THE POLITICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CENTRAL GOVERNMENT AND THE LOCAL ADMINISTRATION IN YORKSHIRE 1678-90 MICHAEL JOHN SHORT Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Leeds School of History November 1999 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. 1.7r1P PY LEEDS ABSTRACT The long decade from 1678 to 1690 was one of the most turbulent in the history of early modern England. In this thesis the politics of the period is re-evaluated with the help of source material deriving specifically from Yorkshire. Its primary focus is the complex relationship between central government and its agents on the one hand and a wide range of local administrators, activists and commentators on the other. The thesis employs a broadly chronological (as opposed to a thematic) framework, and places particular emphasis on three structural devices - a close analysis of the workings of central and local institutions of all kinds; potted biographies of hundreds of men, many of them relatively modest; together with a strong grounding in the national politics of the day. As well as using public records held in the great London repositories, it draws widely on material produced by the municipal corporations, the ridings and other political institutions in Yorkshire, without overlooking less formal documentation such as letters and diaries. Much of the local material has never been used before. Indeed some of it is identified here for the first time. A great many events, half-known and unknown, have been disinterred while researching the thesis. Some of them had a national and not just a local resonance, and these have been picked out for closer scrutiny. As a result, a number of historical orthodoxies have been challenged and reassessed. There is, for example, a radical (and much more positive) reappraisal of James II's longer-term prospects. Several unexamined assumptions have also been disposed of - for instance, that parliamentary boroughs were by definition chartered boroughs. But most important of all, this is the first fullscale study of the national politics of the period to be written from a regional standpoint. As such, it makes a distinct contribution to the historiography of late seventeenth century England. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Charts iv List of Abbreviations vi Preface 1 1 Introduction 4 Rethinking the Historiography of Restoration Yorkshire 6 People and Institutions 12 The Nature of the Evidence 17 2 The Pattern of Central Control 23 The Law as an Agency of Government 27 Supervisory Institutions 32 Officeholders under the Crown 40 Intelligence and the Manipulation of Opinion 47 3 Politics and the Municipal Corporations 56 Politics in Pontefract 58 Constitutional Background 69 The Shape of Municipal Politics in Yorkshire 80 4 Popery, Panic and the Barnbow Plot 1678-81 102 Riders in the Night 106 The Catholics in Yorkshire 113 The Pattern of Persecution 117 The Barnbow Plot and its Consequences 127 i 5 Faction and Politics 1679-81 151 Strange Alterations in Ripon 154 Yorkshire and the Corporation Act Enquiry of 1680 157 Divisions and Division Lists in Hull 164 The Impact of Exclusion 177 The King's Declaration to his Loving Subjects 186 6 Before and after Rye House 1681-84 198 Protestant Dissent and the Pattern of Persecution 200 The York Juncto 207 Plymouth in Hull 215 Rye House in Yorkshire 219 The Suppression of Dissent in Leeds 229 7 The Assault on the Charters 1683-85 235 The Crown and the Municipal Charters 237 The York Ouo Warranto 242 Judge Jeffreys' Northern Voyage 250 Negotiations and Negotiators 256 The Assault in Context 267 8 The Loyalist Ascendancy 1684-86 278 Scarborough's now loyal Corporation 281 Monmouth's Summer 289 Papists and Dissenters 294 Huntingdon's Regiment in Hull 298 9 The Politics of Toleration 1685-88 308 Catholics in Office 312 The Declaration of Indulgence 316 ii The Leeds Dissenters' Address 320 The Impact of Toleration 324 Remodelling Local Off iceholding 332 The Propaganda War in Yorkshire 341 10 The Intruders in Office 1688 354 Identifying the Intruders 357 The Campaign to Pack Parliament 364 A Catholic Mayor in Doncaster 369 The Prospects 374 11 Crisis and Settlement 1688-90 389 A Great and Sudden Invasion 392 Rewriting History 397 Yorkshire Men and English Politics 402 The Problem of the Charters 410 A Dear Bargain? 421 12 Conclusion 426 Footnotes 430 List of Sources and Bibliography 509 :1-ii LIST OF CHARTS 3/1 Aldermen of Pontefract serving on selected dates 87 3/2 Corporate 'clans' in Pontefract 89 3/3 Aldermen of Pontefract 1678 and 1682 91 3/4 Translations of the governing charters 92 3/5 Chartered officeholders in 1678 (arranged by rank) 93 3/6 Chartered officeholders in 1678 (arranged by function) 95 3/7 An outline of corporation elections 97 3/8 'Members' of corporations 99 3/9 Work of the Corporation Act commissioners 101 4/1 Leading catholics in the East Riding 145 4/2 Papists refusing to swear the oaths 147 4/3 Yorkshire priests arrested 1678-79 149 5/1 'Strange' alterations in the liberty of Ripon 193 5/2 Faction in Hull corporation 194 5/3 Proposed changes to North Riding peace commission 195 5/4 Loyal addresses in 1681 197 7/1 Mayor and aldermen commissioned to govern York 272 7/2 The assault on the corporations: key dates 273 7/3 The York charter committee 274 7/4 The assault on the corporations: key personnel 275 7/5 The 1685 parliamentary elections 277 8/1 The 'now loyal' corporation of Scarborough 1684 306 iv 9/1 Subscribers to Leeds dissenters' address 346 9/2 East Riding DLs and JPs 1687: the Three Questions 348 9/3 Removals from the corporation of Scarborough 1687 and 1688 350 9/4 Regulations of corporate off iceholding 352 10/1 The East Riding bench, Easter 1688 379 10/2 An intruded corporation in Pontefract: the regulators' proposals 381 10/3 The Three Questions in Yorkshire 383 10/4 Prospective parliamentary candidates in September 1688 384 10/5 The Doncaster corporation in 1688 386 10/6 The work of the Corporation Act commissioners compared with James II's regulators 388 11/1 Signatories to the Hotham letter 425 V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Atkinson North Riding Sessions Records, ed. J.C. Atkinson, North Riding Records Society, VI and VII (1884-92) Besse A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers, ed. J. Besse (2 vols. London, 1753) BIHR Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research BJL Hull Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull BL British Library Bolron R. Bolron, Narrative of Robert Bolron of Shippen Hall, gentleman (London, 1680) Broth. Lib. Brotherton Library, University of Leeds Comber The Autobiographies and Letters of Thomas Comber, ed. C.E. Whiting, Surtees Society, CLVI-CLVII (1946-47 DA Doncaster Archives Depositions Depositions from the Castle of York, ed. J. Raine, Surtees Society, XL (1861) Duckett 'King James II's Proposed Repeal of the Penal Laws and Test Act', ed. G. Duckett, YAJ, V (1879), 433-73 Dugdale Dugdale's Visitation of the County of York, 1665-66, ed. R. Davies, Surtees Society, XXXVI (1859) DUJ Durham University Journal EHR English Historical Review ERAS East Riding Archive Service Gazette The London Gazette Glassey L.K.J. Glassey, Politics and the Appointment of Justices of the Peace, 1675-1720 (Oxford, 1979) HCRO Hull City Record Office Henning The House of Commons, 1660-90, ed. B.D. Henning (3 vols. London, 1983) Heywood Oliver Heywood's Autobiography, Diaries, Anecdote and Event Books, ed. J.H. Turner (4 vols. Brighouse, 1881 HJ Historical Journal HLRO House of Lords Record Office HR Historical Research Hunt. Lib. Huntingdon Library, California JBS Journal of British Studies JSAHR Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Knights M. Knights, Politics and Opinion in Crisis, 1678-81 (Cambridge, 1994) vi LC Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Leyburn Bishop Leyburn's Confirmation Register of 1687, ed. J.A. Hilton et al., North West Catholic History Society (1997) Luttrell Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714 (6 vols. Oxford, 1857 Memoirs Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, ed. A. Browning, 2nd ed. (London, 1991) MH Midland History Mowbray L. Mowbray, Narrative of Lawrence Mowbrav (London, 1680) N&Q Notes and Queries NH Northern History NYCRO North Yorkshire County Record Office PER Parliaments, Estates and Representation PRO Public Record Office RH Recusant History Steele A Bibliography of Royal Proclamations, ed. R. Steele (2 vols. Oxford, 1910) TRHS Transactions of the Royal Historical Society TS Publications of the Thoresby Society WMO William and Mary Quarterly WYAS West Yorkshire Archive Service YAJ Yorkshire Archaeological Journal YAS Yorkshire Archaeological Society YCA York City Archives YCM Yorkshire County Magazine YFA Yorkshire Friends' Archive vii PREFACE Remarkably little work has been carried out into the complex political relationship between central government and the provinces in Restoration England. Still less of it spans the Glorious Revolution and continues into the reign of William and Mary. Local studies meanwhile, where they exist, focus on the counties (on the prime gentry especially) to the neglect of the far more autonomous corporate boroughs, or else recount the story of one selected borough in isolation from its neighbours and from the county at large. In neither case do they address questions of a more general political interest - above all, how far the experiences they describe were typical or unique. As a result, there is still an urgent need for a regionally based study of centre-local relations in later seventeenth century England, especially one which crosses the watershed of 1688-89 - the kind of study for which Yorkshire, with three ridings, ten incorporated boroughs, and a wide range of other political institutions (not to mention a vast quantity of source material), is ideally suited.