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The Town before the Civil Wars (1603 - 1642)

The first of the Stuarts, King James I, Charles I’s father, had not ruled as wisely as Queen Elizabeth.  The Wiltshire broadcloth industry collapsed in 1616 leading to half the county's looms lying idle (Source: Stedman, A “Marlborough and the Upper Kennet Valley” Butler and Tanner 1960, p132).  The combination of this with corn shortages turned a period of municipal prosperity at the beginning of the century into one of increasing social distress.  Persistent outbreaks of the plague served to exacerbate the situation.  A poignant reminder of how fragile life could be is the memorial to Sir Nicholas Hyde’s three children in St Peter’s Church.  They all died within weeks of each other in January and February 1626.   Marlborough Corporation had increasing numbers of destitute children on its hands.  A system of apprenticeships was set up to provide young people with homes and work.  Large sums were paid for conveying old, infirm and unemployed people from the town to the parish where they were born.  The borough beadle earned 2d a time for whipping beggars.  In 1617 John Martyn as an incorrigible rogue was burned on the left shoulder with the letter R and whipped.  In 1624 fourteen persons, including six women, were convicted of petty larcenies and openly whipped until they bled.  In 1630 a House of Correction was built in the Marsh, now known as the Parade, next to the Grammar School.

There is no record of the ringing of church bells in Marlborough on the accession of King Charles I in 1625 normal practice on royal accessions.  Taxes levied by Charles I, served to worsen a bad situation.  By stealth ship money tax levied on coastal towns to build ships for the navy was extended to all towns.  In 1633 Marlborough's assessment for ship money was set at £100, an unprecedented high figure and second only to Salisbury in the county. 

Charles adjourned parliament in March 1629 and did not call another for eleven years.  Marlborough returned two members to the Long Parliament of 1640: they were Sir Francis Seymour, brother of William Seymour, Marquess of Hertford, and John Franklyn both residents of the town.  Most of the people of Marlborough favoured Parliament in its attempts to curb the power of the King although there was a pro-Royalist tradition evidenced by the previous Royalist M.P.s William Carnaby and Henry Piercy.  Although from a leading aristocratic family, Seymour was one of 24 M.P.s who signed the Grand Remonstrance against King Charles I.
Marlborough and the Civil Wars (1642 - 51)

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 saw the majority of the town on Parliament’s side, although the Seymours went over to the King at the last minute.  The Royalist Edward Hyde the Earl of Clarendon described Marlborough as “a town most notoriously disaffected” and its people full of “obstinacy and malice.”

Perhaps because of its radical reputation, Marlborough was one of the first towns to be attacked.  King Charles had made Oxford his base and could not tolerate pro-Parliament towns in his area.  Lords Wilmot and Digby were dispatched with an army to make an example of Marlborough.  The ensuing attack was heroically resisted for some hours by a small force of professional soldiers and a much larger number of local people led by Colonel James Ramsey, who had had battle experience at Edgehill and the town MP, John Francklyn. The Royalists overran earthworks on the Common and then stormed the town, shouting, “A town, a town for King Charles”.

The destruction that followed the inevitable breakthrough into the High Street was exacerbated by the resistance of the local population, some of whom continued the struggle by firing muskets from windows.  Ramsey’s last stand was in St Mary’s Church where he surrendered only after all the windows were shot away.  Clarendon, who, as a Royalist, was unsympathetic to the defenders, wrote,

“So many were killed out of the window that fire was put to the next houses, so that a good part of the town was burned, and then the soldiers entered, doing less execution than could reasonably be expected; but what they spared in blood they took in pillage, the soldiers inquiring little who were friends or foes.”

53 houses and 7 barns were burned down and the town was systematically looted.  What could not be carried away was destroyed.  Some even suffered the indignity of being robbed of their clothing.  120 prisoners, including John Franklyn, were tied two and two together and marched to Oxford prison where Franklyn later died of ill treatment.  Lord Seymour’s House, was on the Castle site, and was not plundered by the Royalists, as the Seymours had remained loyal to the King.

Even after the first Civil War and the execution of the King, Marlborough continued to enjoy a radical reputation.  In May 1649 the town harboured a large number of Levellers from the New Model Army who had mutinied in Salisbury and were making their way to Banbury where another mutiny had taken place.  In Marlborough, they wrote to Lord Fairfax, Parliament’s Commander in Chief, setting out their grievances and demands.  They left Marlborough to get as far as Burford where they were intercepted by Cromwell’s and Fairfax’s troops: three were shot by firing squad in Burford Churchyard.  That they chose to stop in Marlborough, reflects the sympathy the town had then for democratic and egalitarian movements.

After the Civil Wars and Fire (1651 - 90)

There were Royalist supporters in the town keen to see the restoration of the Monarchy, particularly towards the end of the 1650s.  One such man was William Houlbrook, a blacksmith, who had his forge in George Lane.  Suspected of disloyalty to the Commonwealth he was taken to London where he was interrogated and tortured with irons at Newgate Gaol in an attempt to extract names of Royalist sympathisers. Unbroken, Houlbrook bravely held out to return to his forge without giving away any information.  A pamphlet described him, “That now he lived in Marlborough town, And was a man of some renown”.

On 28th April 1653 Marlborough experienced its worst disaster when a fire broke out in the back of Francis Freeman’s tannery at the south-west end of the High Street where the “Wellington” public house is today.  Nearly all of the buildings in the High Street then were made of wood.  A strong wind blew burning thatch across the street where a general conflagration rapidly grew until the whole of the High Street was ablaze, the fire only burning itself out after gutting St Mary’s Church.  Thomas Bailey, the silk merchant described the fire as, “The most furious fire that ever mortal creature ever saw.”  John Keynes, a linen draper, called it, “The saddest story that I think you ever heard of a town, where in three hours time were consumed at least 250 houses.”  John Hammond, the bookseller, who had had his books burnt by the Royalists ten years before, was particularly unlucky to see his business literally “go up in smoke” a second time.  He commented in a letter,

“It pleased God to lay his heavy heart by fire on Marlborough which has burned down our dwelling houses: I have very little saved, not above £8 worth of all my goods and books so that we . . have scarce anything left but our lives, all burned, the children crying to go home, and I tell them we have none to go to.  St Mary’s Church with the Market House, and all chief houses in the town, both sides of the High Street burned to dust . . the loss is unspeakable, all being on fire in an instant of time.”

 The fire happened during Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth.  Marlborough had supported Parliament during the Civil War and Cromwell had not forgotten it.  By setting up a national subscription he made sure Marlborough would be helped,

“God’s word and a good conscience says, that he that hath two coats ought to give one to him that hath none. . It is an old saying that one cannot help a great many but a great many may help one. . All the cities and shires in England may lend their assistance to relieve the distressed people of Marlborough.”

Most of Marlborough High Street, including the Merchant’s House, was rebuilt as a result of Oliver Cromwell’s subscription.  The interior of St Mary’s Church, re-built following fire, commemorates the Puritan influence in its lay-out as a preaching hall with the single arcade in the contemporary Dutch style. 

In June 1668 the diarist Samuel Pepys, famous for his description of the 1666 Great Fire of London, stayed the night in Marlborough on his return to London from a tour of the West Country.  He commented,

“Before night came to Marlborough and lay at the Hart; a good house and a pretty fair town for a street or two; and what is most singular is their houses on one side having their pent houses supported with pillars which makes it a good walk.”

The Hart Inn no longer exists but the description of the colonnaded walkway on the north side of the High Street remains recognizable today.

Marlborough never fully recovered from the disasters of the civil war and the 1653 fire.  By the second half of the 17th century Devizes took Marlborough’s place as Wiltshire’s second town.  Further fires in 1679 and 1690 led to an Act of Parliament banning the use of thatch within the borough boundaries.  Thatch in George Lane is a reminder that the River Kennet was the boundary then.  The use of clay tiles on the front of buildings dates from this time.  Tile-hung buildings characterize the High Street today, as they have done for the last 300 years.