This volume contains the full text of a previously unpublished minute book of the Dorset Standing Committee from early 1646. The entries illustrate the various duties of the Parliamentary authorities charged with managing the county as the civil war progressed. Selected letters and papers from the Strangways family archive demonstrate the difficulties faced by families who had found themselves on the 'wrong' side. Particularly they highlight the role that Royalist women played in maintaining the family estates and households while their husbands and sons were imprisoned or living in exile. The editor, Tim Goodwin, author of Dorset in the Civil War, has provided a full introduction and the volume is comprehensively indexed.