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The Commission for Ecclesiastical Causes 1686–1688: A Reconsideration*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. P. Kenyon
J. P. Kenyon
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Type
Communications
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 1991 , pp. 727 - 736
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 Ogg, D., England in the reigns of James II & William III (Oxford, 1955), pp. 175–8Google Scholar.

2 Ibid. pp. 176, 177.

3 I Eliz. c. I, Statutes of the Realm, IV, 352.

4 16 Car. I c. 11, ibid. V, 112–13.

5 The Act of Uniformity (I Eliz. c. 2, § 18) also mentions such commissioners as having power to regulate church ornaments; ibid. IV, 358.

6 Ibid. V, 113.

7 Ibid. V, 315.

8 Carpenter, Edward, The Protestant Bishop (London, 1956), pp. 159–60Google Scholar; Horwitz, Henry, Revolution Politicks (Cambridge 1968), pp. 90, 99–100Google Scholar.

9 Ashley, M., James II (London, 1977), p. 191Google Scholar.

10 Miller, J., James II: A study in kingship (London, 1978), p. 155Google Scholar.

11 Western, J. R., Monarchy and revolution (London, 1972), p. 199CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Schwoerer, L., The Declaration of Rights 1689 (Baltimore, 1981), p. 65Google Scholar.

13 Speck, W. A., Reluctant revolutionaries (Oxford, 1988), p. 77Google Scholar. I have left aside eccentrics like Stuart Prall, who calls it ‘The Court of High Commission’, and thinks Jeffreys used it to harry dissenters, Prall, S., The bloodless revolution (New York, 1972), pp. 126, 127Google Scholar; or Richard E. Boyer, who is so orthodox that he transcribes large chunks of Ogg without acknowledgment, Boyer, R. E., English declarations of indulgence (The Hague, 1968), pp. 57–8Google Scholar.

14 Kenyon, J. P., Stuart England (London, 1978), pp. 57–8Google Scholar.

15 Turner, F. C., James II (London, 1948), p. 247Google Scholar.

16 Jones, J. R., The Revolution of 1688 in England (New York, 1972), p. 72Google Scholar.

17 Keeton, G. W., Lord Chancellor Jeffreys and the Stuart cause (London, 1965), p. 409Google Scholar.

18 Most easily accessible in State trials, XI, 1143–55. The original is P[ublic] R[ecord] O[ffice], C66.3286.

19 [The] Ellis correspondence, [ed. Ellis, George Agar (2 vols., London 1829)], 1, 147Google Scholar.

20 [Bodleian Library,] Rawl[inson] MS D365. This is a bound notebook, thirty-two folios of which are filled with brief notes of the Commission's proceedings; clearly kept by Bridgeman himself, to be worked up later into a more formal record. In fact on fo. 32 a start has been made on this, returning to the Commission's first sitting on 3 August 1686, but it breaks off after one page. (I am grateful to Professor John Miller for drawing my attention to this source, and to the Bodleian Library for allowing me to quote from it.)

21 Ibid. fo. 5V.

22 Owen Wynne to Sir William Trumbull, 30 Sept 1686, H[istorical] M[anuscripts] C[ommission], Doumhire [MSS], 1, 221, repeated almost verbatim in Ellis correspondence, 1, 172–3 (1 Oct.). Also Rawl. MS D365, fo. 7V.

23 HMC Downshire, I, 221.

24 Rawl. MS D365, fos. 7–8.

25 Ibid. fos. 7V, 9, 10, 10V, 11, 12V.

26 Not ‘Bucks’, as in the minutes.

27 Ibid. fos. 7V, 9, 10.

28 Ibid. fos. 9, 9V, 10, 11, 12V.

29 Ibid, fos. 20, 27.

30 ‘At a Court held by the Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, November 4th, 1686…’, British Library C.21.f.2 (16). Even the ultra-whig Kennett, White, in the Complete history of England (2 edn, 3 vols., London, 1719), 111, 455 n.Google Scholar, admitted that this was ‘a worthy act’. It was also remarked on by SirBramston, John, Autobiography (Camden Society 1845), p. 265Google Scholar.

31 Rawl. MS D. 365, fos. 14, 14V, 20.

32 Ibid. fos. 12, 13V, 14.

33 Ibid. fo. 13V.

34 Ibid. fo. 14.

35 Ibid. fos. 14V, 15, 16.

36 Ibid. fos. 14V, 15, 16.

37 Ibid. fos. 15, 15V, 16V, 19, 19V. There are two possible ‘Waddingtons’, in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

38 Ibid. fos. 19V, 20.

39 Ibid. fos. 14, 27.

40 Ibid. fos. 16, 21, 24.

41 Ibid. fo. 16.

42 Ibid. fos. 13, 14V.

43 HMC Downshire, 1, 244.

44 P. 730 above.

45 Rawl. MS D365, fo. 13. However, in the dying days of the Commission, on 16 August 1688, his suspension was lifted; ibid. fo. 32.

46 Ibid. fo. 20.

47 Ibid. fos. 22V, 23.

48 Ibid. fos. 21V, 22V, 26V, 28, 28V, 30V.

49 Ibid. fo. 22; P.R.O. C66/3299.

50 Presumably to put the notorious Three Questions to his deputy lieutenants in three counties. Also, on 13 August, notwithstanding the disorder of his private life, the king had ordered him as High Constable of England to reconvene the High Court of Chivalry, which had been in abeyance since 1641; Squibb, G. D., The High Court of Chivalry (Oxford, 1958), pp. 87–8Google Scholar.

51 Rawl. MS D365, fos. 21V, 22, 23, 23V.

52 Ibid. fos. 24V, 25V, 26.

53 HMC Downshire, 1, 287 (26 Jan); Luttrell, Narcissus, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs (6 vols., Oxford, 1857), 11, 428–9 (19 01)Google Scholar.

54 C[alendar of] S[tate] P[apers] D[omestic] 1687–89, p. 155; Rawl. MS D365, fo. 28V.

55 Ibid. fos. 31, 32.

56 The house of lords rejected the Duke's private bill for divorce in 1692, and he promptly sued his wife's lover, Sir John Germain, in King's Bench for trespass; he won, but the jury only awarded him 100 marks damages, for which they were reproved by the judge. Another private bill passed the Lords April 1700, but he died a year later. (State Trials, XII, 883–927, XIII, 1283–1370.)

57 Rawl. MS D365, fo. 26V; Luttrell, op. cit., i, 431 (10 Feb).

58 Rawl. MS D365, fo. 27.

59 Ibid. fo. 27V.

60 Ibid. fos. 28, 28V, 29.

61 The reason for this quarrel is unknown, but the marriage was childless, and soon after the countess's death in 1694 her husband caused grave scandal by marrying one of his domestic servants, niece to his housekeeper; GEC, Complete peerage, 111, 472.

62 Rawl. MS D365, fos. 29, 29V.

63 Ibid. fo. 30. It is perhaps worthy of note that Hudson was excommunicated at a meeting at which laymen outnumbered clergy 4 to 1; Jeffreys, Herbert, Wright and Jenner as against Bishop Cartwright.

64 Ibid. fo. 29V (31 May).

65 CSPD 1687–89, p. 218.

66 Rawl. MS D365, fos. 30V, 32.

67 Ibid. fo. 32V.

68 It is probable, of course, that the noblemen on the Commission also wanted to protect their daughters and sisters against adventurers. After one discussion of this topic Bridgeman made a note, ‘Quaere. Who married Lady Elizabeth Brabazon?’, Rawl. MS D365 fo. 9V (19 Oct 1686).

69 The only possible exception is Joseph Briggs, with his ‘seditious words’. See p. 733 above.

70 P. 731 above.

71 Rawl. MS D365, fos. 16V, 19.

72 Ibid. fo. 21V.

73 Ibid. fo. 22V.

74 Bloxam, J. R., Magdalen College and James II (Oxford Hist. Soc., VI, 1883), nos 256, 261, 282Google Scholar.

75 Printed seriatim in the CSPD for the relevant years. See indexes under ‘High Commission, Books of Acts’.

76 See, for instance, the cases of William Tyler (27 Nov 1634) and Richard Wright (16 Apr 1635); CSPD 1634–5, P. 336, CSPD 1635, p. 497.

77 Gardiner, S. R., History of England 1603–42 (10 vols., London 1884–1885), VII, 251–2, VIII, 144–6Google Scholar; CSPD 1635, pp. 181, 202, 205; CSPD 1635–6, p. 497.

78 Magdalen College MS 429. (I am grateful to the president and fellows of the College for allowing me access to this document.) Sir Marmaduke Langdale, of course, was a noted royalist cavalry general in the 1640s; his wife died in 1639, he in 1661, as 1st Lord Langdale.

79 18 June 1635, CSPD 1635, pp. 227–8. In February 1636 the lay patrons of the churches of St Gregory's and St Peter's at Sudbury, in Suffolk, were forced to pay the curates thereof £40 and £35 Per annum respectively; CSPD 1635–6, pp. 499, 507.