 In June 1642, Bourchier's servants moved his household from his London townhouse in Lincoln's Inn Fields to Tawstock in Devon, but were ordered to travel lightly to avoid suspicion.On 19 July 1642 King Charles I, in an unconstitutional act and without the assent of Parliament, issued a commission of array for Devonshire to Henry Bourchier and 27 other nobles and leading gentlemen.This was designed to regain royal control over the county militia which Parliament had sought to control by its own unconstitutional enactment of Militia Ordinance without Royal Assent.