The English Civil War broke out in August 1642 and it soon became apparent that Weymouth, Melcombe Regis and Portland were of great strategic importance owing to their closeness to France and in the case of Portland, the large harbour facilities. Thus, the fate of Weymouth & Melcombe Regis depended on Portland. The majority of the population of most Dorset towns appears to have favoured the parliamentary cause. At the outbreak of the hostilities, Two local gentlemen, Sir Walter Earle and Sir Thomas Trenchard laid claim to Weymouth & Melcombe Regis for the Parliament, which also held Portland, Lyme Regis, Poole and Dorchester at this time. They set about fortifying and garrisoned the town. The chapel of St. Nicholas at Chapelhay with its commanding views over Melcombe and the inner harbour was immediately commandeered and became "the chapel fort". Another fort was established on the Nothe to protect the bay and the mouth of the harbour. Platforms for artillery were set up in both forts and further earthworks were erected at the northern entrance to Melcombe Regis, with another one a little to the North of the junction of St. Thomas Street and Lower Bond Street (Conygar Lane as it was then called) extending westwards possibly to the Backwater. Although we know that various drawbridges and town gates were also built, their positions have long been forgotten. Colonel William Sydenham (son in law of Sir John Trenchard of Warmwell) was appointed Governor of the towns of Weymouth & Melcombe Regis. The Governor's residence was on or near the site of Steward's Court in Melcombe Regis, the lane in which this Court was situated is still called Governor's Lane. Twelve months later, in the summer of 1643, the Earl of Carnarvon had successfully taken Bristol for the King and was now marching on Dorset with 2,000 horse and Dragoon's. His intention to capture the towns of Weymouth, Melcombe and Portland. There were many Parliamentarians in the villages of the area, who had fled in front of the advancing Royalists, spreading stories about the courage of the foe. This demoralised the inhabitants completely and so they decided to surrender the towns and forts without a fight. This was on the understanding that they should not be plundered or the people in any way harmed for supporting the Parliamentary cause, in return it was further agreed they would surrender all arms, ammunition and ordnance. Words were given, terms accepted and the Royalists took possession of the town. Shortly after this Prince Maurice (the King's nephew) arrived with his cavalry who promptly went on the rampage through the twin town's, much to the displeasure of the Earl of Carnarvon who quit his command in protest retired from the field and returned to the King at the siege of Gloucester. In August 1643, Prince Maurice's forces captured A bark (ship), sent by Parliament with ammunition to help their force in Weymouth. Another ship captured was the "King David" bound for London, with a quantity of plate to the value of £612, also at the time, a quantity of arms and ammunition were seized. Then in winter of that year, 300 Irish soldiers under the command of Lord Inchiquin landed to swell the Royalist defenders. By the following Spring, Prince Maurice had grown bored and had moved on to lay siege to Lyme further along the coast. Colonel Ashburnham held the title of Governor of the Castle and Captain General of the County, for the Royalists. He sent word to the King's council in Oxford that he had ordered all the ordnance, arms, ammunition and provisions to Portland Castle because not only was it a defensible stronghold but it also commanded "Portland roads" and the entrance to Weymouth. Also he ordered as many of his men to Portland Castle," as the importance and condition of the place required..." he had then sent the rest of the garrison to reinforce Prince Maurice. Meanwhile dissident's in the town and sent word to the Parliamentarian Earl of Essex who was then at Dorchester begging him for help. In June 1644, The Earl of Essex with an army of 13,000 men (both horse and foot) had taken Dorchester, on his way to relieve Lyme, the only Parliamentarian town left in the county. The Earl ordered Sir William Balfour to retake Weymouth for Parliament. Colonel Ashburnham had not finished strengthening the fortifications of the town and held the opinion that it could not be defended against such a large force. So after further strengthening the force at Portland, he decided to leave. He was later exonerated of cowardice after he produced a warrant from Prince Maurice agreeing "...that the town being untenable, he should upon the advance of the Earl of Essex, put sufficient force into Portland Castle, and retire thither...." after a second public hearing in front of the King he was again cleared of any crime or neglect. On June 15th 1644, The small garrison of men left to defend the town surrendered all the arms, ordinances and ships. The commanders and officers were allowed to proceed to Exeter on horseback and could keep their swords and pistols but the common soldiers had to walk and were allowed to keep only their staves to defend themselves. The garrison's swift surrender was helped along by the sudden appearance of a fleet, lead by the Earl of Warwick, the Parliamentarian's Lord High Admiral, which appeared off the town and threatened to bombard it. Weymouth and Melcombe and all the forts along with Sandsfoot castle were taken. Colonel William Sydenham was to be re-appointed governor. Things calmed down and the only other incident that year occurred in October, when it is recorded that one hundred horse of the Queen's regiment were captured by the towns Parliamentary forces with the help of the local inhabitants. Early in 1644, Fabian Hodder, a Royalist merchant from Melcombe was in secret communication with both Sir Lewis Dyve, the Royalist Commander in Chief of the Dorsetshire regiments who was then at Sherborne and with Sir William Hastings, the Royalist governor of Portland Castle. Along with Fabian Hodder, one John Cade, who had served as a captain in the Royalist forces, and John Mills, one of the town's constables also added their appeals for Royalist aid. Sir Lewis Dyve, who was under orders from the King to secure Weymouth for the Crown, promised Sir William Hastings that a force of 1500 foot and horse would come to their assistance. So it came to pass, on Sunday the 9th February 1645 Sir Lewis Dyve with his force set out to retake Weymouth. This was not to be the only Royalist assault on the town, an order was given during the Service at St. Andrew's Church at Church Ope, that part of the Portland garrison and the islanders should be report with their arms to the castle by 5pm. One hundred and twenty men turned up and were duly formed into two companies, one to go by land and the other to go by water to the pier under the Nothe. The company travelling overland reached Smallmouth, but as there was no bridge in those days they had to rely on a Weymouth man, John Dry, a tanner by trade, who had arranged with the ferryman to bring the Royalists across. From the Wyke side of the water John Dry led the force through the quiet country lanes to attack the Chapel fort from the rear. The Royalists attacked about midnight and so surprised the Parliamentarian's that they met hardly any resistance. The Parliamentarian's however rallied within the hour but were repulsed with fairly heavy losses. Walter Bond, a local fisherman, who led them in a successful attack on the Nothe Fort, met the other company meanwhile having landed at the Nothe. Although they had lost the forts the Parliamentarian forces held on in Weymouth but only until the evening, for on the other side of the town there was a gathering of town and country folk on Radipole Common to help swell Sir Lewis Dyve's force. Sir Lewis Dyve did not arrive until noon on Monday (10th February, they then went on to capture the rest of Weymouth. That evening, the Parliamentarian's withdrew to Melcombe and raised the drawbridge that divided the two towns. THE ROYALIST SIEGE OF MELCOMBE - FEBRUARY 1645 The Royalists now proceeded to bombard the Parliamentarian's and the townspeople of Melcombe from the Chapel fort on the heights of Chapelhay. As well as the Chapel fort the Royalists also held the Nothe fort and a small fort at Bincleaves. At their full strength they numbered between 4000 - 5000 men while the Parliamentarians could muster only 900. But the Parliamentarians started to dig in and surround Melcombe with earthworks. All week the bombardment of Melcombe continued, in vain Colonel Sydenham proposed that there should be no further useless burnings, but the Royalists just jeered at him and so in his anger he order a retaliatory attack which ended in the burning of some of the houses and ships on the Weymouth side. Meanwhile two Parliament ships, under the command of vice admiral William Batten, had come to the aid of the besieged, bringing with them 100 horse and landing some 200 seamen and taking 200 Royalist prisoners. A further detachment of 100 cavalry under Lieut.Colonel James Haynes came by land. On Sunday 16th February 1645, Colonel Sydenham and his men defeated a party of Royalist horse near Radipole. Some were killed but over 80 horses and 45 Royalists were captured. The remaining few were chased right to the gates at Weymouth. The Royalist troops of Sir Lewis Dyve were joined by Sir Thomas Austin's, Cleveland's Horse, and foot soldiers were positioned to block the Parliamentarian at the north end of Melcombe, but still the Parliamentarians would not give up, even managing to raid outside the town. Indeed on one occasion they even managed to bring into Melcombe 900 sheep. Lord Goring (the King's Lieutenant-General for Hampshire) had arrived in Dorset near the end of the month with an army of over 3000 horse, 1500 foot and a train of artillery. Having left his main army in Dorchester he decided to send a detachment of horse and foot to help the Royalist besiegers at Weymouth. The new troops arrived with beating drums and blowing trumpets which must have frightened the townsfolk a great deal. Goring joined up with Sir Thomas Austin's and Cleveland's horse along with some foot and waited for Sydenham to surrender, which never came. The next day Sydenham managed to capture an earthwork, which had been hastily thrown up by Goring's troops, about a furlong north of the town, killing some of the Royalists at the same time. Further losses were to come. On Tuesday 25th February 1645, the Parliamentarians attacked a party of Royalist horse, bringing provisions to the town, and some prisoners were taken. The Royalists in Chapel Fort on seeing this, set out with one hundred foot to regain the stores and help their cavalry, who were fleeing from the Parliamentarians. Sydenham, quickly realising his enemy's mistake, withdrew some one hundred and fifty Musketeers and put them under the command of Major Wilson and Captain Langford who crossed the bridge from Melcombe. Within an hour the parliamentarians had recaptured Chapel Fort and Old Weymouth with the loss of only one man. Since the Nothe Fort and Bincleves Fort were still in Royalist hands a further two days of bombardment ensued as the Royalist and Parliamentarians fired at both towns. On the night of February 27th Lord Goring had decided to attack Melcombe but a parliamentary soldier who had been captured a few days before managed to escape and warn Sydenham. Forewarned, the Parliament's men managed to defend themselves and Captain Batten managed to come ashore with 100 seamen to help reinforce the defences. Between one and two o'clock on the morning of February 28th 1645 Lord Goring's whole army, having earlier marched from Dorchester, attacked both towns simultaneously on a few fronts including the Chapel Fort. Sydenham decided to use strategy of a withdrawal, vacating the defences near the old Town Hall and barricaded the High Street immediately below the Chapel Fort, leaving a gun there. The Royalist's entered the deserted works with triumphant cries, believing themselves to have gained a quick, decisive victory but they were attacked while marching down the street. Totally surprised, the Royalists were forced to retreat leaving some dead and taking others with them back to Dorchester for burial. Meanwhile the Irish and other Royalist forces from the Nothe Fort attacked and took a small fort near the bridge in old Weymouth, commanded by Captain Thornhill, forcing the Parliamentarians to retreat. Sydenham on seeing this rallied his troops and the fort was recovered. The result of this day's fighting was that although greatly out numbered the Parliamentarian's retained Old Weymouth, except for a small area around the Nothe Fort, and they had completely repelled the attacks of Royalist forces in Melcombe. A Parliamentarian army under Sir William Waller had been ordered to relieve Weymouth. On Friday February 28th, hearing of the approach of this large Parliamentarian force the Royalists under Lord Goring and Sir Lewis Dyve suddenly abandoned the Nothe and Bincleaves Fort's, leaving behind them their colours, ammunition, guns and provisions. They withdrew to Wyke, where they stayed a while to tend their wounded but soon they marched to Dorchester and then on to Taunton. So ended the siege of Melcombe, which had lasted only 18 days. The Parliamentary losses were throughout the siege exceedingly small and they attributed their success to the "interposition of Divine Providence". Only Portland, Sherborne and Corfe Castle remained in Royalist hands. Portland surrendered to Captain Batten on 6th April 1646. Many of the Royalist conspirators had been captured; Captain Cade, John Mills and various others were hanged on the Nothe on Monday 3rd March 1645. Walter Bond and Samways, a Melcombe tailor, were brought to the gallows to be hanged but were reprieved at the last moment and sent back to prison to be questioned about their co-conspirators, Fabian Hodder, the ring leader, was imprisoned at Poole but escaped, He later returned to become a member of the Corporate body of Weymouth. Weymouth was to remain in parliamentary hands under the guidance of Sydenham until the end of the conflict.
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