Protestantism.  Mr. Mayor was therefore informed that the declaration would not be read.  On Sunday morning (August 11) when the omission had been made, the Mayor left his pew, and, stick in hand, walked up the aisle, seized the minister, and caned him as he stood at his reading-desk.  Scenes of such a nature did not occur every day even in 1688, and the storm of indignation and excitement among the members of the congregation did not subside so quickly as it had risen.

The cause of the poor minister was championed in particular by a certain Captain Ouseley, and the discussion of the matter on the bowling-green on the following day led to the suggestion that the Mayor should be sent for to explain his conduct.  As he took no notice of a courteous message requesting his attendance, the Captain repeated the summons accompanied by a file of musketeers.  In the meantime many suggestions for dealing with Mr. Aislabie in a fitting manner were doubtless made by the Captain’s brother officers, and, further, some settled course of action seems to have been agreed upon, for we do not hear of any hesitation on the part of the Captain on the arrival of the Mayor, whose rage must by this time have been bordering upon apoplexy.  A strong blanket was ready, and Captains Carvil, Fitzherbert, Hanmer, and Rodney, led by Captain Ouseley and assisted by as many others as could find room, seizing the sides, in a very few moments Mr. Mayor was revolving and bumping, rising and falling, as though he were no weight at all.

This public degradation was too much to be borne without substantial redress.  He therefore set out at once for London to obtain satisfaction from his Sovereign.  But Ouseley was wise enough to look after his own interests in that quarter himself, and in two letters we see the upshot of the matter.

  ’London,

  ’September 22, 1688.

’....Captain Ouseley is said to be come to town to give reasons for tossing the mayor of Scarborough in a blanket.  As part of his plea he has brought with him a collection of articles against the said mayor, and the attestations of many gentlemen of note.’

  ’London,

  ’September 29, 1688.

’The mayor of Scarborough and Captain Ouseley, who tossed the other in a blanket, were heard last night before the council:  the Captain pleaded his majesty’s gracious pardon (which is in the press) and so both were dismissed.’

Aislabie was the last of the only five Mayors the town had then known, and the fact that the office had only been instituted in 1684 seems to show that what reverence had gathered round the person of the chief magistrate was not sufficient to stand in the face of such outrageous conduct as the public caning of the minister.  The townsfolk decided that they had had enough of Mayors, for on November 16 in the same autumn Scarborough was once more placed under the control of two Bailiffs, as had been the case previous to 1684.