PREFACE

Extract

This volume grew out of my doctoral thesis examining parliamentarian allegiance in Yorkshire during the first civil war. The Hotham family archive proved to be a particularly rich primary source for this work, but the prominent role of the Hothams in empowering and then sabotaging the parliamentary war effort demands wider recognition. It is hoped that publishing their papers will restore the Hothams within their local context and secure their place in the national narrative of the outbreak of civil war. Highlighting the Hothams’ kinship networks, their military resources, and their place within the parliamentarian coalition, this project combines all of their known papers, scattered across numerous archives, into one accessible volume. At the core of their family archive at Hull are the papers for Sir John Hotham's defence at his trial. Many of these are copies of the original letters, held by the Bodleian Library, that appear to have formed the papers for his prosecution. The neat handwriting of both Hothams has aided transcription but several of the trial papers in the family archive are frustratingly damaged and fragmented. Painstaking effort has been made with the palaeography but the full meaning of several items remains obscure.