¹ Russell, Conrad, The fall of the British monarchies, 1637–42, Oxford 1990, 371–2, 437Google Scholar; Fletcher, Anthony, The outbreak of the English civil war, London 1981, 118–22Google Scholar; Cust, Richard, Charles I: a political life, Harlow 2005, 315 Google Scholar, and Charles I and the aristocracy, 1625–1642, Cambridge 2013, 253–4.

² Stuart royal proclamations, ed. Larkin, J. F. and Hughes, P., Oxford 1973–83, ii. 752–4Google Scholar.

³ HMC, Report on the manuscripts of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, ed. Lomas, S. C., London 1900, 135 Google Scholar.

⁴ According to Judith Maltby, ten out of twenty- seven extant petitions can be dated to this period: Prayer book and people in Elizabethan and early Stuart England, Cambridge 1998, 238–47. To this number can probably be added the undated petition from Bedfordshire that she ascribes to January 1641: Maltby, Judith (ed.), ‘Petitions for episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer on the eve of the civil war, 1641–1642’, in Taylor, S. (ed.), From Cranmer to Davidson: a Church of England miscellany (Church of England Record Society, 1999), 152–3Google Scholar. Maltby ascribes it to January 1640/1, following the dating of the editors of the Calendar of state papers domestic. Their dating is based on an entry in the Commons’ Journal for 16 January referring to the presentation of a petition from the ‘knights, esquires and gentlemen of the countie of Bedford’; however, the petition in defence of episcopacy and the prayer book states that it is from ‘the nobility, knights, gentrie, ministers, freeholders and inhabitants of the county of Bedford’, and given the similarity of the arguments that the Bedfordshire petition uses to the petition from neighbouring Huntingdonshire, presented to the House of Lords on 8 December 1641 – and indeed other shires which were petitioning about both episcopacy and the prayer book at this time such as Gloucestershire, Somerset and Worcestershire – it seems far more likely that it should be dated to late 1641: Maltby, Prayer book and people, 238; TNA, SP 16/476/110; Maltby ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 122–7, 158–9, 161–3. The petition presented on 16 January 1640/1 probably relates to the contested by-election in Bedfordshire involving Sir Lewis Dives who is noted as having exhibited another petition at the same time. Both were referred to a committee appointed to consider the election: Journals of the House of Commons, ii. 68; Keeler, M. F., The Long Parliament, Philadelphia 1954, 33 Google Scholar. A further petition from Lincolnshire, for which we do not have an extant text, is also known to have been circulating late in 1641: SCLA, DR 98/1652/14; Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, 289.

⁵ Maltby, Prayer book and people, chs iii–iv; Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, 288–9; Morrill, J. S., Cheshire, 1630–1660: county government and society during the English revolution, Oxford 1974, 45–51 Google Scholar.

⁶ Lake, Peter, ‘Puritans, popularity and petitions: local politics in national context, Cheshire, 1641’, in Cogswell, Thomas, Cust, Richard and Lake, Peter (eds), Politics, religion and popularity: early Stuart essays in honour of Conrad Russell, Cambridge 2002, 259–89Google Scholar; Cust, Richard and Lake, Peter, Gentry culture and confessional politics on the eve of civil war: Cheshire, c. 1625–1642, forthcoming, chs v–viGoogle Scholar; Walter, John, ‘Confessional politics in pre-civil war Essex: prayer books, profanations and petitions’, HJ xliv (2001), 677–701 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 127–32, and Prayer book and people, 100.

⁸ Idem, Prayer book and people, 101–2, and ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 126, 162 (petitions from Somerset and Gloucestershire).

⁹ Idem, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 127–32 (Rutland). For those acknowledging the need for parliamentary reform see pp. 126 (Somerset), 150 (Cornwall), 148–9 (Herefordshire), 153 (London), 162 (Gloucs). See also Prayer book and people, 108–13.

¹⁰ Nalson, J., An impartial collection of the great affairs of state, London 1682 (Wing N.106, N.107), ii. 656 Google Scholar; SCLA, DR 98/1652/17; BL, ms Egerton 2986, fos 81, 86; Page, W. H. (ed.), The Victoria County History of Rutland, London 1908, i. 189–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹¹ Clergy of the Church of England Database, Henry Allen (ID:137491), http://theclergydatabase.org.uk/, accessed 24 Nov. 2015; Hill, J. W. F., ‘The royalist clergy of Lincolnshire’, Lincolnshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Reports and Papers n.s. (1940), 77–85 Google Scholar; SCLA, DR 98/1652/17.

¹² Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 127.

¹³ Ibid. 128.

¹⁴ For similar references to the Apostolic origins of the role of bishops and their historic position in the Church see ibid. 116 (Cheshire), 118 (University of Oxford), 126 (Somerset), 162 (Gloucestershire).

¹⁵ Ibid. 122–5; Russell, Conrad, Parliaments and English politics, 1621–1629, Oxford 1979, 30–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brian Quintrell, ‘Henry Montagu, first earl of Manchester, c. 1564–1642’, ODNB.

¹⁶ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 128.

¹⁷ SCLA, DR 98/1652/14, 15, 16, 17.

¹⁸ ms Egerton 2986, fo. 253; SCLA, DR 98/1652/14, 16.

¹⁹ Heath was a relative newcomer to the county, settling there in 1631 after his marriage to a local heiress, Lucy Croke. In July 1639, aged twenty-six, he was appointed to the Rutland commission of the peace, at the behest of Mr Justice Berkeley who at the time was riding the midland assize circuit alongside his father. Edward's papers suggest that by early 1640 he was an active presence on the bench, organising, amongst other things, early subscription to the Protestation in May and June 1641: Kopperman, P. E., Sir Robert Heath, 1575–1649: window on an age, London 1989, 62–71, 281Google Scholar; ms Egerton 2986, fos 84, 85, 133–9. Heath's papers are divided between four collections: ms Egerton 2986; SCLA, DR 98/1652; NCRO, NPL; and Sir Robert Heath papers, 1614–69, University of Illinois Rare Books and Manuscript Library.

²⁰ Cust, Richard, ‘Charles i and a draft declaration for the 1628 Parliament’, Historical Research lxiii (1990), 145–6Google Scholar, and Charles I, 91–2, 112–13; Kopperman, Sir Robert Heath, 194–9.

²¹ Hine, R. L., The cream of curiosity, London 1920, 66–7, 71Google Scholar.

²² NCRO, NPL 1341. The practice of baptising with the cross was, of course, not an innovation per se. The fact that Parsey regarded it as such, and presumed that Heath would share his disapproval, further underlines the latter's uncompromisingly Calvinist instincts.

²³ SCLA, DR 98/1652/15, 14.

²⁴ For Ussher and ‘primitive episcopacy’ see Ford, Alan, James Ussher: theology, history and politics in early-modern Ireland and England, Oxford 2007, 236–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁵ ms Egerton 2986, fo. 253.

²⁶ Stranks, C. J., The life and writings of Jeremy Taylor, London 1952, 44–50 Google Scholar; John Spurr, ‘Jeremy Taylor, bapt.1613, d.1667’, ODNB.

²⁷ Anthony Milton, ‘Edward Martin, d.1662’, ODNB; John Fielding, ‘Conformists, Puritans and the church courts: the diocese of Peterborough, 1603–1642’, unpubl. PhD diss. Birmingham 1989, 118–20. These innovations are documented in the churchwardens’ accounts for Uppingham: LLRO, DE 1784/17.

²⁸ LLRO, DE 1784/17; Victoria County History Rutland, i.154; Fincham, Kenneth and Tyacke, Nicholas, Altars restored, Oxford 2007, 148–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²⁹ Proceedings in the opening session of the Long Parliament, ed. Jansson, M., Rochester, NY 2000, i. 408–9Google Scholar; ms Egerton 2986, fo. 131; Spurr, ‘Jeremy Taylor’.

³⁰ Jeremy Taylor, Of the sacred order and office of episcopacy by divine institution, apostolicall tradition & catholike practice, published by his Majestie's command, Oxford 1642 (Wing T.353); Milton, Anthony, Catholic and Reformed, Cambridge 1995, 491–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Anglicanism and royalism in the 1640s’, in Adamson, John (ed.), The English civil war: conflicts and contexts, 1640–1649, Basingstoke, 2009, 76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³¹ The most likely cue for Taylor to begin work on his treatise was the plethora of tracts for and against episcopacy in early 1641, prompted by the publication of Joseph Hall's An humble remonstrance to the high court of parliament, supporting the case for episcopacy (RSTC 12675), and Smectymnuus, Answer…, challenging it (Wing, H.378, H.378A): Gardiner, S. R., The history of England, 1603–1642, London 1883–4, xi. 389–94; x. 35–7Google Scholar; Webster, Tom, Godly clergy in early Stuart England, Cambridge 1997, 319–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³² Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 128; Taylor, Sacred order and offices, 8–9; Stranks, Jeremy Taylor, 56

³³ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 128–9; Taylor, Sacred order and offices, 11, 27, 67; Stranks, Jeremy Taylor, 56–7.

³⁴ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 129; Taylor, Sacred order and offices, 12–15, 164–9; Stranks, Jeremy Taylor, 56–7.

³⁵ Milton, Catholic and Reformed, 464–5, 470–5.

³⁶ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 129; Taylor, Sacred order and offices, 12–15, 23–4, 27, 164–6; Stranks, Jeremy Taylor, 57. In ‘considerations’ no. 9 the petition also picked up on the stance of St Jerome who was generally cited in support of the contention that bishops were of the same order as presbyters, the difference between them merely being one of degree: ‘Wee consider that Saint Hierome (pretended as the main enemy against Episcopacie) yet sayes, that bishops were constituted as an antidote and deletory to disprove the issues of schisme and that by Apostles who best knew the remedies’: Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 130. The conclusion to be drawn about the distinctions between bishops and presbyters was implicit here rather than explicit; but Taylor's view that, in fact, Jerome supported the idea of separate orders was spelt out more clearly in Sacred order and offices, 51–2, 119–20; Stranks, Jeremy Taylor, 58.

³⁷ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 129. The reference to confirmation as the sole preserve of bishops and to Paul's catechism was also picked up in Sacred order and offices, 28, 31–2, 35.

³⁸ See the petitions cited at n. 9 above.

³⁹ Milton, Catholic and Reformed, 461–6, 485–91.

⁴⁰ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 129, 131.

⁴¹ Milton, Catholic and Reformed, 491–2, and Taylor, Sacred order and offices, 192–7.

⁴² Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 130–1. For Taylor's views on the interdependence of episcopacy and monarchy see Sacred order and offices, ‘epistle dedicatory’ to Sir Christopher Hatton.

⁴³ Maltby, ‘Petitions for episcopacy’, 130–2. For these fears see also pp. 117 (Cheshire), 125 (Huntingdonshire), 137 (Kent), 153 (Bedfordshire).

⁴⁴ SCLA, DR 98/1652/16, 15.

⁴⁵ Ibid. 98/1652/17.

⁴⁶ Ibid. 98/1652/16.

⁴⁷ Ibid. 98/1652/14.

⁴⁸ ms Egerton 2986, fos 256–7.

⁴⁹ Ibid. fo. 255.

⁵⁰ A schedule with the heading ‘Tigh com Rutl.’ Tigh was the adjacent parish to Cottesmore: SCLA, DR 98/1652/14.

⁵¹ A collection of sundry petitions presented to the king's majestie as also to the two most honourable houses, now assembled in parliament, London 1642 (Thomason Tracts, E.150 [28]), 15–20 Google Scholar.

⁵² Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, 284. John Coke informed his father from the Commons in November 1641 that ‘All art is used to keepe petitions for Episcopacy from being presented to the House, such being prepared in many places’: HMC, The manuscripts of the Earl Cowper, K. G., preserved at Melourne Hall, Derbyshire, London 1888, ii. 295 Google Scholar. Robert Sutton succeeded in presenting a petition from Nottinghamshire to the Commons on 15 December, but this was laid aside and not read: Russell, Fall of the British monarchies, 437 and n.

⁵³ Maltby, Prayer book and people, appendix 1, at pp. 238–47.

⁵⁴ S. L. Sadler, ‘Baptist Noel, 3rd Viscount Campden, bapt.1611, d.1682’, ODNB; Cust, Charles I and the aristocracy, appendix 2; Keeler, The Long Parliament, 294–5.

⁵⁵ Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, chs iii, ix; Lake, ‘Puritans, popularity and petitions’, 259–89; Cust and Lake, Gentry culture; Morrill, J. S., ‘The religious context of the English Civil War’, in Morrill, John, The nature of the English revolution, Harlow 1993, 45–68 Google Scholar; Russell, Fall of the British monarchies, 370–2, 402–6, 437; Eales, J. E., Puritans and Roundheads, Cambridge 1990, chs v, viGoogle Scholar; Walter, ‘Prayer books, profanations and petitions’, 677–701.

⁵⁶ Holmes, Clive, Seventeenth century Lincolnshire, Lincoln 1980, 144 Google Scholar; Hill, ‘Royalist clergy in Lincolnshire’, 79, 84–5.

⁵⁷ Keeler, The Long Parliament, 60; Cust, Richard, ‘“Patriots” and “popular” spirits: narratives of conflict in early Stuart politics’, in Tyacke, Nicholas (ed.), The English revolution c.1590–1720, Manchester 2007, 43–9Google Scholar; Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, 113–14, 290–1; ms Egerton 2986, fos 134–9.

⁵⁸ A copie of the petition presented to the king's majestie by… the county of Rutland… (1642) (Thomason Tracts, 190.g.13 [363]).

⁵⁹ See the works cited at n. 5 above.

⁶⁰ Lake, ‘Puritans, popularity and petitions’, 259–89; Cust and Lake, Gentry culture, chs v–vi; Walter, ‘Prayer books, profanations and petitions’, 677–701; Braddick, Michael, ‘Prayer Book and protestation: anti-popery, anti-Puritanism and the outbreak of the English civil war’, in Prior, Charles and Burgess, Glenn (eds), England's wars of religion revisited, Farnham 2011, 125–46Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Lake, ‘Puritans, popularity and petitions’, 274–5. Sharp practice was also apparent elsewhere with complaints that signatories were being presented with anodyne accounts of what was in the petitions and that strong-arm tactics were used to intimidate individuals into signing: Maltby, Prayer book and people, 95–8; Fletcher, Outbreak of the civil war, 289–90; Cressy, David, England on edge: crisis and revolution, 1640–1642, Oxford 2006, 274–5Google Scholar.

⁶² Lake, ‘Puritans, popularity and petitions’, 277–82.

⁶³ Cust and Lake, Gentry culture, chs v–vi.

⁶⁴ Walter, ‘Prayer books, profanations and petitions’, 685–91, 699–701.

⁶⁵ Ibid. 700; Braddick, ‘Prayer Book and protestation’, 134–6.

⁶⁶ Cust and Lake, Gentry culture, chs v–vi.

⁶⁷ Adamson, John, The noble revolt: the overthrow of Charles I, London 2007, 358–61, 461, 671 n.107Google Scholar; Russell, Fall of the British monarchies, 471, 512; Quintrell, ‘Henry Montagu’.

⁶⁸ Hine, The cream of curiosity, 71–2.

⁶⁹ Cressy, England on edge, 255–78.

⁷⁰ Hopper, Andrew, ‘The Wortley Park poachers and the outbreak of the English Civil War’, Northern History xliv (2007), 105–7Google Scholar; Wortley, Sir Francis, Eleutherosis tes aletheias: truth asserted by the doctrine and practice of the Apostles, London 1641 (Wing W.3637)Google Scholar; Milton, Anthony, Laudian and royalist polemic in seventeenth-century England, Manchester 2007, 126 Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Lake, ‘Puritans, petitions and popularity’, 276.

⁷² Fielding, ‘Puritans and conformists’, 47; The diary of Robert Woodford, 1637–1641, ed. Fielding, John (Camden 5th ser. xlii, 2012), 181–2, 238–9Google Scholar.

⁷³ On Hausted and Hatton's support for his views see Lake, Peter and Stephens, Isaac, Scandal and religious identity in early Stuart England: a Northamptonshire maid's tragedy, Woodbridge 2015, 85–96 Google Scholar; Robert Weaver, ‘Sir Christopher Hatton: religion, antiquarianism and allegiance in pre-civil war England’, unpubl. ma diss. Birmingham 2015; and Wainwright, Jonathan, Musical patronage in seventeenth century England: Christopher, first Baron Hatton (1605–1670), Aldershot 1997, 6–16 Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ NCRO, ms Finch Hatton 2609; Sir Christopher Hatton's book of seals, ed. Lloyd, L. C. and Stenton, D. M., Oxford 1950, pp. xlvii–xlix, liii, 32, 36Google Scholar. I am grateful to Robert Weaver for these references and for many discussions about Hatton.

⁷⁵ Milton, ‘Anglicanism and royalism’, 62–5, 74, 76.