 The work at Portsmouth was retarded for want of funds, and in January 1642 the governor demanded stores, and leave to use materials for fortification, according to Rudd's survey of the previous year.Rudd served as chief engineer on the royalist side throughout the First English Civil War, and in 1655 his estate at Higham Ferrers was decimated on an assessment for the payment of the militia, as a punishment for his adherence to the royalist cause.He died in 1656, aged 72, and was buried in Higham Ferrers church, where several epitaphs composed by himself were inscribed on his tomb.