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The Results of the Rye House Plot and their Influence upon the Revolution of 1688

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

For a detailed account of the activity known as the Rye House Plot the evidence available is inadequate, and the aura of mystery which surrounded the plot at its discovery on 12 June 1683 has never been wholly dispelled since. Its importance, however, lies less in the details of what it actually was than in what Charles II and his government asserted it to be, and in the use to which they put it to destroy the influence of the Whigs. It was through popular reaction to this use of it that the plot exerted the influence it did upon the revolution of 1688.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1951

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References

page 91 note 1 For accounts of this, see Sprat, T., A True Account and Declaration of the Horrid Conspiracy against the late King (1685)Google Scholar, and its appendix: Copies of the Informations and Original Papers relating to the Proof of the Horrid Conspiracy against the late King (1685), which were printed, with omissions, from the manuscript ‘Copies of the Informations’ in State Papers Dom., Car. II, 426.

page 91 note 2 Unprinted part of John Rumsey's information of 25 June 1683.

page 92 note 1 For accounts of the activity of the Whig leaders, in addition to Copies of the Informations, see The Speech of the late Lord Russel to the Sheriffs (1683), reprinted in State Trials, ed. W. Cobbett, ix. 685–95; The Apology of Algernon Sydney in the day of his death, reprinted ibid., cols. 916–50; Nathaniel Wade's ‘Confession’ in Brit. Mus., MS. Harleian 6845, fos. 266–72; Robert Ferguson's ‘Concerning the Rye House Business’ in S. P. Dom., Jas. II, i, reprinted in J. Ferguson, Robert Ferguson the Plotter (Edinburgh, 1887), pp. 409–37; Grey, Forde Lord, Secret History of the Rye House Plot and of Monmouth's Rebellion (1754)Google Scholar.

page 92 note 2 Burnet, G., History of My Own Time, ed. Airy, O., ii. 355–6Google Scholar; State Trials, ix. 693.

page 93 note 1 Nothing is said about actual preparations by either Howard or Grey, both of whom later gave evidence against their associates and neither of whom would have concealed a point, the discovery of which would have been so likely to earn them official favour.

page 93 note 2 For the Green Ribbon Club, see Sitwell, G. R., Letters of the Sitwells and Sacheverells (Scarborough, 19001901)Google Scholar.

page 93 note 3 At least four of the minor plotters, West, Ayloffe, Walcot, and Wade, were interested in emigration to Carolina (Brit. Mus., MS. Harleian 6845, fo. 266 v.).

page 93 note 4 Ibid., fo. 268; Copies of the Informations, p. 4.

page 93 note 5 The Tryal…of William Lord Russell (1683), reprinted in State Trials, ix. 577–668; The Arraignment, Tryal & Condemnation of Algernon Sidney (1684), reprinted ibid., cols. 817–903.

page 93 note 6 Ibid., cols. 595, 633.

page 94 note 1 Hist. MSS. Comm., Rep. XII, House of Lords Manuscripts 1689–1690 (1889), p. 298.

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page 95 note 4 I. e., those parts of the manuscript ‘Copies of the Informations’ which were omitted from the printed version.

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page 98 note 5 Mortice MS. P., p. 395.

page 99 note 1 Own Time, ii. 445–7.

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page 102 note 1 7–8 Wm. III, c. 3, §§ 2 and 4. The witnesses had to be to the same overt act, or to two overt acts in the same kind of treason.

page 102 note 2 Ibid., §§ 1 and 7.

page 102 note 3 12–13 Wm. III, c. 2, § 3.

page 102 note 4 Bodleian MS. Aubrey 12, fo. 271 r.

page 102 note 5 For these addresses, see the Gazette, especially nos. 1839–68 (2 July–15 October 1683).

page 102 note 6 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 29582, fo. 43 r. Fell to Hatton, 9 August 1683.

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page 104 note 2 So persistent were the rumours of a Parliament that in May 1684 circular letters denying them were sent to the lords-lieutenant (Cal. S. P. Dom., May 1684–February 1685, pp. 22, 23, 39).

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page 104 note 7 Brit. Mus., Add. MS. 32518, fo. 124 r.

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page 105 note 4 Fountainhall, , Historical Observes, p. 207Google Scholar.

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page 106 note 2 Ibid., p. 35.

page 106 note 3 Cal. S. P. Dom., May 1684–February 1685, pp. 187–8; Kitchin, G., Sir Roger L'Estrange (1913), pp. 335–6Google Scholar.

page 106 note 4 Observator, ii. nos. 158–60.

page 106 note 5 Foxcroft, , Halifax, ii. 273–4Google Scholar.

page 107 note 1 Character of a Trimmer, ibid., p. 286.

page 107 note 2 Bodleian MS. Ballard 12, fo. 7 r.

page 108 note 1 Hist. MSS. Comm., Ormonde Manuscripts, N.S., iv. 513; Burnet, , Own Time, ii. 365–6Google Scholar. Airy's note that Burnet is wrong in stating this is itself wrong.

page 108 note 2 In May, March, April-May, and June 1689 respectively. Lords Journals, xiv. 142, 151, 189, 209, 210, 237, 252.