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SOMERSET
CASTLE CARY IN THE CIVIL WAR
Castle Cary’s position on major routes brought it into the Civil War. The church was said to have been
badly damaged by soldiers in 1643, a quartermaster general from Cheshire was buried in the parish in
1644, and clubmen were active in the area in 1645—6.1
The church was said to have been damaged early in the Civil War and certainly it was broken
into, items were stolen and the organ was destroyed. In 1643 the churchwardens put new locks on the
vestry and tower doors and paid for setting up pieces of the organ. A surplice and a pulpit cloth, both
new, were stolen, the latter from the rectory. However, claims of extensive damage to the church
building at this period may be exaggerated; Gerard in 1633 said that coats of arms, presumably stained
glass, had been beaten out of the church windows since he first went there.2
Thomas Cary, a Royalist who fought at Bruton and Ilchester, was accused of rescuing the
provost of Wells and some of Francis Dodington’s soldiers who had been seized at Castle Cary for
wounding men from North Cadbury and Barrow. Thomas later deserted and petitioned to be allowed
to return to the plough. John Rose, Lord Hopton’s provost marshal, was discharged from composition
because of his small estate. Edward Kirton, farmer of the park and rectory and steward of the earl of
Hertford, was struck off the commission of the peace in 1626 because as an M.P. he opposed the
Crown. When Civil War broke out he supported the king. He managed to reduce his composition by
agreeing to pay a stipend to the minister of Castle Cary. His estates were let to William Oram for less
1
D. Underdown, Revel, Riot, and Rebellion (1985), 157, 181, 223; SRO, D/P/cas 2/1/1.
2
SHC, D/P/cas 4/1/1; ibid. A/AQP 9; Underdown, Revel, Riot, and Rebellion, 181; Collinson, Hist. Som. II,
56; E. H. Bates (ed.), Gerard’s Survey of Somerset, 1633 (Som. Rec. Soc. 15), 221.
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than half their value.3 His family later helped Charles II to escape after the battle of Worcester in
1651.4
In the west of England a neutral but vociferous movement sprang up in the mid 1640s to
oppose the war. Its members were known as the clubmen, country farmers and others who were tired
of the damage the war was doing to their communities and land. They were vociferous in their
opposition to the war in 1645. They incurred the wrath of both sides but when 5,000 of them, many
armed, met near Castle Cary on 2 June 1645 it was to protest at the violent behaviour of Goring’s
soldiers. They appointed delegates to carry a petition to the Prince of Wales at Wells. They were
promised improvement but warned that such public meetings were illegal and dangerous. Elsewhere
clubmen later came into conflict with the parliamentary army. On 18 August the New Model Army
marched through Castle Cary and Shepton Mallet on its way to Bristol. It was probably one of these
events which caused at least one inhabitant of Castle Cary to bury his or her savings.5
Thomas Aylesbury (d. 1661), vicar from 1650, was an author, and supporter of penitential
confession and critic of Calvin who had been deprived of livings elsewhere for his support of the
clubmen and the Book of Common Prayer. He was imprisoned after 1645 and on his release came
with his large family to Somerset where Sir George Horner and others supported him and secured for
him the vicarage of Castle Cary. His other benefices were restored a few months before his death. Two
sons were ordained but William was ejected from East Pennard, Somerset, for scandalous behaviour in
1681.6
3
Cal. Cttee for Compounding, II, p. 1646; III, pp. 1858, 2145; Revd Meade ‘Historical Notes of the Church
of Castle Cary’, PSAS. 16 (1871), 23—7; SHC, DD/WHh 136h.
4
Bates, Gerard’s Survey, 221; SDNQ, V, 315; Castle Cary Visitor March 1900; A. Fea, After Worcester Fight
(1904), 29.
5
D. Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War and Interregnum (Newton Abbott, 1973), 99, 112.
6
DNB.
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In 1646 the County Court met at Castle Cary but the election of John Harrington and George
Horner was not without irregularity. The poll was held in private in the sheriff’s chamber while he was
at dinner.7 Local people also had to contend with the determined attempts of the sequestrators to seize
royalist’s goods and lands for the County Committee. In September 1651 the fugitive King Charles II
was sheltered at Castle Cary by those who had no cause to love the new regime.8
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7
Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War, 133.
8
SHC, DD/WHh 136h: VCH Som. X, forthcoming.
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