KILSBY VILLAGE

There is nothing in the history books about the Battle of Kilsby, and no monument to witness the spot on which an old man stood alone against a troop of thirty mounted troopers and an officer, when all around him had fallen or fled.

The essential actions in the Civil War took place between 1642 and 1646. The whole country was divided in feeling between support for the monarch - Charles I - and Oliver Cromwell's Roundhead dictatorship. The issue was resolved in a number of major battles (including Edgehill, Grantham, Newbury, Marston Moor, Leicester and Naseby). As everyone knows, Cromwell won, and England's monarchy gave way to a fifteen-year Puritan Protectorate.

In the early years of the Civil War, much of southern Warwickshire was Royalist in sympathy, whilst the towns and villages of north Warwickshire and northern and central Northamptonshire mostly sided with the Parliamentarians. Lord Brooke seized the castle of Northampton for Cromwell's forces, although the Earl of Northampton himself was a staunch supporter of the King. In fact the Earl of Northampton spent much of the Civil War fighting in the fields of Warwickshire, whilst his own town lay in the hands of his enemies ...

Kilsby found itself on the borders of a divide - caught between the Royalist allies in Warwickshire and the parliamentarian supporters of northern and central Northamptonshire. After a brief skirmish at the very beginning of the conflict, Kilsby seems to have escaped any further open action. However, feelings in the village ran high against the King, as is demonstrated by this extract from an account by Edward Walsingham on the actions of Captain Sir John Smith, published in 1644:

"In the beginning of August 1642 he [ie Captain John Smith] marcht with the Lord John Stuart's Troope into Warwickshire, there to meet the noble Earle of Northampton, who was then in Armes for His Majesty. Captain Bartue [ie Francis Bertie] Troope marcht with him, and at Rugby on the edge of the aforesaid County he quartered the 8 of that moneth, where he understood that at Kilsby in Northamptonshire, about two miles distant, the Inhabitants had put themselves in Armes against His Majesties Proclamation; He therefore conceiving it fit to disarme them, did that night set a strong Guard in Rugby of about 30 Horse, to the end he might draw out of the Towne at any hower with the less noyse, or notice.

Before breake of day he marcht out, the morning being very wet, and before it was light, coming to Kilsby Towne side drew up his horse in a body. As soon as it was cleare day he entred the towne, where presently he found the people gathering together, some with Muskets or other gunnes, others with Pitchforkes and Clubs, He asked them what they meant, and told them he had no purpose to doe them harme, entreating them to deliver up their Armes for His Majesties service. The unruly people no whit hearkend to his courteous desires, but furiously assaulted his Troop, (which could not be drawn up into a body in regard of the straightnesse of the passage) they wounded two or three of his men and some horses. Yet made he shift to disarme some of them, and then advances to the Constables house, where he finds more company; but comanded his men not to discharge a Pistoll upon pain of death, hoping yet by faire meanes to qualifie them. Immediately divers shot is made from the Windowes at him; whereupon, he commanded his men to give fire, and so presently dispatcht three or foure of them: which the rest seeing, ran away all except an old man that with his Pitchforke ran at Captain Smith, and twice stroke the tynes thereof against his brest, who by reason of his armes under a loose coate received no hurt, yet could not this old man by any intreaty be perswaded to forbeare, till a Pistoll quieted him. Here he took 40 Muskets, and the same day marcht towards the valiant Earle of Northampton, whom he met with [Lord] Brookes his Ordnance, about three miles from Warwicke and attended him thither."

It is clear that there was a large body of parliamentary supporters in Kilsby, young and old alike. In addition to the farming implements one would expect them to have had, they also possessed a surprising number of firearms - 40 guns in a total village population of perhaps 400 people. It was a bold stance for the men of Kilsby to adopt at a time when public opinion in Rugby, the nearest large community, was pro-Royalist. Indeed, the fighting at Kilsby may have witnessed some of the first shots fired in the Civil War, since the affray outside the constable's house actually pre-dated much of the more major action.

Of course, this is a very one-sided account, passed on by one of the King's Heralds (who would have been extremely partisan!), and written down whilst the war was still in progress and feelings still ran high. It is only fair to present the other view of the action at Kilsby, which is quoted from reports made public almost immediately by order of Parliament:

"A True Relation of the Barbarous Crueltie of divers of the bloody Cavaliers, as in all parts; so more especially and principally, now in the County of Northampton where they fight and kill and slay, and commit other horrible execrable and detestable insolencies and outrages, as may be seene by the examinations of diverse Persons taken ... before Laurence Ball, Mayor of Northampton, Sir Richard Samwell, Clifton Catesby. Sent up to the Parliament, and by them commanded to bee Printed. John Browne Clericus Parliamentary. (August 11th) London, printed for Joseph Hunscot. 1642.

The information of George Watson of Kellesby, Husbandman, taken at Northampton, the ninth day of August 1642, before Laurence Ball, Mayor of the said Towne, Sir Richard Samwell, Knight, and Clifton Catesby, Esquire, Deputy Lieutenant for the said Countie.

This information saith, that on Tuesday morning, the ninth of this instant August, before Sunrise about four score troopers armed with Carbines and Pistols, came to Killesby with a Trumpet before them, and beset the house of John Hollis the elder, but cannot tell what they said to them in the house, being farre distant from them, at which time and place this informant upon hearing the Trumpet, came and found one Thomas Hinckley there shot dead in the brest, and this informant enquiring of one Obadiah Marriot who was present, and how it came to passe, he said that he heard the said Hinckley say; that he was for the King and the Parliament, and thereupon he was shot, and the said Marriot saying that they had slain a faithfull Subject of the King, one of the Troopers strooke him three or four times with a Sword, and thereupon he fled, and this Informant saith that he was also shot at; and also Moses Howlat, who said only he was for the King, and Thomas Clarke, and Zephaniah Crike, and divers others were shot at and wounded thereby, and John White was there dangerously wounded by one of the Troopers with a Pitchforke which was taken from one of the neighbours, and one Henry Barfoote was also killed, but this Informant was not present when he was slain."

This account, published by order of Parliament, was probably issued in order to make political capital of the event, since Northampton was a stronghold of Cromwell's followers; and although the account is objective enough in its reported facts, its language is such as to portray the villagers as honest souls, much put-upon by the wicked Royalists.

It is never easy to draw the truth out of disconnected and one-sided statements such as this. One thing which does stand out, though, is that a man's words at this time were very apt to land him in big trouble - especially if his audience was armed and pre-conditioned to expect rebellion. Poor Thomas Hinckley! He would have been well advised to keep his mouth shut.