The Civil War Papers of Sir Will. Boteler, 1642 - 1655

Summary

The letters and papers now printed are a part of the muniments of the Boteler or Butler family of Biddenham co. Beds. By the friendly mediation of Mr. Alexander Alston, they were generously deposited at the County Record Office in 1932 and 1933 by Mrs. Trevor Wingfield, and are published with her kind permission. The interest of the documents lies in little local details of the Civil War, not to be found in historical text-books, yet valuable as showing some of the difficulties of the Parliamentary party in the provision of men and money, and the cost and disorganisation which accompany civil war. It seemed best to calendar the entire collection of papers, even when least interesting, in case that they should attract more detailed study by others; they are arranged in order of date. The editor has tried to restrict commentary1 as far as possible, the history of the county during this period having been admirably summarised by the late C. Gore Chambers (Viet. Co. Hist., Beds., ii, 42-55).

In the transcripts, verbatim quotations are marked by “inverted commas,” omissions by ‘…’ or ‘[etc.].’ The original spelling has been retained, except for expansions, y^e y^t etc. being printed as ‘the’ ‘that’ etc. Signatures are printed as written, but in the Index the modern form is generally adopted. Endorsements are only printed in special cases. Capital letters have occasionally been adapted to more modern practice; for the punctuation the editor is responsible. In dating, the days Jan. 1 to Mar. 24 at the end of the legal year have been assigned to the next calendar year.

Though W.B. was not an original member of the County Comm., he was soon deeply engaged in its business, especially in matters of finance, to which he seems to have applied the newly invented method of Logarithms (no. 97); he was active also on the Comm, of Sequestration of the estates of the ‘delinquents’ who supported Church and King. No trace has been found of the appointment of a presiding officer to any of the local Committees of Parliament; but so many letters from Parliament and the London Committees are in the collection that probably W.B. acted in that capacity, at any rate sometimes.