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 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE In the Convention Parliament of April, 1660, Colonel Harley and Colonel Birch reappeared for the county and Leominster respectively, while in November the Royalist soldier. Sir Henry Lingen, filled one of the city seats which was vacant. At the general election in April, 1661, there was an obstinate contest for one of the city seats between Herbert Westfaling, who had acknowledged the Commonwealth, and Sir Edward Hopton, a staunch Royalist. The mayor strongly espoused Hopton's candidature, and in conse- quence a double return was made which necessitated a second poll, at which Lingen and Westfaling were duly returned.*'" At the Restoration the Herefordshire gentry, like those of many other counties, presented an address of laudation and congratulation to the king.*" Even Colonel Edward Harley, whose father had been so distinguished in opposition to the crown, was foremost in promoting the return of the king, and in reward was appointed governor of Dunkirk on 14 July, 1660. With- in a year, however, he surrendered this appointment, the crown having determined to sell the town to France.*'^ Although the county was Royalist in sentiment there were a few individuals of opposite opinions. Thus in articles drawn up against Thomas Baskerville of Eardisley he was not only accused of being the first to sign a petition for bringing Charles I to justice, and of causing Charles II to be proclaimed a traitor after the battle of Worcester, but also of taking a list of those who made bonfires on the news of the king's arrival and of threatening them with punishment.*'' On 10 July, 1661, a petition, numerously signed, was presented by the inhabitants of the city and county of Hereford, praying for the restoration of the Court of the Council of the Marches on the ground that the expense of taking ordinary cases to Westminster for trial was three times as great. Similar petitions were presented from Worcestershire and Shropshire.*'* These petitions were answered by the reconstitution of the court under the presidency of Lord Carbery for Wales and the Marches.*'^ To please the earl of Clarendon the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, Salop, Hereford, and Monmouth were not specifically mentioned in the patent, the earl of Carbery thinking that they would be included in the Marches. The courts at Westminster, however, took advantage of the omission to remove the counties from the jurisdic- tion of the Court of the Council of Wales by means of a prohibition, and thus the long controversy was finally determined against the council.*'^ The county remained quiet during the disturbances in the years imme- diately following the Restoration. Protestant Nonconformity had in fact little hold, and therefore the Acts directed against it were not resented. At quarter sessions in 1663 of 150 Nonconformists presented by the grand jury almost all were Roman Catholics, only twenty being ' fanatics.' *" The pressure of taxation was still acutely felt on account of the extreme poverty of the county,*'* and in 1666 the collection of hearth money occasioned a serious riot in the city owing to the resistance of householders whom the ™ Richard Johnson, And. Customs of Here f. (1882), pp. 206-1 1. "' S.P. Dom. Chas. II, i, 32. "^Collins, Hist. Coll. 201-5. «' S.P. Dom. Chas. II, iv, 97. »" Ibid, xxxix, 40-7. '''P.C. Reg. 24 Aug. 1 66 1. "" S.P. Dom. Chas. II, ccciv, 49. "'Thomas Trench to Williamson, 12 Oct. 1663, S.P. Dom. Chas. II, Ixxxi, 65. ™ Humphrey Cornwall to Thomas Price, 26 Jan. 1663-4, ^-P- Dom. Chas. II, xci, 42. 400