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The Independents Again

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

David Underdown
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Extract

George Yule's “Independents and Revolutionaries” suggests that in many respects he and I are not so far apart. We agree that a “rigid two-party view” of Interregnum politics is a mistake, that not all members of the Rump were political Independents, that “Independent” was not commonly used as a political term after 1648, and that the clue to the events of 1648-49, the climax of the Puritan Revolution, lies in the existence of a group of genuine radicals who can and ought to be identified. He also seems to agree in one place that the criticisms of his statistical methods in The Independents in the English Civil War which I advanced in “The Independents Reconsidered” are justified, though in another he argues that the table in The Independents enables the reader to surmount these difficulties. This being so, if a technical dispute over methodology was all that remained between us, his latest article might well be left unchallenged. It contains, however, a number of assumptions about seventeenth-century religion and politics which are either unfounded or need serious qualification, and on which a few further comments are necessary.

First, as to method. It is true that the table referred to enables the reader to obtain Yule's estimates of the total numbers in various groups, such as (a) “Fled to Army, 1647,” (b) purged, 1648, and (c) Rumper, and of how these break down by social position and religious affiliation. But nowhere is there any entry for all of Yule's allegedly Independent M.P.s and of the breakdown for these, nor is there any way of obtaining it from the table.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , November 1968 , pp. 83 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1968

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References

1. Yule, George, “Independents and Revolutionaries,” J.B.S., VII (1968), 11–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited as Yule, “Revolutionaries”).

2. Ibid., pp. 14, 12, 19.

3. Ibid., pp. 12-13.

4. Ibid., p. 19.

5. Underdown, David, “The Independents Reconsidered,” J.B.S., III (1964), 57–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited as Underdown, “Independents”).

6. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 12Google Scholar.

7. Yule, George, The Independents in the English Civil War (Cambridge, 1958), p. 129Google Scholar.

8. Ibid., pp. 127-28.

9. As indicated in Underdown, “Independents,” p. 62.

10. Quite apart from the matter of definition, it must be repeated that the biographical appendix on which the statistics rest contains far too many errors of detail for it to sustain any conclusions with confidence. A high proportion of the entries contain minor errors — misspellings, inaccuracies regarding parentage, relations, property, education, etc. In addition to the false identification of Robert Andrews (ibid., p. 74), the following of Yule's entries should be approached with particular care: Richard Aldworth, John Fagg, Sir James Harrington, Herbert Hay, John Radcliffe, Thomas Scott, George Snelling.

11. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 18Google Scholar.

12. Underdown, , “Independents,” p. 81Google Scholar.

13. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 13Google Scholar.

14. Ibid., pp. 13, 19-20.

15. Ibid., pp. 14, 19.

16. O.E.D. Thus Richard Baxter speaks of the “sober party” of the army. Sylvester, M. (ed.), Reliquiae Baxterianae (London, 1696), I, 59Google Scholar.

17. Whitelocke, Bulstrode, Memorials of the English Affairs (Oxford, 1853), II, 146, 149, 277Google Scholar. The instances above are from BM, Whitelocke's Annals, Add. MSS, 37,344, fols. 4v, 31.

18. Ibid., fol. 129v. For Crewe, John see Hexter, J. H., The Reign of King Pym (Cambridge, Mass., 1941), p. 172Google Scholar; Glow, Lotte, “Political Affiliations in the House of Commons after Pym's Death,” Bull. Inst. Hist. Res., XXXVIII (1965), 51Google Scholar; Pearl, Valerie, “Oliver St. John and the ‘Middle Group’ in the Long Parliament,” E.H.R., LXXXI (1966), 496, 509, 512, 518CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and the article by Valerie Pearl cited below at n. 25.

19. Laing, David (ed.), Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie (Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie, 1841–1842), II, 336Google Scholar.

20. As indicated in Underdown, , “Independents,” pp. 64-68, 81Google Scholar.

21. Firth, C. H. (ed.), Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson (London, 1906), p. 185Google Scholar. See also Underdown, , “Independents,” p. 66Google Scholar.

22. BM, D'Ewes's Diary, 1645-47, Harl. MSS, 484, passim.

23. A Paire of Cristall Spectacles With which Any man may see plainly at a Miles Distance, into the Councells of the Army … By a Member of the House of Commons (1648), listed in Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts … collected by George Thomason, 1640-1661 (London, 1908), I, 703Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Thomason Catalogue). This pamphlet is attributed to Thomas Scot by Thomason.

24. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 15Google Scholar.

25. Pearl, Valerie, “The ‘Royal Independents’ in the English Civil War,” Trans. Roy. Hist. Soc., fifth series, XVIII (1968), 69–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am greatly indebted to the author for permitting me to read an advance copy of this paper, and for drawing to my attention the significance of the pamphlet by Nathaniel Fiennes, cited below, n. 37.

26. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 19Google Scholar.

27. Ibid., pp. 13, 19.

28. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

29. Ibid., p. 21.

30. Yule, , The Independents, p. 36Google Scholar.

31. For some valuable insights into Puritanism as a revolutionary ideology, see Walzer, Michael, The Revolution of the Saints (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), esp. chs. vii and viiiGoogle Scholar.

32. Pearl, , “Royal Independents,” Trans, Roy. Hist. Soc., fifth series, XVIII, 87-88, 91Google Scholar. See also Pearl, , “Oliver St. John,” E.H.R., LXXXI, 500–01Google Scholar.

33. BM, Whitelocke's Annals, 23 June, 1650, Add. MSS, 37,345, fol. 80v. In 1648-49 Whitelocke was regularly attending Temple Church, where the minister was Richard Johnson, another moderate episcopalian of the Ussher stamp. BM, Whitelocke's Annals, Ibid., 37,344, fols. 231-51. Inderwick, F. A. (ed.), Calendar of the Inner Temple Records (London, 1896–1901), II, Introduction, cv, cxx-cxxiGoogle Scholar; Matthews, A. G., Walker Revised (Oxford, 1948), p. 20Google Scholar; Raines, F. R. and Renaud, F. (eds.), Fellows of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, Pt. 1 [Chetham Society, new series, XXI] (Manchester, 1891), pp. 114–35Google Scholar.

34. Journals of the House of Commons 1547-1714, V, 332Google Scholar. William Purefoy was also an active member of the Committee for Scandalous Ministers when the classical system was being established. Shaw, William A., History of the English Church during the Civil Wars and under the Commonwealth (London, 1900), II, 392, 430–32Google Scholar.

35. Laing, , Letters and Journals of Baillie, II, 237Google Scholar; BM, D'Ewes's Journal, Harl. MSS, 166, fol. 204; Commons Journals, IV, 300Google Scholar; Shaw, , History of the English Church, II, 404Google Scholar; Matthews, A. G., Calamy Revised (Oxford, 1934), p. 20Google Scholar.

36. Hexter, , Reign of King Pym, p. 198n.Google Scholar, and citations from Baillie there given. See also Rous's, Francis pamphlets, esp. Lawfulnes of Obeying the Present Government … By one that Loves all Presbyterian lovers of Truth and Peace, and is of their Communion (3rd ed.; London, 1650)Google Scholar. Rous was on nearly all the crucial committees for setting up the Presbyterian system: e.g., Commons Journals, IV, 630Google Scholar; V, 7, 66.

37. Laing, , Letters and Journals of Baillie, II, 353Google Scholar. [Fiennes, Nathaniel], Vindiciae Veritatis. Or an Answer to a Discourse intituled, Truth it's Manifest (1654), p. 138Google Scholar, listed in Thomason Catalogue, II, 81Google Scholar. This pamphlet is attributed to Fiennes by Thomason; the authorship is also obvious from internal evidence.

38. Burges, Cornelius, A Case Concerning the Buying of Bishops Lands (London, 1659), pp. 42–43Google Scholar. Longleat, Burges to Edmund Harvey, 19 Sep., 1650, Whitelocke Papers, X, fol. 170.

39. Commons Journals, V, 332Google Scholar. Godfrey Bosvile had been one of Baxter's congregation at Coventry during the war. Sylvester, , Reliquiae Baxterianae, I, 44Google Scholar. His son was given a Presbyterian tutor. Yule, , The Independents, p. 90Google Scholar.

40. Commons Journals, V, 333Google Scholar. A Letter of an Independent to his Honored Friend Mr. Glyn (1645), p. 4Google Scholar, listed in Thomason Catalogue, I, 409Google Scholar. The evidence of this pamphlet is not to be totally disregarded; nevertheless, it is a little odd that Yule makes use of it without noting that the Independency of the author is clearly a pose, and that it was in fact written by a Royalist. See Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 20Google Scholar, and The Independents, p. 57. Thomason's endorsement to his copy of the pamphlet reads “Jan: 8th, Oxon:” i.e., published at Oxford.

41. D.N.B. (John Venn); Yule, , The Independents, p. 122Google Scholar; Shaw, , History of the English Church, II, 430Google Scholar.

42. BM, Whitaker's Diary, Add. MSS, 31,116, passim.

43. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 16Google Scholar.

44. Sylvester, , Reliquiae Baxterianae, I, 97Google Scholar.

45. Matthews, , Calamy Revised, p. 15Google Scholar. Matthews's pages abound with examples of the difficulty of classification.

46. Quoted in Nuttall, Geoffrey F., The Welsh Saints 1640-1660 (Cardiff, 1957), pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

47. Sylvester, , Reliquiae Baxterianae, I, 31Google Scholar.

48. The composition of the group can be traced in John Harington's diary. BM, Add. MSS, 10,114, fols, 27-33. See also Commons Journals, V, 393Google Scholar; and Chetham's Library, Manchester, Letter-book of Sir Ralph Assheton, 12 Sep., 1648. Yule unaccountably attributes Harington's diary to the Independent Sir James Harrington, who could not have been more different. Yule, The Independents, pp. 62, 101. For St. John's religious preferences (primitive episcopacy, rather than Independency) see the articles by Pearl cited above, nn. 18, 25.

49. Fiennes, , Vindiciae Veritatis, pp. 24, 35Google Scholar.

50. Yule, , “Revolutionaries,” p. 24Google Scholar.

51. Ibid., p. 18.

52. Fiennes, , Vindiciae Veritatis, p. 146Google Scholar.