This was probably the last service which the Parliament ever asked Assheton to undertake. He and the other leaders who had subdued the county seven years before were now entirely out of sympathy with the existing government of the country. When the militia was further re-organised in 1650, the matter was taken out of their hands altogether. Assheton, Shuttleworth, Rigby, Colonel Richard Standish, and Sir Richard Hoghton, were formally dismissed from employment in connection with the Militia; and the commissions which were granted in the following summer to Lancashire officers, were nearly all given to new men. Joseph Rigby became Lieutenant-Colonel, and there were one or two names which had previously appeared in the records of the war; but for the most part those previously best known are absent. Colonel Thomas Birch seems to have been the only one of the former leaders who still enjoyed the confidence of the Parliament, and he was for the next few years largely entrusted with the direction of affairs in Lancashire.[210] FOOTNOTES: [192] "Political History of England," Vol. 7, p. 339. [193] "C.W.T.," pp. 248-251. [194] Rigby to the Speaker, May 6, 1648 ("Tanner MSS.," Cary, Vol. 1, pp. 407-410). May 5 was a Friday, and the following Monday was therefore May 8. Rigby says that May 6 had been appointed for a general royalist rising in Lancashire. [195] "Letters from Scotland, etc.," No. 11. "C.J.," Vol. 5, p. 563. [196] "Letters from Scotland, etc.," No. 13. "C.S.P.," 1648-9, p. 237. At the same time the Deputy-Lieutenants were directed to carefully guard the passes out of Lancashire into that county. [197] "Letters from Scotland, etc.," No. 15. Diary of Captain Samuel Birch, from May 15, 1648, to March 29, 1649 in "Portland MSS.," Vol. 3, p. 173. Birch raised his troop at Manchester on May 15, and gives a detailed itinerary of his March through Wigan, Lancaster and Kirkby Lonsdale, to the general rendezvous at Halton. He afterwards accompanied Lambert into Yorkshire, reaching Ripon on August 3, and Knaresborough on the 7th. His dates agree with those given by Cromwell for the subsequent movements; he was quartered on August 14 at Carleton, near Skipton, and on the following night at Downham. At the battle of Preston "I had charge of our Lancashire brigade's folorn; my lieutenant had charge of my division of musquettiers; my ensign by command of General Assheton lead the pykes and collours up against the defenders on Ribble Bridge and beat them off. Allmost all my officers markt, none killed, divers souldiers shott and hurt, some very dangerously, most performed very well. Blessed be God for his great deliverance." Birch then remained in Preston in charge of the prisoners and magazine.