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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Norrey, P. J Title: The relationship between central and local government in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, 1660-1688 General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CENTRAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN DORSET, SOMERSET AND WILTSHIRE, 1660-1688, A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Bristol University. P.J. NORREY. This is to certify that this dissertation was researched and written wholly by the candidate, and was not the product of any co-operative effort. SIGNED .... February 1988. CONTENTS. Synopsis. v. Acknowledgements. vi. Prefatory Note. Abbreviations. viii. Introduction. CHAPTER I: THE RESTORATION REGIME 1660-1678. 1. (i) The Restoration Militia. 46. (ii) The Restoration Tax Machine. 83. (iii) The County Benches and Religious Policy. 117. (iv) The Corporations. CHAPTER II: THE EXCLUSION CRISIS AND TORY REACTION. 144. (i) Politics and the Government of the Counties 1679-85. 233. (ii) The Corporations in the Exclusion Crisis and Tory Reaction 1679-85. 306. (iii) The Crown Revenue 1679-88. CHAPTER III: THE REIGN OF JAMES II. 323. (i) Introduction: Monmouth's Rebellion. 334. (ii) The Commissions of the Peace 1685-88. 375. (iii) The Corporations 1685-88. 396. (iv) The Militia and the Army in the Reign of James II. CONCLUSION. 430. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. 437. SYNOPSIS This thesis attempts to examine the relationship between central government and local government during the reigns of Charles II and James II. Chapter I considers, in turn, the four most complex areas of this relationship in the years after the Restoration: the setting up of the militias, national taxation, the implementation of religious policy, and the effects of central government interference in the administration of the corporate towns. In contrast to other recent research, the co-operation between central government and the local gentry is found to have been far from successful in producing an effective county-based defence system, or an efficient fiscal machine. The inconsistency of the religious policies of central government was reflected in the sporadic execution of the penal statutes against religious dissenters; and mutual suspicion prevented either the Crown or the local gentry from bringing the government of the corporate towns under their control. Chapter II shows how the inherent support, which the Crown enjoyed amongst the gentry of the three counties, was mobilised much more quickly and effectively during the political crisis of 1679-81 than historians of central politics generally allow. The almost total purge of opponents from the county benches, which resulted, produced a powerful bond between the Crown and the Anglican-tory rulers of the shires: all forms of dissent (religious and political) were persecuted with vigour, and the personnel of corporation government was finally brought under royal control. Central government was not noticeably more efficient (with the exception of the revenue service), but its aims and objectives were now both understood and shared by the governors of the counties. Chapter III shows how the catholic James II destroyed this powerful political inheritance by alienating the very people who had fought so hard for his right to succeed to the throne. He did not realise that their support was given with fundamental conditions attached: principally, the protection of the monopoly of the Anglican Church. The reluctance of the tory gentry to consent to toleration for catholics led to their dismissal in large numbers from the commissions of the peace, the corporations and the lieutenancies, and hence to their support for the invasion of William of Orange. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to record his gratitude to all those who have contributed, directly or indirectly, to the completion of this thesis. The first debt is to my supervisor Dr. Ronald Hutton, whose vivid enthusiasm originally kindled my own interest in the period. He has subsequently provided me with freedom to pursue my studies, and shown total confidence in my ability to produce a finished dissertation, despite my reluctance to show any evidence of interim progress. A great scholarly debt is owed to Dr Andrew Coleby, whose thesis upon Hampshire and the Isle of Wight between 1649 and 1689, completed in 1985, blazed the trail across this particular historical field, and has proved an Invaluable stimulus to my own thoughts on the subject of central/local government relations. I must also thank Dr John Morrill, who enabled me to read a paper based on the first chapter of this thesis at the Cambridge Early Modern History seminar in November 1986. Subsequently he invited me to submit a revised version to the Historical Journal, and the resultant article is likely to appear in 1988. The usual thanks must be paid to the custodians of the various record repositories that I have visited In the course of this study. Most have been efficient, some faultlessly courteous. My fellow post-graduates have been an unfailing source of support. Particular thanks must go to Mr Jon Bradbury, and to Mr Bruce Yardley of Worcester College Oxford. Prefatory Note As is the usual practice, dates will be given in the old style, with the year commencing on January 1. In quotations, spelling and punctuation have been modified, except in a few cases of ambiguity. Due to the length of many of the footnotes in this thesis, I have chosen to place them at the back of the relevant sections rather than at the bottom of each page. I regret the Inconvenience this will cause the reader, but I hope he or she will appreciate that the amount of material contained in these notes, and some of the essential discussion of the sources therein, would have cluttered the already fact-ridden text unnecessarily, Abbreviations The following is a short list of abbreviations which appear in the text. B.I.H.R, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research B.L. British Library Bodl. Lib. Bodleian Library C.I. Commons Journals C.S.P.D. Calendar of State Papers Domestic C.T.B. Calendar of Treasury Books D.N.H.A.F.C. Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Field Club D.R.O. Dorset County Record Office, Dorchester E. Easter EA.R. English Historical Review -vi- H. Hilary H.J. Historical Journal H.M.C. Historical Manuscripts Commission House of Commons B.D. Henning ed., History of the House of Commons 1660-1690 (3 vols., London, 1983) L.I. Lords Journals M. Michaelmas P.R.O. Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, except classes T and GUST, which are held at Kew. S.A.N.H.S. Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society S.D.N.Q. Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queries S.R.O. Somerset County Record Office, Taunton S.R.S. Somerset Record Society T Trinity T.R.H.S. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society V.C.H. Victoria County History W.A.M. Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine W.R.O. Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge INTRODUCTION. In the individual conflict lies the the first reason for those mysterious abstracts...which in our text books are apt to become disembodied concepts. The individual - stupendous and beautiful paradox - is at once infinitesimal dust and the cause of all things. It was in 1983, while researching an undergraduate dissertation on protestant dissent in Wiltshire after the Restoration, that I first noticed the relative dearth of work on the government of provincial England in the period between 1660 and 1688. The admirable research on the years 1600 to 1660 highlighted this omission, and encouraged me to formulate the research topic which has given birth to this thesis. What attracted my attention, on further investigation, was the lack of detailed research on the relationship between what is now termed the executive branch of government (the Crown, the privy council and the departments of state), and the county benches, the dominant institution of provincial administration. More specifically, my interest focussed upon three questions: firstly, how this relationship functioned between 1660 and 1678 in areas of national importance - defence, taxation, religious policy and the corporations - in short, how the state was reforged in the years after the Stuart monarchy was restored; secondly, what impact the political crisis of 1679-81 had upon local government (more remarked upon than closely studied); and lastly, how James II managed to forfeit the loyalty of the provincial governors by his interference in the government of the localities. This line of enquiry begs many questions about the day to day administration of the shires by the county justices - the implementation of the settlement legislation, the supervision of poor relief, the growth of petty sessions and the changing nature of the quarter sessions.