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IV. The Diary of a Country Gentleman in 1688
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2011
Extract
[In the Streatfeild Collections Relating to Kent there is a transcript with the following heading: “Minutes, in great part transcripts, from ye Diaries of Sr Edward Dering, and of Sr John Knatchbull; from the originals at Hatch. T. S. 1835.” In the Index to Add. MSS. the diaries are attributed to Sir Edward Dering (ob. 1689) and Sir John Knatchbull (ob. 1696), and Dr Harold Temperley refers to them in the bibliography of the Cambridge Modern History.
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References
page 48 note 1 British Museum. Add. MSS. 33, 923, ff. 429–481.
page 48 note 2 C.M.H. vol. v. Bibliography, chap, x, p. 819.
page 48 note 3 There is no explanation of the somewhat strange fact that the MS. was found at Hatch as many as at least thirteen years after a copy of it had been made. Mr Streatfeild died in 1848, and it is possible that the MS. was in his possession and was returned in that year. Sir Edward Knatchbull, the then owner of Mersham Hatch, had, however, succeeded in 1819. The statement at the head of the transcript in the library is explicit: “Diary of Sir John Knatchbull, 2nd Bart. From the original manuscript found at Hatch in 1848; by Fanny Catherine, Lady Knatchbull. …”
page 49 note 1 3rd Baronet of Surrender, Kent. He had been M.P. for Kent 1678–81. Return of Members of Parliament, 1878.
page 49 note 2 Return of Members of Parliament.
page 49 note 3 Ibid.
page 49 note 4 In the later part of the diary, not dealt with in this article, there is a long account of the negotiations leading up to this appointment. The honour did not last long: “Alterations at court talkt of…the commissioners of the privy seal, Knatchbul…will have their quietus.” Luttrell, Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, 1857, 31 December 1691. The prophecy was fulfilled.
page 50 note 1 Clarendon records MrPollexfen's conversation with him on Saturday, 15 December 1688: “that the King, by withdrawing himself had left the government; that he had made a cession, and forfeited his right; that his being now at Feversham, though he should come back to London, signified not a rush; that the Prince of Orange had nothing to do, but in the head of his army to declare himself King.…Good God bless me! what a man is this?” Correspondence of Henry Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, with Diary, edition (S. W. Singer) 1828, II. 225.
page 50 note 2 Journals of the House of Commons, 10, 14, 24, February 1672/73.
page 50 note 3 Addresses of thanks to the King were sent up from the Anabaptists, Presbyterians, Quakers, and “loyall subjects of the Congregational perswasion.” Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, Camden Society, 1845, pp. 271, 275–76. He adds: “These are, and euer haue been, loyall subjects (wee all know), in a wronge sence.” Evelyn was present in the Council Chamber at Hampton Court when a “formal man” presented an address to the King signed by 1000 persons. Diary, 1819,16 June 1687.
page 51 note 1 “There was a pamphlet, entituled, A Letter to a Dissenter, went about in the dark, and sold very deare, which was answered by Sir Robert Lestrange; and both beinge now printed, are publickly sold for 6d.; so much benefit the world hath by Sir Robert his answer.” Bramston, Autobiography, p. 300. The Letter was published, anonymously, in 1687 (probably August).
page 51 note 2 “A letter wrote by Mijn Heer Fagel, Pensioner of Holland, to Mr James Stewart, … giving an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Test and Penal Laws, 4 November 1687,”…“which was industriously dispersed through England.” Somers’ Tracts, 2nd edition (W. Scott), 1813, IX. 183.
page 51 note 3 “Proceedings against Magdalen College Oxon for not electing Anthony Farmer President, 4 James II 1687–88.” Answer given by Dr Aldworth, Vice-President, to Bishop of Chester before the Lords Commissioners, 16 November 1687. State Trials, XII. 355.
page 51 note 4 Christopher 5th Baron Teynham, of Linsted, Kent. He succeeded to the title in 1673, and was made Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Kent after “The earl of Winchelsea is turned out.” Luttrell, Historical Relation, 27 November 1687. Gazette, no. 2302, 8–12 December 1687.
page 52 note 1 In his History of the Tory Party 1640–1714, 1924, Mr Keith Feiling shows how widespread and, clearly, organised was this attitude of non-possumus (pp. 218–219).
page 52 note 2 Ailesbury accused the Lord Lieutenants of acting with “more warmth than judgment.” Memoirs, Roxburghe Club, 1890, vol. 1. p. 163.Google Scholar Lord Teynham's attitude illustrates, on the other hand, the lack of enthusiasm with which many of the English Catholic families regarded the actions of James.
page 52 note 3 The second Declaration of Indulgence was issued 37 April 1688. Gazette, no. 2342.
page 52 note 4 Cf. Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, edition (J. J. Cartwright) 1875, p. 393, 7 May 1688. Reresby was more fortunate than Knatchbull in that he was approached by a Roman Catholic, from whom the argument for liberty of conscience could not come in such a compelling form as from a Dissenter to a Protestant of the Church of England. Reresby, however, evaded the argument by avoiding the man. Halifax's Anatomy of an Equivalent was published, anonymously, in 1688 (probably September).
page 52 note 5 Cf. Justice Allibon's Charge at the Assizes at Croydon. “The King is willing that everyone may be as free in his confcience as in his thoughts: pray Gent, confider what a bleffing this is.” Gutch, Collectanea Curiosa, 1781, 1. 393.
page 53 note 1 3rd Baronet, of Roydon Hall, East Peckham, Kent; son of Sir Roger Twysden, who had been imprisoned and heavily fined during the Long Parliament. Sir William succeeded in 1672. He was M.P. for Kent with Sir John Knatchbull, 1685–87. Return of Members of Parliament.
page 54 note 1 The reading in the Add. MSS. is followed here in preference to that in Lady Knatchbull's transcript, where the version is “his answer was he was subscribed as to some things.” Sir William is reported in the same sentence to have answered he “had not subscribed to anything” (both readings), and, moreover, it is exceedingly unlikely that he did consent to put his hand to any written statement. “Sub sigilo” (sigillo) makes better sense in the context, and the use of the phrase in the 17th century may have been unfamiliar to Lady Knatchbull.
page 54 note 2 “The Papifts are fo unreconcileable to us, as that nothing will fatisfie them but our utter extirpation,” wrote Richard Baxter in 1683. The English Nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II, 2nd edition 1690: p. 221. Preface dated 1683.
page 54 note 3 “The Archbishop and the Clergy of London are said to have had several Conferences with the chief of the Dissenting ministers, in order to agree such points of ceremonies as are indifferent between them, and to take their measures for what is to be proposed about religion at next Parliament.” Ellis Correspondence, 1829, 11. 63, Letter CLII, 21 July 1688.
“They (the Dissenters) had never such assurances from our Churchmen of their Inclination to Tenderness to them as they now received.” Three Queries and Answers to them (Contemporary pamphlet), 1688. Cf. Evelyn, Diary, 12 July 1688.
page 55 note 1 It was so considered by the Court: “The King commands them with the advice of his Council for to publifh his Declaration; they would not do it. If the King had been Turk or Jew, it had been all one; for the fubject ought to obey.” Justice Allibon's Charge at the Assizes at Croydon. Gutch, Collectanea, I. 397.
“This is a standard of rebellion.” The King to the petitioning Bishops, 18 May 1688. Clarendon, Correspondence etc., vol. 11. appendix X. p. 478.
page 55 note 2 Luttrell, Historical Relation, 20 May 1688. The Case of reading the Declaration…briefly stated in four Propositions states the position of the general clergy. Gutch, Collectanea, 1. 328. Vote of thanks from the House of Commons to the Clergy of the Church of England, 1 February 1688/89. Ibid. p. 446.
page 55 note 3 Gazette, no. 2393, and “Proceedings of Extraordinary Council 22 October 1688 “in Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 281.” I find no man that doubted before to be better satisfied…but it was strange none more concerned were called to be present at the Queen's labour.” Bramston, Autobiography, p. 327.
“Letter from the Bishop of St Asaph to Mr Dodwell, 9 November 1695”: “taking all the depositions together, I dont believe a jury of Gentlemen would have given an inheritance of 1000l. a yeere…to a child, whose birth had been doubted of, and proved no otherwise than by these depositions…between you and mee I could tell you enough to putt this matter out of doubt…the Queen had no child birth…all was but meer fraud and delufion.” Gutch, Collectanea, 11. 389.
“Eight in Ten of the People living at the time did not believe that the Queen had a Child.” Mandeville, Free Thoughts on Religion, the Church, and National Happiness, 1720, p. 325.
page 56 note 1 “I went to London where I found the Court in the utmost consternation on report of the Prince of Orange's landing, wch put White-hall into so panic a feare, that I could hardly believe it possible to find such a change.” Evelyn, Diary, 18 September 1688.
“At last the good King had his eyes opened.” Ailesbury, Memoirs, I. 183.
page 56 note 2 Gazette, no. 2385, 26 September 1688.
page 56 note 3 Cf. Bramston, Autobiography, p. 326. “I told him (the Earl of Oxford) he would find gentlemen not forward to take commands; some would thinck one kick of the breech enough for a gentleman…for my own part, I was very old…and could not take any such command upon me.” He later accepted. Also cf. Ailesbury, Memoirs, I. 182.
page 56 note 4 “The gentlemen in all counties almost where the Lieutenants were remoued, and Papists put in, refused to take commissions vnder them....So the King changed those Lieutenants.” Bramston, Autobiography, p. 325, under entry dated 19 October 1688.
“His majestie hath made the lord Feversham lord lieutenant of Kent.” Luttrell, Historical Relation, 17 October 1688. Feversham was a Protestant although, according to Burnet, “his religion was not much trusted to.” History of His Own Time, 2nd edition 1833, III. 50.
page 56 note 5 Later (1691) 4th Earl of Westmorland. M.P. for Kent with Sir John Knatchbull, 1688/89–1691. Return of Members of Parliament. Lord Lieutenant (with Henry Viscount Sidney) of Kent 1692–1693.
page 57 note 1 “We are in ill condition now in this nation all ways, for if the King beat the prince, popery will return upon us with more violence than ever. If the prince beat the King, the Crown and the nation may be in some danger.” Danby, according to Reresby, Memoirs, p. 407, 15 October 1688.
page 57 note 2 “In very many counties the nobility and gentrie rise and associat.” Bramston, Autobiography, p. 338, entry at end of November 1688. In The Thoughts of a Private Person (Contemporary pamphlet), November 1688, the defence of these associations is put in what must have been a gratifying form: “I cannot but conclude it is a very Worthy and Virtuous Act to be in Arms for defence of the Laws, the Kings just Rights and the publick good, and consequently that these Gentlemen who are in Arms…are in a Virtuous Post.”
page 57 note 3 “so stupid were our Drivers, that nothing would serve our then masters but filling the Army with Irishmen.” History of the Desertion, 1689, in State Tracts, 1705.
page 58 note 1 He was, of course, right in both deductions. The Queen with the Prince of Wales left Whitehall under protection on the night of the 9th/10th of December, and, after crossing the Thames to Lambeth, the fugitives took the road direct to Gravesend where a yacht was ready for them. J. S. Clarke, Life of James II, 1816, 11. 246. Macpherson, Original Papers, 1775, 1. 166. The preparations at Eastwell are confirmed by the “Relation de Francesco Riva,” printed in Les Derniers Stuarts, Campana de Cavelli, 1871, vol. II. pp. 381–382. After describing the arrangements made to enable the Queen and Prince of Wales to go to Dover and embark there, Riva continues “Le Dimanche (9th) on commença d'apprendre bien du désordre qui s'excitoit dans le Royaume, surtout à Douvre, où le peuple s'estoit soulevé; il fallut ainsi prendre d'autres mesures…et I'on concerta tout de nouveau le passage qui réüssit de cette manière.”
page 58 note 2 The name of Mr Kingsley, “the Ld Tenham's Priest,” appears in a “List of Prisoners” at the end of an account of “King James's comeing to Ffeversham “written by Capt Richd Marsh. Add. MSS. 5842, f. 241. This account is printed, with some slight differences, in The History of the Town and Port of Faversham (Edward Jacob), 1774, App. x.
page 58 note 3 No reference other than this has been found to the immediately known presence of the King during the time between his departure from Whitehall between 1 and 3 o'clock a.m. on the 11th and his recognition at the Queen's Arms, Faversham, about 12 noon on the 12th of December. Macaulay makes a slip in saying that James reached Elmley Ferry on the morning of the 12th, and, apparently confusing Shell Ness with Sheerness, he suggests that the King travelled by the direct road to Rochester. History of England, 1849, II. 553, 569. Ailesbury states that the “Road from London to Rochester was to be…avoided,” and he gives in detail the route followed, by which Maidstone was left on the right—” by the way of Ffarningham and Alesford “confirms this—and the main road crossed between Rochester and Sittingbourne. Memoirs, I. 208. Cf. also Macpherson, Original Papers, I. 165, and Clarke, Life of James II, II. 251–252. Original Memoirs. James reached Elmley Ferry on the morning of the 11th, and the boat in which he was to escape was boarded about eleven o'clock at night.
page 58 note 4 This was Obadiah Walker, Master of University College, Oxford.
page 59 note 1 Edwards was a principal in at least a part of these proceedings. The claim to activity in holding up coaches which he makes in his story to Sir John Knatchbull is supported by Captain Richard Marsh. Add. MSS. 5842, f. 241. He is named as the leader of the guard which conducted James and his fellow-prisoners to the inn at Faversham. Clarke, Life of James II, 11. 254. Original Memoirs. Also cf. the account “written by Capt Southouse at that time Mayor of the Town” who adds, “The Ferryman…carryed Sr Edward Hales & Ralph Sheldon out on his back, & wn he came to take the King up, Edwards cryed out, hang him an old Jesuitical dog, let him walk out himselfe & be damn'd.” Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 309. There is a full account of what happened on board written by an eye-witness in Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 302, printed in Notes and Queries, Third Series, vol. v. 1864, p. 391; and a detailed description of the scene at the Queen's Arms and later at the Mayor's house, also written by an eyewitness, in Harleian MSS. 6852, f. 402, printed in Tindal, Continuation of Rapin's History of England, 1751, vol. 1. Introd. p. xxii. This latter account puts James in the most ludicrous light, and was used with exhilaration by Macaulay. Defoe's comment upon this episode at Faversham is just. A Tour thro’ the whole Island of Great Britain, 1724, vol. 1. Letter II, pp. 30–31.
Feversham Dec: 12: 1688.
page 59 note 2 I am just now come in here, having been last night seased by some of this towne, who telling me you were to be here this day, I would not make myself known to them, thinking to have found you here, but that not being I desire you would come hether to me and, that as privatly as you could do that I might advise with you Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 298.
page 60 note 1 It was on the 8th of December that Halifax had dexterously elicited from Burnet at Hungerford the Prince's wishes in the matter. Burnet, History of His Own Time, III. 341.
page 60 note 2 It is amusing to compare with this account a news letter dated 15 December 1688 in which the sympathies lie the other way: “but a Gentle knowing his matie & paying him reverence gave occasion for ye Gentry to flock to him among ym ye E— of Winchelsea.” Add. MSS. 34,487, f. 48. The statement in the diary is borne out by the King himself: “My Lord Winchelsea came and only two gentlemen with him.” Clarke, Life of James II, 11. 255. Original Memoirs.
page 61 note 1 Cf. “Dec. 13th. The East Kent Gentlemen came in a great body, & before his face (for he was in ye window) read ye P. of O.'s Declaration.” Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 304. The letter in Harleian MSS. 6852, f. 402, says that “200 Gent: from Canterbury and East Kent, in fight of him (the King) declared their concurrence with ye P. of O. which much afflicted him.”
page 61 note 2 Cf. Marsh's account: “The Gentlemen were contriveing his Escape, but the Rabble & Seamen would by noe Means admitt of it” (12th). Add. MSS. 5842, f. 241.
page 61 note 3 “Those wicked Deputy Lieutenants would have every one believe that the King was their prisoner;—indeed he had been, if those gentlemen could have governed— to their eternal shame.” Ailesbury, Memoirs, 1. 210. Ailesbury went to Faversham to assist the King.
page 62 note 1 These gentlemen who “had thought better on't” were now in a predicament: “Dec. 14th, By ys time news came yt ye P. of O. did not approve of ye Kg's being stopt, wch made several of ym wch were concerned very blank, & wish they had never medled.” Add. MSS. 32,095, f. 305. Cf. Burnet according to Clarendon: “itt was foolishly done of those who stopped him at Feversham.” Correspondence etc. II. 227, 16 December 1688.
page 62 note 2 Sir Basil Dixwell, 2nd Baronet, of Broome, Kent. M.P. for Dover from 1688/89. Return of Members of Parliament. In this matter he was spokesman for the East Kent Gentlemen according to the diary which is confirmed by Ailesbury, Memoirs, I. 210, and by Capt. Marsh's account, Add. MSS. 5842, f. 241.
page 62 note 3 “Father Con's Letter to the Provincial of the Jesuits at Rome, London Dec. 10. 1688” (translation). Clarendon, Correspondence etc. II. App. xxvii.