page_title: Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet
section_title: First blood
hierarchical_section_title: Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet / Political and military career / First blood
caption_attribution_description: English: "Orlandus Bridgeman Miles et Baronettus Custos Magni Sigilli Angliae" ("Keeper of the Great Seal of England") engraving, portrait of Sir Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Baronet of Great Lever, by the English engraver Robert White. Dated 1682. 250 mm x 152 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.
context_page_description: Sir Vincent Corbet, 1st Baronet was an English lawyer and politician who sat for Shropshire in the House of Commons in the Short Parliament of 1640. He fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War.
context_section_description: Chester was a vital Royalist stronghold, allowing the King to draw on supplies and reinforcements from Ireland, but the county was largely Parliamentarian in allegiance. The attempt to use Shropshire troops in Cheshire was dogged from the start by rivalries and poor communications. Orlando Bridgeman, the chief justice and effective deputy governor of Chester, rehearsed these problems in a letter to Sir Francis Ottley on 20 January: Corbet, he complained, had been instructed to advance from Whitchurch, Shropshire to Tarporley, well inside Cheshire, but had refused on the grounds that his force was too small. Bridgeman urged Ottley to appeal to the Shropshire gentry for reinforcements, as he believed an attack by Sir William Brereton, the main Parliamentarian commander in the region, imminent. However, John Harrington, a relative of Ottley, made clear the hopelessness of such a recruitment strategy in a letter of 25 January:
  I find that our County and Especially these parts are very slow to keep themselves secure and to satisfie the com'on expectation, the Divells have got possession of the Swyne and they are running into their own Ruin, I see very well that the design of raising a Thousand Dragoons is in a manner quashed every Hundred is to find 10 and every Alottment according to their proportions, but suppose they delude you they will say much and do nothing (as it seems many have done in this expedition of Sir Vincent Corbett) what will you do then?
  Corbet joined forces with Sir Thomas Aston, 1st Baronet, hoping that reinforcements would arrive. On 28 January Bridgeman wrote to Shrewsbury, preparing Ottley for bad news: Aston had moved toward Stafford and Brereton had slipped into Nantwich behind him. Later the same day, Aston wrote to explain what had happened: approaching what they thought was the friendly town of Nantwich, they had found it occupied by about 140 Parliamentarians. After a couple of attempts to storm the town, they withdrew to regroup, only to come face to face with Brereton's main force. They fought their way through: "both sides are loosers, what wee know not, night being theyre, friend our enemy." Aston requested musketeers to make good their losses. Corbet's account, written the following morning at Market Drayton, also sought to portray the encounter as a draw, but ominously asked not for soldiers but surgeons.
  This in hast, is onely to give you notice, of a skirmish we had, wᵗʰ Breartons and yᵉ Nantwich forces, I cannot as yet certify of any p'ticular passage, onely thus far be satisfied for yᵉ present; the relation of it is not very good neither is it very bad, this much I would request you yᵗ wᵗʰ all Speede, you will send unto Whitchurch all yᵉ Churgieons you can possible p'vide for wee are in grᵗ want of them.
  Brereton's account of the skirmish avers that the force he sent to occupy Nantwich was a mere fifty dragoons. When the Royalists tried to lay an ambush, the local people kept the Parliamentarians informed. When, his main force confronted the Royalists, who betrayed their own position by their lighted musket matches, Corbet's dragoons "were presentlie disordered and many of them ran awaye withoute ever giving fire." He thought Aston was wounded and both he and Corbet had been captured briefly but were able to escape under cover of darkness to Over, abandoning their arms in the process. He considered his own troops' performance "far beyonde what could bee expected of us," considering that they had just marched from Leek. The participants differed little over facts but considerably over interpretation. The behaviour of the Royalist commanders led to accusations of cowardice, but was just as easily interpreted as prudence. Certainly Corbet's disobedience at Whitchurch the previous week had saved his small force from being completely cut off in hostile territory. Harrington again pointed out the obvious weaknesses: "I was hartily sorry to see S'ʳ Vincent Corbett so poorly furnished with raw Soldiers and Young Commanders."
caption: Orlando Bridgeman, portrayed in later life as a distinguished judge. Bridgeman criticised Corbet's initial refusal to advance into Cheshire.
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