The English Civil War

1642-49

The Civil War of 1642-49 was an armed conflict between Royalist and Parliamentary forces arising from the constitutional, economic and religious differences between Charles I and the Long Parliament.

The Royalist strength lay mainly in the north and west while Parliament drew its support principally from the south and the east. Whether as a result of this geographical divide or because Bourne was of little significance in the conflict, the town escaped any actual fighting and although there was a fair amount of military activity in Lincolnshire the people did witness certain troop movements that caused great excitement among the inhabitants.

The only clues we have come from the parish registers. An entry under Burials shows that on 14th December 1643, Elizabeth Gee was interred after being shott by ye souldgeirs. It is not clear whether these were Royalist or Parliamentary soldiers but at this stage in the war, the districts around Spalding and Stamford, which might well have included Bourne, were in sympathy with the Parliamentary cause.

As for Elizabeth Gee, it is interesting to speculate why she met a violent death which must have caused a minor sensation in the town. The Gees were a well-established family in the locality. As early as 1570, there had been the burial of WilIiam Gee, a labourer, and a year later, Jane Gee had married John Pell, a member of another well-known local family. Elizabeth was the daughter of John Gee and at the time of her death was at least 22 years old. Why a woman of this station was killed by the army is difficult to determine but perhaps she had she tried to oppose or obstruct the soldiers in the course of their duties or she may have had a private quarrel with some of them. Unless further research uncovers the cause, we will never know.

Some nine months after this, Bourne again saw the soldiers in the town but only briefly. The Earl of Manchester, a Parliamentary general, had been at Lincoln for a while after the battle of Marston Moor in July 1644. On the September 4th, he marched south from Lincoln and had reached Huntingdon by September 8th. It is therefore fairly certain that he passed through Bourne en route and the following burial recorded in the parish registers on September 6th appears to substantiate this theory: A soulgeire of ye Earle of Manchesters Regim't.

The only other reference in the parish registers to military activities in Bourne during the Civil War is a note that the garrison of Bourne Castle began on 11th October 1645 but as no castle then existed, this is most likely a reference to a garrison of soldiers that was encamped on the site where the castle is believed to have once stood [now the Wellhead Gardens], being the most central and convenient place in the town for the purpose.

It would therefore appear that on the whole, Bourne was not greatly disturbed by the fighting which took place during the Civil War.

There was one sequel to the war which benefited the Vicar of Bourne. When Parliament emerged victorious, it punished Royalists and the clergy among them by fines or sequestrations from their livings. Part of these funds was used to augment the poorer livings in the county and this is how William Clarke, then Vicar of Bourne, received assistance. On 19th August 1646, fifty pounds a year was sequestered to him from the rectory of Heckington, near Sleaford, which had been impropriated, since "the vicarage in the best times was worth but thirty pounds a year".