Being a Thesis Submitted for the Degree Of
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The tJni'ers1ty of Sheffield Depaz'tient of Uistory YORKSRIRB POLITICS, 1658 - 1688 being a ThesIs submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by CIthJUL IARGARRT KKI August, 1990 For my parents N One of my greater refreshments is to reflect our friendship. "* * Sir Henry Goodricke to Sir Sohn Reresby, n.d., Kxbr. 1/99. COff TENTS Ackn owl edgements I Summary ii Abbreviations iii p Introduction 1 Chapter One : Richard Cromwell, Breakdown and the 21 Restoration of Monarchy: September 1658 - May 1660 Chapter Two : Towards Settlement: 1660 - 1667 63 Chapter Three Loyalty and Opposition: 1668 - 1678 119 Chapter Four : Crisis and Re-adjustment: 1679 - 1685 191 Chapter Five : James II and Breakdown: 1685 - 1688 301 Conclusion 382 Appendix: Yorkshire )fembers of the Coir,ons 393 1679-1681 lotes 396 Bibliography 469 -i- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research for this thesis was supported by a grant from the Department of Education and Science. I am grateful to the University of Sheffield, particularly the History Department, for the use of their facilities during my time as a post-graduate student there. Professor Anthony Fletcher has been constantly encouraging and supportive, as well as a great friend, since I began the research under his supervision. I am indebted to him for continuing to supervise my work even after he left Sheffield to take a Chair at Durham University. Following Anthony's departure from Sheffield, Professor Patrick Collinson and Dr Mark Greengrass kindly became my surrogate supervisors. Members of Sheffield History Department's Early Modern Seminar Group were a source of encouragement in the early days of my research. I was fortunate in being in Sheffield when Dr Andrew Coleby was in the department. I am grateful to him for the interest which he took in my research and for our endless discussions which did much to shape my thinking on post-Restoration politics. My pursuit of the Yorkshire gentry took me to a good deal of record offices and libraries. I am grateful to the staff of all the repositories listed in the bibliography for their help and advice. I am also grateful to the Duke of Northumberland for permission to use the Northumberland manuscripts now in the British Library. Maria and Tricia graciously provided me with accomodation on trips to Nottingham and London. Thanks go to Beverley for putting me up for six months whilst I ploughed my way through the Reresby correpondence in Leeds. I am grateful to a small army of proofreaders - Jeanette, Ian, Chris, Megan, Richard, Sandra, Clare and Chris. Thanks are due to Montgomery for the provision of stationery. Syd has been unfailingly supportive, proof-reading innumerable drafts, listening patiently as problems were thrashed out and providing coffee, meals and wine at all hours. My greatest thanks go to my mother and late father, for practical and financial help during my time as a student, but more importantly for their entional support and positive attitude towards my work for which I shall be eternally grateful. C.N.K. - ii - CHERYL N. KEEN YORKSHIRE POLITICS, 1658-1688. SUNXARY This thesis traces, chronologically, political developments In Yorkshire between September 1658 and December 1688. It examines in detail the attitudes and activities of the county's gentry, their relationship with each other, the acquisition and exercise of their power In the locality and their political relationship with the crown In parliament and in the locality. In order to investigate the nature of the gentry's authority In the county, each chapter contains sections on local office holding, the gentry's Influence In municipal corporations and on parliamentary elections. It is argued that at the Restoration the cavalier gentry restored their power successfully In all these spheres. No major purges of local office holding took place until 1679-1683 when Charles II removed his most determined political opponents with the general support of Yorkshire's loyalist gentry. James II purged opponents of his catholicising policy and alienated the majority of the gentry by undermining their authority in the county. The period is characterised by the gentry's consensus on the fundamental principles which should govern politics and government but disagreement over how problems should be solved. By '1667 the Yorkshire gentry were dissatisfied with the Restoration settlement. Gentry attitudes during the 1670s were fluid but there was a general trend towards 'country' opposition, fuelled by fears of the growth of popery. When the monarchy and prerogative were attacked by the extreme opposition, between 1679 and 1683, most of the Yorkshire gentry rallied to the crown's defence. Between 1681 and 1685 loyalist gentry enjoyed, for the first time, a mutually supportive alliance with the monarchy. James II's subversion of gentry power in the localities, his attack on parliamentary freedom and his undermining of protestantism broke this alliance with the gentry. When faced with a choice of loyalties, most Yorkshire gentry opted for protestantism and liberty. - iii- ABBREV I AT IONS Repositories B. L. British Library, London Bodleian Lib. Bodlelan Library, Oxford University Brotherton Lib. Brotherton Library, Leeds University Brynmor Jones Lib Brynmor Jones Library, Hull University Hull City R.O. Kingston-upon-Hull City Record Office Humbs. R.O. Humberside Record Office, Beverley Notts. R.O. Nottinghamshire Record Office, Nottinghai N .Y. R. 0. North Yorkshire Record Office, Northallerton P.R. 0. Public Record Office, London Sheepscar Branch Lib. West Yorkshire Archive Service, Sheepscar Branch Library, Leeds V. YR. 0, West Yorkshire Record Office, Wakefield Y. A. S. Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds Works Cited Add. Additional Mss, B.L. Beverley Borougi 3. Dennet ed., Beverley Borough Records Records 1575-1821, Y.A.S. Record Series, 84, 1932. Browning, Danby A. Browning, Thas Osborne. Earl of Danby_ and Duke of Leeds, 3 Vols., Glasgow, 1944- 51. B. I.H.R. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Burton, Diary J.T. Rutt ed., Diary of Thois Burton. Esg. Xember of Parliament of Oliver and Richard Cromwell from 165-1659, 4 Vols., London, 1828. C. J. House of Coons Journal C. S. P. D. Calendar of State Papers Domestic Cal. Clarendon 0. Ogle i L., Calendar of the State Papers Clarendon State Papers Preserved in the Bodlelan Library, 5 Vols., Oxford, 1869- 1970. Clarke Papers C.H. Firth ed., The Clarke Papers, 4 Vols Camden Society, new series, 1891-1901. D.ff.B. The Dictionary of National Biography From the Earliest Times to 190Q, eds., Stephen Sir L. & Lee, Sir 3., 22 Vols., O.U.P. since 1917. - iv - Eg. Egerton Mss, B.L, H. HR English Historical Review Foxcroft, Halifax H.C. Foxcroft, The Life and Letters of Sir Georga Savile hart,, 2 Vals., London, 1898. Grey, Debatea A. Grey ed., Debates in the House of Commons from the Year 1667 to the Year 1694. collected by Hon. Anchitell Grey 10 Vols., London, 1898. Henning B.D. Henning ed., The House of Commons 1660-1690, 3 Vols., History of Parliament Trust, London, 1983. H.L Historical Journal Er. x. c. Historical Manuscripts Commission Hutton R. Hutton, The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Vales 1658-1667, Oxford, 1985. Kenyon, Stuart 3.P. Kenyon ed., The Stuart Constitution Constitution. 1603-1688: Documents and Commentary, Cambridge, 1966. Margoliouth H.M, Kargoliouth ed. , The Poems and Letters of Andrew Xarvell, 2 Vols., Oxford, 1927. Nxbr. Mexborough s, Correspondence of Sir John Reresby, Leeds Archive Service, Sheepscar Branch Library. Nanckton Papers P. Peacock ed., The Xonckton Papers, Miscellanies of the Philobiblon Society, xv, 1877-1884. N.R.Q.S. Recs. J.C. Atkinson ed., !'orth Riding Quarter Sessions Records, fforth Riding Record Society, Vols. vi & vii, London, 1888-9. Pontefract Booke of H. Holmes ed., The ooke o. 'ntries of te Entries Pontefract Corporation. 1653-1726, Pontefract, 1882. Regimental History C.H. Firth & G. Davies eds., The Regimental History of Cromwell's Army, 2 Vols,, Oxford 1940. Reresby, Kemoirs A. Browning ed., The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, Glasgow, 1936. - v-- Ejppn Millenary Ripon Millenary: A Record of the FestivaL_ Also a History of the City Arranged Under its Wakenen from the Year 1400, 2 Parts, Ripon, 1892. Seaward P. Seaward, The Cavalier Parliament and the Reconstruction of the Old Regime. 16l- 1667, Cambridge, 1989. T. R. H. S. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society Thurloe State Papers T, Birch ed., LCollection of State Papers of John Thurloe, 7 Vols. London, 1742. V. C. H. Victoria County History Y. A J. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal NOTES ON SOURCES AffD QUOTATIONS Spelling, punctuation and capitalization have been modernized in all quotations. Dates are old style with the year beginning 1 January. !ote that references to C,S,P.D. from James II's reign onwards give the document number in the calendar rather than the page number. All references to C.S,P,D. before James II's reign give page numbers. -1- INTRODUCTION -2- In the near future, the pace of historical debate and research into Restoration England will increase considerably. (1] This prediction, made by Dr John Childs in 1984, has proved well founded. In recent years the much neglected second half of the seventeenth century has experienced a renaissance of interest from historians working on national and local politics, religion, government and administration, County studies have contributed greatly to the understanding of the post-Restoration period. There are now available studies of Hampshire, Cheshire, Herefordshire, County Durham, Glamorgan, Devon and the west country counties. The authors of these studies ' have been divergent in their chronological scope and their alms. Dr Coleby's study of Hampshire and Dr Roberts's study of Devon both begin in the mid to late 1640s. Coleby takes his study through to 1689 whilst Roberts stops in 1670.