It remains for us to consider how the town recovered from the state of almost total ruin in which it had been left, and was made habitable again. It appears that in the same year in which it was destroyed, the Bailiffs and others forwarded a Petition to the House of Commons, setting forth in strong terms the miserable condition to which the inhabitants had been reduced, and praying for relief. They state that the loss sustained by them amounted to £90,000, or thereabouts; that upwards of three hundred poor families had been “inforced” by the loss of their goods, their trade, and habitations, “to disperse into severall parts of the country, for harbour and for subsistence, many among them crying aloud for bread”: and they humbly beseech the Parliament to authorize a general collection to be made for them throughout the country, or in some other way, to afford relief to their necessities. The Rev. Gilbert Walden, who has been referred to before, took this petition to London, and by his zeal and diligence obtained a favorable answer to it; as appears from the following extract in the Common Hall Order Book:—“Bridgnorth. At a Comon hall of the said Town of Bridgnorth, the 27th. of January, Aᵒ Dⁿⁱ 1647. Francis Burne and Richard Synge, Gent., being Bailiffs, &c. * * * * At this Comon hall, Mr. Gilbert Walden, Minister of this Town, and Publiq Preacher, returning to the Town from London, 25th. of this January Instant, came into this comon hall in his own pson, & acquainted the Town with his great care & paynes in solliciting the Parliament with a peticion from the Town, for some repaire of their great loss by the late burning of the High Town of Bridgnorth, when the Church, Colledg, and Almshouses were burnt with the said Town. All the losses thereby sustynedd amounting to 90,000£, as by the said Peticion was set forth and certified: and the said Mr. Walden pducing lres pattents, under the great seale of England, for a general collecion thorough out all England, for rebuilding of the said Town, and repayringe the said losses, and moving for some course to be taken for distributing the Briefs, and setting them on work in all shires of England and Wales, with all ye convenient expidicion that might be, and advising a way to that behalf; and shewing the Town withall that it had cost him in the acquiring & getting of these Lres pattentes and Briefs, besides the great troubling of his friends to ayde & assist him therein.”