George Sydenam, Knight. Henry Berkley, Knight.

And to the second.

Iohn Lord Pawlet. Iohn Stawell.

Ralph Hopton. Francis Doddington.

As severe, though not so fantastical in that point, as the very Precisians themselves; for these are their words.

May it please your Majesty to grant us some particular Declaration against unlawful Assemblies of Church-Ales, Clearks-Ales, and Bid-Ales, and other intollerable disorders, to the great contempt of Authority, and to uphold civil feasting between neighbour and neighbour in their houses, and the orderly and seasonable use of manly exercises and activities, which we shall be most ready to maintain, an even moderation between prophanness and nicety, between a licentiousness to do any thing, and a li∣berty to do nothing at all.

In which temper, after unsufferable Imprisonments, rude Rob∣beries (called after the Germane Mode, Plunder, from planum fa∣cere, to level or plane all to nothing, or pluming) unheard of Se∣questrations, and at last, with much ado, a Composition (or pay∣ing (as we do sometimes Highway-men) for his own estate) which besides the vast charge he was at, to have the favour of that Op∣pression, amounted to 1275l. 00 00

For this is Recorded, Sir Henry Berkley of Tarlington in Sommerset∣shire. 1275l. 00 00

• He died
  • Anno Christi 165 ...
  • Aetatis 7 ...
  • Tyrannidis 4.

Being buried not without hope of his own, and his causes resur∣rection.

Hic Decios Agnosce tuos magnae aemula Romae, Aut Prior hac, aut te his Scotia major adhuc. Unus Turma fuit Barclaius, copia solus, Una cum natis Agminis Instar erat.