by the Parliament for the security of this garrison, and in pursuance of some private instructions I have received I shall desire that if you be not fully "satisfied to the subscribeinge of the engagement," that you will at present rather forbear than retain your intention of coming to reside here. Harley was forced to spend his last years at Ludlow. Mackworth had made clear, as he was told to do, that the main consideration in handling dissent at Shrewsbury was state security. Fisher and Blake continued to preach against the engagement and their opposition was well known in London, where it was noted by Bulstrode Whitelocke. The general atmosphere of crisis was then greatly intensified by an outbreak of bubonic plague at Frankwell in June, which soon spread throughout Shrewsbury. On 16 August the Council of State ordered Mackworth "to turn out of his garrison all such persons as, either in the pulpit or elsewhere, by seditious words endeavour to stir up sedition and uproar among the people." A week later the Council named Blake and Fisher, ordering Mackworth to detain them and to "examine them as to their former and late offences." Fisher later wrote of their "continual expectation of arrest" during this period, when he and Blake saw their pastoral work during the plague as the priority. The epidemic reached its peak in September and October, only petering out in January 1651. Fisher and Blake seem to have left towards the end of 1650. At Myddle they stayed with the minister, Joshua Richardson, who had also refused the Engagement. Myddle had been allocated to the second classis and the leading lay Puritan locally was Robert Corbet of Stanwardine. The difference in political atmosphere away from the county town and fortress was so great that they were allowed to preach. Richard Gough, Robert Corbet's secretary, mentioned their visit in his famous Antiquities & Memoirs of Myddle: The two chiefe and ablest Ministers in Shrewsbury, viz. Mr. Thomas Blake, Minister of St. Chads, and Mr. Fisher of St. Mary's removed to Myddle and dwelt both in Mr. Gittin's house att the higher well; they preached often att Myddle. Mr. Fisher was a man of myddle stature and age, a fatt plump body, a round visage, and blacke haire. Some of the detail is not quite right, but Gough's physical description of the minister seems to be the only one