This Day in History: 1649-02-24

On 24th February 1649, Thomas Margetts wrote to Parliamentarian Captain Adam Baynes in London from Pontefract: ‘We perceive there are long demurs in the execution of Justice upon the rest of the great and notorious offenders….These parts are yet quiet, and we hope will be kept so till this Castle be taken…we hope will not be long……Besides the standing army, I think …it would much conduce to the preservation of the peace of this nation if an act of Parliament were past for the calling in and seizing on of all malignants’ arms, and for the preventing and punishing all disaffected priests that, in their preaching, meddle with civil affairs, thereby stirring up and provoking the people to contention, division, parties, and factions, and so demonstrating themselves the greatest…..Incendiaries of the people…’