The 8th, We Were Further Informed That They Were Advanced To
Chelmsford, To New Hall House, And To Witham; And
The 9th some of
the horse arrived in the town, taking possession of the gates, and
having engineers with them,
Told us that General Goring had
resolved to make this town his headquarters, and would cause it to
be well fortified. They also caused the drums to beat for
volunteers; and a good number of the poor bay-weavers, and such-
like people, wanting employment, enlisted; so that they completed
Sir Charles Lucas's regiment, which was but thin, to near eight
hundred men.
On the 10th we had news that the Lord Fairfax, having beaten the
Royalists at Maidstone, and retaken Rochester, had passed the
Thames at Gravesend, though with great difficulty, and with some
loss, and was come to Horndon-on-the-Hill, in order to gain
Colchester before the Royalists; but that hearing Sir Charles Lucas
had prevented him, had ordered his rendezvous at Billerecay, and
intended to possess the pass at Malden on the 11th, where Sir
Thomas Honnywood, with the county-trained bands, was to be the same
day.
The same evening the Lord Goring, with all his forces, making about
five thousand six hundred men, horse and foot, came to Colchester,
and encamping without the suburbs, under command of the cannon of
St. Mary's fort, made disposition to fight the Parliament forces if
they came up.
The 12th, the Lord Goring came into Colchester, viewed the fort in
St. Mary's churchyard, ordered more cannon to be planted upon it,
posted two regiments in the suburbs without the head gate, let the
town know he would take them into his Majesty's protection, and
that he would fight the enemy in that situation.
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