When the English Civil War broke out in 1642
the county of Dorset was one of the most divided in the kingdom. Most of the
towns, except Dorchester, declared for Parliament while most of the countryside
was for the King. The owner of Abbotsbury at the time was Sir John Strangways,
one of the most prominent Royalists in the county
Strangways had been born in 1585 and was
elected to Parliament several times between 1614 and 1629 as well as serving as
Sheriff of Dorset. He held a number of other local government positions and
visited Court many times. When Charles summoned Parliament in 1640 for the
first time in 11 years, Strangways was elected MP for Weymouth, despite his
known support for King Charles and Weymouth's Parliamentarian sympathies.
In Parliament, Strangways argued long and hard
in favour of the King's case, proving to be one of Charles's more able
supporters in Parliament. When the war broke out, Strangways slipped away from
London to return to Dorset. In September 1642 Parliament voted to expel all
those MPs who had sided with the king, so Strangways lost his seat. This does
not seem to have bothered him much for he was busy organising the Royalist
cause in Dorset.
Among Strangways many achievements was the
fortification of his manor house in Abbotsbury. The house itself provided
useful rooms for a garrison of 200 men, with their horses stabled nearby, while
the adjacent church was used as a storehouse with a lookout posted on top of
the tower. Around the house and church were dug a complex of earthen ditches
and ramparts, topped by timber palisades and walls. By the standards of the
time these were not powerful defences, but they were good enough to safeguard
against a surprise attack.
The garrison at Abbotsbury soon came to be an
important one due to its strategic position. Weymouth to the east was a
powerful Parliamentarian fortress, but its economic value was as a port. By
closing the routes inland from Weymouth with garrisons at Abbotsbury and Dorchester,
the Royalists stopped Weymouth producing money for Parliament and made it more
of a liability than an asset. The Royalist soldiers based at Abbotsbury
patrolled the roads and countryside, ensuring that Weymouth remained cut off.