STRYCKLAND, Robert (1600-71), of Sizergh Castle, Westmld. and Thornton Bridge, Brafferton, Yorks.

Stryckland’s ancestors had settled at Sizergh in the early thirteenth century and had first represented Westmorland in the Parliaments of Edward I.32Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 8; Parliamentary Writs and Writs of Military Summons ed. F. Palgrave, i. 851; HP Commons 1386-1421, ‘Sir Walter Strickland’. The family had acquired the manor and hall of Thornton Bridge, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, by marriage in the early sixteenth century.33Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 78-9. Stryckland’s father, Sir Thomas Strickland, was returned for Westmorland in 1601 and 1604, but his standing in the county and his landed income were injured as a result of his heavy gambling. By the time of his death in 1612, when Stryckland was 12 years old, he had contracted debts in excess of £10,000.34WARD9/215, f. 15; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 104, 106; Phillips, ‘Gentry in Cumb. and Westmld.’, 221-2. Stryckland’s wardship was purchased by his mother, who, with help from the court of wards, managed to protect his inheritance from Sir Thomas’s creditors and to stabilise the family’s finances. Nevertheless, Stryckland was obliged to borrow large sums of money during the 1630s, presumably to help pay off his father’s debts.35LC4/201, ff. 136, 250v, 269.

From the death of his father, and probably earlier, Stryckland was brought up in a Catholic-dominated household. His mother was a recusant, two of his brothers were sent to the English Catholic seminary at Douai and one of his sisters married a Catholic.36Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 106-8; Phillips, ‘Gentry in Cumb. and Westmld.’, 56, 80, 81-2. Stryckland may have had Catholic leanings himself – this would perhaps explain his eldest son’s subsequent conversion to Rome. However, outwardly at least, he appears to have remained conformable to the Church of England. He married a firm Protestant and, by 1642, his household was apparently free from any trace of Catholicism.37E351/431; H. Aveling, Northern Catholics: the Catholic Recusants of the N. Riding of Yorks. 1558-1790, 280. Although he was returned for Westmorland in 1624, he spent most of his time on his Yorkshire estates – principally, it seems, Thornton Bridge and the lands he had acquired by marriage in the East Riding.38Add. 11323, f. 21; ‘Paver’s mar. lics.’ ed. C. B. Norcliffe, YAJ xiv. 480; E115/363/83.

Before the late 1630s, there is nothing to suggest that Stryckland was a strong king’s man, although it may be significant that he was party to a land settlement in 1621 involving Henry 1st Viscount Dunbar (the leading Catholic in the East Riding), Sir Thomas Metham and (Sir) Edward Alford*, all of whom were, or would become, supporters of the court interest.39SP16/60/52, f. 79; Yorks. Stuart Fines ed. W. Brigg (Yorks. Arch. Soc. rec. ser. lviii), 172; H. Aveling, Post-Reformation Catholicism in E. Yorks. 1558-1790 (E. Yorks. Local Hist. Soc. xi), 36. By the 1630s, he appears to have on friendly terms with the Belasyse family of Newburghe Priory – which lay about six miles east of Thornton Bridge – and the future royalist Sir Edward Osborne*, vice-president of the council of the north.40Add. 11323, f. 21v; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 113. It was on Osborne’s recommendation that Thomas Viscount Wentworth† (the future earl of Strafford) appointed him a lieutenant-colonel of the militia for the North Riding in September 1638.41Strafforde Letters, ii. 194; Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N30 16 Car. I.

Stryckland’s appointment did not deter him from registering opposition to royal policies. In January 1639, following a royal order that the Yorkshire trained bands muster for possible deployment against the Scots, Stryckland signed a petition to the king from the county’s deputy lieutenants and militia commanders, expressing their readiness to march to any rendezvous, but reminding Charles that their troops were ‘never ... once employed out of our county upon any remote service whatsoever’.42Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, i. 353-4. He signed another petition to the king from the county’s deputy lieutenants in March, in which the petitioners asked that their men be paid a month in advance before marching to any rendezvous.43SP16/414/92, f. 217. In April 1640, during preparations for the second bishops’ war, the commander of the king’s forces, the earl of Northumberland, appointed him a colonel and ordered him to march his regiment to Newcastle – although this order was later rescinded for lack of money.44Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N32 16 Car. I. That summer, Stryckland again registered his opposition to the king’s Scottish policy, when he signed the petition of the ‘disaffected’ Yorkshire gentry to the king of 28 July 1640, complaining about illegal billeting in the county. The petition was denounced by Strafford as ‘mutinous’.45Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 1215; D. Scott, ‘‘Hannibal at our gates’: loyalists and fifth-columnists during the bishops’ wars – the case of Yorkshire’, HR lxx. 275.

Despite questioning the wisdom of royal policy, Stryckland served faithfully during the second bishops’ war and appears to have been zealous in raising additional troops to resist the Scots.46Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N45, N46 Car. I.; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 111-2. His loyalty impressed Strafford, who made him a deputy lieutenant on 10 August 1640.47Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N36 16 Car. I. Two weeks later, however, on 24 August, Stryckland signed the Yorkshire gentry’s second petition to the king, complaining, once again, about the cost of billeting and pleading poverty in the face of royal demands to mobilise the trained bands against the invading Scots.48Rushworth, Hist. Collns. iii. 1230. He also signed the third petition, in September, requesting that Charles summon Parliament.49Cumb. RO (Kendal), Strickland ms vol. 1608-1700, N38 16 Car. I. And on 5 October he was a signatory to the Yorkshire county indenture, returning two of the leading petitioners, Lord Fairfax (Sir Ferdinando Fairfax*) and Henry Belasyse, to the Long Parliament.50C219/43/3/89. Yet in September and October, Stryckland defied the wishes of the majority of the petitioners as one of a dozen or so Yorkshire deputy lieutenants and militia officers to sign warrants for levying an additional month’s pay for the regiments of the future royalists Sir Thomas Danbie* and Sir William Pennyman*, which had been assigned, on the king’s orders, to defend the county’s northern border against incursions by the Scots.51N. Yorks. RO, ZFW, Wyvill of Constable Burton mss, Wyvill fam. pprs. to 1700 (mic. 1761); HMC 5th Rep. 331; Scott, ‘Hannibal’, 288. Almost every member of this group was to side with the king in 1642, although it was probably hostility to the Scots which served to unite them in 1640.

It was possibly through Strafford’s influence that Stryckland was returned for Aldborough – a borough some five miles south of Thornton Bridge – in the elections to the Long Parliament in the autumn of 1640. The borough was certainly amenable to crown influence in this period, although as a property-owner in the area, Stryckland may have enjoyed strong local connections himself.52Supra, ‘Aldborough’. Stryckland was called by Strafford as a witness at his trial, and when cross-examined on 7 April 1641 as to whether the earl had raised money in Yorkshire by threat of force (a reference to the September and October 1640 levies), he claimed that the levy had been approved by the council of peers and that for all he knew it had been willingly paid.53Procs. LP iii. 362, 432, 434, 437, 439, 443, 448, 451. He was not listed among the Straffordians – those Members who voted on 21 April against the earl’s attainder – and was probably absent from the House.

Apparently inactive in debate, Stryckland’s only known contribution in the House’s proceedings, besides giving evidence at Strafford’s trial, was to take the Protestation – although he did not do so until 13 July 1641, over two months after its introduction.54CJ ii. 208b. That same month he was confirmed in all his offices by Yorkshire’s new lord lieutenant, the future parliamentarian general the earl of Essex – evidence, perhaps, that he was not regarded as having Catholic leanings.55HMC 5th Rep. 331. Stryckland was at York in November, when he was knighted by the king on the latter’s return journey from Scotland.56Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, ii. 269. Having returned to Yorkshire, it is doubtful whether Stryckland ever resumed his seat. Although he was never granted leave of absence, it was not until 16 June 1642 that he was declared absent without leave at the call of the House.57CJ ii. 626; PJ iii. 481. A ‘Mr Strictland’ was added to a Commons committee on 1 March 1642, but in a letter to Lord Fairfax on 11 March, Thomas Stockdale* reported that Stryckland, Sir John Mallory* and other royalist-inclined gentry had been ‘diverse days making merry’ at the country seat of Sir Richard Hutton near Knaresborough.58CJ ii. 463a; Fairfax Corresp. ed. Johnson, ii. 384.

Stryckland attended the king at York in the spring of 1642, and 200 of his regiment were chosen in May to serve as Charles’s personal guard.59LJ v. 79b; PJ ii. 328, 359; CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 323. The following month it was reported that Stryckland’s troops had been responsible for attacks on the houses of prominent York puritans.60An Extract of Several Letters Sent From York (1642), sig. A3 (E.151.17). His militia regiment was placed on the royal payroll during the summer of 1642 and probably formed the core of the regiment that he commanded in the earl of Newcastle’s northern royalist army – although it is not clear when Stryckland was commissioned by the earl.61Harl. 6851, f. 150; Add. 18777, f. 137v; Belvoir, QZ.22, f. 11; HMC 5th Rep. 330; HMC Portland, i. 90. His regimental chaplain was the curate of Bedale, in the North Riding, John Hitchmough.62Harl. 6851, f. 150v. Some of Stryckland’s men fought at Edgehill under the command of his eldest son (Sir) Thomas Strickland†, but Stryckland himself remained in Yorkshire and was among the county’s royalist gentry who wrote to the earl of Newcastle in October, agreeing to his terms for marching his forces to their assistance.63Newman, Royalist Officers, 362; Newcastle Mems. ed. Firth, 190. In February 1643, Stryckland and his son were party to the so-called Yorkshire engagement, by which the signatories pledged their estates as security on loans for the supply of the earl’s troops.64Add. 15858, f. 237; CCAM 908, 931. Stryckland was disabled from sitting by the Commons on 21 January 1643 for having been ‘in actual war’ against Parliament – a reference to the battle that he and Colonel Guilford Slyngesby* had fought (and lost) earlier that month against Sir Hugh Cholmeley’s* forces in north Yorkshire.65CJ ii. 938b; HMC Portland, i. 90. In about July, Stryckland took over from Sir Henry Slingesby* as governor of the royalist garrison at Stamford Bridge, in the East Riding, and in January 1644 he was described as being ‘employed on the king’s service’.66Slingsby Diary ed. Parsons, 94-5; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 575; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 115. He was a member of the besieged royalist garrison at York in July 1644, when he was employed by the earl of Newcastle as one of his negotiators with the parliamentarian generals, with instructions to stall for time until the arrival of Prince Rupert.67Rushworth, Hist. Collns. v. 628.

After the battle of Marston Moor, in which Stryckland was almost certainly involved, he was given the benefit of the articles of York when the city surrendered.68Newman, Royalist Officers, 362; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 115; Binns, Yorks. in the Civil Wars, 89. When his estate was sequestered in 1646, he procured a letter from General Leven to the Committee for Sequestrations, confirming that he was comprehended within the York articles.69HMC 5th Rep. 331. He continued to associate with royalist gentry after the war, appointing Sir John Mallory and Richard Aldburghe* his feoffees in 1646 in the marriage settlement between his eldest son Sir Thomas Strickland† and the widow of Sir Christopher Dawney, another prominent Yorkshire royalist.70Nicolson, Burn, Westmld. and Cumb. i. 101; CCAM 918.

During the second civil war, Stryckland and Aldburghe served together in the campaign in north-western England under the royalist commanders Sir Philip Musgrave* and Sir Marmaduke Langdale.71Supra, ‘Richard Aldburghe’; NAS, GD 406/1/2328; Clarke Pprs. ii. 9; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1250; ‘Sir Philip Musgrave’s relation’ ed. C.H. Firth, Scottish Hist. Soc. xliv (1904), 310. Stryckland was with Musgrave when he surrendered at Appleby in October 1648 and was given six months to leave the country by the parliamentarians – an order which he appears to have disobeyed.72Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1294; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 116. His estate was sequestered by the Committee for Compounding* and then by the Committee for Advance of Money (CAM) on the grounds that he had not paid an assessment of £1,500 (imposed on him in July 1644) for the twentieth part of his estate or his contribution of £200 to the Yorkshire engagement. Stryckland pleaded, successfully it seems, that he could not pay these sums because his estate was under sequestration and he had not yet compounded.73CCC 176; CCAM 436, 931. When the CAM summoned him in 1655 for non-payment of the assessment for his twentieth part, he claimed to have settled all his estate on his son for the satisfaction of his debts and that he had no estate either real or personal that could be made liable for payment.74SP19/121, f. 108; CCAM 931.

After 1648, Stryckland lived quietly on his estates and appears to have avoided political involvement of any kind until late 1659, when he gave shelter and assistance to Brian Fairfax, whom Thomas 3rd Baron Fairfax (Sir Thomas Fairfax*) had dispatched to General George Monck*, pledging support against Major-general John Lambert*.75Fairfax Corresp. ed. Bell, ii. 155; Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 116. Brian Fairfax had been advised to seek help from Stryckland by Fairfax’s son-in-law Henry Arthington*, and Stryckland, in turn, recommended Fairfax to the care of Sir Philip Musgrave.76Fairfax Corresp. ed. Bell, ii. 155 The result of this secret mission from Fairfax to Monck was the Yorkshire rising of January 1660, which saw Lord Fairfax and his supporters seize Yorkshire in the name of a free Parliament, thereby opening the way for Monck’s march south to London. In February 1660, Stryckland signed a petition to Monck from the Yorkshire gentry ‘who adhered unto his late majesty’, requesting a free Parliament.77W. Yorks. Archives (Wakefield), C176/2. Although Stryckland was restored to many of his former offices in 1660, he appears to have remained in retirement.

Stryckland died in the spring of 1671 and was buried at Brafferton on 14 April. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, sat for Westmorland from 1661 until 1677, when, as a Catholic, he was forced to resign his seat. At the Glorious Revolution he supported James II and followed him into exile.78Hornyold, Strickland of Sizergh, 117, 130-5; HP Commons, 1660-90, ‘Sir Thomas Strickland’.