Note 232 — Chapter X · The Last Stand. Battle of Wigan Lane. Trial and Death of the Earl of Derby.

The fullest accounts of the Battle of Wigan are: "A Great Victory, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 296); "Two Letters from Col. Robert Lilburne, etc." ("C.W.T.," p. 300); "Seacome," pp. 113, 114; Whitelock's "Memorials," p. 504; and "Discourse," pp. 72-76. The last gives most details, probably from personal knowledge; Major Robinson was one of the Lancashire officers to whom a commission was given in the reorganisation of the Militia in 1650. His narrative and that of Lilburne, as those written by eye-witnesses, may be taken as the most reliable.

With regard to the numbers of the respective forces, there can be little doubt that they were very nearly equal. Seacome's wild estimates, which are, as usual, unhesitatingly followed by Canon Raines, may be dismissed as impossible; he gives Lilburne 3,000 horse and foot. It has already been mentioned that Derby landed with less than 100 horse, and either 250 or 300 foot (p. 187). All the accounts substantially agree in respect to these figures. In the few days after landing these numbers were considerably increased; Seacome acknowledges that Derby had 600 horse at the battle, while Lilburne says that the royalists had increased to 1,400 or 1,500 men, and the "Discourse" gives them 1,000 foot and 500 horse. Lilburne's estimate of his own army, as stated in the letter to Cromwell, may be accepted as correct. He writes: "I had only my own regiment, and those three companies of foot, and the 60 horse and dragoons." His own regiment of horse he had brought with him; two of the foot companies had been sent from Chester, and one, together with the 60 dragoons, from the garrison at Liverpool. "Discourse," p. 75; "C.W.T.," p. 297. The latter of these references is to a letter from Birch, the Governor of Liverpool, who writes: "All that could be afforded in assistance were two foot companies from Chester, one of my Regiment, left about Manchester, not being so ready as the rest to march out, and what musketeers I horsed from hence with some few countrymen." A regiment of cavalry in the New Model Army numbered 600 men. Firth, "Cromwell's Army," p. 42. Dragoons in the seventeenth century were not cavalry, but mounted infantry. Mr. Gardiner's account of the Battle is not quite correct ("Commonwealth," Vol. 2, p. 39). He says: "Lilburne fell back through Wigan.... Entangled in the lanes south of the town he was compelled to fight, etc." Wigan Lane is the road out of Wigan to the north.