| Description | One letter from Archbishop John Williams, several from Princes Rupert and Maurice the two Byrons, &c.,mainly to Thomas, Viscount Bulkeley, regarding the strengthening of Beaumaris Castle, the work of the Commissioners of Array, and the speedy provisioning of places like Conway and Chester with food and munitions of war. There are also letters from the Parliamentary officers Mytton, Mason,and Twisleton, and from Carnarvonshire Cavaliers, regarding the difficulties of dealing with the King's disbanded soldiers at the end of the First Civil War (these in 1646). The letters have other interesting features, e.g., the Mayor of Newborough busy choosing his bailiffs and not having sufficient paper to enter their names in the official manner (letter of 9 Sept.,1642); Dr William Griffith of Canreglwyd in a great fright because of the appearance of strange ships off Wylfa and Holyhead (no date, but probably 1643); two Beaumaris men to be arrested for disobeying Prince Rupert's warrant ordering the impressment of horses for the King's service. (letter of 23 March, 1643-4), Thomas Cheadle is found dutifully signing (14 June, 1644) a warrant to order up the Anglesey trainbands for the defence of the island, which is a serious counterblast to the long catalogue of charges involving indifference and disloyalty marshalled against him in 1648 (Gwydir Papers, 1873-4). There are two letters from Sir Robert Eyton of Pentre Fadog (for the family, see Powys Fadog, III, 402), a Royalist who was taken prisoner in 1643, but who seems to have come to some compromise with the Parliament by 1646, so that he is able to make serious efforts to mitigate the punishment of Viscount Bulkeley, his first cousin, for his many delinquencies against the Puritan powers. Whatever success he had was nullified by the Anglesey insurrection in 1648, and by the prominent part played by the Bulkeleys in that movement. |