133 according to his owne imprecation. Immediately part of rriY, lord Newcastle's arm ie, with all that Newark could make, besieg'd my lord Willoughby i(l Gainsborough, and General! Essex sent a command to Sr. John Meldrum to draw all the horse and foote he could out of Nottingham, to relieve my lord, leaving only a garrison in the castle of Not tingham. Sr. John Meldrum call'cl the committee of Nottingham together, to consult what ~as to be done for the settlement of the place, which upon deliberation he had iudg'cl not fitt to leave in the hands it was, nor in Col!. Pierrepont's, who, with some apparence, lay under suspition at that time; and therefore conceiving Mr. Hutchinson the ~ost able to manage, and the most responsible for it, both Sr. John and the whole committee orcler'd him to take the castle into his charge, which, though there were many causes why he should decline, yet believing that God hereby call'd him to the defence of his country, and would protect him in all the clangers and difficulties he led him into, he accepted it, and the 29 June, 1643, receiv'd an order for that government from Sr. John Mcldmm and the whole committee; whereunto Collonell Pierrepont subscrib'd, though with a secret discontent in his heart, not for any ill opinion or ill affection he had to Mr. Hutchinson's person, but for that he resented it as a greate affront that himselfe was past by. It is true that this discontent produc'cl some env ious and malitious practises, secretly in him, against Mr. Hutchinson, who in the end overcame him, with so many good offices, in requi tal of his bad ones, that he lived and died full of love, and acknowledgment of kindnesse to him. The castle was built upon a rock, and nature had made it capable of very strong forti fication, but the buildings were very ruinous and unhabitable, neither affording roome to lodge soulcliers nor proVISIOns. The castle stands at one end of the towne upon such an eminence as commands the chiefe streets of the towne. There had bene enlargements made to this castle after the first building , .
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