CHAPTER VI

COLONEL ROBERT VENABLES

(1612-1687)

"I am a man

More sinned against, than sinning."

He was a son of Robert Venables, of Antrobus, Cheshire, a member of an ancient Cheshire house. He served in the Parliamentary Army and held various posts. In 1649 he was Commander-inChief of the Forces in Ulster, and became Governor of Belfast, Antrim and Lisnegarvey. He left Ireland in 1654, having gained great renown there. "Cromwell demanded from the Spaniards that they should treat the English as friends in South America, and in regard to the trade of Spain, that a clause should be struck out of the last treaty which made it still possible for the Inquisition to molest English merchants. But these were proposals which seemed to the Spaniards little else than insults." 1 Accordingly placing Admiral William Penn at the head of the fleet, and Venables at the head of the army with the rank of general, Cromwell despatched them

1 Ranke's History of England, 1875, Vol. II., Chapter V.

hastily from England in 1654. The two chiefs did not get on well together. The men Venables had to command were a raw rabble, and very different from the men he had had under his command when in Ireland. The expedition was very badly equipped, much "stuff" being wanting. After touching at Barbadoes, the troops landed at Hispaniola, at the mouth of the Nizao, some twenty miles from Santa Domingo, the city and port of the island, without opposition.' The march there was attended with disaster, chiefly on account of want of water. Venables fell ill, and it was deemed best, after various encounters and many repulses, to withdraw from the island altogether and try for better fortune against Jamaica. This they had, and the island was easily captured. It has ever since remained part of our possessions. Penn was now delighted of the excuse to return to England in order to report on the affairs that had taken place. Venables soon after followed. Cromwell was greatly "discomposed" on hearing of the disaster and "shut himself up in his room, brooding over it." He considered that the West Indies, if prosperous, afforded facilities for future attempts on the American continent. On their arrival in England, Penn and Venables were committed to the Tower. "Have you ever read," said Cromwell

1 Lingard, in his History of England, Vol. VIII., gives the distance as forty miles.

E

to Venables, "of any general that had left his army, and not commanded back?" Cromwell had made up his mind not to set Penn and Venables at liberty till they had formally acknowledged their offences. Penn did this soon. Venables held out longer, but also did so. Cromwell could never be persuaded to trust either of them again. "For Penn there was little to be said, as his presence was manifestly required at the head of the fleet remaining in the West Indies. Venables, on the other hand, was guilty, at the most of saving his own life at a time when hundreds of his officers and men were perishing. It was out of the question that he could have lived long enough to render efficient service in Jamaica" (see The History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, by G. S. R. Gardiner, Vol. III., Longmans & Co.). Venables became very bitter against Cromwell, and became a Royalist, though remaining to the end of his life an Independent. In 1660 he was made Governor of Chester, and in 1662 he published The Experienced Angler, of which mention has been made in Chapter IV. In his prefatory address he remarks on the undervalued subject of angling that nothing passes for "noble or delightful which is not costly; as though men could not gratify their senses, but with the consumption of their fortunes." How these words agree with Wordsworth's

"The wealthiest man among us is the best:
No grandeur now in nature or in book
Delights us!"1

Venables contends that "the minds of anglers are usually more calm and composed than many others, especially hunters and falconers, who too frequently lose their delight in their passion, and too often bring home more of melancholy and discontent than satisfaction in their thoughts; but the angler, when he hath the worst success, loseth but a hook or line, or perhaps, what he never possessed, a fish!"

Amongst his general observations he says: "Deny not part of what your endeavours shall purchase unto any sick or indigent persons, but willingly distribute a part of your purchase to those who may desire a share"; and he ends thus : "Make not a profession of any recreation lest your immoderate love towards it should bring a cross wish on the same." There was a very nice reprint brought out of the book in 1827, by T. Gosden. Venables bought the estate of Wincham, in Cheshire, where his descendants are still settled.

In the notes to Robinson's Discourse of the War in Lancashire, printed for the Chetham Society, p. 97, will be found the best information as to his life, and it is thence that the information given

1 The Sonnets.

of him in the Dictionary of National Biography seems to be derived.

Venables was twice married; first to Elizabeth Rudyard, and secondly to Elizabeth, widow of Thomas Lee, of Darn Hall, and daughter of Samuel Aldersey. The reader can find the story of the unfortunate expedition against the Spaniards well narrated in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, though Dr Gardiner says the account is not to be "trusted implicitly."

Venables was probably a disappointed man, and the later part of his life is likely to have been his happiest. The following lines of James Thomson, the poet, seem to be applicable to his last days:

"An elegant sufficiency, content, retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, ease and alternate labour, useful life, progressive virtue, and approving Heaven."