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Sir Peter Pett, Sceptical Toryism and the Science of Toleration in the 1680s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Mark Goldie
Mark Goldie*
Affiliation:
Churchill College, Cambridge
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Extract

In the charged atmosphere of religious xenophobia in England in the 1680s it was an unusual person who could survey the state of Christendom and the zealotry of his fellow countrymen with a detached eye. Such a one was Sir Peter Pett, ‘a virtuoso, and a great scholar, and Fellow of the Royal Society’. His vast and inchoate book, The Happy Future State of England, is eirenic, Erastian and Hobbesian in outlook. It is also an exercise in the fledgling science of ‘political arithmetic’. With the panoply of scientific reasoning it predicted the imminence of a secular age in which the knot of politics and religion would be untied. This paper will first sketch the background to this book, then examine its account of the state of Catholicism and dissent, and lastly appraise its claim that ‘a science of politics’ could provide a solvent of religious persecution.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 21: Persecution and Toleration , 1984 , pp. 247 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1984

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References

1 Dunton, J., Life and Errors (London 1818) I, p 178 Google Scholar; see pp xvii-xviii, 194.

2 [The] H[appy] F[uture] S[tate of England] (London 1688) p 185. Signature numbers will refer to the unpaginated preface written in 1685, page numbers to the main text written in 1681. 1 have used one of the two Cambridge University Library copies (shelf mark R.2.27): the book is extant in a variety of bibliographic states. Two scholars have previously discussed aspects of Pett’s work and I am indebted to them. Jacob, [J. R.], ‘Restoration, Reformation [and the origins of the Royal Society]’, History of Science 13 (1975)Google Scholar; Jacob, , ‘Restoration ideologies [and the Royal Society]’, History of Science 18 (1980)Google Scholar; Whiteman, [A.], ‘The census that never was: [a problem in authorship and dating]’ in Statesmen, Scholars and Merchants, eds Whiteman, A., Bromley, J. S., and Dickson, P. G. M. (Oxford 1973) pp 1–13.Google Scholar

3 Reliquiae Baxterianae (London 1696) pp 196–7.

4 Denis Granville to Archbishop Sancroft: Bodl[eian Library], MS Rawlinson, d. 103, fos 2–6.

5 Mercurius Tibicus 24 March 1680. I owe this reference to Tim Harris.

6 Halifax, , Complete Works ed Kenyon, J. P. (Harmondsworth 1969) pp 70–4 Google Scholar; (the ‘Scotch Apostles’ are the presbyterians and by implication the dissenters generally). See Foxcroft, H. C., The Life and Letters of Sir George Sauile, Bart, First Marquis of Halifax (London 1898)Google Scholar; Kenyon, J. P., Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland (London 1958) ch 3Google Scholar.

7 Coward, B., The Stuart Age (London 1980) p 272 Google Scholar, out of Miller, [J.], Popery and Politics [in England, 1660–1688] (Cambridge 1973) p 16.Google Scholar

8 Great News from Poland (London 1683) p 1.

9 [Earl of] Anglesey, Memoirs, ed P. Pett (London 1693) sigs A2r, A8r; [A.] Wood, Athenae Oxoniensis, ed P. Bliss (London 1817) IV p 185; Ellis Correspondence, ed G. Ellis (London 1829) I pp 95–6.

10 The Earl of Anglesey’s State of the Government and Kingdom (London 1694); Anglesey, Memoirs. See Greene, D. G., ‘Arthur Annesley, First Earl of Anglesey, 1614–86’ (unpub PhD thesis, Chicago 1972)Google Scholar.

11 The phrase draws a parallel with Duncan Forbes’s notion of the sceptical Whiggism of David Hume and Adam Smith, who were Whig in politics but not given to the conventional shibboleths of Whig ideology. See, e.g. his ‘Sceptical whiggism, commerce and liberty’ in Essays on Adam Smith, eds A. J. Skinner and T. Wilson (London 1975).

12 For these and other biographical details see: DNB; Wood, Athenae Oxoniensis, IV pp 576–80; Pett’s Memoir of Robert Boyle: B[ritish] L[ibrary] Add MS 4229, fols 33–48; Pett’s letters: BL, Add MSS 17017, fol 96; 28015, fol 312; 28053, fols 390–1; Bodl MS Ballard 11, fols 28–30, 211–12; and in The Rawdon Papers ed E. Berwick (London 1819) pp 136–66. See also: Barlow, [T.], [The Genuine] Remains, ed P. Pett (London 1693)Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers: Ireland: 1663–5 and 1666-9; The Petty-Southwell Correspondence, ed Marquis of Lansdowne (London 1928) passim; Leslie, C., An Answer to a Book Entitled The History of the Protestants in Ireland (London 1692)Google Scholar Appx pp 31–6; Webster, [C], The Great Instauration (London 1975) p 167 Google Scholar and passim; Allen, D., ‘The political clubs of Restoration London’, Historical Journal 19 (1976) pp 574–8 Google Scholar; and n 34 below.

13 The following summary of the bibliographical history of the HFS has been pieced together from various copies, and from: Anglesey, Memoirs; BL Add MS 28053, fols 390–1; Bodl MS Ballard 11, fols 211–12.

14 ‘Jotham of ready wit and pregnant thought, / Indew’d by nature, and by learning taught / To move Assemblies, who but onely try’d / The worse awhile, then chose the better side; / Nor chose alone, but turn’d the balance too; / So much the weight of one brave man can doe.’: Dryden, Absolom and Achitophel (London 1681) pp 27–8; HFS p 215; 2nd pag[ination] p 57.

15 The new title was ‘A discourse of the growth of England in populousness and trade since the Reformation. Of the clerical revenue … Of the number of people of England … and political observations thereupon. Of the necessity of future public taxes … Of the advancement of the linen manufacture…’.

16 HFS ep ded; sigs Alv-A2v; pp 1, 19, 150, 153, 199, 229, 285.

17 Ibid sigs C2r, Flr, Q2v; p 173.

18 Ibid ep ded; sig Clr; p 285.

19 Ibid sigs Alv-A2r; pp 133–9, 326, 331, 357, 361; 2nd pag p 16; Halifax, Complete Works p 74. See also Barlow, Remains p 380.

20 HFS sigs A2r-v, Blr-v, C2r, Klv-K2v; pp 9–11, 16–17, 19–20, 131, 168–72, 283, 317; 2nd pag p 46.

21 Ibid ep ded; sigs Flr-Hlr; pp 275, 292, 325, 363; Anglesey, Memoirs pp 274–97.

22 HFS ep ded; sigs Blv-B2r, 11r-12r, O2v, Slv; pp 15, 42–53. The Provincial Letters were published in English translation in 1658 under the title The Mystery of Jesuitism. Innocent XI was beatified in 1956; the process of canonization was earlier halted in the 1740s because of French pressure and suspicions of Jansenism. The Jesuits were (temporarily) suppressed in 1773.

23 HFS p 129.

24 Ibid sig E2r; pp 70, 73, 206–9, 222, 232, 236, 242, 249; see Barlow, Remains pp 302–11. Anglesey, Memoirs, has much on French Catholicism, e.g. pp 278–81. On Boccalini see Yates, F., The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London 1972) pp 133–6 Google Scholar; on the circle of De Thou and Peiresc see Sharpe, K., Sir Robert Cotton, 1586–1631 (Oxford 1979 Google Scholar) pp 95ff.

25 HFS sigs B2v, Dlr;pp 21, 23,24, 29, 37,57, 66–73, 76, 133, 243, 314; 2nd pag pp 9, 13, 22, 31, 37.

26 Ibid pp 57, 66–76, 243, 251, 272. See Skinner, Q., ‘Thomas Hobbes and the nature of the early Royal Society’, Historical Journal 12 (1969)Google Scholar.

27 HFS sigs D1v-D2r, F2r, Klv; pp 66, 73–4, 130–2, 140–1, 185, 237, 243, 251, 272, 320; Glanvill, , The Zealous and Impartial Protestant (London 1681) pp 45–56 Google Scholar; Jacob, , ‘Restoration, Reformation’Google Scholar, passim; Cope, J. I., Joseph Glanvill, Anglican Apologist (St Louis 1956)Google Scholar; on Alsted see Webster, Great Instauration pp 22–3.

28 HFS sigs Blv, D2r-v, E2v, Hlr, I2v-K2v; pp 29, 133–7, 280–1.

29 I am indebted to John Marshall’s forthcoming article, ‘The ecclesiology of the latitude-men, 1660–89: Stillingfleet, Tillotson and Hobbism’.

30 HFS pp 29, 138; 2nd pag pp 9, 13. See Pett’s Memoir of Boyle: BL Add MS 4229, fos 33–48; Jacob, ‘Restoration, Reformation’, pp 157–61; Jacob, J. R., Robert Boyle and the English Revolution (New York 1977) pp 134–54 Google Scholar; Turnbull, G. H., Hartlib, Dury and Comenius (Liverpool 1947) pp 292, 316 Google Scholar; The Library of John Locke, eds J. Harrison and P. Laslett (Oxford 1965) no 2820. On the religious outlook of the early Royal Society generally see Shapiro, B. J., ‘Latitudinarianism and science in seventeenth century England’, PP 40 (1968)Google Scholar, and the many writings of Margaret and James Jacob, esp. ‘The Anglican origins of modern science: the metaphysical foundations of the Whig constitution’, Isis 71 (1980).

31 HFS sig Elr-v; pp 68, 241–3; Anglesey, Memoirs p 161.

32 HFS sig Elr-v; pp 168, 171, 241–3; Hobbes, T., An Historical Narration Concerning Heresy (London 1680)Google Scholar; Brougham, H., Reflections on a Late Book Entituled The Genuine Remains of Dr Thomas Barlow (London 1694) pp 10–11 Google Scholar. Pett’s HFS has been used as evidence for Biddle’s Socinian circle in the 1650s: Toulmin, J., A Review … of… John Biddle (London 1791) p 64 Google Scholar; s Wallace, R., Antitrinitarian Biography (London 1850) III pp 186–7 Google Scholar; Wilbur, E. M., A History of Unitarianism (Harvard 1952) p 200 Google Scholar. Pett’s catholicity did not stop with the Unitarians. In 1680 he proposed a scheme to regularise the legal position of the Jews by enlarging their immunities and establishing them in a ghetto (as some Jews themselves desired). Pett was to be Justiciar of the Jews, to manage their relations with the king and farm their taxes. Anglesey raised the matter with the king, but Charles had more pressing matters on his mind. See HFS 2nd pag p 46; Wolf, L., ‘Status of the Jews in England after resettlement’, Jewish Historical Society of England Transactions 1899–1901 (London 1903) pp 192–3.Google Scholar

33 The Petty Papers, ed Marquis of Lansdowne (London 1927) I pp 130–2.

34 Among this circle should also be included Andrew Yarranton, Thomas Sheridan and the Catholic Robert Plot. See esp. Jacob, , ‘Restoration ideologies’. Also: Hale, An Account (London 1691)Google Scholar; Hunter, M., Science and Society in Restoration England (Cambridge 1981) ch 5Google Scholar; Pepys, [S.], The Tangier Papers, ed Chappell, E. (London 1935)Google Scholar passim; Pepys, [S.], Naval Minutes, ed Tanner, J. R. (London 1926)Google Scholar passim; Fitzmaurice, E., The Life of Sir William Petty, 1623–87 (London 1895) ch 9.Google Scholar

35 Ibid p 158; [The] Economic Writings of [Sir William] Petty, ed C. H. Hull (Cambridge 1899) I p 240.

36 The term is Sir George Clark’s: Science and Social Welfare in the Age of Newton (Oxford 1949) p 131; see ch 5 generally.

37 HFS ep ded; pp 91, 123; Barlow, Remains sig A4r.

38 HFS pp 112,142-3,149,155,157,189, 248–9; Barlow, Remains p 273; Pepys, Naval Minutes I p 115; Carte, T., The Life of James, Duke of Ormond (Oxford 1851) pp 283–4 Google Scholar. HFS has been used as evidence in the lengthy debate over Graunt’s authorship of the Observations: see e.g. Glass, D. V. and Eversley, D. E. C., Population in History (London 1965) pp 159 seqGoogle Scholar; Matsukawa, S., ‘Origins and significance of political arithmetic’, Annals of the Hitotsubashi Academy 6 (1955)Google Scholar.

39 HFS sigs A2r, G2r, Olr; pp 106, 122, 130, 166, 186, 192–3, 196, 245; Barlow, Remains p 321; Bodl MS Wood F43, fol 217; Economic Writings of Petty, I pp xxx, 100, 124, 237; Petty Papers I pp xxiii, 116–43, 172–5, 181–4, 193–8, 253–65, 272–3; II, 47–58, 201, 253–65; The Petty-Southwell Correspondence pp 60–1, 176.

40 HFS sigs N2v, Olr; pp 112, 116.

41 Ibid sig Olr; pp 113–9; BL Add MS 28053, fol 390; Hale, An Account pp xl-xli; Barlow, Remains pp 321–3. See esp. Whiteman, ‘The census that never was’. Compare: Holmes, G. S., ‘Gregory King and the social structure of pre-industrial England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 27 (1977) pp 49–53.Google Scholar

42 HFS pp 124–30, 186, 192–6, 252–3; see The Petty Papers II pp 56–7.

43 HFS sigs Dlv-D2r;pp 97, 104, 128–9, 140–1, 148–9,199; Barlow, Remains pp 316, 320–1; Palmer, R., Lord Castlemaine, Compendium (London 1679)Google Scholar; Miller, , Popery and Politics pp 9–11 Google Scholar; Glanvill, , The Zealous and Impartial Protestant pp 45–9 Google Scholar; Economic Writings of Petty I p xxx.

44 HFS sig D2r.

45 Ibid pp 77–81, 87, 92–5, 101, 108–11, 128–9.

46 Ibid pp 94–5, 100–2. See Houghton, J., A Collection of Letters for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade (London 1681-83)Google Scholar; Thirsk, J., ‘Seventeenth century agriculture and social change’ in Land, Church and People, Agricultural History Review Supplemented Thirsk, J. (London 1970) pp 162–4, 171Google Scholar.

47 See Bossy, J., The English Catholic Community 1570–1850 (London 1975)Google Scholar.

48 HFS sig D2v; pp 88–9, 108–9. See pp 81–6, and Barlow, Remains pp 271–80 on clerical revenue. Also The Petty Papers II pp 227. In June 1683 Pepys reported that ‘About religion, Sir P. P. did quote somebody, I think Sir W. P., and he is of the same mind, that it will of religion shall be any profit to anybody.’: The Tangier Papers p 317.

49 HFS pp 64–6, 102, 199, 252.