Venables was of the ancient Cheshire family of that name at Antrobus. He was afterward Commander-in-Chief of the Parliamentarian troops in Ulster, and later, with the rank of General, led the expedition to the West Indies which took possession of Jamaica. He acquiesced in the Restoration, and died in 1687, aged 75 ("Discourse" note, p. 99).
[82] "Discourse," pp. 21-2. The humour of this narrative can hardly be unconscious: "The greatest execution that it did, as was heard of, a bullet enterd into a house upon the South syde of the Church Yard and burst the bottom out of a fryen pan. There was no nearer assault to the towne than a quarter of a mile. They wear afraid of comming near one another. The soldiers within the Towne went out of it and discharged there muskets towards them at randome for anything was knowne there was not a man sleyne or hurt. Upon Christmas day at night Sir Gilbert withdrew his forces being weary of the Siege, and his Souldiers and Clubmen were glad of it, that they might eate their Christmas pyes at home."
[83] "The true relation of the taking of the Town of Preston by Colonell Seaton's forces from Manchester, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 71). "A perfect Relation of the Taking of the Towne of Preston in Lancashire, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 73). Also shorter accounts in "C.W.T.," pp. 127, 224; and "Discourse," p. 23. The first of these tracts was written by John Tilsley, Vicar of Dean, near Bolton. "So soon as matters were settled we sung the praises to God in the streets (Sir, it was wonderfull to see it), the sun brake forth and shined brightly and hot in the time of the exercise, as if it had been Midsummer."
The next six months was the really critical time in the Lancashire Civil War. In it the issue was finally decided, and by the end of the summer the royalist resistance was practically overcome. In this period it was for a time quite possible that the royalists would gain the upper hand; their best planned operations were in these months, and they showed more enterprise and energy than either before or afterwards. For a time at least they more than stemmed the tide of defeat which was rising against them. The fighting was now chiefly in royalist territory, mostly in Amounderness and Leyland Hundred; but the engagements in the Fylde in March were rather due to accident than otherwise, and the real struggle resolved itself into mutual attacks on Preston, Lancaster and Wigan on the one hand and on Blackburn and Bolton on the other. The Earl of Derby was said to have intended a second assault on Manchester, but there was never any probability of his being able to carry it out.