MONMOUTH
AND HINTON CHARTERHOUSE-
June 26th 1685
It is helpful to get a few facts clear before starting if we would understand
Monmouth's connection with our village. A man of weak character, he was the handsome
illegitimate son of Charles II and Lucy Walter. After his father` s Death he found
considerable support for his claim to the throne owing to the fact that his uncle
James II was a Roman Catholic.
Hoping for the support of the whole country he landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset
on June 11th, 1685 with a small following and scanty supplies.
All went well at first and the Militia of Dorset and Devon fled before his little
army which soon numbered 6,000, many of the country people rallying to his support.
His men however were ill-disciplined and equipped only with scythes, knives and
reaping hooks. They had little hope of success as the King's forces were closing
in, though quite a Strong force had to be kept in London in case there was a rising
there.
Lord Churchill (afterwards the famous Duke of Marlborough) was sent down to Somerset
with eight troops of Horse, later raised to thirteen, and five companies of Foot,
and proceeded to press on with his cavalry and harass the rear of the advancing
rebel army. Meanwhile the King, to Churchill's disgust, appointed Lord Feversham
as supreme commander in the campaign against the rebels. He soon arrived with
reinforcements. If Monmouth could have reached Bristol his campaign might have
been successful as the city was full of his supporters who would willingly have
opened the gates to him. He reached Keynsham intending to ford the river there
when by chance a company of Horse under Colonel Oglethorpe sent out scouting by
Lord Feversham, met him. Both sides were surprised by the encounter and Monmouth
fearing it was Churchill made his fatal mistake, and turning his back on Bristol
decided to try and attract more supporters for his cause in Wiltshire. From Keynsham
he marched close by Hinton Charterhouse, Norton St.Philip, Frome, and Shepton
Mallet to Bridgwater, from where he emerged to meet final defeat at Sedgmoor.
As this account is primarily concerned with Hinton Charterhouse, we shall try
and trace Monmouth's route as he came near the village, with the help of information
gleaned by the late Miss Helen Foxcroft, and published by her in 1911 in pamphlet
form under the title of "Monmouth at Philip's Norton". After unsuccessfully
summoning Bath to surrender from Beechen Cliff, Monmouth took the old road to
Midford. The present Warminster road did not, of course, then exist, and the hill
up from Midford to Hinton Charterhouse was very much steeper, running along the
bottom of the valley by Wellow Brook for a short distance and then turning up
left very steeply to come out on the Hinton side of Hang Wood. Monmouth decided
against following this road, and chose instead to follow the Wellow Brook along
the bottom of the valley. There is a field called "Money Quar" and Monmouth
passed through it on leaving Midford. (Miss Foxcroft was told by Mrs. Jane Swift
of Hinton that she had always heard that that field was connected with "soldiers,
coins, and the erection of a temporary forge").
How the rebel army actually reached Norton has always been uncertain. Miss Foxcroft
maintained that Monmouth took the most direct way along the valley below Cleeves
and Tait Woods along the Norton lane. Mr. Rose, Mr. Foxcroft's old Keeper, used
to say that at one point the noise of the brook sounds like the rumbling of cannon
wheels and was always supposed to be the ghostly echo of Monmouth's guns. These
four cannons, however, were described by Feversham in his lengthy dispatch to
the King after the battle, as "two very small pieces, I think 2 pounders
................ and the others rather better but very insignificant" .
We are told that the Summer 0f 1685 was unusually wet, and it was pouring with
rain most of that day, and the roads, always bad, were in an appalling state.
Near where Monmouth's force must have joined the Norton Lane, there is a hill
on the right called Baggeridge. It is just above the lowest and therefore the
wettest part of the road where an involuntary halt may have taken placeo Here
a ford crosses the brook and leads to a field called Spy Close from which three
Combes can be seen, and what more likely than it is so named because Monmouth
sent up some men to spy out the land, and find if there was an easier way. by
which he could get his cannon to Norton than by following the flooded lane. From
Spy Close the two field tracks to the Hinton -Norton road could be seen, one via
Norton Barn and the other by Hinton Field Farm. It is probable that Monmouth decided
to send his guns up to the road by Hinton Field, and that his infantry continued
along the valley to Norton.
The late Mrs. Sarah Andrews of Hinton Charterhouse told Miss Foxcroft that her
father in law Mr. Charles Andrews told her that his great grandmother's house
in Norton was ransacked by Monmouth's men, but they got no money as she sat on
a huge crock in which she had hidden it.
Old Mr. Huntley of Hinton Charterhouse who died in 1891 when he was over 90, told
Miss Foxcroft that he could remember a Norton man called Charles Pearce who had
told him that his grandfather had helped to pull Monmouth's guns up to the High
road. Of the 12 men hanged by the King's forces in the field behind the Fleur
de Lys after the battle the last named on the list is called Pearce. One wonders
whether this was the same man. A story quoted by Mr. Singer of Frome, who wrote
a biography of Monmouth many years ago, mentions that a countryman opened a field
gate to let the rebels through, and when asked for whom he stood- answered "For
the King", and was immediately killed. There are on Hinton Field Farm four fields
connected with these events~ called Monmouth Sideland, Middle Monmouth, Monmouth
Field, and Camp. Until recently a very old Wych Elm tree stood above Hinton Field
Farm by the road, on which tradition has it men were hanged at this time. A skirmish
took place in Norton on Saturday June 26th in which the King's troops had to withdraw.
Lord Feversham says, to quote his lengthy dispatch to the King, "I once thought
to face the enemy all night but we had very heavy rain which would cause very
much inconvenience as we had no tents. " 'the King's men therefore withdrew to
Bradford-on-Avon in all probability, via Hinton and Iford, where Lord Feversham
passed a very pleasant Sunday at "a very pretty house "owned by Mr. Hall,"to
clean our arms and recover the fatigue of the foregoing day". He however left
behind a troop o: Horse Dragoons "to collect news" under Colonel Oglethorpe.
It is not beyond the bounds of probability that the field called "Camp" above
Norton Cottages was used by those troops that night? According to the previously
quoted old Mr. Huntley military relics have been dug up there in times past. So
far as casualties were concerned Lord Feversham reported that his losses were
8 killed and 20 wounded, but other authorities reckoned his total losses to be
nearly 80. Monmouth lost 18 officers and men. Many of the unfortunate wounded
crawled away into the fields of corn and their bodies were discovered later by
the reapers.
There is a field between Hinton and Norton called Sand Pits and an old Miss Puckstone
of Norton who died in 1880 had many stories of the fighting in that field told
her by her grandfather and father. She said that a sword, a cannon ball, and human
bones had been found there.
Tradition has it that men were hanged on a great old Wych Elm tree which stood
until recently beside the Hinton - Norton road just above Hinton Field Farm. An
Officer, presumably of the King's forces, stayed in Hinton with a family called
Morgan on the eve of the fight. The Story goes that he left a case behind with
instructions that his host was to have the contents if he did not return. He did
not come back. The case when opened was found to b e full of money. The Morgan
family continued as prosperous yeomen farmers for several generations, and there
are memorials to them in Hinton Charterhouse. Some of them lived in Beaufix Cottage,
at present belonging to Mrs. Dunn. Mrs. Longman, who lived at the Green, was the
last of this family living in Hinton village. She died in Oct., 1947. At Hinton
House there is an old sharpened fencing foil, found hidden in a chimney in the
village in 1890. Perhaps a relic of this period.
In connection with the fight at Norton old Huntley told Miss Foxcroft that it
was a fight between two brothers. She could not at first understand this but,
on going through the records on the fight found that two illegitimate sons of
Charles II were engaged -Monmouth on the one side, and the Duke of Grafton on
the other.
In the course of the fight Monmouth escaped from a tight cornerwhenhard pressed
by the King's Dragoons through their mistaking him for his brother the Duke of
Grafton.