Covenanting Citizens: The Protestation Oath and Popular Political Culture in the English Revolution

277 Pages·2017·1.276 MB·English

by  John Walter

OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
Covenanting Citizens
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
Covenanting Citizens
The Protestation Oath and Popular Political
Culture in the English Revolution
JoHn WaLteR
1
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
3
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Acknowledgements
to quote too many fellow authors to need acknowledgement, this book has taken
(far) longer than i had hoped. in part this was because of the paradox of an event
which generated thousands of records hitherto little worked on by historians, but
which left many puzzling gaps in the historical record, and to try to fill these
required a nationwide research project with visits to most local and regional arch-
ives. But the long span of the project also reflects that life intervened in ways that
cannot be anticipated. so my most important acknowledgements are, as ever, to
Bron, and to angharad whose career blossoms doing what she loves, and to Ben
who died doing what he loved during this project, for their fortitude, love, and
support, and as reminders of what really matters.
Undertaking research on this scale would not have been possible without the
award of a two-year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship. i am immensely
indebted to the director and Board for the financial support and intellectual free-
dom the trust’s funding provides. The periods of research leave provided by the
University of essex and the support in particular of my early modern colleagues
Joan davies, amanda Flather, alison Rowlands, Clodagh tait, and neil Younger
were also critical, particularly in the opening and closing stages of my research.
given the centrality of the parliamentary records to the history of the protestation,
i must thank david prior, assistant Clerk of the Records, Mari takayanagi, archivist,
and their colleagues in the parliamentary archives for their hospitality and help. For
similar reasons, i am very grateful to Maija Jansson, for her hospitality and advice
while i was a visitor at the Yale Center for parliamentary History and to dr paul
seaward, director of the History of parliament trust and, in particular, dr stephen
Roberts, editor of the 1640–60 section, and their colleagues for sharing their formi-
dable expertise with me. at essex, the support provided for research and scholarship
by colleagues at the albert sloman Library has remained exemplary. Robert Butler
and nigel Cochrane, respectively Librarian and deputy Librarian, by making possi-
ble the purchase of microfilms of the thousands of protestation returns whose study
was central to this book made a major and much appreciated contribution.
Undertaking research for this book has required work in all the major research
libraries and national archives, and has taken me to most of the regional and local
archives, in england. i regret that there are therefore too many librarians and
archivists to acknowledge individually, not least those who permitted me to see or
provided copies of records otherwise too fragile for public use. to undertake a national
tour of libraries and archives in this county in the early twenty -first century is to be
heartened by the still-growing interest across all age and social groups in the records
of the past, but to be disheartened by the increasing financial constraints placed on
these colleagues in both meeting that interest and in preserving an increasing
volume of historical records. i am therefore grateful for the unfailingly helpful wel-
come i received from archivists and archives staff, not least those unsung helpers
who produced the many records that this study necessitated consulting.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
vi Acknowledgements
in the course of a long project i have accumulated many academic debts. drawing
on their own areas of expertise, the following friends and (friendly) colleagues have
been generous inter alia in answering my questions, in providing me with access to
their own, often as yet unpublished work, in prompting further research, and in
providing me with sightings of the protestation in manuscript and early print:
david R. adams, dan Beaver, Richard Blakemore, Lloyd Bowen, david Como,
Richard Cust, Joan davies, Colin davis, Jane dawson, Jackie eales, anthony
Fletcher, Jeremy gibson, Harumi goto, todd gray, ian green, tony Hadland,
Cynthia Herrup, valerie Hitchman, Clive Holmes, Ulrike Hogg, andy Hopper,
arnold Hunt, Janet Huskinson, Mark Knights, Chris Marsh, James Mawdesley,
Fiona McCall, angela Mcshane, Jason peacey, Joan Redmond, stephen Roberts,
Roger schofield, david scott, Bill sheils, david smith, John spurr, Laura stewart,
Mark stoyle, John sutton, Christopher Thompson, alan Thomson, nicholas
tyacke, tim Wales, andy Wood, Keith Wrightson, and neil Younger. steve smith
provided a sympathetic ear whenever i flagged.
Mike Braddick (again), ann Hughes, John Morrill (again), and stephen Roberts
generously set aside their own work to read the whole manuscript and were gener-
ous, too, with their comments and advice (as was the anonymous reader for oxford
University press). i am particularly grateful to ann Hughes for the rewarding day-
long, and vinous, conversation which her reading prompted. all faults, of course,
remain my own.
as ever, my students at the University of essex were the first audience for the
early outings about the protestation and the need to explain to them why it mat-
tered sharpened my thinking. i would like to thank in particular my then research
students drs graham Hart, deirdre Heaven, and Jon vallerius for feeding me
references to the protestation from their own areas of expertise in the history of
early modern ipswich, Cambridgeshire’s (scandalous) clergy, and radical groups in
the english revolution.
earlier reports on the research for this book were given at the essex society for
archaeology and History 2009 Morant Lecture, the Centre for Local and Regional
History, University of essex 2014 Dudley White Local History Lecture, and lectures
to University of east anglia The Turbulent 17th Century 2010 lecture series; the
2014 Power of Place series, institute of Medieval and early Modern studies,
University of durham; Publics & Participation in Early Modern Britain 2014 con-
ference, Birkbeck College, and to the Historical association, Canterbury Branch
2015; and as papers to the following seminars: Parliaments, Representations and
Society; Parliaments, Politics and People, Tudor and Stuart History; Religious History of
Britain, all at the institute of Historical Research; Early Modern Britain, oxford;
Early Modern Economic and Social History, Cambridge. i am grateful for and learned
much from the comments and questions from audiences and participants.
The time this project has taken has meant that i have benefited from the sup-
portive advice (and perhaps on occasion tried the patience) of a number of editors
at oxford University press: Ruth parr invited me to publish, Christopher Wheeler
turned the invitation into a commission, and Cathryn steele’s (gentle) persistence
got me to the finishing line. i am grateful to all of them.
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
Contents
Abbreviations and Conventions ix
introduction 1
1. parliamentary politics and the Making of the protestation 7
2. popular politics and the Making of the protestation 50
3. debating the protestation 80
4. swearing the nation: administering the protestation 113
5. taking the protestation 153
6. performing the protestation 197
Conclusion: Covenanting Citizens, enacting a nation 244
Index 263
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 17/08/16, SPi
Abbreviations and Conventions
BLas Bedfordshire and Luton archives service, Bedford
BL British Library
CaLs Cheshire archives and Local studies, Chester
Carter The Surrey Protestation Returns 1641/2 (surrey archaeological Collections,
59, guilford, 1962)
CJ Journal of the House of Commons
Cole & Atkin ann Cole and Wendy atkin, Protestation Returns For Lincolnshire 1641/2
(Cd, Lincolnshire Family History society, 1996)
CSPD Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
CSPV Calendar of State Papers, Venetian
CUL Cambridge University Library
daLs devon archives and Local studies, exeter
D’Ewes (C) The Journal of Sir Simonds D’Ewes From the First Recession of the Long
Parliament to the Withdrawal of King Charles from London, ed. Willson
Havelock Coates (new Haven, Ct, and London, 1942)
dUL durham University Library
eRo essex Record office, Chelmsford
Faraday M. a. Faraday, ed., The Westmorland Protestation Returns 1641/2
(Cumberland and Westmorland antiquarian and archaeological society,
tract ser., xvii, Kendal, 1971)
Fry e. a. Fry, ed., The Dorset Protestation Returns, 1641–2 (dorset Records,
12, 1912)
Gibson J. gibson, ed., Oxfordshire and North Berkshire Protestation Returns and
Tax Assessments 1641–42 (oxfordshire Record society, 59, 1994)
Guimraens a. J. C. guimraens, ed., The Protestation Oath Rolls for Middlesex 1641–2,
(Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, supplement, 1921)
HaLs Hertfordshire archives and Local studies, Hertford
HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission
KHLC Kent History and Library Centre, Maidstone
LJ Journal of the House of Lords
LMa London Metropolitan archives
nLW national Library of Wales, aberystwyth
ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; from the earliest times to the year
2000, ed. H. C. g. Mathew, 61 vols (oxford, 2004)
pa parliamentary archives, Westminster
PJ Private Journals of the Long Parliament, eds W. H. Coates, v. F. snow, and
a. steele Young (new Haven, Ct, and London, 1982–97)
POSLP Maija Jansson, ed., Proceedings in the Opening Session of the Long
Parliament. House of Commons (7 vols, Rochester, nY, and suffolk,
2000–7)
Proby granville proby, ed., ‘The protestation returns for Huntingdonshire’,
Transactions of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Archaeological
Society, v (ely, 1937), 289–368