In the contest between the king and the parliament, Colonel John Benbow, uncle to the celebrated Admiral Benbow, united with the parliament forces; but afterwards deserted his principles, and espoused the cause of the monarch. He distinguished himself by opposing his former associates at the taking of Shrewsbury, for which vacillating conduct he was condemned by the parliament, and shot on the green before the castle, October 15th, 1651. At the same time the parliament in order to strike terror into those who favoured royalty, adjudged the Earl of Derby to suffer at Bolton. Several other gentlemen of the first families in England were also sentenced to death at the same period. An attempt was made to reduce the town to loyal obedience, after the death of the protector Cromwell, but the governor of the castle secured the place in the interest of parliament. At the restoration, notwithstanding the joy which was diffused through the kingdom, it is probable there were some in every county who still sighed for the Commonwealth. The municipal bodies of the realm, terrified by the example of London, made haste to surrender the charters they had received from former monarchs into the hands of the sovereign. The corporation, however, of Shrewsbury stood out for a twelvemonth. At length, on the 13th of June, 1684, it was agreed unanimously, that the charter of the town should be surrendered and yielded up to his majesty, when his pleasure should require it. On the 20th of August, it was “Ordered that the mayor and committee attend the Lord Chief Justice Jones, to discourse him, touching the renewing of the charter, and unanimously agreed, that in the new charter there shall be only twelve aldermen and twenty-four assistants.” The king’s death prevented this instrument from passing the great seal in his name. Within a week after that event, the corporation sent up an address to their new sovereign, expressive of “their joyfulness in his succession, and humbly thanking him for his gracious declaration in preferring the Protestant religion;” no obscure intimation of their wishes on that momentous subject, which engaged all ranks with an intensity of interest difficult to be conceived by the present generation. On the 17th of March, 1684, the corporation received their new charter, in which the king expresses his gracious affection for the melioration of the town of Salop, and hopes that, if the burgesses and inhabitants have more ample liberties and privileges, they will be the better enabled and the more bound to render him the more special service. He grants that the town shall be “a free town of itself, and the burgesses and inhabitants shall be a body corporate, and sue and be sued; that there shall be one good and discreet man of the aldermen of the town who shall be mayor; twelve good and discreet men (the mayor being one) who shall be aldermen; and twenty-four good and discreet men, assistants.” Then follow various other officers, and a