Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

his opponents to disperse in the Queen's name, and at the same time he exhorted his neighbours to intervene with their arquebuses, bows and arrows. Perrot's men fled upon the appearance of the latter, thereby terminating what might have been an encounter of large proportions. Along the coast too there was a good deal of spoliation and piracy in which the gentry were deeply involved, including Sir John Perrot, who was appointed vice-admiral of South Wales in 1562. Enquiries into the activities of local pirates and their relations with connivers, both high and low, on shore dragged on interminably. What might happen when there was the greatest need for local unity may be seen from an entry in the Privy Council Register for 1597. The account runs: during the late attempt of the Spaniards two of their ships were driven ashore in Wales, whereof one was forced into a creek called Galtop. Hereupon Mr. Hugh Butler, that was in command of the trained bands in those parts, prepared six fisher boats to board the ship, but the Spaniards sent out a flag of truce and offered to send their cockboat ashore. This being perceived by one John Wogan, a gentleman of those parts, he with his brother and other associates to the number of twenty entered the ship before Mr. Butler, and not only withstood him by force but wounded him in three places, while his company rifled the ship of all her goods, money, and things of value. At Caldey the other Spanish ship in which there was treasure for Dunkirk is escaped through the disorderly behaviour of others.' 1 The general spirit of lawlessness which sometimes burst forth into serious clashes was aggravated by the fact that many men kept their militia weapons in their homes, as may be seen from contemporary wills." Moreover the economic situation infused an increased earnestness into the struggle of local factions because success or failure directly or indirectly affected the incomes of participants.3 Throughout the later sixteenth century and until his death in 1592, local politics hinged on the personality of Sir John Perrot, who, George Owen declared, beinge some what ffrended but more feared of the gentellmen and freeholders of the countrei hathe, by reson of the rigours wch he usethe and the heape of retayners that doe many tymes attend him, the moste parte of the gentelmen and freeholders of the countei of Pembrok at his commandment.' Few of the more important landowners of Elizabethan Pembrokeshire were not embroiled in the desperate struggle between the two groups. Sometimes this strife was carried on within the frame- work of the royal courts, for the use of vexatious litigation' was well recognised as an effective method of ruining an opponent of slender means. Thomas Catharne of Prendergast, who was hated by Perrot for I Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, vol. XXVIII, 1597-8, pp. 119-20. This practice seems to have been general despite the establishment of armour houses at Haverfordwest and Eglwyswrw. I have discovered no allusions to an armour house in the south of the county. Success enabled a squire to secure grants of Crown lands, offices, and lay rectories, and gave him the chance to make profits by more dubious methods without hindrance. Failure meant not only the deprival of these and other sources of revenue, but also the possibility of having to wage long and expensive lawsuits to preserve his rights. 4 Owen's Penbrokshire, vol. II, p. 511,