Paul, William

"a Scotchman taken prisoner by Cromwell at the battle of Dunbar and sentto New England"

Commemoration of the 350th Anniversary of the Battle of Dunbar
delivered at the Saugus Iron Works, Saugust, Massachusetts
by Bruce Hedman on September 3, 2000
"We have come here today to commemorate the lives of those Scots who 350years ago were exiled from their beloved Scotland to this remote cornerof the New World. They were what today we call Prisoners of War, capturedby Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Dunbar, which was fought on September3, 1650, precisely three and a half centuries ago today.The year 1650was pivotal for Scotland. The Presbyterian Kirk of Scotland held thereins of government, and in 1650 they allowed Charles the Second to becrowned king, once he promised to establish the Presbyterian church inboth Scotland and England. Thus, Charles II became the last king inBritain to be crowned in Scotland on this historic hill of Scone. Butthis aggressive Scottish Presbyterianism threatened Oliver Cromwell andhis parliament of Puritans in England, who wanted little centralizedpower in either church or state. They had the year before executedCharles the First, and tried to govern England as a Republic. WhenScotland audaciously crowned the son of the monarch they deposed,Cromwell invaded Scotland with 16,000 men of his New Model Army, called"Ironsides" for their undefeated martial discipline. But Cromwellunderestimated the Scottish general David Leslie, who burned all cropsand stores in Cromwell''s path through the Lowlands, depriving theinvaders of food. By the time Cromwell reached Edinburgh, his army wasweak with hunger and dysentery. Leslie fortified trenches dug fromEdinburgh to Leith, to prevent Cromwell''s fleet from resupplying theEnglish army. So Cromwell retreated to Dunbar, the next deep water porteast along the coast.Then Leslie marched his Scottish troops, numberingsome 25,000, south of Dunbar to bottle Cromwell up against the sea andblock any retreat back into England. Leslie arrayed his Scottish forcesalong the heights of Doon Hill across the Brox Burn two miles south ofDunbar, to force Cromwell either to fight uphill or else to starve inDunbar. Leslie was in position to give Scottish history a victory overEnglish invaders that would echo alongside Sterling and Bannockburn. Allhe had to do was wait. The Scottish historian Nigel Trantor in hiswonderful book Honours Even describes the disaster that followed. TheKirk held the reins of power in the government, and believed that God wasa Presbyterian, not a Puritan, and would insure a Presbyterian victory.First, the ministers of the Kirk purged Leslie''s army of any who drank,carroused, or cursed, meaning most of his professional soldiers. Second,they insisted that Leslie quick skulking on the high ground and "go downinto the plain and smite the Philistine" like Israel in the land ofCanaan. Leslie had no choice but to obey.This fanatical stupidity wasan answer to Cromwell''s prayers. His was the best cavalry in Europe, andon the level ground rolled up the flanks of the Scottish infantry. Byleaving the high ground a promising victory became a general rout inwhich 3,000 Scottish troops were cut down by Cromwell''s pursing cavalry.Another 10,000 were taken prisoner. Cromwell was so relieved at escapingfrom his near defeat that it is said on the battlefield in the midst ofthe carnage he was overcome by maniacal laughter. But now Cromwell wasfaced with the problem of what to do with his prisoners. Half he freed astheir wounds rendered them unfit for further military service. But 5,000were still an able-bodied threat. Cromwell ordered Sir Arthur Haselriggeof Newcastle to deal with the problem. Haselrigge forced the 5,000Scottish POWs to march 120 miles in eight days with little food fromDunbar through Berwick, Morpeth, and Newcastle, to Durham. Any who triedto escape, any who fell behind, any who became sick were shot. In hisarticle Derek Bell called this the "Durham Death March," and likened itto Bataan. Some 1500 Scots died on the march. In Durham the survivorswere confined in the abandoned cathedral where they were kept inunsanitary conditions with little food and no medical attention. Theprisoners were reduced to robbing the old crypts for bits of interredjewelry to bribe their English guards for better food. In two months bythe end of October out of the original 5,000 only 1,400 Scottishprisoners survived. In 1946 while installing new heating pipes, workmenunearthed a long forgotten ditch extending from the cathedral''s northdoor straight for several hundred feet. It contained thousands ofskeletons, piled like cord wood, presumably the remains of the DurhamDeath March.Those 1,400 survivors were still a threat to Cromwell''sCommonwealth, and the government ordered their exile from the Britishisles. Five hundred were sold into the French army to fight in Spain, andnine hundred were sold as indentured servants to the New World. Most wentto Virginia, but 150 on November 11 were put aboard a ship named theUnity captained by Augustine Walker out of London bound for Boston.Conditions aboard ship for the Scottish prisoners were little better thanon slaving ships, and we do not know how many died during the voyage. Butwe do know that in Boston 25 were sold to a sawmill on the PiscataquaRiver in Maine, and 62 were sent to the Saugus by The Company ofUndertakers of the Iron Works of New England. These are the men whom weare commemorating today. Soon after they arrived here one of theirnumber, Davidson, died of poor health, probably from the sea voyage.Seventeen were sent back to Boston to work in the company''s warehouses.Five to ten were sold off to work off their indenture in local businessesand homes. The remainder lived and worked here at the Saugus Iron Works,serving as forge hands, colliers, blacksmiths, miners, woodcutters, anddomestics. Their names include John Toish, James Mackall, John Mackshane,Thomas Tower, John Clark, John Steward, James Gourdan, James Adams, andmany others. In time some married and raised families whose descendantsare among us here today.We are gathered here today to remember thesouls of those Scots who lost their lives or their freedom fighting todefend their country at the Battle of Dunbar 350 years ago today. And weare gathered here specifically at the Saugus Iron Works to give thanksfor the lives of those prisoners of that war who survived the rigors oftheir ill-treatment and exile to begin new families here in this country."
On 5 March 1656/57 William Paule, a Scotsman, was sentenced to be whippedand to pay the costs of his imprisonment and punishment for his "uncleanand filthy behaviour with the wife of Alexander Aines." Katherine Aineswas sentenced to be whipped at both Plymouth and Taunton and to wear ared letter "B" on her upper garment. Alexander Aines, for leaving hisfamily and exposing his wife to such temptations, was sentenced to sit inthe stocks while his wife and Paule were being whipped, and also to paythe costs of his wife''s imprisonment and punishment.


Excerpts from "Dean''s History of Bristol County:On June 10, 1635 Williamembarked from Gravesend, in the county of Kent, England, on the riverThames on the ship "Truelove de London". He was 20 years old and bytrade a weaver. He arrived at Cohannet, went later to Taunton, then toAssonet Neck (now Berkley). In 1655 he married Mary Richmond of Taunton,the daughter of John Richmond of Taunton, who came from Ashton Keynes, aparish of Wiltshire, England.
In 1672, William was one of the original proprieters of the "TauntonSouth Purchase" lands that were bought from the Indian King Phillip.These lands consisted of all of what is now Dighton, and a great part ofBerkley, including Assonet Neck.