Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/71



Captain    10s. 0d. per diem. Lieutenant  4s. 0d. "  " Sergeant     1s. 6d. "  " Drummer      1s. 3d. "  " Corporal     1s. 0d. "  " Private      0s. 9d. "  "

Captain    16s. 0d. per diem. Lieutenant  8s. 0d. "  " Cornet       6s. 0d. "  " Corporal     4s. 0d. "  " Trumpeter    5s. 0d. "  " Private      2s. 6d. "  "

And to every Commissary   5s. 0d. per diem.

Parliamentary commissioners were sent this year, 1642, into all parts of Lancashire to visit the churches and chapels and to remove therefrom all images, superstitious pictures, and idolatrous relics, which any of them might contain.

Preston and Lancaster were amongst the earliest towns to fall into the hands of the Roundheads, and about ten days after the surrender of the former place, when the people of this district were labouring under the excitement of war on their very frontier, Alexander Rigby, of Layton Hall, accompanied by Captain Thomas Singleton, of Staining, and other officers, appeared near Poulton at the head of a number of horsemen, and threw the inhabitants into a state of great consternation and alarm, fortunately proving unnecessary, for the cavalcade had other designs than that of bringing devastation and bloodshed to their own doors, and continued their journey peaceably northward. A few weeks later a Spanish vessel was seen at the entrance of Morecambe Bay, off Rossall Point, and as it evinced no signs of movement, either towards the harbour of Lancaster or out to sea, the yeomen and farm servants of that neighbourhood at once surmised that some sort of an invasive attack was meditated on their coast, nor were these fears in any way allayed by the constant firing of a piece of cannon from the deck of the ship, and it was not until the discharges had been repeated through several days that they realised that distress and not bombardment was intended to be indicated. On boarding the vessel they found that she contained a number of passengers, all of whom, together with the crew, were reduced to a pitiable and enfeebled condition through exposure and scarcity of provisions, for, having lost their way in the heavy weather which prevailed, they had been detained much over the time expected for the voyage, blindly cruising about in the hope of discovering some friendly haven or guide. The craft was piloted round into the mouth of the river Wyre, opposite the