,
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A LIFE
ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER,
FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.
16211683.
W. D. CHRISTIE, M.A.,
FORMERLY HER MAJESTY'S MINISTER TO THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATIO1
AND TO BRAZIL.
TWO VOLUMES.
vo,, ^ )(|
r
fortiori anb $J.efo JJ0rk :
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1871.
[The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.]
,/
A LIFE
OF
ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER,
FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.
VOL. I.
TO THE
(Sari of Slraftelrarg, |t.<S,
THIS LIFE OP HIS
CELEBRATED AND MUCH MALIGNED ANCESTOR
|s Inscribed,
IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OP
AID KINDLY GIVEN FOR THE WORK,
AND AS A
MARK OF PERSONAL RESPECT.
a 2
PREFACE.
I PUBLISHED, some twelve years ago, a volume of papers
illustrating Shaftesbury's Life to the Eestoration, then
intending to make a second similar volume with the
papers which I had collected for the remaining and
more important portion of his life. Several causes
delayed the prosecution of the second volume ; and I
ultimately judged it better to relinquish it, and to
prepare from the materials which I had acquired a
connected biography of Shaftesbury. The first volume
of this work contains, either incorporated into the nar-
rative or inserted in the Appendices, all the important
materials of the volume of 1859. 1 The remainder of
this work, after Chapter VIII. of the first volume, is
entirely new.
The original materials for this Life of Shaftesbury
have been chiefly derived from the following sources :
1. The papers preserved at St. Giles's, to which the pre-
sent Lord Shaftesbury has given me access. 2. The
Locke papers in possession of the Earl of Lovelace.
1 " Memoirs, Letters, and Speeches of A. A. Cooper, first Earl of
Shaftesbury, Lord Chancellor, with other Papers illustrating his Life.
Edited by "W. D. Christie." London, 1859.
-X PREFACE.
3. The papers of Mr. Thynne, afterwards Viscount
Weymouth, nephew of Shaftesbury's first wife and of
Sir William and Henry Coventry, and cousin of Lord
Halifax, which are at the Marquis of Bath's seat at
Longleat. 4. The Archives of the French Foreign
Office. 5. The Domestic Papers of Charles the Second's
Reign, in our State Paper Office.
I have also found much material, hitherto unworked
for the study of Shaftesbury's character and career, in
the large collection of Diaries, Correspondence, and
Biographies of Shaftesbury's time published in the
present century. Truth is gleaned, and new light
obtained, from casual notices in such works as the
Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn, the Eawdon Papers,
and the Diary and Correspondence of Henry Sidney,
afterwards Earl of Eomney.
The reader will see by my references in notes what
great aid I have derived from the valuable work of M.
Mignet, founded on the documents in the Archives of
the Foreign Office in Paris, on the negotiations relative
to the succession to the Spanish throne in the reign
of Louis XIV., beginning with the Pyrenean treaty and
Louis's marriage with Maria Theresa of Spain and end-
ing with the treaty of Mmeguen and the marriage of
Charles II. of Spain with Marie Louise, niece of Louis
XIV. 1 In this work M. Mignet has minutely traced the
1 " Negotiations relatives a la Succession d'Espagne sous Louis XIV. ;
ou Correspondances, Mehioires, et Actes diplomatiques concernant les
Pretentious et 1'Avenement de la Maison de Bourbon au Trone d'Espagne,
nccompagnes d'un Texte historique, et precedes d'une Introduction. Par
M. Mignet, Membre de 1'Institut, &c." 4 tomes 4to. Paris, 1835.
PREFACE. XI
negotiations and intrigues between England and France
from the beginning of the reign of Charles the Second
to the Peace of Mmeguen of 1678, and has given to the
world a large important addition to the valuable mate-
rials for the history of England in Charles the Second's
reign, which were published in the last century by Sir
-John Dalrymple. 1 It is surprising that this im-
portant work of M. Mignet has been so little noticed and
known in England. Its great size, and its being part
of a very voluminous series of government publica-
tions of original documents on the history of France,
have probably stood in the way of general circulation.
But there are few histories which equal this bulky
work in attractiveness, for the documents are arranged
with exquisite skill and connected by a commentary
displaying all the graces of M. Mignet's charming
style.
I may mention that I have myself carefully examined
in the French Foreign Office the despatches of the
French Ambassadors in England for the years 1659
to 1665, 1669, 1672 to 1674, and 1679 to 1681.
When engaged in examining them, in the year
1850, seeing the immense bulk of the correspondence,
and finding it impossible to attempt to go carefully
through the whole, I suggested to Lord Palmerston,
then at the head of the Foreign Office, that it might
1 " Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, from the'Dissolution of the
last Parliament of Charles II. until the sea-battle of La Hogue." 3 vols.
4to. 1771, 1773, 1788.
Xll PREFACE.
be worthy of the consideration of our Government to
incur a moderate expense for making complete copies,
if the French Government would permit it, which
might be rendered accessible in England to historical
inquirers, or eren published to the world. Lord Pal-
merston received the suggestion with his invariable
kindness, and acted with characteristic promptitude.
I was immediately authorized to incur a reasonable
expense on the public account, for the copies of the
despatches from England of the reign of Charles the
Second ; and Lord Normanby, then our Ambassador in
Paris, was instructed to apply for the permission of
the French Government. The permission was refused.
A distinction was made between allowing individuals
to make extracts by special permission and under the
supervision of the Director of the Office of Archives,
and allowing the publication of the whole series. I
hope that this decision may yet be reconsidered. These
despatches now belong to history. They are, alas ! the
best sources for the history of English government
during a period of humiliating memories, when the
English Sovereign, some English Ministers, and many
English legislators were the mendicant retainers of the
French King, and when the chief business of the
French Ambassador in London was the base one of
bribing members of Parliament to worry the King,
and bribing the King to resist the Parliament. Large
extracts from these despatches have been published by
Sir John Dalrymple, M. Mignet, and others ; and more
PREFACE. Xlll
are published in this work. No reserve can now lessen
the shame for both nations of the known flagrant
corruption by Louis- the Fourteenth of our King and
public men.
Some writers having cast discredit on Dalrymple's
valuable work, and doubted the truth of Barillon's
statements about money given to members of Parlia-
ment, 1 I wish to say that I have always found Dal-
rymple's extracts correct and fair, that I believe him
to be an honest, as he is unquestionably an able,
writer, and that I can see no good ground for dis-
believing Barillon's accounts of his disbursements,
which not only leave untouched but place in a strong
light the honour of Shaftesbury and Eussell, while
they prejudicially affect the reputation of Algernon
Sidney.
The want of a Life of the First Earl of Shaftesbury
has been often mentioned by historical writers.
Shaftesbury has been indeed unfortunate in his fame.
He lived in times of violent party fury ; and calumny,
which fiercely assailed him living, pursued him in his
grave, and still darkens his name. He lived in times
when the public had little or no authentic information
about the proceedings of members of the Government
or of Parliament, when errors in judging public men
were more easy than now, and when venal pam-
1 See the Introduction to the "Letters {of Lady .Russell," &c.,
8vo. 1801, and Lord John Russell's "Life of William Lord Russell,"
chap. x.
XIV PREFACE.
phleteers, poets, and playwriters drove a profitable
trade in libels on public men. The power of Dryden's
poetry eclipsed all the efforts of the inferior versifiers
who battled for Shaftesbury and the Whigs: and the
undying verse of the brilliant, but not conscientious,
author of " Absalom and Achitophel " and " The Medal "
has been a powerful cause of Shaftesbury's condemna-
tion by posterity. Another of several causes has been
the willing credulity of Hume, a prejudiced friend of the
Stuarts, whose attractively written History long swayed
the public mind. The falsehoods of detraction have
produced counter falsehoods of excuse and eulogy, and
the result has been a great agglomeration of errors. It
will be seen from the first piece in the Appendices of
this volume that Shaftesbury formed in old age the
design of placing his own story before posterity, and
vindicating his fame from the calumnies of contempo-
rary faction. He has left but a small fragment, which
terminates at the moment of his entrance into public
life, before attaining the age of twenty-one. 1 There is,
1 Mr. Martyn says that a work, of which the fragment in Appendix I.
of this first volume was only the beginning, was entrusted by Shaftes-
bury, when he fled to Holland, to the care of Locke, who, after
Shaftesbury's death and Algernon Sidney's execution, burnt it from
fear of the Court. (Life, i. pp. 3, 10.) He gives no aiithority for these
statements, and I am not aware of any. There is no reference to this
story in any Life of Locke, nor in any of his published correspondence,
nor in his letters existing at St. Giles's (among which, besides many to
the grandson, the author of the "Characteristics," are some written
shortly after Shaftesbury's death to his widow and his son), nor in any
of the Shaftesbury papers, nor in the Locke papers which I have
examined at the Earl of Lovelace's. Nor is there much reason to believe
that Shaftesbury had regularly composed this work beyond where the
fragment abruptly terminates. Itj is possible that the two short
passages referring to events in 1640 (see pp. 35-6 of this volume),
PREFACE. XV
I think, no sufficient authority for the story of his
Memoirs having been burnt by Locke. But there is
no doubt that Shaftesbury's distinguished grandson, the
author of the " Characteristics," cherished the hope that
his illustrious friend and tutor, the intimate friend of
Shaftesbury in his later life, would write a biography
of his departed patron. There can be no doubt that
Locke's powers of analysis, knowledge of human nature,
and zeal for truth, applied to the portrayal of Shaftes-
bury's character, which he had had great opportunities
of studying, and to the history of his life and times of
which he had personal knowledge, would have pro-
duced a most excellent work. Boswell records a dictum
of Dr. Johnson : " They only who live with a man* can
write his Life with any genuine exactness and discrimi-
nation, and few people who have lived with a man
know what to remark about him." Locke would have
known what to remark. When Locke died, leaving
only a small collection of crude materials, just enough
to show that he had meditated a biography, there came
for a moment a new gleam of hope to the grandson,
piously attached to Shaftesbury's memory, that the
work which Locke had failed to execute might be
and the fragment of a narrative composed by Shaftesbury of events
shortly before the Eestoration, printed in Chapter VII., may have been
intended for a continuation of the Autobiography ; but I am inclined
to believe that the short narrative of events between Richard Crom-
well's fall and the Restoration was composed about the time of the
Restoration. The paper headed " The Present State, of the Kingdom
at the Opening of the Parliament, March 1679," printed in the second
volume, in Chapter XVI., may have been a part of Shaftesbury's Auto-
biography, but it is quite as likely to be a distinct memorandum.
XVI PREFACE.
undertaken by his distinguished nephew and exe-
cutor, the future Lord Chancellor King. But here
again came disappointment.
The fourth Earl of Shaftesbury, the son of the author
of the "Characteristics," who was born in 1711 and
succeeded to the title in infancy in 1713, was very
anxious, on reaching manhood, for a biography of his
great ancestor and an effective vindication of his fame;
and, shortly after he became of age, he placed all
the materials in his possession at the disposal for
this purpose of Mr. Benjamin Martyn, who had
been recommended to him as competent for the
task. Mr. Martyn was the author of a successful tra-
gedy, called " Timoleon," now forgotten, and a friend
of Dr. Birch, the well-known literary and historical in-
quirer of the last century. He appears to have begun
the work in the year 1734, and he was employed
upon it for some years. The fourth Earl and other
members of the family took an active interest in it;
and there are many judicious notes by the fourth
Earl preserved among Lord Shaftesbury's papers. Mr.
Martyn's work, when completed, did not satisfy his
patron. It is evident that Martyn had no knowledge
of history, and no capacity for writing such a work. In
the year 1766 the work was consigned by the fourth
Earl to Dr. Sharpe, Master of the Temple, for improve-
ment. The fourth Earl of Shaftesbury died in 1771 ;
his son then placed the manuscript in the hands of Dr.
Kippis, the editor of the Biographia Britannica. Dr.
PREFACE. XVU
Kippis appears to have made many suggestions. The
work was then printed. No cobbling could make a
good book of a bad one ; and the fifth Earl was justly
dissatisfied with the performance, when in print. It
is stated that the whole impression was destroyed with
the exception of two copies. One copy exists at St.
Giles's; another, having found its way into the hands
of Mr. Bentley, the publisher, was edited in 1836 by
Mr. George Wingrove Cooke, the author of the "History
of Party." 1 Mr. Cooke erred greatly in his estimate of
the value of the work which he edited, and in his own
notes and additions to the narrative increased the stock
.of errors about Shaftesbury.
One serious mistake made by Mr. Wingrove Cooke
is in ascribing to Shaftesbury the authorship of a
Letter on Toleration, which is among the papers at
St. Giles's, and which he considers "an early sketch,
from which Locke's Essay upon the same subject was
afterwards filled up." Locke is undoubtedly the author
of the manuscript at St. Giles's.
I stated, perhaps too strongly, in the notes to the
volume which I published in 1859, an opinion of the
improbability of Locke's being the author of the small
fragment of a biography, which has been printed in
Locke's works with the title " Memoirs relating to the
i " The Life of the First Earl of Shaftesbury, from original documens
in the possession of the family, by Mr. B. Martyn and Dr. Kippis,
now first published. Edited by G. "Wingrove Cooke, Esq., author of
'Memoirs of Lord Bolingbroke,'" 2 vols., 1836. Dr. Kippis's con-
nexion with the work does not justify his being named as joint
author.
XV111 PREFACE.
Life of Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury." 1 There are some
flagrant inaccuracies in that fragment for the period of
the Civil War. The manuscript of the fragment, which
is at St. Giles's, is in Locke's handwriting. Practically
it is for the most part a series of statements relative to
Shaftesbury's early life, of which Locke himself knew
nothing, and which he probably jotted down from
Stringer's information, as so much raw material to be
afterwards worked upon ; and Stringer, though a per-
fectly respectable man, is inaccurate, confused, and
injudicious. It contains a few statements of opinions
of Shaftesbury, which Locke learnt directly from his
conversations. In all else, I remain of opinion that
Locke is not to be held responsible for the Memoir,
found in his own handwriting, beyond his having
written out for future study and use information
given him by another or others.
I have not been able to find among Lord Shaftes-
bury's papers the rest, and doubtless the larger portion,
of the Memoir of Shaftesbury by Stringer, of which a
fragment for the years 1672 and 1673 is printed at
the end of the second volume. It is clear that Martyn
saw a longer Memoir, and took much from it for both
the earlier and later parts of Shaftesbury's life. It
would have been satisfactory to see the remainder of
Stringer's Memoir, as no reliance can be placed on
Martyn's judgment, and it may have been sometimes
inaccurately represented by Martyn, or it may have
1 Locke's Works, vol. ix., p. 266, 3d edition, 1812.
PREFACE. Xix
contained information which he has omitted to extract,
But, on the other hand, it is clear that Stringer's accu-
racy is not to be relied on, and that many of Martyn's
errors are derived from Stringer. Of Shaftesbury's
early life Stringer would have known nothing of his
own knowledge. In the years 1672 and 1673, for
which Stringer's Memoir is before us, he was in close
connexion with Shaftesbury, being one of his Secretaries
when he held the office of Lord Chancellor. He had
been previously Shaftesbury's solicitor, and continued
to be so after Shaftesbury's removal from the Chancel-
lorship, and he remained a confidential friend till
Shaftesbury's death. But Stringer's Memoir, even for
this period, though containing much useful information
and fundamentally true, as it is throughout honest, has
many mistakes of exaggeration and imperfect judgment,
which show that he is far from being an altogether safe
guide. Stringer's Memoir was written about seventeen
years after Shaftesbury's death, and twenty-seven years
after Shaftesbury ceased to be Lord Chancellor. It
was written when he was an old man, and his death,
which was in 1702, may have stopped an unfinished
work. He undertook to write the Memoir in conse-
quence of the disparaging treatment of Shaftesbury in
Sir William Temple's Memoirs, published in 1691.
Lapse of time, failure of memory, and warm zeal for
the good name of his departed patron, whom he loved,
would have all combined to impair the value of a work
written by a man who in his best days had no literary
XX PREFACE.
power, and of whom his widow ingenuously says that
writing was not poor Mr. Stringer's talent. 1
I have occasionally referred to a manuscript at St.
Giles's, which is a vindication of Shaftesbury from the
aspersions of Bishop Burnet in the " History of his Own
Time," first published in 1724, and which was written
by a Mr. Wyche, who had been an amanuensis in
Shaftesbury's service. The manuscript bears the title,
"A Vindication of the Character and Actions of the
Eight Hon. Anthony late Earl of Shaftesbury, late
Lord High Chancellor of England, from the Detractions
and Misrepresentations of the late Eight Eeverend
Gilbert Bishop of Sarum, by Philoecus." This Vindi-
cation is more a dissertation than a biography : it is
long, and unskilfully written : I have found it occasion-
ally useful, but I have not thought it worth printing.
Lord Campbell's Life of Shaftesbury in his " Lives of
the Chancellors" is freely criticised in this work. Those
who have followed the criticisms on other Lives by
Lord Campbell will not expect that his Life of Shaftes-
bury should be one of great accuracy. It is perhaps
one of the most inaccurate. In the volume which I
published in 1859, when Lord Campbell was alive and
Lord Chancellor, I inserted a minute dissection of the
first chapter of his Life of Shaftesbury, which covered
the period from his birth to the Eestoration. It is a
satisfaction to me to know that I criticised Lord
1 Letter of Mrs. Hill, Stringer's widow, to Lady Elizabeth Harris,
Appendix VIII. of vol. ii.
PEEFACE. XXI
Campbell, when he was alive, as freely as I do now
after his death. I am more anxious now to offer to
his memory the respect which I expressed for him
when he was living ; and I therefore proceed to repeat
the substance of observations which I made in the
Preface to my volume of 1859. I repeat, then, that it
is not easy, with every desire to avoid offensiveness,
to make a long and minute criticism in an agreeable
manner. I hope I shall not be thought to over-esti-
mate the talents required for writing an accurate Life,
or for exposing the inaccuracies of another. A great
author, in a biographical work which, in spite of much
injustice, and notwithstanding great subsequent addi-
tions of knowledge, has achieved lasting fame, and is
always read with enjoyment, has modestly gauged the
requirements for literary biography ; and legal or poli-
tical biography is not dissimilar. "To adjust the
minute events of literary history," said Dr. Johnson
in his " Lives of the Poets," 1 " is tedious and trouble-
some ; it requires indeed no great force of understand-
ing, but often depends upon inquiries which there is
no opportunity of making, or is to be fetched from books
and pamphlets not always at hand." There can be no
doubt that, if Lord Campbell had taken the necessary
time, and put out all the powers of his acute and
vigorous mind, to write a careful biography of Shaftes-
bury or any one of the Chancellors, he might have left
little employment for critics. As it is, he does not
1 In the Life of Dryden.
VOL. I. I
XX11 PREFACE,
depend on his Lives for lasting reputation. It will,
however, always be no mean embellishment of the
solid fame which he has secured, that, in the evening
of a life of great professional labours and successes, he
found amusement and relaxation from high duties in
pursuits of literature, and in composing a long series
of biographies which, if often inaccurate, are always
lively and agreeable, and, if often unjust, are always
unjust in ignorance and without determination of injus-
tice. I should be sorry to be unfair towards one
who, in my early life, honoured me with his friend-
ship ; and whose strong intellect, kindly nature, public
services, and great career have my respect and
admiration.
I wish specially to mention my obligations for assist-
ance and advice often kindly given by an old and
warm-hearted friend, Mr. John Forster, the author of
" The Statesmen of the Commonwealth," the " Life of
Sir John Eliot," the "Life of Goldsmith," and many
other works.
W. D. C,
i
32, DORSET SQUARE, LONDON,
April, 187].
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEK I.
16211639.
Birth and parentage Baronetcies of father and maternal grandfather
The Coopers and Ashleys Sir Anthony Ashley Death of mother and
of father Sir A. A. Cooper a King's ward Losses of property by Court
of Wards Litigation with Sir Francis Ashley and Denzil Holies Sir
A. A. Cooper's wealth His guardians Goes to Exeter College, Oxford,
when sixteen His life at Oxford Entered at Lincoln's Inn Marries
at eighteen daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry Predictions of a Ger-
man astrologer His brothers-in-law, Henry and Sir William Coventry,
and sisters-in-law, Lady Savile, mother of Lord Halifax, and Lady
Pakington Sketch of his youth Page 1
CHAPTER II.
1639-1644.
Lives, after marriage, with his father-in-law Hanley bowling-green in
Dorsetshire Sir A. A. Cooper's neighbours Lord Digby Visit to
Worcestershire with Mr. Coventry Elected member for Tewkesbury,
at age of eighteen, for the Short Parliament of April 1640 Termina-
tion of Fragment of Autobiography- The Parliament quickly dissolved
Lord Coventry's death in January 1640 Letter of John Coventry,
February 1640 Lord Savile's forged letter Petition of twelve peers
to the King for a parliament Returned in a double return for Downton
to Long Parliament Petitions Holies said to have prevented his being
seated Came forward for the King in Dorsetshire in spring of 1643
Dispute about his being made Governor of Weymouth and Portland
Ultimately appointed Letter from the King to Marquis of Hert-
ford Appointed King's Sheriff of Dorsetshire In February 1644, goes
over to the Parliament His statement of his motives made before the
Committee of both kingdoms Page 24
CHAPTER III.
16441653.
Retrospect of public affairs The war in the West Sir A. A. Cooper goes
into Dorsetshire for the Parliament, Julv 1644 Appointed to act with
the army as Field Marshal General Taking of Wareham Made one of
the Dorsetshire Committee for the army Allowed to compound for his
XXIV CONTENTS.
estates with a fine of 500L Appointed Commander-in-chief of the Par-
liament's forces in Dorsetshire, October 1644 Takes Abbotsbury by
storm Narratives by himself and by one of his officers of the storming 1
of Abbotsbury Takes Sturminster and Shaftesbury Instructions of
Dorsetshire Committee Cooper's notes on the military condition in
Dorsetshire, Wiltshire, and Somersetshire, November 1644 Letter
from Colonel Butler Want of money Cooper relieves Blake besieged
; at Taunton, December Cooper's letter to Essex on relief of Taunton
Siege of Corfe Castle 1645 Endeavours unsuccessfully to gain admis-
sion into the House of Commons on his former petition, September
1645 Self-denying Ordinance Termination of Cooper's military ser-
viceHigh Sheriff of Wiltshire for the Parliament, 1647 Cooper's
Diary, 1646-50 Story of his advice to Holies to be forbearing with
Cromwell Selections from Diary Execution of Charles the First
Death of Cooper's wife His second marriage with daughter of Earl of
Exeter Subscribes the engagement and is a commissioner for adminis-
tering it Appointed member of the Commission for reforming the
laws, January 1652 House of Commons absolve him from all delin-
quency, March 1653 Page 54
CHAPTER IV.
16531656.
Cromwell's ejection of the Kump Reasons for the Act Temporary Coun-
cil of State A Convention summoned Meets, July 4, 1653 Sir A. A.
Cooper a member Proceedings of Barebone's Parliament Parties in
that assembly Questions of Church and Law Reform Cromwell allied
with the moderate party The Parliament resigns its powers to Crom-
' well, December 12, 1653 Cooper had acted with the moderate party
and Cromwell, and had promoted the resignation Idle rumour that
Cromwell meant to make Cooper Lord Chancellor Cromwell refuses
to be King, and is made Protector Cooper said to have pressed him
to be King Cooper one of the new Council of State The Instrument
of Government Milton serves under the Council Cooper elected to
the new Parliament for Wiltshire, Poole, and Tewkesbury Sits for
Wiltshire Ludlow's account of the Wiltshire election Parliament
meet, September 3, 1654 Cromwell's difficulties with the Parliament
He dissolves it Cooper ceases to attend the Privy Council His
estrangement from Cromwell Ludlow's mistakes about this estrange-
ment Death of Cooper's second wife in 1654 Story of Cooper wishing
to marry Cromwell's daughter Mary He marries, in 1656, a daughter
of Lord Spencer of Wormloighton Her character She survives
Shaftesbury Page 90
CHAPTER V.
16561658.
Cooper now in opposition to Cromwell He falls back on the Presbyterian
party Elected for Wiltshire to new Parliament Prevented by the
Council from taking his seat Is one of the sixty-five who sign a letter
to the Speaker protesting Afterwards signs Remonstrance The
Humble Petition and Advice Cromwell refuses to be King House
adjourned from June 26, 1657, to January 20, 1658 Cromwell's Peers
or "Other House" Cooper not one The 5QOI. fine for composition,
CONTENTS. XXV
imposed by Long Parliament in 1644, remitted by Cromwell Cooper's
friendship with Henry Cromwell, and letter to him Cooper and the
other excluded members take their seats on meeting of Parliament,
January 1658 Formidable opposition to Cromwell and the new Con-
stitution Debates about the "Other House" Cooper's speeches
Cromwell dissolves the Parliament, February 4 Cromwell's
death Page 123
CHAPTER VI.
16581659.
Richard Cromwell proclaimed Protector The military commanders jealous
of his civilian advisers A Parliament called for January 27, 1659
Members for England and Wales elected under old constitution Scotch
and Irish members according to Instrument of Government, but not to
sit till approved Cromwell's Peers summoned by writs of old House of
Lords Cooper elected for Wiltshire and Poole Sits for Wiltshire
Debates on bill for recognition of Richard Cromwell as Protector
1 Cooper's many speeches The " Other House" Question of transacting
k with it Cooper's long speech against time Cooper's taunts against
one of Cromwell's peers for changes His abuse of Cromwell House of
Commons agrees to transact with other House during this Parliament
Unsuccessful attempt to settle revenue on Richard Cromwell Message
to other House as to a day of humiliation Discussions thereon
Quarrel between Richard Cromwell and the military chiefs Resolu-
tions of House of Commons against the army- -Richard Cromwell
orders dissolution of Council of Officers Fleetwood and Desborough
rally the army, and force Richard Cromwell to dissolve Parliament
Fall of Richard Cromwell Page 144
CHAPTER VII.
1659-1660.
Restoration of the Rump Parliament, May 7 Committee of Safety ap-
pointedCooper's election petition for Downton of 1640 referred to a
committee Not seated Cooper elected member of Council of State
Suspicions of him as a Royalist by some colleagues --Scot accuses him
of correspondence with Hyde He denies the charge Cooper rejects
Royalist overtures Letter from Monk to Cooper Distractions of
Council and Parliament Sir George Booth's rising Cooper arrested
in Dorsetshire, and accused of complicity with Booth Council of
State and Parliament acquit him Military revolution by Lambert
The Rump suppressed, October 13 Committee of Safety nominated
by Lambert and his coadjutors, October 25 Cooper opposes Lambert
and the Committee of Safety Monk also opposes Cooper's narrative
from October 25, 1659, to February 6, 1660 Treaty of Monk's Com-
missioners with Committee of Safety Attempt to arrest Cooper
Overthrow of Committee of Safety and restoration of Rump Cooper
one of five temporary Commissioners for the Army Prompt measures
for dispersing Lambert's forces Cooper appointed member of new
Council of State Admitted as member for Downton Made colonel of
regiment taken from Fleetwood Monk's march to London Monk's
changes of conduct Admission of secluded members, February 26
Cooper commands the guard on their admission Council of State
XXVI CONTENTS.
appointed of Royalists and Presbyterians Cooper one New Parlia-
ment called for April 25 Letter of Montagu to Cooper Haselrig, Scot,
and others offer Monk the crown Monk refuses False story of Monk
aiming to be made king with help of French Ambassador Lambert's
insurrection and defeat by Ingoldsby Cooper's letter of rejoicing to
Montagu Cooper acts with the Presbyterian leaders for bringing in.
the King on conditions Meeting of Convention Parliament Monk
outstrips the Presbyterians, and brings in Charles without conditions
Cooper one of twelve Commissioners of the Parliament sent to the
King at Breda Accident on his journey Friendship with John Locke
Cooper's changes during the last twenty years Satires of Butler and
. Dryden Page 172
CHAPTER VIII.
1660.
Sir A. A. Cooper made a Privy Councillor at Canterbury His pardons
Distribution of offices and honours Privy Council Hyde Chief
Minister Committee for Foreign Affairs or Cabinet King's active
supremacy in Government Convention Parliament Sir A. A. Cooper's
speeches The Bill of Pardon and Indemnity Cooper desired no ex-
ceptions for life Monk and Cooper unjustly reproached by Ludlow
and Mrs Hutehinson Royal assent to the Act, August 29 Cooper's
speeches on details Helped to save Haselrig Trials of the Regicides
and others Cooper one of the Judges His sitting on the trial de-
fended Appointed member of Councils of Trade and Plantations
His cavalry regiment disbanded Revenue and Church questions
Abolition of Court of Wards Cooper supports postponement of Bill
for Church Settlement Defends the King in debate on grievances-
Dissolution of Convention Parliament, December 27 ... Page 227
CHAPTER IX.
16611664.
Meeting of new Parliament Cooper made Lord Ashley at the Coronation
Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Under Treasurer
Violent policy of the new Parliament The Corporation, Uniformity,
and Militia Acts Lord Ashley's opposition to these measures The
King and Clarendon endeavour to check the violence of the High
Church party Bill for confirming Presbyterian ministers in vacant
livings- -Dispensing clause proposed in the Uniformity Bill by Claren-
don on the King's recommendation Refused by the Lords Charles
promises a three months' suspension of the Act of Uniformity, but
cannot fulfil his promise King's marriage Sale of Dunkirk King's
Declaration of Indulgence, December 26, 1662, advised by Bennet,
Bristol, and Lord Ashley Dispensing Bill presented to House of Lords
by Lord Roberts by the King's desire Lord Ashley warmly supports
the Bill Clarendon opposes it Despatches of the French Ambassador,
M. de Comminges Clarendon's inaccuracies The Dispensing Bill
dropped Proclamation for banishing Jesuits and Roman Catholic
priests Conventicle Act Lord Ashley grows in favour with the King
His ability and influence Bristol's attack on Clarendon Lord
Ashley and others work against Clarendon with encouragement from the
King Testimonies to Lord Ashley's assiduity and ability . Page 255
CONTENTS. XXVH
CHAPTER X.
16641667.
Lord Ashley's position at the beginning of 1664 Attention to revenue and
trade Dutch war Opposed by Clarendon, Southampton, and Ormond
and supported probably by Ashley Appointed Treasurer of Prizes
Clarendon's hostility to the appointment Affectionate letter to his
wife, Februaiy 26, 1665 Grant of Carolina to Lord Ashley a,prl g^vpr.
others The Plague The King visits Lord Ashley at Wimborne St.
briies's Session of Parliament at Oxford, October 1665 Appropriation
Clause in Supply Bill unsuccessfully opposed by Clarendon and Ashley
The Five Mile Act Opposed strongly by Southampton and Ashley,
but prosecuted by Clarendon Bill for general imposition of oath
against endeavouring change in Church or State opposed by Ashley
Letter to his wife from Oxford, November 23, 1665 Beginning of
acquaintance with Locke Friendship of Locke and Shaftesbury
Session of 1666-67 Complaints of expenditure and misappropriation-
Act against importation of Irish cattle Supported by Ashley Earl of
Ossory's insult and apology Discussion with Viscount Conway--
Kumoured possible Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Secret treaty between
Louis XIV. and Charles II. Dutch fleet enters the Thames and burns
three men-of-war at Chatham Peace of Breda Death of Earl of
Southampton Office of Lord High Treasurer put in commission and
Lord Ashley one of the Commissioners Clarendon's account of the
appointment of the Commission Proceedings of the Commissioners
; Sir William Temple and Lady Fanshawe blame Shaftesbury for their
' economies Clarendon removed from the Chancellorship Lord Ashley
unjustly accused of conspiring against Clarendon Opposes the im-
peachment of Clarendon without specific treason assigned and falls into
disgrace with the King for supporting Clarendon Clarendon's exile
Lord Cstonpbell's misstatements Charge of licentiousness against
Shaftesbury Paye 276
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX I Page iii.
APPENDIX II ,, xxv.
APPENDIX III Ivi.
APPENDIX IV Ixiii.
APPENDIX V Ixxiv.
APPENDIX VI , Ixxviii.
ILLUSTRATION.
Sm ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, BART Frontispiece.
(From a Painting by SIK PETER LELY.)
INDEX.
Though bearing in succession the titles of "Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper," "Lord
Ashley," and "Earl of Sfiaftesbury," the Earl is uniformly referred to in this
Index under the name of SHAFTESBURY, which, for the sake of brevity, is indicated
by the letter S.
Abbotsbury stormed and burned by S., i.
6267 ; App. II. xxx.
" Absalom and Achitophel" (see Dryden).
Act of Uniformity, its mischievous nature,
i. 259; opposed by S., 261; clause pro-
posed to enable the King to dispense
with its provisions, 263 ; rejected, Act
passed, 264 ; its effects, 265, 268 ; Charles
II. 's declaration, 266 ; bill introduced to
dispense with the Act, 26G; "Dispens-
ing BUI" supported by S., 267269;
dispensing clause proposed by Charles
II., rejected by House of Lords, App. VI.
Ixxviii, ii. 72.
Admiralty, Duke of York Lord High
Admiral, resigns on the passing of the
Test Act, ii. 141 ; the office put into
commission, 144.
Agricultural depression in 1667 and 1668,
remarks by Pepys, 300.
Ague, S. attacked 'with, i. 84.
Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, for peace be-
tween France and Spain, ii. 12, 13.
Albemarle, Monk, Duke of, as General
Monk supports Richard Cromwell, i. 145 ;
his first letter to S. , 182 ; opposes the
proceedings of Lambert, 193 ; his own
subsequent proceedings, 193 203 ;
enters London, 204 ; '* Narrative " of
his proceedings by S., 205212; offer
by the Republicans to make him King,
his refusal, alleged influence of S., 215
218 ; effects the Restoration, 220 ;
made K.G. and Privy Councillor, 227 ;
other honours conferred on him, 228 ;
made Duke of Albemarle, 229 ; appointed
a Treasury Commissioner, 305 ; his
notice of Sir W. Morrice, ii. 45.
Aldersgate Street (see Thanet House).
Ambassador's plate, a customary gift, re-
fused by S. and the Treasury Commis-
sioners, i. 308.
Amsterdam, S. arrives there after his
flight from London, ii. 452 ; contradic-
tory accounts of his reception, 452, 456,
460 ; made a burgher, 452, 457, 461
death of S. at, 455; his will, 457
459.
Ancestors of S., i. 2.
Anecdotes, of S.'s sagacity, ii. 104; of
Locke's playfulness, 106.
Apple trees planted by S. at Wimborne St.
Giles, ii. 49.
Arlington, Earl of, as Sir Henry Bennet,
appointed Secretary of State, his opposi-
tion to Clarendon, i. 265 ; letter from
him to S., 275 ; his power after the fall
of Clarendon, ii. 2 ; his rivalry with
Buckingham, 4 ; defeats Buckingham's
plan for a French alliance, negotiates
with De Witt, triple alliance of England,
Holland, and Sweden against France,
11 ; again opposes Buckingham's in-
trigues with France, 13 ; opposes fresh
negotiations with France, 13 ; Colbert
endeavours to gain his support, 14 ;
further intrigues, 15 ; attempts to estab-
lish a French alliance and restore Popery
in England, 16, 18 ; signs secret treaty
with France for war with Holland and
restoration of Popery, 19, 55 ; 8. igno-
rant of this treaty, 22 ; joins Buckingham
in fresh negotiations, 22 ; signs mock
treaty, 26 ; and further treaty, 28 ; re-
ceives present from Louis XIV., 31 ; his
rivalry with Buckingham, letter from S.
to Morrice, 45 ; promotes the war with
Holland, 80; created an Earl, 84; ac-
companies Buckingham to Louis XIV.,
Colbert's eulogy of him, 85; disappointed
at not being made Lord Treasurer, 98 ;
alarmed by the opposition of the Com-
mons, abandons the " Declaration of
Independence," 134 ; supposed to have
aided the " Test Act," 136 ; disposed to
abandon the Popish design, 139 ; informs
S. of the secret treaty, 90, 140 ; attacked
by the House of Common*, 188 ; Lord
Chamberlain in 1679, 328 ; supports pro-
1 osed grant of Phoenix Park to Duchess
XXX
INDEX.
of Cleveland, App. IV. xlix ; speech in
conference with Charles II., App. VII.,
cxxi.
Army, in a minority in the Council of
State, i. 177; disbanded, S. ceases to
hold his colonelcy, 249 ; Duke of York
Commander-in-Chief, resigns on the
passing of the " Test Act," ii. 141 ;
mustered at Blackheath for war with
Holland, 146 ; encamped at Yarmouth,
147 ; voted a grievance by House of
Commons, 155 (see Desborough, Fleet-
wood, Military Power).
Ashley, Anne, mother of S., i. 1, 5.
Ashley, Sir Anthony, maternal grandfather
of S., i. 1, 2 ; his career and pedigree, 3.
Ashley, Sir Francis, grandunele of S., i.
79 ; his sudden death, 11, App. I. ix.
Astrology believed in by S., i. 20.
Astrop mineral waters prescribed for S. ,
i. 295.
Aubrey, John, on equestrian processions
of the Judges to Westminster, attempt
of S. to revive the custom, ii. 168.
Autobiographical sketch of S., from 1621
to 1645, diary, January 1646 to July
1650, i. App. II. xxv.
Autobiography of S., fragment from birth
(1621) to 1639, Preface, xiv, i. App. I. iii.
B.
Bahamas, the, granted by Charles II. to
S. and five others ; his attention to the
affairs of the colony, i. 288 ; ii. 60.
Bankers, their advances to Government
(see "Stop of the Exchequer").
Banks, Sir John, his son placed by S.
under the care of Locke, ii. 235.
Barbadoes, plantation there belonging to
S., who binds two boys for the planta-
tion for seven years, i. App. II. xxxiv.
Barebone's Parliament nominated (see
Parliament).
Barillon, French Ambassador, his reports
to Louis XIV. on the marriage of Wil-
liam and Mary, ii. 247 ; his negotiations
to maintain the French alliance, 255 ;
bribes Buckingham and Opposition
members, 267 ; negotiates with Charles
, II. as to French subsidies, 274 ; despatch
to Louis XIV. on the Privy Council,
App. VII. cix ; his account of negotia-
tions for French subsidy, 305; letter
to Louis XIV. on proposals of Charles
II. for subsidy and treaty, 359 ; on views
of S. as to the Duke of York, 371 ; on
the designs of Monmouth and Duchess
of Portsmouth, 379 ; on conversation
between S. and Charles II. about Mon-
mouth and the succession, App. VII.
cxvi.
Baronetcy, institution of the order, i. 2.
Bath visited by S , i. 83 ; App. II. xliii.
Bear-baiting, bears killed by Col. Pride
for its suppression, i. App. IV. Ixxi.
Bedloe, a perjured witness in support of
Titus Oates, ii. 287, 300.
Beer, "size" of, at Oxford University,
i. 17, App. I. xii.
Belvoir Castle, S.'s son married there to
Lady Dorothy Manners, ii. 36.
Bennet, Sir Henry (see Arlington).
Bishops excluded from the House of
Lords, i. 55 ; restored, 257 ; letter from
S. to Bishops as to sequestrated livings,
ii. App. IV. liv.
Black Bull Inn, Holborn, the property of
S., i. 7.
Blake, his defence of Lyine and Tauuton,
i. 59, 72.
Booth, Sir George, his insurrection to
favour the Restoration, its defeat, i. 185 ;
S. arrested on a charge of participation
in it, 185 ; his acquittal, 186 ; complicity
of S. asserted by Ludlow, App. III. Ixi.
Bordeaux, M. de, French Ambassador, his
account of the ejection of the ' ' Rump "
Parliament, i. 94.
Bowls, the game practised by S., i. 24,
App. I. xiv., App. II. xxxviii, xliii.
Bradshaw. the regicide, attainted, his
body exhumed, i. 247.
Breda, S. sent there by Parliament to in-
vite Charles II. to return, i. 221 ; his
accident on the journey and its conse-
quences, 222 ; treaty of peace with Hol-
land signed there, 304.
Bribes given by Louis XIV. to Charles II.
to prorogue Parliament ; to members
to espouse the French alliance (see
Louis XIV. and Parliament).
Bridgman, Sir Orlando, appointed Lord
Keeper, ii. 1 ; deprived of the Great
Seal, 93 ; hesitates to seal the "Declara-
tion of Indulgence," 94; is succeeded
by S. , 93 ; causes of his removal, 95 ;
S. ace-used of urging his dismissal, 162 ;
the charge refuted, 163.
Bridgwater, Earl of, letter from him to S. ,
ii. 362.
Bristol, Earl of, character of him by S.,
i. 26. App. I. xviii ; his attempt to im-
peach Clarendon, 272 ; a promoter of the
Dutch war, 278.
Brodrick, his reports to Hyde on the
politics of S., i. 180, 181, 202.
Broghill, Lord, afterwards Earl of Orrery
(see Orrery).
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of,
released from prison by the aid of S., i.
155 ; his power after the fall of Claren-
don, ii. 2 ; caricatures Sir W. Coventry,
who is sent to the Tower, 3 ; his rivalry
with Arlington is supported by S. , 4 ;
in favour of toleration of Dissenters, 5 ;
supports Charles II. in his desire for a
divorce, 8 ; supports a French alliance
against Spain, 10, and against Holland,
13, 15; promotes a fresh negotiation
with France against Holland, 13 ; is sent
to Paris to negotiate, 23 ; his paramour,
Countess of Shrewsbury, pensioned by
Louis XIV., 24 ; urges S. and Arlington
to form a French alliance, 22 ; his igno-
rance of the secret treaty promoted by
INDEX.
XXXI
Arlington, 24, shared by S. and Lauder-
dale, 55, 85; signs mock treaty with
France, 26, and further treaty, 28 ; his
objections to give prominence to the
French navy, supported by ',S., 29 ; his
personal views in the French treaty, 30 ;
disappointment at not commanding
forces; receives presents from Louis
XIV. ; similar presents to S. and others,
31 ; his rivalry with Arlington ; his
notice of Sir W. Morrice ; letter from
S. to MoiTice, 45 ; his loss of 3,0001.
by the "Stop of the Exchequer," 68;
sent with Arlington to Louis XIV. ; his
debts, necessity for bribing him, 85 ; is
told of secret treaty by the Duke of
York, 86 ; his fraud on Parliament; in
concealing it, 186; attacked by the
House of Commons, 188; discarded by
Charles II., 203 ; joins S. in opposing
Danby's Test Bill, 206; moves for a
dissolution of Parliament in conse-
quence of the prorogation for fifteen
months, 230 ; supported by S., Salis-
bury, and Wharton, 231 ; called to ac-
count, ordered to ask pardon, refuses,
and is sent to the Tower, 232, 233 ;
petitions the King for release, 237 ;
released, 239 ; record of imprisonment
cancelled, 260 ; bribed by France, 267 ;
stated by Stringer to have become a
Roman Catholic, App. III. xxxiii.
Burnet, Bishop, his suggestion that Crom-
well offered to make S. King refuted,
i. 105 ; his notice of Sir W. Morrice,
ii. 45; ascribes the "Stop of the Ex-
chequer to S., 66 ; letter from widow of
Stringer on his misrepresentations of S. ,
App. VIII. cxxiii; his errors with re-
ference to S.. 121, 137.
Burton's Diary, reports of S.'s speeches in
Richard Cromwell's Parliament, i. 148
168 ; other notices of S., 138, ii. 46.
Butler, Colonel, his letter to S. on the
siege of Corfe, i. 71.
Butler, Samuel, his Satire on S., in
" Hudibras," i. 223 ; ii. 435.
C.
Cabal, or Cabinet, temp. Charles II., its
constitution, i. 230; its origin, 231, 232;
of Lord Lauderdale, complained of by
Clarendon, 273; its members in 1667
named by Pepys, ii. 2 ; its members in
1670 named by Andrew Marvel, 43 ;
change in the meaning of the word, 53 ;
rival "cabals" in the same ministry,
Pepys's use of the word in the sense of
" cabinet, 1 ' 54 ; its powers explained, 64 ;
cabals at Court in 168, 370.
"Cabal" Ministry (Clifford, Arlington,
Buckingham, Ashley Lauderdale), its
notoriety, ii. 53, App. III. xxxvi ;
caused by the results of the Dutch war,
54 ; its members not unanimous, their
colleagues, 54, 55.
Cabinet (see Cabal).
Campbell, Lord, his Life of S., Preface,
xx xxii ; his errors and misrepresenta-
tions, i. 53, 60, 74, 75, 76, 89, 98, 103, 113,
117, 249, 256, 274, 310, 314, 315, ii. 69,
95, 96, 151, 162169, 172, 176, 177, 2D1,
428, 453, 457.
Canonbury House, Islington, a residence
of S., i. 24, App. I. xiv.
Capel, Lady, aunt of the first wife of S.,
i. 75.
Carlisle, Earl of, letter to from S. advo-
cating a new Parliament, ii. 200.
Carlyle's errors with reference to S., i. 93.
Carolina, granted by Charles II. to S. and
eight others, his attention to its affairs,
i. 288, ii. 160.
Cashiobury, the early home of S., i. 6,
App. I. v.
Castlemaine, Lady (see Cleveland, Duchess
of).
Catherine, Queen of Charles II., accused
by Titus Gates of participation in plot
to assassinate the King, S. supports
address for her removal from Whitehall,
ii. 300.
Cattle (see Irish Cattle Bill).
Cecil, Lady Frances, the second wife of
S., their marriage, i. 86, App. II. Iv ;
her death, 120.
Cellier, Mrs., her connection with the
"Meal-tub" Plot, ii. 348; her alleged
intent to murderS., 349.
Chancellor, Lord, S. appointed, ii. 93 ; the
office not uniformly held by a lawyer,
96 ; conduct of S. when Chancellor, in
connection with politics, 112 154 ; his
dismissal, 155 ; Stringer and Martyn's
accounts of it, App. III. xli, xlii ; his
conduct as a judge, 162 178 ; receives
the usual protecting pardon, 157 ; ex-
planation by Lord Keeper Finch, 159 ;
equestrian procession of S. to West-
minster, 167 ; his speech on swearing
in Baron Thurland, 169 ; Stringer's ac-
count of his family, officers, and cere-
monies, 171 ; his official costume criti-
cized by Roger North, 172; right, of
appeal to House of Lords maintained by
him, 209 ; appeal from one of his decrees
dismissed, 286 ; letters to and from him
when Chancellor, App. IV. xlvi Ivii ;
his speeches as Chancellor, App. V Iviii
Ixxvi ; speech on Dr. Shirley's appeal,
App. VI. Ixxxiv.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, S. appointed
by Charles II., i. 256; retains the office
after the fall of Clarendon, ii. 4.
Chancery, Court of, its abolition passed by
Barebone's Parliament, i. 100 ; reformed
by Cromwell's Council, 113.
" Character of a Trimmer," its authorship,
i. 21.
Charles I., his cause espoused by S. in
1643, i. 40, 43 ; his negotiations with S.
in 1643, 41 ; his letter to S. in 1644, 48 ;
letter to the Marquis of Hertford, 45 ;
separation of S. from him, 47, App. II.
INDEX.
xxix, ii. 463 ; his campaign in Dorset-
shire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and Berk-
shire, ii. 61 ; his trial and execution, 77,
85.
Chnrles II., S. accused of being in his
interest, his denial, i. 179 181 : sup-
posed letter from him to S., 182; his
hopes of a Restoration, 185 ; intrigues
for it, 205212 ; supported by S. con-
ditionally, effected by Monk uncon-
ditionally, 220 ; King enters London,
221 ; the subject of Dryden's flattery
and satire, 224 ; his supremacy in the
Government, i. 232, ii. 13, 64; his fa-
vourites, and their opposition to Cla-
rendon, i. 233 ; discussions in Parlia-
ment on his revenue, speech of S.. 250 ;
creates Hyde Earl of Clarendon, and S.
Baron Ashley, appoints the latter Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and Under
Treasurer, 256 ; opposed to the legisla-
tion of the High Church party, his desire
for religious toleration, 262, 263, 270 ; his
marriage, 265 ; his desire to pass the
" Dispensing Bill," 267 ; his estrange-
ment from Clarendon, 272 ; S. rises in his
favour, 271 ; appoints him Treasurer of
Prizes in the Dutch war, 279 ; Clarendon
remonstrates, Charles confirms the ap-
pointment, 280 282 ; grants Carolina
and the Bahamas to S. and others, the
attention of S. to the affairs of the
colonies, 288 ; visits S. at Wimborne St.
Giles, 289 ; appoints hint; a Treasuiy
Commissioner, 307 ; dishonourable pro-
posals to Miss Stuart, her marriage to
the Duke of Richmond, 309, 310 ; makes
Buckingham chief favourite and leading
minister, ii. 2 ; his efforts for religious
toleration, 6 ; his desire for a divorce,
8 ; plan for legitimatizing Monmouth
supported by S., 9; his intrigues with
France, 14 ; declares himself a Roman
Catholic, his natural son a Jesuit, 16 ;
attempts to establish Popery in England,
17 24, 26, 78 ; supports Lord Roos's
Remarriage Act, attends the debate in
House of Lords, 42 ; at a wrestling
match in St. James's Park, 45 ; enforces
a " stop of the exchequer," its immediate
consequences, 56 ; the King's "explana-
tory declaration" appeases discontent,
57; makes a ''Declaration of Indul-
gence" for Dissenters and Roman Ca-
tholics, 71 ; his object in promoting the
Dutch war, 78 ; creates Ashley Earl of
Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper, 84 ; his
negotiations with the Pope to establish
Popery, 87, 89, 99 ; speech to Parliament
defending " Declaration of Indulgence,"
113 ; appoints S. Lord Chancellor, 93 ;
justifies the issue of new writs by S.,
120 ; dismisses him, 155 ; makes Lady
, Castlemaine Duchess of Cleveland, and
Mademoiselle de Querouaille Duchess of
Portsmouth, 160 ; his lavish gifts to
them, 161 ; his opinion of S. as a judge,
178 ; his desire to restore him, 180, 182 ;
dismisses him from the Privy Council,
and orders him to leave London, 198 ; dis-
cards Buckingham, 203 ; his secret per-
sonal treaty with Louis XIV., 210; bribed
by Louis XIV. to prorogue Parliament,
210 ; incensed by application of S. to the
King's Bench for release from the Tower,
239; his debts, supply granted, 240;
urged by Parliament to oppose France,
241 ; dissatisfied with amount of sup-
plies, 242 ; bribes offered by Spain
and Germany for English alliance,
243 ; refuses to submit to Parlia-
mentary dictation, 244 ; sends Courtin
to Louis XIV. for subsidy, obtains it,
and adjourns Parliament, 245 ; relaxes
severity of S.'s imprisonment in the
Tower, 249 ; offers alliance to France for
600, OOOZ., 268 ; applies for six million
francs annually for three years, 270 ;
speeches to Parliament, and amplifica-
tion of them by S., 113, 154, 274, 292,
298, 331, 372, 382, 404, App. V. Ixiii,
Ixxii ; proofs that he was a Roman
Catholic, 289 ; his belief in the Popish
Plot, 292 ; alleged intent to murder him,
294 ; refused a subsidy by Louis XIV. ,
305 ; disavows a marriage with Mon-
mouth's mother, 308, S64 ; account of his
character and conduct by S., 309 311; re-
fuses to approve of Seymour as Speaker,
316 ; pardons Danby, 318 ; urges him to
fly, and deserts him on his surrender,
319 ; remodels his Privy Council, with S.
as President, 323 ; speech to Parliament,
331 ; asserts his right to prorogue and
dissolve, 355, 356 ; sends for the Duke
of York, 356 ; dissolves Parliament
against advice of Council, S. enraged,
342 ; his illness, Duke of York sent for,
343 ; recovers, orders Monmouth to leave
England, 344 ; fresh intrigue for subsidy
from France, 345 ; treaty not concluded,
346 ; dismisses S. as President of the
Council, 347 ; further attempt to obtain
French subsidy, 359 ; is reconciled to
Monmouth, 360 ; agrees to send Duke of
York from England, 371 ; attends debate
on bill for his exclusion, 377 ; and on
proposal by S. for his divorce and re-
marriage, 380 ; prorogues and dissolves
Parliament, 386 ; meets Parliament at
Oxford, protected by guards, 401 ; ob-
tains subsidy for three years from France
on a verbal treaty, 402, 403 ; speech to
Parliament, on succession, 404 ; dis-
solves Parliament, 405 ; his conversation
with S. about Monmouth and the suc-
cession, 408, App. VII, cxvii ; reigns
without a Parliament, 469 ; refuses S.
leave to retire to Carolina, 419 ; anxiety
to strengthen evidence against him,
420; suggests and pays for Dryden's
satires on S., 429, 434 ; intrigues to elect
sheriffs of London, 444 ; his misgovern-
ment a justification of S.'s rebellion,
450 ; memorial to, from S. , as to religion,
land, and trade, App. II. v ; advice
INDEX.
xxxm
of S. to him for development of trade,
ix ; memoir by Colbert, on his views as
to the Dutch war and establishment of
Popery, xii ; his conference with Privy
Council, App. VII. cxx.
Charlton, Sir Job, Speaker of the House
of Commons, official speeches to him by
S., ii. App. V. Ixi.
Cheke, Mr. Lieutenant of the Tower, his
kindness to S., ii. 415.
Chicheley, Commissioner of Ordnance,
notices of by S. and Pepys, i. 287.
" Chits, the," nickname applied to Sun-
derland, Godolphin, and Hyde, ii.
353.
Christian names of Shaftesbury, i. 5, 134,
App. I. iv.
Church reform (see Religion).
Clarendon, Earl of (Edward Hyde), his de-
scription of S. in 1643, i. 44 ; errors in
his account of S., 47 ; his intrigues for
the restoration of Charles II., 180, 181 ;
made Lord Chancellor and a Peer by
Charles II., 229; his cabinet, 232; his
Declaration to conciliate Presbyterians,
252; created Earl of Clarendon, 256;
opposed to High Church measures, 262 ;
his conduct with reference to Act of
Uniformity and " Dispensing Bill," 262
270 ; his account of support of " Dis-
pensing Bill "by S., 269; S. in favour
with Charles II., opposes him, 271 ;
Bristol's attempt to impeach him, its
failure, 272 ; unfavourable to war with
Holland, 278 ; dissatisfied with appoint-
ment of S. as Treasurer of Prizes, 279 ;
remonstrates with the king and S., 280,
281 ; joins S. in opposing appropriation
clause in supply bill, 289291 ; opposes
bill to prohibit importation of Irish
cattle, his strictures on the support of it
by S., 299 ; objects to putting Treasury
in Commission, 305; suggests S. as a
necessary Commissioner, 306 ; his ani-
mosity to S., 307 ; deprived of the seals,
influence of Lady Castlemaine, 309 ; op-
poses the king's designs on Miss Stuart,
310 ; S. accused of contributing to his
fall, 310 ; the charge refuted, 311, 312 ;
his exile in France, Act requiring his
surrender for trial, illness and death,
313; his "History of the Rebellion,"
314 ; his notice of Sir William Morrice,
ii. 45.
Clarendon, Laurence Hyde, second Earl,
with Sunderland and Godolphin, chief
ministers, nicknamed "the Chits," ii.
353 ; supports the Duke of York, 370 ;
his speech in Committee of Privy Coun-
cil advising arrest of S., App. VII.
cxviii.
Cleveland, Duchess of (Castlemaine, Lady),
her opposition to Clarendon, i. 233 ; S.
attends the king in her apartment, 311 ;
created Duchess of Cleveland, ii. 160 ; S.
opposes grant of Phoenix Park, Dublin,
to her, 160 ; letters of Essex to S. against
the grant, App. IV. xlvii liv.
Clifford, Lord, appointed (as Sir Thomas
Clifford) Commissioner of the Treasury,
i. 305 ; promotes Charles.II.'s scheme for
establishing Popery, ii. 55 ; first pro-
poser of the " Stop of the Exchequer,"
58, 62, 65 ; his advice given to the king
himself, 64 ; created a Peer, 84 ; ap-
pointed Lord Treasurer, 97 ; speech of
S. on swearing him in, App. V. Iviii ;
his violent speech against the Test Bill,
137 ; his Popish enthusiasm, 139 ; resigns
as Lord Treasurer on the passing of
the Test Act, 141; his retirement and
death, 143 ; anecdotes of him by Evelyn,
144 ; extracts from Williamson's corre-
spondence, App. III. xxxii.
" Clubmen " in the Civil War, i. 41.
Colbert de Croissy, M., French Ambas-
sador, his notices of S. and other states-
men, and political intrigues, ii. 3, 14 31 ;
on the " Stop of the Exchequer," 57 ; the
Dutch war, 79, 80, 83 ; his eulogy of
Arlington, 85 ; o:: the design to establish
Popery, 89 ; on the appointment of S.
as Lord Chancellor, 97 ; on speeches of
Charles and S. to Parliament, 121 ; on
the " Declaration of Indulgence," 134,
135 ; on the Test Bill and Clifford's vio-
lent speech, 137 ; on Charles II.'s desire
to marry Mary of Modena, 147 ; on the
endeavour of Louis XIV. to bribe S.,
182 ; memoir to Louis XIV. on " affairs
in England, and the views of Charles II.
about the Dutch war, and establishment
of the Roman Catholic religion," App.
II. xii xxi.
Coleman, Secretary to the Duchess of York,
his letters proving the Popish Plot, ii.
287, 294 ; examined in Newgate by S.
and others, 297, 301.
College, Stephen, a follower of S., tried
and executed for treason, ii. 417, 418.
Comminges, Count de, French Ambassador,
his notices of S. and Clarendon, i. 267,
268, 271.
Commission for the trial of the Regicides,
S. a member of it, his sitting as a Judge
defended, i. 243, 247.
Commission to command the army, S. a
member of it, i. 201.
" Committee for Foreign Affairs," origin of
the Cabinet, i. 231.
Committee for Sequestrations, its report
on the estates of S., i. 60.
" Committee of both Kingdoms " Eng-
land and Scotland (1644), i. 57.
"Committee of Safety," formed by the
"Rump" Parliament, i. 175; another
formed by Lambert, 191; its proceedings,
192, 199; opposed by S., 193.
Commonwealth established after the fall
of Richard Cromwell, i. 173.
Conventicle Act (see Religion).
Convention Parliament (see Parliament).
Conway, Lord, his quarrel with S. on
Irish affairs, i. 301 ; letter from him to
S., with papers on Irish affairs, ii. 5;
appointed Secretary of State, ii. 387 ;
XXXIV
INDEX.
speech in Committee of Privy Council,
App. VII. cxix.
Cooper, Cecil, first son of S., i. 87.
Cooper, Sir George, his grateful letter to
his brother, 8., ii. 262.
Cooper, Philippa, sister of S., i. 6.
Cooper, Sir John, father of S., i. 1 ; his
ancestors, 2.
Cooper, Sir William, gives bail for S. on
his release from the Tower, bail dis-
charged, ii. 441 ; letter to Stringer on
death, will, and funeral of S., 459.
Corfe besieged by the Parliament, i. 71 ;
S. ordered there, 74, 75, App. II. xxx,
xxxi.
Corporation Act passed by Charles II. 's
Parliament, opposed by S., i. 258, 260 ;
repealed in 1828, 300.
Coste, Peter, on Locke's friendship with
and opinions of S., i. 298, ii. 469.
Council of Officers, under Fleetwood, its
* effect in the fall of Richard Cromwell,
i. 169173 (see Desborough, Fleetwood,
Wallingford House).
Council of State appointed by Cromwell,
i. 94 ; S. added to it, 99, 102 ; his ap-
pointment renewed, 106 ; S. and other
members excluded from sitting, 124 ;
they apply to the Speaker, and are re-
ferred to the Council, 125 ; Richard Crom-
well recognized by it, 144; another
formed by the Rump Parliament, 176 ;'
S. a member of it, 177, 182 ; superseded
by a "Committee of Safety," rival
council formed by Lambert's party, 191 ;
its proceedings, 199 ; a new council
appointed, 202, 213 ; S. again a member,
202 (see Privy Council).
Court of Chancery (see Chancellor, Chan-
cery).
Court of Wards, abuses in, S.'s litigation
in it, i. 7, 10, 11, 70, App. I. vii ; abo-
lished, speech of S., 250.
Courtin, M. , French Ambassador, obtains
subsidy from France for Charles II.,
offers him a bribe to prorogue Parlia-
ment, ii. 227, 245.
"Coursing," an old custom at Oxford
University, i. 16, App. I. xi.
Coventry, Henry, sent to S. on his dis-
missal for the great seal, ii. 155 ; letter
to Sir J. Williamson on imprisonment of
S. in the Tower, 249 ; resigns as Secre-
tary of State, 359 ; violent speech against
S., 364 ; notices of, by Burnet and North,
App. III. xxiv.
Coventry, Margaret, first wife of S., her
marriage, his eulogium of her, i. 19;
her family, 21 ; her sudden death, 85.
Coventry, Sir John, assaulted and woun ded,
letter to S. from him, " Coventry Act "
passed, i. 38.
Coventry, Sir William, Commissioner of
the Treasury, his prominence in the fall
of Clarendon, i. 21, ii. 2 ; caricatured by
Buckingham, sent to the Tower, 3.
Cromwell, Henry (son of Oliver Crom-
well), letter from S. to him, i. 135.
Cromwell, Mary, statement that S. sought
her in marriage ; its improbability, i.
120, App. III. Iviii.
Cromwell, Oliver, remits the fine on
sequestration of the estates of S., i. 61 ;
sent to the relief of Taunton, 74 ; in-
crease of his power, 77 ; thanks S. for
advice to Denzil Holies, 78 ; ejects the
Rump Parliament, his motives, 90 93 ;
appoints a Council of State, 94 ; nomi-
nates the Barebone Parliament, 95 ; S.
and others deputed to ask him to join
it, 96 ; said to have offered S. the office
of Lord Chancellor, 103 ; zealously sup-
ported by S. 103, 105 ; refuses to be
King, 104; made Protector, 105; his
' ' Instrument of Government " opposed
by Parliament, 105110, 115118; dis-
solves Parliament, 118 ; S. separates
from him, 119, 123 ; " Petition and Ad-
vice " to him to assume the title of King
refused, 130 ; " Peers " appointed by
him, 133; debates thereon, dissolves
Parliament, 138 ; his death, 142 ; his
memory abused in a speech by S., 160,
App. IV, Ixv ; motives of S. for sepa-
rating from him, 163 ; his body exhumed
and hung at Tyburn, 237247.
Cromwell, Richard, nominated as one of
" Cromwell's Peers," i. 133 ; named by
his father to succeed him, 142 ; recog-
nized by the Council as Protector, 144 ;
proclaimed, 145 ; summons " Oliver
Cromwell's Peers " to the " other
house," 147 ; bill in Parliament for hig
recognition, 148 ; discussion on its terms,
149 ; bill to settle revenue on him,
opposed by S., 164 ; compelled by Fleet-
wood's party to dissolve Parliament,
170 ; his fall, 171, 173.
" Cromwell's Peers " summoned to the
"other house" (see "Other House,"
and Parliament).
Cronstrom, M., letter to S. on appoint-
ment as Chancellor, ii. App. IV. xlvii.
Cropredy Bridge, battle of, i. 58.
D.
Danby, Earl of (Sir Thomas Osborne),
created Viscount Latimer and Earl of
Danby, succeeds Clifford as Lord Trea-
surer, ii. 144 ; speech of S. on swearing
him in, 145, App. V. Ixxi ; opposes Dutch
war and French alliance, 149 ; proposes
a non-resistance "Test Bill," 203;
opposed by S. , 204 ; his reasons against
. ,
e bill, 205, App. VI. Ixxvii ; his sym-
pathy with Holland. 227 ; aids the King
in obtaining a subsidy from France, 245,
246 ; promotes treaty with Holland
against France, 255; bribe offered him
by Louis XIV., 256 ; his letter to Mon-
tagu, applying to France for large sub-
sidies, 270 ; intrigues of Duke of York
for his removal, 283 ; accuses Montagu
of Popish intrigues, his letters for
INDEX.
XXXV
French subsidies produced, his impeach-
ment, 304 ; negotiates with Opposition,
305 ; new Parliament adverse to him,
306 ; account by S. of his character and
conduct, 312 ; pardoned by the King,
318 ; his flight, bill passed against him,
surrenders for trial, 319 ; dismissed as
Lord Treasurer, 320 ; his pardon de-
clared illegal by Parliament, 332 ; ac-
cused of ordering the murder of Godfrey,
true bill against him, 409 ; notices of,
by Stringer^ Burnet, Evelyn, and S.,
App. III. xxxiv.
Dangerfield, his plot, charging S. and lead-
ing Protestants with conspiracy, ii. 348 ;
states he was hired to murder S., 349.
Death, punishment of, in 1646-7, i. 8184.
Da Bordeaux, French Ambassador, on the
offer of the throne to Monk, i. 216.
"Declaration of Indulgence " (see Re-
ligion).
De Ronquillos, Don Pedro, Spanish Am-
bassador, urges appointment of S. as
Lord Treasurer, ii. 370.
Desborough supports Richard Cromwell, i.
144 ; his jealousy of the Council of State,
145 ; his share in the deposition of
Richard Cromwell, 169173 ; his com-
mand in the army, 188.
De Witt negotiates the Triple Alliance,
ii. 11.
Diary kept by S. from 1646 to 1650, i.
App. II. xxxii.
Digby, Lord, quarrel of S. with him on
the election for Dorsetshire, action for
slander brought by S., 1,0001. damages
recovered, and 152Z. costs, ii. 214, 215,
220, 222, 224.
Dispensing Bill (see Act of Uniformity and
Religion).
Dissenters (see Religion).
Dolben, Archbishop of York, his friend-
ship for S., ii. 47 ; advocates divorce
and remarriage of Charles II., 381.
Dorchester, surrenders to the King's army,
i. 43.
Dorchester House, Covent Garden, a resi-
dence of S.,i. 33.
Dorsetshire, S. appointed Sheriff, i. 46 ;
its position between King and Parlia-
ment, 52 ; military services there of S.,
i. 5975 ; quarrel of S. with Lord Digby
at the election in 1675, S. recovers
damages for slander, ii. 215, 216.
Double returns of members of Parliament,
i. 37.
Dover, secret treaty between France and
England against Holland signed at,
ii. 19 (see Arlington, Buckingham,
Charles II., Colbert, Louis XIV.).
Downing, Sir George, Ambassador to the
Hague, ii. 79.
Downton, Wilts, S. elected memberfor it in
a double return, i. 36, 40, 76 ; his attempt
to obtain his seat in the " Rump " Parlia-
ment, 176 ; application for his seat,
described by Ludlow, App. III. Ix ;
claim at last recognized, 202.
Dryden, his satires on S. in
and Achitophel" (Monmouth and S.),
and "The Medal," Preface, xiv, i. 54,
98; their bitterness and falsehood,
general character of his satire, i. 223
226 ; does not ascribe the "Stop of the
Exchequer" to S., ii. 69; his incon-
sistency, 70 ; his eulogium of S. as a
judge, 175 ; becomes a Roman Catholic,
289; accuses S. of inventing circum-
stances in the Popish Plot, 288, 289;
falsehood and inconsistency of the
charge, 290, 300 ; eulogizes Halifax, ii.
875 ; extracts from his poem, " Absalom
and Achitophel," 429 432 ; from " The
Medal," 432 434; the satires suggested
and paid for by Charles II., 429, 434:
his "Albion and Albanius," 437; Lord
Macaulay's opinion of him, 474.
Dunkirk sold to France, i. 265.
Dupuy, valet of the Duke of York, ac-
cused of the murder of Godfrey, ii. 409.
Durham House, Strand, a residence of S. ,
i. 24.
Dutch war, declared, opposed by Claren-
don, promoted by S., i. 278 ; popularity
of the war, 279 . S. appointed Treasurer
of Prizes, Clarendon's dissatisfaction,
279 ; he remonstrates with the King
and S., 280; appointment of S. con-
firmed, 282 ; questions as to the appropri-
ation of prize-money, 283 ; secret treaty
between Louis XIV and Charles II.,
peace concluded, 303, 304 ; Triple
Alliance of England with Holland and
Sweden against France, ii. 11 ; secret
treaty between CharlesII. and Louis XIV.
against Holland, 18 ; war against Hol-
land commenced by England and France,
27 ; treaty between Holland and Spain-
77 ; object of Charles II. in promotion
the war, 78 ; supported by S. , his rea,
sons, 78 ; attack on the Dutch fleet
before declaration of war, denounced as
piratical, 81 ; grievances stated in de-
claration of war, 82 ; sea fight near
Southwold Bay, Earl of Sandwich killed,
84 ; victories of Louis XIV., 84 ; negoti-
ations, 85 ; treaty between France and
England not to make peace without
agreed conditions, 86 ; conditions re-
jected by Holland, 87 ; official speech of
S. as Lord Chancellor, 114 ; severe
comments on it, 115, 117; unpopularity
of the war, 145; the Dutch form
alliances, 148; opposed by S., 149;
negotiations for peace, 185 ; peace con-
cluded between England and Holland,
191 ; Charles II. mediates between
France and Holland, 210; secret per-
sonal treaty between Charles [I. and
Louis XIV., 211 ; ineffectual negotia-
tions, 227 :-Courtin, French Ambassador,
treats with S., 228 ; Charles II. urged
by Parliament to join allies against
France, 241 ; negotiations with Prince
of Orange for peace, 246 ; endeavour of
Charles II. to make peace, 254 ; terms
XXXVI
INDEX.
refused by Prance, 255 ; treaty between
England and Holland, 256 ; negotiations,
bribes, and subsidies, peace of Nimeguen
between France and Holland, 265276 ;
S. s written opinion on the peace of
Nimeguen, 281 ; memoir of Colbert to
Louis XI V., App. II. xii.
Dysart, Countess of, afterwards Duchess
of Lauderdale (see Lauderdale).
Elections to Parliament (see Parliament)
Elizabeth of Bohemia, Princess, letter
fromhertoS.,i. 275.
Ely Rents, Holbom, the property of S i
7, 8 ; App. II. xxxii, xlvi.
Emigration, the result of religious in-
tolerance, iii. 7.
Essex, Earl of, his mysterious death in the
. Tower, various opinions on, ii. App
VIII. cxxv.
Essex, Earl of, the Parliamentary General
his services in Dorsetshire in connection
with S., i. 58, 72; letter to him from
S., ii. 101 ; his proceedings as Privy
Councillor, ii. 328 ; resigns as first Com-
missioner of Treasury, 352 ; dismissed as
Privy Councillor, 387; petitions against
meeting of Parliament at Oxford. 890;
his letters to S. against granting Phoenix
Park to the Duchess of Cleveland, App
IV. xlvii liv.
Evelyn, John, proposed marriage of his
niece to S.'s son,ii. 35; describes atten-
dance of Charles II. in House of Lords
on Lord Koos's Remarriage Act, 42 his
notice of Sir W. Morrice, 45; on the
qualities of the sycamore, 51 ; ascribes
the " Stop of the Exchequer" to Clifford
65 ; member of Council of Trade and
Plantations, 93.
Exchequer, Chancellor of (see Chancellor
of the Exchequer).
Exchequer (see "Stop of the Exchequer").
Execution of Charles I., i. 85.
Executions in Dorsetshire for desertion
horse-stealing, &c., i. 8184, App. II ,
xxxiv xli.
Exeter College, Oxford, life of S. there,
i. 1518.
Exeter, Earl of, his daughter married to
S., i. 86.
Exeter House, Strand, the residence of S
when Lord Chancellor, ii. 166 ; disposed
of by him to builders, 222, 223, 224
Fairfax replaces Essex as Parliamentary
General, i. 75 ; tribute to him by S.,
Falston House, Salisbury, proposed by S
to be garrisoned, i. 69.
Fanshawe, Lady denounces S. for refusing
to give Ambassador's plate, i. 309.
Faria, Francisco, states he was hired to
murderS., ii. 350.
Fell, Dr., Dean of Christ Church, Oxford
letter of S. to him, recommendin^ Locke
for preferment, his servility to royalty
deprives Locke of his studentship, ii.'
Ferguson, Rev. Robert, joins S. in an in-
tended rising satirized in "Absalom
and Achitophel," ii. 447; accompanies
S. to Amsterdam, 452 ; legacy left to
him by S., 458.
Fiennes, Nathaniel, attacked in a speech
byS.,i. 161; App. IV. Ixvii.
Fifth Monarchists excluded by S from
toleration, ii. 6.
Finch, Sir Heneage, succeeds S. as Lord
Keeper, ii. 157, 158 ; his account of the
protecting pardon given to S. as Chan-
cellor, 159; as Lord Chancellor, urges
Charles II. to disown the Duke of York
370 ; his speech in conference with
Charles II. App. VII., cxx.
Fire of London, its effects, ii. 7.
Fitzharris, Edward, impeached by Com-
mons for treason, Lords resolve to pro-
ceed at common law, S. protests, ii. 407
accuses Danby of ordering the murder
of Godfrey, 409 ; tried and executed in-
terest of S. in his trial, 410.
' Five Mile Act," against Dissenters, sup-
ported by Clarendon, opposed by S., i.
292.
Fleetwood concurs in the recognition of
Richard Cromwell, i. 144 ; his jealousv
of the Council of State, 145 ; his share
in the deposition of Richard Cromwell
169173 ; made Commander-in-Chief bv
the "Rump," 188; appointment re-
voked, 189 ; takes S. prisoner, released
on parole, attempts to arrest him again
197 ; S. made Colonel of his regiment of
horse, 203 ; letter to him from S. and
others on their attempt to secure the
Tower of London, App. V. Ixxiv
Foreigners (see Naturalization of Fo-
reigners).
Fortune telling, skill of S. in, i. 29 ADD
I. xxiii.
Fox, Charles James, his opinion of S. ii.
France, at war with England, secret treaty
between Louis XIV. and Charles II
peace concluded, i. 303, 304; at war
with Spain, negotiations for an English
alliance, ii. 9, 10 ; defeated, 11 ; peace
concluded, 12 ; secret treaty with Eng-
land for war with Holland, 19 ; mock
treaty made to enlist support of S. and
Lauderdale, signed by them, 26 ; a fur-
ther treaty signed by them, 27 ; joined
by England, commences war with Hol-
land, 27 ; S. averse to French alliance,
28, 29 ; endeavours of S. to improve
treaty, 29; unpopularity of alliance
145 ; opposed by S., 149 ; intrigues with
English statesmen, 227, 228 ; endeavour
of Charles II. to make peace, 254 ; terms
refused by Louis XIV., 255 ; English and
Dutch alliance against, 256 ; progress of
INDEX.
XXXVll
negotiations, peace of Nimeguen, 265
276 ; French bribes and subsidies, 267,
268 (and see Dutch war, Louis XIV.).
Fuller, Dr. , Bishop of Lincoln, letter from
him to S., ii. 193.
G.
"Gantelope" (gauntlet), running the, a
punishment for deserters, i. 81.
Gardening, apple trees planted by S. at
Wimborne St. Giles, ii. 49; remarks
by S. on planting timber trees, on the
s\camore, and wall fruit, 50; Locke's
observations on vines, olives, &c., writ-
ten at the request of S., 49 : Evelyn's
remarks on the sycamore, 50; letter
from S. to Locke, 61 ; 8. commissions
Locke to buy orange and other trees,
vines, and seeds for him, 220, 221.
Gardening in the seventeenth century, i.
App. I. xviii.
Gentry of the West of England in the
seventeenth century, i. 25.
Godfrey, Sir Edmund Bury, murder of, ii.
296, 409.
Godolphin, Sidney, made Privy Councillor,
ii. 352 ; with Sunderland and Laurence
Hyde, chief ministers, nicknamed " the
Chits," 353.
Goldsmiths' Hall, fines for recovering
sequestered estates received at, i. 70.
Government interference in Parliamentary
elections (see Parliament).
Grafton, Duke of, son of Charles II. by
Duchess of Cleveland, married to daugh-
ter of Arlington, ii. App. II. xiii.
" Granadoes " used by S. in the storming
of Abbotsbury, i. 62 ; proposed to be
used to murder S. , ii. 350.
Grey, Lord, his calumnies against S., ii.
400 ; joins S., Monmouth, and Russell,
to raise an insurrection, 445 ; his account
of participation of S. in intended rising.
447, 448.
Grimstone, Sir H., letter to S. on the state
of the records, ii. App. IV. lv; notice
of him by Burnet, Ivi.
Guerden, Dr., first tutor of S., i. 12, App.
I. vi.
Guinea stock, speculations of S. in, ii.
226.
Guizot, M., his notices of S., i. 186, 190 ;
on the offer of the throne to Monk, i.
217.
H.
Habeas Corpus Act carried by S. , its pro-
visions explained, ii. 333, 334; said to
have been carried by a trick, 335.
Hale, Sir Matthew, a member of the Law-
Reform Commission (1052), i. 87.
Halifax, Lord, his relationship to S.,i. 22,
121 ; made Privy Councillor, ii. 84 ; his
mission to France during the Dutch
war, Colbert's account of him, 85 ; his
VOL. I.
ignorance of the design to establish
Popery, 8(5 ; presents petition of S. for
release from the Tower, 257 ; his pro-
ceedings as Privy Councillor, 328 ;
promotes design for introducing the
Prince of Orange, 341 ; opposes bill for
exclusion of Duke of York, 375, 376 ;
address for his removal, 381 ; speeches
in Committee of Privy Council, advising
arrest of S., App. VII. cxviii.
Hallam, his opinions of S., ii. 472.
Hampden, his attempted arrest by Charles
I., i. 55.
Hampton Court Palace offered to, but
refused by, Cromwell, i. 103.
Hanley bowling green, Dorsetshire, i. 25.
Harwich, flight of S. from London, his
stay at, ii. 451.
Haselrig, Sir Arthur, his description of
the ejection of the "Rump" Parlia-
ment, i. 93 ; refuses to sit as one of
"Cromwell's Peers," 133 ; his influence
aft a member of the Rump, 173, 188 ; his
intrigues with Monk described by S. ,
212 ; excepted from the " Pardon and
Indemnity Bill," his life spared on an
address from Parliament, supported by
S., 241, 243.
Hastings, Mr., account of him by S., i. App.
I. xv.
Hawking, practised by S. , i. 14.
Hawles, Sir John, condemns Chief Justice
Pemberton's charge on the trial of S., ii.
425.
Hebden, the Russian resident, his notices
of S., i. 274.
Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I., her
letter to S. as to payment of her pen-
sion, i. 317.
Hertford, Marquis of, commands the Royal
army, i. 48.
Hewson, Colonel, one of "Cromwell's
Peers," attacked in a speech by S., i.
161.
Highmore, Rev. John, chaplain to S. , his
letter to S. on the "Meal-tub" Plot, ii.
351.
Hill, Mrs. (widow of Stringer), letter from,
on Burnet' s misrepresentations of S., ii.
App. VIII. cxxiii.
Holland (see Dutch war).
Holies, Denzil (afterwards Lord Holies),
his relationship to S., i. 11 ; his litigation
with S., 39 ; his opposition to Cromwell,
advice to him by S., 78 ; co-operates
with S. in the House of Lords, ii. 200 ;
presents petition of S. for release from
the Tower, 257 ; letter from him to S.,
their early litigation and late friendship,
365.
Hooke House, Dorsetshire, proposed by
S. to* be garrisoned, i. 69.
Horses belonging to S., his instructions
when in the Tower for their sale, ii. 418.
Howard of Escrick, Lord, committed to
the Tower, ii. 411.
" Humble petition and advice " to Crom-
well to assume the title of King, i. 130 ;
XXXV111
INDEX.
discussed in Richard Cromwell's Parlia-
ment, 148, 151.
Hunt dinner at Tewkesbury, i. 28, App. I.
xxi.
Hyde, Ann, Duchecs of York (see York).
Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (see Clarendon).
Independents (see Religion).
Inspruek, Archduchess of, her proposed
marriage to the Duke of York, ii. 148.
"Instrument of Government," promul-
gated by Cromwell, i. 105110, 123;
superseded by Parliament, 130.
Interest of money, Parliamentary report
on, ii. App. I. v.
Ireland, its representation in Richard
Cromwell's Parliament, i. 146, 158 ;
quarrel between Lord Conwayand S. on
Irish affairs, 301 ; inclination of S. to
be Lord-Lieutenant, 303; 'letter from
Lord Conway to S. on politics, ii. 5 ;
speech of S. on its condition, Lord
Ossory's reply, 321 ; S. informs Privy
Council of a plot there, 363 ; " con-
cealed lands " belonging to the Crown,
general value of land, App. IV. liii,
liv ; speech of S. on the state of, App.
VI. cii.
Irish cattle, bill to prohibit importation,
supported by S , i. 299 ; discussion on
the bill, 300 ; quarrel between the Earl
of Ossory and Lord Conway and S.,
300.
Ireton, the regicide, attainted, his body
exhumed and hung at Tyburn, i. 237,
247.
Isle of Wight, S. appointed governor, i.
213, 249.
J.
James II. (see York, Duke of).
Jenkins, Sir Leoline, appointed Secretary
of State, ii. 359; speeches on foreign
affairs, App. VII. cxix, cxxi.
Keck, Abraham, a merchant of Amster-
dam, death of S. in his house, ii. 455.
La Cloche, James, a Jesuit, natural son of
Charles II., ii. 16.
Lambert, Colonel, his influence in restor-
ing the "Rump" Parliament, i. 173;
defeats Sir George Booth's insurrection,
185 ; his discontent with the Parliament,
188 ; suppresses the "Rump" by mili-
tary force, 189; efforts of S. to restore
it, 193 ; " Narrative " by S. of his pro-
ceedings, 194 ; imprisoned by the
"Rump," 218; escapes, raises troops,
is defeated, letter thereon from S. , 219 ;
condemned as a regicide, his life spared,
248.
Land, decay of rents, remedies proposed
by S. , ii. 6 ; registration of titles recom-
mended, 7 ; " concealed lands " belong-
ing to the Crown in Ireland, App. IV.
liii. liv. (see Registration of Titles).
Lauderdale, Duke of, his co-operation with
S. against Clarendon, i. 273 ; letter to S.
for payment of a grant from the King,
16 ; supports an alliance with France
against Holland, ii. 22 ; his ignorance-
of the secret treaty, 24 ; shared by S.
and Buckingham, 55 ; signs a mock
treaty excluding provision for restoring
Popery, 26 ; receives present from Louis
XIV., 31; attacked by House of Com-
mons, 155, 188 ; addresses for his re-
moval, 272, 329, 332.
Lauderdale, Duchess of, Burnet's notice
of her, ii. App. III. xxiii.
Law-reform Commission (1652), S. ap-
pointed a member of it, i. 87, 89.
Law-reforms projected in Barebone's Par-
liament, i. 100 ; ordinances by Crom-
well's Council, 113 (see Chancery, Court
of Wards).
La Chaise, confessor to Louis XIV., his
correspondence with Coleman on Popish
Plot, ii. 294.
Le Clerc, on Locke's friendship with S., i.
297.
"Letter from a Person of Quality" (1676),
ascribed to Locke, his denial, i. 261,
293 ; explains reasons of S. for support-
ing " Declaration of Indulgence," ii. 74 ;
ordered by House of Lords to be burnt,
supposed to have been written by S.,
207, 285.
Letters and Reports by S. , on the storm-
ing of Abbotsbury, i. 62 ; to the gover-
nor of Poole on military affairs, 68 ;
to Earl of Essex on the relief of Taun-
ton, 72 ; to Henry Cromwell, 135 ; to
Charles II., 179 ; to Montagu on Lam-
bert's defeat, 219 ; to his wife, 285, 294 ;
to Fleetwood on attempt to secure
the Tower of London, App. V. Ixxiv ;
to Locke on the marriage of his son,
second Earl, ii. 3537 ; to Sir W. Mor-
rice, 44, 47, 100 ; to Dr. Fell, 48 ; to his
Bailiff, Hughes, 49; to Locke on the
" Stop of the Exchequer," 61 ; to Earl of
Essex, 101 ; to Duke of York, urging
him to renounce Popery, 150; to Mr.
Bennett, on his quarrel with Lord Digby,
216 ; to Locke, consigning to his care a
son of Sir John Banks, 235 ; to Charles
II. and Duke of York, and circular to
Peers, whilst imprisoned in the Tower,
251254 ; to his bailiff, 261 ; to Bishops
for information as to sequestrated liv-
ings, App. IV. liv ; to Russell and other
Privy Councillors, advising them to
resign, 357 ; to Locke, 361 ; to Locke
on arrangements for his residence at
Oxford, 398400.
INDEX.
XXXIX
Letters to S., from Montagu, i. 214 ; Prin-
cess Elizabeth of Bohemia, 275 ; Arling-
ton, 275; Lauderdale, 316; Henrietta
Maria (Queen of Charles I.), 317 ; Lord
Conway, ii. 5 ; Sir W. Morrice, 46, App.
IV. xlvi ; Charles II. dismissing him as
Lord Chancellor, 145 ; Dr. Fuller, Bishop
of Lincoln, 193 ; Eftrl of Salisbury, 258 ;
M. Cronstrom, App. IV. xlvii ; Earl of
Essex, xlvii liv ; Sir H. Grimstone,
Iv ; Sir R. Southwell, App. VII. cvii ;
Ormond, on Irish affairs, 337; Rev. J.
Highmore, 351 ; Earl of Bridgwater, 362 ;
Lord Holies, 365; Locke, on politics,
367 ; Locke, on arrangements for his
residence at Oxford, 392.
Letters, Lady S. to Earl of Sunderland, i.
122 ; Locke to Earl of Pembroke, 261 ; Sir
Peter Pett to Archbishop Bramhall, 262 ;.
Locke to Earl of Pembroke, 296 ; Lady
Dorothy Ashley to Locke, ii. 38, 39; Lady
Ashley (wife of S.) to Locke, 40; Lord
Conway to Sir George Rawdon, 43 ; T.
Thynne to Sir W. Coventry, 98 ; Sir W.
Coventry to Thynne, 149 ; Stringer to
Locke on imprisonment of S. in the
Tower, 236, 239, 248, 250, App. VII.
cxii ; H. Coventry to Sir J. Williamson,
249 ; Danby and Charles II. to Montagu,
270 ; Coleman, secretary to Duchess of
York, to La Chaise, confessor to Louis
XIV., 294 ; Lady Russell to Lord William
Russell, 307; Barillon to Louis XIV.,
359 ; Sir Thomas Cheke to Sir Leoline
Jenkins, 415 ; Lady S. to Locke, 450 ;
Sir William Cooper to Stringer, 459 ;
Locke to Stringer, on proceedings of
Parliament at Oxford, 1681, App. VII.
cxii cxv ; widow of T. Stringer to
Lady Elizabeth Harris, grand-daughter
of S.,'on Burnet's misrepresentations,
App. VIII. cxxiii,
Lingard, his errors with reference to S.,ii.
120.
Locke, John, his "Commonplace Book,"
i. 35; his Life of S., Preface xv, xvii,
40, 47 ; its errors, 78, 80, 195, 197,
219 ; dedicates " Essays of Nicole" to
LadyS., 122; his intimacy with S.,
its origin, 222 ; accident to S. on their
journey the cause of satires and lam-
poons, 222, ii. 438, 456 ; his denial of
pamphlets ascribed to him, i. 261 ; pre-
pares for S. a constitution for Carolina,
288 ; friendship of S..for him, 295298 ;
his verses, his work on the "Human
Understanding," 297 ; advises a surgical
operation on S., ii. 34; letters to him
from S. on the marriage of his son to
Lady Dorothy Manners, 3537 ; from
Lady Dorothy Ashley, 38, 39 ; from Lady
Ashley (wife of S.), from S., 40; letter
from S. to Dr. Fell, recommending
Locke for preferment, 48; his "Obser-
vations on the Growth of Vines, Pro-
duction of Silk," &c,, written at the
request of S., 49 ; letter to him from S.
proving that the latter opposed the
" Stop of the Exchequer," 60 ; appointed
Secretary to Council of Trade and Plan-
tations, 93; anecdote of, 107; his ill-
health, residence at Montpelier, letters
to him from Stringer, 219224; letter
from S. to 'him, consigning to his care a
son of Sir John Banks, 235 ; letter from
S. to him, 361 ; from him to S., on poli-
tics, 367 ; makes arrangements for S. to
reside at Oxford to attend Parliament,
their correspondence, 391401 ; his re-
collections of S.'s conversation, 468 ;
Coste's account of his opinions of S.,
469 ; letter to Stringer on proceedings
of Parliament at Oxford, App. VII cxii.
London, petitions for the recall of the
"Rump" Parliament, i. 1T3; Monk's
proceedings there described by S., 207
212 ; riot in the City, design to murder
S., 362 ; the City beg Charles II. to follow
the advice of Parliament, his astonish-
ment, 374 ; sheriffs elected by Court in-
trigues, 443 445 ; S. joins Monmouth
and Russell to promote an insurrection,
undertakes to raise men in Wapping,
446 ; meetings to arrange plans, 446,
447.
Long Parliament (see Parliament).
Lords, House of, as nominated by Crom-
well 'see Parliament).
Louis XIV., his negotiations with Charles
II. for an alliance against Spain, ii. 9;
against Holland, 18; secret treaty of
Dover, 19; further negotiations with
Buckingham, 23 ; urges Charles II. to
treat with the Pope for establishing
Popery, 24 ; prefers alliance to establish-
ment of Popery, 135 ; endeavours to
bribe S. to return to Court, 182; his
anger at negotiations for peace with
Holland, 185 ; bribes Charles II. to pro-
rogue Parliament, 209 ; his secret per-
sonal treaty with Charles II., 21 ; offers
Charles II. another bribe to prorogue,
bribes members to support French alli-
ance, 227 ; prosecutes war against the
Dutch and their allies, 240 : grants siib-
sidy to Charles II., who adjourns Par-
liament, 245 ; his annoyance at the mar-
riage of William and Mary, 246 ; refuses
terms of peace proposed by Charles II.
255 ; offers further bribes for proroga-
tion, 256 ; his intrigues with English
statesmen, 267, 280 ; applied to by
Charles II. for large subsidies, 268, 270';
agrees to his terms, and signs a secret
treaty, 273 ; not ratified by Charles, L'7<i ;
refuses Charles II. a subsidy, 305; at-
tempts of Charles II. to obtain French
subsidy, 359; gives Charles II. a sub-
sidy for three years on a verbal tr. at y.
402, 403; despatch from Barillon to
him on the Pi-ivy Council, App. VII.
cix.
Ludlow, Edmund, a candidate for Wilt-
shire, his account of the election, de-
feated by S., i. 112 ; his statement as to
the separation of S. and Cromwell, 119 ;
2
INDEX.
his erroneous statements as to S,, 238 ;
from his Memoirs
referring to S., App. III. Ivi.
Lulw.orth, Dorset, during the rebellion, i.
67.
Lund, his deposition as to design on the
life of S.,ii. 305.
Luttrell, Narcissus, his Diary, notices of
danger to S. before his flight to Holland,
ii. 448.
Lyme, besieged by Prince Maurice, i, 58.
Lytton, Lord, lines on S. in his poem "St.
Stephens," ii. 430.
Macaulay, Lord, on S., and Dryden's
satires, i. 224, 225, ii. 474; on the
treacheiy of Dr. Fell, 48 ; his opinions
of S. refuted, 474482.
Manners, Lady Dorothy, her marriage to
Anthony Ashley, son of S., letters of S.
to Locke on the subject, ii. 3537.
Martyn,Benjamin,employedby fourth Earl
to write Memoir of S., Preface, xvi, xviii ;
his work improved by Dr. Sharpe and
by Dr. Kippis, edited by G. W. Cooke,
printed, the copies destroyed, Preface,
xvi, xvii ; errors in his Life of S., i. 40,
53, 75, 89, 102, 113, 116, 136, 182, 183,
195, 293, ii. 459, 479, App. I. iii, IL
xxviii, xxxi ; his account of the opposi-
tion of S. to the Corporation Act and
Act of Uniformity, i. 260, 261 ; of the
support given by S. to the " Dispensing
Bill," 268.
Marvel, Andrew, on the motives of S. for
supporting Lord Roos's Remarriage Act,
ii. 43 ; on the King's claim to dispensing
power in religion, 73 ; praises opposition
of S. to Danby's Test Bill, 206.
Mary of Modena, Queen of James II,, wish
of Charles II. to marry her, ii. 147 ; her
marriage to the Duke of York, 148 ; S.
advocates her divorce and remarriage of
the King to a Protestant, 377, 378.
Massal, an Italian spy, employed by Arch-
bishop Bancroft, his offer to murder Sir
William Waller, ii. 454 ; his account of
the death of S. , 455.
Maurice, Prince, commands the Royal
army, i. 43, 45, 58, 59.
Mazarin, Duchess of, her influence with
Charles II. in French interests, ii. 384.
" Meal-tub" Plot, charging S. and leading
Protestants with conspiracy, 348.
Medal struck to- commemorate acquittal
of S., ii. 428; Dryden's poem, "The
Medal," 432.
Medici, Cosmo de, dines with S. in English
style, preserves the bill of fare, ii. 110.
Mews, Dr., Bishop of Bristol, his letter
canvassing for Lord Digby as member
for Dorsetshire, ii. 218.
Mignet, M., his " Histoiy of the Nego-
tiations relative to the Spanish succes-
sion," Preface, x., ii. 13.
Military government taken by Parliament
from Charles I., i. 55.
Military power reorganized by Cromwell,
i. 108, 110 (see Army).
Militia Act passed by Charles II. 's Par-
liament, its miscliievous nature, opposed
by S., i. 260, 261.
Milton, his connection with Cromwell and
Thurloe, i. 111.
Minors sitting in Parliament, i. 30.
Monk (see Albemarle).
Monmouth, Duke of, his legitimization pro-
posed by Buckingham, ii. 9 ; a plenipo-
tentiary to Lons XIV 7 ., 85 ; S. favours a
project for declaring him legitimate, 148 ;
S. favours his succession to the throne,
329, 330 ; suppresses Scotch rebellion,
S. proposes his commanding a troop of
Guards, 341 ; ordered to leave England,
goes to the Hague, 344: deprived of
offices, S.'s connection with him, 347 ;
proposal that he should join the Prince
of Orange, 353 ; returns to England, 354 ;
reconciled to Charles, 360 ; Charles de-
nies marriage to his mother, 364; sup-
ports bill for exclusion of the Duke
of York, 376 ; resolution of Parliament
for his restoration to favour, 386 ; con-
versation between Charles II. and S. as
to his succession, 408, App. VII. cxvii ;
visits S. in the Tower, 413 ; joins S. and
Russell to raise an insurrection, 445 ;
arrested at Stafford, released on bail,
446; complains of recklessness of S.,
449.
Montagu, Earl of Sandwich (?ee Sandwich).
Montagu, Ralph, Ambassador at Paris,
letters to him from Danby and the King,
pressing Louis XIV. for large subsidies,
ii. 270 ; accused by Danby of Popish
intrigues, his papers seized, produces
Dauby's letters, Danby's impeachment,
303, 304.
Mordaunt, Lord, his agency in the resto-
ration of Charles II., i. 181, 184.
Moreton, Sir George, account of him by
S., i. App. I. xvii.
Morrice, Sir W., a coadjutor of Monk,
letters from S. to him, ii. 44, 47, 100 ;
from him to S., 46, 100, App. IV.
xlvi ; his learning and rhetoric, 45, 46 ;
judge of a wrestling match before
Charles II., 45.
Mulgrave, Sheffield, Earl of, lines on S. ill
his "Essay on Satire," ii. 430.
X.
Nappeir, Sir Gerar<l, account of him by
S., App. I. xvii.
Natural! , atiou of foreigners proposed by
S. for improvement of trade, ii. 7; his
memorial to Charles II., App. I. v ;
proceedings hi Parliament, v, vi.
Newbury, battle of, i. 61.
Nimeguen, peace of, between France and
INDEX.
xli
Holland, ii. 276 ; S.'s written opinion of
the peace, 281.
North, Roger, ascribes the "Stop of the
Exchequer" to S., ii. 66; his misrepre-
sentations of S. 's conduct as Chancellor,
ii. 162169, 172, 174.
Norton, Sir Daniel, guardian of S.', i. 13.
Nottingham, Lord Chancellor (see Finch,
Sir Heneage).
Noy, Attorney-General, counsel for S. in
Court of Wards, i. 10. App. I. ix.
o.
Oates, Titus, his perjuries in connexion
with the Popish Plot, ii. 287, 291, 293,
2iM, 300.
Oath or Test of Protestantism (see Reli-
gion).
Olivian, Dr., his predictions respecting S.,
i. 20, App. I. iv, v, xiii, xiv.
Orange, Prince of, advises rejection of
terms of peace with Holland, ii. 87 ;
his visit to England, and marriage with
Mary, daughter of the Duke of York,
246, 247; Charles II. negotiates with
him for peace, 246 ; his influence with
the King, 254 ; design of English states-
men to place him on the throne, ii. 339 ;
views of S. thereon, 340. 341 ; his own
views of succeeding to the throne, 345 ;
proposal that he should join Monmouth,
352, 354; favours bill for exclusion of
Duke of York and himself, 387, 888.
Orleans, Duchess of (sister of Charles II. X
supports an alliance of England with
France, ii. 13, 14, 15, 19, 21 ; her death,
22.
Ormond, Duke of, made Lord Steward by
Charles II., i. 229 ; envy excited by his
wealth and station, 300 ; removed from
Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland, ii. 4 ; his
friendly relations with S., 47, 322; as-
cribes the "Stop of the Exchequer" to
Clifford, 65 ; acts in the Cabinet with
Arlington and S. against France and
Popery, 144 ; joins S. in opposing Dutch
war and French alliance, 149 ; letter to
S. on Irish affaire, 337.
Orrery, Ean o f, attacked in a speech by S.,
i. 161, App. iv. Ixvii.
Osborne, sir Thomas, afterwards Earl of
Danby ( se e Danby).
Ossory, Earl of, his quarrel with S., or-
dered by the House of Lords to apologize,
i. 300301 ; replies to reflections of S.
on his father, ii. 322 ; comments of
Ormond on his speech, 338; ordered to
Tangier, his death, 368.
"Other House, the," comprising "Peers"
named and summoned by Cromwell
(see Parliament).
Otway, his satire on S. in "Venice Pre-
served," ii. 437.
Oxford, life of S. at Exeter College, i. 15,
18, App. I. x, xi ; Parliament meets there,
289; second Earl of Shaftesbury sent
there, 285, 286, 294 ; S. visits him, 294,
295 ; Parliament called at, ii. 386 ;
Locke's arrangements for residence of
S. there, 391 401 ; townsmen refuse to
lodge King's guards, 401 ; Parliament
meets, 404 ; dissolved, 405.
Oxted, Surrey, S.'s residence at, i. 75.
P.
" Pardon and Indemnity Bill " introduced
for supporters of the Commonwealth,
i. 235 ; exception of the regicides, dis-
cussed in Parliament, 235 342 ; regi-
cides tried and executed, others spared,
243-248.
" Pardon, protecting," granted to S. on
his dismissal as Chancellor, ii. 157, 159.
Pardons granted by Charles II. to sup-
porters of the Commonwealth, including
S. i. 228.
Parliament, minors sitting in, i. 30 ; "the
Short" (1640), 31; "the Long," 35;
double return of members, 37 ; Parlia-
mentary cause joined by S., 47, Y7, 86 ;
his statement of his motives, 49 ; its
proceedings in 1641-1644, 55, 56 ; tie
"Rump," its supremacy in the Com-
monwealth, 77 ; it absolves S. from
delinquency, 89 ; the Rump ejected by
Cromwell, number of its members, 90
93 ; descriptions of the scene, 93 ; Bare-
bone's Parliament nominated by Crom-
well, 95 ; its proceedings and character,
96, 98, 99 ; its powers resigned to Crom-
well, 102; New Parliament, S'. elected
for three places, 112; its opposition to
Cromwell, 115 ; its dissolution injurious
to Cromwell, 124 ; meets again, S.
elected for Wilts, but with others ex
eluded by the Council of State, 124, 125,
126; "Remonstrance" of excluded
members, 127 ; " Address " to Cromwell
in favour of two Houses and of his being
King, carried, 128, 129; altered to a
"Petition and advice," creation of
another House earned, 120 ; adjourned,
reassembled as two Houses, 132 ;
" Cromwell's Peers " summoned to the
"other House" by IJichard Cromwell,
133, 147, 158, 164 ; debates on the "other
House," 137 ; dissolution, 138 ; speeches
of S., 139, App. IV. 65 ; New Parliament
summoned by Richard Cromwell, 146 ;
its peculiar constitution, 147 ; " other
House," the speeches of S. against it dur-
ing Richard Cromwell's Parliament, 148
168 ; his long speech against time, 160,
App. IV. Ixiii ; power of Parliament to
make peace and war upheld by S. 157 ;
Fleetwood's party compel HichardCroni-
well to disserve, 170: the "Rump"
restored, 173 ; its sovrn-ixn authority,
number of its members, 175 ; S. fails to
recover his .seat for Downton, 176 ; Par-
liament fails to satisfy the army, 187,
188 ; is suppressed with military force by
xlii
IXDEX.
Lambert, 18ft ; exertions of S. to restore
it, 19.3 ; share of S. in its restoration,
201 ; S. admitted to sit for Downton,
'29-2 ; Monk's proceedings described by
S., 205-212; the " secluded members "
admitted, 212 ; S. leaves the republi-
cans and joins the royalists, 213 ; new
Parliament of Lords and Commons, S.
represents Wiltshire, 220 ; " Convention
Parliament," bill passed with the assent
of Charles II. declaring its legality, 234;
discussions on " Pardon and Indemnity
Bill," for supporters of the Common-
wealth, 235242 ; S. in favour of spar-
ing the lives of the regicides, 238 ;
adjourned, 243 ; reassembles, 249 ; dis-
cussions on revenue and the ehuri;'..,
speeches of S., 250, 251 ; dissolved, 253 ;
new Parliament meets, S. in the House
of Lords as Baron Ashley of Wimborne
St. Giles, 255 ; bishops restored to the
House, its first measures high church
and royalist, 257 ; Corporation Act, Act
of Uniformity, and Militia Act passed,
provisions of these acts, their mis-
chievous nature, 258260 ; opposed by
S. , 261 ; discussions on Act of Unifor-
mity, 261, clause to enable the King to
dispense with its provisions, 263 ; re-
jected, Act passed, 264; "Dispensing
BUI" supported by S., 2G7 269; address
to Charles II. to banish Jesuits and
priests, Conventicle Act, 270; ses-
sion at Oxford, discussion on appro-
priation clause in Supply Bill, opposed
by Clarendon and S., 289 291 ; " Five
Mile Act," supported by Clarendon, ^
opposed by S., 292; "Non-resistance
Oath Bill " rejected, 293 ; bill to pro-
hibit importation of Irish cattle, Claren-
don's strictures on support of it by S.,
299; Earl of Ossory quarrels with S.,
ordered by the House of Lords to apo-
logize, SOU ; Commons propose to im-
peach Clarendon for general treason,
Lords refuse to join unless particular
treason assigned, 313 ; scheme for "com-
prehension " of Dissenters rejected,
Conventicle Act renewed, ii. 6 ; Com-
mittee on land and trade, opinions of
S. adopted, 8 ;. question of privilege
arranged by suggestion from S., 19 ;
money granted for war, dispute as to
right of Lords to alter money bills, 27 ;
Buckingham objects to making war
without advice of Parliament, S. con-
curs with him, 30; discussion of Lord
Roos's Remarriage Act, Charles II.
attends debate in House of Lords, 42 ;
bill supported by S., his motives, bill
passed, 43 ; privilege, letter by S. to
Morrice, 45 refusal to find means to
remove the "Stop of the Exchequer,"
70 ; clause in Conventicle Act asserting
King's supremacy, modified by Com-
mons, 73 ; repeated prorogations, another
at instance of Louis XIV. , 92 ; meets
after an interval of two years, strong
opposition to arbitrary power, S. Lord
Chancellor, discussion on writs issued
by him during prorogation, 112 ; King's
speech, defends ' ' Declaration of Indul-
gence," official speech of S., 113 ; custom
for Chancellor to make such a speech,
115 ; King justifies the issue of new
writs, 120 ; places of the Chancellor and
Heir-apparent, 118; discussion on issue
of writs, precedents in favour of the
practice, statements of Bishop Burnet,
T. Thynne, Roger North, and Bishop
Parker adverse to S., their inaccuracy,
121125 ; right of the House to issue
writs in future established, 126 ; minis-
terial influence in elections, 126 ; letter
from S.to Recorder of Chester in favour
of Duke of York's friend, its failure, 127;
supply granted, 128 ; discussion on
" Declaration of Indulgence," addresses
to the King, his evasive replies, 128,
129 ; addresses of Commons against
" Declaration of Indulgence," 129 ; King
appeals to Lords, reasons of S. for this
step, 129134; its failure, 132; Decla-
ration cancelled, 131 ; "Test Act," im-
posing Protestant oath on officials,
passed, 135 ; Clifford's violent speech,
137 ; supply granted, 140 ; satisfaction
of Commons, 141 ; Commons' address
against Duke of York's marriage to Mary
of Modena, 152 ; official speech of S. as
Chancellor, 154 ; supply refused, 154 ;
Buckingham conceals secret treaty, 186 ;
speech of Charles II. on French alliance,
opposition led by S., 187; address to
remove Papists from London, 188 ; dis-
cussions on restraining Popery in the
royal family, 189 ; prorogued to gratify
Louis XIV., 199 ; letter from S. to
Earl of Carlisle advocating new Parlia-
ment, 200; Danby's Test Bill opposed
by S., discussions and speeches, dispute
on privilege, prorogation, 203, 208 ;
further prorogation for fifteen months,
209 ; interference of Peers in elections,
letter from Bishop of Bristol canvassing
for Lord Digby, 218 ; Earl of Bristol
attacks S. and Lord Mohun, and is
ordered to ask pardon, 219 ; legality of
long prorogation disputed, 226, 230 ;
Buckingham supported by S., Salisbury,
and Wharton, moves for dissolution,
ordered to ask pardon, they refuse and
are sent to the Tower, 230233 ; the
question discussed in House of Com-
mons, 234, 236 ; S. kept in confinement
by repeated adjournments, 236 ; supplies
restricted, 242 ; alliance against France
urged, members bribed by Spain and
Germany, 243 ; S. petitions the Lords,
is heard and released, 257260 ; record
of his imprisonment cancelled, 260 ;
bill against Popery in House of Lords,
265 ; alliances urged upon the King,
intrigues of Louis XIV., Buckingham
and members or Opposition bribed, 266,
267 ; war against France again urged,
INDEX.
xliii
26S, 271, 275 ; address to remove Lauder-
dale, 272 ; resolves to disband army and
stop supplies, 275 ; S. distrusts the King
and fears French power, 279 ; members
bribed by France, 280; speech of S.
on claim to Purbeck peerage, 286 ; in-
trigues of Duke of York for dissolution,
283, 285 ; S. protests against Bishops
voting in trial of a peer for murder,
286; inquiries into the Popish Plot,
measures against Papists, their exclu-
sion from Parliament, 297 ; called the
" pensioned Parliament," prorogued and
dissolved, 305 ; new Parliament meets,
306, 316 ; Speaker Seymour's election
opposed by the King, 316 ; Serjeant
Gregory agreed to, 317 ; debates on
Danby's attainder, 319; S. advocates
his banishment, 320 ; speech of S. on
the state of the nation, 321 ; meetings
of the Commons on Sundays, 329, 331 ;
stringent measures against Papists and
the Duke of York, 329, 330 ; bill to ex-
clude him from the succession, 331 ;
Danby's pardon declared illegal, sudden
prorogation, 332 ; indignation of S. , 333 ;
Habeas Corpus Act carried by S., its
provisions explained, 333, 334 ; dissolved
against advice of Privy Council, 343 ;
new Parliament meets in fifteen months,
343 ; prorogued, petition for its meeting
presented to Charles II. by S. and other
Peers, 354 ; other petitions, 355, 356 ;
Charles issues proclamation against
"seditious" petitions, receives them
with anger, 355 ; Parliament meets after
fourteen mouths, 356 ; King's speech,
372 ; discussions on Popery, Commons
pass bill for exclusion of Duke of York,
372, 373 ; thrown out by the Lords, 374 ;
again discussed, speech by S., 383 ;
divorce of the Queen, and remarriage
of Charles to a Protestant, advocated by
S., 377, 378 ; address to the King to re-
move Halifax, 381, 385; also Worcester,
Clarendon, and others, 3S5 ; other strong
resolutions against lending to the King,
3S5 ; prorogation, and dissolution, 386 ;
new Parliament called at Oxford, 386 ;
pj.ition from S. and other Peers for
meeting at Westminster, 390 ; its recep-
tidii by the King, 390 ; instruction by 8.
for guidance of members, 391, App. VII.
cxi ; S. prepares to reside at Oxford,
correspondence with Locke, 391 401 ;
Charles II. 's last Parliament meets at
Oxford, King's speech, his expedient for
Duke of York to govern by a regent,
rejected, exclusion uAl adhered to, dis-
solution in ten days, 404,405,409 ; Locke's
account of proceedings, 406, App. Vii.
cxii; speeches of 8. as Chancellor on
election of Speaker (CharLmi), App. V.
Ixi ; speeches of S. in amplification
of the King's speeches, Ixiii, Ixxii ;
speeches of 8. to Speaker (Seymour),
Ixix ; speech of S. on Dr. Shirley's appeal
from Chancery to the House of Lords,
App. VI. Ixxxiv ; on the Purbeck Peer-
age, xcvi ; on the state of the nation,
xcix ; on foreign policy and religion,
cii ; instructions supposed to be by S.
to members elected in 1681, App. VII.
cxi ; letter from Locke on proceedings
of Parliament at Oxford, cxii.
Parliamentary soldiers condemned to
death, reprieved by the influence of S.,
i. 82, 83.
"Peers," Cromwell's (see Parliament).
Pemberton, Chief Justice, refuses to admit
S. to trial on bail, ii. 416 ; and to admit
his indictment of the magistrate and
witnesses, 417 ; his charge to grand jury
on trial of S., 421 ; strictures thereon by
Sir John Hawles and Lord Campbell,
425, 426.
Pembroke, Earl of, tried by his peers for
murder, ii. 286.
Pensioned Parliament (see Parliament).
Pepys, Samuel, on the conduct of S. as
Treasurer of Prizes, i. 283, 284, 307 ;
other notices of S., 271, 273, 274, 298 ;
on agricultural depression (1667, 1668),
300 ; on proceedings of Treasury Com-
missioners, 308 ; on connection of S.
with Clarendon after his fall, 311 ; names
members of Cabal in 1667, ii. 2 ; on S.'s
support of Buckingham, 4 ; illness of S.
and surgical operation, 34 ; dines with
S., conversation of S. and Lady Ashley,
106 ; asserts that S. took a bribe, 107 ;
and was greedy of money, 109 ; elected
M.P., accused of being a Roman
Catholic, reference to S., letter from
him, Iy4.
Peters, Hugh, his share in Law Reform
Commission (1652), i. 87, 88 ; executed
as a regicide, 243.
Phoenix Park, Dublin, proposed grant of,
to the Duchess of Cleveland, ii. App. IV.
xlvii liv ; particulars of its area and
value, liii, liv.
Pilkington, Sheriff of London, dinner
given by him to S. and his party, ii. 441,
442.
Plague, notices of the, i. 289, 295, ii. 7.
Plantations (see Trade and Plantations).
Planting (see Gardening).
Poole, Dorsetshire, during the Rebellion,
i. 67 ; S. elected member for, 112 ; S.
again returned to Richard Cromwell's
Parliament, sits for Wiltshire, 147.
Popery (see Religion).
Popish Plot of 1678 (see Religion).
Portland, surrenders to the King's army,
i. 43 ; 8. appointed governor by Chas I. ,
46.
Portsmouth, Duchess of (Mademoiselle de
Querouaille), so created by Charles II.,
ii. 160 ; S., as Treasurer of Prizes, re-
fuses her warrant, 161 ; her influence
on public affairs, and in the interest of
France, ii. 308, 320, 326 ; account of her
character and conduct by S., notice
of, by Evelyn, 311 ; Charles refuses
ministers' request to dismiss her, 360
xliv
INDEX.
indictment against her as a recusant,
grand jury dismissed, 366 ; endeavours to
gain S. as Secretary of State, 3U7 ; sup-
ports bill for exclusion of Duke of York,
374 ; loses favour with the King, 387 ;
Charles jealous of her political con-
nexion with Sunderland, 403.
Presbyterian party in the Parliamentary
army replaced by Independents, i. 75,
76, 77 ; Cromwell's fear of it the cause
of the ejection of the " Rump," 92 ;
joined by S. in opposition to Cromwell,
124 ; S. leaves it and joins the Republi-
cans, 180 ; Presbyterians join Royalist
rising under Sir George Booth, 185.
Presbyterians (see Religion).
Presents by Louis XIV. to plenipoten-
tiaries for signing treaties, ii. 31 ; given
by S. to his son's bride, 35, 36 ; by
Louis XIV. as bribes to English states-
men and members of Parliament (see
Louis XIV.).
Pride, Colonel, attacked in a speech by S.,
i. 161, App. IV. Ixviii ; accused of
cruelly killing bears, Ixxi.
Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester, tutor of
S. at college, i. 14, App. I., x.
" Prime Minister," a name of French
origin, not used by Clarendon, i. 230.
Privilege (see Parliament).
Privy Council, S, nominated by Charles II.,
i. 227 ; its constitution, 229 ; motion to
remove Duke of York, he withdraws,
298; reorganized by Charles II., S. ap-
pointed President, ii. 323 ; its origin
and constitution, 324 ; salary of S., 327 ;
King dissolves Parliament against its
advice, 342 ; S. dismissed as President,
347 ; Russell and others resign at insti-
gation of S. , 357 ; discussion in Com-
mittee, arrest of S. urged by Halifax and
Clarendon, 412, App. VII. cxviii : S.
arrested, examined, and' committed to
the Tower, 412, 413 ; S. dismissed from,
197 ; Barillon's despatch to Louis XIV.
on its new constitution, App. VII. ex.
Prize money (see Dutch war).
Procession, equestrian, of S. as Chancellor,
to Westminster, ii. 167.
"Project of Association" for defence of
religion and Protestant succession, ap-
proved by S., used against him at his
trial, ii. 423 ; opposed by the Court,
addresses in "abhorrence" of it, 443.
Punishment of death in 1646, i. 8184.
Purbeck Peerage, speech of S. on a claim
to the, ii. App. VI. xcvi.
Pyne, a servant of S., his humour, i. 28,
App. I. xxii.
Q.
Querouaille, Mademoiselle de, Duchess of
Portsmouth (see Portsmouth).
R.
Radnor, Earl of, speech in conference with
Charles II. ii. App. VII. cxxi.
Raleigh, Carew, son of Sir Walter Raleigh,
related to S. by marriage, satire on him,
i. App. II. xxxiii.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, his head buried in
his son's coffin, i. App. II. xxxiii.
"Rawleigh Redivivus," notices of S. in, i.
47, 52, 249, ii. 459 ; on equestrian pro-
cession of S. as Chancellor, ii. 168.
Records, report of Master of the Rolls to
S. on their condition, ii. App. IV. Iv.
Regicides, discussions in Parliament as to
their punishment, some executed, others
spared, i. 235242; S. in favour of
sparing all, 238, 242 ; S. one of their
judges. 243 ; his acting so condemned,
244 ; defended, 24-4247, ii. 465, 476 ;
punishment of Lord Monson and others,
i. 248.
Registration of titles to land, proposed by
8.. ii. 7; his memorial to Charles II.,
App. I. v ; proceedings in Parliament,
v., vi.
Religion, Independents in Parliament and
the army, i. 75, 76, 77 ; their predomi-
nance in Barebone's Parliament, 95, 101 ;
Cromwell's " Instrument of Govern-
ment," 109; S. a Commissioner for
ejection of ministers in Wilts and
Dorset, 113 ; debates in Parliament,
speeches of S., 250251, 252; Acts
passed by High Church party to im-
pose oaths, Act of Uniformity, opposed
by S., 258 261; passed, 264 ; its effects,
265, 268 ; bill introduced to dispense
with it, 266; "Dispensing Bill," sup-
ported by S., 267269 ; copy of the bill,
App. VI. Ixxix ; address of Parliament to
Charles II. to banish Jesuits and Priests,
Conventicle Act passed, 270, 277 ; <; Five-
Mile Act" against Dissenters, opposed
by S., 292 ; " Non-resistance " Oath Bill,
rejected, 293 ; religion in Dorsetshire,
described by S., App. I. xx ; Dispen-
sing clause proposed by Charles II. in
Act of Uniformity, rejected by House of
Lords, App. VI. Ixxviii; Buckingham
and S. favour toleration of Dissenters,
ii. 5; scheme of "comprehension" re-
jected by Parliament, 6 ; new Conven-
ticle Act passed, 6 ; Roman Catholics
not included in S.'s views of toleration,
6 ; toleration urged by S. in a paper on
trade, &c., 6, 7 ; attempt of Charles II.
to establish Popery, supported by Ar-
lington, secret treaty, Buckingham,
Lauderdale, and S. ignorant of it, 16
24, 28 ; " Declaration of Indulgence,"
for Dissenters and Roman Catholics,
issued by Charles II. , supported by S. ,
71 ; his statement of his reasons, 74 ;
debates on Dispensing Bill, 72 ; clause
in Conventicle Act asserting King's su-
premacy, modified by House of Com-
mons, 73; Buckingham and S. learn
the design to establish Popery, 86,
87; Charles II. defends "Declaration
of Indulgence," promises Parliament
to preserve Protestant religion, 113 ;
INDEX.
xlv
Charles II. 's speech to Parliament, is "re-
solved to stick to Declaration of Indul-
gence," 113 ; debates thereon, addresses
to King against it, his evasive answers,
128, 129 ; beginning of Test Act, 129 ;
King appeals to House of Lords without
success, 129, 130 ; cancels Declaration,
S.'s announcement, 131; his reasons for
appeal to the Lords, 132 ; " Test Act "
passed, imposing Protestant Oath on
officials, supported by S., 136; public
fear of coercion into Popery, 146; S.
regarded as the protector of Protes-
tantism, 149; S.'s fear of assassination
by Papists, 150 ; addresses of House of
commons against Duke of York's mar-
riage with Mary of Modena, 153 ; S.
leads opposition in House of Lords, 187 ;
carries address to remove Papists from
London, 188; discussions on restrain-
ing Popery in the royal family, 189;
measures aimed against Duke of York,
193 ; Danby's Test Bill, opposed by S.,
his reasons against it, 203205, App. VI.
Ixxvii ; proofs that Charles II. was a
Roman Catholic, 288, 289 ; Popish Plot
of 1678, its mixture of truth and false-
hood, perjuries of Titus Gates, 2S7 301 ;
murder of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey,
exclusion of Papists from Parliament,
299, 409 ; the measure supported by S. ,
299 ; Catholic Emancipation Act (1829),
repeal of Test and Corporation Acts
(1828), 299, 300; five Roman Catholic
Peers sent to the Tower, 297 ;
Charles II. asserted by S. to be con-
cerned in the plot, 310 ; Parliament
expresses belief in the plot, bill intro-
duced against Popery, 318 ; speech of
S. on danger to Protestantism, 321 ; S.
opposes imposition of oaths on Dissen-
ters, 328 ; stringent measures against
Popery and Duke of York, 329, 330 ;
bill to exclude him from the succession,
331; "Meal-tub" Plot, accusing S.
and Protestants of conspiracy, attempts
by its authors to murder S. , 348, 349 ;
riots in the city, 362 ; S. informs
Privy Council of a plot in Ireland, 363 ;
Duke of York indicted by S. .and others
as a recusant, grand jury dismissed, 366 ;
debates, Duke of York's Exclusion Bill,
passes the Commons, rejected by the
Lords, 372 374 ; again discussed, speech
by S., 383; S. advocates the King's
divorce and marriage to a Protestant,
:;77 ; strong resolutions by Parliament,
386 ; Bill for Relief of Dissenters passed,
Charles II. refuses assent, S. moves for in-
quiry, 386, 405, 406 ; penal laws against
Dissenters put in force, 443 ; memorial
li-om 8. to Charles II. on Indulgence to
Dissenters, &c., App. I. v; proceed-
ngs in Parliament, v., vi ; memoir of
Colbert to Louis XIV. on the views of
Charles II. about establishing Popery,
App. II. xii. ; reasons of S. against
Danby's Test Bill, App. VI., Ixxvii ;
speeches of S. on Protestant doctrine
Ixxxi ; on Popery and the state of the
nation, c.
Reports and Letters by S. (see Letters).
Remarriage Act, in favour of Lord Roos
(see Roos, Lord).
Reynolds's description of ejection of
" Rump " Parliament, i. 93.
Roekbourne, Dorsetshire, the property of
S. , i. 1, 8.
Roberts, Lord, introduces Dispensing Bill,
to mitigate Act of Uniformity, i. 266,
supported by S., 267; made Earl of
Radnor and President of Council, ii.
347.
Roman Catholics ^ee Religion).
Romney, Henry Sidney, Earl of, Envoy
to the Hague, promotes design to intro-
duce the Prince of Orange, ii. 339 ; con-
fers with S. , 340 ; extracts from his
Diary, 339, 353, 375, 431.
Ro:>s, Lord (afterwards Duke of Rutland",
his divorce, bill in Parliament to
enable him to remarry, ii. 41 ; sup-
ported by Charles II., opposed by Duk.
of York, King present at the debate,
scene described by Evelyn, bill sup-
ported by S., his motives, 42 ; Lord
Roos afterwards twice married, 43.
" Rose," the ship, interest of 8. in its
trade to Guinea, App. II. xlvi.
Running the gauntlet, a punishment for
deserters, i. 81.
" Rump," joke on the word by S., i. 209.
Rump Parliament (see Parliament).
Rupert, Prince, commander of the newt in
1673, ii. 146 ; joins S. in opposing war
and French alliance, 149.
Russell, Earl, his misrepresentation of S.
in "Life of Lord William Russell," ii.
290.
Russell, Lord William, refuses a briba
from France, ii. 267 ; his cordial action
with S., 291 ; his statement before ex-
ecution, 292 ; his communications with
S. in the Tower, 279 ; moves address to
remove Duke of York from the Privy
Council, Duke withdraws, 298; letter
to him from his wife, 307 ; speech
against Popish successor to Charles II.,
331 ; resigns as Privy Councillor at
instigation of S., 357 ; urges severity to
Duke of York, 371 ; becomes bail for S.
on his release from the Tower, bail dis-
charged, 441 ; joins S. and Monmouth
to raise an insurrection, 445 ; his caution
opposed to confidence of g. , mind of
S. probably affected, 449 ; his uniform
co-operation with S., 291, 477, 478, 480,
Preface, v.
Russell, Lady William, her opinion of S.,
ii. 307, 438, App. VIII. cxxvii.
Rutland, Countess of, letters to Locke
referring to S., ii. 39.
Rutland, Earl of, marriage of his daughter
to Anthony Ashley, son of S., ii. 35.
Ruvigny, Marquis de, French Ambassador,
his notices of S., i. 273, 278, 292 ; envoy
xlvi
INDEX.
to negotiate a French alliance, ii. 9 ;
bribes English statesmen, 11 ; renewed
negotiations, 13 ; his endeavour to bribe
S. to return to office, 181, App. III.
xliv.
Ruvigny, M. (son of the Marquis), treats
with Opposition on behalf of Louis XIV. ,
ii. 267 ; treats with Louis and Charles
for French subsidies, 274.
S
St. Giles's, S. lays the first stone of his
house there, i. 86 (see Wimborne St.
Giles).
St. James's Park, wrestling match before
Charles II., ii. 45.
St. Martin's Lane, house there occupied
by S., ii. 223.
Salisbury, Earl of, supports motion for
dissolution in consequence of proroga-
ti on for fifteen months, ii. 230; ordered to
ask pardon, refuses, sent to the Tower,
232 ; petitions King for release, 237 ;
released, 239 ; letter to S. on his peti-
tion for release, 258 ; record of im-
prisonment cancelled, 260; resigns as
Privy Councillor, 3S7.
Salisbury Plain, S. elected for Wilts on, i.
112.
Bancroft, Archbishop, employs an Italian
spy. who reports to him the death of
S., ii. 455.
Sandwich, Montagu, Earl of, letter to S.,
i. .214; made K.G., 227; created Earl
of Sandwich, 229 ; made President of
Council for Trade and Plantations, ii. 8 ;
killed in sea-fight in Southwold Bay,
84, 96.
Savile, Lord, his forged letter to the
Scotch Commissioners i. 35.
Scandalum Magnatum, actions of, brought
by S. after his release from the Tower,
ii. 441 ; not allowed to be tried in Mid-
dlesex, discontinued, 442.
Schomberg, M. , appointed Commander-in-
Chief, ii. 146.
Scot, Thomas, accuses S. of Royalist
intrigues, his denial, i. 179 ; executed
as a regicide, 243.
Scotch army enters England (1644), i. 57.
Scotland, its representation in Richard
Cromwell's Parliament, i. 146, 158 ;
speech of S. on the state of,, ii. App. VI.
ci ; speech of S. on Lauderdale's
government, ii. 321.
Scroggs, Chief Justice, dismisses grand
jury from trying indictment against
Duke of York, ii. 366.
"'Sell-denying Ordinance," its effect on
the Civil War, i. 75.
Sequestration, fine incurred by S. remitted
by Cromwell on petition, i."l34.
Seymour, Edward, Speaker of the House
of Commons, official speeches to him by
S. , biographical notices of him, ii. App.
V. Ixix.
Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, taken from the
Royalists by S., i. 67, App. II. xxx.
Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley, second Earl
of), his birth, i. 87 ; sent to Oxford,
visited there by S., 285, 286, 294 ; nego-
tiations for his marriage, ii. 32 ; letter
from S. as to proposed marriage with
niece of the Earl of Warwick, 33 ; with
niece of John EA'elyn, married to
Dorothy, daughter of Earl of Rutland,
letters from S. to Locke on arrange-
ments for the marriage, 35 37; birth
of his son (third Earl), letters from Lady
Dorothy Ashley to Locke referring to
S., 38, 39; Act of Parliament enabling
him as a minor to .acknowledge tines, &c.
of lands, 38 ; notices of, in Stringer's
correspondence with Locke, 222, 223,
224 ; satirized by Dryden, his character,
431.
Shaftesbury, third Earl, his birth, ii. 38 ;
his education entrusted to S. who visits
him at Wimbome St. Giles, 224 ; his
education by S., 248; letter from Lady
S. to Locke on his illness, 450.
Shaftesbury, fourth Earl, employs Martyn
to write Memoir of S. Preface, xvi.
"Shastou," the old spelling of Shaftes-
bury, Dorsetshire, i. 67.
Sheriffs of London elected by Court in-
trigues, 443445.
Shirley, Dr., speech of S. on his appeal
from Chancery, ii. App. VI. Ixxxiv.
Shorthand written by Sir W. Morrice,
Secretary of State, ii. 45.
Short Parliament (see Parliament).
Sidney, Algernon, references to S. in his
correspondence, ii. 328.
Sidney, Henry (see Romney, Earl. of).
"Size" of beer at Oxford University, i.
17, App. I. xii.
Skinners' Company, S. a member, con-
gratulatory dinner to him on his acquit-
tal, ii. 441.
Soldiers, Parliamentary, reprieved by S.'s
influence, i. App. II. xxxviii, xliv.
"Solemn League and Covenant " con-
cluded (1643), i. 57; signed and ad-
ministered to others by S., 86.
Southampton, Earl of, made K.G. by
Charles II., i. 227, appointed Lord Trea-
surer, 229; his connexion by. marriage
with S., 257; acts with S. in opposing
High-Church measures, 261 ; his death,
304.
Southwell, Sir Robert, letter to S. on an
alleged design upon his life, ii. 305,
App. VII. cvii.
Speculations of S. in Africa and West
Indies, mines in Cardiganshire and
Somersetshire, and a Derbyshire ' ' dis-
covery," ii. 226 (see Bahamas and Caro-
lina).
Speeches, Charles II. to Parliament, ii.
113, 154, 274, 292, 298, 331, 372, 382,
404.
Speeches of Privy Councillors in Com-
mittee for Foreign Affairs, and con-
INDEX,
xlvii
ference with Charles II. , ii. App. VII.
cxviii.
Speeches of S. on creation by Cromwell
of a second House of Parliament, i.
138 ; in Richard Cromwell's Parliament,
reported by Burton, 148 ; extracts and
references to them, 148 168: long speech
against time on the " other House," 160,
App. IV. Ixiii ; in favour of leniency to'
the regicides, 241, 242, 243, 247 ; on
revenue and the Church, 250, 251, 253,
254 ; against Corporation Act, and Act
of Uniformity, 260, 261; on " Dispen-
sing.Bill," 268, 269 ; on swearing in
Clitford as Lord Treasurer, ii. 97 ; as
Lord Chancellor, official, 113; Strin-
ger's account of its preparation, 117 ;
custom for the Cmcellor to make such
a speech, 115 ; on swearing in Danby
as Lord Treasurer, 145 ; on opening
Parliament, official, 154; on swearing
in Baron Thurlaud, 169 ; quoted by
Earl of Essex, App. IV. xlix ; against
Danby's Test Bill, 205, 206 ; to Court
of King's Bench on habeas corpus for
release from the Tower, 238 ; in House
of Lords, for release, 258 ; on the power
of France, its mastery of the seas, 278 ;
on the state of the nation, 321 ;
against imposing oaths on Dissenters,
328 ; in favour of bill for exclusion of
Duke of York, 375 ; on King's divorce,
and marriage to a Protestant, 377, 378 ;
again on bill for excluding the Duke of
York, ordered to be burnt by the hang-
man, 383, App. VI. cii ; when Chan-
cellor, App. V. Iviii Ixxvi ; after his
Lord Chancellorship, App. VI. Ixxvii
cvi.
Spain and France, war between, ii. 9 ;
peace concluded, 12.
Spencer, Margaret, third wife of S., her
family and character, i. 121 ; her letter
to Sunderland, 122 ; letters of S. to her,
285 ; letters from her to Locke, ii. 40,
450 ; named by S. as his sole executrix,
jewels bequeathed to her, 458.
Stafford, Viscount, found guilty of treason,
ii. 382.
Stillingrieet, Bishop, obtains prebend at
request of S., ii. 193.
"Stop of the Exchequer" enforced to
raise money for Dutch war, description
of the measure, ii. 56 ; blame ascribed
to S., 56 ; proofs that he opposed it, his
remonstrance to Charles II., 58, 59 ; his
letter to Locke, statements of Sir W.
Temple and Evelyn, of Ormond and
Lord Mohun, 60, 65, 66 ; assertions to the
contrary by Lord Keeper Finch, Roger
North, Bishop. Burnet, and in Life of
James II., 66 68 ; weakness of these
statements, errors of Lords Campbell
and Macaulay, 68, 69 ; Dryden does not
accuse S. of it, 69 ; Parliament refuses
to lind means to remove the "Stop,"
interest to bankers reduced, annuities
granted, final arrangement, 70; ics in-
fluence on S. in refusing to be Lord
Treasurer, 92; continued by Charles II.
in Council, 98 ; official speech of S. as
Lord Chancellor, 114 ; bankers sued by
their creditors, S. as Lord Chancellor
stays proceedings, 164, 165.
Storming of Abbotsbury by S., i. 6267.
Strangers in the House of Commons, one
sent to Newgate, i. 148.
Strangways, Sir John, his house stormed
and burnt by S., i. 62, App. I. xix.
Stringer, Thomas, secretary to S., "Frag-
ment of a memoir of S." by him,
Preface, xviii, xix; ii. App. III. xxh;
errors in his accounts of S., i. 40,
209, ii. 132; his communications used
m Martyn's Life of S., ii. 58 ; his
statement of the discovery by S. of
Charles II. 's design to establish Popery,
88 ; refusal by S. to be Lord Treasurer,
90 ; on official speech of S. as Lord
Chancellor,. 117; his account of /S.'s
family and ceremonies as Lord Chan-
cellor, 169;, of Ruvigny's attempt to
bribe S. to return to office, 181 ; letter
to him from Sir William Cooper/ on
death, will, and funeral of S., ii. 459 ;
letter of his widow to Lady Elizabeth
Harris, granddaughter of S., on Burnet's
misrepresentations, App. VIII. cxxiii ;
letter from Locke to him, on proceed-
ings of Parliament at Oxford, App. VII.
cxii ; his letters to Locke (see Letters).
Stuart, Miss (afterwards Duchess of Rich-
mond), dishonourable proposals of
Charles II. to her, i. 309.
Sturminster, S. marches against Royalists
at, i. 67, App. II. xxx.
Sunderland, Earl of, his relationship to S.,
i. 121 ; appointed Secretary of State, ii.
307 ; his desire to give office to S., 320 :
his scheme to introduce the Prince of
Orange, 339 ; sends for Duke of York on
Charles II. 's illness, 343; his fear of S.
and Monmouth, 344 ; applies to S. to be
First Commissioner of the Treasury, he
refuses, 352 ; with Laurence Hyde and
Sidney Godolphin (chief ministers),uick-
named " the Chits," 353 ; urges Prince
of Orange to come to England, 360 ; his
desire to conciliate S., 370 ; urges Charles
II. to send Duke of York from England,
371 ; supports bill for his exclusion from
the succession, 376 ; dismissed from
Privy Council and as Secretary of State,
387.
Sunning Hill, S. there to drink the Astrop
waters, i. 295.
Suppressed passages from Ludlow's Me-
moirs referring to S., i. App. III. Ivi.
Sycamore, the (see Gardening).
Sydenham, Colonel, with S. at the taking
of Wareham, i. 59; at the storming of
Abbotsbury, 63 ; his opposition to Bare-
bone's Parliament, 101 ; named on the
Council of State, 110.
xlviii
INDEX.
T.
Taunton besieged by the Royalists, re-
lieved by ., i. 72, App. II. xxx.
Temple, Sir William, negotiates Triple
Alliance, ii'. 11 ; sent to the Hague to
support it, 13; ascribes "Stop of the
Exchequer" to Clifford, 65; again sent
to the Hague, peace of Nimeguen con-
cluded, 276 ; his account of new Privy
Council, 325 ; promotes design for intro-
ducing the Prince of Orange, 339 ; dis-
missed as Privy Councillor, 387.
" Test Act " (see Religion).
Tewkesbury, a hunt dinner at, represented
in Parliament by S., i. 27, 28, 30, App. I.
xxi; S, again elected for, 112.
Thanet House, Aldersgate Street, occupied
by S., ii. 225, 400 ; S. arrested at, 412 ; S.
absconds from, to avoid arrest, concealed
in the City and Wapping, his flight to
Holland, 446, 447.
Thurland, Baron, speech of S. on swearing
him in, ii. App. V. lix.
Thynne, Thomas, presents petition JJpr
meeting of Parliament, rejected by
Charles II ii. 355.
Tillotson, Bishop, his attempt to induce
Lord William Russell to disavow his"
opinions, ii. App. VIII. cxxvi.
Timber, remarks by S. on planting, ii. 50.
Tongue, a perjured witness with Titus
Gates, ii. 287, 291.
Tooker, , guardian of S., i. 13.
Tower of London, secured for the Parlia-
ment by S., i. 200, 202; his letter to
Fleetwood thereon, App. V. Ixxiv ; S.
committed thei-e for disputing legality
of long prorogation, ii. 232; his treat-
ment, 234, 236, 240, 247, 249, 250 ; kept
in confinement by adjournments of Par-
liament, petitions the King, 237 ; appears
in King's Bench on habeas corpus, offers
bail, judges have no jurisdiction, ^39 ;
his speech, App. VI. xciv ; petitions
King and Duke of York, circular letter
to Peers, 250254 ; petitions House of
Lords, debate thereon, is heai'd, makes
submission, and is released, ii. 257200,
265 ; visitors to him in confinement, 261 ;
record of imprisonment afterwards can-
celled, 260 ; five. Roman Catholic Peers
imprisoned, 297; Lord Howard of Escrick
committed for treason, 411 ; S. com-
mitted, 413 ; applies for trial or bail,
refused, 414; his illness, kindness of Sir
Thomas Cheke, the Lieutenant, 415;
further applications for trial or bail
refused, attempt of ministers to
strengthen evidence, 416 ; 8. indicts
magistrate and witnesses, indictment
rejected, 417 ; applies for leave to retire
to Carolina, the King refuses, 419 ; tried
by special commission, 419 ; judge's
charge, evidence, grand jury ignore the
bill, 421 425 ; fresh endeavours to
strengthen evidence, 419, 420, 421 ; S.
released on bail, his bail discharged,
441 ; joy at his acquittal, 427, 441 ;
mysterious death of Lord Essex, App.
VIII. cxxv.
Trade and Plantations, Council for, S.
appointed a member, i. 249 ; his atten-
tion to these subjects, 277 ; measures
for improvement of trade, proposed by
him, ii. 6; new Council, Earl of Sand-
wich president, 8 ; S. appointed presi-
dent, Lord Culpeppei' vice-president,
Waller and Evelyn members of Council,
Locke secretary, 93 ; Council superseded
by Charles II., Committee of Privy
Council appointed, 222 ; Parliamentary
report on 'decay of, App. I. v ; advice
Qf S. to Charles II. for its development,
described by Martyn, App. I. ix.
Travelling 'in the seventeenth century,
i. 286, 287.
Treasury, death of Earl of Southampton,
Treasury put in Commission, i. 304 ; S.
appointed a Commissioner, 305 ; Pepys'
note on management of Commission,
308 ; Charles li.'s proposal to make S.
Lord Treasurer, refused ii. 90, App. III.
xxvi ; Clifford appointed Lord Treasurer,
97 ; speech of S. on swearing him in,
App ^. Mi ; Danby succeeds him, 144;
speech of S. on swearing him in, 145,
App. V. Ixi ; Dauby disinissed, office put
in Commission, 320 ; Essex resigns as
First Commissioner, post refused by S.,
taken by Laurence Hyde, 352.
Tregonwell, John, account of him by S.,
i. App. I. vii, viii, xviii ; Lord Digby's
quarrel with S. at his house, ii. 215.
Trenchard, Sir Thomas, notice of by S.,
App. I. xix.
Trial and acquittal of S., 421425.
Trial and execution of Charles I., 85.
Trial of the regicides (see Regicides).
Triennial Act repealed, i. 277.
Triple Alliance of England, Holland, and
Sweden against France, ii. 9; intrigues
to break it, 12 ; Dryden accuses S. of
breaking it, 69.
"Tucking" freshmen, an old custom at
Oxford, i. 17, App. I. xii.
Tunbridge, visit of S. to, i. 75.
U.
Uniformity (see Act of Uniformity).
Uvedall, Sir William, account of him by
S., i. App. I. xvii.
Vane executed as a regicide, i. 248.
Vicars's Parliamentary Chronicle, on the
storming of Abbotsbury, by S., i. 64.
W.
Waller, Edmund, member of Council of
Trade and Plantations, ii. 93.
Waller, Sir William, Parliamentary Gene-
ral, his connexion with S., i. 58, 69.
Waller, Sir William, takes refuge at Am-
INDEX.
xlix
sterdam, admitted a burgher, ii. 452 ;
offer of Massal to murder him, 455.
Walfingford House (site of the present
Admiralty), the residence of Fleetwood,
i. 167 ; meetings there to oppose Richard
Cromwell, 169, 173, 188, App. III. lix, '
Ixi, App. V. Ixxv.
War cup, a magistrate, prepares charge of
treason against S., ii. 413; indicted by
S., admission of indictment refused, 417.
Wardrobe of S. in 1672, ii. 102.
Wards (see Court of Wards).
Wareham, garrisoned by the Royalists,,
taken by S., i. 59, App II. xxix; its
destruction proposed by S. , 69.
Warwick, Earl of, proposed marriage of
his niece to S.'s son, letter from S. to
the Earl, ii. 32, 33.
Weymouth, surrendered to the .King's
army, i. 4^ ; S. appointed governor, 45 ;
retaken by Essex, 58. 1
Wharton, Lord, supports motion for dis-
solution in consequence of prorogation
for fifteen months, ii. 230 ; ordered to
ask pardon, refuses, sent to the Tower,
232 ; petitions King for release, 237 ;
released, 239 ; record of imprisonment
cancelled, 260.
Wheelock, John, servant of S., accom-
panies him in his flight, ii. 451 ; S. dies
in his arms, 455 ; legacy left -to him by
8., 458. '
Whitelocke's allusions to S. , i. 76.
"Whole Duty of Man," its authorship,
i. 22.
Wight, Isle of, S. appointed Governor,
i. 213, 249.
Wilkins, Dr., appointed Bishop of Chester,
joins in a scheme of "comprehension"
of Dissenters, ii. 6.
Wilkinson, Captain Henry, endeavour to
suborn him to give evidence against S..
ii. 419.
William III. (see Orange, Prince of).
Williamson, Sir Joseph, Secretary of State,
extracts from his correspondence, ii. 136,
142, 150, 155, 249, 307, App. III. xxxii.
Willis, Dr., consulted by S. at Oxford,
i. 294.
Wilson, Samuel, secretary to S., com-
mitted for treason, ii. 419 ; removed by
habeas corpus, 440.
Wiltshire, S. appointed sheriff (1647), i. 80,
83 ; represented by S. in Barebone's
Parliament, 95 ; S. elected member for,
112 ; again elected, but excluded by the
Council of State, 124; takes his seat
under the "Petition and Advice," 136;
represented by S. in Richard Cromwell's
Parliament, 147.
Wimborne St. Giles, Shaftesbury's birth-
place, i. 1, 4; church rebuilt by his
father, 4j S. lays first stone of his house
there, 86; S. created "Baron Ashley'
of Wimborne St. Giles, extract from his
patent of peerage, 256 ; S. visited there
by Charles II., 289 ; Locke resides with
S. there, ii. 35, 38; described as "sweet
St. Giles" by Lady Ashley, daughter-in-
law of S., 39; letter from S. to his
bailiff, on planting timber, apple trees,
&c., 49 ; "orders for Lord Shaftesbury's
house, settled July 1675," 211 ; funeral
of S. at, 461.
Worcestershire, when visited by S., i. 27,
App. I. xxi.
Wrestling match in St. James's Park, for
1,000?. before Charles II., ii. 45.
Wyche, his "Vindication" of S., Preface,
xx.
York, Charles I. at, i. 55.
York, Ann Hyde, Duchess of, anecdote of
her, ii. 104 ; her death, 141.
York, Duke of (afterwards James II.),
opposes High Church measures, i. 263 ;
attends the cabal, or Cabinet (1667),
ii. 3 ; supports alliance with France
against Holland, 13 ; becomes a Roman
Catholic, meeting at his house to esta-
blish that religion, 16 ; opposes Lord
Roos's Remarriage Act, 42 ; quarrels with
S. about his place in the House of Lords,
118 ; resigns office on passing of Test Act,
death of his wife, Ann Hyde, 141 ; com-
ments on his retirement and avowed
Popery, 142, 143 ; marriage with Mary
of Modena, 147 ; addresses against it from
House of Commons, 152.; letter to him
from S. when prisoner in the Tower, 253 ;
promotes alliance against France, 255 ; in-
trigues with S. ami others for dissolution
and removal of Dan by, S. 's memorandum,
the Duke's perversion of the truth, 283
285 ; letters of Coleman pressing the
Duke's claims to assistance from France.
295 ; address proposed for his removal
from the Privy Council, he withdraws,
298; new Parliament adverse to him,
306 ; makes conditions for leaving Eng-
land, 308 ; departs for Brussels, 309 ; ac-
count by S. of his character and conduct,
314 ; resolution of Parliament against
him, 330 ; bill for kis exclusion from the
succession, 331 ; proposal to make him
King of the Romans, 340 ; sent for on
illness of Charles II., 343; returns to
Brussels, 344 ; sent for by Charles, 356 ;
d by S. and others as a recusant,
.jury dismissed, 360 ; urged by
7Miuisters to leave England, 370; he
>t the King's request, 371 ; ex-
it of Charles II. for his governing
.vgenoy, 404; rejected, 405; his
< induct as King, 462,
A LIFE
OF
ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPEK,
FIRST EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.
LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY.
CHAPTEE I.
16211639.
EBRATUM.
Vol. I. page 10, line 22, for "wish" read "wit."
WAIU. cuoi-Gia-iii-iaw, xjauj oavue, moiiier 01 ijoru namax, ana
Pakington Sketch of his youth.
ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, the future Earl of Shaftes-
bury, was bom on July 22, 1621, the nineteenth year
of the reign of James the First. He has himself been
careful to note that he was born " early in the
morn," and that he was "the eldest child then living
of his father and mother." 1 His father was John
Cooper, created in the next year a baronet, of Kock-
borne in Hampshire. 2 His mother was Anne, the only
child of Sir Anthony Ashley, knight, who was also in
1 Autobiographical Sketch of 1646 prefixed to Diary, Appendix II.
2 Kockborne is close to the borders of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire,
" within a few miles of Wimborne St. Giles.
VOL. L B
LIFE OF SHAFTESBTJRY.
CHAPTER I.
16211639.
Birth and parentage Baronetcies of father and maternal grand-
father The Coopers and Ashleys Sir Anthony Ashley Death
of mother and of father Sir A. A. Cooper a King's ward
Losses of property by Court of Wards Litigation with Sir Francis
Ashley and Denzil Holies Sir A. A. Cooper's wealth His
guardians Goes to Exeter College, Oxford, when sixteen His
life at Oxford Entered at Lincoln's Inn Marries at eighteen
daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry Predictions of a German
astrologer His brothers-in-law, Henry anfl Sir William Ooveirtry,
and sisters-in-law, Lady Savile, mother of Lord Halifax, and Lady
Pakington Sketch of his youth.
ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, the future Earl of Shaftes-
bury, was born on July 22, 1621, the nineteenth year
of the reign of James the First. He has himself been
careful to note that he was born " early in the
morn," and that he was "the eldest child then living
of his father and mother." 1 His father was John
Cooper, created in the next year a baronet, of Kock-
borne in Hampshire. 2 His mother was Anne, the only
child of Sir Anthony Ashley, knight, who was also in
1 Autobiographical Sketch of 1646 prefixed to Diary, Appendix 11.
2 Rockborne is close to the borders of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire,
and within a few miles of Wimborne St. Giles.
^ I. B
2 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
the next year made a baronet, of Wimborne St. Giles
in Dorsetshire. He was born in his grandfather's
house at Wimborne St. Giles, near Cranborne; "he
was nursed," he has written himself, " at Cranborne
by one Persee, a tanner's wife." l
The date of Sir Anthony Ashley's baronetcy is
July 3, 1622, and that of Sir John Cooper's the day
after. The order of baronets had been created by
James the First ten years before, and in the present
year he completed the number, two hundred, of which
it was originally provided that the order should consist,
and which, it had also been stipulated, was never to be
exceeded. Every baronet then paid one thousand and
ninety-five pounds for the honour. No one was admitted
to it who was not possessed of a thousand pounds a
year, clear of encumbrances, and who could not prove
descent from a grandfather on the father's side who had
borne arms. 2
" My parents on both sides of a noble stock, being of
the first rank of gentry in those countries where they
lived," is Shaftesbury's own account of his ancestry. 3
The Coopers appear to have been persons of con-
sideration in the West of England, for at least two
generations before Sir John Cooper, the father. 4 Henry
the Eighth granted the manor of Paulet in Somerset-
shire, taken from the Gaunt's Hospital in Bristol, to
Kichard Cooper of Eockborne, Sir John Cooper's grand-
1 Autobiographical Sketch.
2 By the rules of the order every baronet was also a knight ; so
Shaftesbury, in the Fragment of Autobiography, describes his father
as " knight and baronet." (Appendix I.)
3 Fragment of Autobiography, Appendix I.
4 Collins's Peerage (Brydges), iii. 545.
1621. HIS ANCESTRY. 3
father. 1 Sir John Cooper's father was member of
Parliament for Whitchurch, in Hampshire, in 1586.
and received the honour of knighthood from Queen
Elizabeth. Sir John Cooper himself sat in the House
of Commons for Poole, in the first and third parlia-
ments of Charles the First, 1625 and 1628. 2
Shaftesbury's lineage on the mother's side was more
ancient and distinguished. The Ashleys, a younger
branch of an ancient Wiltshire family, 3 had been
planted at Wimborne St. Giles since the reign of Henry
the Sixth ; and their ancestors, traced through heirs
female, had been lords of that manor from before the
reign of Edward the First. 4 Sir Anthony Ashley in-
herited the property late in life, on the death of his
cousin, Sir Henry Ashley, without issue. 5 He had been
bred to public employment, and had probably already
enriched himself in the service of the State. He had
been for many years one of the Clerks of the Privy
Council. In 1589 he went as Royal Commissioner in
Norris and Drake's expedition against Portugal, and in
1596 he was Commissioner for embarking the troops
and Secretary to the Council of War in the expedition
of Lords Effingham and Essex against Cadiz. 6 Essex
knighted him with many others after the capture of
Cadiz. On his return home he was charged with
1 Collinson's Hist, of Somersetshire, iii. 100.
2 Willis's Not. Parl. ii. 411. He was John Pym's colleague.
Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 14.
4 See the Ashley pedigree in Hutchins's Hist, of Dorsetshire, iii. 174.
5 Burke's Extinct Baronetcies, Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles.
6 Camden, Ann. Elizabeth (Hearne), p. 720. Strype's Annals of
Reform, iv. 400. Some of Shaftesbury's biographers have made the
mistake of calling Sir A. Ashley Secretary at War to Queen Elizabeth.
There was no such office in those days.
B2
4 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
peculation, was imprisoned, and was for some time in
disgrace. When, late in life, he became the proprietor
of Wimborne St. Giles, he was a liberal benefactor
of the parish. He rebuilt the parish church, and built
and endowed almshouses for the relief of eleven old
persons. 2 He is said to have introduced the cultivation
of cabbages from Holland. 3
Shaftesbury appears to have derived from his mother's
side the "pigmy body" of Dryden's satire. He describes
Sir Anthony Ashley as " of a large mind in all his
actions, his person of the lowest," and he says that
" his daughter was of the same stature ; " while of Sir
John Cooper, his father, he says that he was "very
lovely and graceful both in face and person, of a mode-
rate stature, neither too high nor too low." 4
Old Sir Anthony Ashley felt the liveliest interest in
the grandchild born to inherit the ancient possessions
of his house. He caused him to be christened, in devia-
tion from custom, with the double name of Anthony
Ashley ; " for notwithstanding," says Shaftesbury, " my
grandfather had articled with my father and his
guardians that he should change his name to Ashley,
1 Archoeologia, xxii. 172 ; Birch's Mem. of Q. Eliz. ii. 49, 95, 144,
171. Several letters preserved in the Cotton and Lansdowne MSS. in
the British Museum show that Sir A. Ashley's official life was not free
from suspicion on other occasions.
2 Hutchins's Hist, of Dorsetshire, iii. 193.
8 Evelyn's " Acetaria, a Discourse of Sallets : " " Tis scarce a. hundred
years since we first had cabbages out of Holland, Sir Anthony Ashley
of Wiberg St. Giles in Dorsetshire being, as I am told, the first who
planted them in England." The "Acetaria" was published in 1699.
Ben Jonsoii in his " Volpone," first acted in 1605, describes a busy
newsmonger as receiving weekly intelligence " out of the Low Countries
in cabbages."
4 Fragment of Autobiography, Appendix I.
1628. HIS MOTHER'S DEATH. 5
yet, to make all sure in the eldest, he resolved to alter
his name so that it should not be parted with." 1 In the
same year, 1621, in which Anthony Ashley Cooper was
born, the old grandfather, then in his seventieth year,
married a second wife, a very young lady, by name
Philippa Sheldon, related to the great favourite, the
Duke of Buckingham. But this second marriage seems
to have made no ill-will ; a daughter born to Sir
John and Lady Cooper two years later was christened
Philippa after Lady Cooper's stepmother. Sir Anthony
Ashley lived long enough to choose his grandson's first
tutor, whom he chose because he was a Puritan, and
he died, at the age of seventy-six, on January 13,
1628. 2 Anthony Ashley Cooper was then in his
seventh year.
Six months after his grandfather's death Anthony
Ashley Cooper's mother died of small-pox. Her death
was on the twentieth of July, 1628. She left two chil-
dren besides Anthony, a daughter Philippa, two years
1 Fragment of Autobiography. Two Christian names were then
uncommon. Sir Simonds P'Ewes, having occasion to name Sir A A.
Cooper in 1641, in his Journal of the Long Parliament, explains, "He
named Anthony Ashley in his baptism " (Harl. MSS. in British
Museum, 162, p. 213 a). Cromwell is said to have called him Marcus
Tullius Cicero, the little man with three names. (Martyn's Life of
Shaftesbury, i. 168.) Camdcn mentions that there was a provision in
Sir John Cooper's marriage settlement, that, if he or any of his heirs
should obtain a peerage, the title was to be Ashley (Britannia, Gibson's
ed. i. 63) ; and this is confirmed by a note of the fourth Earl of Shaftes-
bury preserved in the family papers, stating on the authority of
Mr. Stringer, that Sir A. A. Cooper was ignorant of such a stipulation
when he chose the title of Baron Ashley after the Restoration, and was
much rejoiced, on his afterwards becoming acquainted with the settle-
ment, that he had unwittingly complied with this provision.
2 Sir A. Ashley's young widow married Carew Raleigh, the son of
Sir Walter, and survived her second husband, who died in 1667. Sir
A. Ashley's first wife, Shaftesbury's grandmother, was Jane, daughter
of Philip Okeover, Esq. , of Okeover in Staffordshire.
6 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAR I.
younger than Anthony, and a son George, two years
younger than Philippa. 1
Sir John Cooper afterwards made a second marriage
with Lady Morrison, widow of Sir Charles Morrison,
knight, of Cashiobury in Hertfordshire, and one of the
daughters and co-heiresses of the great City mercer,
Sir Baptist Hicks, created by Charles the First Viscount
Campden. 2 He died within three years after his first
wife's death, March 23, 1631. He had no children
by his second wife. She had had one daughter by Sir
Charles Morrison, who lived to inherit Cashiobury, and
who passed it to the family to which it still belongs :
for she became the wife of the gallant, ill-fated Lord
Capel, the victim of one of the Commonwealth High
Courts of Justice, and was the mother of the not less
ill-fated Earl of Essex, a political associate of Shaftes-
bury in the reign of Cha,rles the Second, whose myste-
rious death in the Tower on the morning of Lord
Eussell's trial is one of the melancholy incidents of
the Eye House Plot. Cashiobury being the jointure
house of his second wife, Sir John Cooper lived there
frequently with his family after his second marriage,
and Cashiobury was thus the home of Lord Shaftesbury
during a portion of his boyish years.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper had lost both his parents
before he completed his tenth year. He inherited, with
other property, very extensive estates in the four counties
1 Philippa Cooper married Sir Adam Brown, baronet, of Betchworth
Castle in Surrey, and died at a very advanced age in 1701. (Aubrey's
Surrey, ii 307.) George Cooper married, in 1647, one of the daughters
and co-heiresses of Alderman Oldfield, of London.
2 Banks's Dormant and Extinct Peerages, iii. 140.
1631. ENCUMBERED INHERITANCE. 7
of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, and Somerset-
shire. 1 But Sir John Cooper had encumbered this
inheritance by gambling and extravagance, and the
young baronet's fortune was now further injured by the
gross injustice of a relative, by maladministration of
the Court of Wards, and by great litigation.
Inheriting estates held by tenure of knight-service of
the Crown, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper became a King's
ward ; and all his property so held was, during his
minority, under the control of the Court of Wards.
Sir John Cooper had left considerable debts, and now,
by corrupt means and by the active instrumentality of
Sir Francis Ashley, a brother of old Sir Anthony, an
order for sale was obtained from the Court of Wards,
by which the young baronet's interests were greatly
injured. Sir Francis Ashley was the King's Serjeant,
and as such had great influence with the Attorney of
the Court of Wards. Thus he obtained a decree of sale
in which his own friends were named commissioners to
the exclusion of the trustees appointed by Sir John
Cooper, 2 and properties were sold, much below their
1 See the report of the Inquisition held at Rockborne under the
Court of Wards after Sir J. Cooper's death, in Collins' s Peerage
(Brydges), iii. 546. The only property there mentioned, out of the
four western counties, is "in the county of Middlesex, a messuage in
Holborn, called the Black Bull, and divers tenements in Muschamps."
It appears from the Diary, that Ely Rents, Holborn, formed part of
Sir John Cooper's estate (Append. II., November 29, 1647). Sir A. A.
Cooper inherited other property, which did not come under the Court
of Wards. In the Diary are mentioned a plantation in Barbadoes and
an estate in Derbyshire (March 23, 1646; September 11, 1649).
2 Sir Francis Ashley does not appear to have been one of the com-
missioners himself, though Shaftesbury, in the Fragment of Auto-
biography, says that he was. Many papers relating to these proceedings
are preserved in the records of the Court of Wards in the Chapter
House, where I have seen a list of the commissioners, which does not
contain Sir F. Ashley's name.
LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
value, to Sir Francis Ashley and some of the commis-
sioners themselves. The trustees, however, refused to
convey the lands to these purchasers, and applied to
the Court of Wards for time to sell to greater advantage,
and for permission for Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper to
buy, he having property not in wardship from which he
could do so. This was refused, unless the purchaser
should consent. One, the purchaser of Pawlett, con-
sented; 1 but Sir Francis Ashley and Mr. Tregonwell,
a Dorsetshire neighbour, who had contracted for Eock-
borne, were obdurate. The trustees were then ordered
by the Court to convey the estates to those purchasers
who insisted ; they refused, and were put in prison and
not released till they had executed the conveyances. 2
" Thus," says Shaftesbury, in his Autobiography, " was
my estate torn and rent from me before niy face by the
injustice and oppression of that Court, near relations,
and neighbours, who, I may truly say, have been
twenty thousand pound damage to me."
Shaftesbury proceeds to relate how he ultimately
1 Pawlett was bought for Sir A. A. Cooper for 2,500?. (Diary, Jan. 21,
1648.) His property of Ely Rents, Holborn, was bought for him for
1.800Z. (Ibid. Nov. 29, 1647.)
2 The account in the text is taken from the Fragment of Auto-
biography. But who were " the trustees " imprisoned is doubtful.
The three trustees appointed by Sir John Cooper's will were Sir Daniel
Norton, Mr. Edward Tooker (his brother-in-law), and Mr. Hannam of
Wimborne ; the last declined to act. It appears by a note among the
papers at St. Giles's, that Robert "Wallop and Francis Treuchard were
committed to the Fleet, June 16, 1634, for refusing to assign Darner-
ham and Loders to Sir F. Ashley. It is therefore probable that sales
had been actually made by the trustees of Sir John Cooper's will to
friends in trust for Sir Anthony ; and that "Wallop and Trenchard, the
friends to whom Damerham and Loders were so sold in trust, were the
trustees imprisoned. Wallop was in this way trustee for Ely Rents.
(Diary, November 29, 1648.)
1631. LITIGATION IN COURT OF WARDS.
recovered Rockborne, and behaved generously to his
ungenerous neighbour's descendant :
"Yet Mr. Tregonwell had not good success in his
hard dealing, for he was so greedy of a good bargain
that he looked not into his title, and this manor proved
entailed on my father's marriage with my mother, my
father having left this out of the fine he passed on all
his other lands when he conveyed them for the discharge
of his debts, not intending to sell the place of his
father's bones, especially when his other land would
more than serve to pay all. This blot was soon hit,
when I came to manage my own matters ; and Mr.
Tregonwell's grandchild and myself came to an agree-
ment, I suffering him to enjoy his own and his lady's
life in the manor, in which I designed to bury all
animosity or ill-will as well as lawsuits betwixt the
families."
With Sir Francis Ashley there was further litigation.
The trustees, after the forced conveyance, preferred a
bill against him to enforce execution of a trust to which
the property was subject, and which he tried to evade.
Sir Francis, knowing that the trustees derived the means
of litigation from an estate of Sir Anthony's which was
not in wardship, then made an endeavour to bring this
property within the control of the Court of Wards.
The property thus exempt from wardship had come to
the young baronet from his grandfather, probably under
his mother's marriage settlement, and the deed had been
drawn by the famous Noy, who was at this moment
Attorney-General. Shaftesbury, describing these pro-
ceedings when he. was an old man, speaks of this last
10 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
endeavour of Sir Francis Ashley as a wicked design for
the total ruin of his fortune. His trustees made him
go himself to Noy to endeavour to prevail on him to
be his counsel. The influence of the Attorney- General
in the Court of Wards would probably be all-availing ;
but he might, on the other hand, be unwilling to appear
against the Crown.
" Mr. Noy was then the King's Attorney, who being
a very intimate friend of my grandfather's had drawn
that settlement ; my friends advised that I was in great
danger if he would not undertake my cause, and yet
it being against the King, it was neither proper nor
probable he would meddle in it for me ; but weighing
the temper of the man, the kindness he had for my
grandfather, and his honour so concerned if a deed
of that consequence should fail of his drawing, they
advised that I must be my own solicitor, and carry
the deed myself alone to him, which, being but thirteen
years old, I undertook, and performed with that pert-
ness that he told me he would defend my cause
though he lost his place. I was at the Court, and he
made good his word to the full without taking one
penny fees." l
Sir Francis Ashley appeared for himself.
" My Lord Cottington was then Master of the Wards,
who, sitting with his hat over his eyes, and having
heard Sir Francis make a long and elegant speech for
the overthrowing of my deed, said openly, ' Sir Francis,
you have spoke like a good uncle.' Mr. Attorney Noy
argued for me, and my uncle rising up to reply (I
being then present in Court), before he could speak two
1 Fragment of Autobiography.
1634. LITIGATION IN COURT OF WARDS. 11
words, he was taken with a sudden convulsion fit, his
mouth drawn to his ear, was carried out of the Court,
and never spoke more." l
This was in 1634, and in 1641 there was still liti-
gation about Sir Francis Ashley's purchases between
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and the heir of Sir Francis,
the celebrated Denzil Holies, who had married Sir
Francis Ashley's only child. 2
The exactions and corruptions of the Court of Wards
were soon to have an end. The Civil War broke it up,
and its functions then ceased, never to be revived, for
one of the first acts of the legislature after the Eestora-
tion was the abolition of the Court of Wards and the
military tenures connected with it; and Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper was then able to avenge the losses of his
youth by giving a helping hand for the abolition. 3
There is no reliable account of the extent of Shaftes-
bury's fortune, but with all the losses of his youth he
undoubtedly remained a wealthy man. The rental
which he inherited is stated to have been eight thousand
1 Sir Richard Baker notes Sir F. Ashley's death as, "by the will of
God," November 20, 1635. (Chronicle, p. 417, ed. 1684.) Noy, who
was made Attorney-General in January 1634, died August 9, 1635.
(Howel's Letters, i. 241; Notes and Queries, 1st Ser. i. 211.) There
must therefore be a mistake in Baker's date of Sir F. Ashley's death.
Sir F. Ashley was a conspicuous defender of the arbitrary system of
Charles the First, and was committed to custody by the House of Lords
in 1628, on account of the violence with which he argued at the bar of
that House for the Crown, against the Petition of Right.
2 It appears by a note preserved among the family papers that Sir
F. Ashley had promised to reconvey Damerham and Loders, two of the
manors he had become possessed of, to Sir A. A. Cooper, when he became
of full age, and that there was a suit against Holies to compel execution
of this promise. On February 13, 1637, the Court declared the promise
voluntary and not binding, and pronounced Holles's demurrer good in
bar of Sir A. A. Cooper's suit.
3 " Sir A. A. Cooper spoke against the Court of "Wards and for the
Excise." (Parl. Hist. iv. 148, November 21, 1660.)
12 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
a year, 1 which would be equivalent to more than
twenty thousand at present. He estimates his losses by
the Court of Wards at twenty thousand pounds, which
at the then rate of eight per cent, interest would be
a loss of 1,600/. a year. He may have made some
addition to his property by his three marriages with
daughters of peers, of Lord Coventry, the Earl of
Exeter, and Lord Spencer of Wormleighton. He was,
through life, careful of his fortune and eager to improve
his income by trade and speculation. On the other
hand it is to be said, both to the honour of his character
and as a sign of his wealth, that there is no trace of his
having made any unworthy gains in the confiscations
of the Commonwealth, or of his having received or
sought any of the various grants so profusely given by
Charles the Second among his ministers and courtiers.
After his father's death Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
with his brother and sister, lived with one of the trustees
of his father's appointment, Sir Daniel Norton, at South-
wick, near Portsmouth. His first tutor, the Puritan
whom Sir Anthony Ashley had chosen, now left him.
This tutor, by name Guerden, became afterwards a
physician, and, Shaftesbury says, had great practice in
London. Shaftesbury was an acute discerner of cha-
racter ; and if the following account of his first tutor
gives the recollections of a boy of ten, his powers of
discernment must have been developed early : " This
man was moderately learned, a great lover of money,
and had neither piety proportionable to the great pro-
fession he made, nor judgment and parts to support the
1 Rawleigli Redivivus, p. 6 ; Martyn's Life, i. 36.
1635. CHANGE OF GUARDIAN. 13
good opinion he had of himself; but he served well
enough for what he was designed for, being formal, and
not vicious." 1 In Sir Daniel Norton's house he had
for tutor a Mr. Fletcher, of whom all that Shaftesbury
tells us is, that he was " a very excellent teacher of
grammar."
He now went often to London, in term-time, with Sir
Daniel Norton, who was obliged frequently to go there
on his ward's business. " He very often took me with
him," says Shaftesbury, " as thinking my presence,
though very young, might work some compassion on
the Court, or those that should have been my friends."
Sir Daniel Norton died in 1635, and the three young
Coopers then went to live with another trustee, Mr.
Tooker, who had married a sister of Sir John Cooper,
and who lived at Salisbury, and at Madington, eight
miles from Salisbury. Lady Norton had wished that
they should continue with her, looking to the young
baronet as a good match for one of her daughters, and
Shaftesbury owns that his young heart was a little
touched. " Truly, if the condition of my litigious
fortune had not necessitated me to other thoughts for
support and protection, the sweetness of the disposition
of that young lady had made me look no further for a
wife." He chose to go and live with his uncle Tooker,
and his brother and sister accompanied him :
" My uncle Tooker and Sir Walter Erie both also
pretended to take care of me ; Sir Walter Erie's son,
Mr. Thomas Erie, being of the same age with me, and
there being the nearest friendship betwixt us was
1 Fragment of Autobiography.
14 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
imaginable in our years, which increased as we grew
older, and never to expire but in both our deaths. But
my being so very young was assisted with the troubles
I had already undergone in my own affairs, having now
for several years been inured to the complaints of
miseries from near relations and oppressions from men
in power, being forced to learn the world faster than my
book, and in that I was no ill proficient : yet I had for
my diversion both hounds and hawks of my own. I
chose my uncle Tooker, my surviving trustee, for my
guardian, he being most versed in my affairs, my nearest
relation, and had the reputation of a worthy man, as
indeed he proved. He was a very honest, industrious
man, an hospitable, prudent person, much valued and
esteemed, dead and alive, by all that knew him." 1
Having had for about a year before going to the
University a third tutor, of whom no more is known
than that he was a Master of Arts, of Oriel College,
Oxford, 2 Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was sent to Oxford
in 1637, at the age of sixteen. 3 He was entered as a
gentleman -commoner at Exeter College, the college
chiefly resorted to from the western counties of England,
which was then flourishing under the mastership of
Dr. Prideaux, afterwards Bishop of Worcester. Shaftes-
bury says in his Fragment of Autobiography, that he
was "under the immediate tuition of Dr. Prideaux," and
in the short sketch of his early life, written in 1646, he
calls Dr. Prideaux his tutor, and mentions that Mr.
1 Fragment of Autobiography.
2 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
* His name had been entered, according to Anthony Wood, in Lent
Term, 1636. (Ath. Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 7.)
1638. LIFE AT COLLEGE 15
Hussey, "since minister of Hinton Martin/' 1 was his
servitor. He stayed at Oxford not much longer than a
year, and during this time he was entered as a student
at Lincoln's Inn, and he probably went up to London
from Oxford to keep law terms. 2
It is likely that Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper gave
little attention at Oxford to the studies of the Univer-
sity, but it cannot be doubted that his brilliant abilities
and strong will, afterwards so conspicuous on the world's
stage, were otherwise exhibited. The cares of life had
come early upon him and disturbed in boyhood the
regularity of his education ; he had " learnt the world,"
in his own expressive words, " faster than his book ; "
but the manly business of his boyhood had doubtless
helped to quicken the development of his understanding
and mould that character, compounded of grave failings
and many excellent dispositions, which has made for
him so chequered a fame. Shaftesbury's speeches and
writings give ample evidence of early culture.
His talents and genial character, aided by a liberal
allowance and his social position, made him a leader
among his college contemporaries. The following
account of himself at college is not over-modest, but it
has all the air of truthfulness :
" I kept both horses and servants in Oxford, and was
allowed what expense or recreation I desired, which
liberty I never much abused ; but it gave me the oppor-
1 In Dorsetshire ; and Shaftesbury, who was lord of the manor, had
doubtless given his old servitor the living.
2 Some of Shaftesbury's biographers have incorrectly made him
member of Gray's Inn. His name is one of the last entered in the
Lincoln's Inn register, in 13 Car. I. t 1H37-8. Lord Falkland's name
is within four or five before it.
16 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
tunity of obliging by entertainments the better sort,
and supporting divers of the activest of the lower rank
with giving them leave to eat, when in distress, upon my
expense, it being no small honour among those sort of
men that my name in the buttery-book willingly bore
twice the expense of any in the University. This expense,
my quality, proficiency in learning, and natural affability
easily not only obtained the good- will of the wiser and
elder sort, but made me the leader even of all the rough
young men of that college, and did then maintain in the
schools coursing against Christchurch, the largest and
most numerous college in the University." 1
Shaftesbury's account of " coursing " at Oxford, and
of his own achievements in resisting the " tucking " of
freshmen and a designed alteration of the "size" of
college beer, is a most curious contribution to the
knowledge of Oxford University life in the seventeenth
century.
" This coursing was in older times, I believe, intended
for a fair trial of learning and skill in logic, metaphysics,
and school divinity, but for some ages that had been
the least part of it, the dispute quickly ending in affronts,
confusion, and very often blows, when they went most
gravely to work. They forbore striking, but making a
great noise with their feet, they hissed, and shoved with
their shoulders, and the stronger in that disorderly order
drove the other out before them; and, if the schools
were above stairs, with all violence hurrying the contrary
party down, the proctors were forced either to give way
to their violence or suffer in the throng. Nay, the Vice-
Chancellor, though it seldom has begun when he was
1 Fragment of Autobiography.
1638. LIFE AT COLLEGE. 17
present, yet being begun, he has sometimes unfortunately
been so near as to be called in, and has been overcome
in their fury once up, in these adventures. I was often
one of the disputants, and gave the sign and order for
their beginning; but being not strong of body, was
always guarded from violence by two or three of the
sturdiest youths, as their chief, and one who always
relieved them when in prison, and procured their release;
and very often was forced to pay the neighbouring
farmers, when they of our party that wanted money were
taken in the fact, for more geese, turkeys, and poultry
than either they had stole or he had lost : it being very
fair dealing if he made the scholar, when taken, pay no
more than he had lost since his last reimbursement.
" Two things I had also a principal hand in when I
was at the college. The one, I caused that ill custom
of tucking freshmen to be left off : the other, when the
senior fellows designed to alter the beer of the college,
which was stronger than other colleges, I hindered their
design. This had put all the younger sort into a
mutiny ; they resorting to me, I advised all those were
intended by their friends to get their livelihood by their
studies, to rest quiet and not appear, and that myself
and all the others that were elder brothers or uncon-
cerned in their angers, should go in a body and strike
our names out of the buttery-book, which was accord-
ingly done, and had the effect that the senior fellows,
seeing their pupils 'going that yielded them most profit,
presently struck sail and articled with us never to alter
the size of our beer, which remains so to this day.
" The first was a harder work, it having been a foolish
custom of great antiquity, that one of the seniors in the
evening called the freshmen (which are such as came
since that time twelvemonth) to the fire, and made them
hold out their chin, and they with the nail of their right
VOL. i. c
18 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
thumb, left long for that purpose, grate off all the skin
from the lip to the chin, and then cause them to drink
a beer-glass of water and salt. The time approaching
when I should be thus used, I considered that it had
happened in that year, more and lustier young gentle-
men had come to the college than had done in several
years before, so that the freshmen were a very strong
body. Upon this I consulted my two cousin-germans,
the Tookers, my aunt's sons, both freshmen, both stout
and very strong, and several others, and at last the whole
party were cheerfully engaged to stand stoutly to defence
of their chins. We all appeared at the fires in the hall,
and my Lord of Pembroke's son calling me first, as we
knew by custom it would begin with me, I, according to
agreement, gave the signal, striking him a box on the
ear, and immediately the freshmen fell on, and we easily
cleared the buttery and the hall ; but bachelors and
young masters coming in to assist the seniors, we were
compelled to retreat to a ground chamber in the quad-
rangle. They pressing at the door, some of the stoutest
and strongest of our freshmen, giant-like boys, opened
the doors, let in as many as they pleased, and shut the
door by main strength against the rest; those let in
they fell upon, and had beaten very severely, but that
my authority with them stopped them, some of them
being considerable enough to make terms for us, which
they did ; for Dr. Prideaux being called out to suppress
the mutiny, the old Doctor, always favourable to youth
offending out of courage, wishing with the fears of those
we had within, gave us articles of pardon for what had
passed, and an utter abolition in that college of that
foolish custom." 1
1 Fragment of Autobiography. Anthony "Wood describes this prac-
tice of "tucking," as existing in Merton College when he entered in
1647.
1639. HIS MARRIAGE. 19
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper left Oxford before the
usual time, and too soon to take a degree ; and on the
twenty-fifth of February, 1639, when yet only eighteen,
he was married to Margaret, a daughter of Lord
Coventry, the Lord Keeper. His uncle and guardian,
Tooker, had suggested this marriage, thinking that he
had need of powerful friends. Sir Anthony, writing in
1646, when this lady was alive, describes her as " a
woman of excellent beauty and incomparable in gifts
of nature and virtue." She died suddenly in 1649 ; and
on the occasion of her death, Cooper wrote, in what is
generally the most meagre and prosaic of diaries, this
touching and exquisite piece of praise :
" She was a lovely, beautiful, fair woman, a religious,
devout Christian, of admirable wit and wisdom, beyond
any I ever knew, yet the most sweet, affectionate, and
observant wife in the world. Chaste, without a suspicion
of the most envious, to the highest assurance of her
husband ; of a most noble and bountiful mind, yet very
provident in the least things ; exceeding all in anything
she undertook, housewifery, preserving, works with the
needle, cookery, so that her WISH and judgment were
expressed in all things ; free from any pride or froward-
ness, she was in discourse and counsel far beyond any
woman."
A German astrologer, Dr. Olivian, was one of Shaftes-
bury's friends and companions in boyhood. He had
been in old Sir Anthony Ashley's house when the
young heir was born there ; he cast his nativity, and
predicted for the infant a great career. He imbued the
boy with a faith in astrology, which, according to Burnet,
c2
20 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
Shaftesbury retained in manhood. 1 Relying on his art,
he had now endeavoured to persuade the young baronet
to marry the sister of a Dorsetshire neighbour, Mr.
Rogers. Shaftesbury thus tells the story :
" This match Dr. Olivian, my great friend, earnestly
pressed me to, not only as it was every way suitable and
fit for me, but, as he positively affirmed, he saw by his
art there would be feuds and great danger to me if it
was not a match, and, if it were, he could assure me
she would prove a vast fortune ; professing he had no
concern in it above mine ; and I did truly believe so,
but I told him I could not see a possibility of her
being so great a fortune, or having considerable addition
to her present portion, since her father had divers sons
and sons married. He replied he was sure of the thing,
but could not tell me how it should be ; and this lady,
after marrying my Lord Maynard, by the death of her
brothers and strange unequal humour of her father,
came to be a very great fortune indeed."
Thus one part of the prediction was verified ; the feuds
and troubles predicted also arrived. Mr. Rogers became
a rival for the hand of Margaret Coventry, and Sir
Anthony never forgave the offence. " For Mr. Rogers,
hearing where my address was, did, by the favour of
my Lord Cottington, then a suitor to the elder sister,
earnestly press to be admitted a servant to my mistress,
but neither she nor her friends would admit it ; but yet
1 " He had the dotage of astrology in him," says Burnet, " to a high
degree ; he told me that a Dutch doctor had from the stars foretold
him the whole series of his life." (Own Time, i. 96.) Another story is
told in " Eawleigh Kedivivus," p. 7, of a prediction by the German
doctor that Sir Anthony would have a narrow escape from drowning on
a certain day, and the prediction is said to have been verified.
1639. THE COVENTRY FAMILY. 21
the offer and attempt was so open and avowed that it
began a never reconciled feud betwixt us, he having
offered me the highest injury, and merely out of
malice." l
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's marriage with a daughter
of Lord Coventry connected him with three persons who
bear important parts in the politics of the reign of
Charles the Second. Henry Coventry, one of his wife's
brothers, was Secretary of State during seven years of
that reign ; he had before been employed in diplomacy,
and was joint plenipotentiary with Holies for the treaties
of Breda. He was a man of probity, genial character,
good judgment, and superior though not splendid abilities.
Sir William Coventry, another brother, was a man of
greater mental mark ; he was Secretary of the Lord
High Admiral and the chief administrator of the
Admiralty in the first seven years of diaries the
Second's reign, was one of Charles's chief advisers at
the time of Clarendon's fall, which he much helped to
bring about, and was at that time, according to Burnet,
expected to become chief minister; 2 but he suddenly
1 Fragment of Autobiography.
2 Burnet's Own Time, i. 265, and Lord Dartmouth's and Speaker
Onslow's Notes. Sir W. Coventry has been erroneously supposed to
be the author of the " Character of a Trimmer," which was written by
his more celebrated nephew, Lord Halifax. Coventry distinctly denies
the authorship in an interesting letter to his nephew, Thomas Thynne,
afterwards Lord Weymouth, preserved at Longleat. He follows up the
denial of the authorship of the tract by avowing himself to be a
Trimmer. " I have not been ashamed to own myself to be indeed a
Trimmer, not according as the Observator paints them, but (as I think
the name was intended to signify) one who would sit upright, and not
overturn the boat by swaying too much on either side." Sir "W.
Coventry died in 1686, and left by his will 2,000. to the French
refugees, and 3,OOOZ. to redeem slaves in Barbary. (Lady Russell's
Letters, i. 193 ; Savile Correspondence, published by the Camden
Society, pp. 293-5.) Marvel, in a satirical poem of 1667, introduces
22 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I.
lost the fickle King's favour, and was afterwards for
many years one of the most able and respected members
of the House of Commons. A sister of Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper's wife married Sir William Savile, baronet,
of Thornhill in Yorkshire and Kufford in Nottingham-
shire ; and of this marriage was born the witty, accom-
plished, and eloquent Lord Halifax, who came to be a
chief minister towards the end of the reign of Charles
the Second, and was successively one of Shaftesbury's
friends and coadjutors, and one of his keenest adver-
saries in the last troubled years of Shaftesbury's life.
Talent was largely given to the children of Lord
Keeper Coventry ; another of his daughters, who
married Sir John Pakington, a distinguished Cavalier
baronet, is believed with good reason to have been
the author, or one of the authors, of the " Whole Duty
of Man." l
An orphan at the age of nine ; at war, while a boy,
with the rapacity and injustice of relatives ; forced, as
he says of himself, to learn the world faster than his
book, and called early by business to the thoughts and
cares of manhood ; having inherited in childhood a title
which was then a considerable distinction, and growing
up to be the possessor of a large estate ; with no father's
Sir William and Henry Coventry as the chosen leaders of the supporters
of Government in the House of Commons during Charles the Second's
first Dutch war :
" All the two Coventries their generals chose,
For one had much, the other nought to lose.
Not better choice all accidents could hit,
While hector Harry steers by Will the wit."
1 See Ballard's Learned Ladies, p. 320.
1639. SKETCH OF HIS YOUTH. 23
authority to control, or mother's love to render gentle
guidance, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper grew up to
manhood under circumstances which may serve to
account for something harsh and jarring in the course
and character of the Earl of Shaftesbury.
CHAPTEE II.
16391644.
Lives, after marriage, with his father-in-law Hanley bowling-green in
Dorsetshire Sir A. A. Cooper's neighbours Lord Digby Visit
to "Worcestershire with Mr. Coventry Elected member for Tewkes-
bury, at age of eighteen, for the Short Parliament of April 1640
Termination of Fragment of Autobiography The Parliament
quickly dissolved Lord Coventry's death in January 1640 Letter
of John Coventry, February 1640 Lord Savile's forged letter
Petition of twelve peers to the King for a parliament Returned in
a double return for Downton to Long Parliament Petitions
Holies said to have prevented his being seated Came forward for
the King in Dorsetshire in spring of 1643 Dispute about his being
made Governor of Weymouth and Portland Ultimately appointed
Letter from the King to Marquis of Hertford Appointed King's
Sheriff of Dorsetshire In February 1644 goes over to the Parlia-
ment His statement of his motives made before the Committee of
both Kingdoms.
SIR ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER, being still a minor and
not yet in possession of his property, lived, after his
marriage, with his father-in-law the Lord Keeper, at
Durham House in the Strand, and at Canonbury or
Canbury House in Islington. 1
He frequently visited Wimborne St. Giles, and im-
proved his acquaintance with his Dorsetshire neigh-
bours. Bowls was then a favourite game of the English
gentry, and the county bowling-green a place of gather-
ing. Sir Anthony frequented a bowling-green at Hanley,
1 The Lord Keeper rented these two houses : Durham House from the
Earl of Pembroke, and Canonbury or, as it was called, Caubury House
from the Earl of Northampton.
1639. WESTERN GENTRY. 25
not far from Wimborne St. Giles, which was the weekly
resort of the leading gentlemen of the eastern part of
Dorsetshire. Here he used to meet his enemy, Mr.
Rogers.
" The eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green
at . Hanley, where gentlemen went constantly once a
week, though neither the green nor accommodation
was inviting ; yet it was well placed to continue the
correspondence of the gentry of those parts. Here I
omitted no opportunity, and it was often given, to show
Mr. Rogers, where his coach and six horses did not a
little contribute to their envy. His garb, his discourse
all spoke him one that thought himself above them ;
which, when observed to them, they easily agreed to.
My family alliances and fortune, being not prejudiced
either by nature or education, gave me the juster
grounds to take exceptions ; besides my affable, easy
temper, now with care improved, rendered the stiffness
of his demeanour more visible." x
Shaftesbury has sketched in his Autobiography the
characters of most of the leading gentry of Dorset-
shire and Somersetshire at the time of his marriage.
The longest and most finished of these sketches, that of
Mr. Hastings of Woodlands, is generally known, having
a place in the collection of the " British Essayists." 2
It is a graphic description, written with great humour,
pungency, and vigour. Most of the persons whom he
1 Fragment of Autobiography, Appendix I.
2 It is in the "Connoisseur," No. 81, August 14, 1755. It was firs 4 :
printed in Dr. Leonard Howard's " Collection of Letters and State
Papers," published in 1753. Horace Walpole, in his "Koyaland
Noble Authors," made a mistake, which has been generally copied, in
saying that it first appeared in Peck's "Desiderata Curiosa," where it
is not to be found.
26 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
has sketched are unknown to fame. But one young
man who appears on this list of Dorsetshire gentry,
Lord Digby, afterwards the second Earl of Bristol, was
in four years from this time Secretary of State to
Charles the First, and had a long political career, in which
great abilities and great advantages were always preju-
diced by vanity and indiscretion. " The Earl of Bristol
was relieved from all business, and lived privately to
himself ; but his son, the Lord Digby, a very handsome
young man, of great courage and learning, and of a quick
wit, began to show himself, he being highly admired by
all ; and only gave himself disadvantage with a pedantic
stiffness and affectation he had contracted."
Shaftesbury's account of himself at the beginning of
manhood, of his high animal spirits which pain could
not conquer, of his playfulness in society, and of his
wit and address which won for him at the age of
eighteen a seat in the House of Commons, would suffer
by any abridgment :
" My wife continuing at her father's house, my Lord
Keeper's eldest son, Mr. Thomas Coventry, an honest,
fair, direct man, carried me with him to see his house
in Worcestershire, where we stayed some time ; and I
grew in great respect in those parts for a pleasant, easy
humour, but especially in the town of Tewkesbury by
an accident. They having invited their neighbour, my
Lord Keeper's son, to a hunting in the chace near them
and a dinner at their town after, all the neighbour
gentry were called in to grace the matter, who failed
not to appear and pay a respect not only to the town,
but so powerful a neighbour. At the hunting I was
1639. VISIT TO WORCESTERSHIRE. 2*7
taken with one of my usual fits, which for divers years
had hardly missed me one day, which lasted for an hour,
betwixt eleven and one, sometimes beginning earlier and
sometimes later betwixt those times. It was a violent
pain of my left side, that I was often forced to lie down
wherever I was ; at last it forced a working in my
stomach, and I put up some spoonfuls of clear water
and I was well, if I may call that so, when I was never
without a dull aching pain of that side. Yet this never
abated the cheerfulness of my temper ; but, when in the
greatest fits, I hated pitying and loved merry company,
and, as they told me, was myself very pleasant when
the drops fell from my face for pain; but then, my
servant near me always desired they would not take
notice of it, but continue their diversions, which was
more acceptable to me ; and I had always the women
and young people about me at those times, who thought
me acceptable to them, and peradventure the more
admired me because they saw the visible symptoms of
my pain, which caused in all others so contrary an effect.
At this hunting the Bailiffs 1 and chief of the town, being
no hard riders, were easily led by their civility to keep
me company, and being informed of my humour, we
were very pleasant together, and they thought themselves
obliged with my respect, as liking their company and
being free with them. On the other hand, I was ready
to make them any return of their kindness, which
quickly offered itself, for part of our discourse had been
of an old knight in the field, a crafty perverse rich man
in power, as being of the Queen's Privy Council, a bitter
enemy of the town arid Puritans, as rather inclined the
Popish way. This man's character and all his story I
had learnt of them. At dinner the Bailiffs sat at the
i The chief officers of Tewkesbury were two Bailiffs, annually elected
by the burgesses, twenty-four in number, from their own body.
28 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
table's end ; Sir Harry Spiller and myself, opposite to
one another, sat near them, but one betwixt. Sir Harry
began the dinner with all the affronts and dislikes he
could put on the Bailiffs or their entertainment, which
enraged and discountenanced them and the rest of the
town that stood behind us ; and the more, it being in
the face of the best gentlemen of the country, and when
they resolved to appear in their best colours. When the
first course was near spent, and he continued his rough
raillery, L thought it my duty, eating their bread, to
defend their cause the best I could, which I did with so
good success, not sparing the bitterest retorts I could
make him, which his way in the world afforded matter.
for, that I had a perfect victory over him. This gained
the townsmen's hearts, and their wives' to boot ; I was
made free of the town, and the next parliament, though
absent, without a penny charge, was chosen Burgess by
an unanimous vote.
" During this time of my youthful days and pleasant
humour, I had one accommodation which was very
agreeable, a servant that waited on me in my chamber,
one Pyne, a younger brother of a good family, every way
of my shape and limbs and height, only our faces and
the colour and manner of our hair was not alike ; mine
was then a flaxen inclined to brown, soft, and turning at
the ends ; his was dark brown, thick, bushy, hard, curled
all over. My stockings, shoes, clothes, were all exactly
fit for him ; my hat, though my head was long and big
and his round and little, yet he wore his hair so long
and so thick that it served him reasonably well, that
being the only part of my clothes that he could not buy
and fit me by his own trial. His great felicity was to
wear my clothes the next day after I had left them off,
so very often appearing in the same suit of clothes I had
worn the day before. He had a strong mechanic genius ;
1639. END OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 29
he quickly learnt to trim me, and all the art of any
tradesman I used, but especially he was an excellent
sempster; he sewed and cut out any linen for men or
women, equal if not beyond any of the trade, and he
never went without patterns of the newest fashions;
and, as soon as I alighted at any place, I was hardly in
the parlour before my man had got to the nursery or
laundry, and, though he was never there before, his con-
fidence gave him entrance, and his science in that art
they had most use of gave him welcome, and his readi-
ness to teach and impart his skill, and to put them and
their ladies into the newest fashions, gave him an inti-
macy especially with the most forward and prating
wenches ; those he expected his best return from, which
was, besides the usual traffic and commerce of kisses
(the constant trade betwixt young men and women), the
intelligence of all the intrigues of the family, which he
with all haste conveyed to me, and I managed to the
most mirth and jollity I could. My skill in palmistry
and telling fortunes, which for ni}' diversion I professed,
was much assisted by this intelligence, and gave me
choice of opportunities which some would have made
worse use of than I did."
" Thus," adds Shaftesbury, " I have set down my
youthful time. What follows is a time of business
which overtook me early, and the rest of my life is not
without great mixtures of the public concern, and must
be much intermingled with the history of the times/'
And here, unfortunately, where the piiblic interest of
Shaftesbury's life begins, ends the Fragment of the
Autobiography, in which he has related with so much
spirit and humour the story of his youthful years, and
30 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
which he began in old age to compose, in order to
vindicate his fame for posterity from many calumnies of
malice and faction.
In the short autobiographical sketch of 1646, Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper says of the election for Tewkes-
bury : " In March, 1640 he was by a general and free
election of the town of Tewkesbury chosen their first
burgess for the parliament, in which short parliament
he served them faithfully." There was no contest, and
by "first burgess" must be meant that he was named
first in the return of two members. The election for
Tewkesbury was with the magistrates and all inhabit-
ants paying scot and lot, and tjie number of electors
was probably about four hundred. Sir Anthony had
not yet completed his nineteenth year ; but it was not
uncommon then, and for long after, for minors to sit in
parliament, though their doing so was contrary to law. 1
This parliament, which met on the thirteenth of April,
1640, was Charles the First's fourth parliament ; and
eleven years had passed since he had dissolved his third
parliament in anger. The long interval had been marked
by many arbitrary acts, by great discontents, by events
memorable in English history ; by Sir John Eliot's
death in prison, the imposition of ship-money and
Hampden's resistance, a multitude of arbitrary procla-
1 At one time in James I.'s reign, there were counted forty members
under age, some of them being only sixteen. The poet Waller sat in
the House of Commons when only sixteen. Monk's son is said to have
been only fourteen when he took part in a debate on Lord Clarendon's
impeachment, November 16, 1667 ; but that he was so young is
doubtful. The practice of minors sitting was put a stop to after the
Revolution by a clause of the Triennial Act, which makes void the
election of a person under twenty-one. See Hatsell's " Precedents," ii. 9,
1640. THE SHOET PARLIAMENT. 31
mations, many cruel punishments in the Star Chamber
and Court of High Commission, a large introduction
under Archbishop Laud's government of Eoniish prac-
tices into the Church, and lastly an endeavour to force
a liturgy on the people of Scotland, which raised a
rebellion in that kingdom. The formidable appearance
in arms of the Scotch Covenanters obliged Charles at
last to call a parliament, The Privy Council had unani-
mously advised it ; yet the King would not adopt their
advice, until every member of the Council had promised
to support him in extraordinary ways of raising money,
if the parliament proved untoward. 1 Charles was very
soon convinced of the untowardness of this parliament.
He endeavoured to obtain an immediate supply, pro-
mising to allow the parliament to continue to sit for
the discussion of grievances. The House of Commons,
however, insisted that grievances should first be dis-
cussed. The parliament was dissolved in three weeks.
There is no sign of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper in
the Journals, or in the accounts which we have of the
debates, of this short-lived parliament, and no informa-
tion whatever about his proceedings. It has been
generally assumed that he now voted blindly for the
King. But it has also been generally assumed that, on
the first breaking out of the Civil War, he was an
1 Clarendon State Papers, ii. 81. Secretary "Windebank to Sir A.
Hoptou, December 13, 1639: "But before his Majesty would declare
his resolution for this way, he was pleased to put another question to
the Board, whether, if the parliament should prove as untoward as
some have lately been, the Lords would not then assist him in such
extraordinary ways in this extremity as should be thought fit, which
being put to the vote, the Lords did all unanimously and cheerfully
promise that in such case they would assist him with their lives and
fortunes in such extraordinary way as should be advised and found."
J
32 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
adherent of the King ; whereas he himself states that,
as late as September 1642, after the King had set up
his standard at Nottingham, he had " not as yet adhered
against the Parliament." It was natural to infer that
the young son-in-law of the Lord Keeper Coventry would
vote on the King's side ; and most of his own relatives
were on that side also. But Cooper, as a young man,
was very likely to think and act for himself. It is to
be inferred from his account of his election for Tewkes-
bury that the feeling of the electors, with whom he had
ingratiated himself by banter of Sir Harry Spiller, was
Puritan. 1
Lord Coventry, Cooper's father-in-law, and the Lord
Keeper, had died about three months before the meeting of
this parliament, before Cooper was elected for Tewkes-
bury, and before the completion of a year after Cooper's
marriage with his daughter. He died on the fourteenth
of January, 1640, " to the King's great detriment," says
Clarendon, " rather than to his own." 2 His young son-
in-law, who was beginning life as his own master with
wealth, inherited station, great talents, and eager tem-
perament, probably lost by his death a wise and useful
counsellor. Sir Anthony continued to live with his
mother-in-law at Durham House and Canonbury, till,
at the end of a twelvemonth after Lord Coventry's death,
she gave up the two houses ; and then he went to live
1 Mr. Martyn says that Cooper was very diligent in his attendance
in this parliament, and "every day wrote an account of their proceed-
ings." (Life, i. 47.) No authority is given for this statement, and I
have found no trace among Lord Shaftesbury's papers of such a journal.
Mr. Martyn does not say that he had seen such a journal : had he seen
one, he would doubtless have given extracts.
2 History of the Rebellion, ii. 64.
1640. LETTER FROM JOHN COVENTRY. 33
and keep house with his brother-in-law, the second
Lord Coventry, at Dorchester House in Covent Garden. 1
A letter to Cooper from another brother-in-law, John
Coventry, the eldest son of the Lord Keeper by his
second wife, who was Lady Cooper's mother, is the
only vestige among the papers at St. Giles's of Cooper's
private correspondence in early life. This letter was
written in the short interval between the Lord Keeper's
death and Cooper's election for Tewkesbury. John
Coventry is mentioned by Shaftesbury in his Autobio-
graphy as one of the leading men of Somersetshire at
this time. 2 The following letter shows him a candidate
for the county for the parliament called for April. It
is superscribed, "To my truly honoured brother Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baronet, Durham House, pre-
sent these."
" DEAR BROTHER, I hope you all came safe home
on Tuesday night, as I did in the morning, for my horses
began to find their legs again. We are here canvassing
very hard. Mr. Smyth and Mr. Alexander Popham are
pitched upon by the Eobins ; Sir Ealph Hopton and I
as yet stand single ; what we shall do I know not
Here is great exceptions taken, as I am told, at me for
reporting that Mr. Alexander Pppham was a banquerout,
and that the Eobins had made choice of Eobin-hood as
1 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
2 He was father of Sir John Coventry, who obtained notoriety, in
Charles the Second's reign, by a speech in the House of Commons
reflecting on the King's amours, and by the savage assault made on
him in consequence by a band of courtiers and ruffians instigated
by Monmouth, which greatly inflamed the House of Commons, and
led to the passing of an Act "to prevent malicious maiming and
wounding," which was familiarly known as the Coventry Act (22 & 23
Car. II. c. i.).
VOL. I. D
34 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. If.
an outlaw and incapable of being chosen. This is said
to be dispersed here by a letter of Sir Francis Doding-
ton's from London. I remember at Durham House
being asked (I think by yourself) whom the Eobins
would make. I answered, I thought Kobin-hood, naming
Mr. Kirton or Mr. Stroud, and Mr. Aish the clothier.
'Tis true, I said, that some of them had a mind to Mr.
A. Popham, but I knew he had refused to stand, and
that some men did doubt whether he was eligible in
respect of his brother's debts, for which I had heard he
stood outlawed. But sure I think you have not heard
me press anything with sharpness and barbarism against
him, as is pretended. This was at the table, and if I
mistake not, Mr. Ingram was present. I know Sir
Francis hath acquaintance with him ; possibly he might
tell him somewhat. Be pleased, I pray you, to speak
with Mr. Ingram and know whether he told him any-
thing, or anything more than I admit, and let me hear
from you by the return of the post what he saith, and
what your remembrance is. If he divulged not this,
you have a dangerous pack of servants. Let none see
this letter or know the contents but Mr. Ingram. Thus
in haste, with my service to my sister and my lord and
the rest of your good company, I remain,
" Your faithful brother and servant,
" J. COVENTRYE.
" ORCHARD, February 29, 1639. 1
" Keep this letter safe till I see you."
The parliament which met on the thirteenth of April,
1640, having been abruptly dissolved on the fifth of May,
Charles the First proceeded again to try his extraordinary
ways of raising money. But these were soon found
1 February 1639, is old style for 1640.
1640. LORD SAVILE'S FORGED LETTER. 35
unavailing. The Scotch army crossed the Tweed and
routed the King's forces. As a last hope of avoiding
a parliament, Charles summoned all the peers of the
realm to meet him at York. But before the day fixed
for their assembling, he found himself constrained to
call a parliament, and he announced to them, when
they met, his resolution. The parliament which had
been hastily dissolved in the spring is known as the
Short Parliament ; that which met in less than six
months after, on the third of November, 1640, was the
celebrated Long Parliament.
Two short notes by Shaftesbury, on occurrences
between the dissolution of May and the meeting of the
next parliament, which may have been intended for the
continuation of his Autobiography, may here be inserted. 1
The first refers to the letter sent by Lord Savile to the
Scotch Commissioners, urging an invasion of England,
with a number of forged signatures of leading noblemen
added to his own, which led the Scotch army to enter
England in August.
i These two passages occur in Locke's " Commonplace Book," under
date December 1680, and are printed in Lord King's "Life of Locke,"
vol. i. p. 222. The letters A. E. S. being appended to one of the
passages in Locke's manuscript, Lord King conjectured that these
initials meant Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury ; and the conjecture has
been confirmed by two references in Martyn's " Life of Shaftesbury "
(i. pp. 115, 119) to a manuscript of Shaftesbury 's as authority for the
same statements. I have not found the passages thus referred to
among the papers at St. Giles's. Martyn may have seen them, and
they may have been since lost, or he may have only learnt about them
from references by Stringer. Reference is made to one of these
passages in a note of the fourth Earl's, which is preserved. The
passages may have been fragments to form part of the introductory
historical sketch in the Autobiography which terminates so abruptly
at the Reformation, or they may have been detached notes written in
1680, for Locke's and Stringer's information. Locke sets them down
in his " Commonplace Book" as notes for Rushworth's "Collections."
D2
36 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
" This second coming in of the Scots was occasioned
and principally encouraged by a letter which the Lord
Saville, afterwards Earl of Sussex, writ with his own
hand, and forged the names of a dozen or fourteen of
the chiefest of the English nobility, together with his
own, which he sent into Scotland by the hands of
Mr 5 H. Darley, who remained there as agent from the
said English lords until he had brought the Scots in.
At the meeting of the grand Council, when the English
and Scots lords came together, the letter caused great
dispute amongst them, till at last my Lord Saville,
being reconciled to the Court, confessed to the King
the whole matter." l
The second note is on the presentation of the petition
to the King for a parliament, signed by twelve peers, 2
and contains startling statements, which are, however,
confirmed by Bishop Burnet's narrative.
" This petition was presented to the King at York, by
the hands of the Lord Mandeville 3 and the Lord Edward
Howard. 4 The King immediately called a Cabinet
1 A note of the fourth Earl of Shaftesbury, among the papers at
St. Giles's, points out the importance of Shaftesbury's testimony to
the story of Lord Savile's forgery. Dr. Lingard expressed a doubt as
to the truth of the story ; but it is too well attested to admit of reason-
able doubt. Mr. Sanford has since published a long circumstantial
account of the transaction, from a MS. in the British Museum, Add.
MSS. 15,567. See Sanford's " Studies and Illustrations of the Great
Rebellion," p. 171, and Hallam (Const. Hist. ii. 125, note).
2 Mr. Hallam has given an incorrect list of the twelve peers who
signed this famous petition : the names of Lords Paget, Wharton,
and Savile appear in his list, instead of the Earls of Rutland and
Exeter, and Lord Howard of Escrick. Compare Hallam, ii. 127, note,
with the list in Lords' Journals, iv. 188.
3 Lord Mandeville, eldest son of the Earl of Manchester, had been
called by writ to the House of Lords, with the title of Baron Kim-
bolton, by which name he is best known to us.
4 Edward, younger son of the Earl of Suffolk, created Baron Howard
of Escrick in 1628. His son, the third baron, obtained an unenviable
fame in Charles the Second's reign by his evidence against Russell
aud Sidney.
Ifi40. DOUBLE RETURN FOR DOWNTON. 37
Council, wherein it was concluded to cut off both the
lords' heads the next day ; when the Council was up,
and the King gone, Duke Hamilton and the Earl of
Strafford, general of the army, remaining behind, when
Duke Hamilton, asking the Earl of Strafford whether
the army would stand to them, the Earl of Strafford
answered he feared not, and protested he did not think
of that before then. Hamilton replied, if we are not
sure of the army, it may be our heads instead of theirs ;
whereupon they both agreed to go to the King and alter
the counsel, which accordingly they did." 1
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper *was not again elected
for Tewkesbury. He was a candidate for Downton in
Wiltshire, a borough in which he had property, and
which was near his seat at Wimborne St. Giles ; and
he was one of two candidates returned on a double
return. Neither he nor his rival could sit until it
was decided which had the right. Cooper says, in
his Autobiographical Sketch written in 1646, that the
Committee of Privileges decided in his favour, but
that no report had been made to the House. "For
this happy parliament," he writes, being in 1646, when
he wrote, a strong Parliamentarian, " he was chosen
1 Bishop Burnet tells the same of Lord Wharton and Lord Howard
of Escrick, presenting other petitions. "The Lord Wharton and the
Lord Howard of Escrick undertook to deliver some of these, which they
did, and were clapt up upon it. A council of war was held ; and it
was resolved on, as the Lord Wharton told me, to shoot them at the
head of the army, as movers of sedition. This was chiefly pressed by
the Earl of Stratford. Duke Hamilton spoke nothing till the council
rose ; and then he asked Stratford, if he was sure of the army, who
seemed surprised at the question : but he upon inquiry understood
that very probably a general mutiny, if not a total revolt, would have
followed, if any such execution had been attempted." (Own Time,
i. 29.) Lord Wharton was not one of the petitioners. Burnet's
variances, which are probably mistakes, may enhance his substantial
confirmation of Shaftesbury's story.
38 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
a burgess for Downton in Wiltshire, in the place of
Mr. William Herbert, second son to the Earl of Pem-
broke, who was chosen knight also of a county in
Wales ; Mr. Gorge, eldest son to the Lord Gorge, was
also returned ; but at the Committee for Privileges, it
was clearly decided for Sir Anthony, yet no report
made of it." This is probably quite correct. It
appears by the Journals that the question had been
referred to the Committee of Privileges, and a day
fixed for the hearing, in February 1641 ; but the
Journals then contain no further notice of the matter.
Thus the question remained in abeyance and the seat
vacant, and Cooper was kept out of the House. 1 The
case is not singular. Sir John Bramston gives an
account of a similar proceeding with his own petition
for Bodmin, which, he says, was decided in his favour
in Committee, but that the chairman, Serjeant May-
nard, would never report. 2 Obstruction may have been
given to Cooper, as Sir John Bramston thinks that it
was given in his case, from political motives. But
Denzil Holies, who was a leader in the party opposed
to the King, is said to have exerted himself, for private
reasons, to prevent Cooper from obtaining his seat.
The authorities for this statement are not unexcep-
tionable ; 3 but there is a fact which suggests that
1 Downton returned two members ; the return of one, Sir Edward
Griffin, was undisputed. Sir E. Griffin adhered to the King, and, his
seat having been declared vacant, a new writ was issued in September
1645, and Mr. Thistle waite was then elected in his place.
2 Sir J. Bramston's Autobiography, published by the Camden Society,
p. 160.
3 Locke's Memoir in Works, ix. 271. Martyn's Life, i. 143. The
identical statement in these two places was doubtless derived from
Stringer, and is introduced in order to prove Sir A. A. Cooper's magna-
1641. NOT SEATED FOR DOWNTON. 39
Holies had an interest in excluding Cooper from the
House, and which, if Holies has been calumniated, will
account for the imputation. Holies was at this time
prosecuting a suit in the Court of Wards against
Cooper, arising out of his father-in-law Sir Francis
Ashley's proceedings after the death of Cooper's father ;
and there is an entry in the Commons' Journals on
February 10, 1641, a few days before the reference
of the question of the election to the Committee of
Privileges, recording a permission given to Holies to
proceed with the suit. Sir Simonds D'Ewes in his
Diary gives a fuller explanation of the resolution : " It
was agreed in the House that Mr. Hollis, a member
of this House, having a suit against Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper (he named Anthony Ashley in his
baptism), being an elected member of this House, but
the election being in controversy, and he not yet
admitted to sit as a member, was allowed to proceed
in the suit, being in the Court of Wards, and demand
publication of witnesses." l
In 1645, after Cooper had joined the side of the
Parliament and fought for it, he made an endeavour
to get seated on the same petition for Downton, but
still unsuccessfully. There is an entry in the Com-
mons' Journals, September 1, 1645, that Sir Walter
Erie was ordered to report on Sir Anthony Ashley
nimity in not revenging himself on Holies, when called before the
House of Commons, a few years after, as is alleged, to give evidence
about transactions of Holies at Oxford. But this story of his being
called as a witness against Holies is clearly a romance. See note at
p. 41.
1 Harl. MSS. in British Museum, 162, p. 213 a.
40 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
Cooper's election, but again no report was made. At
last, on the eve of the Eestoration, in the last days
of the Bump of this parliament, which Cooper had
then prominently helped to resuscitate, he obtained a
decision in his favour, and was declared to have been
duly elected for Downton in 1640. 1
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was therefore excluded
from taking part in the great parliamentary contests
of the beginning of the Long Parliament, which ushered
in the Civil War. He was of age on the twenty-second
of July, 1642. He had then not yet proclaimed himself
a partisan. But swords had been then already drawn
in the great quarrel of King and Parliament. On the
twenty-fifth of August, the King set up his standard at
Nottingham ; and Cooper, who was at the time visiting
in Nottinghamshire, at his brother-in-law Sir William
Savile's at Eufford, was present at this ceremony, but
only as a spectator. "He was with the King," he
says of himself, " at Nottingham and Derby, but only
as a spectator, having not as yet adhered against the
Parliament." 2
In the spring of 1643, after the failure of the nego-
tiations at Oxford, Cooper came forward in Dorsetshire
on the King's side. 3 He says of himself that at this
1 January 7, 1660.
2 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
3 The following account of Sir A. A. Cooper's proceedings, while he
supported the King's party, is derived from his own statements in the
Autobiographical Sketch, written in 1646, and from Clarendon's "His-
tory of the Rebellion ; " it is in complete contrast with the absurd,
extravagant statements, to which some have given credence, contained
in Mr. Martyn's Life, and in the fragment of a Memoir printed among
Locke's works. The accounts given by Mr. Martyn, and in the Locke
Memoir, are as follow. Sir A. A. Cooper, being a young man of
twenty-two, is represented to have proposed to the King, in an inter-
1643. TAKES THE KING'S SIDE. 41
time he " was by the gentlemen of the county desired
to attend the King with their desires and the state of
view at Oxford, to undertake the general pacification of the kingdom,
if the King would authorise him to treat with the parliamentary garri-
sons and promise a new and free parliament. The King is said to have
observed, "You are a young man, and talk great things;" but to have
given Sir A. A. Cooper the authority he desired. All Cooper's plans
are represented to have been spoilt by Prince Maurice, and on Cooper's
complaining to the King it is said that " the King shook his head with
some concern, but said little." It is further stated that, after this first
grand project was broken by Prince Maurice, Cooper started another,
which was that the counties should all arm and endeavour to suppress
both the contending armies, that Cooper brought most of the sober
and well-intentioned gentlemen of both sides throughout England into
this plan, and that this was the origin of the " clubmen; " that Cooper
was now so strictly watched by the Court, which had become jealous of
him, that he could not maintain the necessary correspondence with
distant counties ; that at this time the King wrote a very complimentary
letter begging him to come to Oxford, but that his friends dissuaded
him from going, telling him that danger lurked in the King's civility ;
that Goring, who commanded a force in those parts, had orders to seize
Cooper ; that he invited himself one day to dine with Sir Anthony, who
upon this took fright and fled to the Parliament's quarters. Most of
this is downright falsehood ; it is in itself sufficiently improbable that
Sir A. A. Cooper, when so young, should have been encouraged in such
grand undertakings, and the story abounds in anachronisms. The
clubmen, whom Cooper is said to have brought forward, did not
appear on the stage before the spring of 1645, more than a year after
Cooper had left the King's cause. Mr. Godwin has pointed out this
anachronism (Hist, of Commonwealth, i. 439, note). Goring had no
command in the west at the time when Cooper left the King's cause in
February 1644 ; he had a command there in the following autumn.
It will be observed that Shaftesbury in his Autobiographical Sketch
makes no allusion whatever to the clubmen, which is not consistent
with his having been the originator of so important a movement.
There appear to be in the whole of this elaborate story, two, and only
two, facts, on which this superstructure of confused error has been
raised : 1st, that Cooper attended the King at Oxford in 1643, with
a deputation from his county ; and 2d, that he received a flattering
letter from the King shortly before his defection. It is not unlikely
that Cooper, in supporting the King's cause, assumed a somewhat
independent tone, and that his own exaggerated accounts in later life
led a hearer, who had no personal knowledge of the events of this time,
to misrepresentation. Another gross historical error occurs in a story
told for the glorification of Cooper in the Locke Memoir, and likewise
told by Mr. Martyn, of his being called by the Parliament as a witness
against his old private adversary, Holies. Holies being accused in the
House of Commons of having transacted separately with the King
when he was sent with other commissioners to Oxford to treat of peace,
it is stated that Cooper was called as a witness by Holles's accusers, as
he was with the King at Oxford at the time, and that Cooper refused
42 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
the county." Clarendon says that the King resolved
at this time to send the Marquis of Hertford with
an army into the western counties, " the rather because
there were many of the prime gentlemen of Wiltshire,
Dorsetshire, and Somersetshire, who confidently under-
took, if the Marquis went through these counties with
such a strength as they supposed the King would spare
to him, they would in a very short time raise so con-
siderable a power as to oppose any force the Parliament
should be able to send ;" and later, after the surrender
of Bristol, Clarendon gives as one of the reasons why
the King determined to divide his western army, and
detach a portion under Prince Maurice and the Earl
of Carnarvon to Dorsetshire, " some correspondence
with the chief gentlemen of Dorsetshire, who were
ready to join with any considerable party for the
King, and had some probable hopes that the small
garrisons upon the coast would not make a tedious
resistance." Dorsetshire was entirely in the hands of
the Parliament, who held all the ports, and Clarendon
to give any answer and persisted in his refusal, though threatened to
he sent to the Tower. Now the separate conversation with the King,
which was made a charge against Holies, took place in November 1644,
nine months after Cooper had quitted the King's party. In the Memoir
in Locke's works, it is mentioned that Holles's separate transaction
with the King was on the occasion of the treating at Oxbridge, which
was even later, in the beginning of 1645 ; but this is only one error
more. The account in this Memoir and that of Mr. Martyn evidently
proceed from the same source ; and that source is doubtless Mr.
Stringer. Locke probably took these stories from Stringer, and wrote
them down, without examination at the time, in a rough draft of a
biography designed for subsequent correction. It is not impossible
that Snaftesbury, in old age, may in conversation with his friends have
given a somewhat false colour to the story of his early life ; and there
is a remarkable passage in Burnet, accusing him both of boasting and
of disingenuousness in speaking of his relations with Cromwell. (Own
Time, i. 96.)
1643. DISPUTE ABOUT GOVERNMENT OF WEYMOUTH. 43
speaks of Dorchester as "the most malignant town
in England." l
The Marquis of Hertford, as commander-in-chief of
the western army, had commissioned Cooper, with Sir
Gerard Napier, Sir John Hele, and Sir William Ogle, to
treat with Weymoutb and Dorchester for their sur-
render; and Cooper had raised at his own expense a
regiment of foot and a troop of horse, and received from
Hertford commissions as colonel of the regiment and
captain of the troop. 2 Hertford had given him also a
commission appointing him governor of Weymouth and
the island of Portland, when they should be taken for
the King. In August, Dorchester, Weymouth, and Port-
land all surrendered to the Earl of Carnarvon, imme-
diately on his arrival with his army from Bristol. Very
shortly afterwards, the Marquis of Hertford ceased to be
commander-in-chief, the King desiring to give the chief
command to Prince Maurice, who accordingly succeeded
him. V Cooper, hearing that Prince Maurice was not
disposed to respect the commission which Hertford had
given him to be governor of Weymouth and Portland,
and that he wished to appoint some one else, went off
immediately to Hertford, who was at Bristol, to press
his claim., He had indeed already acted on Hertford's
commission by nominating a commander for Portland.
Hertford, who had lately, before his removal from his
command, had a similar question with Prince Eupert
about the governorship of Bristol, took up Cooper's case
warmly. Weymouth and Portland had, in truth, been
1 History of Rebellion, vii. 94, 154, 155.
2 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
44 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
surrendered before lie had actually ceased to be corn-
man der-in-chief, and he made it a question of his own
honour with the King that the commission which he
had given to Cooper should be confirmed. Clarendon,
who was at Bristol, being then the King's Chancellor of
the Exchequer, has given a detailed account of this
incident, and describes Cooper as " a young gentleman
of that country, of a fair and plentiful fortune, and one
who, in the opinion of most men, was like to advance the
place by being governor of it, and to raise men for the
defence of it without lessening the army, and had, in
expectation of it, made some provision of officers and
soldiers, when it should be time to call them together."
Hertford spoke with Hyde on the subject, and Cooper
himself applied to him for his intercession : " And Sir
Anthony came likewise to him [Clarendon], who was of
his acquaintance, and desired his assistance, that, after
so much charge he had been put to in the expectation
of it, and to prepare for it, he might not be exposed to
the mirth and contempt of the country." Hyde wrote
to the King, who was before Gloucester, then besieged
by the royal forces, and he also "wrote to the Lord
Falkland, to take Sir John Colepepper with him, if he
found any aversion in the King, that they might together
discourse and prevail with him." The King refused.
Hertford was so much hurt that he talked of retiring to
his own house to live privately and quietly, seeing that
he had no more credit with the King. Hyde then went
to the King ; and, according to his own account, written
long after, when his feelings towards Shaftesbury were
soured, " at last, with very great difficulty, he [Hyde]
1643. CONFIRMED AS GOVERNOR OF WEYMOUTH. 45
did so far prevail with his Majesty, that he gave a com-
mission to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper to be Governor
of Weymouth, which he was the more easily persuaded
to, out of some prejudice he had to the person who he
understood was designed to that government." l '"""
Such is the detailed account given by Clarendon of
this incident, of which he had excellent opportunities of
knowledge. Cooper himself makes no allusion to the
difficulty and dispute, simply saying that, after Hert-
ford's removal, he " had a continuation of all his com-
mands under the King's own hand." Clarendon has
omitted to mention that the King wrote to Hertford,
signifying his consent to the appointment of Cooper and
of the person whom he had named to command under
him at Portland, but at the same time urging him to
endeavour to persuade Cooper and his nominee to
resign after a short interval, and then, on their resigna-
tions, to confer with Prince Maurice about the selection
of successors of greater experience and military know-
ledge. The following is the King's letter to Hertford,
which completes the story :
"CHARLES R.
" Right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin and
councillor, we greet you well. Upon the hearing of some
difference about the command of our town of Weymouth
and our castle of Portland, signified to us by our Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, we have written to our nephew
Prince Maurice, that our pleasure is that Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper and the person appointed by him remain
in those commands according to the tenor of your com-
1 History of Rebellion, vii. 199.
46 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY CHAP. II.
mission granted to him ; which though out of respect to
you and your grant we have thought fit to do, and that
nothing like an affront may fall upon the gentlemen
entrusted by you, yet being informed of the youth of
the one and the want in both of experience in martial
affairs, and of the importance of those places and how
likely they are, being ports, to be attempted by the Par-
liament forces by sea, in which case, for want of an able
and experienced commander, they may run great hazard
to be lost, to the great prejudice of our affairs, we
earnestly recommend it to you to prevail with them
willingly to resign their commands after they have held
them so long as that they may not appear to be put
from them, nor your commission to have been disregarded
by us. And we recommend to you so to advise with our
nephew about the persons to succeed them therein that
both these places for the security thereof may be in the
hands of more able soldiers, and that (if such persons
be there to be found) these soldiers may likewise be
persons of some fortune and interest in those parts for
the better satisfaction of the gentry of that country.
And so not doubting of your ready compliance herein,
we bid you heartily farewell. Given at our camp before
Gloucester, the 10th day of August, 1643.
" To our right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin
and councillor, William Marquis of Hertford." l
After this, Cooper was made sheriff of Dorsetshire for
the King, and he says that he was appointed president
of the King's council of war in the county. 2
But in a few months a great change took place. In
the beginning of January 1644, Cooper resigned the
1 From a copy among Lord Shaftesbury's papers at St. Giles's.
2 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
1644. GOES OVER TO THE PARLIAMENT. 47
government of Weymouth and all his commissions
under the King, and a few weeks after he went over to
the Parliament. He presented himself in the Parlia-
ment's quarters at Hurst Castle, on the Hampshire coast,
on the twenty-fourth of February, and thence proceeded
to London, where his wife joined him, after a year's
separation. She had remained in Shropshire with her
sister, Lady Thynne, while Cooper had been doing
military service for the King in Dorsetshire. 1
While Cooper represents his resignation of his com-
missions as voluntary, and his change as purely the
result of conviction, Clarendon has stated that he was
removed from the government of Weymouth, and that
he abandoned the King's cause from pique ; 2 and this
explanation of Cooper's change has been generally
accepted without inquiry. There is no doubt that
Cooper was not ostensibly removed, and so far Claren-
don's statement is unquestionably inaccurate. Claren-
don's accuracy in details can never be relied on, and
when he wrote his History, in exile, thirty years
1 Autobiographical Sketch prefixed to Diary.
3 Hist, of Rebellion, viii 60. Colonel Ashburnham succeeded Cooper
as governor of Weymouth, and Clarendon says that Cooper was removed
to make way for him. He goes on to say that Cooper " was thereby so
much disobliged that he quitted the King's party and gave himself up,
body and soul, to the service of the Parliament, with an implacable
animosity against the royal interest." It is stated in " Rawleigh
Redivivus" that Cooper was affronted by Ashburnham's being sent
into Dorsetshire with a commission as governor of the county which
overrode his own authority as sheriff; but this little biography is a
catchpenny publication of no authority, and the object of the writer
was to prove Shaftesbury an injured man. Bishop Burnet ascribes
Cooper's desertion of the King's cause to an incident which would
have occurred, and which is related in the Locke memoir as occurring,
before he became governor of Weymouth, viz. Prince Maurice's break-
ing an engagement which he had made with one of the Dorsetshire
towns, on its surrendering to him for the King. (Own Time, i. 96.)
48 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
after these incidents, he was angry with Shaftesbury.
It is even probable that Cooper's own account of his
conduct is entirely correct, and that he had no cause
for resentment. Certainly, if Cooper had been pressed
to resign the government of Weymouth in compliance
with the King's wish as it had been conveyed to the
Marquis of Hertford, his resignation might have been a
virtual removal. But there is no trace of evidence of
any endeavour made by Hertford or any one else to
persuade Cooper to resign, and it is quite likely that
the King's suggestion of his resignation, made at the
time by way of compromise between Hertford's and
Prince Maurice's pretensions, was not afterwards thought
of. It is beyond dispute that Cooper was appointed
sheriff of Dorsetshire for the King after the decision of
the question about the government of Weymouth. And
there is no reason to doubt Cooper's own statements,
written in 1646, that he was courted and treated with
honour b}^ the King to the last days of his remaining on
the King's side, and that he had a promise of a peerage
and received a complimentary letter from the King only
a few days before he went over to the Parliament.
" He now plainly seeing the King's aim destructive
to religion and the state, and though he had an assurance
of the barony of Ashley Castle, 1 which had formerly
belonged to that family, and that but two days before
he received a letter from the King's own hand of large
promises and thanks for his service, yet in February he
delivered up all his commissions to Ashburnham, and
1 In "Wiltshire, whence the Ashleys of Wimborne St. Giles came.
See Coker's " Survey of Dorsetshire," p. 14.
1644. HIS OWN STATEMENT OF MOTIVES. 49
privately came away to the Parliament, leaving all his
estate in the King's quarters, 5001. a year full-stocked,
two houses well furnished, to the mercy of the enemy,
resolving to cast himself on God and to follow the
dictates of a good conscience. Yet he never in the
least betrayed the King's service, but while he was with
him was always faithful."
On his arrival in London, Cooper appeared, on the
sixth of March, 1644, before the standing Committee of
the two Houses, now called Committee of both Kingdoms,
and made a statement explanatory of his coming over
to the Parliament, of which notes have been preserved.
As these notes come from the Committee, and not from
Cooper, they may be relied on as a report of what he
said of himself ; and this is Cooper's account, publicly
given, of his actions and motives, when he was exposed
to easy detection of any inaccurate or disingenuous
statement. There would have been enough distrust
among those to whom he went, and enough anger among
those whom he left, to ensure his being exposed, if he
had acted from resentment at a marked affront.
" Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, bart., saith that he
was Sheriff of Dorcester this year, and late Governor
of Weymouth, but he hath delivered up his commissions
of Governor and Colonel the first week of January
1643. 1
" He came into the Parliament quarters at Hurst
Castle, in Hampshire, upon the 24th of February.
" He brought in a certificate under my general's hand,
certifying his coming into the Parliament quarters before
the 1st day of March.
i January 1644, according to the present mode of reckoning.
VOL. I. E
50 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. II.
" He saith he came there being fully satisfied that
there was 110 intention of that side for the promoting or
preserving of the Protestant religion and the liberties
of the kingdom, and that he left 60 01. per annum well
stocked there ; and is fully satisfied of the justness of
the Parliament proceedings : 800Z. near Oxford, under
their power : 2,000/. per annum in the King's quarters
in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire and Somersetshire. 1
" He saith he had not made known his intentions
to any.
" That those that should come in before the 1st of
March, the Parliament would give them their lives and
liberties, but for their estates that was wholly to be
disposed of to the use of the public ; only if they took
the Covenant and behaved themselves likely to deserve
well of the Parliament, they should be allowed forty or
fifty pound per annum. Mr. Kirby's letters certified
so much.
" He saith above a month before he heard of the
Parliament declarations he delivered up his commissions
and was resolved to return to the Parliament ; being fully
satisfied of the injustice of that cause, and of the justice
of the Parliament, he was resolved to come into them
without looking to any conditions whatsoever.
" He saith he hath seen the Covenant, and desires to
take the Covenant when this Committee shall tender it
unto him.
"A better testimonial of his purposes of coming in,
and intentions to leave them, and that he is very cordial
for the Parliament, being able to do you good service,
and discovery of their designs and of their strength, and
1 From the Royalist Composition Papers in the State Paper Office,
First Series, 16,561, It is evident that these are very rough notes
made at the time Some part of the notes is in cypher ; the rest very
badly written.
1644. REASONS OF CHANGE. 51
wherein they might prepare against your enemy both
upon Poole and Wareham, by Mr. Hildeley, one of the
Committee there."
This document renders it impossible to believe that
Cooper was superseded or slighted. He probably acted,
according to his nature, impetuously. But there is
much reason to think that he acted conscientiously.
The time of his change was a time when any man
doubting or wavering would be strongly moved to decide
himself. The King had summoned his friends of both
Houses to assemble as a parliament at Oxford in
January 1644 ; the Parliament had lately concluded
the " Solemn League and Covenant " with Scotland.
Other persons of importance left the King's party at
this very time, alleging disgust at the treaty made by
Ormond for the King with the Irish rebels, and the
favour shown to Roman Catholics. Among these were
the Earl of Westmorland and Sir Edward Bering, who
gave their reasons in language very similar to that of
Cooper, that "there was no intention of that side for
the promoting or preserving of the Protestant religion
and the liberties of the kingdom." l Sir Gerard Napier,
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's neighbour and friend,
went over with him to the Parliament. A royalist
gentleman writes from Oxford, in March 1644 : " Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper and Sir Gerard Napier are both
run away to the Parliament from their brethren the
i Ludlow, i. 106 ; Whitelocke, pp. 81, 82. Holland is by mistake
named instead of Westmorland by Mr. Hallam (Constitutional His-
tory, ii. 233, note). Lord Inchiquin was another convert at this time
on account of Ormond's treaty of cessation with the Irish rebels.
E2
52 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. II.
Commons here." 1 This is a royalist who writes, and,
writing when Cooper's desertion was fresh, he imputes
no bad motive. It is right also to remember that in
the beginning of 1^4, when Cooper left the King's
party, the King's friends were hopeful, and the King's
fortunes by no means low. The result of the campaign
of 1643 had been on the whole favourable to the King's
arms. In Dorsetshire and the western counties espe-
cially, where the Parliament had had a decided ascen-
dency in the spring of 1643, the ascendency of the King
was as decided at the close of the campaign. 2 A year
earlier or a year later, Cooper might have been described
as going over to the more powerful party. Another
proof of disinterestedness is furnished by the fact that,
leaving the King's side when he did, he left much of his
property at the King's mercy ; for most of his posses-
1 Carte's Life of Ormond, iii. 254. Mr. Arthur Trevor to Ormond,
March 9, 1644. Mr. Trevor's words do not necessarily mean that
Cooper went from Oxford : Charles's parliament was then sitting
there, and Cooper, if he had remained among the royalists, would have
been probably recognised there without difficulty as member for Down-
ton. It is said in "Rawleigh Redivivus" (p. 17) that he went from
Dorsetshire, taking his brother's house, which would be near Salisbury,
on the way.
2 Clare adon writes of the condition of the west in the spring of
1643 : " Dorsetshire and Devonshire were entirely possessed by the
enemy, and all the ports upon the western coasts were garrisoned by
them. The Cornish army [for the King] was greater in reputation
than numbers." (Hist, of Rebellion, vi. 151.) Contrast this with his
account of the state of things in October. " He [the King] was now
master of the whole west ; Cornwall was his own without a rival ;
Plymouth was the only place in all Devonshire unreduced, and those
forces shut within their own walls ; the large rich county of Somerset,
with Bristol, the second city of the kingdom, entirely his ; in
Dorsetshire, the enemy had only two little fisher-towns, Poole and
Lyme ; all the rest was declared for the King. And in every of these
counties he had plenty of harbours and ports to supply him with
ammunition, and the country with trade. In Wiltshire the enemy had
not the least footing, and rather a town or two in Hampshire than any
possession of the county." (vii. 298.)
1644. RECEPTION BY PARLIAMENT. 53
sions lay in the western counties, where the King then
was uppermost.
Mr. Martyn, and Lord Campbell who has followed
him, have given an exaggerated impression of the
warmth- of Cooper's reception by the Parliament, and
the importance attached to his joining them. They
state that the Parliament specially appointed a Com-
mittee to receive and examine him, 1 and Lord Campbell
says, that " the Parliament was contented to receive him
on his own terms." He was examined, like any one
else, by the standing Committee of both Kingdoms ;
and it will be seen in the next chapter that it was not
until after five months, and after some military service,
that he was permitted to compound for his estates by
a fine of five hundred pounds; that, eighteen months
later, when he had performed much military service, he
could not gain admission into the House of Commons,
although a Committee had previously decided that he
was duly elected in 1640 ; and that he was not entirely
cleared of delinquency until the beginning of 1652,
eight years later. The importance likely to attach to
him as a Parliamentary convert is also a material
point for consideration in the question of Cooper's
motives.
1 Martyu's Life, i. 141.
CHAPTER III.
16441653.
Retrospect of public affairs The war in the West Sir A. A. Cooper
goes into Dorsetshire for the Parliament, July 1644 Appointed to
act with the army as Field Marshal General Taking of Wareham
Made one of the Dorsetshire Committee for the army Allowed to
compound for his estates with a fine of 500^. Appointed Commander-
in-chief of th,e Parliament's forces in Dorsetshire, October 1644
Takes Abbotsbury by storm Narratives by himself and by one of his
officers of storming of Abbotsbury Takes Sturminster and Shaftes-
bury Instructions of Dorsetshire Committee Cooper's notes on
the military condition in Dorsetshire, Wiltshire and Somersetshire,
November 1644 Letter from Colonel Butler Want of money
Cooper relieves Blake besieged at Taunton, December Cooper's
letter to Essex on relief of Taunton Siege of Corfe Castle, 1645
Endeavours unsuccessfully to gain admission into the House of
Commons on his former petition, September 1645 Self-denying
Ordinance Termination of Cooper's military service High Sheriff
of Wiltshire for the Parliament, 1647 Cooper's Diary, 1646-50
Story of his advice to Holies to be forbearing with Cromwell
Selections from Diary Execution of Charles the First Death of
Cooper's wife His second marriage with daughter of Earl of Exeter
Subscribes the engagement and is a commissioner for administering
it Appointed member of the Commission for reforming the 1 laws,
January 1652 House of Commons absolve him from all delin-
quency, March 1653.
SIR ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER was far advanced in his
twenty-third yeax when, after some ten months' service
on the King's side, he went over to that of the Parlia-
ment. Here, as in other parts of Dryden's sketch of his
history in "The Medal," the satirist's animosity has
outrun accuracy :
" A martial hero first with early care,
Blown, like a pigmy, by the winds to war ;
A beardless chief, a rebel ere a man,
So young his hatred to his prince began."
1644. RETROSPECT OF AFFAIRS. DO
It may be convenient here to take a short retrospect,
and briefly define the present position of affairs between
the King and the Parliament. The body now exercising
power and directing war at Westminster, was very
different from the parliament which had assembled
there in November 1640. This parliament had, in
May 1641, legally framed an act to prevent dissolution
without its own consent. The Bishops were excluded
from the House of Lords by another act, legally passed
in February 1642. In the same month, an ordinance
for regulating the militia, agreed to by both Houses, was
presented to the King, which nominated a lord lieu-
tenant for every county, to obey the orders of the two
Houses, and to be irremoveable by the King for two
years. To this ordinance, transferring for two years the
government of the military force of the nation from the
King to the two Houses of Parliament, Charles refused
his assent. The King's rash attempt to arrest Hampden,
Pym, Holies, Haslerig, and Strode in the House of
Commons, had hurried Parliament to this militia ordi-
nance ; and on the King's refusal, the two Houses took
the matter into their own hands, passed the ordinance
without the King's consent, and resolved to place the
kingdom in a posture of defence. Here, then, was one
definite issue between the King and the two Houses,
which should have the control of the military force of
the nation ? Other demands were made by the Parlia-
ment before the Civil War actually began. In the
meantime, the King had established himself at York,
and the Lord Keeper Littleton had joined him there,
carrying with him the Great Seal from Westminster. At
56 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
York, in June, nineteen propositions were presented to
the King from the two Houses, containing, among
others, the following demands : That the appointments
of all privy councillors and officers of state should be
subject to approval by the two Houses ; that the
education and marriages of the King's children should
be under the control of Parliament; that Eoman Catholic
peers should be excluded from the House of Lords; that
the government and liturgy of the Church should be
reformed as the two Houses might determine ; that the
militia and all fortified places should be confided to
persons approved by the two Houses ; and that no
peers hereafter to be made should sit in parliament
without the consent of both Houses. To these proposi-
tions the King's assent could not have been expected.
Military preparations had already been made on both
sides, and civil war was inevitable. It began in August.
Now, the House of Commons sitting at Westminster
was reduced by the secession of nearly a hundred
members who adhered to the King, and of the House of
Lords about forty, only a third of the whole number,
remained at Westminster. 1 In 1642 and 1643, fortune
favoured the King's arms. The Parliament now, in
1643, urged the Scotch to come to their aid, declaring
their eagerness to reform the Church of England on
Presbyterian principles, and their fear of the King's
bringing against them an army of papists and foreigners.
The articles of cessation made by Ormond in Ireland
with the Eoman Catholic rebels, and the bringing over
1 Hallam, Const. Hist. ii. 203, note ; Sanford's Studies and Illustra-
tions of the Great Rebellion, p. 498.
1644. RETROSPECT OF AFFAIRS. 57
of Irish troops to reinforce the King's armies, added
fuel to the flames, and angered many of the King's
friends. The famous treaty known as " The Solemn
League and Covenant" was concluded between the
English and Scotch Parliaments : the Covenant, which
was to be a test of fidelity to the parliamentary cause,
bound its subscribers to endeavour to preserve the
Scotch Church as it was, and bring those of England
and Ireland into conformity with it in government,
doctrine, and practice ; to labour for the extirpation of
popery and prelacy ; and to preserve the rights and
privileges of the parliaments, and the liberties of the
kingdoms, and the King's person and authority in aid
of the true religion and liberties of the nation. A Scotch
army of twenty-one thousand men now crossed the
border, in January 1644. The Scotch Commissioners
at Westminster were joined with a Committee of both
Houses for direction of affairs ; and to this joint Com-
mittee was given the name of the Committee of both
Kingdoms. The King had summoned all his adherents
of both Houses to assemble as a parliament at Oxford,
on the twenty-second of January, 1644. There was a
call of the two Houses on the same day at Westminster;
thirty-five peers acknowledged this call, and two hun-
dred and eighty members of the House of Commons
are said to have attended at Westminster, about a
hundred more being absent on parliamentary service. 1
1 This statement is in Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 80. Mr. Hallam
thinks that there is a mistake in the statement, and that the number
of adherents of the Parliament was not so great. Mr. Sanford, who
has examined this portion of English history very laboriously, supports
Whitelocke's statement. (Studies and Illustrations, p. 498.) The two
58 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
In the middle of May 1644, two parliamentary
armies left London, under the Earl of Essex and
Waller, with ulterior destination for the West, but to
be guided by the movements of the King, who was at
Oxford. Abingdon and Eeading quickly falling into
their hands, the King, with a small body of attendants,
leaving his army, suddenly quitted Oxford, where he
found himself in imminent danger of being besieged.
He was followed by Waller into Worcestershire,
managed with great skill and energy to elude Waller's
pursuit, and within three weeks after his escape from
Oxford he was again there at the head of his army,
relieved of the presence of Essex's forces, which had
gone into Dorsetshire, and thinking himself strong
enough to cope with Waller's, which would probably
return in pursuit of him. The King shortly after
marched out of Oxford to meet Waller. The two armies
met, at the end of June, at Cropredy Bridge, where the
advantage of the fight was with the King.
In the meantime, Essex had entered Dorsetshire with
his army ; he quickly retook Weymouth for the Parlia-
ment, the King's governor, Colonel Ashburnham, who
had succeeded Cooper, abandoning it immediately on
Essex's approach, and retiring into Portland Castle ; and
he then marched to Lyme, which Prince Maurice, who
had been long besieging it, quitted as soon as he heard
of the taking of Weymouth, " with some loss of reputa-
tion," says Clarendon, " for having lain so long with such
hundred and twenty-eight members of the House of Commons, whose
signatures to the League and Covenant in September 1643 are printed
in a tract in vol. iv. of the Somers Tracts, are clearly not all the
parliamentary adherents.
1644. TAKING OF WAREHAM. 59
a strength before so vile and untenable place without
reducing it." The defence had been conducted by the
indomitable Blake, who next maintained an equally
surprising defence against the royalist besiegers of
Taunton. Prince Maurice, on abandoning the siege of
Lyme, put a garrison of five hundred men into Ware-
ham, and went off to Exeter with the main body of his
forces. Essex followed him, and Prince Maurice retired
into Cornwall. The King, no longer troubled by Waller,
marched into the West after Essex, and ultimately
discomfited Essex's army in Cornwall.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, in July, was permitted
by the Parliament to go down into Dorsetshire for mili-
tary service. He says himself: "After Weymouth was
taken in 1 by the Lord General Essex, the Committee
for Dorset going into the country, desired Sir Anthony's
company with them, which he did." 2
On the third of August he received a commission to
command a brigade of horse and foot, with the title of
Field Marshal General. 3 Cooper's first military service
was in the taking of Wareham. Together with Colonels
Sydenham and Jephson, he proceeded to besiege that
town with twelve hundred horse and foot; and they
were afterwards joined by Lieutenant-General Middleton,
with a thousand horse. They began to storm the out-
1 " Taken in ;" the usual phrase of the time when speaking of
taking a town : it occurs also in Clarendon.
" You durst not think of taking in a heart
As soon as you set down before it. "
SUCKLING, Brennoralt.
2 Autobiographical Sketch. There is an entry in the Commons'
Journals, July 10, 1644, of permission given to Sir A. A. Cooper
to go into Dorsetshire.
3 A copy of the commission is among the papers at St. Giles's.
60 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
works on the tenth of August, when the garrison im-
mediately capitulated, three hundred undertaking to
serve the Parliament against the rebels in Ireland. 1 The
governor of Wareham for the King was Colonel O'Brien,
a brother of Lord Inchiquin, who had lately left the
King's service for the Parliament in disgust at
Ormond's cessation with the. Irish rebels ; and it is
supposed that O'Brien had not been hearty to defend
Wareham.
Cooper says that he attended, by order of the Dorset-
shire Committee and Council of war, at the bar of the
House of Commons, to relate the taking of Wareham,
but there is no entry to this effect in the Journals. His
statement, however, is doubtless correct. Four days
after the taking of Wareham, he was added by a vote
of both Houses to the Committee for governing the
army in Dorsetshire; and on the same day, his case
was referred to the Committee for Sequestrations sitting
at Goldsmiths' Hall, to consider on what terms his
estates should be restored to him. 2 The Committee
made a report in a few days, recommending that he
should be permitted to compound by a payment of five
hundred pounds, and the House immediately adopted
1 Autobiographical Sketch of 1646 ; Rushworth's Collections, pt. 3,
vol. ii. p. 697 ; Vicars's Parl. Chron. iv. 5 ; Whitelocke's Memorials,
p. 98 ; Comm. Journ. Aug. 14, 1644. These different accounts vary in
details, and it is difficult to reconcile them entirely. From the ac-
counts in Kushworth and Vicars, it would appear that Colonel Syden-
ham and Sir A. A. Cooper bore the chief part in this action. The
Commons' Journals record, August 14, that letters of thanks were sent
by the Parliament to Middleton and Jephson. Cooper was probably
thanked in person, as he attended at the bar of the House of Commons
to relate what had been done.
2 Comm. Journ. August 14. Lord Campbell erroneously places the
taking of Wareham after these votes of August 14, which were the
reward of his service.
1644. COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN DORSET. 61
the report. 1 The five hundred pounds were never paid,
and it appears from a note preserved in the family
papers, that the fine was discharged by Cromwell,
thirteen years later, in 1657.
On October 25, Cooper was appointed Commander-in-
chief of the Parliament's forces in Dorsetshire, 2 and he
took the field with ten regiments of horse and foot,
fifteen hundred men in all, to encounter Sir Lewis
Dives of Sherbovne Castle, who was about the same
time appointed the King's commander-in-chief in
Dorsetshire. 3
In the meantime the King had followed Essex into
Cornwall, and there completely defeated him. The
King then returned to Exeter, and in the beginning of
October passed into Dorsetshire, and stayed a few days
at Sherborne. 4 The Parliament, on receiving the news
of Essex's disaster, had successively despatched two
armies under Waller and Manchester, to check the
King, who now hurried on from Sherborne to attack
Waller near Andover. Here he gained an advantage
over Waller : at Newbury, where he fought Waller's
forces joined with Manchester's, and contended against
an army double of his own, he neither conquered nor
was defeated ; and he then carried off his army to
Oxford, arriving there himself on the twenty-third of
November. 5
1 Comm. Journ. Aug. 22.
2 Autobiographical Sketch. The original commission is at St. Giles's.
3 "Sir A. A. Cooper, with fifteen hundred horse and foot from
several garrisons, took the field to encounter Sir Lewis Dives." (White-
locke's Memorials, p. 109, October 1644.) See also Vicars's Parl.
Chron. iv. 62.
4 Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, viii. 148. 6 Ibid. viii. 164.
62 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
In the beginning of November, Cooper took by storm
a Cavalier garrison at Abbotsbury, the house of Sir
John Strangways. A minute and graphic account of
this action is in existence, written by Cooper himself.
The following draft of his report to the Committee for
the Parliament for Dorsetshire, in his own handwriting,
is among the papers in Lord Shaftesbury's possession.
"HONOURABLE, Yesterday we advanced with your
brigade to Abbotsbury as a place of great concern, and
which by the whole council of war was held feasible.
We came thither just at night, and sent them a summons
by a trumpeter, to which they returned a slighting
answer and hung out their bloody flag. Immediately
we drew out a party of musketeers, with which Major
Baintun in person stormed the church, into which they
had put thirteen men, because it flanked the house.
This after a hot bickering we carried, and took all the
men prisoners. After this we sent them a second
summons under our hands that they might have fair
quarter if they would accept it, otherwise they must
expect none if they forced us to a storm. But they
were so gallant that they would admit of no treaty, so
that we prepared ourselves for to force it, and accord-
ingly fell on. The business was extreme hot for above
six hours ; we were forced to burn down an outgate
to a court before we could get to the house, and then
our men rushed in through the fire and got into the hall
porch, where with -furse fagots they set fire on it, and
plied the windows so hard with small shot that the
enemy durst not appear in the low rooms : in the mean-
time one of our guns played on the other side of the
house, and the gunners with fire balls and granadoes
with scaling ladders endeavoured to fire the second
1644. STORMING OF ABBOTSBURY. 63
story, but, that not taking effect, our soldiers were
forced to wrench open the windows with iron bars, and,
pouring in fagots of furse fired, set the whole house in a
naming fire, so that it was not possible to be quenched,
and then they cried for quarter ; but we having bet l
divers men before it, and considering how many garrisons
of the same nature we were to deal with, I gave com-
mand there should be none given, but they should be
kept into the house, that they and their garrison might
fall together, which the soldiers with a great deal of
alacrity would have performed, but that Colonel and
Major Sidenham, riding to the other side of the house,
gave them quarter ; upon which our men fell into the
house to plunder and could not be by any of their com-
manders drawn out, though they were told the enemy's
magazine was near the fire and, if they stayed, would
prove their ruin, which accordingly fell out, for the
powder taking fire blew up all that were in the house,
and blew four score that were in the court a yard from
the ground, but hurt only two of them. Mr. Darby was
of the number, but not hurt. We had hurt and killed
by the enemy not fifteen, but I fear four times that
number will not satisfy for the last mischance. Captain
Heathcock and Mr. Cooper (who did extreme bravely)
were both slain by the blow of the powder. Captain
Gorge, a very gallant young gentleman, is hurt in the
head with a freestone from the church tower and shot
through the ankle, but we hope will live. Lieutenant
Kennett to Major Peutt, who behaved himself very
well, was blown up with the powder and slain ; and
Lieutenant Hill, who went a volunteer and was sent in
to get out the soldiers, was blown up with the rest, yet
since we have taken him strongly 2 out of the rubbish
1 So in the manuscript, apparently ; the meaning must be "lost."
2 So in the manuscript.
64 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
and hope to preserve him. The house is burnt down to
the ground, and could not be saved. We have prisoners
Colonel James Strangways, Major Coles, and three
captains, besides a hundred foot soldiers and thirty
horse, all Strangways his whole regiment. Sir William
Waller's officers all of them have behaved themselves
extreme gallantly, and more than could be expected in
their readiness and observance for your commands ; we
cannot say to whom you owe the most thanks, only
Lieutenant-Colonel Oxford we are extremely obliged to
for his nobleness in joining in this expedition, though
without command, only on our entreaty. Captain Starr
and Captain Woodward behaved themselves extremely
well. Our men are so worn out with duty and this mis-
chance that we are necessitated to retire to Dorchester
to refresh them. If you have anything in particular to
command us, we shall most readily obey you. To-
morrow we have a council of war of all the officers, and
then we shall conclude of what may be of most advan-
tage to your service, and by God's blessing will faith-
fully prosecute it. Colonel Sidenham has yet afforded
us no ammunition; all his men are supplied from us
hitherto besides. He makes not up his regiment either
of horse or foot ; he has withdrawn one more company
this day. We have given him orders that all the
prisoners that are officers should be sent to you. We
humbly desire you will be pleased to consent to no
exchange for any of them until Haynes be exchanged.
"A. A. COOPER."
Another account of the storming of Abbotsbury has
been preserved in Vicars's Parliamentary Chronicle,
written by an officer who was under Cooper in the
engagement, and who speaks with the highest admira-
1644. STORMING OF ABBOTSBURY. 65
tion of Cooper's gallantry. " About the eighth of this
instant November," sa) T s Vicars, " we received credible
information out of the West by a letter from a com-
mander of note and quality, of the storming and taking
of a strong garrison of the enemy's, which was Sir John
Strangwaies his house in Dorsetshire, and had been a very
ill neighbour to our renowned garrison of Lime, which
service was most bravely performed by that valiant and
loyal patriot, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Commander-
in-chief for the Parliament in that county." The letter
is as follows ; it confirms Cooper's account in all
material particulars ; the name of the officer who wrote
it I have not discovered :
" SIR, We marched from Dorchester to Abbotsbury,
where Colonel James Strangewayes and all his regiment
were in garrison; they held both the house and the
church which joined to the house : it was night before
we summoned it, and they in a scorn refused the
summons of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, a very active
and noble gentleman, and Commander-in-chief, where-
upon he sent his Major-General with a considerable
party against the church, who presently assaulting it
took it and all the men in it prisoners, without the loss
of one man of our own. After this we summoned them
in writing, the second time, to yield on fair quarter or
else to expect no mercy, if they forced us to storm
them. To this also they disdained to return an answer;
upon which denial we fell on, and after as hot a storm
as ever I heard of, for six hours together, it pleased God
at last to give us the place. When by no other means
we could get it, we found a way by desperately flinging
in fired turf-fagots into the windows. And the fight
VOL. i. F
66 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
then grew so hot that our said Commander-in-chief (who
to his perpetual renown behaved most gallantly in this
service) was forced to bring up his men within pistol-
shot of the house, and could hardly then get them to
stay and stand the brunt, yet in all this time (God be
praised) we had but three men killed and some few
wounded. Now when as by the foresaid hot assault
half of the house was on a light fire, 1 and not to be
quenched, then at length Colonel James Strangways
called out for quarter, which our Commander-in-chief
was resolved no man in the house should have, in
regard they had so desperately and disdainfully scorned
his summons, and also in regard that the Cavaliers'
custom was observed to be to keep such paltry houses
and pilfering garrisons against any of our armies, that
they might thereby be sure to do us mischief, and (by
reason of our observed clemency) to have their lives at
last granted to them ; but some of our commanders
upon one side of the house, contrary to the mind of
our said Commander-in-chief, and against the opinion of
all the officers, in his absence had given them quarter,
which being granted them, we instantly rushed into the
house, which being on a light fire and their magazine in
it (I believe rather accidentally than, as some reported,
purposely and treacherously), to set on fire four or five
barrels of gunpowder, and blew up between thirty and
forty of our men ; yet, the Lord be blessed, myself and
the rest were even miraculously preserved.
" We took prisoners Colonel James Strangewayes, Sir
John Strangewayes his son, governour of this garrison,
his Major and three Captains : and not three of his
whole regiment but were either killed or taken, and the
house was wholly burnt down to the ground, and we
thereby freed of a pestilent and pernicious neighbour.
1 "A light fire," an old expression for "a bright fire."
i
1644. INSTRUCTIONS OF DOESET COMMITTEE. 67
Colonel Bruen and Mr. Crompton behaved themselves
very worthily in this action, and Captain Starre incom-
parably bravely.
" Yours,
"C. A." 1
Soon after the taking of Abbotsbury, Cooper marched
to Sturminster, and the royalists evacuated the castle
on his approach : thence he marched to Shaftesbury,
and forced the royalist garrison of that town to quit. 2
The following instructions to Cooper from the Com-
mittee for Dorsetshire, without other date than " Poole,
eight at night, 1644," were probably written in November,
between the taking of Abbotsbury and the expedition to
Shaftesbury :
" NOBLE SIK, We have received your letter and have
considered the particulars. In that which concerns the
altering your quarters, we hold it most fit to be resolved
on by the council of war upon the place, according as
you have intelligence of the motions of the enemy.
Only we shall intimate that, before Shaston 3 be resolved
on, it may be considered how safe a retreat may be
made, if a body of the enemy's horse advances to
Blandford We are very sensible of the necessity
of supplying the soldiers with some money, and have
sent you twenty pound, whereof we are fain to borrow
ten. If we had more, you may be assured those should
not want that deserve so well and are so modest in their
demands. You are now in a convenient quarter to raise
money on malignants, therefore we desire you to make
1 Vicars's Parl. Chron. iv. 67. This work is so scarce that I may be
excused for extracting the whole of a letter so closely connected with
Shaftesbury 's history.
2 Autobiographical Sketch of 1646. 3 Shaftesbury.
F2
68 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
use of the opportunity to the best advantage, and you
shall be confident of our approbation. We have nothing
else at present but that we are,
" Your very loving Friends,
THO. ERLE, ELIAS BOND,
Ri. BRODRIPP, THO. HENLEY,
Ki. BURIE, Ei. Row.
"Poole, eight at night, 1644." 1
These instructions show great straits for money. The
following memoranda were probably written about the
same time by Cooper for the Governor of Poole : 2
" 1. That if they cannot immediately send us a supply
of horse, that orders be forthwith sent for the with-
drawing the Sussex foot, and that the rest be disposed
into their several garrisons. The keeping them together
in a body does devour that provision should be sent into
the garrisons and destroys the county, besides these few
horse we have (being not above a hundred) are wholly
taken up with providing for them.
" 2. That if a considerable party of horse, sufficient to
relieve Taunton, cannot be sent us presently, we desire
that some few may be spared, with which added to
those we have already we shall be able to victual our
garrisons and subsist in the county. However, we
shall be better able to subsist without than with the
Sussex foot.
" 3. Under a thousand horse it will be now difficult to
relieve Taunton, the enemy having received the addition
1 From Lord Shaftesbury's papers at St. Giles's.
2 They are among the family papers at St. Giles's, in Shaftesbury's
handwriting, without any date, and with the heading, "Memo-
randums for the Governor of Poole." They must have been written ia
November 1644.
1644. MEMORANDA ON MILITARY AFFAIRS. 69
of a hundred horse lately from the King's army, under
Colonel Cooke, so that with those horse that lie near
Salisbury they are able to march fifteen hundred horse
and dragoons.
"4. The enemy being resolved to fortify round the
skirts of Somerset, as Sherborn, Sturten Candell, Shafton,
to make it a safe quarter for his retreat and to drive all
the parts of the counties of Dorset and Wilts unto their
quarters, being resolved both their horse and foot shall,
if they be forced to retire, live on the skirts of these
two counties, quaere, whether it will not be necessary
for us to garrison Hooke House, 1 and, if we cannot force
them from Shafton or Sherborn, to garrison in some
other strong houses near those places by which their
incursions may be restrained.
" 5. The enemy being possessed of Ivychurch and
Langford Houses, from which they make perpetual
inroads into the eastern part of our country, and bring
the northern part of Wiltshire into contribution to them,
quaere, whether we should not garrison Falston House, 2
by which we are sure to cut them off from troubling
this county, besides we shall gain the contribution of a
considerable part of Wiltshire.
" 6. Quaere, whether it be not absolutely necessary to
pluck down the town of Wareham, it being impossible
for us to victual ; if Sir W. Waller ever draw away his
foot, the town is left naked and exposed to the pleasure
of the enemy, who will certainly possess it unless it can
1 Hooke House, near Beaminster, the property of the Marquis of
Winchester, the celebrated defender of his house in Hampshire, Basing.
Hooke House was burnt down in 1647. (Hutchins's Hist, of Dorset,
i. 494.)
2 Ludlow mentions Falston House as garrisoned for the Parliament
in 1645, with one of his relatives, Major William Ludlow, as governor.
(Memoirs, i. pp. 148, 158.) Falston, Ivychurch, and Langford Houses
were all near Salisbury. Langford belonged to Lord Gorges ; it is
now called Longford, and belongs to the Earl of Radnor.
70 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
be made no town. And there can be no argument
against the demolishing it, being extremely mean-built,
and the inhabitants almost all dreadful malignants, be-
sides the keeping it will certainly starve more honest
men than the destroying it will undo knaves.
" 7. A few foot in Lulworth with a troop of horse will
keep Corfe far better than Wareham. And the lesser
number of foot we keep, the more horse and dragoons
we shall be able to maintain, with which the business
of this county must be done.
" 8. If they are unwilling to destroy the town of
Wareham, it may be left for a horse quarter ; and
they have direction, when they are forced to quit it,
to set it on fire.
" 9. That the horse of the county be all reduced into
a regiment, and there may be two troops allowed the
governors of Poole and Weymouth, Weymouth troop to
be commanded by Major Sydenham, otherwise it will be
impossible to keep them together or in any command.
" 10. That the Committee name whom they will have
to be colonel of their horse, and that they will assign
how many troops he will allow in the regiment and
whose troops these shall be, and that they will send to
my Lord General for a commission for the colonel.
"11. That there be twenty musketeers in every troop
and a full troop of dragoons at least in the regiment."
A letter to Sir Anthony from London, November 5,
1644, from Mr. John Collins, who appears to have
had the charge of his private affairs, mentions that
no step is being taken at Goldsmiths' Hall for the
recovery of his composition-fine of five hundred pounds,
and speaks of law- business still pending in the Court of
Wards :
1644. LETTER FKOM COLONEL BUTLER. 71
" Upon my late speech with Mr. Allen, 1 I find no
other but that your business at their Hall rests in peace.
In the Court of Wards business nothing stirs as yet.
In the matter of indictment of your tenants the City
solicitor is someway calling upon it, but I have used
some means lately to allay him, and, if that hold not, I
must get the Court moved for a further postponement
until the next term."
The following letter to Cooper from Colonel Butler,
who commanded at Wareham, and was directing the
siege of Corfe, again shows the great want of money
with the Parliament's forces in Dorsetshire.
" SIR, I have written in a former letter the three foot
of Colonel Raynesborough's are immediately to be drawn
off for Abingdon ; the men are loth to leave the siege if
they may have money and provision. To-morrow they
expect pay, for they buy all by the penny. I beseech
you do what may be done to send money with all speed,
for it is a business of great concernment, and I likewise
beseech you to do what you may for Mrs. Squib. We
have sent to Poole and Weymouth for men and ammu-
nition. I pray you do your utmost to second our
desires, and in sending to London, but especially send
money, and now be doing for your country and for
God's cause. A little now will be worth a great deal here-
after. I pray send money, money ; and that will take
Corfe Castle, which is in no strong condition.
" Sir, I am,
" Your faithful servant,
" Warham, Dec. 18, 1644. ROBT. BUTLEK.
" To my honoured friend Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
at Wimborne, these present."
1 Doubtless Alderman Allen, an active Parliamentarian.
72 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
In December, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper received
orders from the Parliament to proceed with all his
Dorsetshire forces to the relief of Taunton, where Blake,
who had before so gallantly defended Lyme, was main-
taining another equally gallant defence against the
royalists under great disadvantages. Cooper, who had
the chief command, was joined in this expedition by a
force under Major-General Holborn, and Edmund
Ludlow also joined with two hundred horse from Wilt-
shire. 1 The besiegers immediately retired on the arrival
of this relieving force. Cooper wrote to the Earl of
Essex from Taunton, announcing the easy success of
the expedition :
" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, The last night
we brought all our carriages safe to Taunton with our
horse. We find the castle in no great want of victual,
only of powder and salt. The town began to be in great
distress, and it almost a miracle to us that they should
adventure to keep the town, their works being for the
most part but pales and hedges, and no line about the
town. The enemy endeavoured twice to force it, but
were repulsed ; and since they have only kept them in
by a quartering round about the town at a mile or two
distance. Notwithstanding, the townsmen made daily
sallies and got in store of victuals, without which it had
been impossible for them to maintain such numbers of
unnecessary people. The enemy on Friday last have
1 Autobiog. Sketch. Ludlow, i. 135 ; Vicars's Parl. Chron. iv. 77. It
would appear from the accounts in Ludlow and Vicars, that Holborn
had the chief command, but Cooper distinctly states in his thoroughly
reliable Autobiographical Sketch of 1646, that he had a commission
from Essex to command in chief. Holborn made various marauding
excursions against garrisoned houses about Taunton. See the passage
in Vicars referred to.
1644. RELIEF OF TAUNTON. 73
quitted their garrisons in Wellington, Wyrwail, 1 and
Cokam Houses ; the two last they have burnt, and as I
saw him they have quitted Chidock House, whether it
be out of fear or to make a body able to encounter with
us, we cannot yet understand ; but Sir Lewis Dives his
running up with his horse to the Bridgewater forces
argues the latter ; however, we are in a very good condi-
tion, if they receive no assistance from the King's army,
which we most fear ; this country being of so great im-
port to the enemy that it will be worth their engaging
their whole army, which may prove a successful design
to them, if we have not a considerable strength ready on
all motions of the enemy to advance to our assistance.
I shall only humbly offer this to your Excellency's con-
sideration, to whose commands I shall always render
myself faithful and obedient, as becometh your Excel-
lency's most devoted, most humble servant,
"ANTHONY ASHLEY CoopEK." 2
This letter was read in the House of Commons on
December 24, and was copied by Sir Simonds D'Ewes
1 So in the manuscript ; Wyrwail may be Worthele near Plymouth.
Cokam House is Colcombe near Colyton in Devonshire, and belonged
to Sir John Pole. Chidock or < 'hideock House belonged to Mr. Arundel,
a Roman Catholic. "Wellington House was burnt down by the royalists
in the next year.
2 This letter is in Sir S. D'Ewes's Diary, preserved in the British
Museum, Harl. MSS.166, p. 1696. It was first printed by the author in
the "Memoirs, Letters and Speeches, &c. of Earl of Shaftesbury, " 1659.
There is an entry In the Commons' Journals, December 24, 1644 : "A
letter from Orchard from Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper directed to my
Lord General, concerning the relief of Taunton, was this day read.
Ordered, that it be referred and earnestly recommended from this
House to the Committee of both Kingdoms, to send a new, speedy,
and considerable supply of forces into the West." It is also stated in
Whitelocke's Memorials, Dec. 23, 1644, p, 121 : " Letters from Sir
A. A. Cooper informed of the relief of Taunton town and castle, held
out to admiration by Colonel Blake, notwithstanding his great want of
ammunition and provisions, and that the works there were incon-
siderable."
74 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. 1IT.
into his Diary. The letter was not entered in the
Journals.' It is a striking and amusing specimen of the
way in which Shaftesbury's character has been prejudiced
by biographers, that Lord Campbell, who had never
seen the letter, and knew no more than was to be learnt
from the simple notices in the Journals of the House
of Commons and in Whitelocke's Memorials, that Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper had written a letter concerning
the relief of Taunton, has said, imaginatively, that " he
wrote a flaming account of the exploit to the Parlia-
ment, taking greater credit to himself than Cromwell in
his despatch announcing his victory at D unbar." A
more modest and plain statement than that of Cooper's
letter on this occasion can hardly be conceived. The
House of Commons resolved, after the reading of
Cooper's letter to Essex, that the Committee of both
Kingdoms should be urged to send speedily a strong
reinforcement to Taunton ; and Waller and Oliver
Cromwell were ordered into the West in the end of
February for the relief of Taunton.
Thus ended the year 1644, a year of great military
activity for Cooper. The next year was passed more
tranquilly. The following is his own account in his
Autobiographical Sketch, written in January 1646, of
his proceedings during 1645 :
"In May he received divers commissions from the
Committee of the West, the chief of which was to
command in chief the forces they designed to beleaguer
Corfe Castle, which forces he was to receive from
Colonel Weldon, who then commanded in the West;
but when Sir Anthony came into the country, he found
1645. CLOSE OF MILITARY SERVICE. 75
Weldon blocked up by Goring, so that being not sup-
plied with men, he was forced to return. In June he
went with his lady to Tunbridge, where he for six
weeks drank the waters. In September his lady went
to Oxted, in Surrey, to her aunt Capel's, 1 where her
mother also was, and they both sojourned there. In
October he went down into the country, and sat with
the Committee constantly, most commonly as chair-
man. In December he was employed by the Committee,
with Colonel Bingham, to the General, who lay then at
Autree, 2 in Devon, to obtain an assistance of force
towards the besieging Corfe Castle, which they ob-
tained. 3 In the end of this month he returned to
Oxted in Surrey."
This is the concluding passage of the Autobiogra-
phical Sketch prefixed to tjie Diary, which begins on
January 1, 1646. Cooper's military service had come
to an end. It was, doubtless, terminated by that new-
modelling of the army in 1645 which was attended by the
Self-denying Ordinance, and which substituted Fairfax
for Essex as Commander-in-chief, gave Cromwell great
advancement, and removed most of the Presbyterian
leaders from commands in the army, replacing them
by Independents. As Cooper had not been admitted a
member of the House of Commons on his petition, the
Self-denying Ordinance probably did not apply to him ;
1 Lady Capel, sister of Lord Keeper Coventry's second wife : she
was wife of Sir Henry Capel, knight, of Hadham, Herts, and had been
previously married to Sir Thomas Hoskins of Oxted.
2 Ottery St. Maiy ; the General was Fairfax, who had now suc-
ceeded Essex.
3 Corfe Castle surrendered after a long siege, in April of next year,
to Colonel Bingham. Mr. Marty n and Lord Campbell erroneously
state that Sir A. A. Cooper took Corfe in 1644.
76 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
but he had connected himself with the Presbyterians
on his coming over to the Parliament, and he was
precisely one of the class of officers whom the promoters
of the " New Model " of the army did not desire to
include in the new arrangements. It is certain that he
had no quarrel with the Parliament, or with its officers
in the West. This is sufficiently proved by his own
account of his proceedings during the year 1645, which
has been quoted, and by his subsequent unintermitted
attention to various local duties in the service of the
Parliament. 1
In the autumn of 1645, after he had ceased to serve
as an officer of the army, Sir Anthony made an attempt
to obtain admission as a member of the parliament
through his original petition for Downton. An entry
in the Journals informs us that, on September 1, Sir
Walter Erie was ordered by the House to report on
a future day concerning Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's
election. But there is no subsequent entry of a report.
Cooper was not admitted. 2 The explanation of his
failure is, doubtless, to be found in the ordinance,
which had been passed in the previous year, that no
peer or commoner who had been in the King's quarters
should be admitted again to sit in either House.
Whitelocke records, on September 18 of this year,
1 Lord Campbell, whose biography was written on the plan of
imagining a bad motive for every action, says : " He was suddenly
satiated with military glory, and after this brilliant campaign never
again appeared in the field : whether he retired from some affront, or
mere caprice, is not certainly known."
2 The other seat for Downton, held by Sir Edward Griffin, who
adhered to the King, was at this time declared vacant, and a new writ
was issued, September 1645.
1646-50. MEAGRENESS OF DIARY. 77
that " Sir A. A. Cooper professed his great affection to
the Parliament, and his enmity to the King's party
from whom he had revolted, and was now in great
favour and trust with the Parliament." This probably
refers to some declaration of political faith made in
support of his endeavour to gain admission to sit for
Downton.
The seven or eight years which followed were passed
in comparative tranquillity, and were chiefly occupied
with the business of private life and performance of
local duties. Excluded from Parliament, Cooper ac-
cepted all the events and changes which these years
witnessed, and submitted to the mutilated and reduced
Parliament as the existing authority, and acted under
its orders. It is much to be regretted that his Diary,
which extends from the beginning of 1646 to the
middle of 1650, is little more than a meagre chronicle
of visits, journeys, domestic incidents, and pecuniary
transactions, and does not contain one single comment
on any of the great political events which are crowded
into this period: for these years witnessed the entire
defeat of the royal cause and the disruption of the
victorious parliamentary party, the humiliation of the
Presbyterians by the Independents and of the Parlia-
ment by the army, the consolidation of Oliver Crom-
well's power, the trial and execution of the King, and
the establishment of a Commonwealth, without King
or House of Lords, under the supremacy of the small
remnant to which military violence had reduced the
House of Commons, and which history has. branded
with the nickname of the Eump.
78 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
Though Cooper conformed always to the authority
of the actual sovereign power, it is certain that his pre-
dilections and chief personal relations were with the
members of the Presbyterian party. At the time of the
Restoration he was regarded one of this party. A story
is told, which may have some truth in it, of his having
endeavoured at the beginning of the contest between
the Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons
and the army, which ended in the forced exclusion of
the Presbyterian members, to moderate the zeal of
Holies against Cromwell. The incident referred to in
the following story, which is related by Locke, was in
the spring of 1647; it is told by him, however, with
that tone of evident exaggeration of Cooper's im-
portance which characterises the whole of Locke's frag-
ment of a memoir. The King was now vanquished, and
a prisoner in the care of the Scotch Commissioners and
army. The House of Commons wished to reduce their
army, and to despatch a portion for service in Ireland.
The army, assembled near Saffron Walden, clamoured
for payment of arrears, and an imperious petition was
presented from the army by three emissaries at the bar
of the House. The House passed a resolution in dis-
approval of the petition. Another was set on foot in
the army, when a motion was made in the House of
Commons by Holies to declare the petition seditious,
and its promoters traitors ; and there was private talk
of calling Cromwell to account. Cromwell left the
House while the discussion was proceeding, and went
straight to the army. Locke's story is as follows :
"It happened one morning that Sir A. A. Cooper,
1647. ALLEGED ADVICE TO HOLLES. 79
calling on Mr. Holies on his way to the House, as he
often did, he found him in a great heat against Crom-
well, who had then the command of the army, and a
great interest in it. The provocation may be read at
large in the pamphlets of that time, for which Mr. Holies
was resolved, he said, to bring him to punishment.
Sir A. A. Cooper dissuaded him all he could from any
such attempt, showing him the danger of it, and told
him it would be sufficient to remove him out of the
way by sending him with a command into Ireland.
This Cromwell, as things stood, would be glad to
accept ; but this would not satisfy Mr. Holies. When
he came to the House the matter was brought into
debate, and it was moved that Cromwell and those
guilty with him should be punished. Cromwell, who
was in the House, no sooner heard this, but he stole
out, took horse, and rode immediately to the army,
which, as I remember, was at Triplow Heath ; there he
acquainted them what the Presbyterian party was a
doing in the House, and made such use of it to them
that they, who were before in the power of the Parlia-
ment, now united together under Cromwell, who imme-
diately led them away to London, giving out menaces
against Holies and his party as they march, who with
Stapleton and some others were fain to fly ; and thereby
the Independent party becoming the stronger, they, as
they called it, purged the House, and turned out all the
Presbyterian party. Cromwell, some time after, meet-
ing Sir A. A. Cooper, told him, I am beholden to you
for your kindness to me; for you, I hear, were for
letting me go without punishment, but your friend,
God be thanked, was not wise enough to take your
advice." l
1 Locke's Works, ix. 278. See for an account of what passed in the
House, April 30, 1647, Ludlow, i. 190, and Holles's Memoirs, p. 89.
80 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
This story, as told, contains several historical in-
accuracies, such as occur in other parts of Locke's
memoir. 1 Fairfax was at the time General-in-chief, not
Cromwell; and no motion appears to have been made
in the House against Cromwell. There is apparent
confusion between the proceedings against Holies,
Stapleton, and other Presbyterian members in 1647 and
the violent general " purge " by the army in December
1648. But it is quite probable that Cooper tried to
temper Holles's zeal, and that Cromwell afterwards
spoke of the matter to Cooper.
Cooper was high sheriff of Wiltshire for the Parlia-
ment during the year 1647, and leave was given him
to reside out of the county during the year of his
shrievalty. 2
Some passages of his Diary extending from January
1, 1646, to July 10, 1650, are here selected, which have
interest in connexion with his life and character, or
with the habits of the time.
On February 5, 1646, Cooper records a surgical ope-
ration : " I had a nerve and vein cut by Gell and
two more, for which I was forced to keep my chamber
twelve days." On February 12, " I had another nerve
and vein cut."
On April 1, 1646, he mentions that two Dorsetshire
boys of his neighbourhood, fifteen years old each,
bound themselves to him for seven years for his plan-
tation in Barbadoes, to receive 5Z. each at the end of
the time.
i See note, pp. 40-42.
Comm. Journ. Dec. 1, 1646, Jan. 6, 1647; and see further on, p. 82.
164S. SELECTIONS FROM DIARY. 81
The Dorsetshire quarter sessions were held on the
seventh and eighth of April, u this time kept at
Dorchester, and not at Sherborne, for security." The
magistrates did bloody work : " Mne hanged ; only
three burnt in the hand/' is Cooper's summary of their
deeds.
A few days after, the Dorsetshire Committee, of
which Cooper was one, "sat in the Shire Hall, at
Dorchester, by the ordinance for punishing pressed
soldiers that ran away on the 15th of January last,
when three were condemned to die, two to run the
gantelope, 1 two to be tied neck and heels and one to
stand with a rope about his neck."
On July 27, there is an entry of a domestic incident :
" My wife miscarried of a boy ; she had gone twenty
weeks. Her brother John 2 in jest threw her against
a bedstaff, which hurt her so that it caused this."
In August he attended the assizes at Salisbury and
Dorchester, being, he says, in the commission of oyer
and terminer for the whole circuit. The judges were
Mr. Justice Kolle and Serjeant Godbolt. On August
10, the assizes began at Salisbury, and Cooper took the
oaths as a justice of the peace for Wiltshire.
" August 11 : Sir John Danvers came and sat with us.
Seven condemned to die; four for horse-stealing, two
for robbery, one for killing his wife, he broke her neck
with his hands; it was proved that, he touching her
body the day after, her nose bled fresh ; four burnt in
1 Old spelling of gauntlet or gantlet. The word is said to be of
Dutch origin ; yant, all, and lopen, to run.
2 John Coventry, the eldest of the Lord Keeper's sons by his
second wife ; see p. 33.
VOL. I. G
82 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. III.
the hand, one for felony, three for manslaughter; the
same sign followed one of them of the corpse bleeding.
"August 12. I and the Sheriff of Wilts begged the
life of one Prichett, one of those seven condemned,
because he had been a Parliament soldier. I waited on
the judges to Dorchester."
At Dorchester the assizes terminated on the four-
teenth :
" Five condemned to die, two women for murdering
their children, one of them a married woman ; one for
murder, one for robbery, one for horse-stealing : three
burnt in the hand, one for manslaughter, two for felony.
Chibbett condemned for horse-stealing. The Justices
begged his reprieve, he having been a faithful soldier to
the State."
A few days after, on the seventeenth, he went
Bryanston bowling-green, where he " bowled all day."
On October 1 he mentions : " I went to Shaftesbury
to the council of war for Massey's brigade, and got them
removed out of Dorset." The Parliament had ordered
that this brigade should be disbanded. 1
In December, he enters :
" I was by both Houses of Parliament made High
Sheriff of the county of Wilts. I was by ordinance of
Parliament made one of the committee for Dorset and
Wilts, for Sir Thomas Fairfax his army's contribution."
In March of next year, 1647, he attended the judges
as sheriff, at the Wiltshire assizes :
"March 13 : The judges came into Salisbury, Justice
1 Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 181.
1647. SELECTIONS FEOM DIAKY. 83
Eoles 1 and Serjeant Godbolt. They went hence the 17th
day. I had sixty men in liveries, and kept an ordinary
for all gentlemen at Lawes his, 2 four shillings and two
shillings for blew men. I paid for all. There were
sixteen condemned to die, whereof fourteen suffered.
George Philips condemned for stealing a horse ; I got
his reprieve, and another for the like offence was re-
prieved by the judge. Three more were burnt in the
hand, then condemned."
On March 29, he and his wife had another disap-
pointment "My wife miscarried of a child she was
eleven weeks gone with."
During this month of March, Cooper adds, " I raised
the country twice, and beat out the soldiers designed
for Ireland who quartered on the county without order,
and committed many robberies." These were very likely
soldiers of the disbanded Massey's brigade, of whom
Ludlow says that many gave trouble in Wiltshire, and
ultimately enlisted themselves to serve against the rebels
in Ireland, the Parliament having sent instructions and
officers for that purpose. 3
In June he took his wife to Bath, where she stayed
five weeks. "June 15 : We came to Bath, where my
wife made use of the Cross bath, for to strengthen her
against miscarriage."
The August Wiltshire assizes began at Salisbury on
the fourteenth and ended on the eighteenth. The
judges this time were Godbolt, now a Judge of the
1 Mr. Justice Rolle, afterwards made Chief Justice of the King's
Bench, in 1648. He was one of the two judges seized in. their beds at
Salisbury, in Penruddocke's royalist rising in 1655, and had then a
narrow escape of his life.
2 Lawes' s. 3 Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 181.
G 2
84 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. III.
Common Pleas, 1 and Serjeant Wild, afterwards Chief
Baron. " Four condemned to die : one for a robbery,
two for horse-stealing, one for murder. Luke, that was
for the robbery, I got his reprieve." Cooper adds, "I
kept my ordinary at the Angel, four shillings for the
gentlemen, two for their men, and a cellar."
On November 12, there is a curious entry of a spe-
culation : " The little ship called the ' Eose/ wherein
I have a quarter part, which went to Guinea, came to
town this term (blessed be God !). She has been out
about a year, and we shall but make our money."
On the twenty-ninth: "My wife was delivered at
seven o'clock in the evening of a dead maid child ; she
was within a fortnight of her time."
For the first half of the year 1648, Cooper had
attacks of ague. On February 14 he enters in his
Diary, " I fell sick of a tertian ague, whereof I had but
five fits, through the mercy of the Lord." This ague
prevented his sitting with the judges at the assizes in
March. He had ceased to be Sheriff of Wiltshire,
having received his writ of discharge on February 11
from his uncle Tooker, who succeeded him. Again, on
April 29, there is an entry : " I fell sick of a tertian
ague, whereof I had but two fits, through the mercy of
the Lord."
In July he was made a commissioner of the ordinance
of Parliament for a rate for Ireland for Dorsetshire, and
also, by ordinance of Parliament, was made one of the
commissioners for the militia in Dorsetshire.
1 He had been made a Judge, April 30, 1647: he died in the next
year. (Foss's Judges, vi. 318.)
1649. DEATH OF FIRST WIFE. 85
The ordinance for the trial of Charles the First was
passed by the House of Commons on the sixth of
January, 1649. The trial began on .the twentieth; on
the twenty-seventh sentence was passed, and on the
thirtieth the King was executed. Even this great event
elicits no mention in Cooper's Diary. He was travelling
at the time, and he merely notes his movements. On
the twenty-ninth, the day before the execution, he left
his house at Wimborne St. Giles to go to London, and
on the thirtieth he travelled from Andover to Bagshot.
The entries in the Diary are these: "January 29 : I
began my journey to London, and went to Andover,
30 : I went to Bagshot. 31 : I came to London, and
lodged at Mr. Guidott's, in Lincoln's Inn Fields." This
is all.
In the next month he records: " I 7 was made by the
States a justice of peace of quorum for the counties of
Wilts and Dorset, and of oyer and terminer for the
western circuit."
In July 1649, a heavy domestic calamity befell him,,
the sudden death of his wife :
" July 10 : My wife, just as she was sitting down to
supper, fell suddenly into an apoplectical convulsion fit.
She recovered that fit after some time, and spoke and
kissed me, and complained only in the head, but fell
again in a quarter of an hour, and then never came to
speak again, but continued in fits and slumbers until
next day. At noon she died ; she was with child the
fourth time, and within six weeks of her time."
She had had no child born alive. They had been
married nine years and a half. Cooper's glowing and
86 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
touching eulogium of his wife, which here follows in
the Diary, has been already quoted. 1
In little more than nine months Cooper was again
married. One of the last entries in his Diary records
his marriage, on April 25, 1650, with the Lady Frances
Cecil, sister of the Earl of Exeter, a royalist nobleman.
A few days before this marriage, on April 19, Cooper
entered in his Diary : "I laid the first stone of my house
at St. Giles's/' 2
After the execution of Charles the First, Cooper con-
tinued obedient to the existing supreme authority, acted
as a magistrate, took the engagement to be faithful to
the new Commonwealth without King or House of
Lords, and acted as a commissioner to administer the
engagement in Dorsetshire. He mentions in the Diary
that he was sworn as a magistrate for the counties of
Wilts and Dorset, and acted for the first time since the
King's death, on August 16, 1649, about a month after
the loss of his first wife. He subscribed the engage-
ment, with a number of his brother magistrates, at
Salisbury quarter sessions, on January 17, 1650. On
January 29 he sat at Blandford, on a commission from
the Council of State, to give the engagement. On the
thirty-first he started for London, where he arrived on
the second of February, and he there received a new
commission to himself and others for giving the engage-
ment in Dorsetshire.
The Diary ends abruptly on July 10, 1650. In the
1 See p. 19.
2 The right wing of the present house was built in 1651. (Hutchins's
Hist, of Dorset, iii. 186.)
1652. COMMISSION FOR REFORM OF LAWS. 87
following year Cooper's wife bore him a son, who was
christened Cecil, and who died in childhood. On the
sixteenth of January, 1652, was born another son,
Anthony Ashley, who lived to inherit his father's
possessions and titles, and transmitted them to a son
of his own, the distinguished author of the "Charac-
teristics." fa^-
From the termination of the Diary in July 1650 to
the beginning of 1652, there is no information as to
Sir A. A. Cooper's proceedings. But it is certain that
he remained constant in allegiance to the Eump Par-
liament. On the seventeenth of January, 1652, he was
named by this Parliament one of a Commission for the
reform of the laws. A Committee of the Parliament
had been named for the same purpose some time before,
but the slowness of its proceedings caused great dissatis-
faction. It was now resolved to appoint a Commission
of twenty-one members, none of whom should be mem-
bers of the Parliament, to assist the Committee. Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper was the last-named of the
twenty-one Commissioners. The first -named, and pro-
bably the leading member of the Commission, was
Matthew Hale, the future celebrated Chief Justice.
These were associated with a motley group, in which
were a few lawyers, three officers of the army, Des-
borough, Tomlinson, and Packer, and the notorious
preacher, Hugh Peters, who, after the Eestoration, was
one of the victims selected to expiate the execution of
Charles the First, and was tried and sentenced to death
by a body of judges of whom one was Cooper.
This Commission, guided chiefly by Hale, drew up a
88 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. III.
digest of the laws, and prepared various excellent drafts
of measures, some of which, designed to simplify and
cheapen legal proceedings and facilitate conveyances,
Cooper afterwards procured to be passed by the Bare-
bone's Parliament. The celebrated Marriage Act of the
Barebone's Parliament, prescribing the celebration of
marriages before magistrates, was one of the measures
prepared by this Commission. 1
On the seventeenth of March, 1653, it is entered in
the Journals : " Resolved by the Parliament that Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, baronet, be, and is hereby,
1 See the collection of Acts prepared by this Commission in Somers'
Tracts, vol. vi. They were printed by order of the Barebone's Parlia-
ment, immediately after its assembling. Several of these measures had
been reported to the Eump, but none appear to have been passed by
that parliament. It appears from two entries in the Journals (January
20, 21, 1653) that the Commission prepared a digest of the laws,
of which the Parliament ordered three hundred copies to be printed.
Various measures were referred by the House to this Commission for
their advice, among others a bill for a general register of lands (Journ.
Feb. 2, 1653). This bill had not come back from the Commission
when the Rump was dissolved, April 20, 1653. The registry bill
appears to have been strongly pressed on the Rump by petitions from
without (Journ. July 22, 1652), and the long time spent in discussing
it by the law reform Commission caused great complaints. Ludlow
complains of the lawyers spending three months on the word "incum-
brance" in this bill (i. 430), and see Cromwell's speech to the
Barebone's parliament (Carlyle, ii. 198). Whitelocke, who was a
member of the Committee of the Rump which this Commission was
appointed to assist, complains of the impracticability of Hugh Peters
in this Commission. " I was often advised with by some of this
committee, and none of them was more active in this business than
Mr. Hugh Peters the minister, who understood little of the law, but
was very opinionative and would frequently mention some of the pro-
ceedings of the law in Holland wherein he was altogether mistaken. "
(Memorials, p. 521.) Peters says of himself, "I rather was there to
pray than to mend laws, but I might as well have been spared. " Hale,
writing on the amendment of the laws after the Restoration, speaks of
the impracticability of the law reformers of the Commonwealth, and
admits the unwillingness of the lawyers to aid them, saying that they
feared to increase the difficulties of a general settlement of property if
the King should be restored, and feared also to increase the difficulties
of a restoration. (Hargreave's Law Tracts, p. 274.)
1653. ABSOLVED FROM DELINQUENCY. 89
pardoned of all delinquency, and be, and is hereby, made
capable of all other privileges as any other of the people
of this nation are." Now, therefore, very shortly before
Cromwell's ejection of the Rump of the Long Parliament,
Cooper was at last admitted to all privileges, and made
capable of sitting in Parliament. There is not the
slightest reason for supposing, as some biographers have
imagined, that Cooper had recently given offence to the
Parliament, or that he had ever acted against it since he
quitted the King's party. 1
1 Mr. Martyn, to explain this entry in the Journals, has invented
that the Parliament, after the battle of Worcester, had some suspicions
of Cooper and arrested him as a delinquent, and afterwards pardoned
him in order to secure his friendship as against Cromwell (Life, i. 163).
Lord Campbell has improved on Mr. Martyn's statement. "In the
beginning of 1652, he became a member of the famous Commission for
the reform of the law ; but he soon found this very dull work, and
being shut out from all civil and military distinction, he became highly
discontented, and muttered so loud against the reigning authorities
that he was actually taken up as a delinquent ; but nothing could be
proved against him except some intemperate speeches, and it was
resolved by the House, 'that Sir A. A. Cooper be pardoned of all
delinquency. ' " The dislike of the Law-reform Commission, in which
Cooper took great interest, the discontent, the loud inutterings, the
arrest, and the proved intemperate speeches, are all imagination.
CHAPTER IV.
16531656.
Cromwell's ejection of the Bump Reasons for the act Temporary
Council of State A Convention summoned Meets, July 4,
1653 Sir A. A. Cooper a member Proceedings of Barebone's
Parliament Parties in that assembly Questions of Church and
Law Eeform Cromwell allied with the moderate party The
Parliament resigns its powers to Cromwell, December 12, 1653
Cooper had acted with the moderate party and Cromwell, and had
promoted the resignation Idle rumour that Cromwell meant to
make Cooper Lord Chancellor Cromwell refuses to be King, and is
made Protector Cooper said to have pressed him to be King
Cooper one of the new Council of State The Instrument of
Government Milton serves under the Council Cooper elected
to the new parliament for Wiltshire, Poole, and Tewkesbury Sits
for Wiltshire Ludlow's account of the Wiltshire election Parlia-
ment meets, September 3, 1654 Cromwell's difficulties with the
Parliament He dissolves it Cooper ceases to attend the Privy
Council His estrangement from Cromwell Ludlow's mistakes
about this estrangement Death of Cooper's second wife in 1654
Story of Cooper wishing to marry Cromwell's daughter Mary He
marries, in 1656, a daughter of Lord Spencer of Wormleighton
Her character She survives Shaftesbury.
FOUR years of the government of the Rump Parliament
had prostrated the forces of the enemies of the Common-
wealth in the three countries, and had also divided
that body within itself, and made it obnoxious, for
various reasons, to large portions of the republican
party. These four years had likewise consolidated the
power of the army, and established the ascendency and
fixed the ambition of Cromwell, its victorious general.
Those who interpret a great career by a single motive,
1653. EJECTION OF THE RUMP. 91
and do not allow the possibility either of generous
desires to the objects of their antipathy or of human
weaknesses to their idols, will ascribe Cromwell's sup-
pression of the Kump, according as they may be his
admirers or his depreciators, to pure patriotism or un-
scrupulous ambition. It is more probable that ambition
and a persuasion of public advantage combined to move
Cromwell to this act. The force of circumstances and
his own superiority of character had made him master
of the destinies of the country, and he would have been
more than human if he had been unwilling to grasp
supreme power when it was within easy reach. The
Kump had committed many errors, which Cromwell
probably exaggerated, and, as is inevitable even for
the wisest holders of power, had made many enemies,
whom Cromwell probably encouraged and deluded. But
a numerous executive is especially unsuited to a time-
when the ravages of revolutions are to be repaired, and
the discord of civil wars to be laid to rest, and a nation
placed again in the way of tranquil progress after
storms ; and Cromwell might not unreasonably or un-
justly persuade himself that his own clear head and
strong hand could better provide for the interests of
the Commonwealth than a distracted and damaged
assembly, in which some able and upright men were
swamped by pedants, adventurers, and fanatics. 1
1 There is no information as to the exact number of members of the
Rump Parliament, i. e. the remnant of the Long Parliament recognised
as members after the execution of Charles I. It was probably about
180. The largest number ever recorded as voting is 122, at the election
of the Council of State, November 24, 1652. The ordinary attendance
of members was about fifty. Ludlovv counted 160 who had sat in the
House since 1648 as alive in April 1659. (Mem. ii. 645).
92 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
The immediate cause of Cromwell's violent dissolu-
tion of the Eump was a dispute as to when their power
should terminate, and how their successors should be
appointed. A bill for regulating the election of future
Parliaments had long been before them, and the slow-
ness with which they proceeded in it had occasioned
many reproaches. With great difficulty they had been
prevailed on, in November 1651, to fix a day for the
termination of their own power ; and the day fixed was
three years distant, the third of November, 1654. The
bill for the election of future Parliaments provided a
much more popular scheme of representation than that of
the ancient constitution ; it was the same as that which
Cromwell afterwards adopted in the mixed constitution
known by the name of the " Instrument of Govern-
ment," though now he was vehemently opposed to it,
arguing that for the election of a sovereign assembly it
was a dangerous experiment in the distracted condition
of the country. Cromwell urged that the Presbyterians
could not be kept out of an assembly popularly elected.
This party had fought with the heir of the late King
against the Eurap ; they had been vanquished in the
field, and Prince Charles was an exile. " Let them
not," said Cromwell, " peril the republic, and revive
prostrate pretensions by a popular election which must
introduce many Presbyterians into power." He called
upon the Rump to name an early day for the termina-
tion of their own power, and to nominate a sovereign
body of moderate number as their immediate successors.
Both these demands were refused. The Rump were
now as impatient to pass their bill as before they had
1653. EJECTION OF THE RUMP. 93
been dilatory ; and at last, on the twentieth of April,
1653, as they were hurrying the bill through its last
stage, in spite of an understanding with Cromwell that
on that day no progress should be made with it, Crom-
well brought a handful of soldiers into the House and
violently broke up the assembly. 1
1 See Cromwell's account of his reasons for taking this step in his
speech at the opening of the Barebone's Parliament, which may be
read in the " Parliamentary History," or in Mr. Carlyle's work. I find
it difficult to reconcile Cromwell's objections to the popular character
of the scheme of representation proposed in the bill with another
charge which he distinctly makes against the Rump, that they designed
by this bill to continue their own power. I cannot suppose, with Mr.
Carlyle, that the bill contained a clause providing that every member
of the Rump should be a member of the new parliament without
election. (Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, ii. 177.) Perhaps Cromwell
meant to say that the bill either would lead to a virtual reproduction
of the Rump, or must let in a number of Presbyterians : excluding
clauses sufficiently stringent to keep out Presbyterians might have
produced the former result. Or perhaps Cromwell, whose object was
to justify himself and abuse the Rump, did not consider very nicely
all that he said against them. The election of the Parliament of 1654,
under the same plan of representation, verified Cromwell's expectations
as to the Presbyterian party. There are two well-known graphic
descriptions of Cromwell's ejection of the Rump, Ludlow's (ii. 455)
and the Earl of Leicester's (Blencowe's Sydney Papers, p. 139) ; but
though their descriptions are graphic, neither was an eye-witness.
Whitelocke, who was present, gives a very tame account of the scene.
Two interesting notices of this event, which will be new to most
readers, by members who were ejected, occur in the debates in Burton's
Parliamentary Diary. Sir Arthur Haselrig : " We were labouring here
in the House on the act to put an end to that parliament, and to call
another. I desired the passing of it with all my soul. The ques-
tion was putting for it, when our General stood up and called in his
lieutenant with two files of musqueteers, with their hats on their heads,
and their guns loaden with bullets. Our General told us we should sit
no longer to cheat the people. The Speaker, a stout man, was not
willing to go. He was so noble that he frowned, and said he would
not out of the chair, till he was plucked out ; which was quickly done,
without much compliment, by two soldiers, and the mace taken."
(iii. 98.) Mr. Reynolds, who is evidently badly reported says: "I
never desired any earthly thing with more earnestness, to see that
parliament fairly dissolved, and another provided to build up. The
question being put to dissolve with a very loud Yea. This done,
persons came to the door. One came in, and sweetly and kindly took
your predecessor by the hand, and led him out of the chair. I say
sweetly and gently. This was never known abroad, how near the
94 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
The Rump sat no more, and the sovereign power of
the Commonwealth was now in the hands of Cromwell,
the commander-in-chief of an obedient army of eighty
thousand men.
In a few days Cromwell appointed a Council of
State to transact the ordinary duties of executive
government. It consisted of thirteen members, in-
cluding himself. He continued to exercise the sove-
reign power with the advice of his Council of officers, 1
and he proceeded, in accordance with the recommenda-
tion which he had made to the Rump, to arrange for
the nomination of a temporary sovereign assembly.
parliament that conquered others was to conquering themselves."
(iii. 209.) It appears, from these two statements of persons present,
that the question, that the bill do pass, Avas actually put. M. Guizot
has published an interesting letter of M. de Bordeaux, the French
Minister in London, giving an account of this ?dissolution. (Hist, de
Cromwell, vol. i. App. No. 23.) M. de Bordeaux' account of Harrison's
taking the Speaker from the chair curiously agrees with Reynolds's :
"Le dit major (Harrison), le chapeau a la' main avec tout respect,
s'en alia a la chaire du Speaker, et lui baisant la main le prit par la
sienne et la conduisit hors du parlement comme un gentilhomme ferait
une demoiselle." M. de Bordeaux also puts into Cromwell's mouth a
short speech accusing the Parliament of tyranny and corruption, and
declaring his resolve to place the government in the hands of a few
respectable men, " entre les mains de pen de gens, mais gens de bien."
1 The continued exercise of the sovereign power by Cromwell and
the Council of officers after the establishment of the Council of State
puzzled contemporaries (Blencowe's Sydney Papers, p. 142), and has
puzzled Mr. Godwin, who describes the Council of officers and the
Council of State as two co-ordinate powers. (Hist, of Commonwealth,
iii. 528.) I think there is no doubt that Cromwell appointed the
Council of State for ordinary purposes of administration, retaining in
his own hands the sovereign power, which he continued to exercise
with the advice of the Council of officers. The Council of State con-
sisted of Cromwell, General Lambert (his son-in-law), General Harrison,
General Desborough (Cromwell's brother-in-law), Colonels Stapeley,
Sydenham, Philip Jones, Tomlinson, and Bennet, Sir Gilbert Picker-
ing, "Walter Strickland, John Carew, and Samuel Moyer. It exem-
plifies the inaccuracies of contemporary writers, that Lord Leicester
calls the Council of State a council of ten (Blencowe's Sydney Papers,
p. 1 41) ; and Heath names Fairfax and Deane as members of it.
(Chronicle, p. 343.)
1653. BAKEBONE'S PARLIAMENT. 95
Six weeks were spent in deliberating on the composition
of this body. At last, early in June, summonses were
issued to a hundred and forty-two persons, of whom
a hundred and twenty-four were nominated for the
counties of England, six for Wales, six for Ireland,
and six for Scotland. 1
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was nominated, with
nine other members, for Wiltshire. He accepted this
nomination, and was one of the leading members of
this assembly, and a zealous supporter of Cromwell's
views.
This is the body known by the name of the Bare-
bone's Parliament, so nicknamed from one of its
members, a notorious fanatic, who bore the singular
name of Praisegod Barebone or Barbone. A large pro-
portion of its members were religious enthusiasts, Ana-
baptists, Fifth Monarchy men, and followers of other
sects into which the Independents were subdivided, and
tradesmen and men of small means and humble position.
Cromwell, having determined to call together such a
body, was compelled to consult those on whom his
power depended, and who had supported him in his
measures against the Eump. The ministers of the
1 Hobbes mentions one hundred and forty-two as the number of
summonses issued (Behemoth, Fart iv. ) Cromwell in his address to
the assembly on its meeting says that they were "above a hundred
and forty." A member of the assembly to whom we owe the fullest
account of its proceedings, says that two, and two only, refused their
nominations. (Somers Tracts, vi. 269.) One of those who refused
was probably Fairfax. See Godwin, iii. 524. The list of the members
printed in the Somers Tracts (vi. 246) contains only 139 names. Mr.
Hallam incorrectly states 120 as the number of the assembly (Constit.
Hist. ii. 329) ; this is the number said to have attended on the first
day. Dr. Lingard incorrectly makes the number of members for Eng-
land 139, and the total 156. (Hist, of England, xi. 4.)
96 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
Independent congregations throughout the country were
chiefly advised with as to the persons to be nominated. 1
On the other hand, Cromwell's means of choice among
the gentry were necessarily limited. It may be inferred
from what followed that, if he had been free to pursue
his own inclinations, he would have appointed fewer
fanatics and tradesmen, and more country gentlemen
and lawyers. As it was, it excited astonishment that
he should have succeeded in obtaining the services^of so
many gentlemen of birth and fortune as did take their
places in this assembly. 2 Among these were Lord Eure,
who sat a solitary peer in this assembly, Lord Lisle, the
eldest son of the Earl of Leicester, Sir Charles Wolseley,
Sir Gilbert Pickering, Cooper himself, Edward Montagu
and Charles Howard, who were afterwards Earls of
Sandwich and Carlisle. Other names occur in the
list of members, which are at this day leading names
in the counties which their bearers were called to repre-
sent. Very few officers of the army were nominated ;
and Cromwell abstained from nominating himself or
any of his principal officers. One of the first pro-
ceedings of this body, after it was constituted, was to
add Cromwell, Generals Lambert, Harrison, and Des-
borough, and Colonel Tomlinson, to their number;
and Cooper was appointed to go at the head of a de-
putation to Cromwell, "to desire him to afford his
1 Tlmrloe's State Papers, i. 395 ; Somers Tracts, vi. 269.
2 Compare Whitelocke, who expresses such astonishment (Memorials,
p. 559) with Clarendon, who admits, reluctantly, that " there were
amongst them some few of the quality and degree of gentlemen, and
who had estates, and such a proportion of credit and reputation as
could consist with the guilt they had contracted." (Hist, of Eebellion,
xiv. 15.)
1653. OPENING OF BAREBONE'S PARLIAMENT. 97
presence and assistance in the House as a member
thereof." l
This assembly met on the fourth of July, 1653.
Cromwell addressed them on their first coming together
in a long speech, full of religious phraseology, in which
he justified his dissolution of the Eump, laid before
them the great task which they were called to perform
of settling the Commonwealth on firm foundations, and
urged them to proceed in a spirit of forbearance and
conciliation towards the numerous Presbyterian portion
of the nation. At the conclusion of his speech, Crom-
well delivered to the assembly a written instrument, by
which he formally devolved on them the sovereign
power, to hold it for a period of sixteen months, until
the third of November, 1654. Three months before that
day they were to nominate a body of equal number as
their successors, who again were to sit for a twelve-
month, and to make permanent provision for the future
government of the Commonwealth.
The first business of the assembly was prayer. The
commencement of their proceedings is thus described by
one of themselves: "The fourth of July, 1653, those
thus assembled and empowered did adjourn themselves
from Whitehall to the Parliament-house, to meet the
next morning at eight of the clock, and then to begin
1 Comm. Journ. July 5, 1653. Cromwell was invited to sit as
member of the Council of State. A difficulty seems to have been
started as to whether members could be added to those named in the
original instrument, without a new instrument ; and they probably
thought to get over the difficulty in this way. See Blencowe's Sydney
Papers, p. 149. After the addition of these members, all the members
of the Council of State which Cromwell had appointed were members
of the assembly.
VOL. I. H
98 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
with seeking God by prayer; which accordingly they
did, and the service was performed by the members
amongst themselves, eight or ten speaking in prayer to
God, and some briefly from the Word, much of the pre-
sence of Christ and of His Spirit appearing that day, to
the great gladding of the hearts of many; some affirming
they never enjoyed so much of the Spirit and presence
of Christ in any of the meetings and exercises of religion
in all their lives as they did that day. In the evening
of that day, Mr. Francis Eouse was called to the chair,
and chosen Speaker; and then the House was adjourned
to the next day, when the House appointed to pray
again three or four days after, which accordingly was
done by the members, principally by such as had not
done service before, when also the Lord General was
present, and it was a very comfortable day." l No words
can describe more vividly the prevailing character of
this assembly. Cooper, Howard, Montagu, and others
who had joined this assembly as politicians, must have
been far from feeling comfortable in witnessing these
proceedings. 2
1 Somers Tracts, vi. 270. Compare Thurloe, i. 338, and Blencowe's
Sydney Papers, p. 148.
3 There is no evidence, and it is not at all probable, that Cooper,
any more than Montagu or Howard, led in these prayers : they were all
members of a moderate party in this assembly, which steadily opposed
the fanatics, and ultimately broke it up. Dryden's fierce lines in
" The Medal " are satirical exaggeration, and, so far as concerns the
charge against Cooper of selling himself to Cromwell, downright mis-
representation :
" Bartering his venal wit for sums of gold,
He cast himself into the saint-like mould :
Groaned, sighed, and prayed while godliness was gain,
of ""
The loudest bagpipe of the squeaking train."
Lord Campbell, improving on tradition, and without any evidence,
says that Cooper "pretended to have received the new light, after
1653. FANATIC AND MODERATE PARTIES. 99
The assembly adopted the name of the Parliament of
the Commonwealth of England. They enlarged the
council which Cromwell had appointed to the number
of thirty, and among the additional members now
appointed was Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper.
It soon became apparent that from this assembly a
healing of divisions was not to be expected ; and if
Cromwell had bestowed on it the sovereign power in
the hope that it might become the instrument of his
own elevation, any such hope must soon have been
abandoned. Two parties, very nearly equal in numbers,
appeared in the assembly. One party acted with Crom-
well, and endeavoured to temper the violent counsels of
the other, more especially in the questions of tithes, pre-
sentations to livings, the maintenance of a clergy in
connexion with the Government, and the reform of the
laws and of the Court of Chancery. The violent party
of root and branch reformers wished to abolish tithes
and rights of presentation, and to leave the clergy
entirely to the choice and control, as well as to the
contributions, of their congregations. Cromwell's party
were ready to give up tithes, but wished to retain them
until some less irritating mode of payment of clergy
were provided ; they urged that rights of presentation
were property, and desired to preserve them, subject to
the check of a body of commissioners empowered to
eject unworthy clergymen, and having a veto on nomi-
nations. As regards the law, the violent party were for
tJie fashion of the Independents," and that, "on the meeting of the
House, he joined zealously in 'seeking the Lord,' along with the
great body of fanatics of which it was composed."
H2
100 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
constructing a complete code of new laws on principles
from which all the lawyers recoiled as fanatical : Crom-
well's party opposed this proposal, and thought it suffi-
cient to reform the laws according to the recommendation
of the Commission appointed by the Kump, over which
Hale had presided, and of which Cooper had been a
member. Almost immediately after the meeting of the
assembly, a committee for the reform of the law was
appointed, of which Cooper, being the first named, was
probably chairman ; they applied themselves to consider
the various projects of measures which the Commission
had prepared ; and Cooper from time to time introduced
bills to the House, some of which were passed. A vote
for the abolition of the Court of Chancery was passed
without a division, but disputes afterwards arose between
the two parties as to the provision to be made for the
future administration of equity and the decision of pend-
ing suits ; and the violent party, getting impatient, were
prevented only by the casting vote of the Speaker from
carrying a motion for the immediate abolition of the
Court of Chancery, without any provision being made
for these purposes. 1 On other occasions the violent
party succeeded in obtaining small majorities. It was
clear that Cromwell was not strong enough in the
assembly to master its fanatical elements, and keep it
in the ways of prudence and conciliation. The Presby-
terian clergy who had been planted through the country
while their party was predominant in the Long Parlia-
1 " It wanted not much lout that all the caterpillars of the land had
been all banished the town, as formerly the poor cavaliers were, one
voice only reserving them for a time, which will not be long."
(Letter in Thurloe's State Papers, i. 577.)
1653. END OF BAREBONE'S PARLIAMENT. 101
ment, the Universities, and the Inns of Court, were all
struck with terror at the designs of the violent party.
Some of their proceedings gave offence to the army. 1
Cromwell made up his mind to put an end to this
Parliament.
In the first days of its sitting, a committee had been
appointed to consider the question of tithes. The
appointment of this committee, carried by a majority of
seven, had been a victory gained by the moderate party,
who had thereby parried a motion for the abolition of
tithes. It was afterwards referred to this committee on
tithes to propose a plan for rejecting unworthy clergy-
men. The moderate, party prevailed in the committee,
and on the third of December they presented a report,
recommending the continuance of tithes, and the ap-
pointment of commissioners, to be divided into circuits,
and joined with four or five residents in each county,
for the ejection of ungodly ministers and induction of
godly successors. The violent party opposed the adop-
tion of this report ; a debate arose on the first paragraph,
which lasted for five days, and which ended by a vote,
carried by a majority of two, against agreeing with it.
This vote determined the existence of the assembly.
It was passed on Saturday, the tenth of December.
During the next day Cromwell arranged his plans. On
the morning of Monday his friends mustered early, and
one of them, Colonel Sydenham, 2 moved that "the
sitting of this Parliament any longer as now constituted
will not be for the good of the Commonwealth, and that
1 Thurloe, i. 368; Somers Tracts, vi. 274.
2 The same who had acted with Cooper in his first military service
for the Parliament, the taking of "Wareham, in 1644, and afterwards at
the storming of Abbotsbury. See pp. 59, 63..
102 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
therefore it was requisite to deliver up unto the Lord
General Cromwell the powers which they received from
him." This motion was seconded by Sir Charles Wolseley.
After some debate, the Speaker, who was one of Crom-
well's partisans, rose without putting the question, and,
followed by about forty members, and preceded by the
Serjeant bearing the mace, proceeded to Cromwell at
Whitehall. A resignation of the powers of the assembly
was then written out, signed by the members present,
and given to Cromwell. He accepted the resignation
with professions of astonishment and sorrow. About
seven-and-tweiity members had remained in the House,
and were consulting what they should do, when two
officers entered and requested them to withdraw. They
refused, and the officers brought in soldiers, forced them
out, and locked the doors. The paper of resignation lay
at Whitehall, to be signed by any other members who
might choose to add their signatures ; and ultimately it
had eighty signatures, which enabled Cromwell to say
that the sovereign power had been returned into his
hands by a majority of this Parliament.
Cooper's name is not mentioned in the accounts which
we have of the termination of the Barebone's Parliament ;
but there is no doubt that he acted with those who
brought about the resignation of its powers. He had
been constantly a teller for the moderate party in divi-
sions in this Parliament. He was appointed one of
Cromwell's Council of State immediately after the ter-
mination of the Barebone's Parliament. 1
1 Mr. Martyn, in a series of extraordinary misstatements, represents
Cooper as systematically opposing Cromwell in the Barebone's Parlia-
ment, and describes Colonel Sydenham's motion for the resignation of
its powers as a step hostile to Cromwell, (i. 164.)
1653. ZEALOUS SUPPORTER OF CROMWELL. 103
Two incidents recorded in the Journals show how
much Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was devoted for the
present to Cromwell and his policy. He reported from
the Council of State to the Parliament on the case of
the republican agitator, John Lilburne, who had been
banished by the Eump 011 pain of death if he returned
to England ; who, after Cromwell broke up the Bump,
had returned and had been arrested by order of Crom-
well's Council, and sent to trial; who had been tried
and acquitted by a jury amid threatening demonstrations
in his favour of large masses of the lower orders, and
whom the Council, through the medium of Cooper, now
recommended the House to retain in custody, notwith-
standing his acquittal, for the peace of the nation. 1 On
another occasion, he was deputed by the House to convey
to Cromwell an offer to place Hampton Court at his
disposal, in exchange for New Hall in Essex, which he
then occupied, and he reported to the House Cromwell's
grateful refusal. 2
There was an idle rumour during the few days which
intervened before the new government was settled, that if
Cromwell had appointed Cooper Lord Chancellor ; but f
there is no reason to believe that Cromwell had thought I
of such an appointment. 3
1 Coram. Journ. Aug. 27, 1653.
2 Ibid. Sept. 20, 26 ; Thurloe, i. 477.
It is said in an intercepted letter from Thomas Crocker to Francis
Edward, printed in Thurloe's State Papers (i. 645) : " I hear the coun-
cillors are all named last night, the oilicers chosen, and several
honours to be conferred : amongst others, Lambert, who is now, as I
conceive, general of the three nations, to be made a duke ; my Lord
Say to be chamberlain of the household ; which is yet in doubt, whether
he will accept or refuse ; my Lord Chief Justice St. John to be lord
treasurer ; Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, chancellor ; both which have
104 LIFE OF SHA.FTESBUKY. CHAP. IV.
At a council of officers assembled by Cromwell on the
day on which the Barebone's Parliament was broken up,
an elaborate scheme of a constitution was resolved upon,
which placed the government of the Commonwealth in
a single person, styled Protector, assisted by a Council
of State, and a Parliament popularly elected, according
to a reformed scheme of representation, similar to that
which had been projected by the Bump. The elaborate-
ness of this scheme shows that it must have been
already for some time under consideration ; and Crom-
well may have designed to submit it to the Barebone's
Parliament, before he gave up hopes of managing that
assembly. Lambert, who proposed the scheme to the
Council of officers, said that it had been two months in
preparation. There were those who had proposed that
Cromwell should now be made King. Indeed the scheme
was originally drawn up, with the title of King for the
chief magistrate. Cromwell refused this title, 1 and it
accepted." This is the only allusion which exists to a design of
appointing Cooper chancellor, and it is easy to see that these are idle
stories. Yet Lord Campbell has built upon this valueless statement a
singular superstructure of error. He first represents Cromwell as
having offered the great seal to Cooper before the calling of the Bare-
bone's Parliament : " After the expulsion of the Long Parliament he
intrigued with Cromwell, who was anxious to secure him, and held out
to him the prospect of being appointed Lord Keeper of the Great
Seal." Then Lord Campbell supposes that, in the Barebone's Parlia-
ment, Cooper's " views on the Great Seal were considerably dashed by
the bill for ' the immediate and total abolition of the Court of Chancery,' "
and thinks that his opposition to this bill may have led to the statement
that he opposed Cromwell in the Barebone's Parliament, whereas it is
known that Cromwell also disapproved of that bill. Lastly, Lord
Campbell thinks that the ultimate estrangement between Cooper and
Cromwell probably arose " from the promise about the Great Seal not
being fulfilled."
1 A speech of Cromwell in 1657 to a large number of officers who
then opposed his taking the title of King, which was printed for the
first time by the editor of Burton's Diary from a MS. in the British
Museum, is the authority for this statement. "He [Cromwell] said
1653. CROMWELL MADE PROTECTOR. 105
was settled that the " single person " of the new consti-
tution should be styled Protector, and hold his power
for life. Cromwell was to be the first Protector, and
his successors were to be elected by the Council. The
constitution now promulgated by Cromwell and the
Council of officers is known by the name of " The
Instrument of Government."
Bishop Burnet has said of Cooper that he was one
of those who most pressed Cromwell to accept the
kingship. An attempt has been made by Mr. Martyn
to discredit this statement, but there is no improba-
bility in the statement, which doubtless refers to this
period, when Cooper was a zealous and leading supporter
of Cromwell. 1
There was only an interval of four days between the
end of the Barebone's Parliament and the installation
of the new Constitution and of Cromwell as Protector.
that the time was when they boggled not at the word king, for the
instrument by which the government now stands was presented to his
Highness with the title King in it, as some then present could witness,
pointing at a principal officer then in his eye, and he refused to accept
of the title." (Burton, L 382.) Lambert is probably the officer here
referred to. Ludlow says, " Some were said to have moved that the
title might be king." (ii. 477.)
1 Hist, of Own Time, i. 97. The whole passage is as follows : " He
[Shaftesbury] pretended that Cromwell offered to make him king. He
was indeed of great use to him in withstanding the enthusiasts of that
time. He was one of those who pressed him most to accept of the king-
ship, because, as he said afterwards, he was sure it would ruin him."
There is no doubt that Cooper aided Cromwell against the enthusiasts,
and nothing is more probable than that he was one of those who urged
Cromwell to take the title of King. But that Cromwell should have
offered to make Cooper king is not quite so likely; and if Cooper after-
wards gave the reason which Burnet imputes to him for his advice to
Cromwell, he was guilty of a ridiculous untruth. Shaftesbury may
have boasted in his later years, and may have endeavoured dis-
ingenuously to excuse some of his earlier actions ; but, on the other
hand, Shaftesbury may have bantered Burnet, and certainly Burnet is
spiteful to Shaftesbury.
106 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
Cooper was one of fifteen members of the Council of
State named in the Instrument of Government. A
salary of a thousand pounds a year was assigned to
each councillor, but Cooper, who did not remain a
member of the Council much longer than a year, never
received any salary. 1
It is desirable to give an account of the leading
provisions of this constitution at the birth -of which
Cooper assisted.
It has been already said that the Protector was
appointed for life, and that, after Cromwell, future
Protectors were to be elected by the Council. There
was no restriction on their choice, except that none
of the late King's children, line, or family, could be
elected. The Council was to consist of not more than
twenty-one nor less than thirteen members. Fifteen
were named in the Instrument of Government, and
Cromwell and a majority of the Council were em-
powered to nil up the number twenty-one before the
meeting of the first parliament. After that time a scheme
of election, jointly by the Council, the Parliament, and
the Protector, was provided. A member of Council could
only be removed by the judgment of a tribunal jointly
appointed by the Council and the Parliament.
- 1 This is accidentally proved by a paper printed in Thurloe's State
Papers (iii. 581), giving an account of payments to members of the
Council from its first appointment to the end of 1655. In the debates
on the Indemnity Bill in the Convention Parliament after the Restora-
tion, Cooper is reported to have said, in opposing a proposal that all
officers of the Protectorate should refund their salaries, "He might
freely speak, because he never received any salary." (Parl. Hist. iv.
73.) Some letters published by M. Guizot (Hist, de Cromwell, vol. ii.
Appendix, No. 3) mention Cooper as taking a prominent part, as
member of the Privy Council, in Cromwell's reception of the French
ambassador, April 1654.
1653. INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 107
In the constitution of the Parliament there was a
great and a wise change from the mode of election of
the old English House of Commons. It was to consist
of 460 members; 400 for England and Wales, 30 for
Scotland, and 30 for Ireland. In the distribution of
the numbers for England, there was a great increase in
the number of county members, many small boroughs
were disfranchised, and members were given for the
first time to several large towns. Few towns returned
more than one member, and the number of members
for each county and for the boroughs included in it
was made as nearly proportional as possible to the
contribution of the county towards the public expendi-
ture. It was left to the Protector and Council to settle
the distribution of the sixty members for Scotland and
Ireland. The qualification for an elector was the
possession of two hundred pounds of real or personal
property. The elected were to be twenty-one years of
age, and " such, and no other than such, as are persons
of known integrity, fearing God, and of good conver-
sation." Those who had taken part against the Parlia-
ment since the first of January, 1641, unless they had
afterwards given " signal testimony of their affections
thereunto," were to be incapable of electing or of being
elected to the first four parliaments ; Eoman Catholics,
and those who had been in the Irish rebellion, were
disqualified for ever. For the first three parliaments
the members elected were to have a certificate of appro-
bation from the Council, without which they were not
to be allowed to sit ; and there was to be a clause in
every indenture of return prohibiting the members from
108 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. IV.
altering the government as settled in a single person
and in a parliament by the present Instrument of
Government.
The first parliament was to meet on the third of Sep-
tember, 1654, about eight months after the promulga-
tion of the Constitution. A parliament was to be called
once in three years, and was not to be adjourned,
prorogued, or dissolved without its own consent, for
five months after its meeting.
Where the command of the forces of the common-
wealth was to be placed, and whether any, and what,
checks were to be placed on the Parliament in legisla-
tion, the two great questions which had been battled
with the late King, and which had brought him to the
block, were difficult' problems to be solved by the
framers of this constitution, who desired to restrain the
power of the Parliament, and yet to avoid all appear-
ance of a monarchical element. It was provided that
the disposal of the militia was to be vested in the
Protector and the Parliament jointly, and, when Parlia-
ment was not sitting, in the Protector and Council.
The Protector and Council were to have the power of
peace and war, but a parliament was to be summoned
immediately after entering upon a war, and any par-
liament so specially called could not be adjourned,
prorogued, or dissolved, without its own consent, for
five months after it had assembled. All legislation
and taxation were to be by common consent of Parlia-
ment. P>ills passed by the Parliament were to be
presented to the Protector for his consent ; but if that
consent were not given in twenty days, the Parliament
INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 109
might then declare a bill law, unless it contained any-
thing contrary to the provision of the Instrument of
Government. 1
In a speech addressed to the first parliament called
under this constitution, Cromwell explained that the
fundamental principles of the Instrument of Govern-
ment, which the Parliament by itself could not infringe
upon, were four : government by a single person and a
parliament jointly, a limited duration of the Parliament,
liberty of conscience in religion, and the check of either
the Parliament or the Council on the Protector as regards
the militia. But the liberty of conscience in religion,
thus proclaimed by Cromwell as one of the fundamental
principles of the new government, was not extended to
the Eoman Catholic or the Episcopalian; these were
specially excepted from protection in the profession of
their religion and exercise of their worship, together
with " such as, under the profession of Christ, hold forth
and practise licentiousness."
The Instrument of Government declared that the
Christian religion, as contained in the Scriptures, was to
be the public profession of the three nations, and that
provision was to be made as soon as possible for a more
equal and less irritating mode of payment of clergy than
by tithes, but that in the meantime tithes were to be
i "Provided such bills contain nothing in them contrary to the
matters contained in these presents." When Cromwell found the first
parliament called under this new constitution refractory, he laid down,
as is stated in the text, four fundamental principles not to he infringed
without his consent ; and the Parliament afterwards expressly assigned
a negative to the Protector for all hills touching these four questions.
Mr. Hallam's statement, therefore, that the Protector had no nega-
tive voice on the Parliament, requires qualification. (Constit. Hist,
ii. 332.)
110 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
continued. A standing army of 10,000 horse and 20,000
foot was prescribed, and a constant yearly revenue was
to be provided for maintaining these forces and a suf-
ficient navy ; and 200,000/. a year was assigned to the
civil government. Till the first Parliament met, the
Protector and Council were empowered to raise what
money might be necessary for the support of the existing
forces. Power was given them also to make laws and
ordinances, till the meeting of the first Parliament ; but
these laws and ordinances were to be binding only until
Parliament should make order concerning them.
Such were the principal provisions of this elaborate
paper-constitution, which was destined soon to meet
with difficulties too strong for it in practice, and which,
having been violated in one essential point by Cromwell
in little more than a twelvemonth after its establish-
ment, was at the end of three years formally superseded
by another. Doubtless, Cromwell hoped that he had
now devised a constitution under which he might
obtain the co-operation of the Presbyterians whom the
Barebone's Parliament had scared, and which provided
sufficient securities against the restoration of the royal
family.
The fourteen members of the Council named, together
with Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, in the Instrument of
Government, were Lord Lisle, Generals Fleetwood and
Lambert, Sir Gilbert Pickering, Sir Charles Wolseley,
Montagu, General Desborough, Walter Strickland,
Henry Lawrence, Colonel Sydenham, Colonel Philip
Jones, Richard Major, Francis Eouse (the late Speaker
of the Barebone's Parliament), and General Skippon.
1653. JOHN MILTON. Ill
Three more members were added before trie meeting
of the Parliament, Humphry Mackworth, Nathaniel
Fiennes, and the Earl of Mulgrave. 1
A name more celebrated than that of any of Cooper's
colleagues in the Council occurs in the list of assistants
of the Secretary, Thurloe. John Milton was an assistant
in the department of Latin correspondence in the
Secretary's office, and gave the adhesion of his great
intellect and pure conscience to Cromwell's Protectorate.
The civil commotions and religious controversies of the
time had long since drawn him from the Muses ; he
had been Secretary for foreign languages under the
Council of State of the Eump Parliament, and had been
employed by that Council to answer the Latin treatise
in which Salmasius had arraigned before the civilized
world the execution of Charles the First ; and his Latin
answer to that great scholar had made his name widely
known, both for admiration and for obloquy. Shortly
after the installation of Cromwell as Protector, Milton
published, also in Latin, a second defence of the English
nation, in which he declared his approval of Cromwell's
recent acts, and counselled the Protector on the dangers
and the duties of his position. In this work he praises
several members of the new Council by name; but
Cooper is not among those whom Milton mentions.
There is no trace of personal intercourse between Cooper
and Milton either now or after the Bestoration, when
the poet's fame had made him an object of curiosity
among foreigners, and gained for him, in spite of
1 The father of the poet, author of the " Essay on Satire " and the
" Essay on Poetry," who was ultimately created Duke of Buckingham-
shire.
112 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
political passions, the notice of accomplished men even
of the Court of Charles the Second.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was elected to the first
Parliament assembled under the Instrument of Govern-
ment by no less than three constituencies, Wiltshire,
Poole, and Tewkesbury. He afterwards elected to sit
for Wiltshire.
The election for Wiltshire on this occasion has been
described by Edmund Ludlow, in a passage of his
Memoirs, which was suppressed. Ludlow at this time
held a military command in Ireland ; but the republican
party, acting in opposition to Cromwell, proposed him
as a candidate for Wiltshire, with which he was con-
nected by ancient lineage and property. The new
scheme of representation gave ten members to Wiltshire.
According to Ludlow's account, which perhaps ought
not to be taken implicitly, Cavaliers united with the
Presbyterian clergy and Cromwell's partisans in pro-
posing a list of ten candidates, with Cooper at the head,
and Ludlow's republican friends proposed him and nine
others. The gathering for the election was so numerous,
that it became necessary to adjourn from Salisbury
Town-hall to the plain of Stonehenge. There Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, and a Presbyterian clergyman
named Adoniram Byfield, addressed the people on the
necessity of electing members who would endeavour to
reconcile conflicting interests and heal the divisions of
the State. On a show of hands, the numbers appeared
so nearly equal that a poll was necessary ; and by the
union, according to Ludlow, of Cavaliers, Presbyterians,
and Cromwellites, and by the use of force and of all the
1654. ORDINANCES OF CROMWELL AND COUNCIL. 113
influence which, the Government could exert, Cooper
was placed at the head of the poll, and all the ten anti-
republican candidates were elected. 1
The interval of eight months between the inaugura-
tion of the constitution and the meeting of the new
Parliament was well employed by Cromwell and his
Council. They availed themselves largely of their power
of making provisional ordinances to do many things
which the Barebone's Parliament had either refused to
do or had left unfinished. They repealed the engage-
ment : a bill for that purpose introduced by Cooper in
the Barebone's Parliament had been rejected. They
issued an ordinance settling the terms of union of
Scotland with the Commonwealth, which the sudden
termination of the Barebone's Parliament had alone pre-
vented that assembly from passing, as it had already
passed an act for the union of Ireland. An ordinance
was issued for the reform of the Court of Chancery, and
two others for the appointment of a body of commis-
sioners for the approval of clergymen presented to
livings, and of commissioners in the several counties for
the ejection of unworthy ministers. Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper was appointed one of the latter commissioners
for Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. 2 Peace was now made
with Holland, and beneficial treaties were concluded
1 This account is given in the first of a series of suppressed passages
of Ludlow's Memoirs, which I found, in Locke's handwriting, among
the Locke papers in the Earl of Lovelace's possession. See Appendix 111.
Mr. Martyn, in unaccountable departure from facts, states that Sir
A. A. Cooper's election for Wiltshire was opposed by Cromwell (i. 165);
and Lord Campbell has incorrectly followed Mr. Martyn in placii)g
Cooper's estrangement from Cromwell before the election of this
parliament.
2 Wood, Ath. Oxon. (Bliss) iv. 71.
VOL. I. I
114 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
with Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden. The failure of a
royalist conspiracy for assassinating Cromwell had rallied
sympathy around him, and depressed the hopes of the
friends of the royal family ; and when Cromwell met
the Parliament which assembled on the third of Sep-
tember, 1654, under the provisions of the Instrument of
Government, he might have fairly hoped that the recol-
lections of the Eump and Barebone's Parliaments, the
proofs which he and his Council had already given of
energy and wisdom, and the natural desire for an end
of change would ensure for the new constitution its
sanction and co-operation.
Any such hopes, however, were doomed to speedy
disappointment. Notwithstanding all the efforts which
Cromwell and his Council had made to secure a majority,
and notwithstanding many advantages which they pos-
sessed for procuring favourable returns, a large majority
of the Parliament showed themselves immediately de-
termined to dispute Cromwell's authority and the new
constitution, instead of acknowledging the Instrument of
Government as the foundation of their own legislative
powers. The largest party in the Parliament were
Presbyterians. A considerable number of Eepublicans
also were returned. The Eepublicans, headed by Sir
Arthur Haselrig, Scot, and Bradshaw, the celebrated
president of the court which had condemned the late
King to death, immediately offered an opposition ; and,
to perplex Cromwell and promote their own aims, the
Presbyterians aided the Eepublicans.
Cromwell having opened the Parliament with a speech,
his friends proposed the day after that this speech should
1654. PARLIAMENT OPPOSES CROMWELL. 115
be taken into consideration, with a view to an address
thanking him for the new government. But the Kepub-
licaus and their Presbyterian allies would not admit
this new government to be an accomplished fact. They
claimed the right to discuss every provision of the
Instrument of Government, and contended that it was
for them, elected by the people, now to proceed to settle
the constitution as they pleased. Instead of adopting
the proposal to thank Cromwell, they resolved by a
small majority to discuss the Instrument of Government
in Grand Committee, or, in modern parliamentary
phrase, in a Committee of the whole House, with a
view to its being altered as they might think proper,
and then passed into an act. The first clause, which
declared the government to be in " one person and the
people assembled in Parliament," was warmly debated
in committee for four days ; and when the committee
broke up on the fourth day, it was expected that a pro-
posal which had been made by Hale, now a judge, and
which he intended as a compromise, would be carried
by a large majority, to declare the government to be in
"the Parliament and a single person, limited and re-
strained as the Parliament should think fit." Cromwell
determined to make an attempt by force to prevent
further discussion of the Instrument of Government.
As the members came to the House on the morning
of the twelfth of September, they found the doors locked
and guarded by soldiers, and were told that the Pro-
tector was coming to the Painted Chamber and com-
manded their attendance there. Cromwell arrived in
state about ten o'clock, by which time there was a full
I 2
116 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
attendance of members. He made a long speech, re-
minding them with many reproaches that they were all
bound by the indentures of their returns not to alter the
government as settled in a single person and the Parlia-
ment, and ended by announcing that he should exact a
pledge not to interfere with the government as so settled
from every member before he re-entered the House.
When the members left the Painted Chamber, they
found the doors of their House still locked and guarded,
and an officer in the lobby with a paper containing the
following declaration, which each member was required
to sign : " I do hereby freely promise and engage to be
true and faithful to the Lord Protector and the Common-
wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and shall not,
according to the tenour of the indenture whereby I am
returned to sit in this present Parliament, propose or
give my consent to alter the government as settled in
one person and a parliament." Within an hour about a
hundred members had signed the paper. The Speaker
was then sent for ; he came and signed it, and then
went into the House and took the chair. About forty
more members signed during the day. It was then
voted that by signing this declaration a member was
not bound to all the forty-two clauses of the Instrument
of Government, but only to the first clause, which vested
the government in a single person and a parliament.
This vote brought in more signatures ; and, in the end,
about three hundred of the four hundred and sixty
members signed the paper, and returned to the House. 1
1 Mr. Martyn continues his extraordinary misrepresentations of Sir
A. A. Cooper's course at this period by stating that he took a leading
1654. INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT DISCUSSED. 117
The House now returned to the discussion of the
Instrument of Government, admitting only that the
government should be composed of a single person and
a parliament; and though all the leading members of
the Eepublican party were excluded by their refusal to
sign the declaration which had been imposed, Cromwell
found the Parliament hardly more manageable than
before. They continued to discuss the Instrument of
Government, clause by clause, in Grand Committee, for
nearly three months. Several changes were made in it,
unpalatable to Cromwell; the power to declare war was
placed in the Protector and Parliament, instead of the
Protector and Council, as had been provided by the
original Instrument, and the election of future Protectors
was also given to the Parliament instead of the Council.
One change which was proposed by Cromwell's friends,
and which Cromwell himself is said to have greatly
desired, to make the Protectorship hereditary in his
family, was rejected by the largest majority which
occurred in the course of these discussions.
When the battle was concluded in the Grand Com-
part in the opposition, refused to sign the declaration, and was ex-
cluded from the parliament (i. 167). Lord Campbell follows Mr.
Martyn, and, as usual, states the case strongly. " When the Parlia-
ment met, he strongly co-operated with the party who were beginning
to inquire into the validity of the 'Instrument of Government.'. . . .
This made the Protector resolve by a strong hand to exclude all such
refractory spirits as Sir A. A. Cooper . . . Shaftesbury absolutely refused
to sign the declaration. Thus excluded, he intrigued against Cromwell."
Lord Campbell proceeds to say: " The Protector, rinding his opponent
so troublesome, soon after made a bold attempt to gain him over by
appointing him a member of the Council of State, with promises of
further advancement." Very little inquiry would have shown that
Sir A. A. Cooper was made a member of the Council of State eight
months before this parliament met, and that he was not excluded from
the parliament, the Journals making frequent mention of his name.
118 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
mittee, it was fought over again in the House, which
went through all the clauses as reported from the Grand
Committee. At last the Instrument of Government, as
altered by the Parliament, was embodied in a bill ; and
then it was resolved that, if the Protector did not agree
to every clause, the whole should be void and of no
effect. The object of this was, of course, to force Crom-
well into accepting all the alterations. Five days after
this resolution was passed, the House had sat five lunar
months ; and Cromwell, interpreting as lunar months of
twenty-eight days the five months during which the
original Instrument of Government had provided that a
parliament should not be dissolved without its own
consent, dissolved this Parliament on the very day on
which five lunar months of its existence were completed.
All its discussions and alterations of the Instrument of
Government now went for nothing, for the bill had not
been passed, and the original Instrument continued to
be the constitution of the Commonwealth.
No provision had been made for revenue when the
Parliament was dissolved ; and the Instrument of
Government had empowered the Protector and Council
to issue ordinances for raising money only until the
meeting of the first Parliament. In this respect Crom-
well set his constitution at nought, and an ordinance was
issued shortly after the dissolution of the Parliament for
raising money monthly by assessment.
The dissolution took place on the twenty-second of
January, 1655. On the twenty-eighth of 'December, 1654,
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who had hitherto regularly
attended the meetings of the Privy Council, attended
1G55. SEPARATES FROM CROMWELL. 119
for the last time. What led to his retirement from the
Council, and his separation from Cromwell, ending in
decided opposition to him, there are no means of deter-
mining. It is probable that differences of opinion arose
between Cooper and Cromwell in the course of the dis-^.
cussions on the Instrument of Government ; and Cooper
probably found it difficult to maintain his position as a
supporter of Cromwell in face of the decided opposition
of his Presbyterian friends. It does not appear probable,
however, that there was an open rupture, or that Cooper
made overt opposition to Cromwell during the sitting of
this Parliament. On the twenty-seventh of November,
he was a teller, with Richard Cromwell, in a division on
one of the clauses of the Instrument of Government. It
is true that Ludlow states that Cooper opposed Cromwell
during this Parliament, but the same passage of Ludlow's
Memoirs contains other obvious inaccuracies, and this
statement, if not entirely inaccurate also, is probably an
exaggeration. Until Cooper had ceased to attend the
Privy Council, he could not have opposed Cromwell in
Parliament, even though dissatisfied with his proceed-
ings ; and there was only a short interval of three weeks
between his last attendance in Council and the dissolu-
tion of the Parliament. 1
1 Ludlow's statement occurs in the second of the suppressed passages
in Appendix III. Ludiow says that Cooper was turned out of the
Council because he opposed Cromwell in this parliament, and that
Colonel Mackworth was appointed member of the Council in his place.
There is no entry in the Council book, which I have inspected in the
State Paper Office, of Cooper's dismissal ; and according to the Instru-
ment of Government, a dismissal could only have taken place on a
specific charge of misconduct, after inquiry by a committee jointly
appointed by the Council and the Parliament. He was not succeeded
by Colonel Mackworth, who was appointed a member of the Council
120 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. IY.
One reason which has been assigned for his estrange-
ment from Cromwell is that he wished to marry Crom-
well's daughter Mary (who was shortly afterwards
married to Lord Falconbridge), and was refused. This
story is perhaps no more than a piece of idle gossip.
It is however so far possible, that Cooper was now a
second time a widower. If Cooper quarrelled with
Cromwell before the end of 1654, the quarrel was very
soon after Cooper became a widower, and so soon as
to render this explanation of the cause of quarrel
improbable.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's second wife, the
daughter of the Earl of Exeter, to whom he was married
April 27, 1654, six months before Cooper ceased to sit. This passage
in Ludlow is, therefore, very inaccurate. There is no evidence even of
Cooper having resigned his seat in the Council; and* I should infer
from a list, already referred to, of payments to members of the
Council up to the end of 1655, that Cooper, though he had ceased to
attend, was then still a member of the Council. Ludlow mentions in
the same passage Sir A. A. Cooper's unsuccessful love of Mary Cromwell
as the reason for his quarrelling with the Protector. This story is also
mentioned by A. Wood (Ath. Oxon. iv. 71, Bliss's edition), and in
Oldmixon's "Lives of the Chancellors." (i. 148.) The authority for
the story is weak. Lord Campbell has adopted the gossip as true,
and amplified it considerably ; and, forgetting that he had previously
explained the quarrel with Cromwell by Cooper's disappointment
at not receiving the Great Seal, now ascribes it, without a word of
doubt, to disappointed love. " This gracious demeanour roused in
the bosom of Sir Anthony the ambitious project of forming an alliance
with the Protectoral house, and, having been some time a widower,
he actually demanded in marriage the musical, glib-tongued Lady
Mary, afterwards united to Lord Fauconberg. Probably on account
of his dissolute morals, he met with a flat refusal. Thereupon he
finally broke with Oliver, and became a partisan of the banished royal
family. When he had only twice or thrice sat in the Council of State,
he sent in his resignation ; alleging that ' the government by one
person was against his conscience. ' " Cooper had been a regular
attendant at the Privy Council from his appointment in December
1653 to December 28, 1654, more than a year. He did not become
a partisan of the banished royal family for nearly five years after this
date. I do not know what is Lord Campbell's authority for the fact of
Cooper's resignation, with the reason alleged under marks of quotation.
1656. MARRIES THIRD TIME. 121
in 1650, died some time in the year 1654. There were
no more children by this marriage than the two sons who
have been mentioned, one of whom died in childhood,
and the other, Anthony Ashley, lived to succeed his
father.
In the course of the year 1656, Cooper married a
third wife, Margaret, daughter of the second Lord
Spencer of Wormleighton, and sister of the third lord,
who was created Earl of Sunderland by Charles the
First, and had fallen fighting for the Eoyal cause at
Newbury.
The son of this Earl of Sunderland, a boy at the time
of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's marriage with his aunt,
rose to be the chief Minister of Charles the Second
before the close of Shaftesbury's career. It has been
already mentioned that Halifax was the nephew of
Shaftesbury's first wife. Shaftesbury's connexion with
both Halifax and Sunderland was rendered closer by
the marriage of Halifax with Sunderland's sister. In
the last years of Shaftesbury's career, Halifax and Sun-
derland divided political ascendency; and, seven-and-
twenty years later, Shaftesbury fled for his life, to die in
a foreign land, from a government of which his two
nephews were the chiefs.
The third wife of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper lived to
share all the honours and troubles of his future career.
She had no children, but she reared with a mother's
care her husband's son by his second wife, and after-
wards with the same care watched over the delicate
boyhood of that son's son, the future author of the
" Characteristics." She was a woman of strong religious
122 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IV.
feelings. It was her habit to rise at five in the morning
and spend two or three hours in private devotions. 1
Though Shaftesbury's character did not agree with hers
in this respect, they lived on terms of the warmest
affection. A letter written by Lady Shaftesbury to her
nephew Sunderland two years after her husband's
death, shows how deeply she still mourned his loss. 2
There must have been virtues and amiable qualities in
one so loved by such a wife.
1 Kawleigh Eedivivus, p. 13. Locke dedicated to Lady Shaftesbury
a translation which he made of three religious Essays of Nicole.
Locke's translation of these Essays was published for the first time in
1828 by Dr. Hancock. As this small volume is not generally known,
1 extract a passage of Locke's dedication to Lady Shaftesbury : " I
thought I could not find in all France anything fitter to be put into
your hands, than what would make you see so rare and extraordinary
a sight as a draught of some of your own virtues. For if to be con-
stantly humble in a high station, if to appear little to yourself in the
midst of greatness, is a mark of the sense of one's own weakness ; if to
be beloved of all that come near you be a demonstration that you
know how to live at peace with others; if to be constant and frequent
in acts of devotion be the best way of acknowledging a Deity : it is
certain your ladyship is in reality what the author has here given us
an idea of."
2 This letter is among the Domestic Papers of 1685 in the State
Paper Office. Lady Shaftesbury writes to the Earl of Sunderland to
beg him to make her excuses for not attending the coronation of
James the Second:
" 31st March, 1685.
"Because I think the shortest troubles are the best, I will, my
Lord, only just tell you why you read this note from your disconsolate
aunt, not make it longer by apologies for doing it. It seems, my
Lord, that in observance to forms I was to have a letter concerning
the coronation as well as those that are fit to observe the orders they
bring with them, which I am so utterly incapacitated for, that I con-
cluded at first, and indeed do think still, that it so answers itself, I
needed to take no notice of it ; but, if I am mistaken, I ask so much
friendliness from your Lordship as to do for me what is proper in this
case to be done by, my Lord, your afflicted, most faithful, affectionate,
humble servant,
" M. SHAFTESBURY."
CHAPTER V.
i 16561658.
Cooper now in opposition to Cromwell He falls back on the Presby-
terian party Elected for Wiltshire to new Parliament Prevented
by the Council from taking his seat Is one of the sixty-five who
sign a letter to the Speaker protesting Afterwards signs Remon-
strance The Humble Petition and Advice Cromwell refuses to be
King House adjourned from June 26, 1657, to January 20, 1658
Cromwell's Peers or " Other House " Cooper not one The 500
fine for composition, imposed by Long Parliament in 1644, remitted
by Cromwell Cooper's friendship with Henry Cromwell, and letter
to him Cooper and the other excluded members take their seats
on meeting of Parliament, January 1658 Formidable opposition to
Cromwell and the new Constitution Debates about the " Other
House " Cooper's speeches Cromwell dissolves the Parliament,
February 4 Cromwell's death.
IN the absence of any positive information on the sub-
ject of the differences which arose about this time
between Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and Cromwell, it
might be conjectured that Cromwell's dissolution of the
last Parliament was disapproved of by Cooper. It does
not appear that the proceedings of that parliament,
however much they may have been irritating and dis-
appointing to the Protector, furnished sufficient cause
for a dissolution, which immediately rendered it neces-
sary to trample on Cromwell's own constitution in order
to raise money. The changes which the Parliament had
made in the Instrument of Government were, after all,
not extensive ; all the essentials of the original constitu-
124 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. V.
tion promulgated by Cromwell and his officers had been
retained. Moderate men generally thought that Crom-
well should have accepted the alterations made by the
Parliament, and borne with its provocations, rather than
again peril the settlement of the Commonwealth ; and
there is no doubt that the dissolution of the last Parlia-
ment lost Cromwell many supporters. 1
Cooper never returned to his seat in the Council of
State. We know nothing at all of his proceedings during
twenty months which intervened between the dissolu-
tion of the last Parliament and the assembling of another
on the seventeenth of September, 1656. But when this
Parliament assembled, Cooper was regarded by Cromwell
as an opponent.
The Royalists became very active in intrigues and
conspiracies after the dissolution of January 1655 ; but
Cooper had no connexion now or for some time after
with this party. The restoration of the heir of the late
King could only have been regarded at this period as a
remote possibility by any but the zealous adherents of
his family. Cooper fell back on the Presbyterian party,
and in the two next parliaments was one of the leaders
of the opposition which the Presbyterians and Repub-
licans combined to wage against Cromwell and his
successor. X
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was again elected by the
county of Wiltshire to serve in the second Parliament
elected according to the provisions of the Instrument
of Government, which met in 1656. But this time
Cromwell would not permit him to take his seat.
1 Ludlow, ii. 512.
1656. EXCLUDED FROM PARLIAMENT. 125
The Instrument of Government had provided that,
for the first three Parliaments called under its provisions*
all members elected must obtain a certificate of appro-
bation from the Council, in order to be permitted to sit.
This provision, designed to secure an observance of the
qualifications enjoined for members, was stretched on
the present occasion to exclude a large number of
members whose opposition Cromwell feared. The
number of members to whom the Council refused cer-
tificates of approbation is variously stated ; there is no
doubt that it exceeded a hundred, and probably it was
not far below two hundred. Soldiers at the door of the
House prevented the entrance of all who could not
produce the Council's certificates. Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper was one of the excluded. About ninety other
names of excluded members are known; among them
are Sir Arthur Haselrig, Scot, and Weaver, leaders of
the Republicans ; and Morrice, Colonel Birch, Alexander
Popham, Serjeant Maynard, and Sir Harbottle Grim-
stone, members of the Presbyterian party. Another
name in the list is that of the Earl of Salisbury, who
had sat in the Eump Parliament, and who, in the sub-
sequent reign of Charles the Second, was a zealous
member of the Opposition of which Shaftesbury was
the leader.
Sixty-five of the excluded members, among whom was
Cooper, signed a letter to the Speaker, complaining that
they had been forcibly prevented by soldiers from taking
their seats. This letter was presented in the House by
Sir George Booth, a distinguished member of the Pres-
byterian party, who had not been excluded. The House
126 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
resolved that the Council should be desired to state their
reasons for what they had done. The Council said that
the Instrument of Government had imposed on them
the duty of judging whether the members returned
possessed the prescribed qualifications; that the same
Instrument had provided that the members to be elected
should be " such and no other than such as were persons
of known integrity, fearing God, and of good conversa-
tion ;" that they had examined all the returns according
to their duty, and had not refused certificates of appro-
bation to any who appeared to them to come within the
above description ; and that for those whom they had
not approved " his Highness had given orders to some
persons to take care that they should not come into the
House." An overpowering majority of the members
who had been allowed to sit resolved to be content
with this insolent reply, and to refer the excluded
members to the Council.
A Remonstrance, addressed to the people, couched in
the strongest language, was afterwards drawn up, and
printed with the names of ninety-three of the excluded
members appended to it. This Remonstrance declared
that whoever had advised the Protector's late proceeding
was a capital enemy of the Commonwealth : that all
who should sit and vote in the mutilated assembly were
adherents of the capital enemies of the Commonwealth,
and betrayers of the people's liberties ; that the assembly
which now sat was not the representative body of
England ; that their votes and acts were null and void ;
and that a free Parliament alone could set aside the
laws in times of danger, and justly provide for the
1657. KEMOXSTRANCE OF EXCLUDED MEMBERS. 127
future government of the Commonwealth. The paper
concludes by declaring that those who sign it are ready
to expose their lives and estates to the utmost hazard
for the service of the people, and to procure the
assembling of a free Parliament. Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper's name is appended to this printed document,
But there is reason to think that all the names which
were printed had not been subscribed to it ; and it
may be inferred from the strong language of this
Bemonstrance that it was not openly circulated.
A few of the members who had been excluded after-
wards made peace with the Council, and obtained
admission into the House. But Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper, with the great majority, remained excluded
during the whole of the first session of this Par-
liament. 1
This session lasted nine months, till the twenty-
sixth of June, 1657. Cromwell's measure of exclusion
had at last obtained for him a manageable Parliament.
It is probable, from what took place in this Parlia-
ment, that Cromwell's principal reason for assembling
it was to procure a change in the constitution, involving
1 Dr. Lingard, who is generally most accurate in details, has stated
incorrectly that Sir A. A. Cooper became Cromwell's intimate adviser
after this exclusion from Parliament, (xi. 80, note.) A little dis-
cussion in which Cooper's name was mixed up took place on December
22, 1656, during his enforced absence from this Parliament. A Captain
Arthur petitioned for payment of moneys laid out by him for the
Parliament in the, beginning of the Civil War, and said he had been
betrayed and taken prisoner by Cooper. One member, Mr. Robinson,
suggested that Sir A. A. Cooper should satisfy the petitioner ; another,
Mr. Butler, replied, " Sir A. A. Cooper has done you good service, and
the petitioner doth not say his sufferings were by him." The matter
was dropped. Captain Arthur's complaint would probably refer to
the time when Cooper was on the King's side. (Burton's Diary of
Cromwellian Parliaments, i. 204.)
128 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. UITAP. Y.
the creation of a second chamber, and the substitution
of the title of King for that of Protector.
The House had, however, sat some months before any
step was taken in promotion of such a design. But on
the twenty- third of February, 1657, Sir Christopher
Pack, an alderman and one of the members for the city
of London, suddenly presented to the House a document
elaborately drawn up, bearing the title of " The Humble
Address and Eemonstrance of the Knights, Burgesses,
and Citizens now assembled in the Parliament of the
Commonwealth," and moved that it should be received
and read. This was an address to Cromwell, stating
that the nation could never become settled while it was
left uncertain who would succeed him after his death,
and praying him to assume the title of King, and to call
henceforth a parliament consisting of two houses, and
to govern the Commonwealth in future according to the
laws of the nation, subject to such alterations as were
proposed in this document, which was to supersede the
Instrument of Government. Apparently, nothing could
have been more undignified than the mode in which
this proposal to revive royalty was brought before the
Parliament. Sir Christopher Pack was probably selected
to present the address on account of his connexion
with the city of London, and that it might seem not to
come from Cromwell himself. But -the worthy alderman
was no orator, and if there were any design to blind the
Parliament as to Cromwell's connexion with this address,
the execution was not successful. Sir Christopher
uttered a few confused words, of which all that could
be understood was that he had found somewhere, or
1657. THE PETITION AND ADVICE. 129
that some one had given him, a paper which he thought
worthy of consideration, and which he begged the House
to receive. Though the motion came before the House
without notice, the contents of the paper were probably
generally known, and a scene of violent disorder ensued.
The small minority of Cromwell's opponents in the
assembly made up by violence for their want of num-
bers. It was irregular to present such a document to
the House without leave previously obtained, and some
members endeavoured to snatch the paper from Sir
Christopher. By the violence of opposing members he
was jostled down the House as far as the bar, when his
friends rescued him and carried him back to the Speaker's
chair. After a warm debate, it was decided by a hun-
dred and fifty-four votes against fifty-four that the
paper should be read. It was then debated day by day
till the twenty-seventh of March. A motion made at
the outset that it should be discussed in Grand Com-
mittee was rejected by a hundred and eighteen votes to
sixty-three. But the House discussed separately the
various clauses of the address. The clauses constituting
another House to be nominated by the proposed king,
and to be approved by " this House," were passed with-
out a division. The substitution of the title of King
for that of Protector was carried by a hundred and
twenty-three votes to sixty-two. When the whole
paper had been gone through, the words " Address and
Remonstrance " in the title were changed for " Petition
and Advice," and a clause was added, providing that
unless Cromwell consented to everything contained in
it, no part of it should take effect. On the thirty-first
VOL. I. K
130 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
of March, the " Humble Petition and Advice " was
presented to Cromwell for his consent.
Cromwell refused to accept the title of King. There
is no doubt that he desired it, and that he had en-
couraged the preparation of the address by which the
Parliament asked him to assume that title. But unfore-
seen difficulties had arisen. His chief officers, including
his two sons-in-law Lambert and Fleetwood and his
brother-in-law Desborough, were vehemently opposed
to the title of King, and a strong adverse feeling, fanned
by the officers, appeared in the army. Cromwell took
five weeks to consider what course he would adopt, and
ultimately refused to be made King.
By Cromwell's refusal to consent to the clause which
conferred the title of King, the whole of the Petition
and Advice fell to the ground. But the House took it
again immediately into consideration, substituted the
title of Protector for that of King, and with this altera-
tion again presented it to Cromwell for his consent.
Now, however, the Petition and Advice was passed only
by a majority of three, a large number of its former
supporters absenting themselves, discontented with
Cromwell's refusal of the kingship. Cromwell gave his
consent to the Petition and Advice, as altered, on the
twenty-fifth of May, 1657.
The Petition and Advice, which now superseded the
Instrument of Government, made several changes in the
constitution of the Commonwealth. 1. The Protector
was empowered to nominate his successor during his
lifetime. 2. The Parliament was to consist of two
Houses. "The other House," as the new second
1657. THE PETITION AND ADVICE. 131
chamber is always called in the Petition and Advice,
was to be composed of not more than seventy nor less
than forty members, who in the first instance were to
be nominated by the Protector and approved by the
Commons' House, but who, after the first nominations,
were not to be admitted to sit and vote but by the con-
sent of the other House itself. 3. The number of
members of the House of Commons and the distribution
of the representation were to be newly arranged by the
Parliament then sitting. It was expressly declared in
the Petition and Advice that nothing contained in it
dissolved the existing Parliament. 4. It .was provided
that no members henceforth returned to Parliament
were to be excluded, except by judgment and consent
of the House itself; and that forty-one commissioners
were to be appointed by act of Parliament to try elec-
tions. 5. The members of the Council, who, as under
the Instrument of Government, were not to exceed
twenty-one in number, were to be appointed in future
with the consent of the Council and of the two Houses
of Parliament, and were not to be removed but by
consent of Parliament. 6. After Cromwell's death, the
commander-in-chief of the army and all field officers
by land or generals at sea were to be appointed with
consent of the Council. The Chancellor, Keeper, or
Commissioners of the Great Seal of England, the
Treasurer or Commissioners of the Treasury, the Ad-
miral, the Chief Governor of Ireland, the Chancellor,
Keeper, or Commissioners of the Great Seal of Ireland,
the two Chief Justices and the Chief Baron in England
or Ireland, the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in
K 2
132 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
Scotland, such officers of state there as by act of Parlia-
ment in Scotland are to be approved by Parliament, and
the judges in Scotland hereafter to be made, were to
be approved by both Houses of Parliament. 7. The
disposal of the standing forces was to be in the Pro-
tector, acting with the consent of both Houses during
the sitting of Parliament, and, while Parliament was
not sitting, in the Protector acting with the consent of
the Council. 8. A revenue of 1,300,000/. per annum
was settled for the support of the Government, of which
1,000,000/. was for the army and navy, and the remain-
ing 300,000. for the expenses of the civil government ;
and it was stipulated that no part of this money should
be raised by a land-tax.
An " Additional and Explanatory Petition and Ad-
vice" was afterwards passed, before the House adjourned,
which prescribed, amongst other things, an oath to be
taken by the members of both Houses, by which they
bound themselves to be faithful to the Protector, as
chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, and to abstain
from all designs against his person or lawful authority.
The House adjourned, under an act specially passed
for the purpose, from the twenty-sixth of June, 1657 to
the twentieth of January, 1658 ; and a clause in the
act commanded the attendance on that day of all mem-
bers who had been elected to the Parliament, and were
qualified according to the Petition and Advice.
On the twentieth of January, 1658, two Houses of
Parliament assembled.
Cromwell had nominated sixty-three members of the
newly-created second House. The nomination of this
1658. GKOMWELL'S PEERS. 133
assembly, which was designed to be a body superior to
the other House, and which would naturally provoke
comparisons with the old House of Lords, was neces-
sarily a difficult task ; and it is not astonishing that
Cromwell was not successful. As on the occasion of
his naming the Barebone's Parliament, he did his best
to procure the services of men of birth and station.
Seven English peers were called to the new House, the
Earls of Warwick, Manchester, and Mulgrave, Viscount
Say and Sele, Lords Falconbridge, Eure, and Wharton ;
but of these only Lord Falconbridge, who had married
Cromwell's daughter, and Lord Eure consented to sit.
Lord Broghill, an Irish peer, afterwards Earl of Orrery, a
restless intriguer through the whole period of the Civil
War and of the Commonwealth, and afterwards in the
reign of Charles the Second, and now a zealous supporter
of Cromwell, eagerly accepted a nomination. One Scotch
peer, the Earl of Cassilis, was nominated, and did not
sit. Lord Lisle, the eldest son of the Earl of Leicester,
the two sons of Lord Say and Sele, Montagu and
Howard, were on the list, together with most of Crom-
well's councillors and several of his officers. White-
locke, St. John, and Glyn represented the law. Of his
own family, Cromwell named his two sons, Eichard and
Henry, his brother-in-law Desborough, and son-in-law
Fleetwood, besides Lord Falconbridge : Lambert had
now quarrelled with him. Three of the members who
had been excluded from sitting in the Parliament in the
former year were named, Popham, Sir John Hobart, and
Sir Arthur Haselrig. Popham and Haselrig scorned the
proffered honour ; and it is difficult to understand how
134 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. V.
Cromwell could have expected Haselrig's acceptance.
Pride, Barkstead, Hewson, Goffe, Berry, and Thomas
Cooper, colonels in the army, who had originally pur-
sued various trades, and were not men of fortune or
social position, threw ridicule on this assemblage, and the
number of the more distinguished nominees who refused
to accept their nominations reduced this new " other
House" to about forty of Cromwell's personal adherents.
The debates in the two subsequent Parliaments, of which
full reports have been preserved, show the general con-
tempt felt for this assembly, and the large share which
this part of the new constitution had in creating diffi-
culties for Cromwell and his successor.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's name is not in the list
of Cromwell's " peers," as they came to be called. It is
clear that Cromwell had now no hope of gaming him.
It is stated, probably with truth, that Cromwell was
wont to say of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper that he
found no one so difficult to manage as that Marcus
Tullius Cicero, the little man with three names. 1 It
would seem, as was usually the case with Cooper, that
his political opposition to Cromwell was not attended
by personal enmity. In January 1658, the fine of five
hundred pounds which had been imposed on Cooper by
the Long Parliament as a composition for delinquency,
when he came over from the King's side, appears to have
been discharged by order of Cromwell on Cooper's peti-
tion. 2 A letter written by Cooper to Henry Cromwell,
the Protector's son, in the year 1657, has been preserved,
1 Martyn's Life, i. 168.
2 MS. memorandum among Lord Shaftesbury's papers.
1.658. LETTER TO HENRY CROMWELL. 135
the language of which indicates the greatest intimacy.
Henry Cromwell was at that time Lord Deputy in
Ireland, and Cooper addressed to him, on September 10,
1657, the following quaint and cordial letter :
"MY LORD AND FATHER, I hear from my brother
Moore l that your Lordship blames me for not answering
a letter of yours about some business. I really profess
I received none such, or else you mought have been
assured of an answer, for there is no person in the world
more desires to retain your Lordship's affection and
good opinion. You have many love his Highness' son,
but I love Henry Cromwell, were he naked, without all
those glorious additions and titles, which, however, I
pray may continue to be increased on you.
" My Lord, I must yet this once trouble you in the
behalf of my Lord Moore, for whom you have already
done so great favours. He has now prepared his busi-
ness fit for your last act of perfecting your goodness to
him, his Highness having referred it wholly to your
Lordship and the Council there. 'Tis not possible he
should buy any way but in land until his act pass, and
he have some for sale ; besides, the land he offers lies
so about Dublin, that it cannot but be convenient for
the State. If it be as they inform, I wish it in your
Lordship's possession on any pretence, and there will
be enough officious to get it confirmed yours ; but that
is only a fancy of iny own on the sudden.
" My request for myself is that you love me, and ever
believe there is no manner of expression enough to tell
you how really cordial and unchangeably I am, my Lord,
1 Viscount Moore of Drogheda, who had married a daughter of Lord
Spenser of Wormleighton, sister of Sir A. A. Cooper's third and present
wife : he was created Earl of Drogheda after the Restoration.
136 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
your Excellency's most devoted humble servant and
dutiful son,
" ANT. ASHLEY COOPER." x
When the Parliament met on the twentieth of January,
1658, under the new constitution of the " Petition and
Advice," Cooper and the other excluded members of the
year before took their seats in the House of Commons ;
and they took the prescribed oath of fidelity to the Pro-
tector as chief magistrate of the Commonwealth, binding
them to abstain from all designs against his person or
lawful authority.
The addition of the excluded members made the
House of Commons altogether unmanageable for Crom-
well. They had had no voice in the framing of the
Humble Petition and Advice, and they denied its
legality. On the day of meeting, the Black Kod sum-
moned the members of the House of Commons to " the
Lords' House," and there Cromwell addressed the two
Houses in a speech beginning with "My Lords and
Gentlemen of the House of Commons." No exception
was taken at the moment to the use of the word " Lords"
on these two occasions, but two days after a message
was announced by the Serjeant from " the Lords," and
the whole question of the title, powers, privileges, and
i This letter is printed from Thurloe's State Papers, vi. 506. It
escaped Mr. Martyn, who appears to have searched the Thurloe
Papers, and who makes the following statement : " Through the whole
collection of Secretary Thurloe's papers there is no mention made of
Sir Anthony but in two letters, wherein he is suspected among others
to be well-affected to the King, and to have remitted money to him."
(Life, i. 164, note.) I have not been able to find either of these two
alleged letters; and I have no doubt that any such suspicions were
without foundation.
1658. DEBATES ON "OTHER HOUSE/' 137
expediency of "the other House," was opened by the
excluded members. The message was brought by two
judges. Should the messengers be called in, was the
first question. Some opposition made to this, lest it
should be a recognition of the title " Lords " was over-
ruled, and the messengers were called in, gave their
message as from "the Lords," and withdrew. Then
came the question, should the messengers be recalled,
and told that the House would return an answer by
messengers of their own. Some were for giving no
answer at all, till the whole question of the other House
had been considered ; others were for saying that they
would return an answer to the other House 'by mes-
sengers of their own, to show that they did not recognise
the title " Lords ;" others again were for sending answer
simply that they would consider of the message. But it
was carried on a division by seventy-five votes to fifty-
one that the Speaker should inform the messengers
that the House would send an answer by messengers of
their own. It was understood that the whole question
of the other House would be debated in debating the
answer to be sent.
This had taken place on Friday, the twenty-second,
and on Monday, the twenty-fifth, Cromwell sent to both
Houses to attend him in the Banqueting House, and
addressing them this time, " My Lords and Gentlemen
of the two Houses of Parliament," made a long speech
on the difficulties of public affairs, and the necessity of
union. But it was of no use. The House of Commons,
on the twenty-eighth, appointed a Committee to attend
Cromwell and inform him, among other things, " that
138 LIFE OP SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP.
this House will take the matters imparted to them by
his Highness in his speech at the Banqueting House
into serious and speedy consideration ;" and Cromwell
highly resented that the House of Commons should
take upon itself to answer singly a speech which he had
addressed to both Houses. Still it was of no use. The
House resolved to enter on no private business for a
month, that they might devote themselves entirely to
the consideration of the Government. They proceeded
to debate the message from the other House, and this
debate went on from day to day till the fourth of
February, when Cromwell, seeing yet no probability of
an answer being returned to the "Lords' " message, dis-
solved the Parliament.
A member of this Parliament made copious notes of
the debates, which have been preserved and published. 1
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper took an active and leading
part in the opposition to the new constitution and the
new House of Lords. Five speeches of his are reported
in the debates on the message from the other House,
and summaries are given of very many more of his
speeches in the following Parliament under Eichard
Cromwell's short Protectorate. Though all these re-
ports are little more than skeletons of argument, and
the reporter has not taken pains with the language or to
preserve the speaker's style, they yet bear unmistakeably
the impress of that nervous and subtle oratory, of some
1 In the work known as the Diary of Thomas Burton, edited by J.
T. Rutt, 4 vols. 1828. Mr. Carlyle has raised doubts as to whether
the member was Burton, member for Westmoreland, and suggests that
it was more probably a Mr. Bacon (Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
ii. 545). The matter is not clear, one way or the other.
1658. SPEECHES ABOUT "OTHER HOUSE." 139
of whose efforts finished reports have been handed down
to us, and which, in the stormy days of the reign of
Charles the Second, rendered Shaftesbury so formidable
a leader of opposition.
The first position taken by Cooper in these debates
was that the House had to consider, not only what
answer they should return, but whether they should
return any answer at all. " Some," he said, " are neither
for another House nor for the title ; and if you put the
question to return an answer to the other House, you
tacitly admit such a House without further debate." l
The next day he seconded a motion of Sir Arthur
Haselrig's to have the question considered in Grand
Committee, that is, in a Committee of the whole House,
in which every member might speak on the same motion
any number of times, and every vote of which would
have to be reported to and re-affirmed by the House.
This motion was not carried, and the debate then turned
on what the first question to be decided should be,
the substance of the answer to be given or the title by
which the other House should be addressed. Cooper
made a speech in support of first considering the title,
which is thus quaintly reported : " I apprehend nobody
speaks of that notion which I have in my head. Your
order is very nice. You have a message from the Lords,
brought by the judges from the Lords. Unusual causes
produce unusual effects, and nothing so ordinary to
philosophers as to meet with such. I would rather have
us consider from whom that message is, and we can
better tell what answer to return." 2 After a long day's
i Burton's Diary, ii. 378, January 28. 2 Ib. ii. 401, Jan. 30.
140 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
debate, the House decided that the title should be first
considered. Haselrig then again tried to obtain a Com-
mittee of the whole House, and Cooper again supported
him. He followed the Solicitor-General, Ellis, who had
made a learned argument to show that, though the words
" House of Lords " did not occur in the Humble Petition
and Advice, it was clearly intended that "the other
House " should be a House of Lords. Cooper's speech
is thus reported. " I move to be turned into a Grand
Committee for three or four days. There is a great
deal more in it than appears. Admit Lords, and admit
all. It is fit that laws should be plain for the people.
We know what advantage the supreme magistrate and
the other House always get by the learned's interpreta-
tion of them." 1 By " admit Lords, and admit all,"
Cooper doubtless meant that the admission of the name
would involve the admission of a House of Lords accord-
ing to the old constitution, for such is his argument
in a second speech on this question of a Grand Com-
mittee, the last and the longest of his speeches in
this short session. He is then reported as follows,
February 3 :
" I am not of their opinion, that say there is nothing
in the name, and that, if you could get over that,
the fact would not stick ; but better abstain from
that than the people suffer. You are now upon the
brink and border of settlement, and, if you go further,
it may be you cannot stand. There is nothing but
a compliment to call a man Lord ; but if one call
himself lord of my manor, I shall be loth to give him
1 Burton, ii. 419, Feb. 2.
1658. SPEECHES ABOUT "OTHER HOUSE." 141
the title, lest he claim the manor. The gentlemen
of the long robe will tell you there is much in names.
The word King, they know, carries all. Words are the
keys of the cabinet of things. Let us first take the
people's jewels out before you part with that cabinet.
If we part with all first, when you come to abatement,
it is a question how you will redeem them. It was told
you by a learned gentleman that the writ makes them
no more than the Instrument 1 makes them, for the
Instrument makes them not peers for life, as the writ
does not. It is very clear. We are told it revives the
old Lords' House. I would fain know where the words
of revival be. The gentlemen of the long robe say
nothing of a revival."
Then with abrupt transition he answers another argu-
ment, that there must be some mode of address from the
one House to the other.
" There must be a way of address. I see no such
necessity, by the last Instrument. You passed laws
without the peers' consent after so many days. The
negative voice was denied the King. You know it was.
Thus laws passed without the King's concurrence. Con-
sider, let us not lay foundations that we may repent.
They must be extant for the future." 2
On the day on which this last speech was made, the
House divided on the question whether the motion for a
Grand Committee should be put, and the numbers were
equal. The Speaker was about to give his casting vote,
which would probably have been with the Noes, when
1 The Humble Petition and Advice.
2 Burton, ii. 435, February 3.
142 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. V.
Mr. Fagg, member for Sussex, stood up and asserted
that he and another member, Colonel Grosvenor, had
entered the House before the question was put, but that
their votes had not been counted. Mr. Fagg's vote was
allowed, and added to the Ayes, so that the first question
was carried. But the main question was immediately
afterwards negatived by ninety-three votes to eighty-
seven. It was therefore decided not to go into Grand
Committee. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was one of
the tellers for the Ayes in the division on the main
question.
On the day following this close division, Cromwell,
dissatisfied with the small majority, dissolved the Par-
liament. This was Oliver Cromwell's last Parliament.
Seven months after the dissolution, on the third of
September, 1658, he died.
The Petition and Advice had empowered Cromwell to
declare, during his lifetime, his successor in the Pro-
tectorship ; and soon after this power was confirmed, he
had nominated in writing his son-in-law Fleetwood.
But differences afterwards arose between Cromwell and
Fleetwood, and now, on his death-bed, Oliver verbally
nominated his eldest son Eichard his successor, in the
presence of Fiennes, the first Commissioner of the Great
Seal, Thurloe, and three other witnesses. The paper in
which Fleetwood had been more formally appointed was
at the same time searched for by Cromwell's desire, but
could not be found. Fleetwood, however, afterwards
waived all claims arising out of this document, if it
should be found; and Eichard took his father's place
without dispute.
1658. CKOMWELL'S DEATH. 143
From the dissolution of the Parliament in February
till Oliver Cromwell's death in September we have no
information about Cooper; but we find him again a
member of the Parliament soon called by Eichard
Cromwell, and there waging as fierce a war as he had
waged under Oliver against the Petition and Advice
and its House of Lords.
CHAPTEE VI.
16581659.
Eichard Cromwell proclaimed Protector The military commanders
jealous of his civilian advisers A Parliament called for January 27,
1659 Members for England and Wales elected under old constitution
Scotch and Irish members according to Instrument of Government,
but not to sit till approved Cromwell's peers summoned by writs of
old House of Lords Cooper elected for Wiltshire and Poole Sits
for Wiltshire Debates on bill for recognition of Eichard Cromwell
sProtector Cooper's many speeches The "Other House" Ques-
tion of transacting with it Cooper's long speech against time
Cooper's taunts against one of Cromwell's peers for changes His
abuse of Cromwell House of Commons agrees to transact with
other House during this Parliament Unsuccessful attempt to settle
revenue on Eichard Cromwell Message to other House as to a day
of humiliation Discussions thereon Quarrel between Eichard
Cromwell and the military chiefs Eesolutions of House of Com-
mons against the army Eichard Cromwell orders dissolution of
Council of Officers Fleetwood and Desborough rally the army, and
force Eichard Cromwell to dissolve Parliament Fall of Eichard
Cromwell.
THE Council assembled immediately after Cromwell's
death, and unanimously resolved to recognise his death-
bed nomination of his eldest son Eichard as his suc-
cessor. His brother-in-law Fleetwood, the Lieutenant-
General of the army, cordially concurred in this
decision, declaring that, if the written instrument by
which he had been nominated should hereafter be
found, he would regard it as null. Desborough, the
brother-in-law of Oliver, and the next in position to
Fleetwood of the military commanders, while his
1658. EICHAED CROMWELI/S ACCESSION. 145
superior in energy and influence, also zealously sup-
ported in the Council Eichard's succession. On the
following day Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Pro-
tector in London, without the slightest sign of opposi-
tion. The support of Fleetwood and Desborough had
carried that of the army. No opposition appeared in
any part of the Commonwealth, in England, Scotland,
or Ireland. Henry Cromwell, who governed as Deputy
in Ireland, gave a willing support to his brother. Monk,
the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, declared his more
important adhesion. Addresses of congratulation came
in succession from all the counties and cities of the
three countries, and from the army. 1 The Eoyalists and
Eepublicans, who had both hoped that the death of
Cromwell would make an opening for their respective
causes, saw with surprise the tranquil succession of
Eichard; and for a few months it seemed as if the
feeble Eichard, succeeding by a doubtful title to an
usurped power, was to retain it free from the troubles
and difficulties which had ever vexed and thwarted the
great mind of Oliver.
The support of the army had placed Eichard where
he was. From the army came the first sign of trouble ;
and the army ultimately displaced him. The military
chiefs, who had zealously supported his succession to
the Protectorship, thought that, as he was a civilian, he
ought to relinquish the command-in-chief of the army,
and wished him to transfer it to Fleetwood. The army
generally approved this idea. Eichard, counselled by
1 Phillips's Continuation of Sir K. Baker's Chronicle, pp. 635, 636,
ed. 1684.
VOL. I. L
146 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
Thurloe, Fiennes, St. John, Pierpoint, and other civilians,
and following also the advice of Monk, resisted the pro-
posals of the officers, and determined to retain in his
own hands the command of the army. 1 Fleet wood, Des-
borough, and their friends, now became jealous of the
influence of Eichard's civilian counsellors, and com-
plained that they themselves were treated with ingrati-
tude. Eichard hoped that by calling a Parliament,
which the wants of his treasury rendered absolutely
necessary, he should bring to his side a power which
would hold in check the rising turbulence of the
military chiefs.
Writs were issued for a Parliament to meet on the
twenty-seventh of January, 1659. Some difficulties
had presented themselves to the Council as regards the
election of this Parliament. The last Parliament had
not made a new scheme of representation, as the Humble
Petition and Advice had enjoined. How then were the
members of the House of Commons to be elected
according to the scheme of the extinct Instrument of
Government, or according to the old law of England ?
But under the old constitution, Scotland and Ireland
were not united with England, and there was no law for
the election of Scotch and Irish members to a common
Parliament. The Council determined that the members
for England and Wales should be elected according to
the old law of the land, and that thirty members, the
1 Other leading advisers of Richard Cromwell were Dr. Wilkins,
afterwards Bishop of Chester, Lord Broglull, afterwards Earl of Orrery,
Colonel Philip Jones, and George Montagu, second son of the Earl of
Manchester (Ludlow, ii. 632 ; Pepys's Diary, i. 104 ; Clarendon State
Papers, iii. 421, 423).
1659. PARLIAMENT SUMMONED. 147
number prescribed by the Instrument of Government,
should be elected severally for Scotland and Ireland
according to the provisions of that constitution, but that
they should not be admitted to sit till the consent of the
members for England and Wales was given. With
regard to the " other House/' a question arose as to the
way in which they were to be summoned, and it was
determined to summon them by the same writs as had
been in use for the House of Lords, under the old con-
stitution. Those whom Oliver Cromwell had nominated
members of the "other House" were summoned, without
any addition. 1
The reason for reverting to the old constitution for the
election of the English members was doubtless that it
gave more scope for the exercise of government influ-
ence than the more popular scheme of representation
which had been provided by the Instrument of Govern-
ment. Eichard Cromwell soon found trouble, where he
had sought help. An indefatigable Opposition, com-
posed of Eepublicans and Presbyterians, among the
latter of whom many were now looking to the restora-
tion of the royal family, and some were secretly in
correspondence with the royal exile, endeavoured to re-
open the whole question of the constitution and Eichard
Cromwell's power ; and in three short months, Fleetwood
and the army suppressed the Parliament and drove
Eichard Cromwell from the Protectorate.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper was returned to this
Parliament for Wiltshire and for Poole. For Poole
there was a double return, which was decided in his
1 Ludlow, ii. 616.
L2
148 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
favour ; and he elected, after this decision, to sit for
Wiltshire. 1
The same member whose reports enabled us accurately
to trace Cooper's course in the last session of Oliver
Cromwell's last Parliament, continued to take copious
notes in the present one ; and we find Cooper a constant
and leading speaker in opposition. The Diarist records
Cooper's first coming into the House, on the fifth of
February, as if he were a man of much consequence. 2
A few days after the Parliament met, a bill for the
recognition of Eichard Cromwell's title was proposed to
the House of Commons by Thurloe, the Secretary of
State. The introduction of this bill led to protracted
discussions, in which every objection that casuistry
could suggest was employed by the opponents of the
Government. The bill having been read a second time
without a division, a debate was immediately opened by
Haselrig on the question of going into committee, which
lasted from the seventh of February to the fourteenth.
The validity of the Humble Petition and Advice,
1 Comm. Joiirn. March 30, 1659 ; Burton, iv. 308.
2 Burton, iii. 80. Attention was called this day (Feb. 5) to Ludlow's
sitting in the House without taking the prescribed oath, and a debate
arose, which was interrupted by a member noticing the presence of a
man named King, who had been sitting in the House not having been
elected a member, and distributing pamphlets among the members.
It was moved to send King to the Tower ; several members, and
among others Sir A. A. Cooper, suggested Newgate, arguing that to
send him to the Tower would be to give him too much importance.
It was resolved to send him to Newgate. He was discharged two
days after, being adjudged mad. The debate about Ludlow was not
resumed, and he managed to continue to sit without taking the oath.
(Memoirs, ii. 619.) Later, on the same day, a motion was made to
appoint a Committee about the maintenance of clergymen in Wales.
Cooper spoke, and is thus reported : " There is a vast treasure arising
out of these revenues. I never heard of any account. I have passed
through Wales, and found churches all unsupplied, except a few
grocers or such persons that have formerly served for two years."
1659. OPPOSITION TO EICHAED CEOMWELL. 149
enacted by a Parliament from which a large number
of members had been excluded, was again impugned. It
was argued that Cromwell's nomination of his son
Eichard by word of mouth on his death-bed, and not
by a written instrument, was insufficient, even if the
validity of the Humble Petition and Advice were ad-
mitted. Abuse and derision were lavished on the so-
styled House of Lords. It was contended that the bill
should confirm the people's rights and the privileges of
the House of Commons at the same time that it con-
firmed the Protector's title, and a preliminary resolution
limiting the Protector's powers and securing the House
of Commons in the two points of the " militia " and the
u negative voice " was called for. Verbal questions were
raised, such as those which had made so large a part of
the discussions on the Instrument of Government in
1654 : it having been proposed, for instance, to "recog-
nise" Eichard Cromwell as Protector, the Opposition
contended that the word " recognise " implied a power
independent of the Parliament, and proposed to sub-
stitute "declare;" by way of compromise, the Govern-
ment party added "declare" to "recognise," and
withdrew the word " undoubted " before " Protector," to
which the Opposition had made great objections. 1 Such
were the topics urged by a multitude of speakers, chiefly
Eepublicans, during an eight days' debate. Cooper
warmly supported the proposal for a resolution saving
the rights of the Parliament, and suggested the passing
of another resolution, such as had been passed in
1 Some members objected to "recognise," as a French word.
Ludlow says that some proposed to "agnize." (Memoir, ii. 634.)
150 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
discussing the Instrument of Government in 1654,
that nothing should be binding till the whole bill was
passed. Cooper's speech is thus reported :
" You have the same state* of things now before you
as you had in the Parliament of 1654, our judgments
differing. A recognition was then proposed. It was
said that it was not consistent with the care, wisdom,
and gravity of this House, to pass the interest of the
single person but with the interest of the people. At
length a previous vote was agreed upon, that nothing in
that should be of force, unless the whole did pass. That
which is now proposed is thought impracticable, but it
was not so then.
" You are now upon a Petition and Advice which it
is told you is a law, and if you say so, the judges will
say so. Never was so absolute a government. If the
Florentine and he that sate in the great chair of the
world 1 had all met together, they could not have made
anything so absolute. Is there not another House
sitting that claims a negative over you? When you
have passed this, what is wanting ? Nothing but
monies,
" State the case. The Petition and Advice is neces-
sary to stand. A Parliament is freely chosen, and we
1 Machiavel and Pope Alexander the Sixth. There is doubtless an
omission here, as " all " must refer to more than two. The omission
may be supplied from a speech of Mr. Hobart, later in the debates,
and from a passage in Slingsby Bethel's " Narrative" of this Parlia-
ment. Mr. Hobart is reported as saying, February 28 : " For this
Petition and Advice, if Pope Alexander and Cardinal Csesar Borgia
and Machiavel should all consent together, they could not lay a foun-
dation for a more absolute tyranny. " (Diary, iii. 543). Bethel, in his
Narrative of the proceedings of this Parliament, printed in the sixth
volume of the Somers Tracts speaks of the Opposition party as
' ' showing that if Pope Alexander the Sixth, Csesar Borgia, and their
cabal had all laid their heads together, they could not have framed a
thing more dangerous and destructive to the liberty of the people than
is the Petition and Advice."
1659. SPEECHES ON " OTHER HOUSE." 151
own it. We go home by some necessity of state. Then
does not the Petition and Advice outlive us ? This may
happen, and produce inconveniences to us ; to the Pro-
tector none. Is not this security to him that he shall
be put in the great magna charta ?
" If the Petition and Advice by piece-meal comes to
be confirmed, we may not feel the smart of the Petition
and Advice in this man's time. It may happen in
another's. It may not sound well in after ages, to have
things so uncertain and liable to disputes. The laws
left doubtful, we have not been faithful to his Highness.
"I move to assert his authority together with the
liberty of the people. This will be security and in-
demnity to all. Put the case, that you should vote him
Chief Magistrate only, and then leave him to the ancient
laws to expound what that means. Shall we not leave
him to those ancient doubts and disputes which have
cost us so much blood ?
" Englishmen's minds are free, and better taught in
their liberties now than ever. A Parliament cannot
enslave the people. It may happen in after ages that
the people may claim their liberties over again. I
would have the addition and the question go all to-
gether. "We have left a bone of contention to posterity,
I fear. We may rise before all be perfected, for some
reason of state. It is not against the orders of the
House to put them together. I. would have them put
together. Let them go hand in hand." 1
Later, he made a short speech against the word
"recognise," arguing that it would take in the whole
Petition and Advice: "The word recognise goes to
things, and not to persons. I appeal to the long-robe
1 Burton, iii. 227, Feb. 11.
152 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VI.
men, if recognise take not in all the laws, Petition and
Advice, and all powers given by that." 1 And again, it
having been urged that to carry a preliminary restriction
in the interest of the people would really be doing
nothing, as unless a clause to the same effect were
carried in committee, nothing would be secured in the
bill, Cooper replied that there would be no record in the
Journals of a clause proposed in committee and rejected :
" Votes will remain on our books when we are gone, and
it will appear that we had also care of the people. You
will have it committed, and nothing appear. I would
have both appear on our books together." 2
On the fourteenth of February, immediately after this
last short speech of Cooper's, two resolutions were
adopted by the House. The first, "that it be part of
this bill to recognise and declare his Highness, Eichard,
Lord Protector, to be the Lord Protector and Chief
Magistrate of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the
dominions and territories thereunto belonging," was
carried on a division by 223 votes to 134. After this
resolution was carried, Mr. Trevor, one of Eichard
Cromwell's party, who became Secretary of State under
Charles the Second, offered a resolution "that before
this bill be committed, this House do declare such addi-
tional clauses to be part of the bill as may bound the
power pf the Chief Magistrate, and fully secure the
rights and privileges of Parliament and the liberties and
rights of the people ; and that neither this nor any other
previous vote that is or shall be passed in order to this
bill shall be of force or binding to the people until the
1 Burton, iii. 276, Feb. 14. 2 Ibid. iii. 286, Feb. 14.
1659. SPEECHES ON " OTHER HOUSE." 153
whole bill be passed." This resolution, which was
intended as a concession to the Opposition, was passed
without a division, Thurloe alone saying " No " to it.
The consideration of the additional clauses was begun
on the seventeenth. 1 The Opposition were for beginning
with the limits of the Protector's power, and more par-
ticularly with the question of his veto, or negative voice ;
the Government party contended, on the other hand,
that the question of the other House should be first
settled. Cooper, as usual, sided with the Opposition :
" The bounding the single person is the most proper
thing in debate, and I apprehended we had now been
upon the Chief Magistrate's limitations. It is objected
that men cannot vote unless they know whether there
shall be another House. That objection is made as if
we were constituting a new commonwealth. If that
should be, then, unless you know what power your
single person shall have, how will you declare the power
of the other House, for this will still lie in your way ?
I have not heard that debated yet, whether we are upon
the footing of the Petition and Advice, or on a new
foundation, or on the old Constitution. I think we are
yet to be supposed to be upon the foot of the old Con-
stitution, unless something appears to the contrary.
1 On February 16, a motion was made by Mr. Bulkeley, a supporter
of Richard Cromwell's Government, to accuse Henry Nevil, the well-
known Republican, and author of " Plato Redivivus," of atheism and
blasphemy. The object was to prove Nevill disqualified to sit, the
existing law requiring that members should be " persons fearing God
and of good conversation," and thus to get rid of an Opposition mem-
ber. Many defended Nevill, and objected to such a charge being made
on hearsay : among others Cooper, who said : "A motion of this nature
ought to be made clearly out. To make a man an offender for a word
is hard. Manifest and open offences may be punished with more
severity. I would have the charge clear, that the defence may also
be clear and certain." (Burton, iii. 300.) In the end, after an
animated four hours' debate, the matter was dropped.
154 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VI.
Therefore, I would not have us surprised in a vote.
We may by this put a limitation upon this that we
mean not of, and, instead of bounding the Supreme
Magistrate, be rather bounding the liberty of parlia-
ments." 1
It was decided by an overwhelming majority, 217
to 86, that the question of the other House should be
taken first.
The next day it was resolved without a division that
it should be part of the bill to declare that the Parlia-
ment consisted of two Houses. Then came the question
of the powers of the second House. A discursive debate
arose on this question. Various members of the Oppo-
sition contended for the rights of the old House of Lords,
at any rate for the rights of those of its members who
had not forfeited for delinquency. Some of the Govern-
ment party, by way of avoiding this question, proposed
that it should at once be resolved that the members of
the other House should not be hereditary ; others pro-
posed to take into consideration the powers of the
other House, and to begin with the judicial powers.
Cooper spoke for determining first whether the other
House should consist of the old Lords or of Cromwell's
nominees, before entering into the question of their
powers :
" If you would have us all of one mind, your question
must be as clear as may be. The first question ought
to be, whether there be a right or no : for where there
is a right (in all the actions of a man's life) there is a
duty ; and then matter of convenience or inconvenience
1 Burton, iii. 335, Feb. 18.
1659. SPEECHES ON " OTHER HOUSE/' 155
is out of doors. Two rights are offered to be in being :
one of the old Lords ; the other of the other House, or
new Lords, who have already a vast power in their
hands, and dangerous to the people. Some tell you the
right of one House, some of another. I offer it to you
that it is not fit, and if it may not be dangerous, to
prejudge or preclude either of their rights, before you
agree to the persons. If there be a right, then all their
boundaries must be offered to them, whether they will
pass them or not ; and I have seldom found men in
power to part with it on easy terms. It is therefore
necessary to be decided, how far we are to deliberate
and restrain them in this point. Seeing great rights are
claimed on both sides, let me be satisfied in that point
first, before I can give my vote. The consideration of
the persons is most natural. One while it is argued for
right, pro and con, and persons differ; and then they
fly off to conveniency. Matter of right and conveniency
are two different things. Therefore, now take into con-
sideration these two claims. Consider first whether the
old Lords or new Lords have a right or no, and then go
on to bound them." *
1 Burton, iii. 418, Feb. 22. On the previous day. Cooper had
joined in urging the release from prison of George Villiers, Duke of
Buckingham, on the engagement of his father-in-law, Lord Fairfax.
This Duke, who became very celebi'ated in the next reign, and closely
connected in politics with Shaftesbury, both in the so-called Cabal
ministry and afterwards, had been sent to the Tower by Oliver Crom-
well in August, 1658, as a royalist intriguer ; and he was now a pri'
soner in Windsor Castle. Cooper said he had "not so much as a
correspondence with this person," with whom in the next reign he
was so intimately associated. He urged strongly the claims of Fairfax
on the gratitude and respect of the Parliament. " Let it not be thought,
whatever is in our hearts, that we shall have ingratitude to that
person that offered the petition. The care that Lord Fairfax will have
of him in his family will be beyond all security you can care for. You
may well trust him. " Buckingham was released, on his engagement
on his honour at the bar of the House, and on Lord Fairfax's engage-
ment in 20,000, for his quiet behaviour and abstinence from intrigues
against the Government. (Burton, iii. 370.)
156 LIFE OF SHAJTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
One of the Court party now proposed that the ques-
tion should be, whether the House would transact with
the other House now sitting, as with a House of Parlia-
ment : and on this question a discussion lasted for nine
days. Arthur Annesley, the future Earl of Anglesey, a
leading member of the Presbyterian party, proposed an
addition to the question of a clause saving the rights of
the old Peers. Cooper spoke zealously both against the
proposal to transact and against Annesley's saving
clause :
" As to the old Lords, it is the way to destroy their
rights which you take to pursue them. This is a saving
that destroys the right. You bar their claim utterly by
this, whereas you know not but their claim may come
in more clearly. You make them and their interest
your everlasting enemies. A few new men, but in the
room of old men, what will the nation say? Let us
consider what we can say to posterity. The remaining
part of that famous Long Parliament would in the issue
have rendered their designs famous. Your laws and
liberties are all gone. Two negatives are in one hand.
An army is in your legislature, and 1,300,000/. per
annum for ever. To say that a law made under force
shall be a good law, and binding in reason, is against
all reason. That about the Bill of Sales is but argumen-
tum ad hominem. If our neighbours say we look well,
that will not satisfy; we must examine if we be well.
I have sat sixteen years here, ventured my life and
bought lands, and my friends and interest have done so.
I always hoped, whenever you came to settlement, you
would confirm all these sales. True, a possessory title
of Chief Magistrate was never questioned in Parliament,
but this is upon another foot, the Petition and Advice.
1659. SPEECHES ON " OTHER HOUSE." 157
Now are you satisfied of that claim? Is there that
done that will pass 40/. per annum, and yet are passing
three nations into the hands of some few persons to
them and their heirs for ever ? If there be a necessity
upon us now, where will the necessity be afterwards ?
Where will be our posterity ? You might have had as
good a government three hundred years ago. What are
you at present but a House of Parliament and a single
person? Is there any such difference than when the
Parliament was in 54 ? You must either transact, it is
said, with them, or you must not transact at all. There
is no such need. Are we bound to this or that other
House ? We are not bound. It may be they will sit
without us. I had rather they did so and raised money,
than that we should so bind ourselves as to be but
bailiffs and servants to them. It is but a shoeing-horn
to tell us the right of the old Lords is preserved by this.
I cannot consent to transact, because it is against the
rights of others, the rights of this House, and the rights
of the nation. If you think you have no need of bounds
nor approving, pass your question singly, and then I
am sure you are bound for ever. If you will put it, put
it singly. It shall have my negative." 1
And again :
" It is impossible to save the rights of others, if you
i Burton, iv. 50, March 7. On March 4, Cooper had made a short
speech on the same subject : "I would not have things misrepresented
to the House. I was here last Parliament, and the constitution of the
other House was disputed all along, and their co-ordinate power
denied still, else we had not been so soon dissolved." (iv. 14.) On
February 24, he had made a long speech, on a proposal by Thurloe,
the Secretary, to equip a fleet for support of a mediation by England
in the war between Sweden and Denmark, objecting to leaving the
question in the hands of the Protector and Council, as was proposed,
and claiming the power of peace and war for the Parliament. It was
ultimately referred to the Protector to prepare a fleet, with a proviso,
" saving the interest of this House in the militia and in making of
peace and war." (Burton, iii. 465, 493.)
158 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
own these upon that foot that they are. You cannot alter
one bit of it without their consent. Their number is to
be but seventy. If sixty already, how can that clause
of yours be practised or put in execution ? Now this
may be mended, but when you have once owned them,
you must stay their leisure. If these would give their
places to old Lords, there is one negative upon you still;
so you put two bars before their rights to bring in
the old Lords upon the Petition and Advice : upon that
foot, I should for ever abhor them, and myself for doing
it. Upon this new foot, jou cannot restore them;
though I honour them as much as any man, and wish
they were restored, but rather never see a Lord than
have them on such a foot. I would have the question
put singly, that we may not be surprised in our votes." 1
Almost immediately after this speech, Annesley's pro-
viso was put to the vote, and was carried by a majority of
seven. The main question for transacting was then about
to be put, when the Commonwealth men, seeing how
close the last division had been, called attention to the
Scotch and Irish members, and required that their right
to vote should be inquired into and decided upon before
any further proceedings were taken. The Court party
opposed this, but were obliged to give way ; and it was
not until the twenty-eighth of March that, the right of
the Scotch and Irish members having been affirmed
after very long debates, the question of transacting with
the other House was resumed. 2 Then another proposed
1 Burton, iv. 83, March 8.
2 Cooper had been active in the discussions on the right of the Scotch
and Irish members, doing of course all he could, as an opponent of the
Government, to prevent 'their being recognised. He spoke on March
9, 18, and 22, on this question. On March 9, a motion being made by
Mr. "Rulkeley, during the debate about the Scotch and Irish members,
1659. SPEECHES ON " OTHER HOUSE." 159
addition to the question was discussed, the effect of
which would have been to postpone the transacting with
the other House until it had been approved and bounded
by that House. Cooper supported. this addition.
" I have observed the fortune of the old Peers, that
the saving of their rights is the asserting of the rights
of these, which is the most destructive to them that can
be. It is clearly a putting others in their place, and is
setting up a thing that is quite contrary. The saving
of their rights is the clear proscription of their rights-
You are upon the greatest piece of prerogative that ever
was. At once you give him a whole negative in this
other House. You give him the greatest prerogative
that ever Prince had. While you have an eye to the
other House, you overlook one whole negative, and
reserve but half a negative to yourself. I think that
those additions of bounding and approving do well suit
with the new Constitution, and reach not the old." *
This proposal was rejected, and then the House came
to the main question. Scot now moved to insert the
words " during this present Parliament," and this
to declare any attempt either on the person of the Protector or on the
House to be high treason, Cooper urged the postponement. " I like
the thing very well, but it comes not in seasonably. Be the thing never
so good, it ought not to break in upon this debate. Divert not upon
this question." On March 16, he warmly supported a motion for
releasing Major-General Overton from imprisonment in Jersey, and
annulling the warrant under Cromwell's hand by which he had been
committed in 1655. "I would not only have the warrant voted
illegal, but the causes expressed, that it may appear upon your books,
which will not appear by the warrant. I would have it further added,
as another cause, that he was sent where a habeas corpus will not
reach him. I am clearly of opinion, and all the long-robe at the
Committee of Guernsey are of that opinion, that a habeas corpus
lies not to Jersey. I would have a precedent. The case of Berwick
differs much from it. They are a part of England, and send burgesses
hither." (Burton, iv. 158.)
1 Burton, iv. 284, March 28.
160 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. VI.
motion was supported by Cooper in a long speech,
which was regarded by the Diarist as one against time.
" Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper," he says, " made a long
speech till the House was fuller of those of his party,
and moved to second the motion that they be but for
this Parliament, and would have them bounded in
time." 1 This speech was afterwards printed in full,
and separately published, and, if it was delivered as
printed, was a very elaborate oration, intended to pro-
duce a great effect. It is a very fierce attack on the
existing order of things, on Oliver Cromwell, and on
"the other House;" and some individuals among Crom-
well's Lords are singled out for bitter personality. The
whole speech may be read at the end of the volume : 2
one extract will here suffice :
" What I shall speak of their quality, or anything
else concerning them, I would be thought to speak with
distinction, and to intend only of the major part ; for I
acknowledge, Mr. Speaker, the mixture of the other
House to be like the composition of apothecaries, who
mix something grateful to the taste to qualify their
bitter drugs, which else, perhaps, would be immediately
spit out and never swallowed. So, Sir, his Highness
of deplorable memory to this nation, to countenance as
well the want of quality as of honesty in the rest, has
nominated some against whom there lies no other
reproach but only that nomination ; but not out of any
respect to their quality or regard to their virtues, but
1 Burton, iv. 286. The Diarist remarks that neither Haselrig nor
Vane was in the House on this occasion, but that Haselrig came in at
one o'clock and Vane later. The opponents of the Government had
endeavoured, just before Cooper made his long speech, to obtain an
adjournment of the House for an hour, but had not succeeded.
2 Appendix IV.
SPEECHES ON "OTHER HOUSE." 161
out of regard to the no-quality, the no-virtues of the
rest ; which truly, Mr. Speaker, if he had not done,
we could easily have given a more express name to this
other House than he hath been pleased to do : for we
know a house designed for beggars and malefactors is
a house of correction, and so termed by our law ; but,
Mr. Speaker, setting those few persons aside, who, I
hope, think the nomination a disgrace and their ever
coming to sit there a much greater can we without
indignation think of the rest ? He, who is first in their
roll, a condemned coward; one that out of fear and
baseness did once what he could to betray our liberties,
and now does the same for gain. 1 The second, a person
of as little sense as honesty ; preferred for no other
reason but his no- worth, his no-conscience; except
cheating his father of all he had was thought a virtue
by him, who by sad experience we find hath done as
much for his mother his country. The third, a Cavalier,
a Presbyterian, an Independent ; for the Eepublic, for
a Protector, for everything, for nothing, but only that
one thing money. 2 It were endless, Sir, to run through
them all; to tell you of the lordships of seventeen
pounds a year land of inheritance ; of the farmer lord-
ships, draymen lordships, cobbler lordships, 3 without one
1 Nathaniel Fiennes, second son of Viscount Save and Sele, who had,
in the beginning of the Civil War, surrendered Bristol to the King's
army without making any defence, and had been condemned to death
by a court-martial, but pardoned by the Earl of Essex, the General-in-
ehief. He was now first Commissioner of the Great Seal, and one of
Uichard Cromwell's chief advisers. His father and a younger brother,
J ohn, were also named by Cromwell members of the House of Lords :
the father did not sit.
2 Supposed to be Lord Broghill, after the Restoration created Earl
of Orrery ; a poet and play-writer, as well as a versatile and ambitious
politician.
3 Colonel Pride, one of the lords, had been a brewer, and is said to
have begun as a drayman ; and Colonel Hewson, another lord, had been
a shoemaker.
VOL. I. M
162 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
foot of land but what the blood of Englishmen has been
the price of. These, Sir, are to be our rulers, these the
judges of our lives and fortunes ; to these we are to
stand bare, whilst their pageant lordships deign to give
us a conference on their breeches. Mr. Speaker, we
have already had too much experience how insup-
portable servants are when they become our masters.
All kinds of slavery are miserable in the account of
generous minds ; but that which comes accompanied
with scorn and contempt stirs up every man's indig-
nation, and is endured by none whom nature does not
intend for slaves as well as fortune."
It has been suggested that this speech was too strong
to have been either spoken or at the time published ; l
but there is a multitude of speeches equally strong
reported in the Diary which has been so often quoted ;
and as to publication, there would have been no obstacle
a month later, after Eichard Cromwell's fall ; indeed it
is probably then that the speech was published. As a
composition, the published speech is remarkable ; and,
like the published speeches of Shaftesbury's later career,
it gives manifold proofs of the author's literary ability.
The strong language against Oliver Cromwell, from one.
who had for a time acted with him and been of his
Council, is either revolting inconsistency, or to be taken
as a proof that he had conscientiously given his support
to Cromwell in the hope of obtaining through him a
settlement of the nation under a good government, and
had afterwards conscientiously withdrawn from him,
because unable to approve his measures. It has been
1 By the editors of the old "Parliamentary History."
1659. ABUSE OF CROMWELL AND HIS PEERS. 163
seen that there is no certain knowledge of the causes
of Cooper's separation from Cromwell. It is difficult
to understand how Cooper, with all his changes, could
have ventured to reproach any one else as " a Cavalier,
a Presbyterian, an Independent ; for the Kepublic, for
a Protector, for everything," even though his conscience
acquitted him of liability to be justly assailed in return
with the culminating taunt, "for nothing, but only
that one thing money." Cooper's pecuniary disinterest-
edness could not be called in question. It may be fairly
said that such vehement reproaches could not have
been publicly uttered by one who had been a tool or
flatterer of Cromwell, or under personal obligations to
him, for very many would be eager to retort upon him
and expose his own political changes ; and there is no
sign in the copious reports of the Diary of Cooper's
being twitted by any of his numerous adversaries in the
House with inconsistency or ingratitude. In one of
his speeches in this Parliament he had openly expressed
his regret at Cromwell's violent dissolution of the Eump,
declaring his belief that " the remaining part of that
famous long Parliament would in the issue have ren-
dered their designs famous." /'How easy would it have
been for any Government supporter to reproach him
in reply with having accepted, soon after this disso-
lution, a nomination to the Barebone's Parliament, and
having then again soon after aided in establishing
the Protectorate ! And, had he been so reproached,
how natural a defence that, regretting Cromwell's con-
duct, he had thought it his duty as a good citizen to
give aid in making the best of the situation, and 1 ad
M 2
164 LIFE OF SHAFTESBCJRY. CHAP. VI.
aided Cromwell as long as his conscience permitted,
but no longer !
The additional words proposed by Scot and supported
by Cooper, for limiting the recognition of the other
House to the term of duration of the present Parliament,
were carried ; and after an unsuccessful attempt, which
Cooper also supported, to strengthen the limitation by
further words, " and no longer unless confirmed by Act
of Parliament," the question of transacting with the
other House was at last brought to an issue, and the
following resolution was affirmed on the 28th of March
by 198 votes to 125: "That this House will transact
with the persons now sitting in the other House as a
House of Parliament during this present Parliament,
and that it is not hereby intended to exclude such peers
as have been faithful to the Parliament from their
privilege of being duly summoned as members of
that House."
No sooner had the question of the " other House "
been disposed of, and it had been settled to transact
with them, than Mr. Bulkeley, one of the constant sup-
porters of the Government, proposed, on the twenty- ninth
of March, a bill for settling taxes for the life of Eichard
Cromwell, Protector, and for a certain time after his
death. The proposal was strongly opposed, and by none
more strongly than Cooper. He opposed the introduc-
tion of the bill, but unsuccessfully : a few days later he
. proposed by way of amendment a resolution that after
the end or other determination of the Parliament, no
law of excise should be of force, and no excise should be
levied. His speech on this occasion is thus reported :
1659. REVENUE BILL REFUSED. 165
" Will you settle this revenue, and not in the body
of your government, to see what your money shall go
to support ? It is not yet said what hand you shall
have in anything. Once declare money, they may go
on without you.
"The money [that] is paid already, I would have
you put no discountenance upon it. Make a previous
vote, that after this present parliament none shall pre-
sume to levy this duty. That will keep it afoot this
parliament ; and in the mean time, you may settle it.
Nobody can complain why they want money if we be
dissolved. If you have not time to grant it, and be
willing to it, you are excused.
" I shall offer this previous vote ; and he read it
and put it to the table. He said it was not his own,
but Mr. Nevill's. ' Resolved and declared, that no law
for excise shall be of force, nor excise levied, after the
end or other determination of this parliament.' " l
Such a resolution, but even more extensive in its
terms, applying not only to excise, but also to customs
and all other imposts, was passed without a division ;
and the object of the Government in proposing the bill
was thwarted. The resolution was, that after the ter-
mination of the Parliament no tax of any sort could
be levied under any previous law or ordinance, unless
it had been expressly sanctioned by this House. This
was intended as a check on dissolution, and probably
accelerated it.
Four days later, on the fifth of April, the House
resolved on a declaration for a day of fasting and
humiliation through the three nations; and it was
1 Burton, iv. 324, April 1.
166 LIFE OF SHAJTESBURY. CHAP. VI.
settled after a renewed short discussion about the
" other House/' that its title should be " A Declaration
of the Lord Protector and both Houses of Parliament."
It then became the subject of the first " transaction"
with the "other House;" but not till after much dis-
cussion as to the mode in which the " other House"
should be communicated with, and the appointment of a
committee to consider the forms. The House resolved,
on the recommendation of the committee : 1. " That
such messages as shall be sent from this House to the
other House shall be carried by members of this House;"
and 2. " That such messages as shall be sent from the
other House to this House shall not be received, unless
brought by members of their own number." The second
resolution was carried against the Government by 127
votes to 114. The message was at last sent up on the
fourteenth of April, entrusted to one member, Mr. Grove,
the original mover for a day of fasting. The Diarist
accompanied him to the " other House," and thus reports
what passed this day on that subject :
" I came late and found the House in debate about
Mr. Grove's going to the other House with the De-
claration for the fast. Mr. Grove desired instructions
whether we might stay for an answer. Mr. Bodurda.
It is not rational that he should come away without an
answer. I only know two cases where a messenger
does not stay for an answer : 1. when a herald goes to
proclaim war, 2. when an apparitor comes to serve a
citation ; he claps it upon the door and runs away for
fear of a beating. Mr. Salway. I perceive they are not
sitting in the other House ; most of them are at Wai-
1659. MESSAGE TO " OTHEK HOUSE." 167
ling-ford House. 1 It seems so they were, and not above
four in the House, but they were gathering up their
numbers while we were debating. The question was
put, that Mr. Grove, when he hath delivered his mes-
sage to the persons sitting in the other House shall
return to this House without staying for any answer.
The question was misput ; it ought not to have been
put with a negative in it. Mr. Speaker declared for the
Noes, Mr. for the Yeas, and that the Yeas go out.
Sir Arthur Haslerig and others moved that the Noes
go out, because it was not new, but the Yeas went out.
Yeas, 100, Lord Falkland and Sir Arthur Haslerig,
tellers ; Noes, 144, Mr. Annesley and Sir Coplestone
Bampfield, tellers. So it passed in the negative. Sir
Arthur Haslerig said he had the worst luck in telling
of any man, and so it proved. Mr. Grove, attended by
above fifty members, quorum myself, carried the De-
claration to the other House accordingly. After a little
stay at the door, for the Lords were reading a bill, Mr.
Grove was called in. He and all the members stood
bare, by the walls, while the Lord-keeper Fiennes and
most of the Lords came down to the bar. We made
one leg, and then went up to the high step ; and before
Mr. Grove ascended, we made another leg. He delivered
his message, his verbis, without giving them any title,
for so was the sense of the House. ' The Knights,
Citizens, and Burgesses, assembled in the House of
Commons, have commanded me to present this De-
claration for a public fast to you, wherein they desire
the concurrence of this House.' The Lords were bare
all the time, and we withdrew, with two legs. After a
little stay we were again called in, and ascended the
1 Wallingford House was then the residence of Fleetwood, and a
council of officers constantly met there ; many of the chief officers wore
l^crs. Waltiugford House was on the site of the present Admiralty.
168 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CJ-AP. VI.
step with the same ceremony; all the Lords bare,
sitting in their places, except Lord Fiennes, who was
covered, but who stood up bare and returned their
answer. ' The Lords' and then made a pause, as if
it had been mistaken ' this House will return an
answer to you by messengers of their own/ Where-
upon we withdrew with the same ceremony. It
seems, after we were all gone out, one of the Lords
called to Mr. Grove and told him they desired our
excuse for making us stay so long, for they had read
half the Declaration before they knew that we stayed.
Else they would have despatched us sooner. Mr. Grove
reported this in effect to the House at our return ; only
he left out that passage, that they said ' The Lords'
while we were delivering the message." 1
There was a little discussion the next day as to the
entry to be made in the Journals of Mr. Grove's report.
" Mr. Speaker. I desire to know what part of the
report which Mr. Grove made yesterday you would
have entered in your Journal. The whole narrative
was read. Lord Falkland. If you enter all, you will be
laughed at for your reward. Mr. Grove. If you enter
all, enter also that there was such a crowd that I could
not go in, and had like to have gone without my cloak.
Colonel White. Enter all, save that part of the colloquy
between Mr. Grove and the single member, that being
no act of the other House. Mr. Speaker (and it was
the sense of the House) : Leave it to the Committee
appointed to peruse the Journal, to insert what they
think fit." 2
1 Burton, iv. 426428.
2 Ibid. 434, April 15. The entry in the Journals, April 14, is
short: "Mr. Grove brings answer from the persons sitting in the
1659. WALLINGFORD HOUSE COUNCIL. 169
While the House of Commons was engaged in these
solemn discussions of forms, grave questions of sub-
stance were rapidly developing, comparatively unheeded,
into danger. The gathering of peers at Wallingford
Rouse, noted by the Diarist, was a gathering of the
military Lords hostile to Kichard Cromwell's command
of the army. The many parliamentary victories of the
Government over its Eepublican and Presbyterian op-
ponents availed it nothing; and the fatal blow now
came to Eichard Cromwell from the military magnates,
so numerously represented in the House of Lords, for
which his government had borne so much labour and
odium in the House of Commons. A large party of
officers, headed by Fleetwood and Desborough, had early
shown jealousy of Eichard Cromwell as Commander-in-
chief. The parliamentary Opposition, though generally
vanquished by numbers, had necessarily weakened the
Government ; and as the Government became weaker,
Fleetwood's party became bolder. A general Council
of officers had regularly sat at Wallingford House by
Eichard Cromwell's permission ; and they now passed
resolutions in offensive language, recommending the
transfer of the chief command of the army to some fit-
person in whom they could confide. Fleetwood was the
person designed. There was an understanding between
other House that, in obedience to the commands of this House, he
had delivered to them in the other House the declaration for tho
public fast, for their concurrence thereunto; that a little time after
himself and other the members of this House who accompanied him to
declare his message and went with him into the other House were
withdrawn, they were called in again, and received thts answer from
them in the other House, that they would send an answer by mes-
sengers of their own."
170 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. VI.
the Wallingford House officers and the Eepublican
party, who merged for the time their differences and
mutual distrust in sympathy of opposition to Eichard
Cromwell.
The Protector appealed to the Parliament. After a
warm discussion, on the eighteenth of April, it was
resolved : " 1. That, during the sitting of the Parliament,
there shall be no General Council or meeting of the
officers of the army, without the direction, leave, and
authority of his Highness the Lord Protector and both
Houses of Parliament ; 2. That no person shall have
or continue any command or trust in any of the armies
or navies of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or any the
dominions or territories thereto belonging, who shall
refuse to subscribe, that he will not disturb or inter-
rupt the free meetings in Parliament of any of the
members of either House of Parliament, or their freedom
in their debates and counsels." These votes were sent
up to the other House for their concurrence. The
" Lords " promised to send an answer by messengers of
their own, and resolved by a majority of one to debate
the resolutions offered for their concurrence, Eichard
Cromwell did not wait for the decision of the House of
Lords, but, acting 011 the advice of his Council, ordered
the dissolution of the military Council at Wallingford
House. This, however, was an act of boldness which
he had neither strength of character nor power in the
army to maintain. Fleetwood and Desborough appealed
to force, counted their regiments against Eichard's, and
demanded a dissolution of the Parliament ; and Eichard
had no alternative but to comply.
1659. FALL OF RICHARD CROMWELL. 1?1
On Friday, the twenty-second of April, the House of
Commons met in alarm, and after an uneasy sitting
adjourned to the following Monday. On the evening
of Friday a dissolution was proclaimed ; and the doors
of the House were locked, and guards placed round
the approaches to prevent the members from again
meeting. 1
This was the end alike of Richard Cromwell's Parlia-
ment and of Richard Cromwell's Protectorate.
i Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 631642 ; Sir R. Baker's Chronicle,
p. 641, ed. 1684; Comra. Journ. April 18 22; Burton's Diary, iv.
pp. 448 and sqq. ; Guizot, Protectorat de Richard Cromwell, &c.,
i. 112129.
CHAPTER VII.
16591660.
Restoration of the Rump Parliament, May 7 Committee of Safety
appointed Cooper's election petition for Downton of 1640 referred
to a committee Not seated Cooper elected member of Council of
State Suspicions of him as a Royalist by some colleagues Scot
accuses him of correspondence with Hyde He denies the charge
Cooper rejects Royalist overtures Letter from Monk to Cooper
Distractions of Council and Parliament Sir George Booth's rising
Cooper arrested in Dorsetshire, and accused of complicity with
Booth Council of State and Parliament acquit him Military revo-
lution by Lambert The Rump suppressed, October 13 Committee
of Safety nominated by Lambert and his coadjutors, October 25
Cooper opposes Lambert and the Committee of Safety Monk also
opposes Cooper's narrative from October 25, 1659, to February
6, ]660 Treaty of Monk's Commissioners with Committee of
Safety Attempt to arrest Cooper Overthrow of Committee of
Safety and restoration of Rump Cooper one of five temporary
Commissioners for the Army Prompt measures for dispersing
Lambert's forces Cooper appointed member of new Council of
State Admitted as member for Downton Made colonel of regi-
ment taken from Fleetwood Monk's march to London Monk's
changes of conduct Admission of secluded members, February 26
Cooper commands the guard on their admission Council of
State appointed of Royalists and Presbyterians Cooper one New
Parliament called for April 25 Letter of Montagu to Cooper
Haselrig, Scot, and others offer Monk the crown Monk refuses
False story of Monk aiming to be made king with help of French
Ambassador Lambert's insurrection and defeat by Ingoldsby
Cooper's letter of rejoicing to Montagu Cooper acts with the
Presbyterian leaders for bringing in the King on conditions Meet-
ing of Convention Parliament Monk outstrips the Presbyterians,
and brings in Charles without conditions Cooper one of twelve
commissioners of the Parliament sent to the King at Breda-
Accident on his journey Friendship with John Locke Cooper's
changes during the last twenty years Satires of Butler and Dryden.
THERE were two parties among the officers who had
combined at Wallingford House, under Fleetwood and
1659. RESTORATION OF RUMP. 173
Desborough, to force Richard Cromwell to dissolve the
Parliament. Fleetwood and Desborough themselves
did not design to depose the Protector or abrogate
the Petition and Advice : Fleetwood was husband of
Eichard's sister, and Desborough of his aunt. Their
object was to take away from Eichard the immediate
command of the army, and make Fleetwood commander-
in-chief. But a majority of the officers who met at
Wallingford House were Eepublicans, and wished to
establish a commonwealth, without any single person
at the head having a share in the legislative power.
When the officers assembled, after the forced dissolu-
tion, to deliberate on what was next to be done, this
difference of opinion became manifest. Fleetwood and
Desborough found that they could not stop where
they wished. The Council of officers would not listen
to their pleadings for continuing Eichard Cromwell
as Protector. It was proposed to revive the authority
of that remnant of the Long Parliament whose sittings
Oliver had forcibly discontinued in April 1653. This
proposal found great support outside Wallingford House.
The superior officers of the army in London and its
neighbourhood assembled in St. James's Chapel to
discuss the position of affairs, and Doctor Owen and
other Independent ministers, attending to consecrate
their deliberations by prayer, improved the occasion
by dwelling on the glories of the old Eump. Lambert,
whom Cromwell had deprived of his commission, but
who, though not an officer of the army, had been
deeply engaged in the late cabals of Wallingford House,
and who now received the command of a regiment,
174 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
exerted his powerful influence among the officers to
promote the restoration of the Eump. The inferior
officers declared themselves for this measure. A
petition for the recall of the Eump was presented
from the city. Fleetwood and Desborough were
obliged to yield. A communication was opened with
a few of the most influential members of the Eump.
A committee, of which Lambert was the chief member,
deputed by the officers of Wallingford House, had
several conferences with Vane, Haselrig, Ludlow, and
Salwey, in order to obtain their consent to certain
conditions on which the officers proposed to invite
those members of the Long Parliament who had sat
after the execution of the King and till April 1653,
to resume the sovereign authority. These conditions
were an indemnity for all military and political acts
since the dissolution of the Eump, a liberal provision
for Eichard Cromwell, an effectual reformation of the
Church and the law, and the institution of a senate,
similar to the second House of the Petition and
Advice, for a check on the representative assembly
in making provision for the future government of
the commonwealth. It is clear that four indi-
viduals could not undertake to bind the whole
body ; they objected to the proposal of a senate ; they
promised to use all their influence to procure an
ample indemnity and a decent provision for Eichard
Cromwell, and as to these points they anticipated no
difficulty ; as regarded the reformation of the law
and the Church, the members of the Eump were not
likely to be less zealous than the officers of the armv.
1659. RESTORATION OF RUMP. 175
Ultimately a declaration, inviting those members of
the Long Parliament who had continued to sit after
the execution of Charles the First to resume the
sovereign authority over the three nations, was drawn
up by the council of officers, and presented by Lambert
to Lenthall, the old Speaker. On the seventh of May
Lenthall once more took the chair of the Rump in
the old Parliament House at Westminster, and thus
the power of the army re-established an authority
which, just five years before, the power of the army
wielded by Oliver Cromwell had broken. 1
Forty-two out of about a hundred and sixty members
entitled to sit under the limitation imposed took their
seats in Westminster on the seventh of May. 2 This was
just more than enough to make a House, and as many
as could be mustered in London on so short a notice.
About ninety on the whole in the end took their
seats, Some of the members whom the army had
excluded in 1648 endeavoured, on the first day of
meeting, to enter and sit also, but a military guard
kept them out.
The first care of the new rulers was to appoint a
Committee of Safety, in order to carry on the necessary
duties of administration, and provide against danger
from the Royalists, to whom the late confusions had
1 Lucllow, ii. 642651 ; Sir R. Baker's Chronicle, p. 642.
2 It is Ludlow's statement that there were now 160 members of the
Long Parliament still living of those who had sat after the execution
of the King. (Mem. ii. 645.) But Ludlow is not always accurate,
and this number is possibly an exaggeration. No more than 122 ever
voted between the execution of Charles I. and the ejection of the
Rump in April 1653. See note at p. 91 ; also Hallam's Const.
ii. 325, and Bisset's History of the Commonwealth, i. 23.
176 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
given encouragement. This committee was composed
in nearly equal proportions of officers of the army and
republican members of the House. It consisted of
Fleetwood, Desborough, Lambert, Sydenham, John
Jones, and Berry, officers of the army, and Haselrig,
Vane, Ludlow, Salwey, and Scot : Fleetwood, Sydenham,
and John Jones were also members of the House. This
committee was to continue only until a Council of
State was organized ; and no time was lost in electing
a Council of State.
Cooper, who had so vigorously co-operated with the
Eepublicans in the last two Parliaments, immediately
endeavoured to gain admission to the revived Rump
as a member, on his never- adjudicated petition for
Downton at the beginning of the Long Parliament^,
His case was referred, two days after the Eump was
reconstituted sovereign, together with the case of Lord
Fairfax, to a revived committee for examining the
cases of all members who had not sat since 1648. 1
S 1
But Cooper did not succeed at present in gaining
admission: the reason why is not known. It was
possibly a reason of form, at least ostensibly, and
there were suspicions of Cooper's sincerity as a Re-
publican which may have influenced the adverse
decision. 2 ^
1 Comm. Journ. May 9, 1659.
2 Ludlow, in one of the suppressed passages in the Appendix I.J.
says that the Committee, in Cooper's case, " alleging their powers were
at an end, it was referred to them to search their books,, and state
matter of fact in relation thereto." He also says that Cooper having
many friends in the House, those who suspected him managed to get
the question referred to the Committee, as the best way of putting
him off.
1659. MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF STATE. 1*77
There was no delay in proceeding to appoint a
Council of State, and Cooper was elected a member.
It was first resolved that this conncil should consist
of thirty-one members, twenty-one of whom were to
be members of the House, and ten to be chosen from
without. The House began, on the thirteenth of May,
by electing seven who were not of their body. Lord
Fairfax, Lambert, Desborough, Berry, Bradshaw, Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper, and Sir Horatio Townshend,
were proposed and agreed to without a division. The
remaining twenty-four members were elected by ballot
on the fourteenth and sixteenth. They were Haselrig,
Vane, Ludlow, Fleetwood, Salwey, Morley, Scot,
Wallop, Sir James Harrington (the author of "Oceana"),
Colonels Walton, John Jones, and Sydenham, Algernon
Sydney, Henry Nevill, Chaloner, Downes, Oliver St.
John (Chief Justice), Colonel Thompson, Whitelocke,
Colonel Dixwell, Eeynolds, Berners, Sir Archibald
Johnstone of Warriston, and Sir Robert Honywood.
The last three were not members of the House. The
officers of the army were in a minority in the Council.
The election of Cooper and of Sir Horatio Towns-
hend, a young Norfolk baronet of great possessions,
whose father had been a Cavalier, but who, having
lately come of age, had acted, like Cooper, with the
Republican party in the last two Parliaments of the
Protectors, is said by Ludlow to have surprised and
disconcerted some of their colleagues. They were the
two last proposed of the seven first elected from per-
sons out of the House ; it was at the close of a sitting, 1
1 Comin. Journ. May 13.
VOL. I. X
178 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
and it may be that the House was in some degree
surprised into electing them. " Which two motions,"
says Ludlow, " being upon the rising of the House made
on a sudden, before any could recollect themselves to
speak against them, there being also an unwillingness
to disoblige those of whom there was any hope, were
consented to." 1 Cooper had been proposed by Mr.
Love, a Eepublican, and Townshend by Nevill, who
was unquestionably of the same party. Ludlow further
states that several of the Wallingford House officers
alleged that Cooper and Townshend were "assured
to Charles Stuart's interest, and that they would give
intelligence to him of all that passed," and that they
kept away from the Council by reason of distrust
of these two colleagues ; and that endeavours were
consequently used by some friends of Cooper and
Townshend to persuade them to resign, or at any
rate not to attend the Council. 2 V With Cooper, any
such endeavours, if made, were ineffectual. Ludlow
says that Townshend was persuaded to forbear from
sitting. Cooper, on taking his seat in the Council,
took an oath of fidelity to the Corfimonwealth as con-
stituted, as he had previously taken the engagement
and as later he took it again, and as he had taken oaths
of fidelity to the Constitution under the Protectors;
and whatever suspicions may have been entertained
by some of his colleagues, there is no pretence for
saying that he broke his oath by correspondence with
the exiled Charles or intrigues in his interest.
V
1 No. 3 of Suppressed Passages of Ludlow in Appendix III.
2 No. 4 of Ludlow's Suppressed Passages.
1659. ACCUSED OF ROYALIST INTRIGUES. 179
Thomas Scot, a leading Eepublican member, accused
Cooper and Whitelocke, in the Council, of correspond-
ence with Hyde, the companion in exile and chief
counsellor of Charles. Both indignantly denied the
charge, which Whitelocke says was made on the
authority of " a beggarly Irish friar beyond the seas ;"
and both were believed by the Council. Whitelocke,
himself a sufficiently supple politician, insinuates, as he
records this incident, that Cooper's solemn denial was not
necessarily true. " Sir A. A. Cooper," he says, " made
the highest professions that could be of his innocence,
and the highest imprecations of God's judgments upon
him and his posterity, if ever he had any corre-
spondence with the King or with Sir Edward Hyde or
any of the King's ministers or friends, and his expres-
sions were so high that they bred in some the more
suspicion of him ; but at this time he was believed,
and what followed afterwards is known." 1
There is every reason to believe that Cooper's solemn
denial was true. Eighteen years later, in a letter
written to Charles the Second and appealing to his
gratitude and clemency for release from imprisonment,
he denied all correspondence with the King and his
party before the Kestoration, as solemnly as he now
denied Scot's accusation in the Council of State ; and
how could he venture on a falsehood in this matter to
Charles? "I had the honour," wrote Shaftesbury to
Charles the Second in 1677 from the Tower, "to have a
principal hand in your restoration ; neither did I act in
it but on a principle of piety and honour. I never
1 Whitelocke's Memorials, p. 679, May 18, 1659.
N 2
180 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
betrayed, as your Majesty knows, the party or councils
I was of. I kept no correspondence with, I made no
secret addresses to your Majesty ; neither did I
endeavour to obtain any private terms or articles for
myself or reward for what I had done or should do."
Published letters of Eoyalist agents, the best possible
witnesses, prove that on the very eve of the Eestoration,
when Cooper's part was decidedly taken, and he was
acting with the Presbyterians to bring in the King, he
was working independently of the Eoyalists, and in a
manner which did not satisfy them. Lord Willoughby
wrote to Hyde, February 24, 1660: "Sir William
Waller and Sir Anthony are his Majesty's fast friends,
but whether the Presbyterians will not be high in
them, as to the proposals when they come to be made,
is the only doubt." 1 Brodrick, a very active Eoyalist
agent, wrote about the same time that he perceived no
desire in Cooper to be mentioned to Hyde as offering
services, such as he was empowered to offer from Charles
Howard, the future Earl of Carlisle, and from Sir
Eobert Howard. 2
At this time, a twelvemonth before the Eestoration,
immediately after the fall of Eichard Cromwell, Cooper
separated himself from the general Presbyterian body
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 689.
2 Ibid. 681, Feb. 26, 1660. Brodrick wrote under the assumed name
of Hancock ; and after suggesting that power should be given to
Charles Howard and Robert Howard to make promises to Monk
and his party, he adds : " Sir A. A. Cooper endeavours the same way
earnestly, but I do not perceive any desire in him to be mentioned
by Hancock." Mr. Hallam has fallen into error in speaking of
Sir Anthony as a correspondent of Hyde (Const. Hist, of England,
ii. 378, note) ; the letter in the Clarendon State Papers which he
refers to was written by another Cooper, a Royalist agent.
1659. REPELS ROYALIST OVERTURES. 181
to promote the new republic, as he had separated him-
self before from his Presbyterian friends to sign the
engagement, enter the Barebone's Parliament, and take
office under the Protectorate. When the leading Pres-
byterians generally discountenanced the Eepublicans,
and were looking to Charles in exile, and many of
them were joining to prepare the movement which soon
ended in Sir George Booth's abortive rising, it was
very natural that there should be suspicions of Cooper
among the Eepublicans, and hopes of him among the
Eoyalists ; and these hopes again would increase the
suspicions. Cooper was the only Presbyterian in the
Council. Townshend was the young heir of a deceased
Eoyalist. Published letters of Eoyalists again give
aid to prove that Cooper disappointed royalist hopes
and rejected royalist overtures. Brodrick wrote to
Hyde, on May 23, that Cooper had engaged to raise
three or four hundred horse in Dorsetshire for a con-
templated rising for the King, but had not yet left
London. 1 Now this Brodrick is described by Lord
Mordaunt, the King's best agent, in a letter written
June 7, as a very indiscreet and dangerous person, and
given to drink. Brodrick's statement about Cooper was
probably an exaggeration of his own hopes : for Mor-
daunt having been asked by Hyde whether he continued
to have a good opinion of Cooper, replied, June 16 :
" Sir A. A. Cooper is rotten, and. sits ; he never knew
he had a letter, being shy when taxed by Sir George
Booth." 2 Thus we learn that the King had been led by
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 478.
2 Ibid. 488, 490.
182 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. YIT.
his agents in London to write Jiimself to Cooper, and a
subsequent letter of Hyde gives information of Cooper's
refusal. " I am sorry," Hyde wrote to Lord Mordaunt,
July 3, " Sir A. A. Cooper hath so much disappointed
your expectations, which no doubt is not for the reason
he gives, for he is too wise to think it possible that the
King would write to any subject to assist hirn, whose
estate he had given away as forfeited, nor doth he
believe himself a delinquent of that magnitude." 1 It
is clear enough that Cooper repelled or evaded the
royalist overtures, and would not encourage Sir George
Booth. By " Sir A. A. Cooper is rotten, and sits," was,
of course, meant that Cooper was good for nothing, and
sat in the Council of State. 2
The following letter was written by Monk, who
was at this time Commander-in-chief of the forces in
Scotland, to Cooper, as a member of the Council of
State, early in June, and it is interesting as being the
beginning of their intercourse, and as showing that
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 512.
2 Mr. Martyn, who says that he follows Stringer, states most
erroneously that Cooper never sat in this Council. Martyn refers also
in support of his statement to a tract called " England's Confusion,"
printed in the Somers Tracts (vol. vi. p. 521), by which he says it
appears that neither Sir A. A. Cooper nor Sir H. Townshend ever sat
or acted in the Council. But the tract does not say so ; it describes
all the members of the Council abusively, except Cooper and Town-
shend, saying of the latter that he was "a gentleman of too good
estate to be hazarded with such a crew," and of Cooper that he was
"a gentleman too wise and honest to sit in such company." Town-
shend probably never sat in the Council ; Cooper did. The Minutes
of this Council preserved in the State Paper Office begin only on
August 11. TJien Cooper was absent from the Council, in Dorsetshire,
and afterwards he was charged with having abetted Sir George Booth's
rising. But after he was acquitted of this accusation he attended the
Council constantly till the revolution made by Lambert and Fleetwood
in October ; and there is no doubt that Cooper had frequently sat in
the Council between May and August.
1659. LETTER OF MONK. 183
Monk regarded Cooper as an active and influential
member of the Council. Similar letters were written by
Monk to other members of the Council and to the
Speaker, who read the letter received by him to the
House : l
" HONOURABLE SIR, It is some trouble to me that,
the first time I should have occasion to write to you, it
must be to request a favour at your hands. But I hope
you will please to pardon this my incivility and bold-
ness, and place me in the list of your friends ; for I can
assure you I shall be as ready to serve you as any friend
you have. Understanding that there is a committee
appointed by Parliament for the presenting of officers to
be continued in the several regiments in England, Scot-
land, and Ireland, and knowing the officers here were,
upon the first motion, most desirous that the Long
Parliament might be recalled to return to their former
station, I make it my request to you, that you will be
assisting that there may be no alteration amongst the
officers belonging to the forces here ; for I shall desire
you to find credit herein, that you may be confident
that there is not any you can employ will be more
ready to serve the Commonwealth than they. But in
case my request for the whole cannot be granted, I shall
entreat that the officers of my own regiment of horse
and foot, and Colonel Talbot's regiment (a list whereof
1 Comm. Journ. June 9, 1659. Sir A. Haselrig was commissioned
to prepare an answer, which may be read in the Journals, June 10.
The answer was rather curt, but, though compliance was not promised,
Monk's desire was in fact complied with, the Parliament and the
Council attaching great importance to his support. Mr. Martyn says
that Cooper's exertions in Monk's favour caused jealousy, and led
to his being accused by Scot in the Council of holding correspondence
with the King and Hyde. (Life, i. 204.) But Scot s accusation was
prior to the date of Monk's letter.
184 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY, CHAP. VII.
I have sent enclosed), may be continued : they have
usually quartered nearest me ; and so are best known to
me. I shall also desire you will acquaint as many
members of the House as you shall think fit to engage
in this business, by doing which you will very much
oblige,
" Your humble servant,
" GEORGE MONK.
"Dalkeith, 4th June, 1659.
" For the Hon. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
" One of the Council of State, at Whitehall."
Cooper apart, the -new Council was a discordant
body; and divisions and jealousies soon appeared among
the army party and Eepublicans, both in Council and
Parliament, which strengthened royalist hopes, and
led in a few months to another military subjugation by
Lambert. The weak and distracted state of the Council
and the Parliament, in the month of June, is graphically
described in two royalist letters printed in the Claren-
don State Papers. " The confusions now," writes Major
Wood, June 3, 1659, " are so great that it is not to be
credited ; the chaos was a perfection in comparison of
our order and government ; the parties are like so many
floating islands, sometimes joining and appearing like a
continent, when the next flood or ebb separates them
that it can hardly be known where they will be next." 1
A more particular account of the divisions in the
Council at this time is given in a letter of June 7 from
Lord Mordaunt, who describes the members as follow.
1. John Jones, Fleetwood, and Berry, for restoring
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 479.
1659. SIR GEORGE BOOTH'S RISING. 185
Pdchard Cromwell; 2. Salwey, Vane, Lambert, and
Haselrig for the Petition and Advice and an execu-
tive of seven Haselrig, however, not always with
the three others, and he and Salwey more Presby-
terians than anything else; 3. Ludlow, Nevill, Sir
James Harrington, and Mildmay, Eepublicans, "who
lead the House as to plurality of voices," but want
interest in the army ; 4. Overton, R Fox, and Fifth
Monarchy men. 1
Extensive preparations were made by the royalist
party for a general rising in England and Wales on
the first of August: the Presbyterian gentry entered
largely into the project, and it was the policy of the
Royalists to give prominence to the Presbyterian
element. Shortly before the first of August, Charles
moved secretly from Brussels to Calais, in order to
be ready to cross if the rising succeeded. But the
Council of State obtained timely knowledge of the
design, and prevented risings in many parts of the
country. Several who had undertaken to move failed
at the last moment. The principal rising was in
Cheshire, under Sir George Booth, and the Parliament
despatched a force under Lambert, by whom Booth
was easily defeated.
Shortly after this unsuccessful rising, Cooper was
arrested in Dorsetshire by a Major Dewey on suspicion
of correspondence with Sir George Booth. The arrest
was on a statement by a boy from Wales, named
Nicholas, that he had carried a letter to Cooper from
Sir George Booth. Major Dewey wrote to the Council
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 483.
186 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIT.
of State on August 21, reporting the arrest of Cooper
and the statement of the boy Nicholas. The Council
reported the matter to the Parliament, which approved
of Dewey's proceedings, and directed the Council to
institute an investigation. The Council then ordered
Dewey to release Cooper, and wrote to Cooper desiring
his attendance. They appointed a committee to con-
duct the inquiry, which consisted of the following
members : Whitelocke, Bradshaw, Sir Henry Vane,
Walton, Morley, Salwey, Johnstone of Warriston,
Nevill, Desborough, Sir James Harrington, Downes,
Eeynolds, Chaloner, Haselrig, Berners, and Berry.
This committee reported to the Council, and the
Council, on September 1.2, unanimously resolved:
"That it be humbly reported to the Parliament that
upon the examination taken before the Council or
otherwise, in the business of Sir A. A. Cooper, referred
to the examination of the Council by order of Par-
liament, it doth not appear to them that there
is any just ground of jealousy or imputation upon
him, and Mr. Neville is desired to make this report."
The Parliament adopted the report of the Council
without a division. The members present in the
Council who unanimously acquitted Cooper, were Sir
H. Vane (chairman), Colonel Thompson, Berners,
Johnstone of Warriston, Nevill, Walton, Sydenham,
Haselrig, Scot, Dixwell, Bradshaw, Desborough, Fleet-
wood, and Downes. 1 The Committee was so composed
1 Minutes of the Council of State in the State Paper Office from
August 25 to September 12, 1659. M. Guizot, who had not seen these
Minutes, has hazarded an assertion that Cooper, though acquitted, was
justly accused : "Accuse abon droit de complicite dans 1'iusurrection,
1659. DISSENSIONS OF PARLIAMENT AND ARMY. 187
that its verdict, adopted unanimously by the Council
and the Parliament, may be taken as an entire acquittal
of Cooper. Ludlow, carried away by his bitter feeling,
has given an unfair account of the judgment, stating
that " upon examination of a boy which brought, as was
supposed, a letter from Sir George Booth before his
rising, to Sir A. A. Cooper, it was found that he dis-
missed the boy with much civility, in token of con-
senting to what was done." 1 This may have been the
evidence on which he was accused, but the acquittal
was entire and unqualified.
Lambert's easy victory over Sir George Booth was,
within two months, followed by another easy victory
of Lambert over the Parliament itself. The Eump
failed, as Eichard Cromwell and his Parliament had
failed, to satisfy the demands of the army and its
officers. The Eump, immediately after its restoration,
had, on the indication of the officers of the army,
appointed Fleetwood commander-in-chief, but limited
his commission to one year ; and instead of authorizing
him to issue commissions to the officers nominated
by the Parliament, they resolved that the commissions
should be signed by the Speaker, and that the officers
should come to the House to receive them from his
hands. The army had submitted to these arrange-
ments, but most reluctantly. Soon after the suppres-
sion of Sir George Booth's insurrection of August, fifty
Sir Antoine Cooper, sur le rapport de Nevil, fut declare innocent."
(Protectorat de K. Cromwell et Retablissement des Stuart, i. 211.)
There is no known evidence on which to dispute the justice of the
acquittal.
1 No. 5 of Suppressed Passages of Ludlow in Appendix III.
188 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VI T.
officers of the brigade which had served under Lam-
bert's orders, met at Derby and prepared a memorial
praying that Fleetwood should be made commander-
in-chief of the army without limitation of time, Lambert
major-general, Desborough lieutenant-general of the
horse, and Monk major-general of the foot, and that
no officer of the army should be dismissed from his
command except by a court-martial. The memorialists
complained that the Parliament had not shown enough
energy in suppressing the late rebellion, and had not
sufficiently punished those engaged in it or sufficiently
rewarded those who had suppressed it ; and they pressed
for settlement of the government in a representative
assembly and a senate. The memorial came to the
knowledge of Haselrig, who immediately brought it
before the House, and moved that Lambert and some
others should be seized and sent to the Tower. This
motion was not persevered in ; but a resolution was
passed, " that to have any more general officers in the
army than are already settled by the Parliament is
chargeable and dangerous to the Commonwealth;"
and by another resolution Fleetwood was charged " to
communicate the order of this House to the officers
of the army, and to admonish them of their irregular
proceeding, and to take care to prevent any further pro-
ceedings therein by the soldiers." 1 A council of officers
now met at Wallingford House, where great anger
was expressed, and it was resolved to prepare an address
to the Parliament which should not be open to the
objections made against the former memorial. This
1 Comm. Journ. Sept. 23.
1659. LAMBERT'S MILITARY REVOLUTION. 189
address was presented by Desborough and other
officers on the first of October ; and the House took
it into consideration. They were proceeding with the
consideration of it, when, on the twelfth of October,
Colonel Okey communicated a letter which he had
received, signed by Lambert, Desborough, and seven
other officers, inviting him to get signatures to the
address among the soldiers of his regiment. This
roused the indignation of the Commonwealth party.
They had just received intelligence that Monk favoured
the Parliament against the army. Encouraged by this
news, they determined to proceed vigorously. The
doors of the House were ordered to be locked, and
votes were passed depriving Lambert, Desborough, and
the other officers who had signed the letter to Okey
of their commission, revoking Fleetwood's commission
as commander-in-chief, and placing the government of
the army in seven commissioners, Fleetwood, Ludlow,
Monk, Haselrig, Walton, Morley, and Overtoil. There
had lately been much suspicion of Lambert that he
designed to make himself Protector, or even King, and
it was probable that, when the House met the next
day, a motion would be carried to send him to the
Tower. 1
The next day Lambert filled the approaches to the
House with soldiers, and prevented the meeting of the
1 Carte's Collection of Letters, ii. 203, 225, 246, 265. These letters
of royalists mention that Lambert was distrustful and jealous of Fleet-
wood, that Vane and Thurloe favoured Lambert's ambition, and that
Fleetwood was believed to be inclined to restore Charles. Hyde,
writing to Ormond, says he had heard that Lambert was saved from
the Tower by only three voices (p. 265).
190 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VII.
Parliament. During the thirteenth and fourteenth the
rival troops of Lambert and the Parliament stood in
hostile attitude in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Parliament House in Westminster, but no collision
occurred, and Lambert triumphed without bloodshed
or even a blow. 1
The friends of the Parliament mustered strong in the
Council on the afternoon of the fourteenth, Lambert,
Desborough, and Berry being absent, and it was re-
solved, " That those persons that do exercise the chief
power and command in the army, and all others con-
cerned, be ordered to withdraw the guards about the
Parliament House and Westminster and parts adjacent,
to the end the Speaker and members of Parliament
may return to the free exercise of the legislative power
and their duty." The Council met again next morning,
when the serjeant-at-arms reported that he had given
the order of the day before to the Council of officers,
"and delivered it to the Lord Lambert, General Des-
borough, Colonel Berry, and Lord Fleetwood, and, being
withdrawn, was again called in and had this answer,
that they had received the order of the Council and
would take a convenient time to consider of it." 2
When this report was given, the Parliament had been
1 There is a very valuable and interesting letter of Mordaunt in
Carte's Collection, ii. 244, describing the positions and proceedings of
the opposed troops with much minuteness.
2 Minutes of Council of State in State Paper Office, October 13-15.
M. Guizot is in error in describing the order of the Council of State of
the 14th for Lambert's forces to retire as a compromise of the Parlia-
ment party with Lambert. (Protectorat de Richard Cromwell, &c.
i. 228.) He also in the same passage erroneously describes the Parlia-
ment party as acquiescing in the result : some Republicans gave in to
Lambert, others stood out against him.
1659. OPPOSES LAMBERT. 191
vanquished and the military revolution was complete.
The Council adjourned to the afternoon, when Fleet-
wood was present, and it was then proposed that, in
consequence of the condition of affairs, the Council
should adjourn till the end of November. This pro-
posal was negatived.
Cooper was present at these meetings of the Council
of State of the fourteenth and fifteenth of October, and
in this conjuncture he stood by the Council of State
and by the Rump against Lambert and his party. The
Council of State continued to hold sittings till the twenty-
fifth, when a new Committee of Safety superseded it :
but Cooper did not sit again after the afternoon of the
fifteenth ; nor did Haselrig, Bradshaw, Walton, or Nevill.
Bradshaw, the celebrated President of the High Court
of Justice which tried and sentenced Charles the First,
died a few days afterwards, having attended the council
in spite of illness to protest against the military revolu-
tion. Scot and Eeynolds appear to have attended the
council till it ceased to sit on the twenty-fifth ; but
they opposed Lambert. Vane, Salwey, and Harrington
left the Republican party on this occasion, and sided
with Lambert and the new Committee of Safety.
Lambert and the officers acting with him had, indeed,
on the thirteenth of October, immediately after the inter-
ruption of the Parliament, nominated a rival temporary
Council of State, consisting of ten persons, Fleetwood,
Lambert, Whitelocke, Vane, Desborough, Harrington,
Salwey, Berry, Sydenham, and Johns tone of Warring-
ton. These, however, continued to attend the sittings
of the old Council of State till it expired on the twenty-
192 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
fifth. The council of officers had also, on the thirteenth,
appointed Fleetwood commander-in- chief of the army,
Lambert major-general, Desborough commissary-general
of the horse, and Fleetwood, Lambert, Yane, Des-
borough, Ludlow, and Berry commissioners for the nomi-
nation of all officers of the army. 1 On the twenty-sixth
of October, they nominated a Committee of Safety of
twenty-three members, viz. Whitelocke (who was made
keeper of the Great Seal), Fleetwood, Lambert, Des-
borough, Steel (Chancellor of Ireland), Vane, Ludlow,
Sydenham, Salwey, Walter Strickland, Berry, Law-
rence, Harrington, Johnstone of Warriston, Alder-
man Ireton, Tichborn, Hews on, Clark, Bennet, Colonel
Lilburne, Holland, Henry Brandriff, and Eobert
Thomson, and they at the same time published a
declaration, in which they pronounced all the votes
of the Eump Parliament passed on and after
the tenth of October to be null and void, proclaimed
their desire to give full liberty to all the people of Eng-
land, to make a complete reformation of the law, and to
maintain a faithful ministry by some better means than
tithes, and declared that they had no intention of
setting up a military or arbitrary government, but that,
having appointed in the first instance a Committee of
Safety, they designed to prepare a suitable form of
government without a single person, kingship, or House
of Lords. 2
Cooper was now, with some other members of the
displaced Council of State, indefatigable to overturn the
1 Sir R. Baker's Chronicle, p. 661.
2 Ibid. p. 662 ; Ludlow, ii. 715.
1659. MONK AGAINST LAMBERT. 193
new Committee of Safety and restore the power of the
Eump. There acted with him of the late Council Scot,
Haselrig, Colonels Morley, Beynolds, and Walton,
Wallop, Nevill, and Berners.
The hopes of Lambert and Fleetwood soon received
a heavy blow from Monk, who commanded the army in
Scotland; he announced decided hostility to the revo-
lution. They had hastened after the event to seek the
support of Monk; and he replied in terms of strong
disapproval. Monk wrote at the same time to the
Speaker, declaring his intention to expose himself and
his army to the utmost hazards for the restitution of
the Parliament. He immediately proceeded to prepare
his army to move. The Committee of Safety sent off
Colonel Talbot and Dr. Clarges, Monk's brother-in-law,
to Monk, to endeavour by explanations to persuade him
to come to terms with them ; and shortly after, in orde^
to be prepared for the failure of these negotiators, the}
despatched Lambert to the North with a force of 12,000
horse and foot. Talbot and Clarges arrived at Edin-
burgh on the second of November. Monk accepted the
proposal to treat, and appointed Major Knight, Lieut.-
Colonel Clobery, and Colonel Wilks commissioners
for this purpose. He instructed his commissioners to
insist on the restoration of the Parliament ; but if the
members should refuse to sit, then, and then only, he
authorized them to discuss some other form of govern-
ment. The commissioners proceeded to York to treat
with Lambert, and, on finding that he had no power
to treat for the restitution of the Parliament, they went
on to London. There the terms of a treaty were soon
VOL. i. o
194 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
arranged by them with Fleetwood in disregard of
Monk's instructions as to the restoration of the Par-
liament. This treaty was concluded on the fifteenth
of November, and provided for the meeting on the
second of December of a general Council nominated
from the army and fleet to determine a new form of
government, and for the prompt summoning of a new
Parliament according to whatever might be the reso-
lutions of the proposed general Council.
The day after Monk's commissioners had made the
arrangement with the Committee of Safety, Cooper and
Haselrig had a meeting with them and endeavoured to
persuade them to recede, but entirely without success.
Cooper has himself narrated the course of events
and his own active proceedings from the establish-
ment of the Committee of Safety on the twenty-
fifth of October to the sixth of February, 1660, when
the Eump, which had in the meantime been restored on
the twenty-sixth of December, admitted the secluded
Presbyterian members, and made the way clear /or a
new Parliament and the restoration of Charles./ It is
only a fragment of a narrative which remains, both
beginning and ending in the middle of a sentence. It
is clear from internal evidence that this narrative was
composed or refashioned after the Eestoration ; it may
be another portion of the Autobiography of Shaftes-
bury's old age. 1
1 Clarges is always called Sir Thomas Clarges in the narrative : and
he was knighted by Charles at Breda, in May, just before the Restora-
tion. The tone with regard to Monk is hardly what would have been
Cooper's tone at the time of these events or very soon after : and the
general tone of the narrative is that of justification for posterity.
1659. HIS OWN NAKRATIVE. 195
"[General Monk was commander-in-chief 1 ] in Scot-
land, and expected no great good to himself from so great
a change, acted without the least communication with
him. He, therefore, to secure himself and his interest,
forthwith new-models his army, cashiers such officers as
he suspected, and puts in their room absolute creatures
of his own; with this army he marches towards the
borders of England, and is there faced by a stronger
army under the command of General Lambert, but
neither of them being willing to put all to a venture,
they remained in that posture whilst General Monk
sends three officers, Colonels Wilks, Clobery, and
Knight, to General Meetwood and the rest of the Com-
mittee of Safety at Westminster, to treat with them,
and to know what terms they might expect from them.
" In the meanwhile, myself and some others that
were of that Council of State which was turned out by
Lambert, constantly and privately met, turning every
stone to recover our lost power, and hearing of these
Commissioners sent up from General Monk, Sir Arthur
Haselrige and I, after several attempts, at last procured
a meeting from them at the Fleece Tavern, in Covent
Garden, where at first they told us they had the day
before made a full agreement with General Fleetwood
and, therefore, were not then capable of answering any
of our expectations ; but we laid before them the great
uncertainty their General underwent in joining with
these men, the best he could expect was to be gently
This fragment of a narrative I have found among the papers at St.
Giles; but it is not in Shaftesbury's handwriting. Mr. Martyn has
given a paraphrase of it in his Life (i. 209230), but he has inter-
woven some errors. A similar account also is given in Locke's Frag-
ment of a Memoir, with some variations, errors, and interesting addi-
tions, all most likely arising out of conversations with Shaftesbury
and Stringer.
1 The words in brackets are supplied, as indicated by the context,
to complete the first sentence.
o 2
196 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VII.
laid aside, and then ruined with some more artifice and
caution than other men ; that if, on the other hand, he
declared for the restoring of the Parliament, he was
fully assured to be generalissimo of all their forces,
neither had he any competitor. Besides, we told them
our cause was not so desperate, for we had a great cor-
respondence and interest with the inferior officers and
common soldiers of every troop and company they had
in their army about London. Besides, we had Ports-
mouth at our devotion, and Sir Charles Coote had
assured us of six thousand men out of Ireland upon the
first notice ; Vice- Admiral Lawson, who commanded
the fleet now in the mouth of the river, was our firm
friend ; and that my Lord Fairfax, who had the greatest
interest of any man amongst the soldiers, utterly ab-
horred the present proceedings. Upon these discourses
we found Clobery and Knight very glad that there was
so fair a prospect of a better way than they were in,
and assured us they would do their best to cause
General Monk to break off the treaty, to refuse the
terms offered, and to declare for restoring the Parlia-
ment. But Colonel Wilks persisted.
"Whilst these Commissioners were returning to Monk,
we were not idle, but Sir Arthur Haslerig and Colonel
Morley went to Portsmouth, which town I had under-
taken to them should be delivered into their hands, the
Governor, Colonel Whetham, being my friend and very
long acquaintance. I was left with a commission for
general of those forces we expected every day should
revolt from them about London. 1 This matter was not
carried so secretly, but that some uncertain and dark
1 Substantially the same story is told in Locke's fragmentary Me-
moir, and it is there mentioned that Shaftesbury "would often tell it
laughing that, when he had his commission, his great care was where
to hide it." (Works, ix. 275.)
1659. HIS OWN NAKEATIVE. ] 97
discourse of it came to the Committee of Safety. So
that Colonel Cook was sent by General Fleetwood to
bring me prisoner to him, which he did, using me very
civilly, as also did the General himself, who was natur-
ally an obliging man. I quickly found upon discourse
with him that they were in a mistake, and apprehended
I was to command the forces in the West against them,
which I assured him upon my word and honour was not
so. Then the General demanded of me my word that
I would act nothing to their prejudice, which I refused
to give, declaring that I was of the Council of State,
and greatly trusted by the Parliament whom they had
turned out, and resolved to do all I could for their
restitution ; that they might give losers leave to speak,
since they were well assured we had no power to act
anything with ; the army was wholly at their devotion ;
and they could not find, perhaps, another way to lose it
than by using me and others of their old friends and
commanders scurvily ; that I knew their apprehension
of me lay in the West, because of the interest I had
there ; that, being their prisoner, and to obtain my
liberty, I would give him my parole not to depart the
city without his leave. This the General accepted, and
I was released ; but before the next day they had better
intelligence, and gave order for the reseizing me at
any rate, which was executed accordingly, 1 and at ten
1 There is an error here in Locke's narrative : he describes Lambert
as coming in to the Committee of Safety after Fleetwood had released
Cooper on his parole, and pressing for his arrest. Lambert was at this
time in the North with his army, watching Monk. Martyn also
erroneously places Lambert in London at the time of the restoration of
the Rump. Locke tells an amusing minute story of the attempt to
arrest Cooper, which he would probably have derived from Shaftesbury
himself, and which may be true : " Sir A. A. coming home to his
house in Street in Covent Garden, one evening, found a man
knocking at his door ; he asked his business : the man answered, it was
with him, and fell a discoursing with him. Sir A. A. heard him out,
and gave him such an answer as he thought proper, and so they
198 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
o'clock at night a party of soldiers broke suddenly into
my house, frighted my wife and my only child, lying-
then sick of the small-pox ; broke open all the trunks,
boxes, and closets, ran their swords into the hangings,
but lost their labour, and found me not, I being upon
notice removed some minutes before, and continued
unknown and secret in the city, until, by the assistance
of several officers that were of our party, I had got the
Tower delivered into my hands ; and all the army they
had about London, both horse and foot, drawn up in
rank and file in Lincoln's Inn Fields (without their field-
officers and captains), declaring all for the restoration
of the Parliament, which the Monday following was
restored in triumph ; and one of the first things they
did that day was to appoint me and some others Com-
missioners for the present command of their army and
forces. Whereupon I, with the other Commissioners,
1 caused several clerks to be set to work, and that night
parted ; the stranger out of the entry where they stood into the
street, and Sir A. A. along the entry into the house ; but guessing by
the story the other told him that the business was but a pretence, and
that his real errand he came about was something else, when he parted
from the fellow he went inwards, as if he intended to go into the
house, but, as soon as the fellow was gone, turned short, and went out,
and went to his barber's which was but just by; where he was no
sooner got in, and got upstairs into a chamber, but his door was beset
with musketeers, and the officer went in too with others to seize him ;
but not finding him, they searched every corner and cranny of the
house diligently, the officer declaring he was sure he was in the house,
for he had left him there just now ; as was true, for he had gone no
further than the corner of the Half Moon Tavern, which was just by,
to fetch a file of soldiers that he had left there in the Strand out of
sight, whilst he went to discover whether the gentleman he sought
were within or no ; where doubting not to find him safely lodged, he
returned with his myrmidons to his house, sure, as he thought, of his
prey ; but Sir A. A. saw through his made story, and gave him the
slip. After this he was fain to get out of the way and conceal himself
under a disguise ; but he hid himself not lazily in a hole ; he made
war upon them at Walliugford House, incognito as he was, and made
them feel him, though he kept out of sight." (Locke's Works, ix.
277.)
1659. HIS OWN NARRATIVE. 199
dispatched orders, and sent them to every field-officer
in Lambert's army; wherein, after a preamble of the
miraculous restoration of the Parliament, and the return-
ing of the London army to their duty, they were required
upon pain of cashiering immediately to march the regi-
ments to such quarters and posts as were therein assigned
them, which were carefully designed far enough distant
from each other or from the place wherein they then
lay. Those orders had their effect, and Lambert's army
vanished in an instant, not one entire regiment disobey-
ing the order. The same order we sent that night to
every county in England and place where their single
and dispersed troops lay, such as were not in regiments,
and therefore we ventured .the boldlier, and required
them instantly to disband, and sent orders and autho-
rities to some confiding persons that were near, to see it
done. These also had the effect we intended, so great
was the consternation upon this sudden and unexpected
revolution."
Though Shaftesbury, writing from his own point of
view, may make himself a little too prominent and
important, this account contains nothing at variance
with other published accounts of authority; what he
says of his own proceedings is indeed substantially con-
firmed by other statements, and several confirmatory
additions may be made to this narrative. Cooper's and
Haselrig's fruitless conference at the Fleece Tavern, in
Covent Garden, with Monk's commissioners, was on the
sixteenth of November ; and on the nineteenth he and
eight other members of the late Council of State wrote
to Monk, thanking him for his opposition to the Com-
mittee of Safety and support of the late Parliament,
200 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
and assuring him of their zealous co-operation. 1 A few
days later, the same nine, acting always as the Council
of State, passed a commission constituting Monk com-
mander-in-chief of the forces of England and Scotland.
The eight who thus acted with Cooper have been already
named : Scot, Haselrig, Colonels Morley, Eeynolds, and
Walton, Wallop, Nevill, and Berners. Cooper, Scot,
Berners, and Weaver addressed a long letter to Fleet-
wood, bearing date December 16, and soon after printed,
in which they boastingly owned an unsuccessful attempt
to get possession of the Tower ; declared that they had
acted " by authority from the Council of State, who at
the passing of that resolve had the sole legal power from
the Parliament of ordering, directing, and disposing of
all the garrisons and forces of this Commonwealth, both
by sea and land," and resented the endeavour to arrest
Cooper. 2 Cooper (}id secure the Tower eight days later,
on the twenty-fourth. " The Speaker," says Whitelocke,
"with Cooper, Reynolds, Weaver, and Berners, went
to the Lord Mayor, and discoursed with him and
the Sheriffs touching the Parliament's meeting again
speedily, and found them to like well of it ; from him
they went to the Tower, and secured that." 3 Clarendon
describes the surprise and grief of the Committee of
Safety when they heard of the defection of Admiral
Lawson, who brought his squadron into the Thames,
and declared for the Parliament. " It broke," he says,
"the heart of the Committee of Safety:" they sent
1 The substance of the letter is given in Baker's Chronicle, p. 673.
Scot signed it first of the nine, as President.
2 This letter is printed in Appendix IV.
s Memorials, p. 691, December 24, 1659.
1659. TEMPOKAEY COMMISSIONER FOR ARMY. 201
down Vane and two other intimate friends of Lawson,
to remonstrate with him ; and these, " when they came
to the fleet, found Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and two
others, members of Parliament, who had so fully pre-
possessed him, that he was deaf to all their charms, and
told them that he would submit to no authority but
that of the Parliament." 1 A doggrel ballad of the time,
which celebrated the fall of the Committee of Safety,
recognises Cooper as one of those who chiefly contri-
buted to the event, in co-operation with Monk. 2
The first act of the Parliament on its restoration was
to appoint seven Commissioners, of whom Cooper was
one, to take temporary command of the army until the
return from Portsmouth of Haselrig, Morley, and Walton,
three of seven who had been made Commissioners for
the army by the Parliament on October 12, just before
Lambert's revolution, and the only three of those seven
who had opposed the Committee of Safety. Cooper's
six colleagues in this temporary commission were
Alexander Popham, Colonel Thompson, Scot, Colonel
Okey, Colonel Alured, and Colonel Markham. It was
these Commissioners who executed the prompt dispersion
of Lambert's forces which Cooper has related. Their
1 Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, xvi. 106.
"Sir Ashley Cooper, Scot, and more,
Such honest hearts there are good store,
The famous Lawson and the Fleet,
And London lads in every street,
"Who vow to make subverters stare
At Tyburn in the open air
For doing what no King did dare,
And thus vows our brave George. "
This is from a ballad called "The Noble English Worthies," to be
found in Wright's " Political Ballads of the Commonwealth," vol. iii. of
the Percy Society's Publications.
202 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
power lasted only for two days, for Haselrig, Morley,
and Walton returned on the twenty-eighth. A letter of
one of the Eoyalist agents, Brodrick, addressed to Hyde,
proves that Cooper's proceedings were a mystery as well
as a disappointment to the Eoyalists. Brodrick couples
him with another Presbyterian, Popham, who had un-
doubtedly been actively engaged in Sir George Booth's
rising. "Alexander Popham," writes this active agent
on December 30, " was in recompense chosen one of the
seven generals to take care of the army in the absence
of Haselrig, Walton, and Morley, expected two days
after, so that his dignity lasted double the time of
Bibulus's consulship, and to us appeared twice as ridi-
culous. Sir A. A. Cooper seems very eager in establish-
ing these people, but the friends of both these great
men find plausible excuses for every action of them." l
The care of the government of the Tower was also
entrusted by the Parliament, on the very day of its
meeting, to Cooper, Weaver, Scot, and Berners. 2 Their
functions ceased on the seventh of January, when
Colonel Morley was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower.
A Council of State, consisting of thirty-one members
twenty-one members of the Parliament, and ten not
belonging to it was appointed on the second of Janu-
ary, to continue till the first of April. Cooper was
elected by the largest number of votes among the ten
not belonging to the Parliament.
Now, at last, Cooper obtained recognition of his claim
to sit for Downton, on his old petition of 1640. Once
i Clarendon Papers, iii. 637. 2 Comra. Journ. Dec. 26.
1660. ADMITTED INTO THE PARLIAMENT. 203
more his case was referred with that of Fairfax to a
Committee ; and this time the Committee reported that
he was entitled to the seat. 1 The House immediately
adopted the report, and Sir Anthony at once took his
seat, on the seventh of January, and once more sub-
scribed the Engagement. Shortly after, he was made
colonel of Fleetwood's regiment of horse, Fleetwood
having been deprived of it. His commission was given
him by the Speaker at the clerk's table. 2
Cooper, now admitted to sit, was at once a leading
man in the Parliament. He had probably now made
up his mind to endeavour to obtain the restoration
to the House of the Presbyterian members who had
been secluded before the King's execution, and he
soon separated from Haselrig, Nevill, and other Ee-
publicans. A letter of the royalist Lord Mordaunt,
of January 14, describes him as the leader of a
party of some twenty-three opposing another party
of about sixteen led by Nevill. "The present com-
plexion of the Parliament," writes Mordaunt to Hyde,
" is very pale ; Sir Arthur Haselrig undermined by
Cooper, Morley, and Weaver, and from a Kodomont
is reduced to a pitiful rogue. : . . Cooper yet hath his
tongue well hung, and words at will, and employs his
rhetoric to cashier all officers, civil as well as military,
that sided with Fleetwood and Lambert; and Morley
rebukes all the sectaries. Thus these two garble the
army and state. . . . The parties in the House are
diametrically opposite: the three -and -twenty with
Cooper, who acts Cicero ; and some sixteen with Nevill,
i Comm. Journ. Jan. 5 and 7, 1660. 2 Ibid. Jan. 18.
204 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
who represents Anthony." l It may be gathered from
this letter that Cooper had not the confidence of the
Eoyalists, and that they made no pretension of right
to complain of his having deceived them.
Monk was now on his way from Scotland to London.
He had crossed the Tweed on the first of January,
after receiving news of the discomfiture of the Com-
mittee of Safety and the re-establishment of the Eump.
He made a slow march with his army to London, which
he entered on the third of February.
Shaftesbury's narrative is now resumed : he claims
to have cleared the way for Monk by the dispersion of
Lambert's forces effected by himself and the other tem-
porary Commissioners for the army, immediately after
the re-assembling of the Kump :
"The way being thus cleared before them, General
Monk marches up with his small army to London, and
by the way in Yorkshire is caressed by General Fairfax,
and is met before he comes to London with addresses
from the persons of quality, Presbyterians, and other
men of sober principles from all parts of England,
who with one voice began to intimate their desires of
restoring him their lawful Prince, and ancient govern-
ment. This at first was but modestly intimated, and
not boldly spoken out, and was as civilly and darkly
returned by him; yet every one departed from him
extremely well satisfied of his good intentions, and
much the rather because his lady, that came with him,
did not spare to declare her passion for the King's cause
(which was most real and sincere in her) ; besides, her
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 650.
1660. HIS OWN NAKKATIVE. 205
brother, Sir Thomas Clarges (a very understanding and
industrious gentleman), did apparently influence the
General all he could that way. These proceedings, by
that time the General came to London, had given such
an alarm to Sir Arthur Haselrig, Mr. Scot, and the rest
of that party, that they began already to cast about how
they might deliver themselves from so dangerous a
person ; divers of them made a tender to me of the
generalship, if I would declare, and march their army
against him, which had been no difficult undertaking,
his army being small and his horse very bad, and our
army being highly and particularly disgusted with him
and his ; because all along their march through England
they had taken upon them a distinguishing name of
' Coldstreamers,' as if they had done some mighty thing
more than the rest, whereas they had only fared harder,
until we had opened to them the way to better cheer.
But, however, I had given General Monk my word to
be his friend, and therefore could not break it ; besides,
I assured myself he was doing that that I and all good
men prayed for, and therefore was not to be disturbed,
but rather assisted by all that sincerely wished the public
good. This rendered me with them in the same state
as General Monk, or rather worse, inasmuch as prin-
ciples are less reconcilable than interests. The General
had very wisely for himself caused all the regiments to
march out of London, to remote and distant quarters,
the day before his army came into the town ; so that
there was no apparent opposition to him, but that he
was master of his own actions, or at least might have
been so if he pleased. Yet the jealousy grew so strong
every day more and more with those that aimed at
maintaining the oligarchy, that they resolved to put the
General upon some action that might lose his interest
in the city, and by consequence in the nation ; the old
206 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VII.
army (all but those he called Coldstreamers, that he
brought up with him) being sufficiently disobliged, not
only by that form of distinction these had so cheaply
purchased, but also by the plain distrust he had shown
of them, in removing them so far from London and
dispersing their quarters ; for, if they could reduce his
interest within the compass of that small army, and
that the Presbyterians and Cavaliers would look on and
become unconcerned in him, they knew how easily and
speedily to do his business.
" In order to this, Sir Arthur Haselrig and his party
caused a meeting to be summoned in the Council
Chamber of such persons as they liked best, as well
members of the Council of War as members of their
Council. Sir Arthur himself was created General, and
as soon as he came they locked themselves up and set
guards at the doors, with express orders that none what-
ever should be suffered to come so much as near
them. Of all this, myself and several others that were
members of both Councils, and such as were looked
upon as General Monk's friends, had not the least
notice. 1 But they had not been sitting half an hour,
before an officer of the army, meeting me and Mr.
Weaver in Fleet Street, stopped the coach we were in,
and asked me whether I knew of the Council of War
now sitting in the Council Chamber at Whitehall, which,
he said, was certainly met upon very important affairs,
because of the locking their doors and the orders they
had given, both which he, then being in the outward
room, saw and heard. Upon this, Mr. Weaver and I
made haste to Whitehall, and found no access was to be
i It is here omitted to be said, but it is clear from what follows, that
Monk himself was summoned to the meeting; its object, indeed, being
to prevail upon him to act with Haselrig and his party against the
City.
1660. HIS OWN NARRATIVE. 207
had to them, although Mr. Weaver was of the Council
of State as well as I, and the respect the officers that
guarded the doors bore us had allowed us to knock and
call at several of the doors ; so that we were forced with
shame to retire to the Lady Monk's lodgings, whom we
found extremely apprehensive of their designs, assuring
us her husband knew nothing of this sudden calling
them together. She was not satisfied until she had
caused us to return with her to the Council door, where
she knocked very hard, and called aloud that she had
business of great consequence to impart to her husband;
but neither her authority nor her artifice could get them
within to open the doors or give one word of answer.
After this second repulse, we waited on my Lady back
to her lodgings, and stayed there till the General came,
which was until it was past two of the clock in the
morning ; he brought with him as much confusion and
disturbance in his face as ever was seen in any man's of
his courage and resolution. He told us all was nought,
and that this was plainly a designed and packed meet-
ing ; and that he saw they meant to ruin him, for they
had taken a pretence from a ridiculous attempt of some
apprentices and others in the City some days before,
and had expressly ordered him to pull down, that very
morning, all the gates, portcullises, and chains of the
City of London, and to send prisoners to the Tower ten
of the principal citizens. His lady and we laid before
him the certain ruin such an action would bring upon
him; that it would lose him the hearts of all the honest
and sober party, and deliver him up into the hands of
those that perfectly hated him. He replied that, be it as
it would, he could not now do other than to obey their
orders, which was indeed punctually performed the
same morning : so that the next day the Parliament
thought themselves in a capacity to use him as they
208 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
pleased; and accordingly, instead of making him General
of all their forces, as he was promised and did expect,
they pass one of their acts, all in the same day, by
which they placed the command of their armies and
forces in five Commissioners, or any three of them,
whereof he had the honour to be one, and Sir Arthur
Haselrig and three more of Sir Arthur's sure friends
were the others."
The five Commissioners appointed were Monk, Hasel-
rig, Morley, Walton, and Alured. Cooper was proposed
as one, but his name was rejected by thirty votes against
fifteen. 1 Shaftesbury's narrative proceeds :
" The same evening, General Monk returned to his
lodgings at Whitehall, where his lady, Sir Thomas
Clarges, myself, and some other of his friends repre-
sented to him the condition he was in, and the neglect
the Parliament had put upon him, so that his ruin
was near at hand, if he did not take some vigorous
course to prevent it. And we prevailed upon him
so far, as that he returned with his forces the next
morning into the City, and there demanded of those
sitting at Westminster a full and free parliament, in
a letter signed by himself and fourteen of the chief
field-officers of his Coldstreams ; that afternoon repair-
ing to Guildhall, where he gave the Lord Mayor and
Court of Aldermen an account of what he had done,
and made an apology for what he had been forced
to do some days before. The merit of his present
action did easily expiate for that great affront he had
put upon them, insomuch as he was followed home to
his quarters with the greatest acclamations imaginable;
and through the whole City there was such expression
1 Comm. Journ. Feb. 11, 1660; Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 831.
1660. HIS OWN NARRATIVE. 209
of joy, both by ringing of bells, bonfires, roasting of
rumps, and all other ways that men's fancy could invent,
that the like has not been seen or heard peradventure
in any age."
Mr. Martyn adds, perhaps on Stringer's authority,
what is very likely, that Cooper, Popham, and other
Presbyterians, helped to reconcile Monk with the City
authorities after he had angered them by acting on the
instigation of Haselrig's party ; and the same writer
tells from Stringer the following story of Cooper on this
occasion. As Sir Anthony and Popham were returning
home, the mob, all for the City and against the Eump,
surrounded their carriage, crying out, " Down with the
Eump ! " Sir Anthony put his head out of the window,
and said, "What, gentlemen, not one good piece in a
rump?" The mob was pleased with the joke, and,
recognising friends, followed the carriage with cheers. 1
To return to Shaftesbury's narrative :
" This so frightened and alarmed the Parliament, that
they immediately vote a filling up of their House, and
are now willing to impart the power they can hold no
longer within the narrow bounds of their own number
to some others of their friends ; but they passed withal
the strictest qualifications imaginable, that none but
such as were zealous men of the party might get
amongst them. So that they made appear to the world
that their design was to have continued a legislative
power in themselves, their friends, and their posterity,
and never settle a government that might be equal and
just to the people; whose security could lie in nothing
so much as that their representatives should, in a short
1 Martyn's Life, i. 226.
VOL. I. P
210 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
distance of time, annual or biennial, be accountable to
them, and now eligible by them. Neither was General
Monk without his apprehensions that matters might
go too fast for him, and overset him ; and he at last
not finding his own account, he refused divers of the
worthiest aldermen and citizens, that addressed to him
to have their militia raised, and care taken to have the
best men put in the head of them, which himself might
nominate. He treated at the same time with all sorts
of men, and appointed a select number of several sorts
to confer together, and consider what they had to offer
concerning the present posture of affairs; intermixing
them as he thought fit, sometimes two, sometimes three
parties together, keeping the world in great uncertainty,
and (if myself and others that were nearest him were
not mistaken) himself too. But he must suddenly come
to some issue or another, for the Lord Fairfax, a man of
great courage, resolution, and integrity, with the greatest
part of the gentry and ministers of the North, who were
all not a little influenced by Mr. Bowles, a Presbyterian
minister at York, a man of great wisdom and reputa-
tion, and fit for the management of the greatest affairs ;
these, with the entire Presbyterian party, had declared
for a free Parliament, or the re-admitting the secluded
members. The same declaration was also made by
Sir Charles Coote, Sir Theophilus Jones, Sir Henry
Ingoldsby, and others in Ireland, to whose courage,
fidelity, and conduct was owing, not only all that was
done there, but much of what was done in England ; for
we should have hardly ventured to have made an oppo-
sition to the Committee of Safety; neither would General
Monk have broken his treaty with General Fleetwood,
if we had not had assurance from them of considerable
aid and assistance by Sir Charles Coote, who was sent
over on purpose to us.
1660. HIS OWN NAEEATIVE. 211
" The General was now removed to Alderman Wale's
house, next door to Drapers' Hall, where, as I was
waiting on my Lady, Colonel Markham came to me,
and told me he just then came from the General, and as
he went in unto him, he met coming out Sir Arthur
Haselrig and Mr. Scot, whom he overheard saying they
would secure Sir Anthony Cooper before to-morrow
noon. But he thought they had been tampering with
him, and feared they had come to some agreement;
upon this I presently went to the General, told him
what I had heard, and pressed him to deal clearly with
me ; and after some dark discourse, I got from him a
direct acknowledgment that he was come to a full agree-
ment with them, and had engaged to return the next
morning to his lodgings at Whitehall, and to support
their interest and obey their commands ; he did not deny
to me that they had promised him to be sole General of
all their forces ; he promised me they should do me no
wrong, and that he would take upon himself to make
all friendship betwixt me and them, and to take care of
my interest as his particular friend. This being about
five o'clock in the afternoon, I left him and told him
I would wait on him at supper and desired some more
discourse upon this subject with him after supper. So
I went immediately to rny Lady Monk, and gave her
an account of the whole matter, and desired her to send
for her brother Clarges, as I would for Colonel Clobery
and Colonel Knight, that we might altogether make
our utmost effort upon the General ; which we did that
night, and it was near three o'clock in the morning
before he yielded to us, when we obtained from him a
resolution to restore the secluded members to their
places that very morning, and a commission to Sir
Thomas Clarges and myself to summon them together,
and so cause them to attend him at the Prince's lodgings
P2
212 LIFE OF SHA.FTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
in Whitehall by nine o'clock that morning, from whence
he would cause them to be restored with honour and
safety to their places in the Parliament-house. Sir
Thomas and myself lost no time ; before eight o'clock
that morning we had got together to Mr. Annesley's
house in Drury Lane a considerable number of the
secluded members, and before nine brought them to the
great room in the Prince's lodgings in Whitehall; and
all this happened to be without giving the other party
the least notice or alarm, inasmuch as that Sir Arthur
Haselrig came to wait on the General, thinking he was
returned to Whitehall upon their treaty of the day be-
fore; but as soon as he came into the aforesaid great
room, and saw so considerable a number of the old
secluded members, he changed his colour and grew ex-
tremely pale, and in great passion came up to me, and
told me this was my doing, but it should cost blood ; I
replied, his own if he pleased, but Sir Anthony Cooper
would not be secured that morning. The General just
then came out, who told Sir Arthur that challenged him
of his promise that [it was necessary for the public peace
to restore these members, who had declared they intended
no alteration of the government ; and since there was no
method of issuing summonses but by writs in the name
of the keepers of the liberty of England by authority of
Parliament, it could not be apprehended that any other
government would be introduced]." l
The admission of the secluded members took place
on the twenty-first of February. Cooper, now colonel
of a regiment of horse, commanded the guard appointed
to escort them into the House. 2 This had been Cooper's
1 The words between brackets are supplied from Martyn's narrative ;
the fragment found among Lord Shaftesbury's papers ending in the
middle of a sentence.
2 Coke's Detection, ii. 95. Independent testimonies to the important
1660. RE- ADMISSION OF SECLUDED MEMBERS. 213
object since the last restoration of the Kump, which he
had had so large a share in effecting ; and he and his
followers in the Rump now finally separated from their
former republican coadjutors, Haselrig, Scot, Nevill, and
others. The Presbyterians were now in an overwhelming
majority in the Parliament. A new Council of State
was immediately appointed, in which none but Presby-
terians and friends of a restoration were named. It
need not be said that Cooper was one. The others were
Monk, Popham, Pierpoint, Crewe, Colonel Rossiter,
Knightly, Colonel Morley, Lord Fairfax, Sir Gilbert
Gerard, St. John, Sir John Temple, Widdrington, Sir
John Evelyn, Sir William Waller, Sir Richard Onslow,
Sir William Lewis, Montagu, Sir Edward Harley, Colonel
Norton, Annesley, Holies, Colonel Thompson, Trevor,
Sir John Holland, Sir John Potts, Colonel Birch, Sir
Harbottle Grimstone, Swinton, Weaver, and Serjeant
Maynard.
Monk was appointed Commander-in-chief, and Cooper
received from him commissions to be Governor of the
Isle of Wight .and Captain of a company of foot in that
island. 1
It was soon settled, after the admission of the secluded
Presbyterian members, that the Long Parliament should
part which Cooper had in persuading Monk to restore the secluded
members, and to his influence at this time with Monk, may be found
in Bishop Kennet's Register, pp. 59, 61, 62 ; Baker's Chronicle, ed.
1684, p. 687; and Gumble's Life of Monk, p. 261 ; and see the last of
the suppressed passages of Ludlow in Appendix III.
1 Wood, Ath. Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 70. The captain's commission,
dated February 25, is in Lord Shaftesbury's possession ; but I have not
been able to find the commission of governor. There is, however, no
doubt that Cooper was at this time Governor of the Isle of Wight,
and his commission as such was temporarily renewed in the name of
Charles II. on the Restoration.
214 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
expire on the seventeenth of March, and that a new
Parliament should be called for the twenty-fifth of
April. On the thirteenth of March it was resolved
without a division, " that the engagement, appointed to
be taken by members of Parliament and others in these
words, ' I do declare and promise that I will be true
and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as the
same is now established, without a King or House of
Lords/ be discharged and ta,ken off the file ;" and "that
all orders, enjoining the taking of the said engagement,
be, and are hereby, vacated and expunged out of the
Journal Book of Parliament, and that Mr. Prynne,
Serjeant Maynard, and Colonel Harley do see the same
expunged accordingly."
The following letter from Montagu, afterwards Earl
of Sandwich, who had the command of the fleet, ad-
dressed to Cooper, is a proof of his activity at this time
as a member of the Council of State :
" SWIFTSURE, OFF GREENHITHE,
" March 24, 1659.
" SIR, This evening I have received your commands
concerning an establishment for the navy, which I shall
obey as soon as I possibly can. I suppose it will neces-
sarily require Monday's time, and Tuesday's perhaps, to
inform myself and consider about it ; after which you
shall receive a further account from
" Your most humble servant,
"E. MOUNTAGU."
The foiled Republicans now bethought themselves of
an expedient, to play Monk against the Presbyterian
1660. OFFER TO MONK TO MAKE HIM KING. 215
leaders, and offer him their support if he would take
the Crown himself. There is no doubt that such an
offer was now made to Monk by Haselrig, Scot, and
other Eepublicans. This is stated in the account of
events preceding the Eestoration appended to later
editions of Sir Kichard Baker's Chronicle, which, though
ill- written and clumsily put together, has value, as being
known to have been written with much assistance from
Sir Thomas Clarges, Monk's brother-in-law; and the
statement is confirmed by many passages of the des-
patches of the French Ambassador, M. de Bourdeaux.
The idea was absurd : Monk treated the applicants
civilly, and tried to keep them in good humour, but
never entertained the project. Clarges gave Cooper
information of what was passing. The following is an
extract, from a narrative inspired, if not written, by
Clarges himself:
"The Council of State sitting at the time of this
private conference, and within two chambers of the
place where it was transacted, he (Clarges) sent in to
the Council to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, and informed
him of what he knew, and what he further suspected ;
upon which it was agreed, that, as soon as the General
should depart from them and come into the Council, he
should move that all clerks and attendants that were
not Councillors should withdraw, and the doors be
locked, and then declare that he had had information
of a dangerous design in some seditious persons, who
were continuing to make disturbances in the nation,
and that they had proceeded so far as to make some
indecent overtures to him, of which he desired that the
Council might receive a full discovery, that thereupon
216 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
they might apply themselves to prevent the conse-
quences of it. But the General, being unwilling to
expose those men to ruin, though they deserved not his
favour, because his purposes were designed to be effected
by the most peaceable ways, told the Council that there
was not so much danger in agitation as they appre-
hended, but that it was true some had been with him
to be resolved in scruples concerning the present trans-
actions in Parliament, but they went away from him
well satisfied." 1
The despatches of Bourdeaux entirely bear out the
account given in the foregoing extract. Bourdeaux
writes that there are different opinions about Monk's
object, but always gives his own opinion that he intends
i Phillips's Continuation of Baker's Chronicle, ed. 1684, p. 693.
This is probably a fair and correct account of an incident which has
been wonderfully exaggerated and enlarged in the Locke Memoir of
Shaftesbury, and in Martyn's Life. The story, as there told, is as
follows : that Haselrig and Scot had a zealous coadjutor in Bourdeaux,
the French Ambassador, who represented that he was instructed by
Cardinal Mazarin to urge Monk to make himself King and offer him
aid from France ; that Monk consented ; that Monk's wife, who, being
concealed behind the curtains, had overheard the conversation, sent
Clarges to inform Cooper; that Cooper immediately summoned the
Council of State, declared what he had heard, conjured Monk to
restore Charles, and obtained from him the requisite assurances, and
various changes among officers of the army and governors of forts
likely to make the restoration of Charles more secure. The account in
the Locke Memoir ends thus: "The French Ambassador, who had
the night before sent away an express to Mazarin, positively to assure
him that things went here as he desired, andj that Monk was fixed by
him in his resolution to take on himself the government, was not a
little astonished the next day to find things taking another turn.
And indeed this so much disgraced him in the French Court that he
was presently called home, and soon after broke his heart. " There is
no such despatch in the French Archives, which I have carefully
examined. M. Guizot has fairly published all that is material in
the despatches of Bourdeaux of this period in the Appendix to his
Life of Monk (Documents Historiques, Nos. 4552, March 15 to
April 2, 1660), and in the Appendix to his History of Richard
Cromwell and the Restoration (Documents Historiques, vol. ii.
Nos. 3336, March 25 to April 5, 1660).
1660. NO FRENCH PLOT TO MAKE MONK KING. 217
to restore Charles ; he speaks of the offer made to Monk
by the Bepublicans, and mentions surmises that he de-
sired to make himself king ; he makes no mention of
communications between himself and Haselrig's party.
Convinced that Monk meant to restore the King, he
endeavoured to induce him and the Presbyterians to
avail themselves of the aid of France, and employ France
to mediate the conditions of restoration ; for this purpose
he tried to flatter Monk, through Clarges, and made
strong professions of Cardinal Mazarin's friendship for
him, and readiness to serve him. In playing this
game, Bourdeaux appears to have a little exceeded his
instructions, and practised some diplomatic finessing.
Anxious to secure for France the honour of mediation
and all the influence which would flow from it, and fore-
seeing a strong desire to avoid French interference, he
endeavoured to ingratiate himself with Monk by flatter-
ing messages, offering the aid of the French Government
to obtain for him from Charles all that he could desire
of profit or honour, and stating that the French king
was so completely his friend that he would even aid him
for his own elevation to the throne. "It has seemed
to me suitable," says Bourdeaux, writing to Cardinal
Mazarin, " to dispose him by these marks of esteem to
a better reception of the other proposals with which
I might be charged." 1 This crafty insinuation of
Bourdeaux, designed to aid the acceptance of an offer
of French mediation for the restoration of Charles, is
apparently the sole foundation for the story of his active
concurrence in the scheme to make Monk king. His
1 March 29, 1660 ; Guizot's Monk (Documents Historiques, No. 50).
218 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
instructions from Mazarin were no more than to convey
to Monk general expressions of friendship and support
in his designs, which were believed to be for the restora-
tion of Charles. It was of course the object of Bourdeaux
to stand well with Monk, to be prepared for all con-
tingencies, to do the best for French influence, and to
use flattery as well as other means for gaining know-
ledge of Monk's plans. He writes that in his interviews
with Monk he could extract nothing from him ; and the
statements of Bourdeaux in the above-quoted despatch,
and in another to Mazarin of April 5, describing an
interview with Monk, 1 tally sufficiently with the account
derived from Clarges: 2 It may be safely stated, then, that
Monk did not entertain the idea of making himself
king, that the French Ambassador did not act in such
a scheme, and that the story of Cooper's foiling Monk's
design for the kingship is an extravagant exaggeration. 3
Another alarm and difficulty arose for those who were
now endeavouring to bring about a restoration of the
old monarchy from an insurrection headed by Lambert.
The re-established Kump had made Lambert a prisoner
in the Tower, on his refusing to find bail for twenty
thousand pounds. The Kepublican leaders were engaged
1 No. 52 of Appendix to Guizot's Monk.
2 Baker's Chronicle, p. 695.
3 This story, soon after its publication in the Locke Memoir, was
satisfactorily refuted, without aid from the French Archives, by George
Granville, Lord Lansdowne, nephew of Sir John Grenville or Granville,
who negotiated with Monk for Charles, in his " Vindication of General
Monk." (Works, vol. ii. pp. 159 seqq.) It is stated in a despatch
of Bourdeaux of July 1, 1660 (in the archives of the French Foreign
Office), that Clarges had told Lord St. Albans that parties anxious to
make the restored King quarrel with France had urged him (Clarges) to
say that Bourdeaux had charged him to persuade Monk to make himself
Protector, and keep Charles out. Bourdeaux adds, that Clarges had
already publicly denied this at the Hague.
1660. EEJOICES IN LAMBERT'S DEFEAT. 219
in a plan for freeing him by finding the bail required by
the Council of State, in order that he might head an
insurrection; but before this plan could be executed,
Lambert acted for himself, and made his escape on the
sixth of April. He raised a few troops in the midland
counties, but could make no resistance to a small force
sent against him by Monk under Colonel Ingoldsby.
The following letter was written by Cooper to
Montagu on April 23 ; and there is no stint in his
rejoicing at Lambert's defeat :
" MY LORD, Your Lordship's letter brings that account
of the fleet, and so satisfactory as might be expected
from it, since put under the conduct of such a general.
I hope you did not mistake the expression in my letter
about transposing your officers, as if it had any reflexion
of not approving what your Lordship had done, being only
to give you notice timely of this alteration about sending
the ' Worcester ' into the Straits, lest, when your officers
are fixed, it might be disobliging to remove them back.
" This morning the certain news of Colonel Lambert his
being taken came to the Council. There appeared with
him six troops of horse in Daventry fields in Northamp-
tonshire, Colonel Okey, Axtel, Creed, Sir Arthur Hasel-
rig's son and others. But when Colonel Ingoldsby came
up, the kind men without showing much courage ren-
dered themselves. Thus God has blasted the wicked in
their reputations and bloody designs, and I hope will
bless us with a happy settlement, which is the prayer of,
" My Lord,
" Your most faithful and humble servant,
" ANTHONY ASHLEY COOPER." l
1 The latter half of this letter is printed in Bishop Rennet's Register,
220 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
In the meantime, Cooper and the Presbyterian leaders
were pursuing their design of a restoration of Charles
on conditions. Lord Mordaunt, writing to Hyde on
April 19, mentions Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper as a
member of a Presbyterian " cabal," then meeting con-
stantly, of which the Earls of Bedford, Northumberland,
and Manchester, Lord Wharton, Holies, Annesley, Pier-
point, Popham, Sir William Lewis, and Sir Gilbert
Gerard, were among the members. The object of these
Presbyterian leaders was to propose the restoration of
Charles on terms very similar to those which had been
offered in 1648 to his father in the Isle of Wight, and
they were discussing how the chief offices of state should
be distributed. They are described as fearing that
Monk would spoil their plans, and recall the King
without conditions. 1 This fear was realized.
When the Convention Parliament of two Houses for
England and Wales, according to the old constitution,
met at Westminster on the twenty-fifth of April,
Monk had arranged his plans with the King through
Sir John Grenville. Lord Lansdowne, in his " Vindi-
cation of Monk/' in which he refutes the story of
Cooper's thwarting Monk's aims on the Crown, de-
scribes Cooper as acting with the Presbyterian leaders
independently of Monk, and proposing with them
a negotiation which Monk's prompt action cut short.
Cooper had been returned to the new House of Commons
for Wiltshire. The Act of the expiring Long Parliament
by which the summoning of this Convention had been
p. 120. I have been enabled to complete the letter from a copy pre-
served at St. Giles's among Lord Shaftesbury's papers.
1 Clarendon State Papers, vol. iii. pp. 705, 729.
1660. CHARLES RESTORED. 221
settled, had prescribed qualifications for its members
designed to exclude old royalists, and had contained a
clause saving the rights of such members of the old
House of Lords, and such only, as had been always
faithful to the Parliament. With Monk's countenance
and support these restrictions were disregarded, when
the Parliament met. The disappointment and dismay
of the Presbyterians were great. 1 Pepys records the
reproaches of Montagu, who thought the Presbyterians
too exacting, but " shook his shoulders when he told me
[Pepys] how Monk had betrayed them, for it was he
that did put them upon standing to put out the lords
and other members' that come not within the qualifica-
tions, which he did not like ; but, however, he had done
his business, though it be with some kind of baseness." 2
The Presbyterians could now no longer control the move-
ment, and had nothing to do but to make a virtue of
necessity. Sir John Grenville appeared in both Houses
on the first of May, and presented the King's letters
to the two Speakers and his famous Declaration, dated
from Breda. On the twenty-third of May Charles landed
at Dover, and on the twenty-ninth, his birthday, he
entered London, a restored King, and restored without
conditions. The two Houses had sent Commissioners to
Breda to invite him to return. Cooper was one of the
twelve deputed by the Commons. The other eleven
were Lords Fairfax, Falkland, Bruce, Castleton, Herbert,
and Mandeville, Sir Horatio Townshend, Sir George
1 See the Despatches of Bourdeaux, May 10, 21, Nos. 59 and 60,
Appendix to Guizot's Monk.
2 Diary, April 29, 1660, vol. i. p. 61.
222 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
Booth, Sir John Holland, Sir Henry Cholmley, and
Denzil Holies.
On his journey to Breda on this occasion Cooper met
with an accident by the upsetting of his carriage, which
caused an internal abscess that was never cured. That
Shaftesbury constantly suffered from this malady during
his later years of political eminence has been made
notorious by the foul gibes of vile lampooners. This
misfortune brought him advantage by leading, in the
year 1666, at Oxford, to the acquaintance of John
Locke, who quickly became his intimate friend, and
an inmate of his house ; whose friendship was a chief
help and solace of his troubled life, and whose great
name is inseparably associated with Shaftesbury's to
bring him honour.
We have now gone through twenty years of Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper's public life, which began
before he was of age : he began as a Eoyalist, and he
is now a Eoyalist again. The intervening time has
been full of change and revolution, and he has changed
often, influencing public changes or following in their
wake. His course has been that of a restless, excitable,
eager, impulsive man, not content to be idle or let his
talents long lie hid under a bushel ; full of desire to
govern men and control events, and full of confidence
in himself. Such a man is prone to quit a party if he
does not have his own way: such a man is often the
most hopeful in the outset, and the first to despair.
Every politician's life is a public target, and satire and
malice have not spared Cooper's changes. Lord Mac-
aulay has latterly given new life and prominence to
1660. DEYDEN ON SHAFTESBURY. 223
the sparkling satire of Butler and Dryden's reckless
and venomous invective. 1 The author of " Hudibras" was
an honest and consistent Boyalist, and it was but natural
that he should misinterpret Cooper's actions, and suppose
interested calculation and unprincipled scheming where
the friendly and charitably disposed and well-informed
may see the working of an ardent temperament on an
active intellect. Admirable as is Dryden's satire for
keenness and his verse for vigour, the malice and false-
hoods of one who was himself unrivalled for apostasy,
and who had chosen the ignoble task of reviling Shaftes-
bury to please his royal master, should receive reproba-
tion. Dryden, who bespattered Cromwell's grave with
fulsome flattery in the first days of his son's Protector-
ship, when it seemed strong and durable, and who, in a
short twelvemonth, flattered the restored Charles and
vilified Cromwell ; Dryden, who slavered the Lord
Treasurer Clifford with praise in one dedication, and in
another, a few years after, lauded his successor, Danby,
as the repairer of Clifford's mismanagements ; 2 Dryden,
who, when he addressed his venal dedication to Clifford,
praised the acts of the Cabal, and afterwards denounced
them when hope of other profit inspired him against
Shaftesbury ; Dryden, who could describe Charles the
Second as a liberal patron of arts and letters when he
wrote to please James, and sneer at him as neglecting
1 In his Essay on Sir'William Temple ; where Macaulay speaks only
of Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel," and does not mention the
fiercer and coarser invective of "The Medal."
2 Compare Dryden's dedication of his "Amboyna" to Clifford in
1673 with his dedication of "All for Love" to Danby in 1678.
Presents of money were received and expected in return for these
eulogistic dedications : and this mode of flattery was a part of Dryden's
means of living.
224 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. VII.
and degrading genius when to James had succeeded
William; 1 Dry den, who when Charles the Second, who
had befriended t him and whom he had flattered, lay
cold in the grave, endeavoured to load his memory with
the opprobrium of his own licentious play writing,
the willing servility of a coarse nature to degraded
tastes ; 2 Dry den, who, fresh from ridicule and abuse
1 Iu the " Threnodia Augustalis," an ode on the death of Charles II.
by Dryden, "servant of his late Majesty and the present King," there
are these nattering lines :
" Amidst the peaceful triumphs of his reign,
What wonder if the kindly beams he shed
Eevived the drooping Arts again,
If Science raised her head,
And soft Humanity, that from rebellion fled ! "
In his Address to Sir Godfrey Kneller, published in 1694, Dryden
wrote :
" Apelles' art an Alexander found,
And Raphael did with Leo's gold abound,
But Homer was with barren laurel crowned ;
Thou hadst thy Charles a while, and so had I,
But pass we that unpleasing image by."
2 In a reply to Jeremy Collier's reproaches for his immoral play-
writing, Dryden wrote, in his very last Epilogue, composed a few weeks
before his death, for a representation for his own benefit :
" Perhaps the parson stretched a point too far
"When with our theatres he waged a war.
He tells you that this very moral age
Beceived the first infection from the stage ;
But sure a banished court, with lewdness fraught,
The seeds of open vice returning brought.
The poets, who must live by courts or 'starve,
Were proud so good a government to serve ;
And mixing with buffoons and pimps profane,
Tainted the stage for some small snip of gain.
Thus did the thriving malady prevail,
The court its head, the poets but the tail.
The sin was of our native growth, 'tis true,
The scandal of the sin was wholly new.
Misses there were, but modestly concealed ;
Whitehall the naked Venus first revealed,
Who standing as at Cyprus in her shrine,
The strumpet was adored with rites divine."
But Dryden' s licentious writing is not confined to his plays. Lord
Macaulay, who, in his early Essay on Sir William Temple, assailing
1660. DRYDEN ON SHAFTESBURY. 225
of Eoman Catholic priests, and from expounding in
matchless verse the tenets of Protestantism, became a
Eoman Catholic when it seemed likely that James would
establish the Eoman Catholic religion, and when to adopt
that religion was the way to the King's heart : it is this
Dryden who has arraigned Shaftesbury for political
venality, treason, and apostasy, and who by the power
of his verse and the fame of his poetry has been mainly
instrumental in blackening Shaftesbury's name for pos-
terity. A careful examination of Shaftesbury's public
career and private life and character reveals many
misstatements and exaggerations in Dryden's attacks.
Change of opinion is not necessarily wicked or dis-
honest. In times of successive revolution, patriots who
desire public quiet and orderly rule may accept and
endeavour to make the best of several successive forms
of government. In France, do we not know of honour-
able men who have been successively Eoyalists under
Charles the Tenth, Eoyalists under Louis Philippe,
Eepublicans, supporters of the Second Empire ? In our
own land and in our own time, in happy absence of
revolution, have not foremost statesmen and whole
political parties, in the short space of one generation,
Shaftesbury, calls as a witness Dryden's "gorgeous satiric muse,
who comes sweeping by in sceptred pall, borrowed from her more
august sisters," has in his later " History of England" given a scathing
sketch of Dryden's character. " Self-respect and a fine sense of the
becoming," says Macaulay the historian, "were not to be expected
from one who had led a life of mendicancy and adulation." And after
rebuking the impurity of Dryden's plays, he proceeds to reprobate
justly the grossness of his translations. " He made the grossest satires
of Juvenal more gross, interpolated loose descriptions in the tales of
Boccaccio, and polluted the sweet and limpid poetry of the Georgics
with filth which would have moved the loathing of Virgil." (History
of England, ii. 200. )
VOL. I. Q
226 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VII.
completely changed their political creeds \ It is beyond
doubt that Shaftesbury never sought or made pecuniary
profit out of his politics : Dryden's charge of venality is
false. Shaftesbury was born to wealth and high social
station. If he was ambitious, public ambition is not a
sin ; it is indeed recognised in others as the useful spur
of noble minds to public service. Shaftesbury may have
been headstrong, impatient, volatile; but he was not
mercenary, he was not self-seeking ; and no imputation
or even suspicion lies on him, in any part of his career,
of trickery or falsehood.
CHAPTEE VIII.
1660.
Sir A. A. Cooper made a Privy Councillor at Canterbury His pardons
Distribution of offices and honours Privy Council Hyde Chief
Minister Committee for Foreign Affairs or Cabinet King's active
supremacy in Government Convention Parliament Sir A. A.
Cooper's speeches The Bill of Pardon and Indemnity Cooper
desired no exceptions for life Monk and Cooper unjustly re-
proached by Ludlow and Mrs. Hutchinson Royal assent to the
Act, August 29 Cooper's speeches on details Helped to save
Haselrig Trials of the Regicides and others Cooper one of the
Judges His sitting on the trial defended Appointed member of
Councils of Trade and Plantations His cavalry regiment disbanded
Revenue and Church questions Abolition of Court of Wards
Cooper supports postponement of Bill for Church Settlement
Defends the King in debate on grievances Dissolution of Con-
vention Parliament, December 27.
AT the time of the Kestoration, Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper was close on completing his thirty-ninth year.
He was at once specially recommended by Monk to
the notice of the restored King, and received an early
mark of favour. While Charles halted at Canterbury
for a couple of days before making his triumphal entry
into London, he gave Garters to Monk, Montagu, and
a faithful Koyalist, the Earl of Southampton ; he con-
ferred on Morrice, a relative of Monk, who had more
than any one else of his confidence during the last few
eventful months, the office of Secretary of State ; and
he made Cooper a member of the Privy Council. 1
1 Continuation of Clarendon's Life, 13. Clarendon says that it
was hoped and believed that, as Cooper's wife was a niece of the Eaii
Q 2
228 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
Cooper afterwards appeared at the head of his regi-
ment of cavalry, which had been Fleetwood's, in the
army assembled at Blackheath when the King ap-
proached the capital. Like all who had been im-
plicated in any of the irregular proceedings of the
past period of civil wars and revolutionary govern-
ments, he availed himself of the King's promise of
pardon from Breda, to all who within forty days should
properly demand it, and were not afterwards excepted
by Parliament, and he received a formal pardon on
the twenty-seventh of June. Further pardons were
granted to him under the Great Seal on the tenth of
February and the eighth of June, 1661. 1
In the distribution of offices and honours which
followed the Eestoration, great pains were taken to
attain an appearance of equality between those who
had steadily clung to the Eoyal fortunes and old ad-
versaries who had now mainly contributed to effect the
Eestoration. To Monk both King and people gave
pre-eminence of merit, and he was for the moment
the nation's idol ; he was re-appointed Lord General,
was appointed Master of the Horse, a Groom of the
Bedchamber, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, with the
understanding that he should perform the duties of
this last office by deputy, and was created Duke of
of Southampton, "his slippery humour would be easily restrained
and fixed by the uncle." This early nomination of Cooper to the
Privy Council is doubtless the explanation of a statement by eulogistic
biographers that Charles showed his high admiration of Cooper by
placing him in the Privy Council above his brother, the Duke of
Gloucester, and above Monk. (Eawl. Rediviv. p. 49, and "Brief
Account" in Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. p. 368.)
1 These pardons are among the papers in Lord Shaftesbury's posses-
sion at St. Giles's.
1660. DISTRIBUTION OF OFFICES. 229
Albemarle. Hyde, the King's chief adviser in exile,
was made Lord Chancellor and a Peer, with the title
of Baron Hyde; he became Earl of Clarendon later,
at the Coronation. The office of Lord Treasurer was
given to the Earl of Southampton, but it was first, at
his request, put into commission, that the Treasury
might be brought into some order before he assumed
the charge, which he did in September. The offices
of Lord Chancellor and Lord Treasurer having been
given to Eoyalists, the office third in rank in the
kingdom, that of Lord Privy Seal, was given to Viscount
Saye and Sele, one of the survivors of the Presbyterian
leaders of the beginning of the Civil War. Ormond,
one of the King's most devoted and distinguished
followers, was made Lord Steward ; he was raised from
the rank of Marquis, to be a Duke in the Irish Peerage,
and was made an Earl in the Peerage of England.
The Earl of Manchester, the Lord Kimbolton of 1641,
was Lord Chamberlain ; the Duke of York was appointed
Lord High Admiral; Montagu, who had been the
friend and servant of Cromwell, and one of his peers,
and who had served under every government of the
Commonwealth, was created Earl of Sandwich and
appointed Master of the Wardrobe. Of the two
Secretaries of State, one, Nicholas, was an old servant
of the King and of his father ; the other, Morrice, was
a Presbyterian, and the particular friend of Monk. The
Privy Council, comprising the King's two brothers and
all surviving Privy Councillors of Charles the First,
consisted at the outset of this reign of thirty members,
of whom twelve had been opponents of the Eoyal cause ;
230 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
viz. Monk, the Earls of Northumberland, Leicester, and
Manchester, Viscount Saye and Sele, Lord Eoberts
(appointed Lord Deputy in Ireland, but who shortly
after, on the death of Lord Saye and Sele, exchanged
that office for the Privy Seal), Montagu, Morrice,
Arthur Annesley, Denzil Holies, Charles Howard, and
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper.
Hyde continued to be the King's chief adviser. The
name of Prime Minister was then known only as that
of a French institution, and the name and office were
regarded with dislike, founded partly on aversion to
a French example, and partly on jealousy of inter-
ference with the constitutional functions of the Privy
Council. Charles, whose indolence and love of pleasure
made him peculiarly dependent on Clarendon's labori-
ousness, had the vanity of wishing to be thought to do
everything himself, and loved to call himself his own
Premier Ministre. 1 There was not then, as now, an
united Ministry, dependent for existence on the con-
fidence of the Parliament, and governing the King's
policy; each Minister held his office at the King's
pleasure, and was entirely the King's servant. There
was no necessary unity of sentiment or action among
the Ministers ; high officers of State, and also sub-
ordinate officials, often opposed in Parliament measures
promoted by the King, and retained their offices; a
Minister would be dismissed singly by the King on
account of personal displeasure.
i M. de Bonrdeaux mentions in a despatch of June 7, 1660, in the
archives of the French Foreign Office, that Charles trusted a great
deal to Hyde, but did not like him to be called Prime Minister.
1660. PKLVY COUNCIL AND CABINET. 231
The Privy Council being too numerous for matters
requiring secrecy and despatch, a small Committee of
that body was appointed, consisting of those who had
most of the King's confidence and favour; and this
Committee was his constant council of advice. Such
a Committee of the Privy Council had existed before
the Civil War. 1 It was called the Committee for
Foreign Affairs, and, in common conversation, the
King's Cabinet or Cabal. This Committee for Foreign
Affairs is the origin of the present Cabinet. It was
in the nature of things that it should become more
important than the Privy Council itself. Its encroach-
ments on the functions of the Privy Council gave rise
to frequent complaints during the reign of Charles the
Second. Twice during his reign, after the fall of
Clarendon in 1667, and after the fall of Danby in 1679,
Charles was so far moved by the popular outcry against
Prime Minister and Cabinet as to promise publicly
that he would be governed entirely by the advice of
his Privy Council, and have no secrets from that body.
But on both occasions the promise was almost imme-
diately broken. In truth, a chief minister and a small
council of advice were necessities for the Sovereign.
Thus it happened that, in the interval between the
Eestoration and the Eevolution of 1688, the Cabinet,
1 Clarendon minutely describes such a Committee of the Privy
Council in 1640. " These persons," he says, "made up the Committee
of State (which was reproachfully after called the juncto, and enviously
then in the Court the Cabinet Council), who were upon all occasions,
when the Secretaries received any extraordinary intelligence, or were
to make up any extraordinary despatch, or as often otherwise as was
thought fit, to meet: whereas the body of the Council observed set
days and hours for their meeting, and came not else together except
specially summoned." (Hist of Eebelliou, ii. 99.)
232 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VIII.
notwithstanding all the opposition and obloquy which
it created, came to assume a regular form and recog-
nised position in the State, and both Cabinet and
Prime Minister have long been practically important
parts of our Constitution.
Hyde, then, without the name of Prime Minister,
and holding a position materially different in many
respects from that of the Prime Minister of to-day,
became the chief director of public affairs ; and he con-
tinued ostensibly to hold this position until his hard
fall in 1667. His first colleagues in the Committee
for Foreign Affairs, were Southampton, Monk, Ormond,
Lord Colepepper, and the new Secretaries of State,
Nicholas and Morrice. Hyde, Ormond, Colepepper,
and Nicholas, had formed the King's council of advice
in exile. Colepepper, who was also appointed Master
of the Eolls, died within a few months after the
Eestoration. The Duke of York was called a little
later to the meetings of the Cabinet, and afterwards
Sheldon, the Bishop of London. 1 Thus, in the first
Cabinet of the Eestoration, the Eoyalist party predomi-
nated; Monk (who was not a politician, and did not
shine in council) and Morrice being the only two there
of the King's new friends. The King called which of
his Privy Councillors he chose to this Committee, and,
when he chose, ceased to call them ; some were some-
times called in for the discussion of a particular
measure, sometimes to aid the King in opposing his
usual Cabinet. The active supremacy of the King
must never be forgotten in judging the statesmen of
1 Pepys's Diary, ii. 30, 155.
1660. CLAKENDON'S MINISTRY. 233
this period. Charles the Second continually had secrets
from his Cabinet and Prime Minister, which he en-
trusted to favourites who were not even Privy Coun-
cillors. Most of the labour of administration fell on
the chief Minister, and public odium fell on him for
miscarriages; but a policy for which he was blamed
had sometimes been determined on by Charles without
his knowledge or against his remonstrances, in concert
with other Ministers, or even with household parasites
and mistresses. This soon became apparent under
Clarendon's ostensible chief ministry. The Earl of
Bristol, who had been one of Charles's Secretaries
of State while he was in exile, but who, having em-
braced the Eornan Catholic religion, was excluded from
office and from the 'Privy Council on the Eestoration,
and the Duke of Buckingham, a friend of Charles's
youth, who in May 1662 was appointed a Privy Coun-
cillor but had no office, came to possess the King's ear
and know all his secrets, and used their influence
against Clarendon. Sir Charles Berkeley, a servant of
the Duke of York, afterwards created Earl of Falmouth,
gained a great ascendency with the King by agree-
able personal qualities and by forwarding his pleasures.
Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, who succeeded
Nicholas as Secretary of State in 1662, joined
with Berkeley against Clarendon, who had hoped to
play Bennet against Berkeley ; and all who wished to
thwart Clarendon with the King found an eager patron
in the favourite mistress, Lady Castlemaine, who
nightly held a rival Cabinet in the palace.
The Convention Parliament, which had recalled
234 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VIII.
Charles, was not dissolved until the twenty-second of
December, 1660. The resolution passed by the Lords,
when they first met, for excluding all peers created
since the commencement of the Civil War, was, after
the King's return, rescinded in prompt obedience to
a royal message, and the new peers were admitted to
sit. Two days after the King's entry into London, he
gave his assent to a Bill declaring the two Houses
then sitting to be a legal parliament. It is obvious
that a parliament which had not been legally convened,
if the stamp of law were required, could not thus
invest itself with legality ; but the expedient was useful
for the moment ; and all the acts of this Convention
were afterwards submitted for confirmation to the par-
liament which assembled in the following year under
the forms of the Constitution. The oaths of allegiance
and supremacy were administered to the members of
both Houses. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, now a
member of the Privy Council, was one of the repre-
sentatives of the new Government in the House of
Commons. The others were Morrice, Arthur Annesley,
Holies, Charles Howard, and Sir Heneage Finch, the
Solicitor-General. Cooper at present held no office
besides that of Privy Councillor ; he was not appointed
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Under Treasurer till
nearly a year after the Kestoration, nor till after he
had been made a Peer, which was not till the
Coronation.
A few slight notices of Cooper's speeches in the
Convention Parliament are furnished by some extracts
printed in Cobbett's "Parliamentary History" from a
1660. PAKDON AND INDEMNITY BILL. 235
manuscript Diary of one of the members. 1 It would
seem, from the extracts there published, that Morrice
and Finch took the leading part in the debates in
behalf of the Government.
The question of pardon and indemnity was the first
which called for settlement. The Commons had begun
upon a Bill with this object before the King's arrival,
and he seized the earliest occasion to urge them to
expedite its progress. It was yet some time, however,
before the Bill passed the two Houses ; so many ques-
tions arose about exceptions.
Charles, in his Declaration sent from Breda, in which
he offered a general pardon, had guarded himself by
speaking of such exceptions as might be made by
Parliament ; and in his letter to the House of Commons
which accompanied that Declaration, he had clearly
indicated his expectation that Parliament would exact
an atonement for his father's death. It is clear, both
from previous declarations and from addresses which
he afterwards made to the House of Lords, that the
wish of Charles was, that all who had joined in the
sentence on his father or who had signed his death-
warrant, should suffer the extreme penalties of high
treason. The Commons by no means carried out this
intention. They began by resolving that of the sur-
viving judges of Charles the First who sat when
sentence was passed upon him, seven only should be
1 It is stated that the Diary was communicated to the editors of
the "Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England" by the
Rev. Dr. Charles Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter (vol. iv. p. 73). It would
he of interest to know where this manuscript Diary now is. The Dean
was afterwards Bishop of Carlisle.
236 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
excepted for life and estate. 1 The remainder of such
surviving judges of the King were to be visited with
penalties not extending to life, to be determined by
a future Act. The seven to be excepted for life and
estate were selected : General Harrison, Say, Colonel
John Jones, Scot, Holland, Lisle, and Barkstead. A
proclamation was then published by the King, at the
request of the two Houses, calling upon all the late
King's judges, who sat when sentence was passed, to
surrender on pain of being excepted for life and estate.
Nineteen surrendered in consequence of this procla-
mation. There were eleven who failed to surrender;
and the Commons, before the Bill left them for the
House of Lords, added these eleven to the seven pre-
viously selected to be excepted for life and estate.
Had they surrendered, their lives would have been
secure, so far as depended on the intentions of the
House of Commons. Having thus dealt with the
living judges who had sat when sentence was passed,
the Commons proposed, with regard to their associates
now dead, that Bradshaw, the President of the Court,
i Commons' Journals, May 14, 1660. This resolution has been
misdescribed by Mr. Hallam and other writers, who have made an
unjust charge of inconsistency and breach of faith against the
Commons. Mr. Hallam erroneously says that " the Commons voted
that not more than seven persons should lose the benefit of the
indemnity, both as to life and estate," and then proceeds to represent
all their subsequent exceptions, whether for life and estate or for
minor penalties, as infractions of this first resolution. (Constit. History,
ii. 414.) The resolution was strictly confined to those then living of
the King's judges who had sat when sentence was given, and limited to
seven the number of such judges to be excepted for life and estate.
The Commons were, therefore, quite free both to except for life and
estate others who were not in the category of surviving judges who sat
when the sentence was passed, and to except for minor penalties others
in that category beyond the number of seven. The same mistake
occurs in Mr. Lister's Life of Clarendon, ii. 16.
1660. PARDON AND INDEMNITY BILL. 237
Cromwell, Ireton, and Pride should be attainted by
Act of Parliament, and that the estates of the remainder
should be mulcted by another Act. The Commons then
further excepted for life and estate seven individuals
who were not among the King's judges, but who had
been prominently accessory to his death. These were
Coke, late Chief Justice of Ireland, who had acted
as solicitor for the trial ; Brompton and Dendy, two
officers of the Court, the two persons who were on the
scaffold in disguise when the sentence was executed;
Hewlet, who was accused of having been the King's
executioner ; and Hugh Peters, who had preached many
violent sermons instigating to the King's death. They
excepted for minor penalties to be regulated by a future
Act the survivors, and the estates of such as were dead,
of those judges who had not been present when sen-
tence was passed, but who had sat on previous days
of the trial ; and among the living were Lord Monson,
Harrington, the author of "Oceana," and Robert Wallop.
They likewise excepted for minor penalties, to be pre-
scribed by a future Act, twenty individuals who had
no direct part in the King's trial, but had .been pro-
minent actors in the late revolutions, among whom
were Speaker Lenthall, Sir Harry Vane, Oliver St.
John, Sir Arthur Haselrig, Desborough, Lambert, and
Fleetwood. 1
1 "With reference to this exception of twenty for minor penalties
under a future Act, Mr. Hal lam makes another unjust charge of
inconsistency against the House of Commons. The House resolved on
June 8, that "the number of twenty and no more, other than those
already excepted, or who sat as judges on the late King's Majesty,
shall be excepted out of the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion, for
and in respect only of such pains and penalties and forfeitures (not
238 LIFE OP SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
Such were the exceptions from pardon in the Bill
sent up from the House of Commons to the House
of Lords. A wiser policy, at this moment of general
reconciliation, and when so many who were now in
the councils of the restored King had been as much
guilty of high treason in the eye of the law as his
father's judges, would have spared the lives of all,
and confined itself to measures necessary for future
security. This was the intention of Monk, and the
first advice which he gave to the King. This was the
opinion strongly expressed by several of the Presbyterian
leaders, including the Earl of Northumberland. This
was the earnest desire of Fairfax, who had effectively
contributed to the Eestoration. This was the wish and
hope of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. Ludlow mentions
as a proof of Monk's treachery that, on Lord Saye and
Sele's suggesting to him before the Eestoration that
some who had had a principal part in the King's execu-
tion should be put to death, he replied in anger, " Not
a man ; for if I should suffer such a thing, I should be
the arrantest rogue that ever lived." 1 Mrs. Hutchinson
brands Cooper as a vile traitor, because, before the Eesto-
ration and before the meeting of the Convention Par-
liament, he had strongly protested to her husband
that, if the popular enthusiasm brought back the King,
extending to life) as shall be thought fit to be inflicted on them by
another Act." Mr. Hallam represents that they broke their resolution
by ordering a prosecution of Milton for his books (Const. Hist. ii.
414, note). But the resolution of June 8 did not preclude such a
prosecution : John Goodwin was ordered to be prosecuted at the same
time for a book of his. These orders were made on June 16, while the
House was engaged in selecting the twenty to be dealt with under the
resolution of June 8.
1 Ludlow's Memoirs, iii. 11.
1660. PARDON AND INDEMNITY BILL. 239
not a hair of any man's head nor a penny of any
man's estate should be touched for what had passed. 1
Cooper's or Monk's language would not lose force in
either Ludlow's or Mrs. Hutchinson's description. But
even admitting the words as described, there is clearly
passion and prejudice in both judgments. It does not
require an extraordinary charity to see in both state-
ments evidence of an intention which deserved praise,
and which, certainly so far as Cooper was concerned,
was frustrated by events beyond his power of control.
If Monk could not impose the condition, how was
Cooper to accomplish his desire?
If any were to die, it cannot be said that the Commons
desired an immoderate number of victims. Nor can we
reprobate the feelings which led the son of the murdered
King to demand even a larger expiation of his father's
death. The Lords altered the bill so as to give effect to
the King's wishes. They proposed to except for life and
estate, in one comprehensive clause, all who had sat on
the King's trial at the time when sentence was passed,
and who had signed the death-warrant. They went
further, and excepted for life and estate Vane, Lambert,
Haselrig, Axtel, and Hacker. They also determined to
except for life and estate four of the members of the
High Courts of Justice which had condemned to death
four members of their own body, the Duke of Hamilton,
the Earls of Holland and Derby, and Lord Capel ; and
they gave to the nearest relation of each of these peers
the choice of one expiatory victim. The King had
1 Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, near the end, where
the last restoration of the Rump, and the re -admission of the secluded
members, are briefly spoken of.
240 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
thanked the Lords for excepting all his father's judges ;
but all these additional exceptions for life were against
his expressed wishes. The Lords' amendments were
not acceptable to the Commons, and it was with much
difficulty that the two Houses came to an agreement.
The Commons objected to excepting for life and estate
the regicides who had surrendered in obedience to the
King's proclamation calling on them to do so on pain
of being excepted. They argued, justly, that the natural
interpretation to be put on the proclamation was, that
the lives of those who surrendered should be spared.
It is probable that the Commons, on the one hand, and
the King and Lords, on the other, had concurred in this
proclamation with different meanings. The Commons
had clearly intended it in the sense in which they now
argued that it should be taken ; they had previously
selected seven who should be excepted for life, and
resolved that all the rest should be subjected to penalties
not extending to life : and they proposed by the pro-
clamation to frighten them into surrendering for these
minor penalties, on pain of being excepted for life if
they did not surrender. The King and the Lords, on
the other hand, who were not bound by the preliminary
resolutions of the Commons, and who were for except-
ing all the King's judges for life, must be supposed to
have concurred in the proclamation, understanding it in
the sense in which they now argued that it should be
taken, and which the words may be made to bear, that
those who surrendered should have the benefit of a trial,
while those who did not surrender should be visited,
without trial, with the extreme penalties of high treason.
1660. PARDON AND INDEMNITY BILL. 241
The meaning given to the proclamation by the Commons
was that which the public generally assigned to it. If
the words of the proclamation were only ambiguous,
those who had surrendered should have been allowed
the benefit of the ambiguity. Yet it was with very
great difficulty that the Lords were prevailed upon to
recede one step. After three conferences between the
two Houses, the following compromise was agreed
upon.
The nineteen regicides who had surrendered were to
remain in the bill, as the Lords had placed them, ex-
cepted for life and estate ; but a proviso was introduced
declaring that, if on trial they were sentenced to death,
the sentence should not be carried into effect without a
special Act of Parliament passed for their execution.
The Lords abandoned their proposal of the victims to
avenge the deaths of the peers executed under sentences
of the Commonwealth High Courts of Justice. The
Commons consented to the exception of Hacker and
Axtel for life. Yane and Lambert remained in the bill
as excepted for life ; but the two Houses agreed to
present a joint address to the King, praying him to
spare their lives. Haselrig's life was spared ; and he
was placed in the bill with others to be visited with
penalties not extending to life, which should be fixed
by a future Act. Arthur Annesley, Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper, and Colonel Birch spoke for Haselrig in the
Commons, w^here it was voted to disagree with the
Lords' amendment in his case ; and Monk afterwards
successfully exerted his influence in the Lords to
obtain their acquiescence in the vote of the Commons.
VOL. I. E
242 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
Lambert, Vane, Haselrig, and Axtel had been four of
the twenty, not judges of the late King, whom the
Commons had in the first instance selected for minor
penalties, under a future Act; the remaining sixteen
of these twenty were now, instead of being reserved for
subsequent legislation, declared disqualified from holding
any office; and the same disqualification was imposed
on all who had been members of any High Court of
justice.
Three months had been consumed in discussion ; and
at last, on the twenty-ninth of August, the royal assent
was given to the Act of Pardon, Indemnity, and Ob-
livion. Cooper does not appear to have taken a pro-
minent part in the discussions relative to the Bill of
Indemnity ; his name does not occur in any of the
various Committees appointed during its progress.
Twice he is reported in the Diary already referred to
as having spoken on the side of leniency. On one
occasion he opposed a clause which had been moved
for making all officers who had served under the Pro-
tectorate refund their salaries ; saying that " he might
freely speak, because he never received any salary, but
he looked upon the proviso as dangerous to the peace
> of the nation ; adding, that it reached General Monk and
Admiral Montagu after the House had given them
thanks, and thousands besides." Cooper on this occa-
sion closed the debate, which had lasted above two
hours, and was very animated ; and the clause was
rejected by 180 votes to 151. 1 The other speech re-
ported of Cooper's was on the Lords' amendment
1 Parl. Hist. iv. 78, July 4.
1660. TRIAiS OF THE REGICIDES. 243
excepting Haselrig for life. " Sir A. A. Cooper was for
executing nobody but those who were guilty of the
King's blood, and said he thought this man not con-
siderable enough, and moved to put him with the rest."
Haselrig's life was saved by 141 votes to 116. 1
On the twelfth of September the Parliament was
adjourned for two months, and during this adjournment
took place the trial of those individuals who had been
excepted for life and were in custody.
A Special Commission was appointed for these trials ;
and, to give greater solemnity, all the chief Ministers
and most of the members of the Privy Council were
named Commissioners. The whole number of the Com-
missioners was thirty-four, and among them, of those
who had been adversaries of Charles and of his father,
were Monk and Montagu, now Duke of Albemarle and
Earl of Sandwich, Lords Manchester, Saye and Sele, and
Koberts, Denzil Holies, Arthur Annesley, Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, Secretary Morrice, and Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper. Sir Orlando Bridgman, the Lord Chief Baron
of the Exchequer, a royalist lawyer, presided. Twenty-
eight individuals in all were tried by this Court, and all
were found guilty. Ten of them were immediately
executed : Harrison, Scrope, Clements, Scot, Carew,
Jones, Coke, Hacker, Axtel, and Hugh Peters. The
rest were respited, in accordance with the provision of
the Act of Indemnity that those who had surrendered
in obedience to the royal proclamation should not be
executed unless an Act were expressly passed for their
execution. A bill for this purpose was passed by the
1 Parl. Hist. iv. 109, August 24.
R2
244 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
Commons in the next Parliament/ but was dropped in
the House of Lords, by the wish of Charles himself, and
by the management of Clarendon; and the eighteen
now respited ultimately escaped execution.
Shaftesbury's share in this trial of the regicides has
been generally condemned, not only by enemies, but also
by persons otherwise not unfriendly to his memory.
This much is clearly unjust in the censure lavished on
Shaftesbury, that he has been visited with reproach
from which others similarly situated have gone free.
Even if a distinction can be allowed between Shaftes-
bury and such of his fellow-judges, Manchester, Eoberts,
Holies, and others, who had not only had no part in
the execution of Charles the First, but had kept aloof
from all succeeding governments and had reappeared in
public life only for the Eestoration, how can Monk and
Montagu be distinguished from Shaftesbury ? Montagu
especially had been Cromwell's favoured friend ; he had
been long, as Cooper was for a short period, one of
Cromwell's Council of State ; he had been, what Cooper
had not been, one of Cromwell's Peers. But, in truth,
no fundamental difference can be shown in favour of
the Presbyterian noblemen and gentlemen who had
carried on war against the King, and were now sitting
with Cooper and Montagu in judgment on authors and
abettors of his execution. All had been, according to
the law, guilty of high treason, Manchester, Eoberts,
Saye and Sele, and Holies, not less than Monk, Montagu,
and Cooper ; and none of these who now sat as judges
were less rebels by law than the regicides whom they
judged. The law of high treason, however, apart; there
1660. COOPER A JUDGE OF THE KEGICIDES. 245
is a distinction between complicity in the King's trial
and execution, and all those other acts of war against
his authority and person, and of support of de facto
revolutionary governments, of which many who now
sat as judges on the regicides had been guilty. This
distinction was taken by common consent at the Eesto-
ration. It was part of the compact between King and
people, that amid general pardon, indemnity, and oblivion,
there should be expiation for the execution of Charles
the First. None of those who, having helped to bring
about the Eestoration, sat as judges on this occasion, had
had part in the trial, or approved the execution. Cooper
was as clear of that offence as Holies or Grimstone. If
he acknowledged the government which afterwards stood
between the nation and anarchy, he did so unfettered by
previous connexions, and did what might be done, and
was done, by many good citizens, supporting an existing
authority when none other was probable. If he served
under the Protectorate of Cromwell, gave him inde-
pendent counsel, and was on terms of familiar friendship
with the great Protector and his family, he did not
thereby become an approver of the King's execution, any
more than do those who now admire Cromwell as a great
man, and deem him worthy of a statue among English
sovereigns at Westminster.
Another broad and obvious distinction, which was
also taken at the Eestoration, was between those who,
like Vane, Lambert, and Haselrig, had opposed the
royal family to the last, and those who had done service
in the Eestoration. The Eestoration, like most great
political acts, was a compromise. The members of the
246 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. VIII
Government formed on this eventful occasion had each
and all to make concessions of opinion and sacrifices of
feeling. Eoyalists forgave Presbyterians and Cromwell-
ites ; the King placed old adversaries of his father and
of himself in high offices around him; and it was re-
quired of the Presbyterian leaders to concur in excep-
tions from pardon, and join in the trial for their lives of
some who had brought Charles the First to the scaffold,
and had in arms resisted the Eestoration. It is known
that the Presbyterian leaders, and Cooper in the number,
had endeavoured in the first instance to prevent all
exceptions for life, and afterwards, when they were
unsuccessful in this, to reduce the number of such
exceptions as much as possible. It would have been
far better if those who had kindled the Civil War, or
who had adhered to the governments ol* the Common-
wealth, could have been absent from this trial; but then
it would have appeared as a pure Eoyalist vengeance ;
the nation would not have seemed united.
As regards Cooper, amid all the obscurity which still
exists as to the details of his career during the Common-
wealth, there are two written passages which are safe
guides to the conclusion that he was clear of approval of
the execution of Charles the First and clear of treachery
or servility in the restoration of Charles the Second. One
passage is that in which Hyde, writing confidentially to
Charles nearly twelve months before the Eestoration,
declares it impossible that Cooper should think himself
so great a delinquent as that his estate would be forfeited
if Charles were restored to his father's throne. 1 The other
1 Clarendon State Papers, iii. 512.
1660. FURTHER PROCEEDINGS AGAINST REGICIDES. 247
passage is that in which Shaftesbury, writing in 1677
from a prison to which an arbitrary act of power had
consigned him, solemnly calls the King to witness, in a
letter which he would expect to be read by many
enemies, and saying what none could judge better of
the truth of than the King himself, that he had acted in
the Kestoration as a patriot and a man of honour, had
betrayed no associate, held no private correspondence
with the King, made him no private addresses, and never
endeavoured to make terms for himself or obtain a
reward for his co-operation.
When the Convention Parliament again assembled
after the recess, an Act was passed for the attainder
of Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and Pride, and of the
King's surviving judges who had fled. Some debate
arose on a pr<5posal to allow just debts, legacies, and
funeral expenses out of the forfeiture of the estates.
This was supported by Finch, Annesley, and Holies ;
the last observing that " he had as great an abhorrence
of that black crew as any one." Prynne vehemently
took the other side. Cooper appears to have argued
for the exceptions. He said, " There was reason to
allow settlements before marriage or as far in retro-
spect as 1647." x Both Houses concurred in a reso-
lution that the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton,
and Pride should be exhumed, carried to Tyburn, there
hung up for a time, and then buried under the
gallows ; and this resolution was executed as regards
the bodies of the first three on the next thirtieth of
January. In the first session of the next Parliament,
1 Parl. Hist. iv. 156, Dec. 4.
248 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
an Act was passed for pains and penalties on those
who had been excepted from the Act of Indemnity
for minor penalties by future legislation; and on the
thirtieth of January, 1662, Lord Monson, Sir Henry
Mildmay, and Eobert Wallop, three of the King's
judges who had sat on previous days of the week,
but not when sentence was given, were carried through
the streets on hurdles, pinioned, and with halters round
their necks, from the Tower to Tyburn and back
again. It has been already stated that a bill, after-
wards introduced to authorize the execution of those
of the King's judges who had surrendered themselves,
was not proceeded with; it had passed the House
of Commons, but was stopped in the Lords. Yane
and Lambert were brought to trial for their lives in
1662, by order of the House of Commons, notwith-
standing that in the Convention Parliament both
Houses had presented an address to the King, desiring
that in any event their lives might be spared, and
the King had acceded to this desire. Vane was
executed ; Lambert's life was spared by the exercise
of the King's prerogative. The executions in England
ended, in 1662, with three of the King's judges who
had fled to Holland and were given up by the States.
In Scotland there had been three other executions ;
the three victims were the Marquis of Argyle, Guthrie
a clergyman, and one Gowan, of whom Burnet says
that " the man was inconsiderable, till they made
him more considered by putting him to death." All
the expiations by life, for the death of Charles the
First and the past rebellion, have now been enumerated.
1660. SETTLEMENT OF KEVENUE. 249
During the recess of the Convention Parliament,,
which continued till the sixth of November, Sir
Anthony Ashley Cooper was named member of a
Council of ten appointed to superintend the plantations
or colonies, and also member of a very numerous
Council for trade. It is clear from many papers pre-
served at St. Giles's, that Shaftesbury gave great atten-
tion to the business of these two councils, and later
chapters will contain proofs of his official diligence
in these matters.
There appears to be a mistake in the statement
made by some biographers, that Cooper was appointed
after the Eest oration Governor of the Isle of Wight,
The commission previously given him by Monk for
that government may possibly have been renewed
temporarily under the royal authority. But there is
no doubt that the second Lord Colepepper was
appointed Governor of the Isle of Wight in 1662, on
the surrender of the Earl of Portland's patent from
Charles the First. 1 An act granting a supply for the
disbanding of the army had received the royal assent
before the adjournment, at the same time as the Act
of Pardon and Indemnity ; and Cooper soon ceased
to hold a cavalry colonelcy.
When the Convention Parliament met again in
November, the two questions which chiefly engaged its
attention were revenue and the Church. The House
of Commons had already agreed, before the adjourn-
1 Lord Campbell erroneously states that Cooper was made Lord
Lieutenant of Dorsetshire at this period. He never obtained this
office. In "Rawleigh Redivivus" it is said that he received it in
1672, but this is a mistake.
250 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
ment, to a vote to settle a revenue of 1,200,OOOZ. a
year on the King for his life. The ways and means
were now to be provided ; these were derived from
an increase of excise duties, an increased tax on wine
licences, and the post-office. The Court of Wards and
all military tenures of knight-service were abolished,
and the King was recompensed for the loss of revenue
from the Court of Wards with one-half of the new
excise duties. In the passing of this measure Cooper
had a part. " Sir A. A. Cooper spoke against the
Court of Wards and for the excise." l He had suffered
grievously in youth from the Court of Wards.
As regards the Church, a measure was passed without
difficulty for restoring to their livings such of the
ejected Episcopal clergymen as were still alive, and for
confirming Presbyterian incumbents in all cases where
the ejected clergyman was dead, or where the actual
incumbent had been presented on a legal vacancy.
But though this measure was now passed without
difficulty, the next Parliament refused to confirm it;
and the Act of Uniformity made general havoc with
the Presbyterian clergymen whose titles were thus
legalized. The Presbyterian party had high hopes,
immediately after the Eestoration, of such a settlement
of the Church establishment as would be agreeable to
their own views of discipline and economy ; and a bill
for this purpose was early introduced under the title
of " An Act for the maintenance of the true Eeformed
Protestant Church and for the suppression of Popery,
superstition, profaneness, and other disorders and inno-
1 Extract from MS. Diary in Parl. Hist. iv. 148, November 21.
1660. DEBATES ON KELIGION. 251
vations in worship and ceremonies." On the sixth of
July this bill was read a second time, and referred to
a Committee of the whole House, which was ordered
to meet for matters of religion every Monday. The
difficulty of reconciling the views of the royalist Episco-
palians with those of the Presbyterian party, by which
this bill had been brought forward, soon became appa-
rent ; and the result of the deliberations in Grand
Committee was to adjourn the Committee for three
months and recommend an address to the Crown,
desiring his Majesty to call a number of divines to
advise with him on matters of religion. Brief reports
of two discussions on this bill in Committee of the
whole House are given in the Parliamentary History
from the Diary already mentioned ; and in one of
them Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper appears urging the
postponement of the question : " Sir A. A. Cooper said,
our religion was too much mixed with interest, neither
was it ripe enough now to handle that subject, and
moved that this debate be now laid aside, and the
whole Committee adjourned for three months." After
a long debate, which lasted till the very unusual hour
of ten at night, the Committee having " sat an hour
in the dark before candles were suffered to be brought
in, and then they were twice blown out, but the third
time they were preserved, though with great disorder,"
the vote which has been mentioned, and for which
Cooper spoke, was come to. 1 The King now called
a meeting of Episcopal and Presbyterian divines ; and
1 Parl. Hist. iv. 79, 82, July 9 and 16. There is clearly some
mistake in the Parliamentary History in giving the same vote as
carried at the end of both these debates.
252 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. VIII.
a Declaration, drawn by Hyde, was submitted to them
and issued during the recess, well adapted for con-
ciliation of the Presbyterians. But the Declaration was
necessarily provisional and subject to the future deci-
sion of Parliament ; and it further avowed the King's
intention of submitting the Liturgy of the old Church
to revision by a synod equally composed of Episco-
palian and Presbyterian divines, and of asking the
advice of Convocation on all matters of ceremony and
discipline with a view to future legislation. It also
repeated the promise contained in the Declaration from
Breda of "liberty to tender consciences, and that no
man should be disquieted or called in question for
differences of opinion in matters of religion, which do
not disturb the peace of the kingdom;" with the addi-
tion, also contained in the Declaration from Breda,
which implied the necessity of legislative sanction, that
" we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parlia-
ment as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to
us for the full granting of that indulgence." The
Declaration gave high satisfaction to the Presbyterians :
Dr. Keynolds, a leading Presbyterian divine, imme-
diately after accepted the bishopric of Norwich ;
Eichard Baxter refused indeed a bishopric, but seri-
ously considered the proposal. When the Parliament
re-assembled in November, the House of Commons
immediately thanked the King by acclamation ; but
an attempt made by Presbyterian members to pass
an Act confirming the Declaration was not successful.
This bill was opposed by the Government, and also
by some Presbyterian members, among others Serjeant
1660. DISSOLUTION OF CONVENTION PARLIAMENT. 253
Maynard; and it was rejected on the second reading
by a majority of twenty-six. It is difficult to elicit
from the scanty and somewhat confused information
which exists what were the exact reasons for rejec-
tion of this bill ; but some members appear to have
stated that it went further than the 'Declaration, and
others urged waiting for a synod, as had been intended
in the Declaration. 1 The King's government probably
opposed the bill with the intention of consulting Con-
vocation, and with the desire, through the constitutional
mediation of that body and of a legal Parliament, to
give legal effect hereafter to the various conciliatory
concessions of the Declaration. The King himself
seems really to have desired an extension of the basis
of Church communion so as to comprehend the Pres-
byterians and a general toleration of other sects,
including Eoman Catholics.
This Convention Parliament was dissolved on the
twenty-seventh of December. It was "beginning,"
says Pepys, " to grow factious." 2 There had been,
a fortnight before, a debate on grievances raised by
Sir Walter Erie on a money-bill, according to old
custom. " Sir Walter Erie moved to do somewhat for
the good of the people, in lieu of those great payments,
and complained of some disorders in the army. He
said that soldiers had come into some houses he knew
of, and, calling the people ' Eoundheads,' had done
much mischief." Sir John Northcote seconded the
motion. Colonel King, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Bamp-
1 Parl. Hist. iv. 141, 152, November 6 and 28.
9 Pepys's Diary, i. 169.
254 LIFE OF SHAFTESBTJKY. CHAP. VIII.
field complained of the power of Lord Lieutenants.
Sir George Booth complained of great abuses abroad.
Here was an array of old Presbyterian members
grumbling already. Sir Heneage Finch, Colonel Charles
Howard, and other ministerial members, urged that
the remedy would be the settlement of the militia ;
a bill proposed for this purpose had been rejected.
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper appeared also in defence
of the King's government. "Those things," he said,
" had no approbation from his Majesty, but checks ;
and he moved for a law to know how to walk by
a rule, but to pass over such things as could not be
justified." l
i Tarl. Hist. iv. 160162, December 13.
CHAPTER IX.
16611664.
Meeting of new Parliament Cooper made Lord Ashley at the Corona-
tion Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Under Treasurer
Violent policy of the new Parliament The Corporation,
Uniformity, and Militia Acts Lord Ashley's opposition to these
measures The King and Clarendon endeavour to check the violence
of the High Church party Bill for confirming Presbyterian
ministers in vacant livings Dispensing clause proposed in the
Uniformity Bill by Clarendon on the King's recommendation
Refused by the Lords Charles promises a three months' suspension
of the Act of Uniformity, but cannot fulfil his promise King's
marriage Sale of Dunkirk King's Declaration of Indulgence,
December 26, 1662, advised by Bennet, Bristol, and Lord Ashley
Dispensing Bill presented to House of Lords by Lord Roberts by
the King's desire Lord Ashley warmly supports the Bill
Clarendon opposes it Despatches of the French Ambassador,
M. de Comminges Clarendon's inaccuracies The Dispensing Bill
dropped Proclamation for banishing Jesuits and Roman Catholic
priests Conventicle Act Lord Ashley grows in favour with the
King His ability and influence Bristol's attack on Clarendon
Lord Ashley and others work against Clarendon with encourage-
ment 'from the King Testimonies to Lord Ashley's assiduity and
ability.
THE Convention Parliament having been dissolved, a
new Parliament was immediately called. This met for
the first time on the eighth of May, 1661, and con-
tinued in existence for eighteen years.
When the new Parliament assembled, Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper was no longer a commoner. He had,
within the preceding month, on the occasion of the
Coronation, been raised to the Upper House with the
title of Baron Ashley of Wimborne St. Giles. This
256 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. VIII.
was one of several honours conferred at the same time
on Boyalists and on old adversaries who had obtained
the King's pardon and favour. Of the former class,
Hyde, who had previously been created Baron Hyde,
was promoted to be Earl of Clarendon; Lord Capel,
for his father's services and death, was raised to be
Earl of Essex ; Sir John Grenville was created Viscount
Lansdowne and Earl of Bath ; Lord Brudenell was
made Earl of Cardigan, and Sir Frederick Cornwallis
Baron Cornwallis. The old adversaries who had con-
tributed to effect the Kestoration now rewarded were,
Charles Howard, who became Earl of Carlisle ; Arthur
Annesley, who had lately inherited the Irish peerage
of Viscount Valentia, Earl of Anglesea ; Crewe, Baron
Crewe ; Holies, Baron Holies ; Sir Horatio Townshend,
Baron Townshend ; Sir George Booth, Baron Delamere ;
and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Baron Ashley. 1
A few days after the meeting of Parliament, on the
thirteenth of May, Lord Ashley was appointed Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer and Under Treasurer. The
place of Chancellor of the Exchequer had been held up
to this time by Clarendon, and the duties of Under
Treasurer had been discharged by the Lord Treasurer,
1 Lord Campbell says that Shaftesbury always took to himself the
whole merit of the Restoration, representing Monk as his tool, and "in
the preamble to his patent of peerage he introduced a statement that
this ' happy event was chiefly brought about by the efforts of our right
trusty and well-beloved Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper. ' " There is no
such passage in the patent. The following is a correct translation of
an extract from the patent : " After very many endeavours of bringing
a remedy to these evils, undertaken with as much prudence as
possible, at length by his counsels, in concert with our beloved and
faithful George Monk, knight, c., &c. he did a service worthy to be
remembered, and most grateful to us, in the great business of restoring
us to our kingdom, and delivering his country from the bitter servitude
under which it so long groaned. "
1661. NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS. 257
the Earl of Southampton, in pursuance of letters patent,
specially authorizing him to discharge them. Lord
Ashley probably owed this appointment in some measure
to his connexion by marriage with the Earl of South-
ampton : his wife was Lord Southampton's niece. 1 Lord
Ashley held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer
until he was made Lord Chancellor in November 1672.
He ceased to be Under Treasurer when, after Lord
Southampton's death, the Treasury was put into com-
mission in 1667, he himself, as Chancellor of the
Exchequer, being one of the Commissioners.
The new House of Commons, elected while the
nation's fit of exuberant revived loyalty was not yet
over, presented a large majority of enthusiastic Eoyalists
and High Churchmen. They began by voting that the
League and Covenant, and the Acts for erecting a High
Court of Justice for the trial of Charles Stuart, for sub-
scribing the Engagement, for establishing a Common-
wealth, and for renouncing the title of the present King,
and for security of the Protector's person, should be
burnt by the common hangman in Westminster Hall.
They required every member to take the Sacrament
kneeling. They restored the bishops to the House of
Lords. They passed an Act for the punishment of
any one who should call the King a heretic or papist,
or should assert either that the Long Parliament was
not dissolved or that Parliament possessed legislative
1 Lady Ashley, the third wife, married in 1656 (see p. 121), was
daughter of Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, by Penelope, sister of the
Earl of Southampton. Mr. Hallam has made a mistake in speaking
of Sir Philip Warwick as Chancellor of the Exchequer ; he held the
subordinate office of Secretary of the Lord Treasurer. (Const. Hist. ii.
423, note.)
VOL. I. S
258 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
authority independently of the King. They also passed
an Act declaring the sole right of governing the militia
to be in the King. Old royalists were in ecstacies. A
few days after the meeting of the Parliament, Daniel
O'Neil, an old servant of the King, wrote to Archbishop
Bramhall. " The Parliament will settle the militia upon
the King and his heirs, a step never yet made towards
the perpetual peace of these nations. In a word, there
is nothing relative to the good of the kingdom and his
Majesty's satisfaction but this Parliament is prepared to
do." * But moderate men, who desired conciliation and
tranquillity, shook their heads. Eoger Pepys, member
for Cambridge town, told his relative the diarist that
things were basely carried on in Parliament by the
young men, that did labour to oppose all things that
were moved by serious men. " They are the most pro-
fane swearing fellows that ever he heard in his life,
which makes him think they will spoil all, and bring
things into a war again if they can." 2
Three measures of the utmost practical importance,
and containing much mischief, were passed in the first
session of this Parliament, which lasted, with an inter-
vening adjournment from July till November, until
May 1662. These measures were :
1. The Act for the government of Corporations,
which appointed commissioners empowered to remove
all officers in corporations at their discretion, and re-
quired all who were retained, or who were hereafter
appointed, to renounce the League and Covenant as
1 Eawdon Papers, p. 150, May 23, 1661.
2 Pepys's Diary, i. 212, July 31, 1661.
1662. ACT OF UNIFORMITY. 259
an unlawful oath, take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy, and declare on oath their belief of the
unlawfulness of taking up arms against the King on
any pretence whatever, and their abhorrence of the
traitorous doctrine that arms may be taken up by his
authority, against his person or against those com-
missioned by him ; and which also provided with regard
to future officers, that no man should be eligible who
had not within the year before his election taken the
Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of
England. By this Act, all Dissenters from the Church
were excluded from municipal offices:
2. The Act of Uniformity, which enacted that the
Book of Common Prayer and of Ordination of Ministers,
as revised by the Convocation in a spirit anything but
favourable to Nonconformists, should be used in all
places of public worship, and that all beneficed clergy-
men should, on some Sunday before the feast of St
Bartholomew, August 24, in 1662, read the service
from it, and at the close of the service declare their
" unfeigned assent and consent to everything contained
and prescribed in it," on pain of deprivation ; that no
person should administer the Sacrament or hold eccle-
siastical preferment who had not received episcopal
ordination ; and that all incumbents, dignitaries, officers
in universities, public schoolmasters, and even private
tutors, should subscribe a renunciation of the Covenant
and a declaration of the unlawfulness of taking up
arms against the Sovereign, the same tests as had been
inserted in the Corporation Act. Here, then, was a sad
substitute for that Act for confirming the King's
s2
260 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. I XI
gracious Declaration of October 1660, which had nearly
been passed by the Convention Parliament; rigorous
exclusion took the place of conciliation and com-
prehension :
3. The Act for ordering of the military forces, which
enjoined on all lord lieutenants, deputy lieutenants,
and all officers and soldiers, the same tests as were
contained in the Corporation and Uniformity Acts,
excepting the renunciation of the Covenant.
There was a more vigorous opposition to these Acts
in the House of Lords than in the House of Commons.
In the Upper House much opposition was offered,
though unsuccessfully, by a small band of noblemen
of the old Presbyterian party, including Lord Ashley,
and reinforced by the Earl of Southampton. Lord
Ashley is stated by Mr. Martyn, probably on the
authority of that portion of Stringer's manuscript
which cannot now be found, to have argued strongly
and wisely against the Corporation Bill :
" Lord Ashley set forth the ill consequences of the
bill in various instances ; viz. the injustice it might
do to the wealthiest, the most able, and the most
conscientious members of their respective corpora-
tions; the fixing these in the hands of perhaps the
most profligate persons in them, at least the dividing
of the people into parties; and he showed that, as it
would be a restraint upon those who had a regard
to their oaths and their country, it was the most
effectual method which could be contrived for lodging
the executive power of the Government in the hands
of such persons as could make no difficulty of sub-
1662. OPPOSES BILLS AGAINST DISSENTERS. 261
jecting the whole nation to an absolute tyranny of
both Church and State." 1
Of the Uniformity Bill Mr. Martyn states that " the
Earl of Southampton and Lord Ashley were remarkably
strenuous against several clauses, and the former, being
told that it was believed he had spoken three hundred
times against the bill, answered that he was so firmly
persuaded of the fatal consequences of it, that he would
have spoken three hundred times more to have pre-
vailed." And again, it is stated by the same writer
that the Earl of Southampton and Lord Ashley, with
others, warmly opposed the Militia Act. 2 These state-
ments of Mr. Martyn as to Lord Ashley's opposition
to the measures of 1662 are generally confirmed by
the well-known and valuable pamphlet bearing the
title of a " Letter from a Person of Quality to a Friend
in the Country," published in 1676, which is printed in
Locke's Works, but which is without doubt erroneously
ascribed to Locke. 3 They are further confirmed by
i Martyn's Life, i. 255. 2 Ibid. pp. 260, 262.
3 I make this assertion positively, on the authority of an unpublished
letter of Locke in the possession of Mr. E. A. Sanford of Nynehead
Court, Somersetshire, from which Mr. Sanford has kindly given me
permission to print an extract. Locke's letter is addressed to the
Earl of Pembroke, and was written December 8, 1684, soon after he
was deprived of his studentship in Christchurch, Oxford. " I have
often wondered, in the way that I lived and the make I knew myself of,
how it could come to pass that I was made the author of so many
pamphlets, unless it was because I of all my Lord's [Shaftesbury's]
family happened to have been most bred amongst books. This opinion
of me I thought time and the contradictions it carried with it would
have cured, and that the most suspicious would at last have been
weary of imputing to me writings whose matter and style have, I
believe (for pamphlets have been laid to me which I have never seen),
been so very different that it was hard to think they should have the
same author, though a much abler man than me. . . . And it is a
very odd fate that I did get the reputation of no small writer without
having done anything for it. For I think two or three copies of verses
262 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
the whole tenour of Shaftesbury's subsequent political
life.
The violent legislation of the High Church and
Royalist party was displeasing to Charles, who felt
that his promises from Breda were substantially, if
not literally, broken ; and it was displeasing also, though
perhaps in a less degree, to his honest but prejudiced
adviser, Clarendon. The opposition made, before the
Act of Uniformity was passed, to the confirma-
tion of the Act of the Convention Parliament for
confirming Presbyterian ministers in vacant livings
was strongly resented by both King and Chancellor,
and no historian has done justice to this conduct. The
following is from a letter written by Doctor, after-
wards Sir Peter, Pett to Archbishop Bramhall, on the
eighth of February, 1662:
" There have been great animosities lately, and heats
in the House of Lords, about the bill for the confirma-
tion of ministers that passed in the last Parliament
in England, save only as to those livings where Lords
had the jus patronatus, which the Commons in this
Parliament would have had the Lords join with them
in exploding. At first all the bishops in the House
of Lords were against it, and most of the Protestant
lords temporal. But my Lord Chancellor was resolved
to oblige the Presbyterians by keeping the Act from
being repealed, and at last got seven of the bishops to
join with him, five of which I have not forgot the
names of, and they were the Bishops of London, Nor-
of mine published with my name to them have not gained me that
reputation. Bating these, I do solemnly protest in the presence of
God that I am not the author, not only of any libel, but not of any
pamphlet or treatise whatever in part good, bad, or indifferent."
1662. KING'S DISPENSING CLAUSE. 263
wich, Exeter, Lincoln, Worcester. 1 The Duke of York
was likewise brought over by his father-in-law, and the
Earl of Bristol was v Jiement in the thing, and all the
Popish lords. The Presbyterian ministers sent Calamy,
Baxter, and Bates, that day to the Chancellor to give
him thanks. Some of the Commons, going to the
King' the day before to desire him to express himself
positively against the confirmation of the ministers,
he said he had promised them at Breda the continuance
in their livings; whereupon they said that the Com-
mons might possibly, many of them, be tempted not to
pass the bill intended for enlarging of his revenue, if
his Majesty would favour the confirmation of the Pres-
byterian ministers ; to whom the King answered that,
if he had not wherewith to subsist two days, he would
trust God Almighty's providence rather than break his
word." 2
These facts, which rest on unexceptionable authority,
place the conduct of the King and of Clarendon in a
new light, and are much to their credit. But they did
not succeed in procuring confirmation of the Act.
Again, no historian has noticed the fact that a very
earnest effort was made by the King and Clarendon,
while the Bill of Uniformity was in the Lords, to
introduce a clause enabling the King to dispense
with its provisions. Such a clause was presented by
Clarendon to the House of Lords on March 17, as
" recommended from the King." 2 Notice was taken the
next day of this recommendation, probably by Bristol,
as an infringement of the privilege of Parliament, but
1 These five bishops were Sheldon, Reynolds, Ward, Sanderson,
and Moiiey.
2 Rawdon Papers, p. 137.
264 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. IX.
a motion made for a resolution saving the privilege of
the House was negatived. The bill was recommitted
on the nineteenth, with a reference to the Committee
of "the proviso sent from the King." But the Com-
mittee did not adopt the clause. Archbishop Bram-
hall's correspondent, Sir Peter Pett, and Pepys, both
mention Clarendon's eagerness in advocating this clause,
which was violently opposed by Bristol. 1 The Duke
of York warmly supported Clarendon. " The Presby-
terians and other "Nonconformists," says Pett, "would,
as I am credibly informed by a knowing person, have
offered to the King as great a revenue for their tolera-
tion as he will have from chimneys, if the aforesaid
proviso would have passed among the Lords and
Commons and had the royal assent." It is strange
that Clarendon in his " Life " makes no mention of this
memorable incident.
The. Act of Uniformity received the royal assent
on the nineteenth of May, 1662. Three months only
remained for the Presbyterian clergy to make their
choice between conformity and loss of their prefer-
ments. An attempt was made in the interval to work
on the King to obtain by proclamation, or by order of
the Privy Council, or in some other way, some relief
from the provisions of the Act, or at least an extension
of time. Charles promised a three months' suspension
of the Act ; but he was unable to fulfil his promise.
The bishops denied his power to suspend, and declared
1 Rawdon Papers, pp. 141, 143 ; Pepys's Diary, i. 336, March 21,
1662. This clause, the terms of which have not before been published,
is printed from the Rolls of the House of Lords in the Appendix VI.
It is not given in the Lords' Journals.
1662. KING'S DECLARATION. 265
that they must and would execute the Act. Monk and
Manchester, on this occasion, warmly urged the sus-
pension prayed by the Presbyterian ministers, but they
were overruled by Clarendon and the King's other
Eoyalist advisers, and especially by the zeal of Bishop
Sheldon. 1 When St. Bartholomew's Day came, two
thousand Presbyterian clergymen obeyed conscience
and quitted the Church.
After the close of the session of 1662 came two
events of importance, with neither of which, however,
was Lord Ashley specially connected, the King's
marriage with the Princess Catharine of Portugal, by
which Bombay and Tangier became British possessions ;
and the sale of Dunkirk to France, from want of money,
for four hundred thousand pounds. In October, Sir
Henry Bennet, better known by the title which he
afterwards acquired of Earl of Arlington, replaced
Nicholas as Secretary of State, and Bennet's influence
soon became prejudicial to the supremacy of Clarendon.
Under the influence of Bennet, Bristol, and Ashley,
the King issued, on the twenty-sixth of December, 1662,
while Parliament was not sitting, an important declara-
tion as to the Act of Uniformity. He declared his
desire to exempt from its penalties " those who, living
peaceably, do not conform themselves thereunto through
scruple and tenderness of misguided conscience, but
modestly and without scandal perform their devotions
in their own way," and, " without invading the freedom
of Parliament, to incline their wisdom next approach-
1 Burnet's Own Time, i. 331 ; Pepys's Diary, ii. 30, Sept. 3, 1662 ;
Clarendon's Continuation of Life, i. 159.
266 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
ing session to concur with him in making some such
Act for that purpose as may enable him to exercise
with a more universal satisfaction that power of dis-
pensing which he conceived to be inherent in him."
This was intended for the benefit of Eoman Catholics
as well as Protestant Nonconformists, and so was pro-
moted by Bristol, who had opposed the dispensing
clause proposed to be inserted in the bill. Bennet
wrote to the Duke of Ormond that this Declaration,
before it was published, was read twice over to Claren-
don, who not only approved, but applauded it. Claren-
don, however, also wrote to Ormond to deny this
statement. 1 It was not his act, he said, and he would
have nothing to do with it.
On the meeting of Parliament in February 1663, a
bill was immediately presented to the House of Lords,
not by Clarendon, but by Lord Koberts, the Lord Privy
Seal, bearing the title, " An Act concerning His Majesty's
Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs," which was to enable
the King by letters patent under the Great Seal, or in
such other way as he might think fit, to dispense with
the Act of Uniformity, and " with any other laws or
statutes concerning the same or requiring oaths or
subscriptions, or which do enjoin conformity to the
order, discipline, and worship established in the Church
of England, and the penalties in the said laws imposed,
or any of them." 2 The High Church party in the
House of Commons were no less eager to denounce
1 See the two letters of Bennet and Clarendon in vol. iii. of Lister's
Life of Clarendon, pp. 231 233.
2 The bill is printed for the first time in the Appendix VI. from
the Bolls of the House of Lords.
1663. LORD EOBERTS'S DISPENSING BILL. 267
the Declaration of December ; and on the very day on
which Lord Eoberts's bill was read a second time in
the House of Lords, the Commons voted an address to
the King, strongly deprecating the passage in his
Declaration which proposed indulgence to Noncon-
formists. The Lords, having procured a list of all eccle-
siastical laws which might be dispensed with under
the measure introduced by Lord Koberts, adopted, on
the fifth of March, a resolution restricting the opera-
tion of the bill to the Act of Uniformity. The bill was
ultimately dropped. It was opposed by Southampton
and Clarendon, and zealously supported by Lord Ashley.
The account given by Clarendon in his " Life," of the
proceedings in the House of Lords with reference to
this bill, is inaccurate ; and, though there is no doubt
that he was against the bill, his opposition in the
House of Lords does not appear to have been nearly so
strong as he represents it. The correspondence of the
French ambassador, the Count de Comminges, contains
some reliable particular information. The Count wrote,
on March 9, that Clarendon had excused himself from
attending the House of Lords on account of illness,
that it was thought he would not go again until
matters were satisfactorily arranged, and that he had
wished to be absent from deference to the King's
opinions in favour of the bill, which he could not
advocate without injury to his conscience. On March
12, Comminges writes that the Chancellor had been
that day to the House of Lords and obtained a month's
delay for the bill, which would give time for the
arrangement of the matter. " He appeared," says the
268 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
Count, " to take no side in the matter ; lie managed
well his master's reputation, the designs of the Parlia-
ment, and his own conscience, which he believes con-
cerned." 1 On this day, the twelfth, the Lords went
into committee on the bill ; and also on the day follow-
ing, when the Grand Committee, or Committee of the
whole House, appointed a sub-committee, after which
there is no further mention of the bill. This tallies well
enough with the statement of Comminges. Clarendon
most incorrectly says, in his "Life," that the bill was
never committed ; that indeed " it was agreed there
should be no question put for the commitment, which
was the most civil way of rejecting it, and left it to be
no more called for." The bill had been ordered to
be committed on the twenty-fifth of February; the
Lords went into Committee of the whole House upon it,
the Lord Chamberlain (Manchester) being appointed
Chairman, on the twenty-seventh, and again on March
5, 6, 12, and 13. On April 9 Comminges wrote that
" Clarendon, who had acquired great credit in the
House of Commons at the beginning of the session by
his opposition to the bill, has now almost quite lost
it by the ambiguous manner in which he has twice
lately spoken: his friends lose heart, and his enemies
decry him to the King."
Of Lord Ashley's vigorous support of the bill there
is no doubt. Mr. Martyn gives a short account of his
arguments :
" Lord Ashley took notice of the fatal consequences
1 Archives of French Foreign Office.
1603. SUPPORTS DISPENSING BILL. 269
of the Act of Uniformity ; that by it great numbers of
ministers were reduced to beggary ; that many Pro-
testants were running into other countries, to the pre-
judice of trade and the dishonour of the kingdom;
that the Reformers in King Edward the Sixth's reign
had acted in a different manner ; for they had, like wise
and good men, contrived the doctrine and discipline of
the Church so as to enlarge the terms of communion ;
that they had set open the doors, and by gentle means
persuaded and invited all they could into the Church,
thinking that the enlargement of their body would
redound to the honour of their religion." 1
Clarendon represents Lord Ashley as the keenest and
ablest supporter of the bill.
" The Lord Privy Seal," he says, " either upon the
observation of the countenance of the House or adver-
tisement of his friends, or unwilling to venture his
reputation in the enterprise, had given over the game
the first day, and now spoke not at all ; but the Lord
Ashley adhered firmly to his point, spake often and
with great sharpness of wit, and had a cadence in his
words and pronunciation that drew attention. He said,
it was the King's misfortune that a matter of so great
concernment to him, and such a prerogative as it may
be would be found to be inherent in him without any
declaration of Parliament, should be supported only by
such weak men as himself, who served his Majesty at a
distance, while the great officers of the Crown thought
fit to oppose it; which he more wondered at because
nobody knew more than they the King's unshakeable
firmness in his religion, that had resisted and vanquished
so many great temptations, and therefore he could not
, * Martyn's Life, i. 285.
270 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
be thought unworthy of a greater trust with reference
to it than he would have by this bill." 1
The bill, as has been said, was shelved in Committee,
and this fresh endeavour of the King to procure tolera-
tion led to fresh measures of severity. The two Houses
voted an Address to the King for a proclamation for the
banishment of Jesuits and Eoman Catholic priests, and
the King assented to their prayer. A severe measure
against Dissenters' meetings for prayers was introduced,
and became a law in the following session of 1664.
This Act, commonly known as the Conventicle Act,
declared all meetings of more than five, besides members
of the family, for any religious purpose not according to
the Book of Common Prayer, to be seditious and un-
lawful conventicles, and punished attendance at such
meetings by a fine of five pounds or three months'
imprisonment for the first offence, a fine of ten pounds
or six months' imprisonment for the second, a fine of
a hundred pounds or transportation for seven years for
the third, and added a hundred pounds to the fine for
every offence after the third. One of Clarendon's many
inaccuracies is a statement that the Conventicle Act
was one of the reasons why Bennet and Ashley urged
the bill for indulgence brought in by Lord Eoberts. 2
This Conventicle Act was a subsequent measure, passed
a year later.
The failure of the bill which Lord Eoberts had in-
troduced by the King's desire caused Charles much
disappointment, and sensibly estranged him from Cla-
i Clarendon's Continuation of Life, p. 247. 2 Ibid. p. 245.
1663. LOKD ASHLEY'S FAVOUR AND REPUTE. 271
rendon and the bishops. Lord Ashley rose in favour
and influence with the King. Clarendon mentions that
Lord Ashley and Lord Eoberts were now called to attend
the meetings of the Cabinet. Pepys, whose political
gossip is always valuable, records on May 15, 1663 :
" It seems the present favourites now are my Lord
Bristol, Duke of Buckingham, Sir H. Bennet, my Lord
Ashley, and Sir Charles Berkeley, who among them
have cast my Lord Chancellor upon his back, past ever
getting up again." And he goes on to speak of Lord
Ashley in particular. " Strange to hear how my Lord
Ashley, by my Lord Bristol's means (he being brought
over to the Catholic party against the bishops, whom he
hates to the death, and publicly rails against them, not
that he is become a Catholic, but merely opposes the
bishops), is got into favour, so much that, being a man
of great business and yet of pleasure and drolling too,
he, it is thought, will be made Lord Treasurer on the
death or removal of the good old man." The " good old
man" was Southampton. Clarendon was not yet fallen
past rising again, and it will be seen that he and Ashley
came to be on cordial terms before Clarendon's fall, more
than four years afterwards. The Count de Comminges
also notices Lord Ashley's growing reputation, and his
present antagonism to Clarendon. He thus wrote, April
9, 1663 : " Lord Ashley, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who was formerly of Cromwell's Council, and who in my
opinion is the only man who can be set against Cla-
rendon for talent and firmness, does not shrink from
speaking his opinions of Clarendon with freedom, and
contradicting him to his face. He has gone so far that
272 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
he has made the King perceive that Clarendon's alliance
with the Duke of York was very prejudicial to him, and
as he is very acute and a very good courtier, and is
perfectly well in the King's graces, it is suspected with
sufficient probability that Lord Bristol and Secretary
Bennet and Morrice and all the rest of that clique may
well give trouble to the Chancellor, and place him in a
disagreeable position."
A foolish and violent attempt of Bristol to impeach
Clarendon for high treason, made in the House of Lords
towards the close of the session of 1663, tended to
Bristol's own injury, and to the revival for a time of
Clarendon's influence. Bristol's charges were referred
by the Lords to the Judges, who advised that his pro-
ceeding was irregular, and that the charges did not
involve treason. The King sent a message to the Lords,
in which he stated that Bristol's charges against the
Chancellor contained several statements which he knew
of his own knowledge to be untrue, and many scan-
dalous reflections on himself and his relations which he
regarded as libels against his person and government.
The King banished Bristol from his presence. Lord
Ashley appears to have taken part in a discussion on
the opinion given by the Judges in order to maintain
that the Judges' opinion was not a law for the Lords,
but only advice and information ; " and this," says
Pepys (mentioning that Lord Ashley told him so),
" the Lords did concur in." 1 This may have led to his
being thought to favour Bristol's proceeding against the
Chancellor, of which there is no direct or better evidence.
1 Pepys's Diary, iv. 200.
1664. OPPOSED TO CLAKENDON. 273
As the next meeting of Parliament drew near, it was
rumoured that Bristol intended to revive his charges,
and Pepys was told that Lord Ashley and Lord Lauder-
dale, the Secretary of State for Scotland, " open high
against the Chancellor." 1 But the matter was not again
brought forward.
M. de Euvigny, who had succeeded the Count de
Comminges as Trench Ambassador, wrote on February
4, 1664, that the great enemies of Clarendon were
Bristol, Lauderdale, and Ashley ; and he adds that Cla-
rendon's old friend Ormond is joined to them, though
Clarendon cannot believe it. In a later letter from
Euvigny it is mentioned that Clarendon had persuaded
Ormond to come over to London from Ireland, that he
might converse with him and receive his confidence
as against " the cabal of Lord Lauderdale, which has
swindled him (escroque) out of knowledge of all the affairs
of the kingdom." Euvigny proceeds to say that Lauder-
dale is " united with Ashley, Lord Eoberts, and some
others, who spare no pains to ruin Clarendon in the free
convivial entertainments which are of daily occurrence.
They do not scruple to speak of him with freedom in
the presence of the King, who has had his own witticism
(mot) like the rest in the excitement of conviviality,
thus giving free scope to all his guests, each of whom
has spoken part of what was on his mind." 2
Pepys's description of Lord Ashley as "a man of
great business, and yet of pleasure and drolling too,"
has been quoted ; and some other notices of him occur
1 Pepys's Diary, ii. 279, Feb. 1, 1664.
2 Archives of French Foreign Office.
VOL. I.
274 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. IX.
in Pepys's Diary. Pepys went to him on business on
the twenty-seventh of May, 1663, and wrote down : " I
find my Lord, as he is reported, a very ready, quiet, and
diligent person." The Kussian Minister Eesident took
as high a measure of him as the French Ambassador,
Comminges. Pepys writes, June 6, 1663 : " Sir John
Hebden, the Eussia Eesident, did tell me how he is
vexed to see things at Court ordered as they are by
nobody that attends to business, but every man himself
or his own pleasures. He cries up my Lord Ashley
to be almost the only man that he sees to look after
business, and with the ease and mastery that he wonders
at him." 1
Lord Ashley had now thrown himself, heart and soul,
with all the ardour of his nature, into administrative
duties. His latest biographer, Lord Campbell, unable now
to taunt him with turbulence, ridicules him for diligence
and regularity in public business. " After the Eestora-
tion," says Lord Campbell, "his conduct for the next
seven 'years seems wholly inexplicable, for he remained
quite regular, and seemingly contented. He had a little
excitement by sitting as a Judge on the trial of the regi-
cides, and joining in the sentence on some of his old
associates. These trials being over, he seemed to sink
down into a Treasury drudge." The duties of a
Chancellor of the Exchequer two hundred years ago
may not have been so numerous and arduous as now ;
but the office was a high office of state, and the station
of Privy Councillor was one of greater responsibility
and dignity than it is in the present day. To speak
1 Pepys's Diary, ii. 169.
16G4. DILIGENCE IN OFFICE. 275
contumeliously of Shaftesbury as a mere Treasury
drudge, because, with brilliant talents, he was a
laborious Chancellor of the Exchequer, is unworthy of
a serious biographer. 1
1 Two letters of this period written to Lord Ashley, preserved
among Lord Shaftesbury's papers, may be printed here. The first is
from the Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, soliciting his good offices for
a pension : her mother, the ex-Queen of Bohemia, aunt of Charles II.,
had died in London in February 1662. The Princess had entered the
Protestant nunnery of Herfort or Herworden in Prussia, and she became
ultimately its Abbess.
"Herf&rt, Sept. 13, 1662.
"MY LORD, The kindness you have expressed to the Queen my
mother, and my brothers, since their being in England, makes me hope
you will continue the like to me, in reference of the pension which his
Majesty has been pleased to confirm upon me, there being none of her
Majesty's children at the present more in need of this benefit than
myself, nor anybody in the world that shall be more sensible of your
goodness and more desirous to appear,
"My Lord,
"Your affectionate friend to serve you,
"ELISABETH.
" For the Lord Ashley Cooper,
Chancellor of the Exchequer to His Majesty at London."
The other letter is from the Secretary, Sir Henry Bennet, soon to be
made Lord Arlington, praying Lord Ashley's aid for confirmation of a
possession, the King having, it appears, been bribed with a share in
the property ; and Shaftesbury has docketed this letter, " Papers for my
justification." Shaftesbury declared always that he had never jobbed for
grants for himself ; and this declaration has never been discredited.
" MY LOKD, I have sought your Lordship this day to beseech you
to move in the House of Lords the obtaining an order for the quiet
possession of Wildmore Fen to the proprietors, wherein his Majesty
hath accepted of a share, and upon the same account to procure my
Lord Treasurer to be favourable to it ; and this to be done to-morrow,
if Mr. Attorney be present, otherwise that your Lordship would defer
it till another day.
" I am, my Lord,
" Your Lordship's most humble servant,
" HENRY BENNET.
"May 11, 1663."
CHAPTEE X.
16641667.
Lord Ashley's position at the beginning of 1664 Attention to revenue
and trade Dutch war Opposed by Clarendon, Southampton, and
Ormond and supported probably by Ashley Appointed Treasurer
of Prizes Clarendon's hostility to the appointment Affectionate
letter to his wife, February 26, 1665 Grant of Carolina to Lord
Ashley and seven others The Plague The King visits Lord Ashley
at Wimborne St. Giles's Session of Parliament at Oxford, Oct-
ober 1665 Appropriation Clause in Supply Bill unsuccessfully
opposed by Clarendon and Ashley The Five Mile Act Opposed
strongly by Southampton and Ashley but prosecuted by Clarendon
Bill for general imposition of oath against endeavouring change
in Church or State opposed by Ashley Letter to his wife from
Oxford, November 23, 1665 Beginning of acquaintance with Locke
Friendship of Locke and Shaftesbury Session of 1666-67
Complaints of expenditure and misappropriation Act against
importation of Irish cattle Supported by Ashley Earl of Ossory's
insult and apology Discussion with Viscount Conway Rumoured
possible Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Secret treaty between Louis
XIV. and Charles II. Dutch fleet enters the Thames and burns three
men-of-war at Chatham Peace of Breda Death of Earl of South-
ampton Office of Lord High Treasurer put in commission and Lord
Ashley one of the Commissioners Clarendon's account of the
appointment of the Commission Proceedings of the Commis-
, sioners Sir William Temple and Lady Fanshawe blame Shaftesbury
for their economies Clarendon removed from the Chancellorship
Lord Ashley unjustly accused of conspiring against Clarendon
Opposes the impeachment of Clarendon without specific treason
assigned and falls into disgrace with the King for supporting
Clarendon Clarendon's exile Lord Campbell's misstatements
Charge of licentiousness against Shaftesbury.
THE end of the last chapter has brought us to the
beginning of 1664. The subject of this biography is
now Lord Ashley, a Peer, a Privy Councillor, and Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. His abilities and independence,
1664. ATTENTION TO REVENUE AND TEADE. 277
the favour of the King and his intimacy with Arlington,
Lauderdale, Bristol, and others, who in various ways
thwarted Clarendon and menaced his ascendancy, have
made him already formidable to the too jealous and
imperious Chancellor. In the House of Lords he has
distinguished himself by strenuous and eloquent oppo-
sition to all the measures of Church exclusiveness and
oppression of Protestant Dissenters which were enacted
after the Eestoration. He was very diligent as a
Minister, and gave the greatest attention to all matters
of revenue and trade. Papers of his have been pre-
served which show his minute care and industry in
collecting details as to the Exchequer, the customs and
excise, the navy, the merchant companies, and all
branches of our trade, manufactures and revenue. 1 In
the study of details he did not lose sight of principles,
and some of his views were in advance of the time.
He was an enemy of monopoly, and said that "the
restraining of a general trade was like the damming
of increasing waters, which must either swell them to
force their boundaries, or cause them to putrefy where
they are circumscribed." 2
In the session of Parliament from March 16 to
May 17, 1664, the Conventicle Act, already men-
tioned, was passed, 3 the famous Triennial Act of the
Long Parliament, making a new parliament every three
years compulsory on the King, was repealed, to please
1 Martyn's Life, 289293.
2 Ibid. 292 ; and see in Appendix I. of the second volume Shaftes-
bury's memorial addressed to the King, probably in 1669, and Mr.
Martyn's account of his recommendations in 1672 for a Council of
Trade, paraphrased from a paper of Shaftesbury's.
3 Seep. 270.
278 LIFE OP SHAFTESBUKY. CHAP. X.
Charles, and a report of a Committee on the complaints
of our merchants against the Dutch, followed by an
address of both Houses to the King couched in very
strong language, gave a sanction and intensity to
national jealousy and irritation, which paved the way
for the war with the Dutch declared by England in
the following year.
It is well ascertained that Clarendon, Southampton,
Ormond, and other old advisers of Charles were against
this war, and were overborne by, the popular feeling
and the warlike animosities of the Duke of York and
of Monk, Duke of Albemarle. 1 Bristol, Arlington, and
others, with whom Ashley was latterly more or less
associated, were promoters of the war; and Sir William
Coventry, the Secretary of the Duke of York as Lord
High Admiral, and Clifford, the future Lord Treasurer,
were conspicuous in the House of Commons for hostility
to the Dutch. There is no authentic information of
Ashley's sentiments or line of action. But it may be
inferred from the opinions of those with whom he was
now most friendly, and from his zealous attention to
i M. de Kuvigny wrote, September 12/22, 1664 : " The King, Chan-
cellor, and Treasurer are against making war, but allow themselves
to be carried away by the crowd." (Archives of French Foreign Office.)
In an anonymous memoir on the origin of the war in the same archives,
which was furnished from England, the Earl of Bristol is said to have
first recommended the war. It is there said that Bristol having no
office or hope of any, formed intimate relations with Thurloe, Ashley,
Trevor and other Cromwellites, the most skilful men in England, and
that Trmrloe showed Bristol Cromwell's papers, and told him that
Cromwell had had two great objects, one to make himself King, and
the other to destroy the power of Holland. Later, it is said in this
memoir, the Parliament, the City of London, and the Council were for
the war, but Clarendon, Southampton, and Ormond kept the King in
suspense ; he was, however, at last carried away, yielding to the im-
portunities of the Duke of York and of Monk, and goaded by libels
and insolent discourses of the Dutch.
1665. APPOINTED TREASURER OF PRIZES. 279
English trade, that he was, like all the younger
statesmen, on the side of war. The war, indeed, was
regarded by the nation, which had become infuriated
by Dutch insults, injuries, and cruelties to English
merchants in all parts of the globe, as necessary for
upholding the honour and preserving the commerce of
England.
In a session which began on November 24, 1664, and
ended on March 2, 1665, the House of Commons
enthusiastically voted a very liberal supply of two
millions and a half sterling, and war was declared
against Holland on February 22, 1665.
It is the more probable that Lord Ashley was a sup-
porter of the war with Holland, as, when war was deter-
mined on, he was appointed by the King, and evidently
to the great annoyance of Clarendon, Treasurer of Prizes.
Clarendon says that Ashley's appointment contained a
proviso that he was to be accountable to the King and
to no one else, and was to make payments in obedience
to the King's warrant under his sign manual and by
no other warrant, and was to be exempt from accounting
into the Exchequer. To this arrangement Clarendon
says that he made great opposition, desiring that the
proceeds of prizes should go into the Exchequer and be
available solely for the expenses of the war ; but the
King was immoveable, and Lord Ashley's appointment
was made as originally proposed. 1 Clarendon's narrative
of this incident is so obviously tinged by asperity
towards Ashley, that many of its details must be re-
garded with distrust ; but his substantial statement
1 Continuation of Life of Clarendon, 575 581.
280 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
that the King reserved power over the distribution of
the proceeds of prizes is correct.
The following is the substance of what regards Lord
Ashley in Clarendon's statement about this appoint-
ment. A servant of Lord Ashley came to him one
evening with the appointment signed, and desired from
his master that the Chancellor's seal might be put to it
that night. Clarendon bade the messenger tell Lord
Ashley " that he would speak with the King before he
would seal that grant, and that he desired much to
speak with himself." The next morning Clarendon
saw the King, and remonstrated ; he represented the
proposed proceeding as unprecedented, and as opening
the way to frauds on the King himself, who would have
no check if the receivers of prizes were exempted from
accounting to the Exchequer ; he further described it
as a slight to the Lord Treasurer, " there being another
Treasurer much more absolute than himself, and without
dependence on him." The remonstrance produced no
effect. "He [Clarendon] found that the King had not
been surprised in what he had done, which, he said,
was absolutely in his own power to do, and that it
would bring prejudice only to himself, which he had
sufficiently guarded against. However, he seemed
willing to decline anything that looked like an affront
to the Treasurer, and therefore was content that the
sealing it might be suspended till he had further con-
sidered." Lord Ashley now went to Clarendon, and
" seemed to take it unkindly that his patent was not
sealed." Clarendon answered "that he had suspended
the immediate sealing it for three reasons, whereof one
1665. TREASUREKSHIP OF PRIZES. 281
was that he might first speak with the King, who, he
believed, would receive much prejudice by it; another
that it would not consist with the respect he owed to
the Lord Treasurer, who was much affronted in it, to
seal it before he was made acquainted with it ; and in
the last place, that he had stopped it for his, the Lord
Ashley's, own sake ; and that he believed he had neither
enough considered the indignity that was offered to the
Lord Treasurer, to whom he professed so much respect,
and by whose favour and powerful interposition he
enjoyed the office he held, nor his own true interest, in
submitting his estate to those incumbrances which such
a receipt would inevitably expose it to ; and that the
exemption from making any account but to the King
himself would deceive him ; and as it was an unusual
and unnatural privilege, so it would never be allowed in
any court of justice, which would exact both the
account and the payment or lawful discharge of what
money he should receive, and if he depended upon the
exemption he would live to repent it." Lord Ashley,
according to Clarendon, sullenly replied " that the King
had given him the office, and knew best what was good
for his own service, and that except his Majesty re-
stricted his grant, he would look to enjoy the benefit of
it ; that he did not desire to put an affront upon the
Lord Treasurer, and if there were any expressions in his
Commission which reflected upon him, he was content
they should be mended or left out ; in all other respects
he was resolved to run the hazard." Southampton, the
Lord Treasurer, whom Clarendon describes as much
hurt, would not interfere, " but sat unconcerned, and
282 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
took no notice of anything." It is not improbable that
Clarendon misrepresented or exaggerated Southampton's
feeling. The end of it was that " within a short time
the King sent a positive order to the Chancellor to seal
the Commission, which he could no longer refuse, and
did it with the more trouble, because he very well knew
that few men knew the Lord Ashley better than the
King himself did, or had a worse opinion of his
integrity."
The question here at issue was one like several others
that arose during this reign, a question of power and
old prerogative against reason and public advantage.
That Clarendon was right in his view of this matter, so
far as concerns public expediency, we who live in days
when prerogative has long since been wholesomely re-
duced and regulated, can have no doubt. But the King
cannot be unreservedly blamed for insisting on the
exercise of a power which he thought rightfully his.
Personal bias and irritation probably made Clarendon on
this occasion the opponent of royal prerogative, which
in other similar instances he upheld. Lord Ashley
was doubtless stimulated by his own advantage in his
resistance to Clarendon's opposition to the proposed
arrangement. The dangers to Ashley himself, pictured
by Clarendon's imagination, were never in the least
realized.
During this war, and in the straits of the Govern-
ment for money, the question of the justice and neces-
sity of appropriation of prize-moneys to the needs of
the war was often raised. There was a body of Com-
missioners of Prizes, and one of these was Sir William
1665. WAR PRIZES. 283
Coventry, Lord Ashley's brother-in law, who was Secre-
tary to the Lord High Admiral, and one of his Council,
a man of great ability, and the real administrator of the
Admiralty for the first eight years of the reign of
Charles the Second. Pepys mentions a proposal by Sir
W. Coventry to the Duke of York, April 3, 1667, to
devote 3,700. worth of prize goods to payment of a
debt for the war, when "the Duke of York, Sir George
Carteret, and Lord Berkeley saying, all of them, that
my Lord Ashley would not be got to yield it, who is
Treasurer of the Prizes, Sir W. Coventry did plainly
desire that it might be declared whether the proceeds of
the prizes were to go to the helping on of the war or no,
and, if it were, how then they could be denied." 1 Another
entry of Pepys in his Diary shows the worthy Secretary
of the Admiralty astonished at Lord Ashley's not
quailing before the great man of his office. " With
Sir W. Warren, who tells me that, at the Committee of
the Lords for the Prizes to-day, there passed very high
words between my Lord Ashley and Sir W. Coventry
about our business of the prize ships, and that my
Lord Ashley did snuff and talk as high to him as he
used to do to any ordinary man, and that Sir W.
Coventry did take it very quietly ; but yet for all did
speak his mind soberly and with reason, and went
away saying he had done "his duty therein." 2 An order
1 Pepys's Diary, iv. 4.
2 Ibid. iii. 173, March 21, 1666. These statements by Pepys of
differences between Ashley and Coventry are the more interesting,
as Clarendon, in his story of Ashley's appointment to be Treasurer of
Prizes, speaks of him as "fast linked to Sir Harry Bennet and Mr.
Coventry in a league offensive and defensive, the same friends and the
t>ume enemies."
284 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
from the King to stop the sale of some prize goods
asked for by the Duke of York for the use of the navy,
is stated by Pepys to have made Lord Ashley very
angry. 1 Pepys dined with Lord Ashley on the twenty-
third of September, 1667, and took an opportunity before
dinner of looking over his prize accounts. " We were
put in my Lord's room before he could come to us, and
there had an opportunity to look over the state of his
account of the prizes, and there saw how bountiful the
King hath been to several people ; and hardly any man
almost, commander of the navy of any note, but hath
some reward or other out of them ; and many sums to
the Privy Purse, but not so many, I see, as I thought
there had been ; but we could not look quite through it.
But several bedchamber men and people about the
Court had good sums, and, among others, Sir John
Minnes and Lord Brounker have 200L a-piece for
looking to the' East India prizes, while I did the work
for them." 2 No imputation was ever made against
Lord Ashley himself for misappropriation of funds ; the
distribution was under the King's orders. The accounts
of the prizes were inspected by the Commission ap-
pointed in 166.8 for examination of public accounts,
and no charge of any sort was made against Lord
Ashley.
A letter written by Lord Ashley a few days before
the close of the session of 1664-5, to his wife in the
country, gives a pleasing glimpse of him in his family
1 Pepys's Diary, iii. 376-8, January 16 and 19, 1667.
2 Ibid. iv. 201. The proceedings of the Commissioners of Prizes,
in three folio volumes, are preserved in the British Museum. (Harl.
MSS. 1509-11.)
1665. LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 285
relations. His only son, who had just completed his
thirteenth year, was now going to Oxford to begin his
studies there, it being then customary to enter the
Universities at so early an age. The son was entered
at Trinity College. " My brother Eobert," mentioned
in the following letter, was Lady Ashley's brother,
Eobert Spenser 1 and " My lady " is the widow Lady
Spenser of Wormleighton, the mother of Lady Ashley,
whom her son Eobert would be going to fetch away
from St. Giles's. " My Lord Northumberland " was one
of the survivors of the leaders of the Presbyterian party
at the beginning of the Civil War, who had concurred as
a venerable member of that party in the Eestoration.
The Earl of Northumberland recovered from the ill-
ness here spoken of; he died in October 1668. Lady
Ashley's nephew, the Earl of Sunderland, had lately
married a niece of Lord Northumberland; and Lord
Northumberland's eldest son was married to a cousin
of Lady Ashley, a daughter of the Earl of Southampton,
the Lord Treasurer, and Lord Ashley's intimate friend.
"My brother Chicheley" was Mr., afterwards Sir
Thomas, Chicheley, of Wimpole in Cambridgeshire,
1 Robert Spenser, brother of the Earl of Sunderland who fell at Edge-
hill, and uncle of the Sunderland who was minister to Charles II. and
James II., was created a Scotch peer, with the title of Viscount Teviot,
by James II. in 1686. A mention of him in one of the Countess of
Sunderland's, his sister-in-law's, charming letters to Lord Halifax, shows
him in strong opposition to Shaftesburv's politics in the days of the
Popish Plot and Exclusion Bill. "My brother Spenser," says Lady
Sunderland, " was yesterday in town ; he had a mind to see his sister
[Lady Shaftesbury], and sent her to meet him at Southampton House
[Lord Russell's], He would not go to my Lord Shaftesbury's, because
of his proceedings against the Duke [of York]. My Lord Russell asked
him why he would come to his. He might have told him, ' You are but
a blind follower.'" (July 8, 1680. Lady Russell's Life and Letters,
edited by Miss Berry, 1819, p. 354.)
286 LIFE OF SHAFTESBUEY. CHAP. X.
who had married a sister of Shaftesbury's first wife,
one of the daughters of Lord Keeper Coventry, who
had previously been the wife of Sir William Savile,
and who by this first marriage was mother of the
celebrated George Savile, Lord Halifax. The affec-
tionate tone of this letter is very pleasant. 1
" LONDON, February 26, 1665.
" MY DEAREST, I received yours of the 23rd instant
just now and write this by James Percivall. I have
some hopes of seeing you Wednesday sevennight and
coming the Monday after away with you for London. My
brother Eobert goes this week for Petworth, where he is
like to find a sad house, for my Lord Northumberland is
reported in great danger, but I hope he will be with you
so as my lady will remove next week, for it will be not
only inconvenient but dangerous to remove too great a
company. 2 The safest road is Winchester and Guild-
ford. If my lady be not well or able to travel, I beg
she will not think of removing until she be well. My
dearest, you gave my child the best thing that could be,
but his extreme wilful disorders taken in eating always
gives me great fears until he be removed to a place of
other discipline. I have provided all things Teady for
him at Oxford, and desire you will borrow Sir Edward
Hooper's or any other of my neighbours' coaches and
1 This letter is printed from the papers at St. Giles's.
2 The danger and inconvenience of too great a company was probably
from the badness of the roads. Lady Russell, describing her journey in
1678 from London to Tunbridge "Wells, writes : " I do really think if I
could have imagined the illness of the journey, it would have dis-
couraged me ; it is not to be expressed how bad the way is from Seven-
oaks ; but our horses did exceeding well, and Spenser very diligent,
often off his horse to lay hold of the coach." (Lady Russell's Letters,
i. 38, ed. 1853.)
1665. LETTER TO HIS WIFE. 287
four horses who may in three days carry him and Mr.
Craven to Oxford. Mr. Bergen shall not go with him,
but to London with us. You may acquaint Laurence
that I shall desire him to go along and see him settled.
I intend his journey the same day with ours on this
day fortnight; he may lodge at Clarendon the first
night, at Hungerford the next, and at Oxford the third,
no journey above twenty mile. I hope my niece's
toothache is breeding, but pray tell her I beg she will
resolve not to leave her son less than her husband was
left. I hear she has taken a waiting woman, a house-
keeper, and a chambermaid. If so, I am sorry for it,
Mr. Constantine is my author. A chambermaid and a
washraaid had been enough ; let her not think I
fiddlingly disturb her, but I love to speak early, as
knowing what things will come to ; and I rely so much
on her kindness to me that she will lay down all
romance and take up discretion. I am extremely
joyed with her behaviour towards her husband as you
describe it. My brother Chichely 1 has given Colonel
Fagg ten thousand pound for his place of Lieutenant
of the Ordnance, and 'tis said he owes twice that sum
before. We hear no more of that ill news of my Lord
Berkley. 2 I had rather you had found treasure than
1 Mr. Chicheley was appointed Commissioner of the Ordnance in
November 1664, with Sir John Minnes, Lord Berkeley of Stratton, and
Sir John Duncombe for colleagues. (Pepys's Diary, ii. 396.) He appears
to have been extravagant ; and Lord Ashley speaks of him as in debt.
Pepys mentions his dining with him in Queen Street, Covent Garden,
March 11, 1668. "A very fine house, and a man that lives in mighty
great fashion, with all things in a most extraordinary manner noble
and rich about him, and eats in the French fashion all ; and mighty
nobly served with his servants, and very civilly ; so that I was
mightily pleased with it ; and good discourse. He is a great defender
of the Church of England, and against the Act for Comprehension."
(Diary, iv. 387.)
2 This was probably Lord Berkeley of Stratton, so created in 1658,
formerly Sir John Berkeley, whose account of his negotiations in 1647
288 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
pictures, but I satisfy myself in the portion I have in this
world, and that treasure God has given me in so faithful
and affectionate a wife, to whom I ever vow myself,
" A most sincere and truly affectionate husband,
" ASHLEY."
In the year 1663 a grant had been made by the King
of the province of Carolina, now part of another mighty
dominion, to nine individuals, of whom one was Lord
Ashley. The other eight were the Duke of Albemaiie,
the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Craven, Lord Berkeley,
Sir George Carteret, Sir John Colleton, and Sir William
Berkeley. The grant was renewed in June of this year,
1665, to all the original grantees, except Sir John
Colleton. Lord Ashley took a leading part in the
management of this grant. Locke, at his request, drew
up a constitution for the colony, which is dated 1669.
In 1670 another grant was made by the King of the
Bahama or Lucayo Islands, to the second Duke of
,Albemarle (the famous Monk having died in the in-
terval), Earl of Craven, Lord Berkeley, Lord Ashley,
Sir George Carteret, and Sir Peter Colleton. A large
volume of letters written by Shaftesbury about the
affairs of the two colonies of Carolina and the Bahamas,
showing his very great attention to them, is preserved
at St. Giles's. 2
for Charles I. with Cromwell is published under the title of Sir John
Berkeley's Memoirs. He was now one of the Lord High Admiral's
Council and a Commissioner of the Ordnance, and was afterwards Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland. I do not know what ill news is here referred to.
1 See "The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina" in Locke's
Works, x. 175, ed. 1812.
2 Two of these many letters are printed in Mr. Martyn's life, vol. ii.
p. 95. The letters are too numerous to insert in this work, and they
Lave no general interest.
1665. OXFOBD SESSION. 289
The degree of Lord Ashley's favour at this period
with the King is shown by the King's visiting him
in September of this year, at his country house at
Wimborne St. Giles. The plague was now raging
in London, and the King and Court had been stay-
ing for some time at Salisbury. The only known
notice of this royal visit to Lord Ashley is contained
in a letter from Lord Arlington, who was with the
King, to the Duke of Ormond in Ireland, written
from Salisbury, September 11, 1665. " His Majesty
is, God be thanked, perfectly well recovered, and is
now in his coach gone to divert himself at my Lord
Ashley's, whither I am following him, and from whence
I shall be to send your Grace such a present as this
the next week." 1
On -account of the plague, the Parliament was called
to meet at Oxford in October, and there a short session
was held, beginning on the ninth and ending on the
thirty-first of October. In this short session, however,
much business was got through. An additional supply
of a million and a quarter for the war was granted,
and a present of 120,OOOZ. was voted to the Duke of
York, whose valour and success in the first naval
battle of the war, off Lowestoft, on June 3, had made
him a popular hero. Clarendon gives a long account
of a proviso introduced into the Supply Bill of this
session, at the suggestion of Sir George Downing,
and with the approval of the King, " to make all the
money that was to be raised by this bill to be supplied
only to those ends to which it was given, which was the
1 Miscellanea Aulica, p. 361.
VOL. I. U
290 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
carrying on the war, and to no other purpose whatsoever,
by what authority soever." Though the object of this
clause seems to be very much the same as Clarendon
says he had in view when he opposed the conditions of
Lord Ashley's appointment of Treasurer of Prizes, he
now strongly opposed Sir George Downing' s clause as
an encroachment on the King's prerogative, as well
as an impediment to the administration of finances.
Ashley, who at first had favoured the clause, was also an
opponent. The bill had passed the Commons and was
in the Lords, when, at the instance, Clarendon says, of
Lord Ashley, the King summoned a few of his chief
advisers to a meeting at Clarendon's lodgings, for the
reconsideration of the proviso. There were present with
the King the Duke of York, the Chancellor (who was
in bed with the gout, wherefore the meeting was in
his bedroom), Lord Southampton, Lord Ashley, Lord
Arlington, and Sir W. Coventry ; also the Attorney and
Solicitor- General to draft any amendments which might
be approved of, and Sir George Downing to defend his
proposal. " The Chancellor had never seen the proviso
which contained all the novelty (for all the other parts
of the bill were according to the course), and the
Treasurer had read it only an hour or two before the
meeting ; the Lord Ashley, therefore, who had heard it
read in the House of Peers, and observed what that
House thought of it, opened the whole business with
the novelty and the ill consequence that must inevitably
attend it, all which he enforced with great clearness and
evidence of reason, and would have enlarged with some
sharpness on the advisers of it. But the King himself
1665. APPROPRIATION CLAUSE OP SUPPLY BILL. 291
stopped that by declaring that whatsoever had been done
in the whole transaction of it had been with his privity
and approbation, and the whole blame must be laid to his
own charge, who, it seems, was like to suffer most by it."
The end of it was that the bill passed the House of
Lords with the proviso unaltered. 1 Clarendon inac-
curately says that the King agreed to some " small
amendments, which would be as soon consented to in
both Houses as read/' and that with such amendments
the bill was passed. The Lords made no alteration
whatever, and the amount of opposition made in the
House of Lords is probably much exaggerated by
Clarendon, for the bill, which was only sent up to the
House of Lords on the twenty-first of October, was
passed without any alteration, and without a division
at any stage, on the twenty-third. This is another
instance of conflict in this reign between prerogative
and public interest, and the influences and traditions
of office made Lord Ashley an opponent, as is still
frequently the case with parliamentary officials, of a
change which in an independent position he would
probably have supported. The King's need of money
and desire to conciliate Parliament induced him to
admit, in spite of Clarendon and Ashley, and contrary
to his own high notions of prerogative, the principle
of parliamentary appropriation of money voted, which
is now an uncontested and highly prized part of our
constitution.
The agreement of Clarendon and Ashley on the sub-
ject of this proviso for the Supply Bill may have helped
1 Continuation of Life of Clarendon, 792 803.
u2
292 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
to improve their relations and bring them to friendship
for a time, for in the following January, Euvigny writes
that fhQj were on the most confidential terms. " Bennet
and Ashley," he wrote, " appear to be the two chief con-
fidents of the Chancellor, which last year would have
been incredible; so great is the force of ambition and
interest." 1
During the October session at Oxford, another Act,
on which Clarendon and Ashley widely differed, was
added to the list of persecuting measures against Dis-
senters. This is the Act known by the name of the
Five Mile Act. By it Dissenting ministers were pro-
hibited, under a penalty of forty pounds for every
offence, from going, unless only in passing on the road,
within five miles of any city, corporation, borough,
town, or place where they had been ministers, or had
preached, after the Act of Oblivion, unless they first
took the following oath: "I do swear that it is not
lawful, under any pretence whatever, to take up arms
against the King, and that I do abhor the traitorous
position of taking up arms by his authority against his
person, or against those that are commissioned by him
in pursuance of such commissions, and that I will not
at any time endeavour any alteration of government
either in Church or State." The Earl of Southampton,
Lord Ashley, and Lord Wharton strongly opposed this
measure in the House of Lords. 2 The courageous labours
1 Ruvigny to De Lionne, January 9/19, 1666, in Archives of French
Foreign Office. Euvigny says of Bennet in the same passage that he
" has as great a share in the King's pleasures as in business." He does
not say the same of Ashley.
2 Letter from a Person, of Quality in Locke's Works, r. 203 ;
1665. NON-RESISTANCE OATH. 293
of Dissenting ministers at this very time, amid the
ravages of the plague in London, should, now at least,
have procured for them consideration, instead of
increased severity; and policy strongly counselled
measures for uniting the nation, instead of increasing
heartburnings, when England was at war with Holland,
and expecting that France would immediately declare
war as Holland's ally.
But not content with the Five Mile Act, some of its
supporters introduced into the Commons during this
session a bill for imposing on the whole nation the oath
not to take up arms against the King or endeavour to
make any alteration of government either in Church or
State. The bill was rejected, but only by the small
majority of six. It is a singular circumstance, which
has been noted, that in the majority were three members
who had appeared in the House that day for the first
time, Mr. Peregrine Bertie, a younger son of the Earl of
Lindsey, who took his seat that day as a new member,
and the two members who introduced him, his eldest
brother, Lord Bertie, and Sir Thomas Osborne, who soon
afterwards became celebrated as Lord Treasurer and
Earl of Danby. 1 Had these three voted the other way,
the numbers would have been equal ; and it is extra-
ordinary that ten years later the same bill was proposed
and pressed by Lord Danby, and introduced into the
Martyn's Life ii. 302. Bishop Btirnet dwells on Lord Southampton's
vigorous opposition (Own Time, i. 390-1).
1 Letter from a Person of Quality in Locke's "Works, x. 204 ; Hallam's
Constitutional History, ii. 475. Mr. Martyn has erroneously repre-
sented the bill of 1665 as having been defeated in the Lords, and has
indeed altogether misapprehended the story told by the " Person of
Quality." (Life, i. 302.)
294 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
House of Lords by the same Lord Bertie, who was then
Earl of Lindsey and Lord Chamberlain.
Lord Ashley stayed a few weeks at Oxford after the
prorogation, as appears from the folfowing letter to his
wife, who was at Wimborne St. Giles. He may have
stayed there to be with his son. " My sister Cooper " is
of course the wife of his brother George. The postscript
shows fear of the plague at Oxford.
"OXFORD, Nov. 23, 1665.
" MY DEAREST DEAR, I received a letter last night from
my sister Cooper, which brought me the sad news of your
being ill, and that you had sent for no advice. She very
kindly and discreetly gave me a punctual account of the
manner of your disease, which I have consulted Dr.
Willis upon ; he is one of the learnedest and most famed
physicians in the world ; he has given me the enclosed
directions, and fearing you might not get the things so
suddenly or well made, I have caused his apothecary to
make them and have sent them to you by this bearer, my
groom, with your oil of almonds and spirits of hartshorn.
All this I have done lest Dr. Hurst be not in the country
near you, for else I wonder you would not send for him,
which I require you upon all the love you bear me
immediately to do, and show him these directions, but
I would not have you stay from using these things as
soon as they come to your hand. Pray show them and
this letter to my good lady your mother, who, I doubt
not, will have care of you, for it very much adds to my
affliction that 'tis not possible for me to come to you
this week ; but if you continue ill, I have Dr. Willis
his promise to go with me to you. The Lord in mercy
1 From Lord Shaftesbury's papers at St. Giles.
1666. LOCKE'S FRIENDSHIP. 295
preserve my dear, and restore your health, is the most
hearty and humble prayer of,
" My dearest,
" Your most truly affectionate husband,
" ASHLEY.
" Pray, my dear, send up somebody that can purify
our linen, for the concourse of people frights us all
more than ever, though it abates well at London."
In June, 1666, Lord Ashley was again at Oxford, and
he, on this occasion, accidentally made an acquaintance
with John Locke, which rapidly ripened into an intimate
friendship. Lord Ashley was now suffering much from
an internal swelling, the consequence of the accident
which befel him when he went over to Breda on the
eve of the Eestoration, and he had been advised to
drink the mineral waters of Astrop. Before arriving at
Oxford, he had written to a physician there, Dr. Thomas,
requesting him to procure some of these waters for him.
Dr. Thomas, being obliged to leave Oxford at this time,
entrusted the commission to Locke, who had lately
returned to Oxford from diplomatic employment in
Germany, and was now residing as a Student of Christ
Church and studying medicine. Locke waited on Lord
Ashley, who was greatly pleased with his visitor ; and
this visit was the origin of a life-long friendship between
these two celebrated men. Lord Ashley went from
Oxford to stay at Sunning Hill and there drink the
Astrop waters, and Locke accompanied him. Locke
was again his companion at Sunning Hill, in the year
following. Afterwards he became an inmate of Lord
296 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
Ashley's house, and one of his family, and his constant
medical adviser. Eecommended by Lord Ashley to the
young Earl and Countess of Northumberland, he went
with them to France in 1669. 1 When in November,
1672, Shaftesbury became Lord Chancellor, he ap-
pointed Locke one of his Secretaries ; and soon after
he made Locke Secretary of the Council of Trade and
Plantations, of which he was President from September
1672 to April 1676. In the year 1674, Shaftesbury
gave Locke a life annuity of a hundred pounds on easy
terms. 2 The eager and restless politician and the calm
and high-minded philosopher remained on terms of
affectionate intimacy till Shaftesbury's death. Then, in
a time of arbitrary rule, came grief and injury to Locke
on account of his close connexion with the deceased
Shaftesbury. While in Holland, whither he had gone
from fear perhaps of staying in England, he was, in
1684, deprived of his Studentship at Christ Church, by
an order of Charles the Second, servilely obeyed by
the Dean and Chapter of that cathedral College. In
a letter to his friend, the Earl of Pembroke, at the
close of 1684, part of which has been before quoted, 3
Locke, writing in a tone of depression, describes his
connexion with Shaftesbury, saying that it had been
much misunderstood, and that he had unjustly suffered
in consequence. He describes himself as having lived
1 The old Earl of Northumberland had died in 1668. His son and
successor, with idiom Locke travelled, died abroad in May 1670. His
widow, a daughter of the Earl of Southampton, and cousin of Lady
Shaftesbury, afterwards married Ealph Montagu, ambassador at Paris,
who became in time Duke of Montagu.
2 See Shaftesbury's letter to Locke of November 23, 1674, printed
in the second volume, and Martyn's Life of Shaftesbury, i. 5.
3 See note at p. 261.
1666. LOCKE'S FRIENDSHIP. 297
in Shaftesbury's house as his medical adviser rather
than in any other capacity, and he says that, though
always treated kindly by Shaftesbury, he improved his
fortune but little, and found himself at Shaftesbury's
death without the means which he would probably have
acquired had he practised as a physician. 1 He goes on to
deny in the strongest and most unqualified language that
he had ever published any political or other pamphlet or
treatise whatsoever. This was in December 1684. He had
then published, he says, nothing but two or three copies
of verses, which had not gained him the reputation of a
poet. 2 And now, remaining in exile in Holland during the
whole of the reign of James the Second, he laboured at
his great work on the Human Understanding, which has
given him with posterity a rank very far above that
of any king or minion who in worldly power and pride
trampled on his living worth and intellect. After the
Revolution of 1688 Locke returned to England, and he
lived for sixteen years afterwards in ease of circum-
stances, honoured and famous. It is gratifying to read
authentic testimonies of his respect for the memory
of Shaftesbury. Le Clerc says that Locke " remembered
all his life with great pleasure the satisfaction which he
had in intercourse with Lord Shaftesbury, and when he
spoke of his good qualities did so not only with esteem,
1 See Dr. John Brown's notices of Locke as a medical man in his
interesting Essay on Locke and Sydenham in "Horae Subsecivse. "
2 There are two poems by Locke, a short one in Latin with transla-
tion and a longer English poem, on Cromwell and his conclusion of the
war with the Dutch, printed in the State Poems (vol. i. part 2) from
an Oxford collection. Mr. Martyn prints some verses written by
Locke in 1672, addressed to Greenhill, the painter (Life, ii. 13), but
these were probably not published before 1684. There can be no
doubt that Locke had not the gift of poetry.
298 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
but even with admiration." Mr. Coste, who had been
an amanuensis to Locke, and was long a fellow inmate
with him of Sir Francis Masham's house at Gates, in
Essex, where Locke lived for the last fourteen years of
his life, says that Locke "loved to confirm his opinion
on any subject by that of the famous Earl of Shaftes-
bury, to whom he took a delight to give the honour of
all the things which he thought he had learnt from
his conversation." " I wish/' also says Mr. Coste, " I
could give a- full notion of the idea which Mr. Locke
had of that nobleman's merit. He lost no opportunity
of speaking of it, and that in a manner which suffi-
ciently showed he spoke from his heart." 1
The Dutch war, in which France and Denmark had
joined as the allies of Holland, the Plague which, lasting
fifteen months, caused a hundred thousand deaths, and
the Great Eire, which, as the Plague was dying out,
destroyed two thirds of London, were an accumulation of
misfortunes for England in the year 1666. The Parlia-
ment assembled in London in September of that year, and
the session lasted till February 8, 1667. There were now
great complaints of mismanagement, extravagance, and
misappropriation of funds voted for the war, and the
House of Commons insisted on a close examination of
accounts. 2 There was a calculation that rather more than
five millions and a half sterling had been at the* dis-
posal of Government for the war, and only 3,200,000.
was accounted for. The Commons voted a supply of
1 "The Character of Mr. Locke" by Mr. Peter Coste, printed in
Locke's Works, vol. x.
Pepys's Diary, Sept. 21 and Oct. 10, 1666. The proceeds of prizes
were estimated at 300, OOOZ.
1667. IRISH CATTLE BILL. 299
l,800,000/. ; and endeavoured, first by a proviso in
a money-bill, and then by a separate bill, to obtain
a Commission to inspect the accounts of the war.
Such an inquiry was averted for the present; but an
Act for appointing such a Commission was passed a
year later.
Lord Ashley made himself conspicuous during this
session by eager support of a bill for prohibiting im-
portation of Irish cattle into England. An attempt to
pass such a bill had failed in the Oxford session of the
previous year ; but now the bill became an Act. Lord
Clarendon, who opposed the bill, describes Ashley as
second only to the Duke of Buckingham in violent
support of it, and against probability, attributes the
eagerness of both Ashley and Buckingham to per-
sonal hostility to the Duke of Ormond, a great
Irish proprietor. "It grew quickly evident," says
Clarendon, "that there were other reasons which
caused so earnest a prosecution of it above the en-
couragement of the breed of cattle in England; inso-
much as the Lord Ashley, who, next the Duke, appeared
the most violent supporter of the bill, could not forbear
to urge it as an argument for the prosecuting it, that, if
this bill did not pass, all the rents in Ireland would rise
in a vast proportion, and those in England fall as much,
so that in a year or two the Duke of Ormond would
have a greater revenue than the Earl of Northumber-
land, which made a visible impression on many as a
thing not to be endured. Whereas the Duke had indeed
at least four times the proportion of land in Ireland that
descended to him from his ancestors that the Earl had in
300 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY, CHAP. X.
England, and the revenue of it before the Eebellion was
not inferior to the others. But nothing was more mani-
fest than that the warmth of that prosecution in the
House of Peers in many Lords did proceed from the
envy they had of the Duke's station in one kingdom
and of his fortune in the other." l It is enough that in a
period of great depression of the value of land in England
English proprietors, and especially those of the western
counties, were anxious to obtain protection against com-
petition of Irish cattle. The great fall of English rents
was a sufficient moving principle for Ashley ; and if
the bias of self-interest sharpened his zeal, it is by no
means clear that special circumstances did not counsel
an exception to general rules of political economy, then
indeed little understood or appreciated. 2 The opponents
of the measure feared that the passing of it might inflame
the Irish to rebellion ; and Irish content was of greater
importance, when England was at war with France, and a
French invasion of Ireland was even a probability. The
debates on this bill in the House of Lords were marked
by very great acrimony. The Earl of Ossory, the Duke of
Ormond's gallant but impetuous son, quarrelled during
these debates both with the Duke of Buckingham and
1 Clarendon's Continuation of Life, 967.
2 Some notices in Pepys's Diary show very forcibly the depression of
the agricultural interest in England. April 9, 1667: "Several do
lain
complain of abundance of land flung up by tenants out of their hands
for want of ability to
Buckingham hath 6,O
for want of ability to pay their rents, and by name that the Duke of
,OOOZ. so flung up." Jan. 1, 1668 : Pepys dined
with Lord Crewe, when "they did talk much of the present cheapness
of corn, even to a miracle, so as their farmers can pay no rent, but do
fling up their lands." Jan. 31, 1668 : Colonel Birch told Pepys of " the
general want of money in the country, that land sold for nothing, and
the many pennyworths he knows of lands and houses upon them with
good titles in his county at sixteen years' purchase." See Lord Ashley's
memorial to the King of 1669 in Appendix I. of the next volume.
1667. DISCUSSION WITH LORD CONWAY. 301
with Lord Ashley, and he was on both occasions repri-
manded and ordered to make an apology. 1 Lord Ossory,
replying to Lord Ashley, said that he had spoken like
one of Cromwell's councillors. Lord Ashley complained
of this language, and the House required Lord Ossory
to stand up in his place and say " that he is very sorry
for the great offence he hath given to the House, and
humbly desires their pardon ; and that he is very sorry
that any words of his should reflect on the Lord Ashley,
for which he desires the Lord Ashley's pardon."
Carte, in his Life of the Duke of Ormond, relates a
lively altercation in private between Lord Ashley and
Lord Conway, an Irish proprietor, who became Secretary
of State near the end of Charles the Second's reign,
during the discussions of the same bill.
" Upon the news of a French invasion and a powerful
army embarking at Brest, which was all the subject of
discourse, Lord Corrway coming in before the House sat,
Lord Ashley asked him in the presence of twenty lords
how they would do to defend themselves in case the
invasion fell on Ireland. Conway replied they should
not so much as think of it, for when they had repre-
sented to the House that they should be disabled by the
bill from doing so, he [Lord Ashley] had answered they
never had been able to defend themselves, and when
they were in danger England ever had and ever must
defend them, and therefore they should leave that matter
to him, who had said those words, and to the Parliament
which believed him. Ashley replied with a very super-
cilious air : ' They knew better where to lay the blame,
and that was on those lords that had driven the English
1 Lords' Journals, Nov. 19, 1666. Pepys's Diary, ame date, iii. 339.
302 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
out of the seaports and corporate towns and filled them
with Irish.' Conway' s answer was as resolute, ' that
there were no such lords in Ireland, nor was the matter
of fact true, for the Irish in all their seaports and towns
put together would not make up one reasonable street.'"
Carte goes on to say that Lord Conway, suspecting
Lord Ashley of an ambition to be Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, took occasion, a few days after the passing of
the Irish Cattle Bill, to say to him " that he wondered
exceedingly to see his Lordship so injurious to Ireland,
since no man was so likely in a short time to be Lord
Lieutenant of that kingdom as himself, but he had now
contracted an incapacity which was not usual ; for the
violence he had so lately shown would make the whole
country believe he came to destroy them totally, so that
they would be tempted to rebel and tear him to pieces."
Ashley seemed, said Lord Conway, pleased with the in-
sinuation, and vindicated himself from the charge of
ill-will to Ireland. " He said that it was true they had
done an unnatural act, but the fault was in the present
governors of that country, who by their settlement, their
book of rates, and other principles of government, en-
deavoured to divide the two kingdoms; whereas he desired
they should be united and sit in one Parliament, and then
all these acts would fall to the ground ; and though he
had exclaimed in the last session at Oxford against
granting a liberty of conscience in Ireland, yet as he
found it for the good of the kingdom in its present
situation, he would befriend the country particularly in
that point, and in all others as occasions offered." Carte
proceeds, writing of course on Lord Conway's autho-
1667. CLOSE OF DUTCH WAR. 303
rity : " He [Lord Ashley] was so fond of the subject
that he kept on the discourse and renewed his pro-
fessions for an hour together, thereby convincing Lord
Conway, who only proposed the matter in raillery, of
his inclination to be at the head of that kingdom ; for
men of great parts and cunning are seldom bit in that
way, unless they are betrayed by some passion or other." 1
The close of the year 1666 found both England and
France anxious to terminate the war. When the war
began between England and Holland, Louis XIV. had
at first viewed it with complacency, as likely, by giving
to both occupation and impairing the resources of both,
to prevent both from obstructing his designs on Spanish
Flanders. Later, France was brought into the war as
the ally of Holland under a clause in a treaty made
between France and Holland in 1662. Tardily and
ungraciously had France consented to fulfil the obliga-
tions of this treaty, in contracting which she had acted
faithlessly towards England ; and when at last she had
declared war against England, she gave Holland no
cordial or effective co-operation. Louis then soon be-
came anxious to conclude the war, get rid of obligations
which he was unwilling to fulfil, and be free to invade
Spanish Flanders. At the close of the campaign of
1666, Louis found the King of England ready to treat
for peace, while the States General made difficulties,
hoping on their part to prevent Louis from embroiling
himself with Spain and invading Spanish Flanders by
keeping him engaged in war with England. In the
spring of 1667, Louis succeeded in making a secret
1 Carte's Life of Onnond, ii. 338.
304 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
arrangement with the King of England, by which the
latter promised to make no alliance, during the period
of one year, with any nation against France, or which
might possibly prejudice French interests, and to
make during the year a close alliance with France,
Louis promised in return to restore to England the
French conquests in the West Indies made in the
course of the war. This .secret arrangement was
made by letters written by the two Kings to Hen-
rietta Maria, the Queen Dowager of England, the
mother of Charles and the aunt of Louis. 1 Shortly
after, negotiations for peace were opened at Breda
between England and Holland, but the Dutch refused
an armistice during the progress of negotiations. The
poverty of the English exchequer had led to premature
reductions in the English navy, and De Witt, with a
strong Dutch fleet fully prepared, saw his advantage
and determined to strike, while he yet could, a heavy
blow. The Dutch fleet under De Euyter, in June,
entered the Thames, proceeded as far as Chatham, and,
there destroyed by fire three of our men-of-war. This
was a humiliating disaster for England. Peace now
soon followed. Louis XIV., secured by his secret
arrangement with Charles, had in the month of May
entered Flanders with an army of seventy thousand
men; and his rapid conquests terrified Holland into
acquiescence in a treaty of peace. Peace was con-
cluded at Breda on the thirty-first of July, 1667.
The Earl of Southampton, the Lord High Treasurer,
had died in May, and that office was now put into Com-
1 Mignet, Negotiations relatives & la Succession d'Espagne, iii. 58.
1667. TREASURY PUT IN COMMISSION. 305
mission, at the King's instance and against the opinion
of Clarendon. The Commissioners were the Duke of
Albemarle (George Monk), Lord Ashley, who continued to
be Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir William Coventry,
Sir John Buncombe, and Sir Thomas Clifford, Claren-
don has given an account of this arrangement, in which
he describes the King at the time as being dissatisfied
with Ashley and unwilling to include him in the Com-
mission, and further represents it as a humiliation for
Ashley that, being Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was
not made an indispensable member of the quorum. It
is clear from Clarendon's account that the King had
made up his mind to appoint a small number of Com-
missioners who should all be men of business, and not
to follow the custom of appointing a number of high
officials of state who would only give dignity to the
Oommission and leave the work to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Clarendon, who was strongly opposed
to a Commission for the Treasury, but saw that the
King had made up his mind to it, perceived also that
the King "would not approve the old course in the
choice of Commissioners, who had always been the
Keeper of the Great Seal, and the two Secretaries of
State, and two other of .the principal persons of the
Council, besides the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
used to be the sole person of the quorum." The Duke
of York agreed with the King in opinion, cited the case
o the Ordnance which had shortly before been placed
in Commission on the death of Sir William Compton,
and contended that, as in the Ordnance so in the
Treasury, business would be better done, " if fit persons
VOL. I. x.
306 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
were chosen for it, who might have nothing else to do."
The King proposed Sir Thomas Clifford, who, being a
member of Parliament of small fortune, had been much
befriended by Arlington, and was now Comptroller of
the Household and a Privy Councillor, Sir William
Cpventry, and Sir John Buncombe. The King thought
that these three would be enough for despatch of
business. Clarendon then suggested the necessity of
naming Ashley, because he was Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and urged the appointment also of the Duke
of Albemarle and some other person of high rank to
give lustre to the Commission. The King said, accord-
ing to Clarendon, that " he did not care if he added the
General to them. The Lord Ashley gave him some
trouble, and he said enough to make it manifest that he
thought him not fit to be amongst them ; yet he knew
not how to put him out of his place ; but gave direction
for preparing the Commission for the Treasury to the
persons named before, and made the Lord Ashley only
one of the Commissioners, and a major part to make a
quorum ; which would quickly bring the government of
the whole business into the hands of those three who
were designed for it, and Ashley rather chose to be de-
graded than to dispute it." l Such is Clarendon's story ;
but he is commonly so [inaccurate in details, and he is
clearly so carried away by prejudice against Shaftesbury,
that the true story probably is that the King's desire
Was to associate working Commissioners, and not mere
ornamental cyphers, with Lord Ashley, Chancellor of the
Exchequer, of whom it is very likely that he at the
1 Continuation of Clarendon's Life, 1082-8.
1667. TREASURY COMMISSIONERS. 307
same time, from some recent irritation, spoke words of
disrespect, which would not displease Clarendon.
The animosity of Clarendon against Shaftesbury is
clear in every allusion which he makes to him ; but
it is not easy, in any case, to extract from this narra-
tive anything to Shaftesbury's prejudice. The alleged
degradation disappears when it is seen that the King
designed to depart from the old precedents in the
formation of the Commission. That the King, whose
inclinations and affections were ever varying, and who
was soon to treat his old and faithful servant Clarendon
himself with heartless cruelty and ingratitude, was
at the moment indisposed towards Shaftesbury and
found him troublesome, may be taken as proof that
Lord Ashley had shown independence of character
and had not been the King's servile instrument either
in politics or as Treasurer of Prizes. Pepys records
Lord Ashley's unwillingness to obey orders of the King
as to the disposal of prize goods ; his motives may have
been good or bad, regard for the public or self-interest,
or perhaps even mere self-will. 1 It also appears that
Lord Ashley was not quite pleased with the new
arrangement ; it was not in human nature that he
should be so. Sir George Carteret, who was Treasurer
of the Navy, and was himself much displeased with the
new Commission, (" and he hath reason," says Pepys,
" for it will eclipse him,") told Pepys that " my Lord
Ashley says they understand nothing, and he says he
believes the King do not intend they shall sit long." 2
1 Diary, iii. 376-8, January 16, 19, 1667.
2 Ibid. May 31, 1667, iv. 58.
x 2
308 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
Pepys however himself thought otherwise, and, being
a man of business, he thought the Commission a good
measure. A few days later, Pepys had to attend the
Commissioners, and was much struck with their busi-
ness-like way of proceeding. Lord Ashley, Clifford,
and Buncombe were the only three present, with their
Secretary, Sir George Downing. " I do like the way of
these Lords, that they admit nobody to use many words,
nor do they spend many words themselves, but in great
state do hear what they see necessary, and say little
themselves, but bid withdraw." l Later, Mr. Pepys is of
opinion that Sir William Coventry is the leading man
in the Commission. " I perceive Sir W. Coventry is
the man, and nothing done till he comes." 2 But Lord
Ashley was not likely to allow himself to be led by
Coventry, and we may be sure, with his active and
eager character, his official experience, and his habits
of business, that he took a prominent part in the Com-
mission. All, indeed, were active, as it had been
designed they should be. Clifford's activity was after-
wards shown in the memorable Stop of the Exchequer.
Some, indeed, regarded Ashley as the governing spirit
of the Commission. Sir William Temple visited on
Shaftesbury his wrath for the refusal by the Com-
missioners of the customary gift of his plate when he
returned in 1671 from his embassy to Holland. 3 The
charming Lady Fanshawe denounces Shaftesbury with
all an amiable woman's anger, as "the worst of men,"
*
1 Diary, June 3, 1667, iv. 61.
2 August 23, 1667, iv. Ifc4.
* Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Choisie, vi. 364 ; Stringer's Fragment of
Memoir in Appendix III. ; Mr. Wyche'sMS. Vindication of Shaftesbury.
1667. CLARENDON'S FALL. 309
for a similar refusal by the Commissioners of his plate
to her husband, who had been ambassador to Spain. 1
There is no doubt that this new Commission began by
endeavouring to introduce economy and order into the
finances ; but this was a task beyond their strength.
A few months after this change at the Treasury
Clarendon ceased to be Chancellor. The great seal was
rudely taken from this illustrious and virtuous states-
man on the thirty-first of August, 1667. The war with
Holland, which less than three years before had been
begun in national excitement against the judgment of
Clarendon, and which had lately brought disaster and
humiliation on England, had been terminated by treaties
with Holland and with France, concluded at Breda in
the previous month of July. It was necessary, the
King found, to do something to appease the general
discontent, and Clarendon was made scapegoat. In the
course of his administration he had, both in the exercise
of duty and by haughty and imperious ways, made
many enemies. Among the foremost of his adversaries
were Arlington and Coventry ; they zealously urged his
removal, and were seconded by one still more powerful
v, ith the King, the " lady," Lady Castlemaine. At this
time the King was deeply enamoured of another lady
at Court, the beautiful Miss Stuart, who firmly refused
his dishonourable proposals, and whom in the violence
of his passion he is said to have conceived the idea of
enabling himself to marry by divorcing himself on some
or other pretext from his Queen. She married the Duke
of Pdchniond ; and among all the causes of Clarendon's
1 Lady Fanskawe's Memoirs, p. 297.
310 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
fall none appears to have "been more potent with Charles
than his belief that Clarendon had hastened this mar-
riage to foil his own designs on Miss Stuart. The
subsequent persecution of Clarendon in Parliament was
fanned by the King with spiteful eagerness, notwith-
standing the Duke of York's most zealous efforts in his
behalf.
There is no pretence whatever for accusing Shaftes-
bury, as has been done by Lord Campbell and others,
of actively contributing to the fall of Clarendon.
Clarendon has himself given a long and circumstantial
account of his removal from the Chancellorship ; he
had no love for Shaftesbury when he wrote this narra-
tive in exile ; he mentions Arlington, Sir W. Coventry,
Lady Castlemaine, and others as his enemies : he does
not so mention Lord Ashley. Nor is Ashley mentioned
by any other historian as having a share in this event.
It is true that Ashley had on various occasions opposed
Clarendon's policy and opinions, and especially in 1663
had actively concurred with Arlington, Bristol, and
Eoberts in promoting a bill for indulgence to Dissenters
which Clarendon disapproved. The dislike manifested
by Clarendon for Shaftesbury is not greater than that
which he manifests for all the younger statesmen who
came forward during his Chancellorship, and did not
owe their positions to himself, and exercised an
independent judgment; and the warmest admirers of
Clarendon's character, which on the whole merits
admiration, must allow that he was jealous, irritable,
and imperious. It is also true that Ashley, like most
of Charles's ministers and friends, attended the evening
1667. ASHLEY SIDES WITH CLARENDON. 311
receptions in Lady Castlemaine's apartment, which
Clarendon viewed with jealousy, and where Clarendon
and Southampton never appeared. The age and long
devotion of these two venerable statesmen, both to
Charles and to his father, empowered them to frown
on the mistress ; their course deserves commendation,
and, had they acted otherwise, they would have de-
served blame. But Ashley's was a very different
position. From an early period of his reign it was
Charles's custom to pass the evening in Lady Castle-
maine's apartment, and there hold what Clarendon
always calls "the nightly conversation." All who
attended Charles in that apartment which custom
sanctioned were not debauchees nor lovers of Lady
Castlemaine nor unprincipled statesmen nor unscru-
pulous enemies of Clarendon. It has been seen that
in the beginning of the year 1666, the French Am-
bassador reported that both Ashley and Arlington were
on the best terms with Clarendon. And so far is it
from being true that Ashley was Clarendon's enemy
at the moment of his fall, that he really incurred the
displeasure of Charles and risked disgrace, and came
to be accounted a " Clarendonian " by opposition to
the proposed impeachment. There is a remarkable
entry on this subject in the Diary of Pepys, on Decem-
ber 30, 1667 : " Sir G. Carteret and I alone did talk
of the ruinous condition we are in, the King being
going to put out of the Council so many able men,
such as my Lord Anglesey, Ashley, Hollis, Secretary
Morrice (to bring in Mr. Trevor), and the Archbishop
of Canterbury and my Lord Bridgewater. He tells
312 LIFE OF SHAFTESEURY. CHAP. X.
me that this is true, only the "Duke of York do en-
deavour to hinder it, and the Duke of York himself
did tell him so : that the King and the Duke of York
do not in company disagree, but are friendly; .but that
there is a core in their hearts, he doubts, which is not
to be easily removed ; for these men so suffer only for
their constancy to the Chancellor, or at least from the
King's ill-will against him." 1 A few days later, on
January 5, 1668, Pepys mentions that the plan of dis-
missing a certain number of privy councillors is laid
aside. 2 Ashley is mentioned in a despatch of Colbert
to Louis XIV., of November 15, 1668, as one of
Clarendon's party whom Buckingham had gained to
himself against Arlington. 3 Clarendon himself men-
tions Ashley once in the narrative of his fall and per-
secution in such a manner as to imply that he was
an opponent of the measures of the House of Com-
mons against him. 4 Mr. Seymour, one of Clarendon's
opponents, the future Sir Edward Seymour, Speaker of
the House of Commons, " told the Lord Ashley," says
Clarendon, "that the people would pull down the Chan-
cellor's house first, and then those of all the Lords who
adhered to him." Mr. Martyn states that Clarendon's
son, Laurence Earl of Eochester, acknowledged to the
grandson of Shaftesbury that his grandfather had
opposed the motion for sequestering and imprisoning
Clarendon on the impeachment by the Commons. 5
i Diary, iv. 302. 2 Id. iv. 314.
3 Mignet, Negotiations relatives a la Succession d'Espagne, iii. 58.
* Continuation of Life, 1189.
5 Life, i. 329, note. This is stated doubtless by Martyn on Stringer's
authority. The statement is made also in Mr. Wyche's MS. Vindica-
tion of Shaftesbury.
1667. CLARENDON'S FORCED EXILE. 313
Lord Ashley's name is not to be found among the
signatures to the protest entered on November 20,
1667, signed by twenty-eight peers, including Buck-
ingham, Arlington, Albemarle, Bristol, and Carlisle,
against the vote of the House of Lords refusing to
commit Clarendon on an impeachment without par-
ticular treason assigned. It may be taken for granted,
then, that Lord Ashley was an opponent of the
endeavour of the House of Commons to obtain the
co-operation of the Lords for an impeachment on a
general allegation of treason, and that his opposition
was so conducted as to displease the King, bent on
the ruin of his old and faithful minister.
The last years of Clarendon were passed in forced
exile in France, and chiefly at Montpelier. In Novem-
ber 1667, he fled from England, in obedience to an
order from the King, but leaving behind a manly vin-
dication addressed to the House of Lords, which provoked
an Act requiring him to surrender for trial before
February 1,1668, and dooming him, on failure of appear-
ance, to banishment for life, to the penalties of high
treason if he should return to England, and impossi-
bility of pardon except by Act of Parliament. Claren-
don was at Rouen when he heard of this Act ; he
started in haste for England to accept the trial to
which he was dared ; but a dangerous illness seized him
at Calais, and the time prescribed by the Act had
expired before he was able to leave his bed. There was
nothing now for him but exile till death. He died
seven years after at Eouen, in December 1674. The
base ingratitude of Charles and the injustice of Claren-
314 LIFE OF SHAFTE3BURY. CHAP. X.
don's contemporaries have been the gain of posterity ;
for the fallen statesman beguiled the weariness of his
exile by the composition of those memoirs of the great
transactions in which he had borne so laborious a part,
which, with all their inaccuracies, natural enough in
one writing at a distance from his books and papers,
and with all their partisanship, from which no con-
temporary writer can escape, and even with their
vanities and weaknesses, easy to be forgiven in one
smarting in old age and in lonely exile under the
world's cruellest injustice, will continue to delight, as
they have long delighted, as a narrative of a most
eventful period of English history, written in a style
fascinating by its freshness, and constantly elevated
by noble sentiments and principles.
It is unnecessary, after the preceding detailed state-
ment, to go through the wearisome labour of exposing
all the fanciful misstatements of Lord Campbell in his
representation that Lord Ashley was prime mover of
Clarendon's disgrace. At the close of the last chapter
I commented on Lord Campbell's singular sneer at
Lord Ashley as being during the seven years which fol-
lowed the Restoration a mere " Treasury drudge." Lord
Campbell writes, in the same passage : " Strange to say,
it was some years before he began seriously to try to
undermine Clarendon." He adds that Ashley relieved
the dulness of Treasury drudgery by deliberate dissi-
pation. " He considered himself bound regularly to
attend the King at Whitehall, to pay court to Lady
Castlemaine, and to cultivate with unwearied assiduity
his reputation for licentiousness, which he did so sue-
1667. CHARGE OF LICENTIOUSNESS. 315
cessfully as even to rival that of his master. But he
became tired of routine business and the life of a mere
rou, and, seeing with satisfaction the King's growing
dislike to Clarendon, he took every opportunity of
widening the breach between them." All these specific
statements are creations of the biographer's fancy ; and
he further imagines that Ashley " spirited Lady Castle-
maine to seek revenge" on Lord Clarendon because
he had forbidden his wife to visit her, and that his
zeal was whetted by hope of being made Chancellor.
Shaftesbury's supposed dissolute morals and imagined
long dream of the Chancellorship were pressed by Lord
Campbell into his service to explain by conjecture why
Cromwell refused him a daughter in marriage, which he
may or may not have done, and why he quarrelled with
Cromwell. 1
There is no authority whatever for Lord Campbell's
precise statements about Ashley's court to Lady Castle-
maine and dissipated life. It is a remarkable fact,
that in Grammont's minute scandalous chronicle of
Charles's court from 1662 to 1669, Lord Ashley's name
never appears. His letters to his wife, printed in this
chapter, show a degree of conjugal affection and hap-
piness certainly inconsistent with that character of
extreme licentiousness which malicious, coarse, and
shameless libellers have foisted on careless, copying
biographers. I believe that a main cause of the repu-
tation of licentiousness, which, once given, has stuck to
Shaftesbury, is the good story, which may be true or
false, of Charles having one day said to him, " Shaftes-
1 See pp. 104 and 120.
316 LIFE OF SHAFTESBURY. CHAP. X.
bury, you are the wickedest dog in England." 1 The
story is to the credit of Shaftesbury's wit, for he is said
to have replied, "Of a subject, Sir, I believe I am."
Charles's joking accusation, even if true, proves nothing.
In a clever bitter tract, written against Shaftesbury
towards the close of his career, when he was the mark
of all eyes and the theme of every tongue, it is written
that he is " temperate by nature and habit," but " rather
chooses to invert nature itself than suffer a disappoint-
ment in his designs of revenge ;" and that " he accom-
panies, and carouses, and contracts intimacy and amity
with the lewdest debauchees in all the nation that he
thinks will anyways help to forward his private in-
trigues." 2 This is the casual testimony of an enemy
bearing all the appearance of truth. 3
1 This story is variously told. Lord Campbell tells it more suitably
for his purpose, but I do not know 011 what authority : " Shaftesbury,
you are the most profligate man in my dominions." The story is told
by Lord Chesterfield with the words, " the greatest rogue in England."
(Chesterfield's Works, ii. 334, Lord Mahon's edition.)
2 " The Character of a Disbanded Courtier," printed in Martyn's Life,
ii. 362.
3 Two letters to Lord Ashley of the period covered by this chapter
may be printed here. The first is from Lauderdale about payment of
a sum of money granted by the King, written to Ashley as Treasurer
of Prizes. The letter is interesting as referring to one of those grants
to statesmen and favourites, of which it is believed that Shaftesbury
never received one. The journey alluded to was doubtless Lord Ash-
ley's visit to Oxford, when he made Locke's acquaintance.
" WHITEHALL, May 30, 1666.
" MY LOUD, I have moved his Majesty this evening concerning pay-
ment of my privy seal of 17507., which the King granted for my use a
year ago, and which you know is not assigned nor paid. I desired that
it might be paid out of the discoveries of prize wool and other goods,
which is no part of Mr. Killigrew's discovery. This his Majesty was
pleased very readily to grant at first word. I then asked his Majesty if
he would allow me to signify so much to your Lordship, and the King
commanded me to let your Lordship know so much from, him, which I
am sure he will tell you when he sees you. I do heartily wish you
1667. LETTEE OF DOWAGER QUEEN. 317
a good journey and a happy return. You will please to order Mr.
Kingdon to come and speak with
" Your Lordship's faithfullest servant,
" LAUDERDAILL. "
The other letter is from the Dowager Queen of England, Henrietta
Maria, about the payment of her pension, and it is printed literatim.
"CoLOMBE ce 14 August, 1667.
"My Lord Ashley, 1'estime que je fais de vre peraonne me persuade
que je reccuere dans les choses qui regardent mes affaires et assigna-
tions pour ma pention toutes les facilitations qui depandront de vos
offices et ministere ce dont je vous en prie et en mesme temps de
vous assurer que je rechercheray de mon coste les occations de vous
temoygner mes ressentiments avec les mesme soings et que je suis
avec toute sorte de verite
" Vfe bien bonne amie
"HENRIETTE MABIB R.
" Pour milord Ashley."
APPENDICES.
APPENDICES
TO VOL. I.
PAGE
APPENDIX I. ' iii
Fragment of Autobiography, from birth (1621) to 1639.
APPENDIX II xxv
Autobiographical Sketch from birth (1621) to end of 1645,
followed by a Diary from January 1, 1646, to July 10,
1650.
APPENDIX III Ivi
Suppressed Passages of Edmund Ludlow's Memoirs, re-
ferring to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, collected by John
Locke, 16531660.
APPENDIX IV. Ixiii
Speech in Richard Cromwell's Parliament, March 28, 1659.
APPENDIX V Ixxiv
A Letter from Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Thomas Scot,
Josias Berners, and John Weaver, Esquires, delivered to
the Lord Fleetwood, owning their late actions, in
endeavouring to secure the Tower of London for the
better service of the City and Commonwealth, December
16, 1659.
APPENDIX VI Ixxviii
A Proviso for the Bill of Uniformity, presented to the
House of Peers from the King by the Lord Chancellor,
March 17, 1662 ; and a Bill, entitled "An Act concerning
His Majesty's power in Ecclesiastical Affairs," presented
to the House of Peers, February 23, 1663, by Lord
Roberts, Lord Privy Seal.
VOL. I.
APPENDIX I.
Fragment of Autobiography, from birth (1621) to 1639. 1
"WHOEVER considers the number and the power of the adver-
saries I have met with, and how studiously they have, under
the authority of both Church and State, dispersed the most
villanous slanders of me, will think it necessary that I in this
follow the French fashion, and write my own Memoirs, that
it may appear to the world on what ground or motives they
came to be my enemies, and with what truth and justice they
have prosecuted their quarrel ; 2 and if in this whole narration
1 This fragment is printed from a copy at St. Giles's. "With the
copy are two pages of the original in Shaftesbury's handwriting, reach-
ing only to the top of p. vi. So far the copy entirely agrees with the
original. The rest of the original has -not been found. There are
possibly a few mistakes in the copy.
2 The opening passage of this fragment makes it clear that Shaftes-
bury composed it in his old age. Mr. Martyii states that -a work, of
which this fragment was only the beginning, was entrusted by
Shaftesbury, when he fled to Holland, to the care of Locke, who, after
Shaftesbury's death and Algernon Sydney's execution, burnt it from
fear of the court (Life, i. 3,10). He gives no authority for these
statements, and I am not aware of any. The story is probably a fable.
There is no reference to any part of this story in any Life of Locke,
nor in any of his published correspondence, nor in his letters existing
at St. Giles's (among which, besides many to the grandson, the author
of the "Characteristics," are some written shortly after Shaftesbury's
death to his widow and his son), nor in any of the Shaftesbury
papers, nor in the Locke papers which I have examined at the
Earl of Lovelace's. It is not probable that Shaftesbury had regularly
composed the work much beyond where this fragment ends. The only
other possible parts of the work in existence are the two short notes
for the year 1640, printed in Chapter II., the fragment of a narrative of
events in 1659, printed in Chapter VII., and an account of the state
a 2
IV APPENDIX I. 1621.
they find me false or partial in any particular, I give up the
whole to whatever censure they will make.
My birth was at Wimbom St. Gyles 1 in the county of
Dorsett, on the 22d day of July, 1621, early in the morning ;
my parents on both sides of a noble stock, being of the first
rank of gentry in those countries where they lived. My
mother's name was Anne, the sole daughter and heir of Sir
Anthony Ashley, knight and baronet, lord of the manor and
place where I was born : my father, Sir John Cooper, knight
and baronet, son of Sir John Cooper, of Kockborn in the
county of Hamshyre. I was christened by the name of
Anthony Ashley, for, notwithstanding my grandfather had
articled with my father and his guardians that he should
change his name to Ashley, yet, to make all sure in the
eldest, he resolved to add his name, so that it should not be
parted with.
Sir Anthony Ashley was of great age, but of strong sense
and health; he had been for wisdom, courage, experience,
skill in weapon, agility, and strength of body scarce paralleled
in his age, of a large mind in all his actions, his person of the
lowest. His daughter was of the same stature, a modest and
a virtuous woman, of a weaker mould, and not so stirring a
mind as her father. Sir John Cooper was very lovely and
graceful both in face and person, of a moderate stature,
neither too high nor too low, of an easy and an affable nature,
fair and just in all affairs.
Sir Anthony Ashley, although near fourscore, had married
a young lady that was under twenty years of age, near of kin
to the then great favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, from
of affairs on the opening of the parliament in March 1679, which
appears in the second volume. But these were all possibly separate
snatches of composition. The following short paper of "Queries,"
relating to this fragment, is among the papers at St. Giles's in Shaftes-
bury's handwriting ; there is no trace of other similar notes or queries.
" Queries : 1. Dr. Olivian was of the Palatinate or Bohemia.
2. The time of my grandfather's death ; 3. of my mother's ; 4. of my
father's; 5. of Sir Francis Ashley's; 6. of Sir Daniel Norton's; 7. of
my going to Oxford; 8. "When Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Carvill were
preachers at Lincoln's Inn. 9. The time of tucking freshmen."
1 1 generally follow the manuscript for the spelling of names. The
same names are sometimes differently spelt in the same manuscript.
For ordinary words 1 have thought it would be more agreeable to the
reader that I should adopt modern spelling, but I have here and there
retained or mentioned an old form which seemed worthy of note.
1629. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. V
whom he expected great preferment, and from her children; 1
"but he failed of his expectation in the first, and his age, with
virtue of the young lady, could not 'help him to the latter, so
that recollecting himself he resolved, and did accordingly
settle all his fortunes in his lifetime, that they should come
after his decease to my mother and father for their lives, and
after that to me, without his own or their power to alter it,
for he grew every day more and more fond -of me, being a
prating boy and very observant of him.
It ought not to be forgotten that at my birth there was
Doctor Olivian, a German, a very learned physician and
greatly skilled in nativities, who took the minute of my birth
and foretold great things from it, which he told several people
then of, and me very often since, for he lived till I was past
twenty and was always particularly kind and conversant
with me.
I continued at Wimborn St. Gyles until my grandfather's
death, which was in 1627, January 13th, 2 and so likewise
until my mother's sickness, who falling ill of the small- pox,
whereof she died in July, 1628, myself, one brother, and one
sister, which were all the children my parents had, were
removed for some months for fear of the infection to Eock-
born and Whichbury; 3 the disease fallowing us causing our
change of places. From thence afterwards we returned to
Wimborn St. Gyles, and continued there until my father
married a second time *the widow of Sir Charles Moryson and
daughter and co-heir of the Lord Viscount Caniden, a lady
beautiful and of great fortune, a discreet woman of a large
soul, who, if she had not given some jealousy to both her
husbands and confirmed it after by marrying the person,
mought 4 have been numbered amongst the excellent. 5 This
marriage caused our remove to Cashiobury, in Hertfordshyre,
the jointure house of this lady by her: first husband, living
1 The name of this lady was Philippa Sheldon.
2 January 13, 1628, according to the present mode of counting the
year. It was then reckoned to begin on March 25.
3 Rockborne is a parish in the hundred of Eordingbridge in Hamp-
shire, close to the borders of Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. Whichbury,
where Sir J. Cooper also had a house, .is in Wiltshire, -close to Rock-
borne ; and Wimborne St. Giles in Dorsetshire is a few miles distant
from Rockborne and Whichbury.
4 The form mought is always. used.by Shaftesbury for might.
5 Her third husband was Sir Richard Alford, knight.
VI APPENDIX L 1631.
there and at Wimborn St. Gyles by turns, as their business
or their fancy required until March 1630, 1 when my father
died at Cashiobury, where all his family then was.
From a little before my grandfather's death to this time, i
had been under the instruction of one Mr. Guerden 2 as my
tutor, who has since taken the degree of a doctor of physic,
and has been of great practice in the city of London. Old
Sir Anthony chose him for his being a noted Puritan, saying
youth could not have too deep a dye of religion, business and
conversation in the world would wear it to a just moderation.
This man was moderately learned, a great lover of money,
had neither piety proportionable to the great profession he
made nor judgment and parts to support the good opinion he
had of himself ; but he served well enough for what he was
designed for, being formal and not vicious. Upon the death
of my father, the Easter term following, I made my first
journey to London. I lodged at Sir Daniel Norton's lodging
in Three Cranes Court, in Fleet Street, he being one of my
guardians by my father's will, and after the term went down
with him to Southwick, his house near Portsmouth in Ham-
shyre. Here Mr. Guerden left me and went not down ; but
I was then taught by Mr. Fletcher, who was tutor in tne
house to four sons of Sir Daniel's, a very excellent teacher of
grammar.
My father's debts, which were very great, contracted by
his loss at play his only fault, and a very fatal one to our
family 3 had raised so many suits, and given the then Court
of Wards and some near relations and neighbours hopes to
1 Sir J. Cooper died March 23, 1631.
2 There is a blank in the manuscript for this name. I supply it
from the next autobiography.
3 He was also generally extravagant. In a letter from Lady
Elizabeth Harris (November 1734) to the Countess of Shaftesbury,
wife of the fourth Earl, preserved among Lord Shaftesbury' s papers,
occurs this passage : " Why, when mention is made of Sir John
Cooper's great debts from play, should not his very great hospitality,
which was conspicuous (some old servants of the family have oft times
told me he had no less than three houses, viz. St. Giles's, Bockborne,
and, if my memory fails me not, Lediard, all furnished with servants,
&c., and kept open house whenever he was at any of them), be re-
marked ?" Lady Elizabeth Harris was a granddaughter of Shaftesbury,
sister of the third Earl, the author of the " Characteristics;" she was
mother of James Harris, the author of "Hermes." She took great
interest in the biography of her grandfather, which the fourth Earl
had engaged Mr. Martyn to prepare, endeavoured to procure materials,
and wrote suggestions to the Countess,
1632. FEAGMENT OP AUTOBIOGEAPHY. Vll
advantage themselves in the confusion and disorder of so
great an estate, insomuch that my grandfather's own brother,
Sir Francis Ashley, the King's serjeant-at-law, one of more
elocution, learning, and abilities than gratitude or piety to his
elder brother's family ; old Mr. Tregonwell, a near neighbour
but no good Samaritan, one that never knew generosity or
kindness but for himself, his horse, or his dog ; Sir William
Button, a miserable wretch ; the Earl of Danby, 1 and others,
on pretence of being creditors or sureties, but in truth having
an eye on several parts of the estate which, if sold in haste,
must become good pennyworths ; these having by the help of
Sir Francis Ashley found the way to engage to their party
Sir Walter Pye, Attorney of the Court of Wards, a corrupt
man who then swayed that Court, the Master, Sir Eobert
Naunton, being not the activest man, they quickly took the
estate by order of the Court out of my father's trustees' hands
and appointed these very men (except the Earl of Danby)
and their friends commissioners to sell the land, who speedily
despatched the matter, selling the most part to one another at
their own rates : Rockborn, my father's seat, to Mr. Tregon-
well; Damerham, Martin, and Lodyrs, the two first very near
me, goodly manors, to Sir Francis, my uncle. This occasioned
Sir Daniel Norton to go constantly to London every term,
and he very often took me with him as thinking my presence,
though very young, might work some compassion on the
Court or those that should have been my friends. My father
had appointed three trustees for me and my estate, Sir Daniel
Norton, Mr. Edward Tooker that had married my father's
sister, and Mr. Hannam, of Wimborn, a near kinsman ; but
Mr. Hannam, finding trouble, gave up the trust, not having
kindness for our family to undergo either hazard or trouble
for us. Sir Daniel and my uncle, Mr. Tooker, undertook it,
and refused to convey the lands to such purchasers as the
Court of Wards sold the land to by those commissioners of
1 Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, son of Sir John Danvers who
had married, in the reign of Elizabeth, onp of the daughters and co-
heiresses of the last Lord Latimer ; he was created by James I. Baron
Danvers, and by Charles I. Earl of Danby. He died unmarried, 20th
January, 1644. He was a soldier, and was the founder of the medical
garden at Oxford. (Banks's Extinct and Dormant Peerages, iii. 225. )
The title of Earl of Danby, which became extinct on his death, was
revived in 1674 in the person of the famous Lord Treasurer Osborne,
afterwards Duke of Leeds, whose mother was another co-heiress of
Lord Latimer.
Vlll APPENDIX I. 1633.
their own appointing, excluding them my father had only
trusted, and desired time to sell the land at better rates ; and
in particular that I might be allowed to be a purchaser of
Rockborn, Pawlett, and the manors of Damerham, Martin,
and Lodyrs ; I having an estate of my own from Sir Anthony
Ashley, my mother's father, for which I was not in ward.
This was pressed in open court, I being then present ; the
Court refused, unless the purchasers, who were also present,
would consent. The argument for Pawlett 1 was that it was
ancient land of my family ; for Rockborn that it was the seat
of the Coopers, near my other house, as also was Damerham
and Martin, and that they were all too good bargains to be
sold from the family. Mr. Blanchflower, a gentleman that
was esteemed very near and knew how to make the best of
his money, yet thought this so reasonable that he readily
consented, and declared that he aimed at no other advantage
but his debt and interest to be forthwith paid. 2 My uncle,
Sir Francis Ashley, who had bought Damerham, Martin, and
Lodyrs, and my neighbour, Mr. Tregonwell, who had con-
tracted for Rockborn, positively refused, though very much
urged, to part with their bargains. Whereupon my trustees
were required by the Court to convey the estates to them,
which they refusing, the Court committed them to the Fleet,
and they were forced to convey before released.
Thus was my estate torn and rent from me before my face
by the injustice and oppression of that Court, near relations
and neighbours who, I may truly say, have been twenty
thousand pound damage to me ; yet Mr. Tregonwell had not
good success in his hard dealing, for he was so greedy of a
good bargain that he looked not into his title, and this manor
proved entailed on my father's marriage with my mother, my
father having left this out of the fine he passed on all his
other lands when he conveyed them for the discharge of his
debts, not intending to sell the place of his father's bones,
especially when his other land would more than serve to pay
all. This blot was soon hit when I came to manage my own
matters ; and Mr. TregonwelTs grandchild and myself came
1 Pawlett or Paulett had been acquired by Shaftesbury's great
grandfather, Richard Cooper, part by purchase from Sir Amias Paulett,
and part by- grant from Henry VIII., who took the manor from
Gaunt's Hospital at Bristol. (Collinson's Hist, of Somerset, iii. 100.)
2 Mr. Blanchflower would be the purchaser of Pawlett
1634. FEAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. IX
to an agreement, I suffering Mm to enjoy his own and his
lady's life in the manor, in which I designed to bury all
animosity or ill will as well as lawsuits betwixt the families.
My trustees, notwithstanding their forced conveyance, yet
preferred a bill against my uncle, they having sold the manors
of Damerhani and Lodyrs before to one for my use, and my
uncle having bought it by a particular that now he endea-
voured to avoid ; for-it consisting all of old rents, my trustees,
to make it the easier purchase for me^had granted all the
estates untilled to friends in waste to the value of some two
thousand pounds, and my uncle, Sir Francis, bought it by the
same particular as full stated, yet afterwards endeavoured to
overthrow this trust, and to improve his great bargain in yet
two thousand pounds more. Sir 'Francis Ashley, being op-
posed by my trustees in this design, and finding my separate
estate, which came to me from his brother my grandfather
and was not liable "to wardship, to be the fund by which my
trustees were enabled to give him this opposition, he most
wickedly designs the total ruin of my fortune, and desires to
be heard on behalf of the King to prove that the deed by
which I claimed was not valid to preserve -that land from
wardship, and accordingly a day was set down for hearing the
debate of this deed. Mr. Noy was then the King's Attorney,
who, being a very intimate 'friend of my grandfather's, had
drawn that settlement ; my friends advised that I was in
great danger if he would not undertake my cause, and yet, it
being against the King, it was neither proper nor probable he
would meddle in it for me ; but weighing the temper of the
man, the kindness he had for my grandfather, and his honour
so concerned if a deed of that consequence should fail of his
drawing, they advised that I must be my own solicitor, and
carry the deed myself alone to him, which, -being but thirteen 1
years old, I undertook and performed with that pertness that
he told me he would defend my cause though he lost his
place. I was at the Court, and he made good his word to the
full without taking one penny fees. My Lord Cottington
was then Master of the Wards, who, sitting with his hat over
his eyes, and having heard Sir Francis make a long and
elegant speech for the overthrowing of my deed, said openly,
" Sir Francis, you have spoke like a good uncle." Mr.
Attorney Noj argued for me, and my uncle rising up to reply
1 A blank in the manuscript for the age. This trial was in 1634.
X APPENDIX I. 1637.
(I being then present in court), before he could speak two
words, he was taken with a sudden convulsion fit, his mouth
drawn to his ear, was carried out of the court, and never
spoke more.
I continued under the care of Sir Daniel Norton for several
years until his death, which happened in 1635. He was a
worthy and an honest gentleman, and had been in his younger
days a very valiant, experienced, and fortunate sea-com-
mander ; he had Southwick by my lady, who was heir of the
Whites : she was a worthy and a shining woman, an excellent
housewife, and mother of many deserving children, and was
my godmother. Sir Daniel being dead, and I of that age as
now to choose my own guardian, being above fourteen, my
Lady Norton was desirous to continue me with her, and the
rather because she might reasonably expect I might prove a
husband for one of her daughters, there being a great friendship
between her youngest daughter Elizabeth and me : and truly, if
the condition of my litigious fortune had not necessitated me
to other thoughts for support and protection, the sweetness of
the disposition of that young lady had made me look no
further for a wife. My uncle Tooker and Sir Walter Erie
both also pretended to the care of me ; Sir Walter Erie's son,
Mr. Thomas Erie, being of the same age with me, and there
being the nearest friendship betwixt us was imaginable in our
years, which increased as we grew older and never to expire
but in both our deaths. But my being so very young was
assisted with the troubles I had already undergone in my own
affairs, having now for several years been inured to the com-
plaints of miseries from near relations and oppressions from
men in power, being forced to learn the world faster than my
book, and in that I was no ill proficient : yet I had for my
diversion both hounds and hawks of my own. I chose my
uncle Tooker, my surviving trustee, for my guardian, he being
most versed in my affairs, my nearest relation, and had the
reputation of a worthy man, as indeed he proved ; he was a
very honest, industrious man, an hospitable, prudent person,
much valued and esteemed, dead and alive, by all that knew
him. To his house in Salisbury my brother George, my
sister Philippa, and myself removed from Southwick, where,
and at Madington, a country house of my uncle's eight miles
from Salisbury, we continued until, in the year 1637, I went
to Oxford to Exeter College, under the immediate tuition of
Dr. Prideaux.
1638. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XI
During my residing with my uncle and my being at Oxford,
my business often called me to London in the terms, where I
was entered of Lincoln's Inn. Thus the condition of my
affairs gave me better education than any steady, designed
course could have done : my business called me early to the
thoughts and considerations of a man, my studies enabled me
better to master those thoughts and try to understand my
learning, and my intermixed pleasures supported me and kept
my mind from being dulled with the cares of one or the
intentness I had for the other.
I kept both horses and servants in Oxford, and was allowed
what expense or recreation I desired, which liberty I never
much abused ; but it gave me the opportunity of obliging by
entertainments the better sort and supporting divers of the
activest of the lower rank with giving them leave to eat when
in distress upon my expense, it being no small honour
amongst those sort of men, that my name in the buttery
book willingly owned twice the expense of any in the Uni-
versity. This expense, my quality, proficiency in learning,
and natural affability easily not only obtained the goodwill
of the wiser and older sort, but made me the leader. even of
all the rough young men of that college, famous for the
courage and strength of tall, raw-boned Cornish and Devon-
shire gentlemen, which in great numbers yearly came to that
college, and did then maintain in the schools coursing against
Christ Church, the largest and most numerous college in the
University. This coursing was in older' times, I believe,
intended for a fair trial of. learning and skill in logic, meta-
physics, and school divinity, but for some ages that had been
the least part of it, the dispute quickly ending in affronts,
confusion, and very often blows, when they went most gravely
to work. They forbore striking, but making a great noise
with their feet, they hissed and shoved with their shoulders,
and the stronger in that disorderly order drove the other out
before them, and, if the schools were above stairs, with all
violence hurrying the contrary party down, the proctors were
forced either to give way to their violence or suffer in the
throng. Nay, the Vice-Chancellor, though it seldom has
begun when he was present, yet being begun, he has some-
times unfortunately been so near as to be called in, and has
been overcome in their fury once up in these adventures. I
was often one of the disputants, and gave the sign and order
for their beginning, but being not strong of body was always
Xll APPENDIX I.
guarded from violence by two or three of the sturdiest youths,
as their chief and one who always relieved them when in
prison and procured their release, and very often was forced
to pay the neighbouring farmers, when they of our party that
wanted money were taken in the fact, for more geese, turkeys,
and poultry than either they had stole or he had lost, it being
very fair dealing if he made the scholar when taken pay no
more than he had lost since his last reimbursement.
Two things I had also a principal hand in when I was at
the college. The one, I caused that ill custom of tucking
freshmen to be left off- the other, when the senior fellows
designed to alter the beer of the ^college, which was stronger
than other colleges, I hindered their design. This had put
all the younger sort into a mutiny ; they resorting to me,
I advised all those were intended by their friends to get their
livelihood by their studies to rest quiet and not appear, and
that myself and all the others that were elder brothers or
unconcerned in their angers should go in a body and strike
our names out of the buttery book, which was accordingly
done, and had the effect that the senior fellows, seeing their
pupils going that yielded them most profit, presently struck
sail and articled with us never to alter the size of our beer,
which remains so to this day.
The first was a harder work, it having been a foolish custom
of great antiquity that one of the seniors in the evening
called the freshmen (which are such as came since that time
twelvemonth) to the fire and made them hold out their chin>
and they with the nail of their right thumb, left long for that
purpose, grate off all the skin from the lip to the chin, and
then cause them to drink a beer glass of water and salt. The
time approaching when I should be thus used, I considered
that it had happened in that year more and lustier young
gentlemen had come to the college than had done in several
years before, so that the freshmen were a very strong body.
Upon this I consulted my two cousin-germans, the Tookers, 1
my aunt's sons, both freshmen, both stout and very strong,
and several others, and at last the whole party were cheer-
fully engaged to stand stoutly to defence of their chins. We
all appeared at the fires in the hall, and my Lord of Pern-
brook's son calling me first, as we knew by custom it would
1 There is here a blank in the manuscript ; the name is supplied
by conjecture. |
1638. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Xlll
begin with me, I- according . to agreement gave the signal,
striking him a box on the ear, and immediately the freshmen
fell on, and we easily cleared the buttery and the hall, but
bachelors and young masters coming in to assist the seniors,
we were compelled to retreat to a ground chamber in the
quadrangle. They pressing at the door, some of the stoutest
and strongest of our freshmen, giant-like boys, opened the
doors, let in as mamy as they pleased, and shut the door by
main strength against the rest ; those let in they fell upon
and had- beaten very severely, but that my authority with
them stopped them, some of them being considerable enough
to make terms -for us, which they did, for Dr. Prideaux being
called out to suppress the mutiny, the old Doctor, always
favourable to youth offending, out of courage, wishing with
the fears of those we had within, gave us articles of pardon
for what had passed, -and an utter abolition in that college of
that foolish custom.
Being now* grown up towards a man, several marriages
were proposed, and amongst others a half-sister of Mr. Kogers,
daughter of Sir Robert Banister by Mr. Rogers his mother.
Mr. Rogers w r as of the same county, a near neighbour, of a
noble family and estate, a proper handsome man, and indeed
a very worthy noble gentleman, and one that thought so well
of himself as -gave him a value with others.. The Earls of
Hertford had married into his family, which filled his sails
with no small vanity. This match Dr. Olivian, my great
friend, earnestly pressed me to, not only as it was every way
suitable and fit for me, but, as he positively affirmed, he saw
by his art there would be feuds and great danger to me if it
was not a match, and, if it were, he could assure me she
would prove a vast fortune, professing he had no concern in
it above mine ; and I did truly believe so, but I told him I
could not see a possibility of her being so great a fortune or
having considerable addition to her present portion, since her
father had divers sons, and some married. He replied he
was sure of the thing, but could not tell me how it should be;
and this lady, after marrying my Lord Maynard, by the death
of her brothers and strange unequal humour of her father,
came to be a very great fortune indeed. But my uncle
Tooker, considering the great use I had of powerful friends,
advised me to make address to one of my Lord Keeper
Coventry's daughters ; which with his assistance I did, and
was kindly received by my lord and his lady. And notwith-
XIV APPENDIX I. 1639.
standing I was very young and unexperienced in love affairs,
yet the prudence and affection of the lady I addressed to
overlooked that and made a judgment what I was like to be
for a man or a husband rather than how good love-speeches
I then made ; for I did that very ill, was very talkative and
good company to her sisters, but my love to her gave me that
desire to seern excellent that I could say nothing, insomuch
that her mother and they suspected that I was more inclined
to one of them, but, that being cleared, all matters went
successfully on, and we were married in February 1638. 1
But before our marriage the first part of Dr. Olivian's pre-
dictions began to have their effect ; for Mr. Rogers, hearing
where my address was, did, by the favour of my Lord Cot-
tington, then a suitor to the elder sister, earnestly press to
be admitted a servant to my mistress, but neither she nor
her friends would admit it, but yet the offer and attempt was
so open and avowed that it began a never reconciled feud
betwixt us, he having offered me the highest injury, and
merely out of malice.
My wife and I lived with my Lord Keeper at Durham
House and Canbury, 2 and I very often went to my own
house in the country, where, though young, I made it one
part of my business to show Mr. Eogers in his stately and
ambitious humour, which did easily disoblige those of best
quality, and by degrees make others not so fond of him. The
eastern part of Dorsetshire had a bowling-green at Hanley, 3
where the gentlemen went constantly once a week, though
neither the green nor accommodation was inviting, yet it was
well placed for to continue the correspondence of the gentry
of those parts. Thither resorted Mr. Hastings of Woodland,
1 February 1639.
2 Durham House was in the Strand, overlooking the river. Caubury
is Canonbury, in Islington, where there was a mansion at this time
rented by the Lord Keeper from the Earl of Northampton. This
mansion had been built in 1432 for the Prior of the Canons of St.
Bartholomew. It was bought in the sixteenth century by Sir John
Spenser, whose daughter and heir married the first Earl of Northamp-
ton. There \*jas a tradition that the old house had been built for the
Prior for a penny a day ; this and the salubrity of Canbury are alluded
to in a poem published in 1743 in the " Gentleman's Magazine : "
" Now Canbury's numerous turrets rise to view,
No costly structure, if the tale be true ;
Here city doctors bid the sick repair
Only too oft to die in better air."
3 Hanley or Handley, near Cranborne and Wimborne St. Giles.
1639. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XV
Sir Gerard Nappeir, Mr. Kogers, Sir William Uvedall, Mr.
Carent of Woodyats, Mr. Okeden, Mr. Butler, father and son,
and Mr. Edward Hooper of Boryds, 1 Mr. Eyves of Raynston,
Mr. Holies, Mr. Chafin of Chettle, Mr. Hussey of Edmonds-
ham, Mr. Ernley, Mr. Arney, Sir George Moreton, and my-
self, with several others. Here I omitted no opportunity,
and it was often given, to show Mr. Rogers, where his coach
and six horses did not a little contribute to their envy. His
garb, his discourse, all spoke him one that thought himself
above them, which when observed to them they easily agreed
to. My family, alliance, fortune being not prejudiced either
by nature or education, gave me the juster grounds to take
exceptions ; besides my affable, easy temper, now with care
improved, rendered the stiffness of his demeanour morp
visible.
Mr. Hastings, by his quality, being the son, brother, and
uncle to the Earls of Huntingdon, and his way of living, had
the first place amongst us. He was peradventure an original
in our age, or rather the copy of our nobility in ancient days
in hunting and not warlike times ; he was low, very strong
and very active, of a reddish flaxen hair, his clothes always
green cloth, and never all worth when new five pounds. His
house was perfectly of the old fashion, in the midst of a large
park well stocked with deer, and near the house rabbits to
serve his kitchen, many fish-ponds, and great store of wood
and timber ; a bowling-green in it, long but narrow, full of
high ridges, it being never levelled since it was ploughed ;
they used round sand bowls, and it had a baiiqueting-house
like a stand, a large one built in a tree. He kept all manner
of sport-hounds that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, and badger,
and hawks long and short winged ; he had all sorts of nets
for fishing ; he had a walk in the New Eorest and the manor
of Christ Church. This last supplied him with red deer, sea
and river fish ; and indeed all his neighbours' grounds and
royalties were free to him, who bestowed all his time in
such sports, but what he borrowed to caress his neighbours'
wives and daughters, there being not a woman in all his
walks of the degree of a yeoman's wife or under, and under
the age of forty, but it was extremely her fault if he were not
intimately acquainted with her. This made him very popular,
always speaking kindly to the husband, brother, or father,
1 Boryds, Boridge, or Boveridge.
XVI APPENDIX I.
who was to Loot very welcome to his house whenever he
came. There he found beef pudding and small beer in great
plenty, a house not so neatly kept as to shame him or his
dirty shoes, the great hall strewed with marrow bones, full of
hawks* perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers, the upper
sides of the hall hung with the fox-skins of this and the last
year's skinning, here and there a polecat intermixed, guns
and keepers' and huntsmen's poles in abundance. The
parlour was a large long room, as properly furnished ; on a
great hearth paved- with brick lay some terriers and the
choicest hounds and spaniels ; seldom but two of the great
chairs and litters of young cats in ther% which were not to be
disturbed, he having always three or four attending him at
dinner, and a little white round 'stick of fourteen inches long
lying by his trencher, that he might defend such meat as he
had no- mind to part with to them. The windows, which
were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, crossbows,
stonebows, and other such like accoutrements; the corners
of the room -full of the best chose hunting and hawking poles;
an oyster-table at the lower end, which was of constant use
twice a day all the year round, for he never failed to eat
oysters before dinner and supper through all seasons : the
neighbouring town of Poole supplied him with them. The
upper part of this room had two small tables and a desk, on
the one side of which was a church Bible, on the other the
Book of Martyrs ; on the tables were hawks' hoods, bells,
and such like, two or three old green hats with their crowns
thrust in so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of a
pheasant kind of poultry he took much care of and fed himself;
tables, dice, cards, and boxes were not wanting. In the hole of
the desk were store of tobacco-pipes that had been used. On
one side of this end of the room was the door of a closet,
wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, which never
came thence but in single glasses, that being the rule of the
house exactly observed, for he never' exceeded in drink or
permitted it. On the other side was a door into an old
chapel not used for devotion ; the pulpit, as the safest place,
was never wanting of a cold chine of beef, pasty of venison,
gammon of bacon, or great apple-pie, with thick crust ex-
tremely baked. His table cost him not much, though it was
very good to eat at, his sports supplying all but beef and
mutton, except Friday, when he had the best sea-fish as well
as other fish he could get, and was the day that his neigh-
163f FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XV11
bours of best quality most visited him. He never wanted a
London pudding, and always sung it in with " niy part lies
therein-a." He drank a glass of wine or two at meals, very
often syrup of gilliflower in his sack, and had always a tun
glass without feet stood by him. holding a pint of small beer,
which he often stirred with a great sprig of rosemary. He
was well natured, but soon angry, called his servants bastard
and cuckoldy knaves, in one of which he often spoke truth to
his own knowledge, and sometimes in both, though of the same
man. He lived to a hundred, never lost his eyesight, but
always writ and read without spectacles, and got to horse
without help. Until past fourscore he rode to the death of a
stag as well as any. 1
Sir Gerard Nappeir had one of the best estates in the
county, was a deputy-lieutenant, colonel of the western
regiment, a good housekeeper, well versed in all his country
business and employments, but had not a genius above that,
and of a temper inclined to envy, not obliging, and to speak
as ill as he could of the absent. Sir George Moreton, of the
noble family of Cardinal Moreton, that wise and worthy
statesman in Henry the Seventh's days ; he was of the shape
and temper of his family, large, strong, stout, generous and
plain-hearted, but wanting conduct had much worsted his
estate, which from the Cardinal's time had always been one
of the very best of the county. Sir William Uvedall was of
a good family and fortune, and would have had a considerable
regard in his country, had not those things which were good
in him been drowned in his excessive covetousness ; he had
got together and hid in house many thousand pounds, which
were afterwards stolen from him by some that got intelligence
1 This racy sketch of Mr. Hastings has been often separately printed,
and is in the "Connoisseur," No. 81, August 14, 1755. It has been
hitherto printed with some few inaccuracies and variations. The " my
part lies therein-a" has been wrongly printed " my pert eyes," &c. and
so written in the copy at St. Giles's. This is part of an old catch,
" There lies a pudding in the fire,
And my part lies therein-a.
When shall I call in, !
Thy good follows and niine-a ? "
I owe this piece of information to "Notes and Queries," 2d Series,
vol. vii. p. 323. There is a portrait of this Hon. Henry Hastings at
St. Giles's, and an engraving from the portrait in Hutchins's Hist, of
Dorset, ii. 510.
VOL. I. I
XV111 APPENDIX I. 1639.
of it. Mr. Carent was of a good estate, and of a very ancient
family, a lean, tall old man, very worthy and honest. Mr.
Hooper was a judicious, discreet country gentleman, of a
good estate. Mr. Chafin was a personable, well-carriaged
man of a good estate, wanted neither understanding nor value
for himself, was an enemy to the Puritan party.
These were the men of most consideration and sway that
resorted to that meeting; hut in that eastern part of the
county there were other men of power that came not to the
meeting, Sir Walter Earl of Charhorow, Mr. Hannam of
Wimborn, both worthy and honest gentlemen, lovers of their
country, and no admirers of Mr. Eogers his way. Sir Walter
had been a Low Country soldier, valued himself upon the
sieges and service he had been in ; his garden was cut into
redoubts and works representing these places, his house hung
with the maps of those sieges and fights had been most famous
in those parts. They were both inclined to the Puritan.
Sir Francis Fulford, Mr. John Tregonwell of Milton, and
Mr. Thomas Tregonwell of Anderson, may be also reckoned
among the eastern men, since their seats are much nearer
Blandford than Dorchester. Sir Francis Fulford was of a
very ancient and noble family in Devonshire, had an estate
and lived most in our country. Colonel Bingham was of a
very noble and ancient family that had been possessed, and
left their names to many towns, in this county and Somerset ;
he had now a good estate, and was a very honest, good man,
and a Puritan. Mr. John Tregonwell enjoyed his nightcaps,
his poached eggs, his chamber pleasures, and thought no
further of the world. Mr. Thomas Tregonwell was perfectly
his father's son. These two had the old man's estate almost
equally divided, so that he that had least, which was the
youngest, had near 1,700Z. per annum.
The western side afforded several men of quality, the Earl
of Bristol! at Sherborn and his son the Lord Digby, Sir John
Strangwaies of Abotsbury, Sir John Heal of Clifton, Sir
Thomas Trenchard of Woolton, Mr. Coker of Maypouder,
Mr. Angell Gray, 1 and divers others. The Earl of Bristol
was retired from all business, and lived privately to himself ;
but his son, the Lord Digby, a very handsome young man, of
great courage and learning, and of a quick wit, began to show
1 Mr. Anchitell Grey, mentioned by Clarendon as a Dorsetshire
royalist. (Hist, of Rebellion, ix. 17.)
1639. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XIX
himself to the world, and gave great expectations of himself,
he being justly admired by all, and only gave himself dis-
advantage with a pedantic stiffness and affectation he had
contracted. 1 Sir John Strangwaies was very considerable
both for estate and family, a wise, crafty, experienced man,
but extremely narrow in expenses, a great enemy of the
Puritans ; 2 Sir Thomas Trenchard, of a very noble family
and good estate, a very honest, well-natured, worthy man, a
favourer of the Puritans. 3 Sir John Heal had a very great
estate, was a personable, well-natured, honest gentleman, very
generous, kept a great house; his fault was only that he
loved the cup, and that way of over-caressing his friends.
Mr. Coker, of a very ancient family, and a most worthy, dis-
creet gentleman, very knowing in the justice, government,
1 Lord Digby, afterwards second Earl of Bristol, was now twenty-
seven. In four years from this time he was Secretary of State to
Charles the First. He succeeded to the title of Earl of Bristol in
1653. He became a Roman Catholic before the Restoration. He was
born in 1612, and died in 1677. Being an avowed Roman Catholic, he
was not admitted to office in Charles II. 's reign ; but he from time to
time exercised great influence over the King; and lie was at times out
of favour and in opposition. In the violent debates of the House of
Lords in 1675 Bristol made an attack on Shaftesbury ; the House
interfered and ordered Bristol to beg pardon, and resolved that what
lie had said had made no impression on them to Shaftesbury's prejudice
(Lords' Journ. Nov. 20, 1675.) Shortly before, his son, Lord Digby,
had made a violent speech against Shaftesbury at a public meeting in
Dorsetshire (August 27, 1675), for which Shaftesbury brought an action
and obtained a thousand pounds damages.
2 In 1644 Sir A. A. Cooper at the head of a parliamentary force stormed
and destroyed the house of Sir John Strangways, at Abbotsbury
(chap. hi. p. 62). Sir John died in 1666. His heir, Colonel Giles
Straugways, inherited Cavalier politics ; he was member for Dorsetshire
in the Long Parliament of Charles the Second's reign, made himself con-
spicuous in support of the Court and in opposition to the Protestant
dissenters, and" was made a member of the Privy Council in 1675.
Roger North in his "Examen" speaks of Strangways with great
admiration as Shaftesbury's great opponent in Dorsetshire, and as
having organized the opposition to Shaftesbury when Chancellor for
his having issued writs for the House of Commons.
8 The Trenchards had been long seated at Woolton, Wolveton or
Wolverton, near Dorchester. This Sir Thomas was sixth in descent
from the Sir Thomas Trenchard who, in 1506, entertained at Wol-
verton Philip, king of Castile, driven by a storm into the port of
Weymouth. A grandson of his, Sir John Trenchard, was accused
with Russell and Sydney for the Rye House Plot, but escaped con-
viction, had afterwards another narrow escape for his life, having
joined Monmouth's rebellion, and ultimately became Secretary of
State under William III.
I 2
XX APPENDIX I. 1639.
and affairs of the country, of a good estate. Mr. Gray wanted
neither discretion nor cunning, no friend to the Puritan, and
by consequence not in love with his neighbours of Dorchester,
who were totally devoted that way, being managed by their
parson, Mr. White, one of the wisest and subtlest of that
sort of men.
This was the state of Dorsetshyre at that time. The neigh-
bour county of Somersett was then divided into two warm
factions, Sir John Stowel and my Lord Pawlett leading
the one side, Sir Eobert Philips and Mr. John Coventry the
other. Sir John was one of a very ancient family, very great
estate, haughty and obstinate. 1 The Lord Pawlett was a
cunning, crafty old fox. 2 Sir Eobert Philips was a very able,
well accomplished man, and Mr. Coventry being eldest son by
the last lady to my Lord Keeper, 8 had married a lady of the
family of Coles, 4 who had a very good fortune in that county.
He had besides the support of his father's greatness all that
nature or education could do for him, and was every way an
extraordinary person, and had continued so, if he had not
drowned much of that and his health in sacrificing to Bacchus.
This country evil began to spread itself into Dorsetshyre.
Mr. Rogers his ambition and his ill-will to me gave me the
alarm to provide against him and to prosecute my design to
make him to be understood by his greatest and most potent
1 Sir John Stowel or Stawel was a zealous royalist, and a chief
promoter of the Western Counties' Association organized in 1645 for
effecting peace, through the clubmen. (Clarendon's Hist, of Rebellion,
viii. 258.) The part which he took in this Association is exactly
such as is wrongly ascribed to Shaftesbury in Locke's fragment of a
Memoir.
2 The first Baron Pawlett, Paulett, or Poulett, created a peer by
Charles I., grandson of Sir Amias Pawlett.
3 Lord Coventry, the Lord Keeper, was twice married ; first to
Sarah, daughter of Edward Sebright, esq. of Besford in Worcestershire,
by whom he had a son, Thomas, who succeeded to his title, and a
daughter, Elizabeth, who married Sir John Hare of Stow-Bardolph in
Norfolk ; and secondly to Elizabeth, daughter of John Aldersey, Esq.
of Spenstow in Cheshire, by whom he had four sons, John, Francis,
Henry, and William, and four daughters, Anne, married to Sir
William Savile, bart, and mother of the Marquis of Halifax, Mary to
Sir Henry Frederic Thynne, bart., Margaret to Sir A. A. Cooper, and
Dorothy to Sir John Pakington, bart. Sir John Coventry, whose nose
was slit by the courtiers in Charles the Second's reign, was the son of
the Mr. Coventry described by Shaftesbury in the text, the eldest son
of the Lord Keeper's second marriage.
4 This name is usually spelt Colles : a known Somersetshire name.
1(539. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XXI
neighbours, Sir John Strangwaies, Sir Gerard Nappeir, and
Sir John Heal, that all justly thought themselves at least his
equals, and were easily brought to apprehend him as one who
expected to command us all, and valued himself to the Court
as already doing so.
Matters thus standing in the West, my wife continuing at
her father's house, my Lord Keeper's eldest son, Mr. Thomas
Coventry, an honest fair direct man, carried me with him to
see his house in Worcestershyre, where we stayed some time,
and I grew in great respect in those parts for a pleasant easy
humour, but especially in the town of Tewkesberry by an
accident. They having invited their neighbour, my Lord
Keeper's son, to a hunting in the chace near them and a
dinner at their town after, all the neighbour gentry were
called iii to grace the matter, who failed not to appear and
pay a respect not only to the town, but so powerful a neigh-
bour. At the hunting I was taken with one of my usual fits,
which for divers years had hardly missed me one day, which
lasted for an hour, betwixt eleven and one, sometimes begin-
ning earlier and sometimes later betwixt those times. It was
a violent pain of my left side, that I was often forced to lie
down wherever I was ; at last it forced a working in my
stomach, and I put up some spoonfuls of clear water, and I
was well, if I may call that so, when I was never without a
dull aching pain of that side. Yet this never abated the
cheerfulness of my temper ; but, when in the greatest fits, I
hated pitying and loved merry company, and, as they told me,
was myself very pleasant when the drops fell from my face
for pain ; but then, my servant near me always desired they
would not take notice of it, but continue their diversions,
which was more acceptable to me; and I had always the
women and young people about me at those times, who
thought me acceptable to them, and peradventure the more
admired me because they saw the visible symptoms of my
pain, which caused in all others so contrary an effect. At
this hunting the Bailiffs 1 and chief of the town, being no hard
riders, were easily led by their civility to keep me company,
and being informed of my humour, we were very pleasant
together, and they thought themselves obliged with my
respect, as liking their company and being free with them.
1 The chief officers of Tewkesbury were two Bailiffs, annually
elected by the burgesses, twenty-four in number, from their own body.
XX11 APPENDIX I. 1640.
On the other hand, I was ready to make them any return of
jbheir kindness, which quickly offered itself, for part of our
discourse had been of an old knight in the field, a crafcy
perverse rich man, in power as being of the Queen's Privy
Council, a bitter enemy of the town and Puritans as rather
inclined the Popish way. This man's character and all his
story I had learnt of them. At dinner the Bailiffs sat at the
table's end ; Sir Harry Spiller and myself, opposite to one
another, sat near them, but one betwixt. Sir Harry began
the dinner with all the affronts and dislikes he could put on
the Bailiffs or their entertainment, which enraged and dis-
countenanced them and the rest of the town that stood behind
us ; and the more, it being in the face of the best gentlemen
of the country, and when they resolved to appear in their
best colours. When the first course was near spent, and he
continued his rough raillery, I thought it my duty, eating
their bread, to defend their cause the best I could, which I
did with so good success, not sparing the bitterest retorts I
could make him, which his way in the world afforded matter
for, that I had a perfect victory over him. This gained the
townsmen's hearts, and their wives to boot ; I was made free
of the town, and the next parliament, though absent, without
a penny charge, was chosen Burgess by an unanimous vote. 1
During this time of my youthful days and pleasant humour
I had one accommodation which was very agreeable, a servant
that waited on me in my chamber, one Pyne, a younger
brother of a good family, every way of my shape and limbs
and height, only our faces and the colour and manner of our
bair was not alike ; mine was then a flaxen inclined to brown,
soft, and turning at the ends; his was dark brown, thick,
bushy, hard, curled all over. My stockings, shoes, clothes,
were all exactly fit for him; my hat, though my head was
long and big and his round and little, yet he wore his hair so
long and so thick that it served him reasonably well, that
being the only part of my clothes that he could not buy and
fit me by his own trial. His great felicity was to wear my
clothes the next day after I had left them off, so very often
appearing in the same suit of clothes I had worn the day
before. He had a strong mechanic genius, he quickly learnt
1 For the parliament which met April 13, 1640, the fourth parlia-
ment of Charles I., which sat only three weeks, and is called the
Short Parliament.
3640. FRAGMENT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY. XX111
to trim me, and all the art of any tradesman I used, but
especially he was an excellent sempster ; he sewed and cut
out any linen for men or women, equal if not beyond any of
the trade, and he never went without patterns of the newest
fashions ; and, as soon as I alighted at any place, I was hardly
in the parlour before my man had got to the nursery or
laundry, and, though he was never there before, his confidence
gave him entrance, and his science in that art they had most
use of gave him welcome, and his readiness to teach and im-
part his skill and to put them and their ladies into the new-
est fashions gave him an intimacy especially with the most
forward and prating wenches, those he expected his best
return from, which was besides the usual traffic and commerce
of kisses (the constant trade betwixt young men and women),
the intelligence of all the intrigues of the family, which he
with all haste conveyed to me, and I managed to the most
mirth and jollity I could. My skill in palmistry and telling
fortunes, which for my diversion I professed, was much assisted
by this intelligence, and gave me choice of opportunities which
some would have made worse use of than I did.
Thus I have set down my youthful time. What follows is
a time of business which overtook me early, and the rest of
my life is not without great mixtures of the public concern,
and must be much intermingled with the history of the times,
and therefore it will be necessary to give you a state of them
as they then stood in the beginning of the year 1639.
Our Eeformation in England was begun by Henry the
Eighth, a vigorous and haughty prince, who found himself
affronted by the Pope, and, resolving to avenge it, cast off his
power, and made himself head of the Church and was by act
of parliament acknowledged to be so as of ancient right, and
as annexed to his imperial crown and dignity, and that the
names of spirituality and temporality were but terms that did
distinguish his people, which under him made but one body ;
and that the king might by his letters-patent nominate and
present bishops without any other election : that all eccle-
siastical laws, canons, and constitutions that are not expressly
founded in God's word, are but human laws, and may be
altered, enacted, or dispensed with as shall seem meet by the
King and his two Houses of Parliament. The next thing he
attempted was to pull down the abbeys and priories, wherein
he disbanded the greatest and surest strength the Pope had,
they being his creatures and vassals. Besides, with their
XXIV APPENDIX I. , 1640.
estates he secured the nobility and gentry to him and his
design. Edward the Sixth, his son, reformed the doctrine ;
his first act of Parliament introduces communion in both
kinds, his second act enables the king without election to
constitute archbishops and bishops. In his third year he
establishes by act of parliament a new liturgy in the English
tongue, which being drawn up by men of great moderation
and prudence, they retain as much of the old service and
mass-book as would agree with the true doctrine and the
Scriptures, not affecting a departure from what was before
without evident and convincing reason, that they might give
just scandal to none, but invite all to embrace the truth now
in following the footsteps of the Apostles amongst the Jews.
The chief of them, being Archbishop Cranmer and other
eminent divines, in answer to certain queries the King put to
them at Windsor, declare under their hands and seals that
bishops and priests were not two things, but both one office
in the beginning of Christ's religion ; that there needeth no
consecration by the Scriptures, for election or appointing
thereunto is sufficient ; that Christian princes may make or
appoint a bishop or a priest, and that the people formerly did
elect or appoint them ; that the bishops or priests cannot
excommunicate where the law forbids, and that such as be no
priests may, when the law allows them thereunto.
This glorious Eeformation was hardly settled when Queen
Mary succeeds her brother, and makes a furious, bloody, and
violent return of all things to the Eomish Church ; only the
Church-lands were refused by the nobility and gentry to be
restored notwithstanding. 1
1 This fragment here ends abruptly.
APPENDIX II.
Autobiographical Sketch from birth (1621) to end of 1645,
followed by a Diary from January 1, 1646, to July 10,
1650. 1
SIR ANTHONY ASTLEY 2 COOPER, baronet, was born at St. Giles
Wimborne, in the county of Dorsett, A.D. 1621, on the 22d
day of July, early in the morn, being the eldest child then
living of his father and mother.
He was nursed at Cranborne by one Persee, a tanner's wife.
At six years old he lost his grandfather, Sir Anthony
Astley. Presently after this, his father falling sick of the
small-pox, he and his brother and sister, George and Philippa,
he above four years younger and she just two years younger,
were removed to Eockborne, a house of Sir John's in Hant-
shyre. His father recovering, his mother fell sick of the same
disease and died, upon which the children were again removed
to Whitsbury, 2 a house of Sir John's in the same county.
Within two months after they were again removed to Giles
Wimborne, where they continued above a year, when Sir
1 Almost the whole of this Life and Diary is printed from an
original manuscript of Shaftesbury, which goes as far as December 29,
1648. The small remainder to July 10, 1650, is printed from a copy
at St. Giles's. The reader will see at p. xxxii. that the Autobiographical
Sketch which precedes the Diary was written in January 1646.
2 Spelt Astley always by Shaftesbury in this manuscript. The
name of the Norfolk family of Astley is frequently spelt Ashley in
books of the time, as in Ludlow and Clarendon. Hence confusion has
in one instance arisen between Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper and Sir
Jacob Astley. See p. xli. The name Cooper is once spelt Couper in
this manuscript, and once Cowper ; and I have seen it spelt both ways
in other papers. The Earls Cowper descend from an intimate friend of
Shaftesbury in later life, but apparently no relative, Sir William
Cooper, whose name was always spelt Cooper.
3 Whitsbury, Whichbury, also often spelt Whitebury.
XXVI APPENDIX II. 1640.
John marrying the Lady Morrison, widow to Sir Charles,
and eldest daughter and co-heir to the Lord Viscount Camb-
den, they were removed to Cashiobery in Hartfordshyre,
where they continued two years ; only one summer Sir John
and his whole family dwelt at Giles Wimborne.
Sir John Couper, at the two years' end dying of a con-
sumption, left his eldest son to Sir Daniell Norton, a kinsman,
and Mr. looker, his brother-in-law ; so that he was removed
to Southwicke in Hampshyre, Sir Daniell's house, where he
dwelt rive years, only divers times he went with Sir Daniell
to London.
Mr. Guerden, a fellow of Queen's College in Cambridge,
since doctor of physic in London, was his tutor at Giles
Wimborne and Cashiobery. But Mr. Fletcher was his tutor
the first four years at Southwicke, and the last year one Mr.
/ of Oriell College in Oxford, a master of arts.
Sir Daniel Norton dying, he removed from thence to his
uncle looker's house at Sarum, where, and at his said uncle's
house at Madenton, he lived one year.
Then, being sixteen years old, he went to Oxford, where he
was of Exeter College ; Doctor Prideaux, then rector of the
College and doctor of the chapel, since Bishop of Worcester,
being his tutor, and Mr. Hussey, since minister of Hinton
Martin, being his servitor.
He went from Oxford but a little before his marriage,
which was on Shrove Monday, being the 25th February,
1638, 2 he being under the age of eighteen, to Margarett, the
daughter of Thomas Lord Coventry, keeper of the Great Seal,
a woman of excellent beauty, and incomparable in gifts of
nature and virtue.
After his marriage, he lived with the Lord Keeper at Dnrr-
ham House and Canbury, till the Lord Keeper's death, which
was in January, 1639, 3 after which my lady kept the house a
year at these two places.
In March 1640 he was by a general and free election of
the town of Tewkesbury chosen their first burgess for the
parliament, in which short parliament he served them faith-
fully. 4
1 There is a blank for the name in the manuscript.
2 February 25, 1639.
3 January 1640.
4 By first burgess can only be meant first on the return of two
members. This parliament met April 13, and was dissolved on
May 5, 1640.
1642. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XXV11
For this happy parliament, 1 which, was called the latter
end of the same year, he was chosen a burgess for Downton
in "Wiltshyre, in the place of Mr. William Herbert, second
son to the Earl of Pembrooke, who was chosen knight also of
a county in Wales ; Mr. Gorge, eldest son to the Lord Gorge, 2
was also returned ; but at the Committee for Privileges it
was clearly decided for Sir Anthony, yet no report yet made
of it.
My Lady Coventry leaving off the housekeeping, Lord
Coventry and his brother Sir Anthony kept house together
in Westminster, at Dorchester House. 3
In 1641 he went to Stow to see his sister, the Lady Hare, 4
and went through the most part of Norfolk.
1642. He about the end of March removed his lady to
Euiford in iSTotinghamshyre, 5 and returned to London, and so
into the West, and stayed not there, but returned by Croome, 6
in Worcestershyre, where the Lord Coventry then was, to
Kufford.
He was with the King at Notingham and Darby, but
only as a spectator, having not as yet adhered against the
Parliament.
Only being named by ordinance a deputy-lieutenant for
Dorsett, he returned from Rufford; the whole family removed
to Thornehill in Yorkshyre, another house of Sir William
Savile's.
From Thornehill, the county being unquiet, Sir Anthony,
his lady, the Lady Savile, and the Lady Packington, her
sisters, removed to Bishop Aukland in Durrham, where they
lived some months \ only for some weeks they were forced
1 The famous Long Parliament ; and it is important to note this
passage, written by Sir A. A. Cooper in January 1646, after he had
retired from military service, as it shows his continued devotion to
the Parliament.
2 Lord George, Gorge, or Gorges, of a family anciently established
in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, and the first and last Baron. See
Banks's Extinct and Dormant Peerages, i. 329, and Hutchins's Hist, of
Dorset, iii. 30. The name is also spelt George ; Sir S. d'Ewes so
spells it.
3 Dorchester House was in Covent Garden.
4 Elizabeth, daughter of first Lord Coventry, married to Sir John
Hare, bart., of Stow Bardolph, Norfolk, and Sir A. A. Cooper's
sister-in-law.
5 The seat of Sir "William Savile, his brother-in-law, married to a
daughter of Lord Coventry.
6 Croome d'Abitot, the seat of Lord Coventry.
XXV111 APPENDIX II. 1643.
to retire to the city of Durrham and to Newcastle. They
lived at Mr. Wren his house in Aukland parish. From
hence, in the beginning of February, the county being much
unquiet, the ladies with Sir Anthony took a journey through
Stainmore and Westmoreland, Lancashyre, Chessyre, and
North Wales to Shrewsbery ; by the way they went through
the towns of Kendall, Lancaster, Preston, Lerpole, 1 Chester,
Wrexlmm.
At Shrewsbery they lived some weeks, and then removed
to Upton Crescett, in the same county, Mr. Crescett's house,
where the Lady Thynne, their eldur sister, was. From thence
after some time they removed to Cause Castle, Sir Henry
Thynne's house, in the same county.
1643. Sir Anthony left the ladies, and went into Dorsett
to his house at St. Giles Wimborne, where he continued
generally till, the Lord Marquess Hertford 2 coming into the
county, he was employed for the treating with the towns of
Dorchester and AVeymouth to surrender, the commission
being directed to him, Napper, Hele, 3 Ogle, which they
effected, and Sir Anthony was by the gentlemen of the county
desired to attend the King with their desires and the state of
the county.
Sir Anthony was by Marquess Hertford made governor
of the towns of Weymouth and Melcombe and the Isle
of Portland, and the castles of Sandesfoote and Portland,
colonel of a regiment of foot, and captain of a troop of
horse.
1 Liverpool.
2 William Seymour, Marquis of Hertford, so raised from the rank
of Earl in 1640, great-grandson of the Protector Duke of Somerset.
Hertford had incurred the anger of James I. by marrying Arabella
Stuart of royal blood, and had been committed to the Tower, whence
he effected his escape. His wife soon died, and he made a second
marriage with a daughter of the Earl of Essex, sister of the first
parliamentary General-in-chief. This is the lady mentioned in the
later Diary. On the breaking out of the civil war, Hertford was
appointed Commander-in-chief of the King's western army, but he was
soon superseded by Prince Maurice. Hertford's constancy and services
to the royal cause were rewarded immediately after the Restoration by
his being created Duke of Somerset with a reversal of the Protector's
attainder: but he lived only a few weeks to enjoy his new honours.
He died in October 1660. There is no ground for Mr. Martyn's state-
ment that Shaftesbury was a relation of the Marquis of Hertford
(Life, i. 138, 141).
3 Sir Gerard Napper, Nappeir, or Napier, and Sir John Hele or
Heal. See Autobiography, p. xvii.
1644. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XXIX
He raised a full regiment of foot and a troop of horse at
his own charge. Some months after this, Marquess Hertford's
commission was taken away, yet Sir Anthony had a con-
tinuation of all his commands under the King's own hand,
and he was made high sheriff of the county of Dorsett, and
president of the council of war for those parts.
Notwithstanding, he now plainly seeing the King's aim
destructive to religion and the state, and though he had an
assurance of the barony of Astley Castle, 1 which had formerly
belonged to that family, and that but two days before he
received a letter from the King's own hand of large promises
and thanks for his service, yet in February he delivered up
all his commissions to Ashburneham, and privately came
away to the Parliament, leaving all his estate in the King's
quarters, 500. a year full-stocked, two houses well furnished,
to the mercy of the enemy, resolving to cast himself on God
and to follow the dictates of a good conscience. Yet he
never in the least betrayed the King's service, but while he
was with him was always faithful. The first place he came
to of the Parliament's quarters was Hurst Castle, where Captain
Buchester was governor. From thence he went into the Isle
of Wight, to Portsmouth, Chichester, and London, where he
dwelt at Dorchester House in Westminster, and his lady came
to him about the middle of March, whom he had not seen in
a year before.
1644. After Weymouth was taken in 2 by the Lord General
Essex, the Committee for Dorsett, going into the country,
desired Sir Anthony's company with them, which he did: 3
and presently after they drawing in the forces of their county
into a body, consisting of seven regiments of horse and
foot, gave him a commission to command as Field Marshal
General, with which they besieged Wareham, and having
received an addition of a thousand horse and dragoons under
1 In Wiltshire, whence the Ashleys of Wimborne St. Giles came.
See Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 14.
2 To " take in " a town was the usual phrase of the time for taking a
town : it occurs again below in speaking of the taking of Abbotsbury.
See note at p. 59 of the "Life."
" 1 would say more, but death has taken in the outworks,
And now assails the fort."
DENHAM, The Sophy, act v.
3 Leave was given by the Parliament to Sir A. A. Cooper to go down
into Dorsetshire July 10, 1644. (Gomm. Journ.)
XXX APPENDIX II. 1645.
the command of Lieutenant- General Midleton, they starved
the enemy out of bestall, and had the town delivered upon
articles.
Sir Anthony was employed by the Committee and Council
of War to give the House a narrative of it, which he did at
the House of Commons' bar, and was the same day by an
ordinance of both Houses added to the Committee for
Dorsett. 1
About the end of September the Committee drew all the
forces in Dorsett a second time into a body, consisting of ten
regiments of horse and foot, and gave Sir Anthony a com-
mission to command them in chief as general of that brigade,
with which he took in Abotsbury by storm, and in it
Colonel James Strangwais ; his whole regiment, all the
officers and soldiers, one troop of horse, all prisoners at
mercy. From thence he marched to Sturminster Castle,
where Colonel Radford was governor for the enemy, but he
quitted the garrison before he could get thither, so that he
marched to Shaftesbury, where the enemy were erecting a
new garrison, which he forced them to quit also. After this
he received orders to attempt the relief of Taunton, and a
commission from his Excellency the Earl of Essex to com-
mand in chief for that design, which, having received the
addition of some forces under the command of Major-General
Holborn and Commissary-General Yaudniss, 2 was by the
mercy of God happily effected, and in the way the enemy
for fear quitted their garrisons of Shute and Coxum Houses
in Devon. 3 This was in December.
1645. In May he received divers commissions from the
Committee of the West, the chief of which was to command
in chief the forces they designed to beleaguer Corffe Castle,
1 It is not mentioned in the Commons' Journals that Sir A. A.
Cooper attended at the bar to make this statement ; but it is recorded
that on the 14th August, 1644, he was added to the Committee for
governing the army in Dorsetshire, and his case as regards sequestra-
tion referred to the Committee at Goldsmiths' Hall. The Committee
reported in a few days, recommending that he should be permitted to
compound by a payment of 500Z., and the House immediately adopted
the report. See chapter III. of " Life," pp. 59-61.
2 Called Vandruske by Clarendon. (Hist, of Rebellion, ix. 9.)
3 Coxum House, spelt Cokam in Sir A. A. Cooper's letter from
Taunton printed at p. 73 of the "Life," is Colcombe, where there had
been a castle, an old seat of the Courtenays. It now belonged to Sir
John Pole, owner also of the neighbouring house of Shute ; they
were both near Colyton in Devonshire.
1645. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. XXXI
which, forces he was to receive from Colonel Welden, who
then commanded in the West ; hut when Sir Anthony came
into the country, he found Welden blocked up by Goring,
so that being not supplied with men he was obliged to
return. 1
In June he went with his lady to Tunbridge, where he
for six weeks drank the waters. In September his lady went
to Oxsted in Surrey, to her aunt Capell's, 2 where her mother
also was, and they both sojourned there. 3 In October he went
down into the country, and sat with the Committee con-
stantly, most commonly as chairman.
In December he was employed by the Committee with
Colonel Bingham to the General, who lay then at Autree in
Devon, to obtain an assistance of force towards the besieging
Corff Castle, which they obtained. 4
1 Instructions from the Committee of Lords and Commons for the
Associated Western Counties to Cooper for the blockade of Corfe Castle,
dated May 17, 1645, are among the papers at St. Giles's. Mr. Martyn
states, at variance with the facts, that Cooper successfully accom-
plished the task, and adds : " Corfe soon surrendered, and received a
strong garrison for the Parliament, and for the better preservation of
the place Sir Anthony threw a troop of horse with a body of foot
into Lulworth." (i. 148.) This is all misstatement. Corfe did not
surrender till April 1646 : Sir A. A. Cooper was not there then ; it
was surrendered to Colonel Bingham. Mr. Martyn's misstatement is
probably owing to his having misunderstood the passage in Cooper's
memoranda for the governor of Poole, printed at p. 68 of the "Life,"
where he says, " A few foot in Lulworth with a troop of horse will
keep Corfe far better than Wareham. " But this means, keep Corfe in
check, Corfe being still besieged.
2 Lady Capel, a sister of the second Lady Coventry, wife of Sir
Henry Capel, knight, of Hadham, Herts. She had been previously
married to Sir Thomas Hoskins of Oxted.
3 No mention is made by Cooper of an unsuccessful attempt made at
this time to obtain a report on his election-petition for Downton. An
order was made by the House of Commons, on September 1, 1645, for
Sir Walter Erie to report on the subject ; but apparently no report
was made. See chapter III. p. 76 of "Life."
* See Bankes's "Story of Corfe Castle," p. 215. Sir Thomas
Fairfax was now General in the place of the Earl of Essex, and was
now at Ottery St. Mary, Autree, or Ottree, as it is variously written in
books of that time, besieging Exeter. (Sprigge's Anglia Eediviva,
p. 151 and seqq. ; Bell's Fairfax Correspondence, i. 257, 263 ;
Clarendon's History of Rebellion, v. 288.) Cooper's mission to
Fairfax on this occasion was probably exclusively civil. He probably
ceased to act as a military commander after the new modelling of the
army which had taken place in this year ; he was not included in the
new model. See p. 75 of " Life."
XXX11 APPENDIX II. 1646.
In the end of this month he returned to Oxsted in
Surrey.
This was writ in January 1645. 1
1646. January 1st. I was at Oxsted in Surrey, the
Lady CapelTs, whither I came out of the West, 26th
December.
5th. I came to London; lodge at Mr. Tarver's in Holborn.
9th. I sealed a new lease to John Bates, of his house in
Ely Rents for five years more than the twenty- one he had in
his former, so that his term is to 1670 ; this was granted in
regard he had built a considerable part of his house new.
His rent is 51. yearly.
I sealed another lease to John Hancock, which makes his
old term full twenty-one years in another house of the same
liberty; his rent 81. yearly. This was freely granted him
because he had been an old faithful servant to our family.
15th. I went to Oxsted, where my wife has been this half-
year.
22^7. I came to London to Mr. Tarver's. I entertained 2
Henry Shergall again.
24:th. I paid Mr. John Collins 100. borrowed of him by a
bond dated the 5th day of August, 1645, and had the bond
delivered up, which was by me cancelled : and 4. for half a
year's interest.
The aforesaid 104Z. was paid the day above-said, by me for
the use of my master,
John Round.
3lst. I went to my aunt Capell's at Oxsted, where my wife
has been this half-year.
February th. I came from Oxsted to London to Mr.
Tarver's in Holborne. My cousin Norton came to my house
at Holborne the 2nd day.
6th. Mr. George Skutt the elder, of Poole, had a bill from
me to James Percivall for 51. which he affirmed he lent me
formerly, so that I owe him nor his sons nothing.
1 January 1646. In printing the Diary which follows, I for con-
venience print the years according to the present mode of reckoning.
2 "Entertained," took into service.
1646. DIARY. XXX111
The 5th day I had a nerve and vein cut by Gell and
two more, for which I was forced to keep my chamber
twelve days.
February Wi. Mr. Skutt had a bill of exchange on James
Percival for 100., which I received.
12lh. I had another nerve and vein cut.
18th. I went to Aldgnham in Hertfordshyre, to Sir Job
Harbye's.
20th. I went to Northampton from Aldenham.
2lst. I went to Warwicke to my Lady Rous 1 for my wife's
jewels, which I had of her.
24:th. I returned to Newport Pagnall;
2Qth. I returned to Aldenham to Sir Job Harbye'si
I went to see Latimers and Cheynes in Buckinghamshyre,
but returned to Aldenham.
March 2nd. I went from Aldenham to Kenton Park in
Middlesex, Mr. Carre Eawleigh's house. 2
1 The wife of Sir Thomas Rons, Bart., of Rous-Lench, "Worcester
shire, and daughter of Sir John Ferrers of Tamworth Castle, Warwick-
shire.
2 Carew Raleigh, the son of Sir Walter, had married the widow of
Sir A. A. Cooper's grandfather, Sir Anthony Ashley. He was a
member of the Long Parliament; he began as a Royalist, but after-
wards left that party ; he was a member of Richard Cromwell's parlia-
ment 1658-9, and was appointed Governor of Jersey by Monk-. He
was a man of no remarkable ability or reputation. He is lampooned
with Cooper and Wallop in a Royalist satire on the Rump, printed in
a "Collection of Loyal Songs, &c.," 1731, vol. ii. p. 57.
"Ashley Cooper knew a reason
That treachery was in season,
When at first he turned his coat
From loyalty to treason.
And gouty Master Wallop
Now thinks he hath the ballop,
But though he trotted to the Rump,
He'll run away a gallop.
There's Carew Raleigh by him,
All good men do defy him,
And they that think him not a knave,
I wish they would but try him. "
( 'arcw Raleigh died in 1667, leaving no son. He was buried at West
llorsly in Surrey with his father's head in his coffin. See Cayley's
Lite of Sir Walter Raleigh, ii. 215.
VOL. I. c
XXXIV APPENDIX II. 1646.
March 5th. I came from Kenton Park to London to
Mr. Tarver's.
7th. I went to Oxsted and delivered my wife her jewels.
Wth. I came to London to Mrs. Tarver's.
I4tth. I went to Oxsted to my wife.
17 th. I came to London to Mrs. Tarver's.
21 st. I came to Oxsted in Surrey.
23rd. I came to London to Mrs. Tarver's.
I and Mr. Matthew Hopkins signed and sealed inter-
changeably articles concerning my plantation in the Bar-
badoes, for which he is my agent.
2Qth. I went to Guildford, being part of my journey into
the West to the quarter sessions in Dorsettshyre.
27th. To Winchester.
28^. To Allhollowes Wimborne, Walter Goddard's.
30th. To Salisbury, my uncle Tooker's, and in the way
I was at Damerham Parva, at my court-keeping.
3lst. I came to Walter Goddard's at Allholland.
April 1st. I was at the Court at Hinton Martin, and
viewed Holt forest inclosures. Henry Andrews of St. Giles
Wimborne, and William Cutler of Gussage, two boys of
fifteen years old, bound themselves to me for seven years for
the Barbadoes, to give them 51. a piece at the term's
end.
I came to Wimborne to Mr. John Hannam's.
2nd. I went to Rockborne to meet Mr. Carre Rawleigh,
and came back to Allholland to Walter Goddard's.
6th. I came to Dorchester to the quarter sessions, lodged
at Will. Patye's house.
1th. We began the quarter sessions, which was this time
kept at Dorchester, and not at Sherborne, for security. The
justices present were Mr. Whitaker who gave the charge,
myself, Mr. Erie, Mr. Browne, Mr. Grove, Mr. Chettle,
Colonel Sidenham, Mr. Robert Coker, Colonel Butler, Colonel
Brodripp, Mr. Hussey, Mr. Floyre, Mr. Savadge.
8th. We ended the sessions. Nine hanged, only three
burnt in the hand.
%tfi, 10th. We sat at the Committee.
lltk. We sat in the Shire hall at Dorchester, by the ordi-
nance for punishing pressed soldiers that run away of the
15th of January last; when three were condemned to die,
two to run the gantelope, two to be tied neck and heels, one
to stand with a rope about his neck. The judges were Sir
1646. DIAEY. XXXV
A. A. Cooper, Mr. John Browne, Colonel Sidenham, Lieut. -
Colonel Coker, Mr. Savage, Mr. Christopher Erie, Colonel
Herbert, Lieut.-Colonel Cary, Major George Skutt, Major
William Skutt, Major Jerdan, Colonel Butler, Captain Arney.
Captain Gulson, Captain Woodward, Captain Gold, Captain
Batten, Captain Henry Culliforcl, Captain William Culliford,
Captain Feardly, Captain Wase, Captain Bachelor of the
army ; Mr. Loder, Judge-advocate. 1
April 13th. We sat at the Committee.
I4:th. I and Mr. Thomas Erie went and dined with Mr.
Churchill at Muston ; from thence we went to Grange to Sir
Gerard Naper's.
15^. I came to Allholland to Walter Goddard's.
2lst. I went to Wimborne to a petty sessions, with Mr.
Erie, Mr. Chettle, Mr. Hannam.
22nd. I went to Grange, to Sir Gerard tapper's to meet
my brother John. 2
23rd. I came to Blandford, whither the Committee was
adjourned from Dorchester, Mr. Sheriff, Mr. Erie, Colonel
Butler, Mr. Elias Bond, Mr. Chettle, Mr. Joy. The seques-
trators of Blandford were ordered to pay Mr. Chettle 201.,
Mr. Bond 101., which was borrowed of them by the Com-
mittee, and for which Colonel Bingham and I gave our
bills.
24th. We sat at the Committee at Blandford.
25th. I sat at the Committee in the morning, but in the
afternoon I went to Allholland.
27th. I went to Blandford to the Committee, and returned
in the evening to Allholland.
2Stk. I went to Tollard to Mr. Plott's, and met Mr. Erie
and Mr. Grove.
2Wi. We all went to Salisbury.
30th. We all went to Farnham in Surrey.
May 1st. I and Mr. John Ryves came to Oxsted in
Surrey.
4:th. I came to London to Mr. Tarver's.
9th. I went to O.xsted.
13th. I came to London to Master Brough's in the Strand.
My Lady Coventry and my wife came with me.
1 The names are sometimes very difficult to read in this manuscript,
and I cannot be sure that they are always correctly given.
2 John Coventry, the eldest son of the Lord Keeper by his second
wife.
e 2
XXXvi APPENDIX II. 1646.
May 1 6th. I sealed a bond of 1,000. to Xoell the scrivener,
to pay the bills of exchange of Hopkins from the Barbadoes
to the value of 500/.
1 8^. I gave my servant, James Percivall, two bonds where-
in he owed me 70/.; this for his losses in coming in with me
to the Parliament.
28th. I removed .my lodging to my cousin Day's in Axe
Yard, Westminster, my wife and her mother being gone out
of the town.
30th. I went to Oxsted.
This month I borrowed WOl. on interest of Mr. Browne,
Mr. Collins and myself bound.
I borrowed this month another 100?. of Mr. Strong, with-
out bond. But he has bond since.
June 8th. I came from Oxsted to London, to my cousin
Day's house.
12th. I went to Oxsted.
IQth. I came to London to my cousin' Day's house.
20th. I went in a coach with Sir John Packington and my
brother, John Coventry, to Oxstedj
22nd. I came to London with them, and lodged at Mr.
.Bowes his house near Strand 'bridge.
26th. I went to Oxsted,
July 1st. I and my wife came to London to our own house
in Holborne.
7th. I and my wife went to Oxsted.
9th. I dined at Limsfield with Sir Edward Gresham ;
there dined Sir John Eveling 1 of Godstone and his lady.
10th. I went to Somerhill to see my Lady Marquess
Hertford, and lay that night at Tunbridge.
lllh. I returned to Oxsted.
I4:th. I came to London to my house.
16^. I returned to Oxsted.,
20th. In the afternoon I went with my Lady Capell, my
cousin Edmund Hoskins and his wife, to Limsfield, to Sir
Edward Gresham's, and to Titsey to my Lady Gresham ;
but we all returned at night.
22nd. In the afternoon I and my cousin Charles Hoskins
went to Crauherst to Mr. Angell's, but returned at night.
27th. My wife miscarried of a boy. She had gone twenty
i Sir John Evelyn, cousin of John Evelyn of Wotton, whose Diary
and other writings are well known.
1646. DIARY. . XXX Vll
weeks ; her brother John in jest threw her against a bed-
staff, which hurt her so, that it caused this.
July 3Qth. I went to -my house in London.
31st. I returned to Oxsted.
August 6th. I went from Oxsted to Farneham, being my
first day's journey westward.
7th. I went from Farneham to Salisbury.
8th. I went with Mr. Thistlethwait, the High Sheriff, to
meet the Judges, Judge Roles 1 and Serjeant Godbolt, 2 who
were the two Judges for this circuit.
10^. I sat with Judge Godbolt on the Crown side, being
the only justice there besides the Judge and clerk of assize in
the commission of oyer and terminer. I was sworn this day
a justice of the peace for the county of Wilts before Mr.
Turner. The justices present this day were Mr. William
Eyre the younger, Mr. Edward Tooker, Mr. Bennett, Mr.
Joy, Mr. Hussey, Mr, Giles Eyre, Mr. Turner, Mr. Dove, Mr.
Barnaby Coles, Mr. Francis Swanton. I am in commission
for oyer and terminer this whole circuit.
llth. Sir John Danvers 3 oanre and sat with us. Seven
condemned to die, four for horse stealing, two for robbery,
one for killing his wife ; he broke her neck with his hands,
it was proved that, he touching her body the day after, her
nose bled fresh; four burnt in the hand, one for felony,
1 Judge Rolle, as the name is usually spelt, had been made a Judge
of the King's Bench in 1645, and was made Chief Justice of the ,same
court in 1648. He was a zealous Parliamentarian, and was one of the
six Judges who accepted a commission from the Commonwealth, after
the King's execution. He was one of the two Judges seized in ttheir
beds at Salisbury, in the Royalist rising headed by Penruddock in
1655, and had then a narrow escape for his life. He resigned his chief
justiceship in 1655, to avoid a conflict with Cromwell. He died July
30th, 1656, at the age of sixty-seven. (Foss's Judges of England, vi.
472, Noble's Cromwells, i. 430.)
2 Serjeant Godbolt was made a Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas, April 30, 1647. He died in 1648. He took no active part in
politics. (Foss's Judges, vi. 318.)
3 Brother of the Earl of Danby, mentioned in the Autobiography,
p. vii. Though under obligations to Charles I., he from the first took
a zealous part against him, and was ultimately one of those who
sat in judgment and signed the warrant of death. Lord Danby,
who died without children in 1644, had marked his anger against his
brother by leaving his estate to his sister. Sir John Danvers obtained
from the Parliament a reversal of this will. He died before the
Restoration. (Noble's English Regicides, i. 163.)
XXXviii APPENDIX II. 1646.
three for manslaughter ; the same sign followed one of them,
of the corpse bleeding.
August 12th. I and the Sheriff of Wilts begged the life
of one Prichett, one of those seven condemned, because he
had been a parliament soldier. I waited on the Judges to
Dorchester.
13th. I sat with the Judges at assizes. Judge Roles gave
the charge. Justices present, myself, Sir Thomas Trenchard,
Mr. Thomas Erie, in the commission of oyer and terminer ;
Mr. John Trenchard, Colonel Bingham, Colonel Sidenham,
Colonel Coker, Colonel Butler, Mr. Chettle, Mr. Hannam,
Mr. Hussey, Mr. Gallop, Mr. Savadge. Mr. Brodrip.
14:th. The assizes continued ; five condemned to die, two
women for murdering their children, one of them a married
woman; one for murder, one for robbery, one for horse
stealing ; three burnt in the hand, one for manslaughter, two
for felony. Chibbett condemned for horse stealing ; we the
justices begged his reprieve, he having been a faithful soldier
to the state.
15th. I waited on the Judges out of Dorchester, swore two
of the committee for accounts, being a commissioner nomi-
nated for that purpose. I sat at the Committee ; we were a
full Committee, Sir Thomas Trenchard, Mr. John Trenchard,
Colonel Bingham, Colonel Sidenham, Mr. Chettle, all parlia-
ment men, being present. I got the parsonage of Abers for
the repair of Harnham bridge, at Salisbury.
17th. I went to Wimborne to my cousin Hannam' s.
I met my cousin Earle and divers other gentlemen at
Brienston bowling green, where we bowled all day, and
in the evening Mr. Earle and I went to Tollard, to Mr.
Plott's.
18th. We went to Cobley Walk to course. I lay at the
Falcon in Blandford this night, being going to Grange.
1 9th. I went to Grange and lay there.
20th. 1 came to Allholland to Walter Goddard's.
21th. 1 met at Brienston Bowling Green, and returned to
Allholland.
( 27th. I met my cousin John Hannam and Mr. John Tre-
gonwell, jun., at the Vine against Framp ton's house, beyond
the bridge at Blandford. I there declared to them and
Frampton, who was sent to me from his mother, that I would
not meddle in my cousin Frampton's trust as a trustee.
1646. DIARY. XXxix
August 2Sth. I came to Madenton in Wiltshire to see
my uncle looker.
3lst. I went to Stocketon to Mr. Topp's to dinner, but
returned. I there sealed two bonds of 5001. each for my
brother John Coventry, himself and Sir Gerard Napper bound
with me, one bond to Mr. John Foyle, the other to Mr.
William Whitaker of Shaftesbury, payable 1st of March
next.
September 1st. I came to Salisbury to a petty sessions ; my-
self, Mr. looker, Mr. Bennet, Mr. Eyres of White parish,
justices present.
2nd. I came to Allholland to Walter Goddard's.
3rd. I went to Dorchester and sat at the committee, lay at
Will. Patye's.
4:th. I sat at the committee in the morning, and went in
the evening to Sir Gerard tapper's to Grange.
6th. I met the Eastern committee at Blandford, and came
to Allholland to Walter Goddard's at night.
7th. I dined at Salisbury, and came to Winchester to bed.
8th. I came to Guildford.
9th. I came to Oxsted in Surrey.
10th. I came to my house in Holborne, where my wife and
her mother were.
26th. I sealed a bond of 2001. for my brother John
Coventry, payable the 1st of November, to one Mr. Eice, a
woollen draper in Paul's Church Yard. For this and the
two former bonds I have counter bonds from my brother.
2Sth. I came to Hartford Bridge.
29th. I came to Salisbury, by the way I went to Weyhill
fair.
30^. I came to Walter Goddard's at Allholland Wirn-
borne.
October 1st. I went to Shaftesbury to the council of war
for Massey's brigade, and got them removed out of Dorset. 1
I lay at Shafston,
1 Compare Ludlow's Memoirs, i. 181. The Parliament had ordered
that this brigade should be disbanded, and it was endeavoured to get
as many of the men as possible to enlist to serve against the rebels in
Ireland. Ludlow and Alderman Allen, members for Wiltshire, acted
in that county to execute the Parliament's orders. Ludlow says,
" Though many of that brigade were glad of the opportunity to return
home to their several callings, having taken up arms and hazarded
their lives purely to save the public, yet divers idle and debauched
xl APPENDIX II. 1646.
October 2nd. Colonel Eitzjames, Colonel Cooke, and I went
a hunting in Rushmore Waste ; we dined at Tollard, at Mr.
Plott's. I came home to Allholland.
5th. I came to Salisbury.
6th. I came to Maryborough to the quarter sessions,
where Mr. Hussey, judge, 1 myself and Mr. William Eyre
the younger, Edward looker, Francis Swanton, George Joy,
Mr. Bennet of Norton, Mr. How of Berwick were justices.
?th. We sat at the quarter sessions all the day.
8th. I sat at the quarter sessions part of the morning and
went afterwards to Purton.
12th. I came from Purton to Marleborough, lay at the
Bear.
13^. I came to Salisbury, lay at my uncle Tooker's.
17 th. I came to Allholland Wimborne, to Walter God-
dard's.
20th. I came to Salisbury, lay at my uncle's, being in my
way to London with my sister Philippa Cowper.
21st. I came from Salisbury to Basingstoke to Mr.
Spittle's.
22nd. I came to Stanes to the Vine at the bridge foot.
23rd. I came to my house in London in Holborne, next
Hatton house, where my wife was.
This month I lent my dear friend and kinsman, Mr.
Thomas Erie, 100/. on his note.
November. Mem.: This month the bond I stood bound
with my brother John Coventry for 200Z., borrowed in
September last, to one Mr. Price is paid and cancelled.
Mem.: The bond Mr. Collins stood bound with me for
100Z., borrowed in May last, to one Mr. Browne, is paid and
cancelled.
Mem. : The note wherein Colonel Bingham and I stand
engaged to Mr. Chettle for 201., which Colonel Bingham had
for the service at Corfe, is acknowledged by Mr. Chettle to
be satisfied.
persons, especially the foreigners, amongst them, not knowing how to
betake themselves to any honest employment, endeavoured to stir up
the brigade to a meeting ; but not being able to effect that, some of
them listed themselves to serve against the rebels in Ireland under Sir
"William Fenton and others there present to receive them, for which we
had instructions from the Parliament ; the rest dispersed themselves
and returned home."
1 By judge is meant chairman of the court of sessions.
1647. DIARY. xli
My coachman, Anthony, was entertained by me the middle
of this month.
I was bound with my brother John Coventry for 2001. to
Mr. Browne. Mr. Collins was bound with us, who had my
brother's and my counter bond, and I my brother's.
December. I was by both houses of Parliament made High
Sheriff of the county of Wilts. 1
I was by ordinance of Parliament made one of the Com-
mittee for Dorsett and Wilts for Sir Thomas Fairfaxe his
army's contribution.
Mr. William Ayres, a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, died, a
special friend of mine, and made me one of his executors in
trust and gave me 101. in plate.
16th. I and my wife and sister removed from my house at
London towards Salisbury and came to Egham.
17th. We went to Basingstoke.
1 Sth. We came to my house at Salisbury. I rented Mr.
Hyde his house in the Close next to the Deanery.
1647. January 28th. I went towards London, lay at
Basingstoke.
29th. I came to London to my house in Holborne.
February 17th. 1 came from London to Egham.
18th. I came to Andover.
19th. I came to my house in the Close at Sarum.
This term I had up and cancelled my bond of 1,000.
which I entered into to Mr. Noell the 16th of May last, for
the payment of such bills of exchange as should be charged
from Hopkins in the Barbadoes.
22nd. I went to Giles Wymborne to my house, and came
back at night.
March 13th. The Judges came into Salisbury, Justice
Eoles and Serjeant Godbolt. They went hence the 17th
day. I had sixty men in liveries, and kept an ordinary for
all gentlemen at Lawes his, 2 four shillings, and two shillings
for blew men. I paid for all. There were sixteen con-
demned to die, whereof fourteen suffered. George Philips
condemned for stealing a horse ; I got his reprieve, and
1 Leave was given him to reside out of Wiltshire during his shriev-
alty. (See Commons' Journals, Dec. 1, 1646; Jan. 6, 1647.) In
some biographies Sir A. A. Cooper is said to have been sheriff of
Norfolk in 1646 ; but this is a confusion with Sir Jacob Astley, who
was the King's sheriff of Norfolk in that year.
2 So in the manuscript ; Lawes's.
xlii APPENDIX II. 1647.
another for the like offence was reprieved by the judge.
There were more burnt in the hand than condemned.
March 29 th. My wife miscarried of a child she was eleven
weeks gone with.
This month I raised the country twice, and beat out the
soldiers designed for Ireland, who quartered on the county
without order, and committed many robberies.
April 5th. I went to Glastonbury in Somerset, in my way
to Pawlett.
6th. I came to Pawlett.
1th and 8th. I kept my court there.
9th. I came to More Critchell in Dorset, to Sir Gerard
tapper's.
10th. I came home to Salisbury.
22nd. I went with Colonel Kern to More Critchell, Sir
G. tapper's.
23rd. I returned to Sarum.
24:th. I was bound in three bonds for my brother, John
Coventry : 1st. to Gyles Eyre of White parish in the county
of Wilts esquire for 150/., we two only; 2nd, to Dorothy
and Anne Aubery> daughters of William Aubery of Meer in
Wilts esquire, for 390Z., we two alone; 3rd, to Henry
Whitaker of Shafston in Dorset esquire for 500Z., we two
and Sir Gerard Napper. For all these I have his counter
bond.
30th. I and my wife and sister went to Gyles Wymborne,
and lay at Walter Goddard's at Allholland Wimborne.
May 1st. We dined at More Critchell at Sir Gerard
tapper's.
2nd. We returned to Sarum.
th. I lay at Hartford bridge on my way to London.
5th. I came to London to my house in Holborne.
This Easter term I acknowledged a judgment to Mr. Boes 1
for 360/. which I borrowed of him.
I likewise borrowed this term of my cousin Day 250,
for which myself, my brother George, and my brother John
Coventry stood bound.
June 1st. Myself, Sir Gerard Napper, Mr. John Churchill
of Glaiivills Wooton in the county of Dorsett, were bound
with my brother John Coventry in two bonds of 2501. each,
the one to the Lady Sarah Kempe, the other to Mr. Koger
1 Elsewhere spelt Bowes, p. xlvi.
1047. DIARY. xliii
Draper, both of Islington. Both bonds payable the 4th of
December next. I have my brother John Coventry's counter
bond for both these.
June 2nd. Myself and Sir Gerard Napper were bound with
my brother John Coventry for 600Z. to Mr. John Warr, jun.
of Didlington in the county of Somerset : this bond payable
the 3rd of November next. For this I have my brother
John Coventry's counter bond.
I came to Bagshott this night.
3rd. I came to my house at Sarum.
I4:th. My wife, myself, and my sister began our journey to
Bath, and came this night to Trubridge.
1 5th. We came to Bath, where my wife made use of the
Cross bath for to strengthen her against miscarriage. We
lay at Mrs. Bedford's by that bath.
1 7th. 1 came back to my house in Salisbury and dined
at Madenton.
18^. We met at Wilton at bowls. I went with my uncle
Tooker to Madenton that night.
22nd. I went to Bath to my wife.
28th. I came back to my house in Salisbury and dined at
Madenton.
29th. I went to Walter Goddard's at AllhoUand.
July 1st. I came back to niy house at Salisbury.
3rd. I went and dined at Allholland, but came back to
Salisbury at night.
This month we had up the bond wherein myself was
bound with my brother John Coventry to Mrs. Dorothy and
Anne Aubery for 390., and we gave them two bonds, the
one to Mrs. Dorothy for 150/., the other to Mrs. Anne for
24:01.; for both these I have my brother's counter bond.
The first bond was dated April 24th.
IQth. I went to my uncle Tooker's to Madenton.
17 th. I went to my wife at Bath.
22nd. My wife and sister and myself came from Bath to
my house at Salisbury.
Vide de hoc mense in proximo.
August 1st. My wife, sister j and myself went to Allholland
in Dorset.
4=th. We dined at Woodlands.
5th. We came back to Sarum.
I4:th. The judges came to Salisbury, Judge Godbolt and
xliv APPENDIX II. 1647.
Serjeant Wild. 1 They went -hence the 18th day. Four
condemned to die, one for a robbery, two for horse-stealing,
one for murder. Yorke that was for the robbery, I got his
reprieve. The justices present were Sir Edward Hungerford,
Mr. Edward Tooker, Mr, John Ashe, Mr. Whitehead.
Colonel Ludlow, Mr. William Eyre, Mr. Giles Eyre, Mr.
Bennet of Norton, Mr. Joy, Mr. Aubery, Mr. Sadler, Mr.
Hippesley, Mr. How of Wishford, Mr. How of Berwick,
Mr. Dove, Mr. Stephens, Mr. Coles, Mr. Swanton, Mr.
Goddard of Upham.
The last assize Sir John Danvers was present.
I kept my ordinary at the Angel, four shillings for the
gentlemen, two for their men, and a cellar.
August 20th. I went to Hinton Martin, and lay at Walter
Goddard's at Allholland.
21st. I came back to Salisbury by Danierham.
24th. I went a hunting to Cobley and from there to More
Critchell to Sir Gerard Napper's.
25th. I heard Mr. Strong preach, and in the evening
returned to Salisbury.
2Qth. I met the commissioners for the assessment for
Sir Thomas Fairfax his army at the Devizes and came to
Madenton at night The commissioners present were myself,
Mr. Tooker, Mr. Jenner, Mr. Dove, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Sadler,
Mr. Hippesley, Mr, Edward Martin, Mr. Gabriel Martin,
Mr. Jesse, Mr. Thomas Bayly, Mr. Brown, Mr. John
Stephens, Mr. William -Coles, Mr. Thomas Carter, Mr.
Nicholas of Simley, Mr. Ditton, Mr. Read, Mr. Crouch.
27th. I came back ;to Salisbury.
In July last I settled my brother George's estate on him,
who was some months since married to one of the co-
heirs of Mr. Oldfield of London, sugar baker. I gave my
brother freely 4,0001. for his preferment, and an annuity of
1 John Wilde had taken an active part in the early proceedings of
the Long Parliament, and had been recommended to the King for the
appointment of Chief Baron of ->the Exchequer in the negotiations of
February 1643. He was appointed Chief Baron of the Exchequer by
the Parliament in October 1648. After the execution of the King he
was a member of the Council of State. When Cromwell became
Protector he did not re-appoint Wilde Chief Baron. He was, however,
restored to that high office in January 1660, by the restored Rump:
but he necessarily lost the office again on the restoration of Charles
the Second. He died in 1669. (JFoss's Judges of England, .yi. .519.)
1647. DIA.RY.. xlv
55. per annum for one life, and cleared it of my sister's
portion. 1
September 2nd. I went to Warniinster and sat on the Com-
mission for Sir Thomas Fairfax his army's contribution.
There were commissioners myself, Mr. Bennet of Norton,
Mr. Carter, Mr. Crouch,. Mr. Jesse. I lay there that night.
3rd. I came back to Salisbury.
I4:th. I went to Madenton to my uncle Tooker's.
15th. My uncle and I went to the Devizes, where we met
the commissioners for Sit' Thomas Fairfax his army. There
were commissioners present, myself, Mr. Tooker, Mr. Alexander
Popham, Mr. Eeniiet, Mr, Crouch, Mr. Carter, Mr. Bayly,
Mr. Jesse, Mr. Martin the elder, Mr. Ditton, Mr. Bead, Mr.
Stokers, Mr. Brown, Mr. Manning. We came back to Maden-
ton to bed*
16th. I came home to Salisbury.
llth. I wsnt to Mrs. Lee her house at Fishwood 2 in
Hamshyre.
18^. I came home to Salisbury.
27th. I went to Warmister r and sat in the Commission
for raising money for Sir Thomas his army. There were
commissioners myself, Mr. Bennet of Norton, Mr. Carter,
Mr. Jesse. I lay there that night;
28th. I dined at Mr. Topp's at Stoketon, and came home to
Salisbury.
October 2nd. I went to Totnam- to Marquis Hertford, and
lay there this night and the 3rd.
th. I went to my own house at Purton<to keep my court
there.
Qth. I went to Malmsbury to return up my money.
7th. I returned to Salisbury.
i There is very little information to be found about Shaftesbury r s
brother and sister, and very few- traces, in Shaftesbury's later life, of
his intercourse with them. The sisteiy Philippa, married Sir Adam
Brown, Bart. , of Betch worth Castle in Surrey, and died at a great ae
in 1701. (Aubrey's Surrey, ii.. 307.) The brother, George, lived at
Clarendon Park near Salisbury. He is probably the George Cooper
who was made one of the commissioners of the- Admiralty by the
Hump Parliament on its second restoration/ in December 1659, to
which his elder brother prominently contributed. (Rennet's Chronicle,
p. 35. ) He is also probably the George Cooper who was member for
Poole in the Convention Parliament of 1660. (Willis. Not. Parl.
ii. 411.)
1J So apparently in the manuscript.
xlvi APPENDIX II. 1647.
October 8th. I came to Damerham and kept court there,
and went that night to Allholland.
9th. I kept court at St. Giles Wimborne.
11 th. I kept court at Hinton Martin.
12th. I returned to Salisbury.
19^. I went from Salisbury to Farneham.
20th. I came to Oxsted to my Lady Coventry's.
25th. I came to my house in Holborne at London.
30^. I went to Oxsted.
November 1st. I came to Alton in Hamshyre.
2nd. I came to Salisbury to my house.
6th. The bond wherein I was bound with my brother
John Coventry, the one to Mrs. Anne, the other to Mrs.
Dorothy Aubery, both dated 15th July 1647, the one for
1601,, the other for 240., were cancelled, and I delivered up
my counter bonds.
8^. I came to Hartford bridge in my way to London and
fell sick there of a looseness, and was forced to stay there till
the 12th.
12th. I came to my house in Holborne at London.
The little ship called the Rose, wherein I have a quarter part,
which went for Guinea, came to town this term (blessed be
God !). She has been out about a year, and we shall but
make our money.
27th. I went with my brother John Coventry to Oxsted,
to see my Lady Coventry, and my sister Packington, who was
lately delivered of her daughter Margarett.
29th. We returned to London to my house in Holborne.
This term I paid Mr. Bowes his 360/., which I borrowed
of him in Easter term last.
This term my cousin "Wallop conveyed Ely Rents to me
which he had in trust, being boiight by me formerly of my
father's estate for 1,800^.
December 2nd. I came from London to Eagshot.
3rd. I came to Andover.
4:th. I came home to my house in Salisbury.
20th. I went to Tollard to Mr. Plott's.
21st. I went to Blandford and returned to Tollard.
22nd. I returned to Salisbury.
26th. My wife was delivered at seven o'clock in the even-
ing of a dead maid child : she was within a fortnight of her
time.
1648. January :llth. I went to Blandford to the quarter
1648. DIARY. xlvii
sessions, where Mr. Hussey gave the charge. Sir A. A.
Cooper, Sir Thomas Trenchard, Mr. Thomas Erie, Mr. John
Tregunwell, Mr. Hannam, Colonel Sidenham, Colonel Coker,
Colonel Brodrip, Mr. Hugh Windham, Mr. Chettle, Mr.
Whitway, Mr. Arnold, Colonel Fitzjarnes, were justices.
January \kth. We sat there in a committee, the High-sheriff,
Sir A. A. Cooper, Sir Thomas Trenchard, Mr. Erie, Colonel
Fitzjames, Colonel Coker, Mr. Chettle, Colonel Brodrip, Mr.
Hussey, Mr. Whitway, Mr. Bury.
15th. I returned to my house in Sarum.
2lst. My brother John Coventry sealed a deed of all his
lands to me, Sir Gerard Napper, Thomas Child, and Edmund
Hoskins, Esqrs., for the payment of those debts we are
engaged for him.
I paid Sir Gerard tapper 5001. I owed him on bond, and
burned the bond.
I borrowed 5001. of Mr. William Hinton ; my brother
Coventry and uncle Tooker were bound with me ; I gave
them my counter bonds.
This month I bought of one Jeffery some tenements in
Gussage, which cost me sixty and odd pounds.
This month, Mr. Hastings and Mr. Hooper, feofees in trust
for my father's estate, conveyed to me the manor of Pawlett,
for which I paid formerly to the Court of Wards 2,5001.
Mem. : I have purchased, not mentioned in this book, a
tenement called Suddon Hill, which cost me 600, and a
tenement in Staffordshyre in Ham, which cost me 2001.
February St/i. I went to Hinton Martin, lay at Allholland
at Goddard's.
9th. I returned to Sarum.
llth. I had my writ of discharge from being Sheriff of
Wiltshyre delivered me by my uncle Tooker, who succeeded
me in my office.
14th. I fell sick of a tertian ague, whereof I had but five
fits, through the mercy of the Lord.
March. I went and waited on the Judges at their lodging ;
the Judges were Judge Godbold and Serjeant Wilde.
7th. I dined with the Judges, but I sat not on the bench
all this assize for fear the cold might have made me relapse
into an ague.
April 4:th. Mr. S wanton and I kept a privy sessions at
Salisbury. Mr. Gyles Eyres sat with us ibis day.
5th. We continued our privy sessions.
xlviii APPENDIX II. 1648.
April 6th. I went to Marlborougb, in my way to Purton.
1th, I came to Purton.
Ibth. I returned to Chipenham by Malmesbury.
llth. I came to Sarurn.
\2th. I kept a court at Damerham Parva, and went to
Walter Goddard's to All Saints Wimborne.
1 3th. I dined at More Critchel at Sir Gerard tapper's.
14^. I dined at Hinton Martin, where I kept a court, and
came to Sarum.
17 th. I and my wife and sister came from my house in
Salisbury to Basingstoke, in our way to London.
1 8th. We came to Stanes.
19th. We came to London to my house in Holborne.
22th. I fell sick of a tertian ague, whereof I had but two
fits, through the mercy of the Lord.
May 1 5th. My wife and I went to Oxsted in Surry, to see
her mother, and stayed there till the
19tfA, when we returned to our house in Holborne.
June 22nd. I paid Mr. Strong the 1001. I borrowed of him
on my bond in 1646. The bond was cancelled.
24:th. My wife and I went to Stubbers 1 in Essex to my
Lady CapelTs.
27th. We returned to our house in Holborne.
July. Mem. : The bond wherein I was bound to Mr. Gyles
Eyre, with my brother Coventry, is paid and cancelled. This
bond was for 150Z., dated April" 1647.
I was this month made a commissioner of the ordinance of
Parliament for the rate for Ireland, for Borsett.
I was this month by ordinance of Parliament made one of
the commissioners for the militia, which they settled in Dor-
settshyre by that ordinance.
August 1st. I went to Egham from London, on my journey
westward.
2nd. I went to Stoekbridge.
3rd. I went to Salisbury, and from thence to Madenton,
my uncle Tooker's,
4:th. I came to Wimborne St. Giles.
6th. I dined with Sir G. Napper at More Critchell, and
heard Mr. Hussey preach.
10th. I went to Dorchester to meet the commissioners of
1 So in manuscript ; query Stebbing or Stubbing, where the Capels
had property. (Morant's Essex, ii. 413.)
1648. DIARY. xlix
the militia, which was there settled. Present, Sir Thomas
Trenchard, Mr. Erie, Mr. Trenchard, Mr. Dennis Bond, Mr.
Chettle, Col. Sidenham, Col. Henley, Mr. Brown, Col. Buttler,
Mr. Whit way, Col. Coker.
Received of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper what was borroived
of him at Poole for the great occasions of the garrisons and
buildings, two hundred pound, which I paid unto him again
ly two hundred pound he received of Mr. John Hoyle by my
order. Witness my hand the IQth of August 1648.
E. Burie, Treasurer}-
This note was made to me the 10th of this month, when I
had also delivered up and cancelled the bond Col. Bingham
and I entered into for twenty pound for the State.
August \\th. I went with my cousin Erie to his house at
Axmouth in Devon shyre.
13th. We went to church in the afternoon to Culliton,
and visited Mr. Young there, but returned in the evening.
15th. I came to my house at Wirnborne St. Gyles.
23rd. I went to Salisbury to meet Mr. William Hussey,
Mr. Norden, Mr. William Eyres ; we all met on commission
directed to us out of Chancery, to hear and certify the cause
betwixt Lowe and Sadler about Fisherton manors. We con-
tinued there on the commission till the 26th, and adjourned
till the 12th of September.
26th. I returned to my house at St. Giles Wimborne.
29th. I went to Salisbury to the assize.
3Qth. The Judge, Mr. Serjeant Wilde, who came alone
this circuit, came into Salisbury.
31 st. We began the assize, where were present Sir John
Eveline, Colonel Whitehead, myself, who were all three com-
missioners of oyer and terminer, Mr. William Hussey, Mr.
Yorke, Mr. Stephens, counsellors ; Mr. Norden, Mr. Joy, Mr.
Bennet of Norton, Mr. William Eyres, Mr. Long, Mr. Coles,
Mr. William Littleton, Mr. Dove, Mr. Sadler, Mr. Eivett.
My uncle To ker, High-sheriff.
September 2nd. I sealed an assignment of a mortgage
belonging to my cousin Ernley, I being a trustee of his wife's
jointure, together with my uncle Tooker, Mr. Swanton,
1 This is the original note by Bury, written in the little book which
contains the manuscript of this Diary.
VOL. I. d
1 APPENDIX II. 1648.
and Mr. Topp. My uncle keeps the writings and accounts
about it.
I had a verdict against St. Johns for my common in
Lydeard, myself the plaintiff, and SOI. damage given me.
The last summer assize I had another verdict against him
and Webb, myself the plaintiff.
September 4Jh. I returned to my house at St. Giles Wim-
borne.
llth. I borrowed of my servant James Eerboons one hun-
dred pound, myself and James Percivall bound to him for it.
12th. I came to Salisbury. Myself, Mr. Hussey, Mr.
William Eyres, Mr. Norden, Mr. Ernley met on the com-
mission betwixt Low and Sadler, and at the desire of both
parties adjourned to the llth day of December.
13th. I came to Bagshott.
I4:lk. I came to my house in Holborne.
October 4th. My wife and I went to Oxsted in Surrey.
Mem. : I borrowed on my own bond of my cousin Charles
Hoskins 2001.
10th. We came to Guildford.
ll//i. We came to Winchester.
12th. We came to our house in St. Giles Wimborne in the
county of Dorsett.
19th. I went to Salisbury to join with my uncle Tooker in
putting in our answer to my aunt Sanderson.
2lst. I came back to St. Giles Wimborne.
2Qth. I went to Sutton on my way to London.
27th. I went to Stanes.
28th. I came to London and lodged at Mr. Guidett's house
in Lincolnes inn fields.
November. This term I borrowed of my aunt Mrs. Alice
Coventry 1,1 001., for which I gave her my own bond.
December 4th. My cousin Harbin, Mr. Chettle, and myself
came from London in a hackney coach to Egham.
November 5th. We came to Basingstoke.
6th. We came to Stockbridge.
7th. To Salisbury.
8^. I came to my house at St. Giles Wimborne in Dorset-
shy re.
December llth. I went to Salisbury on the commission
betwixt Lowe and Sadler.
12th. There being but three commissioners, Mr. Hussey,
Mr. Norden, and myself, we could not proceed, but adjourned
1649. DIARY. 11
by consent of both parties to the 20th of March next, we
to meet the 19th at night there. Mr. Kelaway and Mrs.
Sadler desired it might be put off till then ; Lowe pressed to
hear it sooner.
December 2lst. I went to Wimborne and dined with my
cousin Hannam, and came home in the evening.
27th. I went to Shaftesbury to sit on the commission for
the contribution for the army. There met commissioners
Mr. Hussey, Colonel Bingham, and Mr. Bury.
28th. We sat on the business.
29th. I returned home.
1649. January 1st. I dined at my cousin Hannam's of
Wimborne.
4:th. I and my wife, my brother, and sister, dined at Sir
Gerard tapper's at More Critchell.
9th. I went to the quarter sessions at Blandford. The
justices present this session were myself, Mr. Chettle, Colonel
Butler, Colonel Bingham, Colonel Sidenham, Colonel Brodrip,
Mr. Hussey, judge of the sessions, Mr. Savadge, Mr. White-
way, Mr. Hannam, Mr. Arnold.
IQth. We sat at sessions.
ll^A. In the morning at sessions, in the afternoon myself,
Colonel Bingham, Mr. Chettle, Mr. Whiteway, sat on rates.
January 12th. I returned to my house at St. Giles.
29th. I began my journey to London, and went to
Andover.
30th. I went to Bagshott. 1
31 st. I came to London, and lodged at Mr. Guidett's in
Lincoln's inne fields.
February. I was made by the States a justice of peace of
quorum for the counties of Wilts and Dorsett, and of oyer
and terminer for the Western circuit.
In Candlemas term I paid 200/, to my cousin, Charles
Hoskins, which I had borrowed of him.
I mortgaged my manor of Pawlett to my aunt Mrs. Alice
Coventry for 1,1 00. I owed her.
March 3rd. I went to Oxsted in Surrey to wait on my
wife's mother.
5th. I went to Guildford on my way home.
i The day of the execution of Charles I. The ordinance for the
trial had been passed by the House of Commons on January ,6th ; the
trial began on the 20th ; on the 27th sentence was passed.
d 2
Hi APPENDIX II. 1649.
March 6th. I came to Rumsey in Hamsliyre.
1th. I came to my house at St. Giles Wimborne in
Dorsettshyre.
April 3rd. I went to Maryborough, in my way to Purton
for my rents.
4th. I came to Purton in North Wiltshire.
6th. I came to the Devizes in my way home, having called
at Malmsbury to return my money to London.
7th. I came home to my house in St. Giles Wimborne.
April Wth. I went to Salisbury.
12th. I returned home.
May 2nd. Mr. Plott and I went to Poole to buy sack, and
returned at night.
I was made by the States a commissioner in their act of
contribution for the counties of Wilts and Dorsett.
June 19th. I went to my cousin Whitehead's at Fillery 1
in Hamshyre, in my way to London.
25th. I came to Hartford bridge.
21 st. I came to London to Mr. Guidett's.
July 3rd. I came to Hartford bridge in my way home.
4th. I came to Salisbury.
oth. I came home.
Wth. My wife, just as she was sitting down to supper, fell
suddenly into an apoplectical convulsion fit. She recovered
that fit after some time, and spake and kissed me, and com-
plained only in her head, but fell again in a quarter of an hour,
and then never came to speak again, but continued in fits and
slumbers until next day. At noon she died ; she was with
child the fourth time, and within six weeks of her time.
She was a lovely beautiful fair woman, a religious devout
Christian, of admirable wit and wisdom, beyond any I ever
knew, yet the most sweet, affectionate, and observant wife in
the world. Chaste without a suspicion of the most envious
to the highest assurance of her husband, of a most noble and
bountiful mind, yet very provident in the least things, ex-
ceeding all in anything she undertook, housewifery, pre-
serving, works with the needle, cookery, so that her wit and
judgment were expressed in all things, free from any pride or
forwardness. She was in discourse and counsel far beyond
any woman.
1 So apparently in the manuscript.
1650. , DIARY. liii
July 19^. I went to Madenton in Wiltshyre, to my uncle
looker's.
27th. I returned home.
August IQth. I was sworn a justice of peace for the counties
of Wilts and Dorsett by Mr. Swanton. This was the first
time I acted since the late King's death.
30th. I went to Andover in my way to London, with my
uncle Tooker and sister.
31st. We came to Bagshott.
September 1st. I came to London to my cousin Day's house
in Axe Yard, Westminster.
11 tli. I sold my land at Finderne in Derbyshire for
2,7001.
September llth. I paid my uncle Tooker 200/. he had lent
me in Easter term.
15th. I paid my cousin Rogers, my aunt Coventry's exe-
cutor, 1,100/., and cancelled my mortgage of Pawlet and
bond for performance of covenants ; and I went to Oxsted in
Surrey, to my wife's mother.
17 r th. I came to Guildford.
ISth. To Winchester.
19th. To my house at St. Giles Wimborne.
October 2nd. I went to Marlborough.
3rd. I sat at sessions in the morning, where were present
ten justices ; myself, Mr. Swanton, Mr. Littleton, Mr. Joy,
Mr. Sadler, Mr. Hippesly, Colonel Ayres of Hurst, Lieut. -
Colonel Read, Captain Martin, Mr. Shute. In the afternoon
I went to Purton.
4th. I went to Malmsbury.
5th. I came to Salisbury.
October Qth. I came home to my house.
22v.d. I, my brother, and cousin Day went to Winchester,
in our way to London.
23rd. We came to Farnham.
21th. We came to London. I lodged at my cousin
Day's.
27th. I went to my brother's house at Bow, and lay
ere.
2$th. I returned to London.
November. This term I paid my Lady Coventry one
hundred pound she freely lent me.
1650. January 7th. From London to Eagshot.
8th. From Bagshot to Sutton.
liv APPENDIX II. 1650.
January 9th. To St. Giles.
10th. To Dorchester.
llth. Dine at Woolton at Sir Thomas Trenchard's, and
came home to St. Giles.
llth. To Salisbury, to the sessions and oyer and terminer ;
present, Mr. Bond, High-sheriff, myself, Colonel William
Eyres, Mr. Tooker, Mr. Hussey, Mr. Swanton, Mr. Free of
Wishford, Mr. Ayres of White parish, Colonel Thomas Eyre,
Colonel Read, Mr. Gabriel Martin, Mr. Coles, Mr. Shute,
Mr. Littleton : we all this day subscribed the Engagement.
18th. The commission lasted.
19^. The sessions ended, and I came home to St.
Giles.
2 2 nd. I went to my commission at Wimborne betwixt
Mr. Banks and I.
23rd. Returned.
29th. Myself, Captain Dewe, and Mr. Baker sat on a com-
mission from the Council of State to give the Engagement at
Blandford. I returned at night.
3lst. To Winchester, on my way to London.
February 1st. To Bagshot.
2nd. To London, my cousin Day's.
7th. I received a commission to me and others from the
Commissioners of the Great Seal for the giving the Engage-
ment in Dorsetshire. I sent it by the next post to Captain
Dewe.
8th. I received a second commission as above with the
time enlarged, and sent it as above.
February 2nd. I paid Mr. William Hinton 5001. I owed
him on bond, and cancelled.
This month I borrowed 1501. of my cousin Day, on mine
and my brother John's bond.
March 5th. I came to Bagshot on my way to my house in
Dorset.
Qth. To Twyford in Hamshyre, to Mr. Wool's, where my
aunt l lived.
7th. Home to St. Giles's.
llth. To Salisbury assize. Judge Nicholas 2 Chief Justice.
1 A blank in the manuscript.
2 Kobert Nicholas was made serjeant October 30, 1648, and a Judge
of the Upper Bench (the Commonwealth name for King's Bench),
June 1, 1649. He was afterwards moved by Cromwell to the Court of
Exchequer. (Foss's Judges, vi. 463.)
1650. DIARY. ly
March 13th. Home to St. Giles's.
I4:th. To Dorchester assize. I was of the oyer and terminer
for the circuit.
16^. We sat on the commission for militia. In the after-
noon I returned home to St. Giles's.
19th. I laid the first stone of my house at St. Giles's. 1
20th. I came to Winchester.
2 1 st. To Egham.
22nd. To London, to my cousin Day's.
22th. I removed my lodging from Ax Yard to Bedford
Street.
April 15th. I was married to Lady Frances Cecil, 2 and
removed my lodging to Mr. Blake's, by Exeter House.
July 2nd. My wife and I and my sister came from London
to Bagshot, on our way westward.
3rd. We came to Basingstoke.
4:th. We came to St. Giles Wimborne.
10^. I went to the assizes at Shaston, where were present
justices 3
1 The right wing of the present house was built in 1651. (Hutchins's
Hist, of Dorset, iii. 186.)
2 Daughter of David, third Earl of Exeter, who had died in 1643,
and sister of John, fourth Earl. Cooper's connexion with the King's
enemies and adherence to the Commonwealth, did not prevent his
marrying a noble lady of a Koyalist house. This second marriage was
also of short duration ; the lady died some time in 1654. But it was
not without issue ; two sons were born of this marriage.
3 Here ends the Diary, as abruptly as the Fragment of the Auto-
biography written by Shaftesbury late in life ends. Nothing more is
known of Shaftesbury till he is named by the Parliament nearly two
years after a member of a Commission for the reform of the laws,
January 17, 1652 ; and we learn this only by the Journals of
Parliament.
APPENDIX III.
Suppressed Passages of Edmund Ludlow'' s Memoirs, referring
to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, collected by John Locke,
1653 1660. 1
(1) WHEN by the Instrument of Government whereby
Cromwell was set up Protector he had issued out writs for
choosing a parliament, General Ludlow in his manuscript
history has these words 2 (p. 344, 1. 33) :
"And though I was in Ireland and under a cloud, and that
there was the like packing of the cards for the election in
the county of Wilts as in other places, the Cavaliers and the
imposing clergy, the lawyers and court interest, all joining
1 These suppressed passages of Ludlow's Memoirs, all relating to Sir
A. A. Cooper, are in Locke's handwriting among his papers in the
possession of the Earl of Lovelace. There is no explanation in the
manuscript as to how Locke obtained these suppressed passages. I
have made many endeavours to trace the manuscript of Ludlow's
Memoirs, but have entirely failed to obtain any clue. If it is in
existence, it would probably be found that more has been suppressed.
Ludlow's Memoirs were first printed at Vevey in Switzerland, and
published in 1698 and 1699 : Ludlow had died there in 1693. Locke
died in 1704. There is no trace, that I am aware of, of intercourse
between Locke and Ludlow. It is clear that every passage containing
depreciatory mention of Shaftesbury was purposely suppressed, when
Ludlow's Memoirs were published. At that time the memory of
Shaftesbury was dear to "Whigs; and Ludlow had possibly himself
lived to wish that these passages should not see the light. It is stated
in Tyers's " Political Conferences " (p. 88) that Ludlow's Memoirs were
prepared for the press by Littlebury, translator of Herodotus, a very
strong Whig.
2 This short introduction and other similar explanations are by
Locke. The pages and lines referred to are, it is to be presumed, of
the manuscript of Ludlow's Memoirs. This passage is to be inserted
at p. 498 of vol. ii. of the three-volume Yevey edition, 1698-9, and at
p. 211 of the quarto edition of 1771.
1653. SUPPRESSED PASSAGES OF LUDLOW. Ivii
against that of the Commonwealth, and having preferred a
list of ten men (the number which was to be chosen by that
county) as those whom they would have to be chosen, they
cite the parishes and every particular person therein to
appear, who when they came upon the hill were headed by
Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, a man of a healing and recon-
ciling spirit of all interests that agree in the greatening of
himself, being now one 'of Cromwell's Council. The well-
wishers to the public interest, according to the practice of
their antagonists, prepared a list of such as they judged
faithful to the public cause, but the other party not con-
tented with their policy make use of force, threatening those
who oppose them as such who designed disturbance in the
State by promoting the election of such as were dissatisfied
with the present Government; but notwithstanding all they
could say or do, and though the tinder-sheriff was made
for their turn, the high-sheriff being absent, the Common-
wealth party appeared so equal, that it could not be decided
without a poll, and both parties were so numerous that the
usual place for election was too strait, so that they consented
to adjourn the meeting unto Stonnage, 1 where there was
room enough. The great work is to keep me from being
elected who knew not of one person's intention to appear for
me, being at that time in Ireland, neither had I been free to
have sat had I been elected as a member to serve in that
assembly (a parliament I could not own it to be, the Long
Parliament being only interrupted by the sword), knowing
well that they were called together for no good end, and that
if they should beyond expectation do anything for the good
of the people, they should receive an interruption by the
power of the sword, under which they then were. Yet did
Sir Anthony Cooper and Mr. Adoniram By field, a busy
clergyman, not contented with their share in that tyrannical
Government, or hoping that it would conduce to that which
was more so, make harangues to the people, labouring to
convince them that it was desirable to choose such as were of
healing spirits, and not such as were for the putting of all
things into confusion and disorder ; but the people well
knowing their persons, designs, and interests, and that yet
nothing could prevent tyranny and confusion but the settling
of such a Government as would provide for common good,
1 So in the manuscript ; Stonehenge.
Iviii APPENDIX III. 1653.
and needed not the military sword to uphold it, but would be
supported by the affection of the people, stick close to the
former resolution, and pleased in the first place to cry up me
as one they would entrust in that assembly. The other
party, finding mine greater than any of theirs when divided,
unite in their first vote for Sir Anthony Cooper, whom the
under-sheriff on the view adjudgeth to be first chosen,
though the party that appeared for me conceived them-
selves much injured therein ; but the other party had all
the power in their hands, and knew they should be pro-
tected by him, who called himself the Protector, do they
what they would."
(2) P. 377,1. 22 is thus i 1
" Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who was first for the King,
then for the Parliament, then in Cromwell's first assembly
for the reformation, and afterwards for Cromwell against that
reformation, now being denied Cromwell's daughter Mary in
marriage, he appears against Cromwell's design in the last
assembly, and is therefore dismissed the Council, Cromwell
being resolved to act there as the chief juggler himself, and
one Colonel Mackworth, a lawyer about Shrewsbury, a
person fit for his purpose, is chosen in his room, &c." 2
1 This is to be inserted after the words "departed from that king-
dom," vol. ii. p. 53 of the Vevey edition, and p. 224 of quarto edition,
1771.
2 The "last assembly" spoken of in this passage is Cromwell's first
parliament under the Instrument of Government, which met Sep-
tember 4, 1654, and was dissolved on the 22d of January, 1655.
There are several mistakes in this passage of Ludlow. Cooper had not
been "in Cromwell's first assembly for the reformation and afterwards
for Cromwell against that reformation." In Cromwell's first assembly,
the Barebone's Parliament, he had acted in accord with Cromwell, and
was a leading member of the party of moderate reformers, and, as
Burnet says, "was of great use to Cromwell in withstanding the
enthusiasts." It is not true that Cooper was dismissed from the
Council, or that Mackworth took his place. Cooper continued to
attend the Council until December 28, ]654. Mackworth had been
appointed a member on the previous 7th of February. A dismissal
from the Council could only have taken place, according to the pro-
visions of the Instrument of Government, on a specific charge of mis-
conduct after inquiry by a Committee jointly appointed by the Council
and the Parliament. It does not appear even that Cooper resigned
his seat in the Council, when he ceased to attend in the end of
December 1654. His name is included in a list of members of the
Council, prepared at the end of 1655, printed in Thmioe's State
Papers, (iii. 581.)
1659. SUPPRESSED PASSAGES OF LUDLOW. lix
'Note that this is in the book eleven leaves after that he
gives account of the dissolving of this called here the last
assembly, in which eleven leaves he "writes of Cromwell's
proceedings against the Cavaliers, and many other particulars,
and immediately after the imprisonment of my Lord Grey
and his baseness to Colonel Sexby. This concerning Sir
Anthony is written p. 377.
(3) When the Long Parliament was restored by the army
in Richard Cromwell's time, and the Parliament had
appointed a Council of State which was to consist of thirty-
one persons, p. 513, 1. 6, it is thus : l
"Mr. Love (in consideration that Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper had voted with the Commonwealth party in the last
Convention) moved that he might be one, though his
affections were well known to be to another interest, and
Mr. Nevill having hopes that Sir Horatio Townsend was a
friend to the Commonwealth, for the same reason, moved for
his addition, which two motions being upon the rising of the
House made on a sudden before any could recollect themselves
to speak against them, there being also an unwillingness to
disoblige those of whom there was any hope, were con-
sented to." 2
(4) In the following page, line 21 is thus : 3
" And when the Wallingford House party (which was the
Council of officers, Lieutenant-General Fleetwood, &c.), had
taken the oath that was directed by the Parliament to be
taken by every member of the Council of State before he
took his place, the effect whereof was to be true and faithful
to the interest of the Commonwealth, and to oppose Charles
Stewart or any other single person whatsoever, they came
1 Vol. ii. p. 656, line 11 from bottom of Vevey edition, and p. 277
of quarto edition of 1771.
2 There is an interval of more than four years between the periods
referred to in this passage of Ludlow and in the last. Richard
Cromwell's parliament was dissolved April 22, 1659. The Rump of
the Long Parliament was then resuscitated ; and this body proceeded
to elect a Council of State on May 13. It was resolved that the
Council should consist of thirty-one members, twenty-one members of
the parliament, and ten who were not members. Seven of the latter
were elected on that day, and two of these seven were Sir A. A. Cooper
and Sir Horatio Townshend.
3 At the bottom of page 657 of vol. ii. of Vevey edition, and at page
278 of quarto edition of 1771.
Ix APPENDIX III. 1659.
but seldom to discharge their duty, pretending that, by
reason of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper's being of the Council
and Sir H. Townsend, they could not with freedom speak
their minds there nor carry on the public work, they sup-
posing these persons to be assured to Charles Stewart's
interest, and that they would give intelligence to him of all
that passed. That we might remove this rub, endeavours
were used with them both to manifest their affections to the
public, for removing of jealousies between the Parliament and
the army, by desiring the House to excuse them from that
employment, or at least to forbear coming to the Council.
Sir H. Townsend very ingenuously chose to do the latter,
pretending occasions of his own which drew him into the
country. But Sir Anthony having it in design to be a
loutefeu between the Parliament and the army, as his after
carriage will make appear, makes use of this occasion and
comes into the Council with much confidence, and moves
with much importunity to have the oath administered to him,
professing himself ready to take the same, yet having a secret
resolve to break it at the same time (as there was ground to
suspect), but the Council not having any power to refuse it
him permitted him to take it. And being thus ensnared, as
the best remedy to prevent inconveniences, they appoint
a Committee of examination and secrecy, whom they en-
trusted with great powers, to wit, Lieutenant-General Fleet-
wood, Sir Henry Vane, Major-General Lambert, Major
Salloway, Mr. Scott, Serjeant Bradshaw, and myself : yet so
hot and confident was Sir Anthony grown, that to pursue his
mischievous design, he solicits the Parliament that they
would admit him to sit upon an election of seventeen or
eighteen years' standing, which never was adjudged, and we
could find no better way to put him off (so far had he insinu-
ated into the members) than to refer the consideration thereof
to the committee of five formerly appointed by the Par-
liament for the receiving of satisfaction touching those mem-
bers who had not sat from 1648, who alleging their powers
were at an end, it was referred to them to search their books,
and state matter of fact in relation thereto." 1
1 The case of Sir A. A. Cooper's election for Downton was referred
to the Committee named by Ludlow on May 10, the day after the re-
storation of the Parliament, and three days before Cooper's election to
be a member of the Council of State. Cooper was not yet admitted to
sit in the House.
1659. SUPPKESSED PASSAGES OF LUDLOW. Ixi
(5) P. 571, L 9n
" The Parliament sent a committee to the Tower to examine
Sir George Booth touching the plot wherein he had been
engaged, both as to the authority which he pretended to act
by, and as to those who were engaged to join with him
therein ; he confessed he had received a commission from the
King, and that many of the nobility and gentry were engaged
with him for the carrying on of the design ; some he disco-
vered, but took time to discover the rest ; and upon exami-
nation of a boy which brought, as was supposed, a letter from
Sir George Booth before his rising to Sir A. A. Cooper, it was
found that he dismissed the boy with much civility, in token
of consenting to what was done."
(6) "When the Wallingford House party had put a stop
to the sitting of the Parliament, and Monk marching from
Scotland had declared against, pretending to be for the Parlia-
ment and Commonwealth, but underhand carrying on his
design of setting up King Charles, p. 621, 1. 19, it is thus : 2
" Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, also a great instrument in this
horrid treachery, as he was most active amongst those of the
Parliament who were consulting for their restitution, so
notwithstanding the affronts he had formerly put upon me,
the Lord Arundel being pressed by the trustees and con-
tractors at Drury House for the paying in of thousands of
pounds which he was in arrears for some lands which they
had sold of his to some of his friends, and which Cromwell
had discharged him of, they not allowing that to be a suf-
ficient discharge threaten him to sell the land again according
to a command they had received from the Parliament to that
purpose, if he forthwith paid not the said arrears. It being
apprehended that my letter to them might be of service to
him therein, he the same Sir Anthony, coming to me with
him to desire me to write on his behalf, professed to be very
affectionate to the interest of the Commonwealth, which he
did so to the life that I was much pleased therewith, having
always believed him to be otherwise inclined. But notwith-
1 Vol. ii. p. 696 of Vevey edition, and p. 294 of quarto edition of
1771. The whole of this passage, except the last sentence referring to
Shaftesbury, is printed in .Ludlow's Memoirs in somewhat different
words.
2 This passage should be inserted probably at p. 765 of vol. ii. of
the Yevey edition, and at p. 323 of the quarto edition of 1771.
Ixii APPENDIX III. 1659.
standing his fair words, I was not so confident of him as to
repose any great trust in him, he having played fast and
loose so often, declaring sometimes for the King, then for the
Parliament, then for Cromwell, afterwards against him, and
now for the Commonwealth."
(7) When Monk drew nigh to London, and was always
declaring highly for the Parliament and Commonwealth,
whereas he modelled his army for another design, p. 690,
1. 11, it is thus i 1
" It was wonderful to consider how with fair words those
who used to be watchful to discover what was for their
interest were lulled to sleep : Chief Justice St. John himself,
who even in this session prepared and procured the Parliament
to pass a declaration against Monarchy and for a Common-
wealth, and Reynolds who had bought public lands as well
as the other, in crushing the friends of the Commonwealth
and preferring those of a contrary principle (if of any), acting
as if they had designed nothing less than what they pretended
to and what their interest led them to ; scarce one of ten of the
old officers of the army are continued ; Sir Anthony Ashley
Cooper, a known bitter enemy to the public and to all good
men, on a disputable election of eighteen years' standing,
against all reason and common justice, is admitted to sit as a
Member of Parliament because he had joined with some of
them in opposing the army at this time, which Charles
Stewart himself would have done, might he have been ad-
mitted into the confederacy. They bestow also a regiment of
horse upon him, which by his policy he modelleth with
officers for his turn, and by his smooth tongue and insin-
uating carriage bears a great sway in Parliament."
(8) When Monk was come to London, p. 705, 1. 35, 2 it is
thus :
" In the meantime the secluded members held their cabals
with the city of London for the carrying on of these designs,
and some of those members who sat, especially Sir Anthony
Ashley Cooper and Colonel Feilder, had correspondency with
them."
1 Vol. ii. p. 809 of the Vevey edition, and p. 342 of the quarto
edition of 1771.
2 At p. 822 of vol. ii. of the Vevey edition, and p. 347 of the quarto
edition of 1771.
APPENDIX IV.
Speech in Richard Cromwell's Parliament, March 28, 1659. 1
MR. SPEAKER,
This day's debate is but too clear a proof that we English-
men are right islanders ; variable and mutable, like the air
we live in : for, Sir, if that were not our temper, we should
not be now disputing whether, after all those hazards we
have run, that blood we have spilt, that treasure we have
exhausted, we should not now sit down just where we did
begin, and of our own accords submit ourselves to that slavery
which we have not only ventured our estates and lives, but I
wish I could not say, our souls and consciences, to throw off.
What others, Sir, think of this levity, I cannot tell. I mean
those who steer their consciences by occasions, and cannot
lose the honour they never had : but truly, Sir, for my own
1 I have no doubt that this long elaborate speech, which was pub-
lished by Sir A. A. Cooper at the time, is the one thus referred to in
Burton's Diary on March 28: "Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper made a
long speech till the House was fuller of those of his party, and moved
to second the motion that they be but for this parliament, and would
have them bounded in time." (iv. 286.) It was made in support of a
motion for limiting the existence of the " Other House " Cromwell's
House of Peers to the time of the Parliament then sitting. The
speech here printed has been published in various works ; it is to be
found in the Somers Tracts and Harleian Miscellany, in Morgan's
" Phoenix Britannicus," George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham's Works,
2 vols. 17] 5, the old Parliamentary History, and Martyn's Life. In
the Somers Tracts it is reprinted from a republication in 1680 with
the following title: "A time-serving Speech spoken once in a season
by a worthy member of Parliament, and now thought fit to be
reprinted, to prevent the occasion of having it respoken." (Vol. vi.
p. 466.)
Ixiv APPENDIX IV. 1659.
part, I dare freely declare it to be my opinion, that we are
this day making good all the reproaches of our enemies, own-
ing ourselves oppressors, murderers, regicides, subverters of
that which we do not only acknowledge to have been a lawful
government, but, by recalling it, confess it now to be the best :
which, Sir, if it be true, and that we now begin to see aright,
I heartily wish our eyes had been sooner open ; and, for
three nations' sake, that we had purchased our conviction at
a cheaper rate. We might, Sir, in '42 have been what we
thus contend to be in '59 ; and our consciences would have
had much less to answer for to God, and our reputations to
the world.
But, Mr. Speaker, I wish with all niy soul I did state the
case to you amiss ; and that it were the question, whether we
would voluntarily relapse into the disease we were formerly
possessed of, and of our own accords take up our old yoke,
that we with wearing and custom had made habitual and easy,
and which, it may be, was more our wantonness than our
pressure that made us throw it off. But this, Sir, is not now
the question : that which we deliberate is not whether we
will say, we do not care to be free, we like our old masters,
and will be content to have our ears bored at the door-post of
their House, and to serve them for ever ; but, Sir, as if we
were contending for shame as well as servitude, we are carry-
ing our ears to be bored at the doors, of another House ; an
House, Sir, without a name, and therefore it is but congruous
it should consist of members without family ; an House that
inverts the order of slavery, and subjects us to our servants ;
and yet, in contradiction to Scripture, we do not only not think
that subjection intolerable, but we are now pleading for it.
In a word, Sir, it is a House of so incongruous and odious a
composition and mixture, that certainly the grand architect
would never have so framed it, had it not been his design, as
well as to show the "world the contempt he had of us, as to
demonstrate the power he had over us.
Sir, that it may appear I intend not to be so prudent, as
far as my part is concerned, as to make a voluntary resigna-
tion of my liberty and honour to this excellent part of his
Highness's last will and testament, I shall crave leave to declare
in a few particulars my opinion of this other House ; wherein
I cannot but promise myself to be favourably heard by some,
and patiently heard by all: for those Englishmen who are
against that House will certainly with content hear the
1C59. SPEECH AGAINST THE OTHER HOUSE. Ixv
reasons why others are so too ; those courtiers who are for it
give me evidence enough to think that in nature there is
nothing which they cannot willingly endure.
First, Sir, as to the author and framer of the House of
Peers ; let me put you in mind it was he who with
reiterated oaths had often sworn to he true and faithful to
the government without it ; and not only sworn so himself,
but had "been the chief instrument both to draw and compel
others to swear so too. So, Sir, the foundation of that noble
structure was laid in perjury, and was begun with the viola-
tion and contempt as well of the laws of God as of the nation.
He who called monarchy anti-christian in another, and indeed
made it so himself; he who voted a House of Lords dangerous
and unnecessary, and too truly made it so in his partisans ;
he who with fraud and force deprived you of your liberty when
living, and entailed slavery on you at his death : it is he, Sir,
who has left you these worthy overseers of that his last will
and testament ; who, however they have behaved themselves
in other trusts, we may be confident will faithfully endeavour
to discharge themselves in this. In a word, had that other
House no other fault but its constitution and author, I should
think that original sin enough for its condemnation : for I am
of their opinion who think that, for the good of example, all
acts and monuments of tyrants are to be expunged and erased ;
that, if possible, their memory may be no longer-lived than
their carcases ; and the truth is, their good laws are but snares
for our liberty. But to impute to that other House no faults
but its own, you may please in the first place to consider of
the power which his Highness hath left it, according to that
" Humble Petition and Advice," which he was pleased to
give order the Parliament should present to him. For as the
Eomans had kings, his Highness had " parliaments amongst
his instruments of slavery ;" and I hope it will be no offence
for me to pray that his son may not have so too. But, Sir,
they have a negative voice, and all other circumstances of that
arbitrary power which made the former House intolerable ;
only the dignity and quality of the persons are wanting, that
our slavery may be accompanied with ignominy and affront.
And now, Mr. Speaker,, have we not gloriously vindicated
the nation's liberty, have we not worthily employed our blood
and treasure to abolish that power which was set over us by
law, to have the same imposed upon us without law 1 And
after all that sound and noise we have made in the world, of
VOL. I. e
Ixvi APPENDIX IV. 1659.
the people's legislative power, and of the supremacy and
ornnipotency of their representatives, we now see there is no
more power left them but what is put into the balance, and
equalled by the power of a few retainers of tyranny, who are
so far from being the people's choice, that the most part of
them are only known to the nation by the mischiefs they
have committed in it.
In the next place, Sir, you may please to consider that the
persons invested with that power are all of them nominated
by the Lord Protector (for to say by him and his Council, has
in effect no more distinction than if one should say by Oliver
and Cromwell). By that means, the Protector himself, by
his own and by his peers' negative, may become in effect two
of the three estates ; and by consequence, is possessed of two
parts of the legislative power. I think this can be a doubt to
no one who will but take the pains to read over the catalogue
of those noble lords ; for certainly no man who reads their
names can possibly fancy for what virtues or good qualities
such a composition should be made choice of, but only the
certainty of their compliance with whatsoever shall be
enjoined them by their creator. Pardon, Sir, that name, for
it is properly applicable where things are made out of nothing.
If, in the former government, increase of nobility was a
grievance, because the new nobility, having fresh obligations
to the crown, were more easily led into compliance with it ;
and if one of the main reasons for exclusion of bishops out of
the House of Lords was because they were of the King's
making, and were in effect so many certain votes for what-
ever he had a mind to carry in the House ; how much more
assured will that inconvenience now be, when the Protector,
who wants nothing of the King but (in every sense) the title,
shall only make and nominate a part, but of himself constitute
the whole ? In a word, Sir, if our liberty was endangered by
the former House, we may give it up for lost in the other
House : and it is in all respects as secure and advantageous
for the liberty of the nation, which we come hither to redeem,
to allow this power to his Highness's officers and chaplains,
as to his other creatures and partisans in this other House.
^ow, having considered, Sir, their author, power, and con-
stitution, give me leave to make some few observations,
though but in general, on the persons themselves who are
designed to be our lords and masters ; and let us see what
either the extraordinary quality or qualifications are of these
1659. SPEECH AGAINST THE OTHER HOUSE. Ixvii
egregious legislators, which may justify their choice, and pre-
vail with the people to admit them at least into equal
authority with the whole representative "body of themselves.
But what I shall speak of their quality, or anything else con-
cerning them, I would be thought to speak with distinction,
and to intend only of the major part ; for I acknowledge, Mr.
Speaker, the mixture of the other House to be like the com-
position of apothecaries, w r ho mix something grateful to the
taste to qualify their bitter drugs, which else, perhaps, would
be immediately spit out and never swallowed. So, Sir, hi*
Highness, of deplorable memory to this nation, to countenance
as well the want of quality as honesty in the rest, has nomi-
nated some against whom there lies no other reproach but
only that nomination ; but not out of any respect to their
quality or regard to their virtues, but out of regard to the no-
quality, the no- virtues of the rest ; which truly, Mr. Speaker,
if he had not done, we could easily have given a more express
name to this other House than he hath been pleased to do ;
for we know a house designed for beggars and malefactors is
a house of correction, and so termed by our law : but, Mr.
Speaker, setting those few persons aside, who, I hope, think
the nomination a disgrace, and their ever coming to sit there
a much greater, can we without indignation think of the rest ?
He who is first in their roll, a condemned coward ; one that
out of fear and baseness did once what he could to betray our
liberties, and now does the same for gain. 1 The second, a
person of as little sense as honesty ; preferred for no other
reason but his no- worth, his no-conscience ; except cheating
his father of all he had was thought a virtue by him, who, by
sad experience we find, hath done as much for his mother
his country. 2 The third, a Cavalier, a Presbyterian, an
Independent ; for the Republic, for a Protector, for every-
thing, for nothing, but only that one thing money. 3 It
1 Nathaniel Fiennes, second son of Viscount Saye and Sele, who in
the beginning of the Civil War had surrendered Bristol to the King's
army without making any defence, and had been condemned to death
by a court-martial, but pardoned by the Earl of Essex, the general-in-
chief. He was now one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal, and
one of Richard Cromwell's chief advisers. His father and a younger
brother John were also named by Cromwell members of his House of
Lords : the father did not sit.
2 I do not know which of Cromwell's Lords is here referred to.
3 This is generally supposed to refer to Lord Broghill, after the
Restoration created Earl of Orrery.
e 2
Ixviii APPENDIX IV. 1659.
were endless, Sir, to run through them all ; to tell you of the
lordships of seventeen pounds a year land of inheritance ; of
the farmer lordships, draymen lordships, 1 cobbler lordships, 2
without one foot of land but what the blood of Englishmen
has been the price of. These, Sir, are to be our rulers, these
the judges of our lives and fortunes ; to these we are to stand
bare whilst their pageant lordships deign to give us a confer-
ence on their breeches. Mr. Speaker, we have already had too
much experience how insupportable servants are when they
become our masters. All kinds of slavery are miserable in
the account of generous minds ; but that which comes accom-
panied with scorn and contempt stirs up every man's indigna-
tion, and is endured by none whom nature does not intend
for slaves, as well as fortune.
I say not this, Mr. Speaker, to revile any man with his
meanness; for I never thought either the malignity or in-
dulgence of fortune to be, with wise or just men, the grounds
either of their good or ill opinion. Mr. Speaker, I blame not
in these men the faults of their fortune any otherwise than as
they make them their own : I object to you their poverty,
because it is accompanied with ambition ; I remind you of
their quality, because they themselves forget it : it is not the
men I am angry with, but their Lordships. Sir, though we
easily grant poverty and necessity to be no faults, yet we
must allow them to be great impediments in the way of
honour, and such as nothing but extraordinary merit and
virtue can remove. The Scripture reckons it amongst Jero-
boam's great faults, "that he made priests of the meanest
of the people : " and sure it was none of the virtues of our
Jeroboam, who hath set up his calves too, and would have
our tribes come up and worship them, that he observed the
same method in making lords.
One of the few requests the Portuguese made to Philip
the Second, King of Spain, when he got that kingdom, as
his late Highness did this, by an army, was, that he would
not make nobility contemptible by advancing such to that
degree whose quality or virtue could be noways thought to
deserve it. Nor have we formerly been less apprehensive of
such inconveniences ourselves. It was, in Richard the First's
1 This refers to Colonel Pride, who had been a brewer, and, it is said,
had begun as a drayman.
8 Colonel Hewson had been a shoemaker.
1659. SPEECH AGAINST THE OTHER HOUSE. Ixix
time, one of the Bishop of Ely's accusations, that castles and
forts of great trust he did "obscuris et ignotis hominibus
tradere' ? put in the hands of obscure and unknown men.
But we, Mr. Speaker, to such a kind of men are delivering
up the power of our laws, and, in that, the power of all.
In the 17th of Edward the Fourth, there passed an Act of
Parliament for degrading John Nevil, Marquis Montague
and Duke of Bedford : the reason expressed in the Act,
because he had not a revenue sufficient for the maintaining of
that dignity j to which was added, when men of mean birth
are called to high estate, and no livelihood to support it, it
induceth briberies and extortions, and all kinds of injustice
that are followed by gain. And in the parliament of M of
Charles, the peers, in a petition against Scottish and Irish
titles, told the King, that it was a novelty without precedent
that men should possess honours where they possessed nothing
else, and that they should have a vote in parliament where
they have not a foot of land. But if it had been added, or
have no land but what is the purchase of their villanies,
against how many of our new peers would this have been an
important objection ! To conclude : it has been a very just
and reasonable care among all nations, not to render that
despised and contemptible to the people which is designed
for their reverence and awe ; and, Sir, an empty title, without
quality or virtue, never procured any man this, any more than
the image in the fable made the ass adored that carried it.
After their quality, give me leave to speak a word or two
of their qualifications; which certainly ought, in reason, to
carry some proportion with the employment they design
themselves. The House of Lords are the King's great heredi-
tary Council ; they are the highest court of judicature; they
have their part in judging and determining of the reasons for
making new laws and abrogating old : from amongst them
we take our great officers of State: they are commonly our
generals at land, and our admirals at sea. In conclusion,
they are both of the essence and constitution of our old
government ; and have, besides, the greatest and noblest share
in the administration. ISTow, certainly, Sir, to judge accord-
ing to the dictates of reason, one would imagine some small
faculties and endowments to be necessary for discharging
such a calling ; and those such as are not usually acquired in
shops and warehouses, nor found by following the plough :
and what other academies most of their lordships have been
Ixx APPENDIX IV. 1659.
bred in but their shops, what other arts they have been
versed in but those which more required good arms and good
shoulders than good heads, I think we are yet to be informed.
Sir, we commit not the education of our children to ignorant
and illiterate masters ; nay, we trust not our horses to unskil-
ful grooms. I beseech you, let us think it belongs to us to
have some care into whose hands we commit the management
of the commonwealth ; and if we cannot have persons of
birth and fortune to be our rulers, to whose quality we would
willingly submit, I beseech you, Sir, for our credit and
safety's sake, let us seek men at least of parts and education,
to whose abilities we may have some reason to give way. If
a patient dies under a physician's hand, the law esteems that
not a felony, but a misfortune, in the physician : but it has
been held by some, if one who is no physician undertakes the
management of a cure, and the party miscarries, the law
makes the empiric a felon ; and sure, in all men's opinion,
the patient a fool. To conclude, Sir, for great men to govern
is ordinary ; for able men it is natural : knaves many times
come to it by force and necessity, and fools sometimes by
chance ; but universal choice and election of fools and knaves
for government was never yet made by any who were not
themselves like those they chose.
But methinks, Mr. Speaker, I see ready to rise after me
some gentlemen that shall tell you the good services their
new lordships have done the commonwealth ; that shall extol
their valour, their godliness, their fidelity to the cause. The
Scripture, too, no doubt, as it is to all purposes, shall be
brought in to argue for them ; and we shall hear of " the
wisdom of the poor man that saved the city ; " of the " not
many wise, not many mighty ; " attributes that I can no way
deny to be due to their lordships. Mr. Speaker, I shall be as
forward as any man to declare their services, and acknowledge
them ; though I might tell you that the same honour is not
purchased by the blood of an enemy and of a citizen ; that
for victories in civil wars, till our armies marched through
the city, I have not read that the conquerors have been so
void of shame as to triumph. Caesar, not much more indul-
gent to his country than our late Protector, did not so much
as write public letters of his victory at Pharsalia ; much less
had he days of thanksgiving to his gods, and anniversary
feasts, for having been a prosperous rebel.
But, Sir, I leave this argument ; and, to be as good as my
1659. SPEECH AGAINST THE OTHEK HOUSE. Ixxi
word, come to put you in mind of some of their services, and the
obligations you owe them for the same. To speak nothing of one
of my Lords Commissioners' valour at Bristol, nor of another
noble lord's brave adventure at the Bear-garden, 1 I must tell
you, Sir, that most of them have had the courage to do things
which, I may boldly say, few other Christians durst so have
adventured their souls to have attempted : they have not
only subdued their enemies, but their masters that raised and
maintained them ; they have not only conquered Scotland
and Ireland, but rebellious England too, and there suppressed
a malignant party of magistrates and laws ; and, that nothing
should be wanting to make them indeed complete conquerors,
without the help of philosophy they have even conquered
themselves. All shame they have subdued as perfectly as
all justice ; the oaths they have taken they have as easily
digested as their old General could himself; public covenants
and engagements they have trampled under foot. In conclu-
sion, so entire a victory they have over themselves, that their
consciences are as much their servants, Mr. Speaker, as we
are. But give me leave to conclude with that which is more
admirable than all this, and shows the confidence they have
of themselves and us : after having many times trampled on
the authority of the House of Commons, and no less than five
times dissolved them, they hope, for those good services to
the House of Commons, to be made a House of Lords.
I have been over long, Sir, for which I crave your pardon ;
therefore, in a word, I beseech you let us think it our duty
to have a care of two things : first, that villanies be not
encouraged with the rewards of virtue; secondly, that the
authority and majesty of the government of this nation be
not defiled, and exposed to contempt, by committing so con-
siderable a part of it to persons of as mean quality as parts.
The Thebans did not admit merchants into government till
they had left their traffic ten years : sure it would have been
long before cobblers and draymen would have been allowed.
1 The person here referred to is Colonel Pride, who is accused of
having cruelly killed a number of bears, in suppressing bear-baiting,
as Sheriff of Surrey. See a lampoon printed in the Harleian Miscellany
vol. iii. p. 136: "The Last Speech and Dying Words of Thomas (Lord,
alias Colonel) Pride, being touched in conscience for his inhuman
murder of the Bears in the Bear-garden when he was High Sheriff of
Surrey, taken in shorthand by T. S., late clerk in his Lordship's
Brewhoiise."
Ixxii APPENDIX IV. 1659.
Sir, if the wisdom of this House shall think we have been
hitherto like the prodigal; and that now, when our necessities
persuade us, i.e. that we are almost brought to herd it with
swine, it is time to think of a return: let us without more
ado, without this motley mixture, even take our rulers as at
the first, so that we can but be reasonably secured to avoid
our counsellors as at the beginning
Give me leave, Sir, to release your patience with a short
story. Livy tells us there was a state in Italy, an aristocracy,
where the nobility stretched the prerogative too high, and
presumed too much on the people's liberty and patience ;
whereupon the discontents were so general and so great,
that they apparently tended to a dissolution of government,
and the turning of all things into anarchy and confusion.
At the same time, besides these distempers at home, there
was a potent enemy ready to fall on them from abroad, that
had been an over-match for them when united; but now, in
these disorders, was like to find them a very ready and eusy
prey. A wise man, Sir, in the city, who did not all approve
of the insolence of the nobility, and as little liked popular
tumults, thought of this stratagem, to cozen his country into
safety. Upon a pretence of counsel, he procured the nobility
to meet all together; which when they had done, he found
means to lock the doors upon them, went away himself, and
took the keys ; then immediately summoned the people; told
them, by a contrivance of his he had taken all the nobility in
a trap ; that now was the time to be revenged on them for
their insolences ; that, therefore, they should immediately go
along with him and despatch them. Sir, the officers of our
army, after a fast, could not be more ready for the villany
than these people were ; and accordingly they made as much
haste to the slaughter as their Lord Protector could desire.
But, Sir, this wise man I told you of was their Lord Protector
indeed. As soon as he had brought the people where the
parliament was sitting, and when they expected but the word
to fall to the butchery; "Gentlemen," says he, ''though I
would not care how soon this work of reformation were over,
yet, in this ship of the commonwealth, we must not throw
the steersmen overboard till we have provided others for the
helm. Let us consider, before we take these men away, in
what other hands we may securely trust our liberty and the
management of the commonwealth/' And so he advised
them, before the putting down of the former, to bethink
1659. SPEECH AGAINST THE OTHER HOUSE. Ixxiii
themselves of constituting another House. He began and
nominated one, a man highly cried up in the popular faction,
a confiding man, one of much zeal, little sense, and 110 quality;
you may suppose him, Sir, a zealous cobbler. The people, in
conclusion, murmured at this, and were loth their fellow
mutineer, for no other virtue but mutinying, should come to
be advanced to be their master ; and by their looks and mur-
murs sufficiently expressed the discontent they took at such
a motion. Then he nominated another, as mean a mechanic
as the former ; you may imagine him, Sir, a bustling rude
drayman, or the like : he was no sooner named but some
burst out a laughing, others grew angry and railed at him,
and all detested and scorned him. Upon this a third was
named for a lordship, one of the same batch, and every way
qualified to sit with the other two. The people then fell
into a confused laugh arid noise, and inquired, if such were
lords, who, by all the gods ! would be content to be com-
moners 1 Sir, let me be bold, by the good leave of the other
House and yours, to ask the same question. But to conclude
this story, and with it the other House, when this wise man
I told you of perceived they were now sensible of the incon-
venience and mischief they were running into, and saw that
the pulling down their rulers would prove in the end but
the setting up their servants, he thought them then prepared to
hear reason, and told them, "You see," says he, "that bad as
this government is, we cannot, for anything I see, agree upon
a better : what then if, after this fright we have put our
nobility in, and the demonstration we have given them of
our power, we try them once more whether they will mend,
and for the future behave themselves with more moderation? "
The people were so wise as to comply with that proposition,
and to think it easier to mend their rulers than to make new.
And I wish, Mr. Speaker, we may be so wise as to think
so too.
APPENDIX V.
A Letter from Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Thomas Scot,
Josias Berners, and John Weaver, Esquires, delivered to
the Lord Fleetwood, owning their late actions, in endeavour-
ing to secure the Tower of London for the better service of
the City and Commonwealth, December 16, 1659. 1
SIR,
Understanding you have received some disturbance of
late, in examining divers persons about a design to surprise
the Tower ; to save you further trouble, we do hereby freely
own our utmost and hearty endeavours to have put that place
into more faithful and confiding hands, and that by authority
from the Council of State, who at the passing of that resolve
had the sole legal power from the Parliament of ordering,
directing, and disposing of all the garrisons and forces of this
Commonwealth, both by sea and land ; an action so honest
and honourable as would not only have given check to the
exorbitances at Wallingford House and Whitehall, but was
1 This letter is printed in the Thurloe collection of State Papers, vol.
vii. p. 797, and in the Somers Tracts, vol. ri. p. 542. Ten days after the
date of this letter, on December 26, the Committee of Safety was
overthrown, Fleetwood and Lambert discomfited, and the Rump
Parliament restored ; Sir A. A. Cooper, Scot, Berners, and Weaver were
then entrusted with the temporary command of the Tower, which
they had secured. Whitelocke, under date of December 24, records :
"The Speaker with Cooper, Reynolds, Weaver, and Berners went to
the Lord Mayor and discoursed with him and the Sheriffs, touching
the Parliament's meeting again speedily, and found them to like well
of it; from him they went to the Tower and secured that." (Me-
morials, p. 691.) The letter in the text describes an unsuccessful
attempt made before December 16.
1659. LETTER TO FLEETWOOD. Ixxv
almost necessary to the preserving the peace and safety of this
great city, by giving advantage to them to put themselves into
a regular posture of defence, and such an encouragement to
the sober party among them as would through God's mercy
have utterly defeated the designs of the common enemy. Sir,
let us tell you this design was not so vain but that we had by
the blessing of God possessed that place some weeks since,
had we not been frustrated by our mistake in the courage and
fidelity of a person, whose opportunity, interest, and duty, if
not principles, gave us better hopes. 1 But in this age we are
to complain and wonder at nothing ; yet we cannot but highly
resent the confidence of sending for one of our number by
a party of soldiers, as if red coats and muskets were a non
obstante to all laws and public privilege, Not as if that
person or any of us are afraid or ashamed to own the enter-
prise before any that have a lawful authority to demand an
account of it ; which we are sure no single person, junto, or
pack of men at Whitehall or Wallingford House have a pre-
tence to. Sir, we have the witness with our own spirits, that
we have and do cordially wish the preservation and good of
you and your family : but if the Lord hath said, " You shall
not hearken, but be hardened in your way," we must acquiesce
in His providence, and with sorrow look upon that ruin which
is flowing in upon you, as upon one in whom we thought we
had seen some good.
Sir, consider that in the day of trouble, which is certainly
coming upon you, what support you will have to your spirit,
when you shall be assaulted with the shame you have brought
upon God's people ; with the breach of faith to the Parliament
1 Compare Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 763: "The Parliament party was
not wanting to promote their interest, and to that end formed a design
to get the Tower into their hands. Colonel Fitz, who was then Lieu-
tenant of the place, had consented that Colonel Okey with three
hundred men should lie dispersed about the town, prepared for the
enterprise, promising that on a certain day he would cause the gates to
be opened early in the morning, to let him pass in his coach ; which
opportunity Colonel Okey with his men taking, might easily seize the
guards and possess himself of the place ; and their attempt might have
succeeded, had it not, by I know not what accident, been discovered
to the Lord Mayor, who informed the army of it the night before it
was to be put in execution. Whereupon Colonel Desborow with some
forces was sent thither, who changed the guards, seized the Lieutenant
of the Tower, and left Colonel Miller to command there till further
order."
IxxVi APPENDIX V. 1659.
from whom you received your commission ; with, the ruin you
have brought upon your native country (unless the Lord by
His own Almighty arm prevent it) ; and with the misery you
have led the poor soldiers into, who, instead of being the
instruments of renewing and settling the peace and liberty of
these nations, enjoying the honour and quiet thereof, their
arrears fully paid, future pay and advancement settled and
established in order and with the blessing of their countrymen,
are now become the instruments of nine men's ambition, 1
have made the whole nation their enemies, and are exposed
again to the hardship and hazard of a new unnatural war,
without prospect of our hoping that the issue of these affairs
can leave their new masters so rich as to satisfy their arrears,
or so secure as to trust preferments in any hands, but such
whose fanatic principles or personal relations make them
irreconcilable to the public interest. But God, we trust, has
raised up a deliverer, having by admirable providence put an
opportunity and power into the hands of General Monck, the
ablest and most experienced commander of these nations ;
whom he hath also spirited to stand firm for the interest of
this Commonwealth, as well against a rebellious party of our
own forces, as the designs of the common enemy, notwith-
standing all causeless and false aspersions maliciously cast
upon him ; being warranted in his present actings by especial
commission and authority from the Council of State, whereas
yours is that only of the sword. Our prayers and earnest
request for you and all honest men amongst you are that you
may timely join with him, and partake of the honour and
blessing of his actions, and your true repentance shall be a
greater rejoicing than your desertion was trouble ; when
Providence shall have separated the precious from the vile,
and not have suffered our scum to boil in, but shall have
placed the sword and civil authority in the hands of men of
the best and soberest principles. Sir, be not so far deceived
as to think sober men see not through the mask of this
strange new parliament, whose liberty and safety either of
meeting or debating must be at your pleasure, who, having
taken upon you to be conservator of the cause, will only make
1 The nine men here referred to are probably the nine officers who
subscribed the circular letter which, produced by Colonel Okey in the
Parliament, caused the commotion which brought on Lambert and
Fleetwood's revolution of October. See p. 189 of the " Life."
1659. LETTER TO FLEETWOOD. Ixxvii
use of them as your assessors and tax-gatherers ; the present
interrupted parliament being the sole lawful authority, and
which can only be hoped to make the sword subservient to
the civil interest, and settle the government in the hands of
the people by successive and free parliaments unlawfully
denied to them. Sir, we have in sincerity given you our
sense, and shall leave you to Him. that disposes of all men's
hearts, and remain,
Your servants,
So far as you shall be found to serve the public,
AN. ASHLEY COOPER.
THO. SCOT.
Jos. EERNERS.
JOHN WEAVER.
APPENDIX VI.
A Proviso for the Bill of Uniformity, presented to the House of
Peers from the King by the Lord Chancellor, March 17,
1662. 1
PROVIDED always that, notwithstanding anything in this Act
in regard of the generous offers and promises made by His
Majesty before his happy restoration of liberty to tender
consciences, the intention whereof must be best known to
His Majesty, as likewise the several services of those who
contributed thereunto, for all whom His Majesty hath in
his princely heart as gracious a desire of indulgence as may
consist with the good and peace of the kingdom, and would
not have a greater severity exercised towards them than what
is necessary for the public benefit and welfare thereof, it be
enacted. And be it therefore enacted, that it shall and may
be lawful for the King's Majesty by any writing and in such
manner as to his wisdom shall seem fit, so far to dispense with
any such Minister as upon the nine-and-twentieth day of May,
1660, was and at prt-sent is seised of any benefice or ecclesi-
astical promotion, and of whose merit towards His Majesty,
and of whose peaceable and pious disposition, His Majesty
shall be sufficiently informed and satisfied, that no such
Minister shall be deprived or lose his benefice or other
ecclesiastical promotion for not wearing the surplice, or for
1 This Proviso is here printed for the first time from the Rolls of
the House of Lords. Though presented by Clarendon, the Lord
Chancellor, from the King, it was rejected by the House of Lords. See
Chapter IX. of " Life ; " and Lords' Journals, March 17, 18, arid 19 ;
Rawdon Papers, pp. 141 143, and Pepys's Diary, March 21, 1662.
1663. LOED KOBERTS'S DISPENSING BILL. Ixxix
not signing with the sign of the cross in baptism : so as he
permit and bear the charge of some other licensed minister
to perform that office towards such children whose parents
desire the same, and so as such Ministers shall not deprave
the Liturgy, rites, or ceremonies established in the Church
of England, or any person for using them, by preaching,
writing, speaking, or otherwise, upon pain of forfeiting the
benefit of the dispensation.
And be it further enacted, that such dispensations as afore-
said being granted by His Majesty shall be a sufficient
exemption from such deprivation in the cases aforesaid.
Always understood, that this indulgence be not thought or
interpreted to be an argument of His Majesty's indifferency
in the use of those ceremonies when enjoined, though in-
different in their own nature, but of his compassion towards
the weakness of the Dissenters, which he hopes will in
time prevail with them for a full submission to the Church
and to the example of the rest of their brethren.
A Bill, entitled "An Act concerning His Majesty's power in
Ecclesiastical Affairs" presented to the House of Peers,
February 23, 1663, ly Lord Roberts, Lord Privy Seal. 1
WHEREAS divers of His Majesty's subjects through error of
judgment and misguided consciences (whereunto the licen-
tiousness of these late unhappy times have much contributed)
do not conform themselves to the order of divine worship
and service established by law; and although His Majesty
and both Houses of Parliament are fully satisfied that those
scruples of conscience from whence this non-conformity
ariseth are ill-grounded, and that the government of the
Church with the service thereof, as now established, is the
best that is anywhere extant, and most effectual to the pre-
servation of the Protestant religion : yet, hoping that
clemency and indulgence may in time wear out those preju-
dices and reduce the Dissenters to the unity of the Church ;
and considering that this indulgence, how necessary soever,
1 This Bill, which caused considerable public excitement in 1663, is
now printed for the first time from the Rolls of the House of Lords.
See Chapter IX. of " Life ; " also Lords' Journals, February 23, 25, 27,
28, March 5, 6, 12, 13. The bill was dropped in committee.
Ixxx APPENDIX VI.
cannot be dispensed by any certain rule, but must vary
according to the circumstances of time, and the temper and
principles of those to whom it is to be granted ; and His
Majesty being the best judge when and to whom this indul-
gence is to be dispensed, or as may be most consistent with
the public peace, and without just cause of offence to others;
and to the end His Majesty may be enabled to exercise it
with universal satisfaction : Be it enacted by the King's most
excellent Majesty by advice and with the consent of the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present
Parliament assembled and by the authority thereof, that the
King's Majesty may by letters patent under the Great Seal, or
by such other ways as to His Majesty shall seem meet,
dispense with one act or law made the last session of this
parliament, entitled "An Act for the Uniformity of Public
Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments and other Rites and
Ceremonies, and for establishing the Form of Making, Ordain-
ing, and Consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the
Church of England," and with any other laws or statutes con-
cerning the same or requiring oaths or subscriptions, or which
do enjoin conformity to the order, discipline, and worship
established in this Church, and the penalties in the said laivs
imposed or any of them, 1 and may grant licences to such of
His Majesty's subjects of the Protestant religion, of whose
inoffensive and peaceable disposition His Majesty shall be
persuaded, to enjoy the use and exercise of their religion
and worship, though differing from the public rule, the said
laws and statutes, or any disabilities, incapacities, or penal-
ties in them or any of them contained, or any matter or thing
to the contrary thereof notwithstanding. Provided always,
and be it enacted, that no such indulgence, licence, or dis-
pensation hereby to be granted shall extend or be construed to
extend to the tolerating or permitting the use or exercise of the
Popish or Roman Catholic religion in this kingdom, nor to en-
able any person or persons to hold or exercise any place or office
of public trust within this kingdom, who, at the beginning of
this present Parliament, were by the laws and statutes of
1 On March 5, the House of Lords adopted a recommendation of
the Committee to omit the words which are printed in italics, apply-
ing to other acts besides the Act of Uniformity. A list of such acts
was brought in to the House on that day by the Attorney- General in
pursuance of a previous order : the list, Avhich is curious, and is not
professed to be complete, is printed in the Lords' Journals of March 5.
1663. LOED ROBERTS'S DISPENSING BILL. Ixxxi
this realm disenabled thereunto ; nor to exempt "any person
or persons from such penalties as are by law to'be inflicted
upon such as shall publish or preach anything to the deprava-
tion or derogation of the Book of Common Prayer or the
government, order, and ceremonies of the Church established
by law. Provided also, and be it enacted, that no such licence
or dispensation shall extend to make any priest or minister
capable of any ecclesiastical living or benefice with care, who
shall not before the Archbishop of the Province or Bishop of
the Diocese where he lives, make such subscription to the
Articles of Religion as is enjoined by the statute of 13 Eliz.,
made for reformation of disorders in the Church ; nor shall
extend or be construed to extend to dispense with the Book
of Common Prayer, but that the said book shall be con-
stantly read in all the cathedral and collegiate churches, and
in all the parish churches and public chapels.
END OF VOL. I.
LONDON :
R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
ININttLIST
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Christie, William Dougal
A life of Anthony Ashley
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