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Benjamin Worsley (1618-1677): Volume 1 Thomas Leng Thesis ‘Benjamin Worsley (1618-1677): Commerce, Colonisation, and the Fate of Universal Reform’ Volume 1 Thomas Leng Thesis submitted for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History, University of Sheffield February 2004 ‘Benjamin Worslev (1618-1677): Commerce, Colonisation, and the Fate of Universal Reform’. Thomas Leng Summary o f thesis. This thesis is a biographical account of Benjamin Worsley, an individual whose wide- ranging interests touched on many dynamic areas of H^-century English history. Best known as an expert in colonial and commercial government, Worsley was employed in this capacity both under the Commonwealth (as secretary to the 1650-51 Council of Trade), and the Restored monarchy (on the various councils of 1668-73). By tracing Worsley’s career across these years, we see how the Commonwealth’s positive approach to commerce, embodied by the Navigation Act of 1651, survived the Restoration, when the advancement of trade was increasingly identified as the national interest. This involves analysis both of the content of Worsley’s ideas about trade and the colonies, and of how he used these ideas to gain employment, thus contributing to the institutional and intellectual development of the first British Empire. As well as considering his public career, the thesis examines Worsley’s attitudes to and interest in a broad range of areas. This is made possible by his association with the circle of Samuel Hartlib, whose papers provide the major source for this study. Beginning with the account provided by the historian Charles Webster, the study considers Worsley’s interest in natural philosophy and especially alchemy (including his friendship with Robert Boyle), other activities such as his employment on the Down Survey of Ireland, and his religious and political opinions. In contrast to Webster, the degree to which these activities formed a coherent project aimed at building a utopian millenarian state, is questioned, and instead we see how Worsley was forced to reshape his goals in the face of frustration and discord, ultimately by denying the state a role in spiritual affairs. Thus Worsley’s life reveals something of the fate of the Hartlibian ideal of ‘universal reform’ in a nation marked by dramatic political, intellectual, and commercial change. Benjamin Worslev (1618-1677): Commerce, Colonisation, and the Fate of Universal Reform. Contents. Acknowledgements iii Abbreviations iv Additional Notes v Introduction. 1 Part One: 1618-1649. 1. ‘Corruption into Policy’. 25 \ From Surgery to Saltpetre, 1618-1646. 2. ‘The Compass of Human Wisdom’. 51 Intellectual and Financial Projects in London and Amsterdam, 1647-1649. Part Two: 1650-1659. 3. ‘Enriching the Commonwealth’. 84 The Council o f Trade, 1650-1651. 4. ‘The Changeableness of Things’. 148 Surveying Ireland, 1652-1656. 5. ‘The Vanity o f an Impostor’. 172 Benjamin Worsley’s natural philosophy in the 1650’s. 1 6. ‘A Permanent Dream’. 207 Spiritual Principles and Political Actions, 1657-1659. Part Three: 1660-1677. 7. ‘The Interest of all Persons Universally’. 236 The Commercial Restoration, 1660-1673. 8. ‘Travel with Desire o f Soul’. 292 Benjamin Worsley and the Restoration. Conclusion 320 Bibliography 338 5 ii Acknowledgements. I would like to acknowledge the kind assistance of this project’s two supervisors, Michael Braddick and Mark Greengrass, who have offered their support and expertise since my time as an undergraduate. In addition I have benefited from advice and suggestions from several scholars, particularly Michael Hunter, Craig Muldrew, David Ormrod, Ted Vallance, and John Young. William Newman and Laurence Principe kindly showed me a copy of the chapter on Worsley in their book Alchemy Tried in the Fire, prior to publication. David Armitage, Ben Coates and Jason Peacey informed me of various materials relating to Worsley, which are acknowledged in the text. Charles Webster sent an encouraging letter early on. Finally I would like to thank my fellow postgraduate students at the History Department of Sheffield University, and all those others who have helped to ensure that this has been an enjoyable project to complete. Throughout my research I have been funded by a Sheffield University Research Studentship. in Abbreviations. A&O Firth, C.H., & Rait, R.S. (eds.) Acts and Ordinances o f the Interregnum, 2 volumes (London: Wyman & Sons, 1911). BL British Library, London. Boyle: Correspondence Boyle, R., The Correspondence o f Robert Boyle, ed. M. Hunter, A. Clericuzio, & L. Principe (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2001) 6 vols. Culpeper: Letters “The Letters of Sir Cheney Culpeper (1641-1657)”, ed. M. Braddick & M. Greengrass, Camden Miscellany, XXXIII, Fifth Series, Volume 7 (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1996) pp. 105-402. DNB Dictionary o f National Biography. CSPC Calendar o f State Papers, Colonial. CSPD Calendar o f State Papers, Domestic. CSPI Calendar o f State Papers, Ireland. CTB ' Calendar o f Treasury Books. Ephemerides Samuel Hartlib’s ‘Ephemerides’, i.e. work-diaries (part of the Hartlib Papers). HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission. HP The Hartlib Papers. Electronic Edition, 2nd edition (Sheffield: HR Online, 2002). Plantations Journal, 1672-4 Journal of the Council of Trade and Plantations, 1672-1674. Bodleian Library Microfilm 496 (original copy possessed by the Library of Congress, Washington). PRO Public Record Office, London. SHUR Greengrass, M., Leslie, M., & Raylor, T., (eds.) Samuel Hartlib and Universal Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1994). T&C Thirsk, J., & Cooper, J.C., (eds.) Seventeenth Century Economic Documents (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972). IV Note on citations from the Hartlib Papers Electronic Edition. Documents prefixed by the abbreviation HP are taken from the transcriptions of the Hartlib Papers Electronic Edition (second edition). These include both the Hartlib Papers held at Sheffield University Library, and relevant additional material included with the second edition, from other archives. The former are noted as follows: 1. ‘Propositions in the behalfe of the Kingdome’. HP 71/11/8B. References from additional material include the original archive reference, with the prefix HP added to denote that they are taken from the transcriptions provided by the Hartlib Papers Electronic Edition, as the following examples demonstrate: 1. Letter, Worsley to Hartlib, 18 May 1649. HP: Royal Society Boyle Letters 7.1, fol. 2r. 2. Letter, Petty to Worsley, 14 March 1649. HP: The James Marshal and Marie-Louise Osbom Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Document 36, fol. lr. Dating and transcription conventions. Dates are given old style, with the exception that the new year is dated from 1 January. The original spelling has been retained in manuscript transcriptions, with the exception that abbreviations and contractions have been expanded, with the expanded letters italicised, following the Hartlib Papers Electronic Edition convention (e.g. ye becomes Beniamin Worslev (1618-1677): Commerce, Colonisation, and the Fate of Universal Reform. Introduction. The period c. 1640 to c. 1680 is a crucial one in English history, including not only the political Civil War and Revolution and the Restoration in 1660, but also intellectual and economic developments that would be of lasting importance. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan stood out as a work of political and social theory published during the Interregnum, but his conclusions rested on an appreciation of mechanistic understandings of the natural world, at the forefront of what would become known as the ‘scientific revolution’. The founding of the Royal Society of London in 1660 was the most visible symbol of the attempt to establish this ‘new science’ in England, building on the works of existing indigenous efforts, Baconian as well as mechanistic, and (it has been argued) fuelled in part by the energies of the Revolution, by which ‘an intellectual revolution’ was achieved.1 By the 1670’s, English science was entering a period of unprecedented achievement: Bacon’s optimism about the potential of the ‘modems’ seemed well founded. Equally, this was a decade of expanded trade, and England was well on the way to becoming the ‘paradigm of economic success’ which it could boast of at the turn of the century.2 The previous three decades had seen hardship and instability as well as economic growth, with a major crisis in English trade 1 C. Webster, “Introduction” to The Intellectual Revolution o f the Seventeenth Century, ed. C. Webster (London & Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974) p. 1. For the Royal Society, M. Hunter, Establishing the New Science. The Experience o f the Early Royal Society (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1989). 2 K. Wrightson, Earthly Necessities. Economic Lives in Early Modem Britain, 1470-1750 (London: Penguin, 2002) p. 228. 1 occurring in the late 1640’s. But the government’s response to this, the Navigation Act of 1651, would become the corner-stone of a policy intended to cultivate and protect English shipping and foreign trade, centred on England’s American plantations. These developments facilitated a shift in England’s position in the world economy, as the Atlantic and re-export trades became increasingly important, in what has been described as a ‘commercial revolution’.3 The concurrence of these three ‘revolutions’, political, intellectual, and commercial, guarantees the enduring interest of these turbulent decades, and of those individuals who lived through them. This study considers the life of one such person. Bom in about 1618, Benjamin Worsley was originally trained as a surgeon and served in this capacity in Ireland in the 1640’s. However, he found most success as a state expert on colonial and commercial affairs, first as secretary to the Council of Trade founded in 1650, which played an important part in framing the first Navigation Act. He continued to serve the state throughout the 1650’s, as surveyor-general in Cromwellian Ireland, and although his achievements were overshadowed by those of his rival William Petty, Worsley retained enough credit to resume his position as advisor and then secretary to the councils of trade of 1668-1673.
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