The protestation protested, 1641 and 1642

Historical Journal

Volumn 45, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 251-279

  Cressy, David ^a  

^a OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85020696183     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X0200239X     Document Type: Article

References (201)

1. John Walter, Understanding popular violence in the English revolution: the Colchester plunderers (Cambridge, 1999), p. 292.
2. Commons' Journals (CJ), 2 (1640–2), p. 132
3. Public Record Office (PRO), SP16/480/6.
4. David Zaret, Origins of democratic culture: printing, petitions, and the public sphere in early modern England (Princeton, NJ, 2000)
5. Joad Raymond, ‘The newspaper, public opinion, and the public sphere in the seventeenth century’, in Joad Raymond, ed., News, newspapers, and society in early modern Britain (London, 1999), pp. 109–140.
6. The proliferating bibliography on this topic begins with Jurgen Habermas, The structural transformation of the public sphere (Cambridge, MA, 1989).
7. David Cressy, Literacy and the social order: reading and writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 62–103, 191–20, 215–21
8. W. F. Webster, ed., Protestation returns 1641/2 Lincolnshire (Mapperly, Nottingham, 1984)
9. Jeremy Gibson and Alan Dell, The Protestation returns 1641–1642 and other contemporary listings (Federation of Family History Societies, Birmingham, 1995)
10. Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (HMC), Fifth report, Part I (London, 1876), pp. I 20–34.
11. Conrad Russell, Unrevolutionary England, 1603–1642 (London, 1990), p. 300
12. Conrad Russell, The fall of the British monarchies, 1637–1642 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 294–5, 452, 464.
13. Anthony Fletcher, The outbreak of the English civil war (London, 1981), pp. 14–15, 75–79, 11 3–14, 152, 184, 194, 209, 290–1, 405.
14. The discussion of the Protestation in David Martin Jones, Conscience and allegiance in seventeenth century England: the political significance of oaths and engagements (Rochester, NY, 1999), pp. 116–19, is based entirely on Russell and Fletcher. Zaret, Origins of democratic culture, does not mention it at all.
15. Walter, Understanding popular violence, pp. 292–6, 304–5.
16. See also John Walter, ‘Confessional politics in pre-civil war Essex: prayer books, profanations, and petitions’, Historical Journal, 44 (2001), pp. 688–689.
17. John Bruce, ed., Verney papers: notes of proceedings in the Long Parliament (Camden Society, 1845), pp. 66–71
18. [Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon], The history of the rebellion and civil wars in England begun in the year 1641, ed. W. Dunn Macray (6 vols., Oxford 1888), I, pp. 337, 340.
19. ‘A diary of ye lords in Parliament’ [Bishop Warner], Hertfordshire Record Office, XII.B.37, fo. 68
20. Conrad Russell, ‘The first army plot of 1641 ’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 38 (1988), pp. 85–106.
21. HMC, Report on the manuscripts of Lord Montague of Beaulieu (London, 1900), pp. 129–130
22. HMC, Report on the manuscripts of the earl of Egmont (vol. I, part I,London, 1905),p. 134
23. earl of Monmouth to earl of Middlesex, HMC, 4th report (London, 1874), appendix, p. 295
24. Bodleian Library, Nalson MS 13/19–20.
25. Maiija Jansson, ed., Two diaries of the Long Parliament (Gloucester and New York, 1984), p. 40
26. David Cressy, ‘Binding the nation: the Association of 1584 and 1696’, in DeLloyd J. Guth and John W. McKenna, eds., Tudor rule and revolution: essays for G.R. Elton from his American friends (Cambridge, 1982), pp. 217–234
27. Patrick Collinson, ‘The Elizabethan exclusion crisis and the Elizabethan polity’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 84 (1094), pp. 51–92, esp. 64–71.
28. Denzil Holles, Densell Hollis Esq.: his speech at the delivery of the Protestation to the Lords of the Upper House of parliament (1641).
29. Sheila Lambert, Printing for parliament, 1641–1700 (List and Index Society, Special Series, 20, 1984), p. 1. 100 copies were delivered on 5 May, 1,100 copies on 30 July.
30. For this he was rebuked by the House of Commons, CJ, 2 (1640–2), p. 36.
31. Die Mercurii 5 Maii. 1641: it is this day ordered (Protestation and Preamble, 1641; Thomason Tracts, 669.f.3 (5))
32. CJ, 2 (1640–2), p. 132
33. A preamble with the Protestation (1641)
34. John Rushworth, ed., Historical collections (8 vols., 1680–1701), iv, pp. 241, 244–8.
35. East Sussex Record Office, Lewes, Rye letters 47/1 33,8 May 1641
36. Bruce, ed., Verney papers, p. 67
37. CJ, 2, p. 132. The churchwardens of North Tawton, Devon, noted their expenses ‘when we took the oath of Protestation’, Devon Record Office, Exeter, 2914A/PW1.
38. Mary Anne Everett Green, ed., The diary of John Rous … 1625 to 1642 (Camden Society, 1856), p. 102
39. Durham University Library, Special Collections, Mickleton-Spearman MS MSP/9, vol. II, p. 192.
40. Johann P. Sommerville, ‘The “new art of lying”: equivocation, mental reservation, and casuistry’, in Edmund Leites, ed., Conscience and casuistry in early modern Europe (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 159–184
41. Keith Thomas, ‘Cases of conscience in seventeenth-century England’, in John Morrill, Paul Slack, and Daniel Woolf, eds., Public duty and private conscience in seventeenth-century England (Oxford, 1993), pp. 29–56
42. Edmund Vallance, ‘Oaths, casuistry and equivocation: Anglican responses to the Engagement controversy’, Historical Journal, 44 (2001), pp. 59–77.
43. See also Edward Vallance, ‘State oaths and political casuistry in England, 1640–1702’ (DPhil thesis, Oxford, 2000).
44. Jansson, ed., Two diaries of the Long Parliament, p. 43.
45. British Library, MS 669, fo. 3 (5, 6)
46. East Sussex Record Office, Lewes, Rye letters 47/1 33, 8 May 1641
47. R. Garraway Rice, ed., West Sussex Protestation returns, 1641–1642 (Sussex Record Society, 5, 1906), p. I.
48. HMC, Manuscripts of the Earl Cowper, K. G., preserved at Melbourne Hall (London, 1888), p. 281.
49. Staffordshire Record Office, Stafford, Leveson letter book, D.868/2/30.
50. Charles Henry Cooper, Annals of Cambridge (4 vols., Cambridge, 1842–1852), III, p. 311. Cambridge aldermen and councillors took the Protestation on 11 May 1641.
51. HMC, Montague, p. 130.
52. British Library, Additional MS 70003, fo. 94.
53. Jansson, ed., Two diaries of the Long Parliament, p. 40.
54. W. C. Trevelyan and C. E. Trevelyan, eds., The Trevelyan papers, part III (Camden Society, 105, 1872), p. 210.
55. Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Charles I (CSPD) (23 vols., London, 1858–1897), xviii, 1641–3, p. 113.
56. John Ley, A comparison of the parliamentary Protestation with the canonical oath (1641),pp. 3,5,29.
57. The Arminian Nvnnery (1641), p. 10.
58. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, Bedford, St John papers, J. 1385.
59. David Laing, ed., The letters and journals of Robert Baillie (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1841), I, p. 352.
60. Rushworth, ed., Historical collections, iv, p. 273
61. Denzil Holles, A true copie of the speech, made by the honourable Denzell Holles … concerning the Protestation … with an explanation upon some doubts made upon the said Protestation (1641), p. 8.
62. This clarification was repeated in the bill ‘for the securing of the true religion’ read on 24 July, HMC, House of Lords, Addenda 1517–1714, p. 278.
63. British Library, Additional MS 70,003, fo. 227.
64. John Geree, Iudahs ioy at the oath (1641), sigs. B2v, B3, B3v, B4, B4v, Cv.
65. Stephen Marshall, A peace-offering to God (1641), p. 46.
66. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, St John papers, J. 1385.
67. East Sussex Record Office, Rye letters 47/133, 18 May 1641.
68. HMC, Fifth report, p. 141
69. Staffordshire Record Office, Leveson letter book, D.868/2/30.
70. Geree, Iudahs ioy at the oath, sig. A3.
71. Devon Record Office, Okehampton sessions minute book 1639–48, MS 3248A/3/4.
72. Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge, Salisbury borough ledger book D, MS G23/1/4, fo. 3v
73. HMC, Reports on manuscripts in various collections (7 vols., London, 1903–1914), iv, p. 240.
74. G. W. Johnson, ed., The Fairfax correspondence, memoirs of the reign of Charles the first (2 vols., London, 1848), II, pp. 2, 106, 107.
75. York City Archives, Corporation House book 1638–50, MS B/36, fo. 58v.
76. Helen Stocks and W. H. Stevenson, eds., Records of the borough of Leicester … 1603–1688 (Cambridge, 1923), p. 307.
77. Records of the borough of Leicester … 1603–1688.
78. Lancashire Record Office, Preston, QSB/1/251/62.
79. Nottinghamshire Archives, Nottingham, CA 3415, 64–69.
80. Northamptonshire Record Office, Northampton, Finch Hatton MSS FH 3824
81. Denzil Holles, A true copie of the speech, made by the honourable Denzell Holles … concerning the Protestation … with an explanation upon some doubts made upon the said Protestation (1641), pp. 9–10.
82. Guildhall Library, London, MS 959/1, MS 1196/1.
83. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, St John papers, J. 1382, Jenyson to St John, 3 June 1641.
84. Guildhall Library, MS 4524/1, MS 6574/1, MS 2968/3, MS 1046/1.
85. The petition and articles exhibited in parliament against doctor Heywood, late chaplain to the bishop of Canterburie (1641), pp. 8–9.
86. See also the rebuttal in R.M., An answer to a lawless pamphlet … against doctor Heywood (1641).
87. Holborn Central Library, London, P/GF/CW/I.
88. Protestations in parish registers. Little Baddow was a Mildmay parish and had John Newton as vicar; Wanstead was a Warwick living alienated to Sir Henry Mildmay and served by Humphrey Maddison; Hadleigh was held by the earl of Warwick and served by the puritan William Wells; Barnston was served by the nonconformist John Beadle. Sources include Philip Morant, The history and antiquities of the county of Essex (1768)
89. T. W. Davids, Annals of evangelical nonconformity in the county of Essex (London, 1863)
90. Harold Smith, The ecclesiastical history of Essex under the Long Parliament and Commonwealth (Colchester, 1932).
91. See also William Hunt, The puritan moment: the coming of revolution in an English county (Cambridge, MA, 1983)
92. Cressy, Literacy and the social order, pp. 77–96.
93. House of Lords Record Office, Main Papers, 30 June 1641, 1 July 1641.
94. House of Lords Record Office, Main Papers, Petitions of 30 June and 1 July 1641.
95. Guildhall Library, MS 662/1.
96. British Library, Stowe MS 184, fos. 43v-4.
97. House of Lords Record Office, Main Papers, 11 June 1641, 22 July 1641.
98. British Library, Additional MS 15,672, fos. 52v-3v.
99. Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson D.8, fo. 17v.
100. Essex Record Office, Quarter Sessions Bundles, Q/Sba 2/43
101. Walter, ‘ Confessional politics’, pp. 688–689.
102. Thomas Mocket, The National Covenant: or, a discourse on the Covenant, wherein also the severall parts of the late Protestation are proved to be grounded on religion and reason (1642), p. 20.
103. I. W., Certain affirmations in defence of the pulling down of communion rails, by divers rash and misguided people, judiciously and religiously answered (1641), p. 4.
104. [Henry Burton], The Protestation protested: or, a short remonstrance, shewing what is principally required of all those that have or doe take the last parliamentary Protestation (1641), sigs. A2v, A3.
105. CSPD, 1641–3, p. 24.
106. Henry Burton, Englands bondage and hope of deliverance (1641), pp. 30–31.
107. Thomas Jenyson to Sir Roland St John, 24 June 1641, Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, St John papers, J. 1386.
108. Thomas Edwards, Reasons against independent government of particular congregations (1641), introduction, pp. 49, 50
109. Katherine Chidley, The ivstification of the independent chvrches of Christ (1641), pp. 22, 36, 65, 66.
110. John Geree, Vindiciae voti: or a vindicatioin of the true sense of the nationall covenant, in a brief and moderate answer to the Protestation protested (1641), sigs. A2, B, Bv, D2v.
111. Thomas Cheshire, A true copy of the sermon which was preached at St Pauls the tenth day of October last (1641), pp. 12, 13.
112. Sir Francis Wortley, $ … truth asserted … viz. that episcopacie is iure divino (1641), p. 28.
113. [Joseph Hall], A survay of that foolish, seditious, scandalous, prophane libel, the Protestation protested (1641), pp. 2, 4, 9.
114. Clarendon, History, ed. Macray, I, p. 449.
115. HMC, House of Lords, Addenda 1517–1714, pp. 277–280.
116. CJ, 2, p. 230
117. Rice, ed., West Sussex Protestation returns, p. ii
118. Fletcher, Outbreak, pp. 75, 79.
119. Lambert, Printing for parliament, p. I.
120. Geree, Iudahs ioy at the oath, sig. C4v.
121. A plott against the citie of London discovered (1641)
122. Simeon Ash, A support for the sinking heart in times of distress (1642), pp. 11, 30.
123. Annotations upon certaine quaeries of (as they call it) tender conscienced Christians concerning the late Protestation (1642), p. 5.
124. Trevelyan and Trevelyan, eds., Trevelyan papers, part III, p. 217.
125. [John Bramston], The autobiography of Sir John Bramston, K.B., of Skreens, in the Hundred of Chelmsford (Camden Society, 32, 1845), p. 82.
126. Russell, Fall of the British monarchies, p. 452
127. Clarendon, History, ed. Macray, I, p. 510.
128. Lambert, Printing for parliament, p. 7.
129. CJ, 2, p. 389.
130. Durham University Library, Special Collections, Mickleton-Spearman MS MSP 9, vol. II, p. 236.
131. Johnson, ed., Fairfax correspondence, II, p. 378.
132. Bodleian Library, MS Carte 90, fo. 50.
133. Rushworth, Historical collections, iv, pp. 506–507
134. John Vicars, A sight of ye transactions of these latter yeares (1646), pp. 18–19.
135. HMC, Fifth report, p. 8.
136. The Rutland petition, in Sir Thomas Aston, ed., A collection of sundry petitions presented to the kings most excellent majestie: as also to the two most honourable Houses, now assembled in parliament (1642), sigs. D2-D2v (pagination out of order).
137. Devon Record Office, Q/S 1/8, 12 July 1642.
138. Trevelyan and Trevelyan eds., Trevelyan papers, part III, p. 210, misdated to May 1641.
139. Devon Record Office, Q/SB Box 46, 23 June 1642.
140. J.W., Petitions against bishops and their votes in parliament … proved to be both contrary to our late taken Protestation, as also utterly unlawfull (1642), pp. 2–3
141. I. W., Certain reasons why the booke of common prayer being corrected should continue (1641),sig. A2.
142. See also I.W., Certain affirmations, p. 4.
143. T.L., Annotations upon the late Protestation: or, a true character of an affectionate minde to king and parliament (1642), pp. 5–8, 11.
144. Certaine queries of some tender conscienced Christians: about the late Protestation (1641), pp. 4, 6, 810.
145. Oxford royalists explicitly amended the Protestation in these terms in February 1642, see below.
146. Annotations upon certaine quaeries, pp. 1–2
147. Mocket, National Covenant, pp. 9–11
148. HMC, Cowper, p. 306.
149. CSPD, 1641–3, p. 273.
150. Gloucestershire Record Office, Gloucester, D2510/15, letters of John Smyth of Nibley
151. HMC, Fifth report, p. 345.
152. Norwich and Norfolk Record Office, Norwich, Great Yarmouth assembly book 1625–42, Y/ C16/6, fo. 499v.
153. Johnson, ed., Fairfax correspondence, II, pp. 362, 365, 375, 381.
154. York City Archives, Corporation House book 1638–50, MS B/36, fo. 65v.
155. William E. A. Axon, The annals of Manchester (Manchester, 1886), p. 53
156. Nottinghamshire Archives, CA 3416, 38.
157. Bedfordshire and Luton Archives, St John papers, J. 1389.
158. Devon Record Office, 1237A/PW37
159. Cheshire Record Office, P39/8/1
160. Essex Record Office, D/P75/5/1.
161. Nottinghamshire Archives, PR 1709
162. Martyn Bennett, ed., A Nottinghamshire village in war and peeace: the aacounts of the constables of Upton, 1640–1666 (Thoroton Society Record Series, 39, Nottingham, 1995), p. 7.
163. County Record Office, Huntingdon, Fenstanton MS 2668/5/3.
164. Devon Record Office, 1060A/95.
165. Somerset Record Office, Taunton, DP.m.st.m 4/1/1.
166. Lancashire Record Office, Whalley accounts, 1636–1709.
167. Borthwick Institute, York, PR Y/J17
168. Devon Record Office, G13 (V) PW4.
169. Mocket, National Covenant, p. 23
170. T. L., Annotations upon the late Protestation, p. 13
171. Tessa Watt, Cheap print and popular piety, 1550–1640 (Cambridge, 1991).
172. Gibson and Dell, Protestation returns, pp. 8, 20, 25, 44, 46, 59, 63.
173. 70 men and 67 women subscribed the Protestation at West Shefford, Berkshire, House of Lords Record Office, Main Papers; at St Mabyn 164 women and 195 men subscribed; at St Tudy 146 men and 149 women took the Protestation, directed by the rector, Obadiah Gossip, T. L. Stoate, ed., The Cornwall Protestation returns (Almondsbury, Bristol, 1974), pp. 195–6, 189–91, 279–80.
174. Webster, ed., Protestation returns 1641/2 Lincolnshire, pp. 17, 33, 42, 68, 82, 89.
175. Rice, ed., West Sussex Protestation returns, p. iii.
176. Rice, ed., West Sussex Protestation returns, pp. viii-xiii
177. Timothy J. McCann, ‘Midhurst Catholics and the Protestation returns of 1642 ’, Recusant History, 16 (1983), pp. 319–323
178. Anthony Fletcher, A county community in peace and war: Sussex, 1600–1660 (London, 1975), p. 99.
179. Johnson, ed., Fairfax correspondence, II, p. 106.
180. Essex Record Office, Q/SR/316/92. The Tunbridges also took the Oath of Allegiance and received the sacrament.
181. A.J. Howard and T. L. Stoate, eds., Somerset Protestation returns and lay subsidy rolls, 1641–1642 (Almondsbury, Bristol, 1975), pp. 27, 120, 142, 159.
182. House of Lords Record Office, Main Papers. Berkshire examples from Little Wittenham, Wytham, and Lettcomb Bassett.
183. Stoate, ed., Cornwall Protestation returns, p. II.
184. John Bond, A Doore of Hope, also Holy and Loyall Activity (1641), sigs. A22v, A3, H3, O2v. On the title page Bond indicated his age was no more than some months have days.
185. A.J. Howard and T. L. Stoate, eds., The Devon Protestation returns 1641 (Almondsbury, Bristol, 1973), pp. 321, 324.
186. Devon Record Office, City of Exeter sessions book, 63 (1630–42), fos. 393–393v
187. Howard and Stoate, eds., Devon Protestation returns, p. 328.
188. Howard and Stoate, eds., Devon Protestation returns, pp. 332–333.
189. HMC, Fifth report, p. 352.
190. HMC, Fourteenth report, appendix 11: Manuscripts of his grace the duke of Portland preserved at Welbeck Abbey (London, 1894), p. 85
191. British Library, Additional MS 70,003, fos. 227, 238–9.
192. British Library, Additional MS 70,003, fo. 225.
193. David Marcombe, English small town life: Retford, 1520–1642 (Nottingham, 1993), pp. 61, 66.
194. J. W. Willis Bund, ed., Worcestershire county records. Division I: documents relating to quarter sessions (Worcester, 1900), p. 703.
195. Hollington, a royal chaplain who was never ‘heard to put up one prayer either for the Parliament or the distressed protestants in Ireland’, was sequestered from his living in 1646.
196. Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson D.924, fos. 177, 184, 186, 198, 203. When proceedings against ‘scandalous and malignant’ ministers are the sole source of information about resistance and objections to the Protestation, they should be read with exceptional care.
197. Durham University Library, Special Collections, Mickleton-Spearman MS MSP 9, vol. II, p. 238.
198. W. N. Darnell, ed., The correspondence of Isaac Basire, DD (London, 1831),pp. 32, 40, checked against Latin originals in Durham University Library, Special Collections, ‘John Cosin letter book,’ I A/34 and 35.
199. HMC, Fifth report, appendix, pp. 130–131.
200. Fifth report., p. 131.
201. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, III, p. 317.