Remembering Revolution: Seditious Memories in England and Wales, 1660-1685 Edward James Legon University College London Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History 1 2 I, Edward Legon confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 3 4 Abstract The mark which was left by the English Revolution remained visible well beyond the ‘watershed’ of 29 May 1660. This thesis attests to this fact by illustrating the degree to which memories of those events endured long into the post-revolutionary era of Charles II’s reign. However, rather than focusing, as hitherto all studies of this subject have done, on the memories of those who emerged ‘victorious’ in the 1660s, this thesis takes as its subject matter the ‘seditious’ memories of those who remained sympathetic to the ‘Cause’ of the 1640s and 1650s after the Restoration of 1660. By placing these seditious memories in the context of pervasive and persistent attacks on the revolution, this thesis demonstrates how the possession and articulation of these memories enabled revolutionaries to contest, resist and subvert experiences of authority which related to, and derived from, control over the meaning of the recent past. In doing so, it illustrates that a re- imagining of the revolution enabled revolutionaries, in turn, to re-imagine the present and the future as well. Through an engagement with evidence of oral culture, this thesis looks beyond the ‘conventional’ histories of the printed public sphere, and considers the memories of men and women whose voices often remain marginalised. In doing so, it offers a fresh understanding of later seventeenth-century England and Wales in which the importance of memory, identity and the complex relationship between these concepts is emphasised. 5 6 Contents Acknowledgements 9 Abbreviations 11 Introduction 17 ‘Into the Saddle once more’ Chapter 1 37 Memory and Experiences of Authority, 1660-1678 Chapter 2 81 Seditious Memories: Re-imagining the Past, Present and Future, 1660-1678 Chapter 3 124 Communities of Seditious Memories, 1660-1678 Chapter 4 162 Seditious Memories in Public, 1660-1678 Chapter 5 191 Seditious Memories and the Exclusion Crisis, 1678-1685 Chapter 6 226 Seditious Memories and the Post-Revolutionary Generation Conclusion 251 ‘On the right side’ Bibliography 261 7 8 Acknowledgements This thesis would have been impossible without the love and support of my friends and family, especially that of my parents and Katharine. For its content, I am thankful for the advice of Dr Matthew Neufeld, and colleagues at UCL, especially Alice Ferron and Eilish Gregory, and the attendees of the IHR’s ‘British History in the Seventeenth Century’ seminar series. The generous help of Dr David Magliocco has been indispensable throughout. I am also grateful to Professor Julian Hoppit for his supervision. Above all, the tireless assistance and input of Professor Jason Peacey have made this process a pleasure. 9 10 Abbreviations Achinstein, Literature and Dissent Sharon Achinstein, Literature and Dissent in Milton’s England (Cambridge, 2003) Appleby, ‘Veteran’ David J. Appleby, ‘Veteran Politics in Restoration England, 1660-1670’, The Seventeenth Century, 28:3 (2013), pp. 323-342 BLA Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Record Service Baxter, Letters N. H. Keeble and Geoffrey F. Nuttall (eds.), Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter (2 vols., Oxford, 1991), ii Baxter, Reliquiae Matthew Sylvester (ed.,), Reliquiae Baxterianae: Or, Mr. Richard Baxters Narrative of The most Memorable Passages of his Life and Times (London, 1696) Bowen, ‘Seditious speech’ Lloyd Bowen, ‘Seditious speech and popular royalism, 1649-60’, Jason McElligott and David L. Smith (eds.), Royalists and Royalism during Interregnum (Manchester, 2010), pp. 44-66 CR A. G. Matthews, Calamy Revised: Being a Revision of Edmund Calamy’s Account of the Ministers and Others Ejected and Silenced, 1660-2 (Oxford, 1934) CSPD Mary Anne Everett Green, F. H. Blackburne Daniell, and Francis Bickley (eds.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, May 1660-Feb. 1685 (28 vols., London, 1860-1939); Calendar of State Papers: Preserved in the Public Record Office, Domestic Series, James II, Volume II, January, 1686-May, 1687 (London, 1964) DCY Frances Andrews (ed.), Depositions from the Castle of York, relating to 11 offences committed in the Northern Counties in the seventeenth century (London, 1861) A Door of Hope A Door of Hope: or, a call and declaration for the gathering together of the first ripe fruits unto the standard of our Lord, King Jesus ([London], 1661) ERO Essex Record Office Fentress and Wickham James Fentress and Chris Wickham, Social Memory (Oxford, 1988) Firth and Davies Sir Charles Firth and Godfrey Davies, Regimental History of Cromwell’s Army (2 vols., Oxford, 1940) Greaves, Deliver Richard L. Greaves, Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660-1663 (Oxford, 1986) Greaves, Enemies Richard Greaves, Enemies Under His Feet: Radicals and Nonconformists in Britain, 1664-1677 (Stanford, CA, 1990) Greaves, Secrets Richard L. Greaves, Secrets of the Kingdom: British Radicals from the Popish Plot to the Revolution of 1688- 1689 (Stanford, CA, 1992) Greaves and Zaller Richard L. Greaves and Robert Zaller (eds.), Biographical Dictionary of British Radicals in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., Brighton, 1983) HL House of Lords Record Office HPHC The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons from the Restoration to the Present Time (London, 1742), i Harris, London Crowds Tim Harris, London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and politics from the Restoration until the exclusion crisis (Cambridge, 1987) 12 Henry, Diary Matthew Henry Lee, (ed.), Diaries and Letters of Philip Henry of Broad Oak, Flintshire, 1631-1696 (London, 1882) Hopper, ‘Farnley Wood’ Andrew Hopper, ‘The Farnley Wood Plot and the Memory of the Civil Wars in Yorkshire’, The Historical Journal, 45:2 (2002), pp. 281-303 Hughes, Gender Ann Hughes, Gender and the English Revolution (Abingdon, 2012) Hutton, Restoration Ronald Hutton, The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658-1667 (Oxford, 1985) Josselin, Diary Alan Macfarlane (ed.), The Diary of Ralph Josselin, 1616-1683 (Oxford, 1991) KI Kingdoms Intelligencer MCR J. C. Jeaffreson, Middlesex County Records (4 vols., London, 1886-1892), iii, iv McShane, PBB Angela J. McShane, Political Broadside Ballads of Seventeenth-Century England: A Critical Bibliography (London, 2011) Miller, After the Civil Wars John Miller, After the Civil Wars: English Politics and Government in the Reign of Charles II (Harlow, 2000) Montaño, Courting John Patrick Montaño, Courting the Moderates: Ideology, Propaganda, and the Emergence of the Party, 1660-1678 (Newark, DE, 2002) Neufeld, Public Remembering Matthew Neufeld, The Civil Wars after 1660: Public Remembering in Late Stuart England (Woodbridge, 2013) Newdigate, Newsletters Philip Hines, Jr. (ed.), Newdigate Newsletters: Numbers 1 through 2100 (3 January 1673/4 through June 1692), (s. l., 1994) 13 NLI National Library of Ireland ODNB H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2000 (61 vols., Oxford, 2004) Neufeld, Public Remembering Matthew Neufeld, The Civil Wars after 1660: Public Remembering in Late Stuart England (Woodbridge, 2013) Pepys Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription (11 vols., London, 1970-1983) SHC Surrey History Centre SRO Somerset Record Office Scott, England’s troubles Jonathan Scott, England’s troubles: Seventeenth-century English political instability in European context (Cambridge, 2000) Seaward, Cavalier Parliament Paul Seaward, The Cavalier Parliament and the Reconstruction of the Old Regime, 1661-1667 (Cambridge, 1988) Sharp, ‘Popular political opinion’ Buchanan Sharp, ‘Popular political opinion in England, 1660-1865’, History of European Ideas, 10:1 (1989) pp. 13- 29 TNA The National Archives V&A The Victorian and Albert Museum Whitelocke, Diary Ruth Spalding (ed.), The Diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605-1675 (Oxford, 1990) Wood, 1549 Andy Wood, The 1549 Rebellions and the Making of Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2007) Notes Acts of Parliament are cited throughout by their title and official reference. Acts used were located in the following: Great British Record Commission, 14 Statutes of the Realm: From Original Records, etc. (11 vols., London, 1819), v; J. P. Kenyon (ed.), The Stuart Constitution, 1603-1688: Documents and Commentary (Cambridge, 1966). Where evidence within broadside ballads was located using Angela McShane’s Political Broadside Ballads of Seventeenth-Century England: A Critical Bibliography, this has been acknowledged throughout. 15 16 Introduction – ‘Into the Saddle once more’ At the end of November 1684, hundreds of mourners escorted the coffin of Captain John Mason (or Masson1) from Armourer’s Hall in the City of London to the frozen earth of Moorfields burial ground.2 The mourners included several of Mason’s former comrades; veterans of the English Revolution who, despite having sheathed their swords over thirty years beforehand, identified themselves by rings, hatbands and, no wonder given recent temperatures, scarves. If the latest government surveillance was accurate, among Mason’s cortège that day were several notorious former members of the New Model Army, including