INTRODUCTION
On August 3,1651, Perth surrendered to Cromwell, and
on the following day he began his pursuit of Charles n. Monk, who
then held the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, was left
behind to complete the conquest of Scotland. The forces at his
disposal for this task were not more than ten thousand men, if
indeed so many, but as there was no organised army to meet him in
the field his numbers were for the moment sufficient. Garrisons had
been left in Leith, Edinburgh, and Perth, and probably also in
Burntisland and some smaller places. Monk’s field force consisted of
four regiments of horse and three of foot with some troops of
dragoons and the greater part of the train of artillery. Cromwell
estimated the numbers of Monk’s force at 4000 or 5000 men, but
Downing the Scoutmaster-General mentions 7000 or 8000. The
discrepancy can be explained by supposing that Downing included in
his total some of the recently established garrisons.
Monk’s first object was to capture Stirling. The town
surrendered on August 6, at the first summons, and the castle,
unable to resist Monk’s well served artillery, yielded on August 14
(pp. 1-4). During the siege Colonel Okey and his regiment of horse
were despatched into Lanarkshire, and having dispersed some new
levies and captured the King’s Commissioners at Paisley, rejoined
Monk at Stirling (pp. 5, 316). From Stirling Monk set out for
Dundee, which he summoned on August 26, and stormed on September 1.
Between four hundred and five hundred soldiers and townsmen were
killed, or according to a later account nearly eight hundred. The
town was plundered for a day and a night, but except during the
first heat of the storm no bloodshed seems to have taken place (pp.
7-12).1 A few days before its fall, on the
night of August 27, Colonel Matthew Alured and eight hundred of
Monk’s cavalry surprised and captured, at Alyth in Perthshire, the
Scottish Committee of Estates. Eight noblemen, including the Earl of
Leven and the Earl Marischal, and a number of gentlemen of rank,
fell into Alured’s hands. This was, in Chancellor Loudoun’s words, a
sad disaster and blow, for it deprived Scotland of the central
authority necessary to unite the national efforts against the
English invaders (pp. 9,23,320). At Alyth and Worcester so many
prisoners of rank were taken, that an English newspaper scoffingly
observed: ‘all the nobility of Scotland that are at liberty may all
sit about a joint-stool’(Mercurius Politicus, Sept. 11-18, 1651).
St. Andrews, which had at first refused Monk’s summons, yielded on
August 30 (pp. 7, 8, 10). Aberdeen was occupied about the 10th of
September and Montrose about the same time (pp. 14, 15). The news of
the rout of the Scottish army at Worcester reached Monk’s camp on
August- 9, but even before it could produce its results in putting
an end to further resistance he had practically accomplished his
task. At first the very completeness of the victory rendered it
difficult for the Scots to credit the reports which came to their
ears. It seemed incredible that no portion of the defeated army
should have succeeded in effecting its return, and rumours ‘of some
good success of their forces in England ’ found ready credence.
The progress of Monk’s conquests was retarded by his
own serious illness and by the paucity of his forces (pp. 14, 323,
337). But in October and November several new regiments of horse and
foot and a large number of recruits for the old regiments arrived in
Scotland which enabled Monk to extend his quarters. The Marquis of
Huntly signed articles of capitulation for himself and his forces on
November 21, and Lord Balcarres followed his example on December 3
(pp. 21, 339, 340). Colonel Fitch occupied Inverness about the end
of November (pp. 28, 342). Colonel Overton landed in Orkney about
the middle of February and established a garrison there with
scarcely any resistance (pp. 34, 36). The last castles which held
out for Charles ii. surrendered one after another. Dumbarton Castle
capitulated at the beginning of January 1652. The Bass, which was
summoned on October 27,1651, surrendered in April 1652 (pp.
322,333-335, Commons Journals, vii. 127). On February 18,1652, Monk
left Scotland, and retired to Bath to try the effect of the waters
in perfecting his cure. He was succeeded in command by Major-General
Richard Deane, who carried out and completed the subjugation of the
country. Brodick Castle, in the island of Arran, was occupied on
April 6, 1652, by a detachment from the garrison of Ayr (p.
38)Dunnottar Castle, besieged by Colonel Morgan, was surrendered to
him on May 26, 1652, and with it fell the last place in Scotland
which displayed the standard of Charles II.
Deane now had before him the more difficult task of
pacifying the country, and reducing the Highlanders to obedience.
The Mosstroopers, as the English termed generically all the little
bands of mounted men who carried on a partisan warfare in the
Lowlands, had been a source of great annoyance to the invaders ever
since 1650. They infested the country round the English garrisons,
intercepting the posts, cutting off small parties of men, and
murdering stragglers (pp. 8, 28, 318,332). But now the cessation of
warfare and the vigorous measures of Deane put a stop to their
activity, and until the rising of 1653 commenced little more is
heard of them. The reduction of the Highlands, especially of the
western portion, was a much more difficult business. On June 9,
1652, Deane appointed Colonel Robert Lilburne to command an
expedition to march through the Highlands and to enforce their
submission to the authority of the Commonwealth (p. 45). Deane
himself with a second division of the army set out at the same time
for Inverary. Some account of the incidents of his march and of its
results is given in the letters from contemporary newspapers
reprinted in the Appendix (pp. 360-367). One important result was a
final and definite agreement with the Marquis of Argyll. For some
months Argyll had attempted by every diplomatic artifice to maintain
a neutral and independent position and to avoid committing himself
to the acceptance of the English Government. During the siege of
Dundee he had been reported to be raising forces for its relief, but
it was subsequently asserted on his behalf that he had made no
levies since Charles ii. left Scotland (pp. 17, 20). After its fall
on October 15, 1651, he addressed a letter to Monk proposing a
treaty. i I desire to know from you, as one having cheife trust in
this kingdome; if it were not fit that some men who have deserved
trust in both kingdomes may not meet to good purpose in some
convenient place, as a meanes to stop the shedding of more Christian
blood?’ Monk curtly replied that he could admit of no such treaty
without order from the Commonwealth of England (pp. 333, 335). At
the time when Argyll wrote, Chancellor Loudoun and the remnant of
the Committee of Estates were endeavouring to procure the assembly
of a Parliament, and that body had been summoned to meet on November
15 (pp. 19, 20, 26). Supported by its authority the Marquis
evidently designed to treat with Monk, and the letter was meant to
draw from him an implied permission for their meeting. But the
English Parliament was resolved not to recognise any kind of
assembly which claimed to represent the Scottish nation, whether
styling itself Parliament or Committee of Estates. On November 19
the Council of State had been ordered ‘to prevent all public
meetings of any persons in Scotland for the exercise of any j
urisdiction other than such as is or shall be from the Parliament of
England, or from such persons as shall have authority under
them1 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651-2, p. 26). When Argyll sought to
treat for his personal submission, the first condition imposed upon
him was to prevent the intended meeting of the Scottish Parliament,
or at least not to take part in it himself (pp. 19, 338). An
interview was arranged to take place on November 19, 1651, between
Argyll and two of Monk’s officers ; but when the day came the
Marquis pleaded illness and postponed it (Several Proceedings in
Parliament, pp. 1775,1795). The relations between him and the new
government were further complicated by the arrival of the
Commissioners despatched by the English Parliament in December 1651
to treat of the union of the two nations. On March 18, 1652, the
Marquis had a conference with the English Commissioners at
Dumbarton, in which he renewed his old proposal that a number of
select persons might be permitted to meet together for discussion,
but was obliged to submit to the method of procedure preferred by
the Parliamentary Commissioners (Report on the MSS. of the Dulce of
Portland, i. 635). After some further letters, in which he expressed
a general desire to do all which with a safe conscience he might for
the peace and union of this island, and to clear himself from any
suspicions of a desire to raise fresh troubles, the correspondence
dropped (pp. 37, 40, 42). On April 26 the deputy for the shire of
Argyll accepted the tender of the union on behalf of its
inhabitants, and engaged for them to obey the authority of the
English Parliament exercised in Scotland (p. 42, cf. Portland MSS. i.
638, 644). His attitude is described in a letter from Edinburgh,
dated April 27, and printed in Several Proceedings in Parliament. ‘
Arguill is now again seeking to come in, the pitcher goes often to
the conduit, but at last is dasht in peeces. He solicites hard and
sends letter after letter, and one messenger after another, using
all the means he can through his best policy to obtaine some
singular act of favour. But I cannot understand that he will much
advantage himself by his policy, for we are, I hope, sufficiently
satisfied of his put offs and overreaching intentions, which will be
a snare probably to himself. His curiosity in aiming too high will
cause such delayes, as will give us opportunity when grasse is more
grown to fall to action. For we shal shortly be enabled to come upon
him and the rest that stand out with a double infall; I hope we
shall find no very great difficulty to reduce his country.’ As
expected, the march of Deane and Lilburne into the Highlands brought
Argyll’s hesitation to an end. He was obliged to declare his
acceptance of the Union and his submission to the Parliament of
England, which was at once published in the newspapers (p. 50). A
week later, on August 19, 1652, an agreement was signed between
Deane and Argyll (p. 48). In the speech in his own defence made by
Argyll, April 9, 1661, he relates his dealings with Deane, and
asserts that this agreement was extorted from him by threats (Wodrow, Church
History, ed. 1828, i. 144). It was something between a treaty and a
capitulation. Argyll, wbile generally accepting the English
Government, was permitted to make certain reservations with regard
to its religious policy and his own action concerning it. One clause
stipulated that either himself or his eldest son should repair to
England as a hostage, if summoned by the Parliament. Another clause
allowed the establishment of English garrisons in Argyll’s country,
but as soon as Deane’s troops withdrew three of the five garrisons
he left behind were immediately surprised by the Highlanders. Argyll
professed his disapproval of these acts, released the prisoners, and
restored the captured posts (pp. 366, 368). In the end, however,
they were not reoccupied, and the only places permanently held in
his country by the English were Dun-staffnage and Dunolly. In a
supplementary treaty it was agreed that ‘ except on some urgent
occasions to march through the country for the peace of the island,
or reducing some that are refractory,’ no more forces should be
brought into his country (pp. 55, 60; cf. Spottiszcoode Miscellany,
ii. 79, 81, 91, 93). He had therefore reaped some profit by the
little outbreak of the Highlanders, and it is not unlikely that he
had inspired it. The general result of all his manoeuvres was that
though forced to submit, and regarded with considerable suspicion by
reason of them, he still retained some shadow of independence.
After the victory of Worcester the English Parliament
seemed for a moment disposed to treat Scotland simply as a conquered
country, and to annex it to England. On September 9, 1651, a
committee was appointed ‘to bring in an Act for asserting the right
of this Commonwealth to so much of Scotland as is now under the
forces of this Commonwealth,’ and to consider ‘ how the same may be
settled under the government of this Commonwealth.’ An Act ‘
asserting the title of England to Scotland ’ was read a first time
on September 30 (Commons Journals, vii. 14, 22). But it was
eventually decided to adopt a more politic method of uniting the two
countries, and on October 23 eight Commissioners were appointed to
proceed to Scotland in order to settle the civil government of the
country and to prepare the way for a union. The persons selected
were Chief-Justice Oliver St. John, Sir Henry Vane, Richard Sal way,
Colonel George Fenwick, Major-Generals Lambert and Deane, Alderman
Robert Tichborne, and Lieutenant-General Monk (Commons Journals,
vii. 30). Their instructions, which were drawn up after many
deliberations and with extraordinary precautions to keep them
secret, were delivered to the Commissioners on December
18 (ibid. 44, 47, 49, 51, 53). The Commissioners arrived in Scotland
by the middle of January, and on March 16, 1652, Vane was able to
report to Parliament that the greater part of the shires and
boroughs of Scotland had assented by their deputies to the tender of
union (ibid. 105, 107, 110, 113).
The next step was the drawing up of a ‘ Declaration
of the Parliament of England,’ in order to the uniting of Scotland
into one Commonwealth with England (March 25), followed by an Act
for the incorporating of Scotland into one Commonwealth and free
state with England, and for abolishing the kingly office in
Scotland. This Act was read a first and second time on April 13,
1652. The completion of the Act and the settlement of the details
were deferred till the twenty-one deputies of Scotland, summoned to
appear in London by October 1, had been afforded the opportunity to
set forth their views to the committee which the English Parliament
had appointed to discuss the matter. These conferences, which began
in October 1652, were continued till the dissolution of the Long
Parliament in April 1653, and the deputies themselves remained in
England till August 1653. The union was finally accomplished by the
Instrument of Government in December 1653, which determined that
Scotland should be represented by thirty members in the Parliament
of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and by an
ordinance of the Protector’s dated April 12, 1654, for completing
and perfecting the union which the Long Parliament had designed.
On the history of these lengthy and complicated
negotiations the papers printed in this volume throw little light.
There are occasional mentions however of different steps in the
proceedings summarised above. The first letter of the English
commissioners after their arrival in Scotland is printed on p. 31.
Two newsletters contain accounts of the proclamation issued by the
Commissioners for the abolition of the kingly power in Scotland, and
of the parliamentary declaration concerning the union of the two
nations (pp. 35-41). Colonel Lilburne criticises with severity the
character of the deputies sent from Scotland to negotiate with the
Parliament (p. 136). There is also a long narrative addressed by the
Earl of Loudoun to Charles n. relating the procedure by which the
consent of Scotland to the union was obtained, and dwelling on its
illegality and invalidity (pp. 208-213).
The theory of the statesmen of the Commonwealth was
that the union was so great a boon to Scotland that it ought to be
thankfully accepted by the nation, and that it would be so accepted.
‘ This proposition of union, writes Ludlow, ‘ was cheerfully
accepted by the most judicious amongst the Scots, who well
understood how great a condescension it was in the Parliament of
England to permit a people they had conquered to have a part in the
legislative power (.Memoirs, i. 298). This view is illustrated by
the pained surprise with which the author of the newsletter
describing the proclamation of the union at Edinburgh notes the
absence of any sign of rejoicing amongst the auditors, and by the
letter of Captain Hill to the gentlemen of Badenoch (pp. 41, 269).
But in truth even those who had accepted the union acquiesced in it
rather than welcomed it. It promised a certain amount of
self-government instead of military rule, and it was well to choose
the least of two evils. In the opposition to the union political and
religious motives were combined. The desire to preserve the
independence of the nation in its integrity was strengthened by a
natural doubt whether the terms of the proposed incorporation would
be fair to the weaker nation. ‘ As for the embodying of Scotland
with England,1 said Mr. Robert Blair, c it will be as when the poor
bird is embodied into the hawk that hath eaten it up1 {Life of
Robert Blair, p. 292). Both parties in the Church denounced the
union in their official manifestoes on the ground that it meant the
destruction of the freedom of the Church, and would open the door to
unlimited toleration. In the declarations of Glasgow, Kirkcudbright,
and other districts against the ‘ Tender1 the religious objection
holds an equally prominent place (Report on the Portland MSS., i.
628, 630, 634).
On the other hand, with those who willingly accepted
the union one of the guiding motives was hostility to the
Presbyterian Church system. At first, therefore, the royalists
showed themselves more ready than the Church party to submit to the
new government, and so to accept the union. ‘ If any merit favour
here,’ said an English newsletter, dated January 1,1652, ‘ it is
those whom they call more malignant, who, as they are the most
considerable party, soe have already done more reall and visible
service than the whole generation of Presbyterians’ (pp. 29, 339,
355). The most remarkable exposition of the views of this class is
to be found in Sir Thomas Urquhart’s Book, the Discovery of a most
Exquisite Jewel, published in 1652. Urquhart’s tract purported to be
‘ a vindication of the honour of Scotland from that infamy whereinto
the rigid Presbyterian party of that nation, out of their
covetousness and ambition, most dissembledly hath involved it.’ In
it he asserted that ‘ a malignant and independent will better
sympathise with one another, than either of them with the
presbyter.’ He concluded by recommending the close union of the two
countries, a union which should be ‘ not heterogeneal (as timber and
stone upon ice stick sometimes together) bound by the frost of a
conquering sword ; but homogeneated by naturalisation, and the
mutual enjoyment of the same privileges and immunities.’ After
quoting at some length Bacon’s arguments on the subject, he urged on
the English government the advisability of preferring ‘rather to
gain the love and affection of the Scots, thereby to save the
expense of any more blood or money, than for overthrowing them quite
in both their bodies and fortunes, to maintain the charge of an
everlasting war against the storms of the climate, the fierceness of
discontented people, inaccessibility of the hills, and sometimes
universal penury, the mother of plague and famine; all which
inconveniencies may be easily prevented, without any charge at all,
by the sole gaining of the hearts of the country.’
The way to effect this was a union of such a nature
that Scotland should possess ‘ the same privileges and immunities
that Wales now hath ... to enjoy everywhere in all things the
emoluments and benefits competent to the free bom subjects of
England; and to this effect to empower that nation with liberty to
choose their representatives to be sent hither to this their
sovereign parliament, that the public trustees of England, Scotland,
and Wales may at Westminster jointly concur for the weal of the
whole isle, as members of one and the same incorporation.’ . . . ‘
By which means, patching up old rents, cementing what formerly was
broken, and by making of ancient foes new friends, we will
strengthen ourselves, and weaken our enemies; and raise the isle of
Britain to that height of glory, that it will become formidable to
all the world besides. In the meanwhile, the better to incorporate
the three dominions of England, Scotland, and Wales, and more firmly
to consolidate their union, it were not amiss (in my opinion) that
(as little rivers which use to lose their names when they have run
along into the current of a great flood) they have their own
peculiar titles laid aside, and totally discharged into the vast
gulf of that of Great Britain ’ (Sir Thomas Urquhart’s Tracts,
Edinburgh, 1782, pp. 145, 153, 163-5).
The eight Commissioners of the Parliament, however,
were not merely sent to set on foot the negotiations for the union,
but also charged to settle the civil government of Scotland. Their
proceedings in this part of the mission were reported to the English
Parliament by Oliver St. John on 14th May 1652. On January 31, 1652,
the Commissioners published a declaration abolishing all
jurisdictions derived from the King, and stating their intention of
appointing persons to administer justice for the time being until
new judicatories and courts of justice could in a more solemn way be
established. In pursuance of this plan they appointed seven
Commissioners for the administration of justice, four of whom were
Englishmen and three Scots. Their installation, which took place on
May 18, 1652, is described in a newsletter of that date (p. 43).
For the last few months the administration of the law
had been interrupted. ‘ Fra the incuming of the Englische army to
Scotland to this very day, the last of December 1651, thair wes no
supreme judicatories in Scotland, sik as Secreitt Counsell and
Sessioun to minister justice, so that the pepill of the land for
laik of the Scottis laws did suffer much1 (Nicoll’s Diary, p. 69).
For a short time a kind of rough justice, both civil and criminal,
was administered by a committee of English officers. A newsletter
from Edinburgh, dated December 29,1651, says : ‘ This day, according
to custom, diverse Scottish suiters made their addresses to the
honourable committee of officers at Leith, where all just
expectations were duly satisfied with quick despatches in point of
justice (whereas some suits before had hung 16 years without any
period put to it in their old Judicatories), which doth much cheare
up the Scottish people that they begin to read the Lord’s
dispensations of love and kindnesse towards them, in finding far
more respect and justice from their supposed enemies than ever they
did from their own countrymen ’ (Several Proceedings in Parliament,
January 1-8, 1652). Nicoll, who copies this passage, also observes :
‘In these tymes the Englische commanderis haid great
respect to justice, and in doing execution upon malefactouris, such
as theves, harlotes, and utheris of that kynd, by scurgeing,
hanging, kicking, cutting of thair eares, and stigmating of thame
with het yrnes ’ (pp. 69, 89). The appointment of the seven
Commissioners put an end to these military tribunals, and
substituted regular civil courts for them. The Commissioners began
by imposing on the Writers to the Signet an oath of fidelity to the
Commonwealth, and by issuing a proclamation that all legal documents
should henceforth be drawn up in English (Nicoll’s Diary, pp. 94,
96). Their justice is praised by Nicoll, who writes : ‘ To speak
treuth, the Englisches wer moir indulgent and merciful to the
Scottis, nor wes the Scottis to their awin cuntriemen and
nychtbouris, as wes too evident, and thair justice exceidit the
Scottis in mony thinges, as wes reportit. They also filled up the
roumes of justice courtes with very honest clerkis and memberis of
that judicatory (p. 104). The best account of the reforms attempted
and the changes introduced in the administration of justice at this
time and during the next few years is contained in Mr. iEneas
Mackay’s Life of the First Lord Stair (pp. 58-62). The orders of the
Commissioners for the regulation of fees and the custody of deeds
which are printed in this volume are from broadsides in Clarke’s
collection (pp. 276, 283).
Amongst the papers printed are a certain number of
letters to the Commissioners from the commander of the English army
of occupation, recommending the temporary suspension of legal
proceedings against certain persons (pp. 77, 239, 262). Politically
the severe impartiality with which the new judges enforced the law
led to one evil consequence. During the long wars the nobility and
gentry had incurred many debts, and they were now generally
insolvent. As soon as peace was restored and the new judicatories
established, their creditors began to press them hard and to put the
laws in motion against them. It was held by the English officers
that the too great rigidity with which the judges enforced the law
in this matter of debt was one of the chief causes which swelled the
ranks of the royalist rising headed by Glencairne (pp. 267, 289,
296).
The remainder of the work of the eight Commissioners
may be more briefly summarised. A Court of Admiralty for Scotland
was set up at Leith, new sheriffs were commissioned for all the
counties in Scotland, and oaths of fidelity to the Commonwealth were
imposed on the sheriffs, the magistrates of the boroughs, and other
persons in public employment (pp. 35, 39; Portland MSS., i. 629,
632;Commons Journals, vii. 106). The judges, visitors, and sheriffs
appointed by the Commissioners were to hold office till November 1,
1652, but their term was subsequently extended, by an Act of
Parliament, to May 1, 1653 (p. 135 ; Scoble, Acts and Ordinances, p.
210).
Besides organising the government by establishing
judges and other magistrates, the Commissioners were empowered to
settle the financial system of Scotland. The English troops were
generally living upon free quarter, or upon roughly levied
assessments on the districts in which they were quartered. Lambert
and Deane, in December 1651, began the work of reducing and
regulating these assessments. On February 18, 1652, the
Commissioners ordered a general assessment of 10,0001 per month to
be levied on Scotland, authorising Major-General Deane to apportion
the amounts to be levied on particular districts, and to make the
necessary abatements for localities which had suffered during the
war. But the total of the abatements made was not to excede £2000
per month. On October 26, 1652, Parliament approved the order of the
Commissioners, and continued the assessment to May 1653. On May 3,
1653, the Council of State continued the assessment till the
following November; and on November 12 of the same year, the
Barebones Parliament extended it to June 1654 (Commons Journals,
vii. 195, 350; Cal. State Papers Dorn., 1652-3, p. 303). Nominally
the total of the assessment came to £10,016 per month. In practice,
as arranged by the Commissioners of the different shires met at
Edinburgh in July 1653, the total amounted to i?8500 (p. 170). The
valuation of the respective shires was based on earlier valuations
made in 1629, 1644-5, and 1649 (p. 172.) A small quarto volume
amongst William Clarke’s collection, Number xxm. in the catalogue of
the manuscripts of Worcester College, gives the valuation of each
particular parish. The table printed here on p. 170 gives the
proportions at which the different counties of Scotland were
assessed; whilst the second table on p. 174 shows the sums levied on
the burghs included in the counties, with the abatements allowed,
and the names of the collectors. Other papers show how disputed
assessments were settled (pp. 173,180, 219).
Respites were sometimes granted, and, in the case of
Argyll, payment in kind allowed (pp. 204, 222). Two letters of
Colonel Lilburne’s are of special interest in connection with the
assessment. In one he asserts the inexpediency and almost
impossibility of raising the tax above £8500 per month. In another
he enlarges on the difficulty of collecting it, caused by
Glencairne’s rising (pp. 287, 307).
During 1652 and 1653 the commander-in-chief of the
English forces in Scotland was also the head of the financial
administration. Major-General Deane, as has been stated, was the
person specially charged with the original distribution of the
monthly assessment. He had also the responsibility of determining
the expenditure not only of that tax, but of other revenues. On 11th
November 1652, the Parliament voted that all the public revenue of
Scotland, arising by way of assessment, custom, late king’s revenue,
sequestrations, or otherwise, shall be issued forth by warrant,
under the hand of the commander-in-chief in Scotland, until the
first of May next. He was authorised to defray from these sources
the salaries of the judges and other officials, and to spend a
certain sum on fortifications; and also by way of loan upon account,
for supply of the army and forces, for the preventing free quarter,
and for carrying on other necessaries and public services in
Scotland; and the remainder to be applied for payment of the forces
in Scotland {Commons Journals, vii. 213). Lilburne, who succeeded
Deane as commander-in-chief in December 1652, and held office till
April 1654, exercised the same powers.
Of the sources of revenue enumerated in this order,
the rents due to the late king and other public revenues were
collected by the Auditor-General, John Thompson (p. J.81). The
sequestrations were under the management of three Commissioners,
sitting at Leith: Richard Saltonstall, Samuel Dis-browe, and Edmund
Syler (pp 74, 152). These sequestrated lands formed the fund from
which the services of English officers and officials were rewarded
by Parliament. Major-
General Lambert was voted lands to the value of
JP1000 a year, Lieutenant-General Monk, and Colonels Whalley,
Ingoldsby, Overton, and Pride, 500t a year a piece; Colonels Okey
and Lilburne, 3001; Mr. John Weaver, JP250; Colonel Alured, J?200.
Maj or John Cobbett, who very nearly captured Charles 11. at
Worcester, obtained =f?100 a year from the same source; and the
widow of Major Rookesby, killed at Dunbar, JP300 a year ((Commons
Journals, vii. 14, 77, 132, 191, 247, 278).
In execution of these votes, Colonel Ingoldsby was
given the manor and park of Hamilton (p. 74); whilst Whalley got the
manor and lands of Liddington, and Monk, Kineale {Portland MSS., i.
658). From the sequestrations also were derived the expenses
incurred in building the citadels at Inverness, Ayr, and other
smaller forts. There are a few references to these works amongst the
papers now printed (pp. 17, 28, 36) Clarke’s collections contain
plans of the citadels, which it is hoped to reproduce in a later
volume. Two thousand pounds a month was the amount which the
commander-in-chief was empowered to spend for this purpose. During
1652 and 1653, however, the actual sum expended on fortifications
came to between JP4000 and JP5000 per month (pp. 152, 288.)
Contingencies and accidental expenses were charged on the same fund.
On September 17, 1652, Parliament voted JP1000 from the
sequestrations for the relief of the poor at Glasgow, which had
lately been devastated by a great fire (p. 359; cf. Commons
Journals, vii. 183).
The cost of the army of occupation was only in part
defrayed by the taxation of Scotland. The greater part of it fell
upon England, and was paid by remittances from the English treasury
(p. 111). The reports made to Parliament in September 1651 and April
1652, give the total cost of the army in England and Scotland, but
are so stated that it is difficult to ascertain the cost of the
portion of the army actually stationed in Scotland {Commons
Journals, vii. 25,127). In February 1652 there were in Scotland nine
regiments of foot, seven regiments of horse, one regiment of
dragoons, and a train of artillery. In June of the same year the
regiments of foot had been raised to eleven; and by September there
were five regiments of horse instead of seven. During the first four
months of 1653, there were eleven regiments of foot, and five of
horse, besides dragoons and artillery. But in pursuance of a plan of
economy set on foot by the committee of the army in England, the
number of men in the different companies and troops had been
considerably reduced (pp. 53, 71, 80, 113-115: cf. Commons Journals,
vii. 241). Before the reductions in August 1652, the pay of the army
in Scotland had amounted to 36,000t per month, but by February 1653,
this sum had been reduced to about 29,0001. In February 1653, when
the reductions, not only in the number of regiments, but in the
numbers of the rank and file in the various regiments, had taken
effect, the strength of the army of occupation came to rather more
than 12,000 foot, and about 2200 horse. When Glencairne’s
insurrection broke out, Lilbume found the forces at his disposal
insufficient for the task of holding the country and maintaining
order. The numbers of the cavalry in particular were quite unequal
to the work before them; and his letters are full of complaints of
his deficiency in this respect. In answer to his complaints, two
regiments of horse and a regiment of foot were sent to Scotland in
January 1654 (pp. 271, 273, 275, 286, 298, 305).
The discipline maintained in the English army during
its occupation of Scotland is praised by Burnet, Nicoll, and others.
Plundering, violence, or other misconduct on the part of the
soldiers was rigidly punished (pp. 2, 15, 16, 323, 326). After the
storm of Dundee the soldiers, in accordance with the usual custom in
the case of towns taken by assault, were allowed to plunder for
twenty-four hours, but as soon as that fixed period was over all
licence was at once repressed. Monk’s proclamations on the subject
are given in the Appendix (pp. 324, 325). Amongst the proclamations
issued by Colonel Lilbume in 1653 are orders against killing rabbits
and pigeons, stealing cabbages and fruit from gardens, exacting
money from persons who had not paid their taxes, and quartering
soldiers an undue length of time in the same place (pp. 139, 142,
155, 162). Amongst William Clarke’s papers is a small quarto volume
containing reports of proceedings at courts-martial held at Dundee
from September 17, 1651, to January 10, 1652 (Worcester
College mss., No. xxi.). It records the punishment of various
soldiers for robbery, horse-stealing, and similar crimes, and also
the trials of others for immorality. Illicit relations with Scottish
women were visited with severe penalties. In January 1652 the
Governor of Leith issued a proclamation that in respect much
wickedness appeared in that garrison by the sin of uncleanness,
chiefly occasioned by Scottish and English women and maidservants
drawing and vending wine, beer, and ale, that no inhabitant of that
garrison whatsoever retain or keep any Scottish or English women or
maidservants longer than the second of February next, upon pain of
paying 20 shillings sterling per diem for every day after that they
shall so keep them {Several Proceedings in Parliament, p. 1875).
Marriages were also very frequent, and an order was issued that no
soldier of the garrison of Leith and Edinburgh should marry any
Scottish woman without the leave of the governor or some other
superior officer (p. 334). Other proclamations issued by the
governors of Leith and Edinburgh fixed the price of bread and hay,
and ordered the lighting and cleaning of the streets (pp. 344,
346-8).
The maintenance of strict discipline in the army was
not only necessary for the sake of the army itself, but an essential
condition of the success of the policy adopted by the Commonwealth.
Its general aim was to reconcile Scotland to the union by evenhanded
justice and good government. The statesmen of the Commonwealth
trusted to gain the support of the lower and the middle classes by
freeing them from the yoke of the clergy and the great Lords. ‘ Free
the poor commoners, and make as little use as can be either of the
great men or clergy,1 was the advice tendered to the English
Government in Mercurius Scoticns (p. 339). Similar advice had been
tendered to Cromwell by one of his correspondents shortly after the
battle of Dunbar. ‘ You have tried all brotherly ways to the Kirk
and state, but without success. I humbly conceave that your honour
hath not fallen upon the right way; for our best security and doing
good to that poore and crafty people their bate must be freedome and
proffitt, to which end wayes and meanes should be used to make that
people, especially the common sort, to be assured that it will be
for their freedome and proffitt to submitt to or joyne with us, and
that we will manumitt them, and mayntayn them in it, and acertayne
there estaites and tenures freer and easier than to there Lords; if
they shall not speedely come in and comply with us, they must expect
the severity of warr to an obstinate people. This to be held forth
to them in some particulars in print1 (Original Letters and Papers
of State addressed to Oliver Cromwell, edited by John Nickolls,
1743, p. 29). In the ‘Declaration of the Parliament of the
Commonwealth of England concerning the settlement of
Scotland,1 published on February 12, 1652, this policy was plainly
set forth. While the estates of those noblemen and gentlemen who had
taken part in Hamilton’s expedition in 1648, or had fought for
Charles ii. in the late war, were to be confiscated for the use of
the State, an amnesty was promised to the vassals and tenants whom
the influence of their lords had led astray. If within thirty days
they should put themselves under the protection of the Commonwealth
of England and conform to the government it set up, they ‘ shall not
only be pardoned for all acts past, but be set free from their
former dependences and bondage services; and shall be admitted as
tenants, freeholders, and heritors, to farm, hold, inherit and
enjoy, from and under this Commonwealth, proportions of the said
confiscated and forfeited lands under such easie, rents and
reasonable conditions as may enable them, their heirs and posterity,
to live with a more comfortable subsistance than formerly, and like
a free people delivered through God’s goodness from their former
slaveries, vassalage, and oppression.’ The Long Parliament was too
much occupied with other business to carry out this scheme, and it
was reserved for the legislation of the Protectorate to attempt it.
But the military administrators of Scotland during 1652 and 1653
seem to have accepted the principle on which the scheme was based,
and to have aimed at conciliating the people of Scotland as far as
the necessities of their position permitted. Apart from national
feeling, however, two causes prevented this policy of conciliation
from succeeding. The first cause was the extremely burdensome nature
of the taxation which the maintenance of so large an army in
Scotland made necessary. Even under the Protectorate, when the
development of the revenue from, the customs and excise had rendered
it possible to reduce the monthly assessment, officials of the
English Government admitted that Scotland was more heavily taxed
than England and had not gained pecuniarily by the union. The second
cause was the opposition of the Church, which kept alive amongst the
people the feeling of hostility to the government and to the union.
The policy of the English government in religious
matters had been set forth by the Commissioners of the Parliament in
a declaration published in February, 1652: 4 We declare that for
promoting of holiness and advancing the power of godliness, all
possible care shall be used for the publishing of the Gospel of
Christ in all parts of this land, and provision of maintenance made
and allowed to the faithful dispensers thereof, together with such
other encouragements as the magistrate may give, and may be expected
by them, who demean themselves peaceably and becomingly to the
government and authority by which they receive the same. . As also,
that care shall be taken for removing of scandalous persons who have
intruded into the work of the ministry, and placing others fitly
qualified with gifts for the instructing of the people in their
stead. And that such ministers whose consciences oblige them to wait
upon God in the administration of spiritual ordinances, according to
the order of the Scottish Churches, with any that shall voluntarily
join in the practice thereof, shall receive protection and
encouragement from all in authority, in their peaceable and
inoffensive exercising of the same; as also shall others who, not
being satisfied in conscience to use that form, shall serve and
worship God in other Gospel way, and behave themselves peaceably and
inoffensively therein. We shall likewise take care, as much as in us
lies, that in places of trust throughout this nation, magistrates
and officers fearing God may be set up, who, according to the duty
of their places, may be a terror to all evil-doers, and even to them
whose licentious practices (though under pretence of liberty and
conscience) shall manifest them not to walk according to godliness
and honesty.1
Before this declaration was issued, the protection
afforded by Monk and other officers to Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum
against the Presbytery of Aberdeen, and Monk’s general order against
imposing oaths and covenants, had shown the policy which the new
government intended to follow in dealing with the coercive
jurisdiction of the Church. In the ‘Epistle Liminary ’ to Sir Thomas
Urquhart’sDiscovery of a most Exquisite Jezvel, etc., he mentions a
Diurnal being brought to him which contained the relation of the
irrational proceedings of the Presbytery of Aberdeen against Sir
Alexander Irvine of Drum, together with his just appeal from their
tyrannical jurisdiction to Colonel Overton.’ The Diurnal referred to
was evidently that entitled Several Proceedings in Parliament, for
January 22-29, 165£, from which the documents reprinted in the
Appendix have now been extracted (pp. 348-354). They supplement the
papers printed in Whitelocke’s Memorials and in the Spalding
Miscellany 011 the same case.
The next important step in religious policy was the
appointment by the Commissioners of the English Parliament of nine
Commissioners for visiting and regulating the universities and
schools of Scotland, with power to remove scandalous ministers and
decide causes concerning the maintenance of the clergy. The
inaugural declaration of the Commission is dated June 4, and their
first meeting took place on June 7 (p. 43). On August 2, 1653, the
Commissioners issued a proclamation forbidding ministers to preach
or pray for Charles the Second, and several persons were arrested
for disobedience to the order (pp. 192, 222, 225). Their other
proceedings are not mentioned in these papers. Baillie’s letters,
however, contain a long account of their dealings with the
University of Glasgow.
More serious in its consequences was the prohibition
of the meetings of the General Assembly of the Church, and the
forcible dissolution on July 20, 1653, of that which had met at
Edinburgh. Colonel Lilburne seems to have acted on his own
responsibility, but his conduct was evidently approved by his
superiors in England. He was half inclined to prevent the holding of
provincial assemblies also, but hesitated to do so without definite
orders, thinking, as he wrote, that ‘ the people are not well able
to bear any more against their ministers ’ (pp. 161-3, 192). This
was the more surprising, because in July 1652 the General Assembly
had been suffered to sit and to deliberate without molestation (Nicoll, Diary,
pp. 97, 99, 110).
At the commencement of the English occupation the
English governors, viewing the dissensions which divided the Church
of Scotland, had hoped to find allies in the Remonstrants. English
officers and newspaper correspondents wrote with favour of the
ministers who opposed the proceedings of the General Assembly,
without inquiring too closely into the principles which dictated
their opposition (pp. 317, 327). But the protests of the
Remonstrants against the subordination of the Church to the State
and against the toleration of sectaries guaranteed by the English
army soon showed the groundless nature of these hopes (pp. 33, 108).
Colonel Lilbume long continued to believe that 4 the people in the
west, who have always been accounted most precise,’ would come round
and accept the new regime, and reported that they professed to
disapprove of the rising headed by Glencaime (pp. 127, 242, 271). In
the end, however, he had to confess that even the Remonstrants
shared the general antipathy of the Scots to their English
rulers. 4 Even in all these people there is a secret antipathy to
us, do what we can to oblige them, unless in some few that are
convinced, and those but a few ’ (p. 266). The attitude taken up by
Mr. Andrew Cant was typical. 4 Colonel Overton,’ says a
newsletter, 4 at his late being at Aberdeen, hearing of some
incivilities offered by some souldiers to Master Andrew Cant, went
to his house, and told him he was sorry any injury should be done
unto him, who he heard was a friend to us; to which Air. Cant
replyed in plain Scottish that he was a lying knave that told him
so, for he neither respected him nor his party ’ {Several
Proceedings in Parliament, December 18-24, 1651).
The declaration of February 12, 1651, had promised on
behalf of the Commonwealth countenance and protection to those who
preferred some 4other gospel way’ than the Presbyterian. The
propagation of Independency in Scotland was the earnest desire of
many of the English officers. It was suggested that able preachers
from England should be stationed in the great towns, 4 which might
convince the people to draw them off from the leven of their
pharisaical and rigid presbyterian teachers ’ (p. 339). The
Commissioners of the Parliament were empowered to take four
chaplains with them on their mission, and three of the persons
suggested, Mr. Caryll, Air. Oxenbridge, and Mr. Lockyer, accepted
the employment offered them {Cal. State Papers, Dorn. 1651-2, p.
28; Several Proceedings in Parliament, April 29-May 6, 1652). The
report of the Commissioners which Vane presented to the Parliament
on March 1652 asked, that 4 twelve or more ministers be speedily
sent down to reside in the several garrisons and other convenient
places in Scotland.’ Parliament referred the proposal to the Council
of State, which duly recommended it to a Committee, but no steps
were taken to carry it out (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1651-2, p.
191; Commons Journal, vii. 108; Portland MSS., i. 632). However, the
hopes of the officers in Scotland were from time to time raised by
the willingness which many Scots showed to hear the army chaplains
in private meetings, and by successful disputations between an
occasional chaplain and a Scottish minister. If but few converts
were to be made in the south, it was reported that in the north, in
Sutherland, there was ‘ a very precious people,’ and when Deane
marched into the Highlands news came from his forces that ‘ some of
the Highlanders have heard our preaching with great attention and
groanings, and seeming attention to it’ (pp. 31, 53, 364). In the
end a few Independent congregations, or ‘gathered churches,’ were
established in the Lowlands in the course of 1652 (p. 370). ‘There
are two eminent ministers in Scotland,’ said a newsletter, written
in April 1652, ‘ that were, one of them, of the Assembly, have
already joined with gathered Churches, a great change, yet more
there are that are going about the same work. This gives
satisfaction to many (other-wayes averse) that gathered Churches in
England chuse ministers for their pastors, and that Churches joyn in
a public way of fellowship. But they like by no means to hear of
such as gather Churches in private, without the approbation of other
Churches, and have no pastors ’ {Several Proceedings in
Parliament, 29th April-6th May 1652). Robert Pittilloh, in
his Hammer of Persecution, published in 1659, enumerates the names
of eight ministers who became converts to Independency about this
period, and complains that they were not sufficiently protected and
favoured by the government, and that after Cromwell became Protector
they were even actively discouraged by his policy. ‘ Before this day
there had been thousands in Scotland separated from the National
Church, who would have jeoparded their lives for the godly in
England, if they had met with that freedom and encouragement which
justly they expected when first the English came to Scotland’ (pp.
10-13). In the letters of Colonel Lilburne, written during 1653, a
similar complaint is made, and he also points out that ‘ the poor
congregated people ’ were the special prey of royalist plunderers
(pp. 123, 127, 265).
By the end of 1652 Scotland seemed to be completely
pacified. ‘ All things at present are in a strange kind of hush,’
declared a letter from Edinburgh (p. 369). The English government
felt itself able to release a number of important prisoners on
parole, and also to set at liberty the ministers taken at Alyth, or
for other reasons confined in England, pp. 9, 193, 342). But from
June 1652 the royalists had been making preparations to take up arms
once more, and in February 1653 the movements of the Highlanders
began to attract the attention of Colonel Lilburne, who had just
succeeded Major-General Deane as commander-in-chief in Scotland (pp.
79, 82, 85). During the first months of 1652 the hopes of Charles
ii. seem to have been confined to the retention of Dun-nottar and to
the safe transport of the regalia and the personal property which
the king had left in that stronghold. ‘ In this castle,’ wrote Hyde
to Nicolas, ‘ besides the crown and sceptre, there are all the
king’s rich hangings and beds, plate, and other furniture, to so
good value, that it is avowed by very good men, who are to be
believed, that if all were at Amsterdam it would yield ^20,000
sterling, and the king is pressed to send a frigate to bring all
this away, which you will easily believe he very much desires to do,
but knows not which way to compass it.’ Charles also desired to send
some provisions to the garrison of Dunnottar, in order to enable the
governor to hold out. ‘ The preservation of this place,’ explains
Hyde, ‘ being the foundation of all the hope for Scotland ; for
there is room enough within this castle to receive an army, and it
is in the very centre of the kingdom, so that as soon as the summer
is over, any little succors or great supplies of men from Norway may
be landed there, and there will be care taken to that purpose.’ 'If
you shall be able,’ promised the king to the governor, ' to defend
and keep the place till the beginning of the next winter, we make no
question but that we shall transport such supplies to you as shall
not only be sufficient to enlarge your quarters, but by the blessing
of God to free your country from the tyranny of those
rebels’ (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 56, 60, 61). The king selected
as his agent Major-General Vandruske, a Dutch soldier, who had
served some time in Scotland, and charged him not simply to relieve
Dunnottar, but to repair to the Highlands and consult with
Glengarry, Pluscardine, and other royalists {ibid. pp. 69, 72; Col.
Clarendon Papers, ii. 124). But the difficulty of raising money to
procure a ship and provide supplies prevented Vandruske from
starting, and the fall of Dunnottar put an end to the scheme.
In the summer of 1652 the King’s hopes suddenly
revived. In May 19 took place the collision between Blake and Tromp
in the Downs, followed a few weeks later by open war between England
and Holland. If the Dutch chose to aid Charles with ships and men he
might succeed in recovering Scotland. But, at all events, the war
gave an opportunity for a successful insurrection in Scotland. About
June there came a representation 4 from diverse of the most
considerable nobility,’ giving Charles an account of the condition
of Scotland, and urging him to action (p. 137)The King at once
resolved to send an agent to Scotland to take the command of the
royalists and manage the intended rising. For this purpose he
selected Middleton, who, having been taken prisoner at Worcester,
had escaped from the Tower and had joined his master at Paris.
Besides his qualifications as a soldier and the soundness of his
political views, Middleton had the advantage of being thoroughly in
the confidence of Hyde and the English royalists. 4 He is the
soberest man I have met with,’ wrote Hyde to Nicholas, 4 and very
worthy of any trust, having the greatest sense of the errors he hath
formerly committed, and the best excuses for them that I have found
from any 1 (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 56; cf. p. 53 post). On
June 25, 1652, Middleton was commissioned as Lieutenant - General of
the King in Scotland, and accredited to the Scottish nobles (p. 46).
In November Captain Smith, who had been despatched
from Glengarry and other Highland chiefs in the preceding July,
reached Paris with another appeal to the King. Charles replied by
drawing up a commission to Glengarry and five others (Dec. 30,
1652), appointing them commissioners for the government of his
forces in Scotland, and authorising them to choose a person to act
as commander-in-chief till Middleton should arrive (pp. 65-70;
cf. Cal. Clurendon Papers, ii. 158). Soon after Smith’s arrival, and
before he had left Holland for Scotland, there came two more
messengers. One, Captain Strachan, came from the Earl of Glencaime,
who offered to join the Highlanders in arms, and to raise levies of
his own to join them. The King at once instructed Glencaime to take
command of the forces raised in the Highlands till Middleton’s
coming, and gave him an absolute commission as interim
commander-in-chief (March 14, 1653). But as it was important not to
disaffect the Highlanders, Charles instructed him not to produce
this commission except in the last resort, and provided him with a
letter recommending the chiefs to elect him their commander (pp. 99,
103, 138). A little later came letters from Lord Balcarres and a
messenger named Malcolm Roger. Finally, in September 1653, arrived
Colonel Bampfield furnished with letters from Seaforth and Balcarres
urging the King to trust the bearer, and setting forth his great
services to the royalist cause in Scotland (pp. 97,
107,120,128,130,183). There were signs, however, that the religious
dissensions and personal jealousies which had been so fatal to the
royalist cause in the late war would be an equal hindrance to the
success of the intended rising. Middleton was regarded as not
Presbyterian enough to be thoroughly trusted by the Church party,
and while the King had no difficulty in composing a singularly pious
letter to the Moderator of the General Assembly, he found it
impossible to draw up a public declaration which should satisfy the
ecclesiastical party without alienating his other supporters (pp.
47, 106, 293). There was evidence of a certain jealousy between the
Highland royalists and their allies from the Lowlands. It was hinted
that Glengarry would not be commanded by Middleton in the Highlands
and a suggestion was made that the command should be divided (pp.
139, 311). Glengarry desired to be rewarded by being created Earl of
Ross, a demand which, if granted, would entail similar demands from
others, and cause some heartburnings amongst other associates who
deemed their services equally great (pp.. 309, 310, 313). The
selection of Bampfield as the agent of Glengarry and Balcarres was
extremely distasteful to the King, who thoroughly distrusted
Bampfield, and had gone so far as to send orders to Scotland for his
arrest (pp. 94, 104, 310,
312). Glencairne and Balcarres were not on good terms
with each other (p. 247). But in spite of his distrust Charles was
obliged to receive Bampfield and listen to his proposals (pp.
287-9). All he could do was to warn his friends in Scotland not to
trust Bampfield, and to urge Balcarres to co-operate cordially'with
Glencairne and Middleton. In the beginning of November he despatched
three new agents to Scotland, Colonel William Drummond to Glencairne
with special instructions to effect a reconciliation between him and
Balcarres (p. 246); Colonel Norman Macleod to the Highlanders to
induce them to accept Glencairne as their general (p. 250); and
Captain Shaw to Loudoun and Lord Lorne (p. 253). They were charged
to announce Middleton’s speedy arrival in Scotland, and to give
hopes that he would be followed by Charles himself (pp. 245, 249).
The necessity of Middleton’s immediate presence in
Scotland was evident, but many causes combined to delay his
departure. In the autumn of 1652, soon after his arrival in Holland,
he fell seriously ill (pp. 52, 60). He was charged to raise money to
procure arms and war material for the Scottish royalists, but the
King was scarcely able to send him money for his personal expenses
(p. 60). There were hopes of obtaining a loan from the Princess of
Orange, but the King’s main reliance was on gifts from Scottish
soldiers and merchants in foreign countries, or from well-disposed
foreign princes (p. 51). Negotiations for these contributions took
time and brought little into the royal exchequer. Middleton wrote to
the Count of Oldenburg (p. 54), entered into a negotiation with the
Count of Waldeck for transporting German troops to Scotland (p.
123), and applied to the States General of the United Provinces for
arms and money (pp. 157, 233). Applications were also made to Scots
in French, Swedish, or Imperial service (pp. 61,157, 233). The King
himself wrote to the Duke of Courland to engage him to further
Middleton’s appeal to Scots under his government (p. 78), and sent
Lord Wentworth to negotiate in Denmark (pp. 106, 109, 246). The Earl
of Rochester had been despatched, in December 1652, to negotiate
with the princes of Germany and the Diet at Frankfort (p. 52;
cf. Clarendon, Rebellion xiv. 55).
From these different sources Middleton laboriously
got together a small fund for his intended expedition. General
Douglas collected 5200 rixdollars in Sweden and sent them to
Charles, whilst Sir James Turner raised about the same amount in
Germany (pp. 54, 261). Rochester obtained a grant of
about £10,000 from the Diet, but it was mostly consumed by the
expenses of his mission (Clarendon Rebellion, xiv. 103). A
Veil-affected Scots in Holland gave something, and something too was
supplied by the Princess of Orange and by the province of Holland
itself (pp. 61, 105, 238).
In Scotland the movements of Glengarry and the
Highland chiefs began to excite the suspicions of the government in
February 1653. Colonel Lilbume received information of their
meetings from the Marquis of Argyll and from Sir James MacDonald of
Sleat (pp. 79, 82, 84, 85). At the end of May the Earl of Seaforth
began hostilities by seizing some English sailors who had gone
ashore at the island of Lewis (pp. 140, 148). Seaforth had opened
communications with the King in the previous month, and had been
added by him to the council which was intrusted with the control of
the movement (pp. 127, 137, 200). About the middle of June Lord
Balcarres and Sir Arthur Forbes wrote to Lilburne complaining that
the capitulation made with them in December 1651 had not been
observed, and declaring themselves released thereby from any
obligation to the English government. This was practically a
declaration of war, so far as they were concerned (pp. 146,147). An
important meeting of the royalist leaders took place at Lochaber in
the beginning of July, and Glencairne, who now assumed the
leadership, wrote to Middleton charging him to apply to the States
of the United Provinces for assistance (pp. 144,150,157,184).
According to the English newspapers the King’s standard was set up
at Killin on July 27 (p. 186). One after another royalist Lords
began to join Glencairne, and little bands of mounted men made their
way from the Lowlands to the rendezvous in the Highlands. The Earl
of Athol, who seems to have hesitated a little at first, now
announced his adhesion in a letter to Charles, and endeavoured to
rouse the gentry of Blair Athol (pp. 141, 150, 183, 193, 271). Lord
Kenmore joined with a hundred horsemen, and was henceforth one of
the most active leaders of the insurrection. He set to work to levy
supplies, to raise recruits, and to force neutrals to take up arms
for the King (pp. 186, 191-195, 205, 228, 231). The Earl of Roxburgh
and Lord Newburgh wrote to Charles to promise their support and to
protest their fidelity (pp. 190, 200 More important was the adhesion
of Lord Lome and the consequent division amongst the Campbells. The
Marquis of Argyll himself remained firm to the government. He had
informed Lilburne of the first symptom of the rising, and protested
his disapproval of it (pp. 88, 161). Sir Robert Murray, however,
assured Charles that Argyll took this course merely from motives of
self-preservation, and that if it could be done securely and
effectively he too would appear for the King’s service (p. 134).
Lord Lome, on the other hand, was ‘ invincibly constant and faithful6 to
the King, and resolved at any risk to draw his sword for his
master (ibid.). In a letter, probably written in 1649, he had
promised to serve the King even against his father, and he now kept
his word.
Madame,—I am sorry there Matie3 have so hard thoughts
of my father, who hath, and I am persuaded will be, ready at all
occasions to approve himselfe a loyall subject and a very true and
reall ser[vant] and well wisher of the King and his family, and if
ther were no other thing to speake for him I conceive that first his
declaration with the publique against the present proceedings in
England and change of government, and againe his particulare oath
given latly in Parliament against the calumnies laid upon him that
he approved of the way was taken ther, may sufficiently justifie him
in that point. Neverthelesse, that I may satisfie your La. desire
more fully, I protest to you before God I am so farre loyall to his
Matie that if I thought my father meant otherwise then he professes,
and were, as some have beene pleased to call him, ane enemie to
Monarchicall Government or the King’s Matie, I would not only differ
from him in opinion as your La. desires me, but allso quite all the
interest I have in him rather then prove disloyall to my lawfull
prince or to the goverment we have lived so happily under these many
hundreth yearss, and for any further declaration then this I hope
your La. will not expect it of me, for I am shuch a stranger to home
that these two yeares I have but seldome heard of the state of my
parents health. That which I desired was to have had the honour to
kiss his Maties hand, and indeed I will take it for a great one if
it be granted, and if otherwise, I shall no lesse then before wish
and pray for the prosperity of there Maties familie. Now, for all
the ties and obligations your La. hath beene pleased to lay upon me
long since, and at this present, I shall take some more fit occasion
then this to testifie my thankfullnes and to approve my selfe,
Madame, Your La. most humble servant, Lorne.
In April 1653 Lome wrote to Charles protesting his
inviolable fidelity (pp. 120, 254). In July he openly joined the
insurrection, in spite of his father’s curse and a letter of warning
from the chief gentlemen of his clan (pp. 165-169). Campbell of
Auchinbreck was his chief supporter amongst his kinsmen (pp. 169,
261). Campbell of Glenorchy, on the other hand, remained firm to the
policy of Argyll, and suffered considerably for his adherence to the
English government (pp. 197, 222; cf. Thurloe Papers, vi. 352). In
October Lorne and Kenmore marched into Argyll’s country and attacked
the Lowland planters in Cantire (pp. 241-3). Argyll, who protested
that his clansmen were unwilling to oppose his son, retired to
Carrick (pp. 257, 261). Colonel Lilburne was half inclined to
suspect him of ‘juggling’ in the matter, and to doubt the reality of
his protestations, (pp. 243, 244). But the material assistance which
Argyll gave to Colonel Cobbett in his expedition to the western
isles was some evidence of his sincerity (pp. 221, 275).
The commander-in-chief of the English army in
Scotland, Colonel Lilburne, had at first judged the royalist
movement of little importance. He thought Glengarry was preparing to
resist a possible attack rather than concerting a general
insurrection (p. 79). When convinced that the design extended
further than he thought, he believed that the victories of the
English fleet over the Dutch had completely discouraged the party
who were plotting against the government (pp. 122,151). In June he
reported his belief that the chief aim of the leaders of the
movement was simply to make a demonstration which would give Charles
more reputation abroad (p. 147). ‘The people,’ he wrote on July 12,
‘are more apt to be quiet than they are able to provoke them to new
troubles ’ (p. 160). By August, however, he was convinced of the
reality of the danger, and in October he was writing urgently for
reinforcements (pp. 190, 238, 265).
The measures by which Lilburne endeavoured to meet
the insurrection, and to combat the general disaffection which gave
it strength, may be summed up as follows. He began by arresting
Pluscardine, and Sir John Mackenzie, and ordering the arrest of
other Highland chiefs (pp. 83,140,148, 153). He revised an old law
requiring the chiefs of clans to give security for their peaceable
behaviour, and issued proclamations against vagrants, and against
all persons who helped or harboured the adherents of the rebellion
(pp. 149,155, 229). The dissolution of the General Assembly was
accompanied by an order that its members should leave Edinburgh
within twenty-four hours, and was intended to prevent any
correspondence between the Assembly and the Highland royalists (pp.
163-5). He recommended to his superiors in England the immediate
sequestration of the estates of the chiefs of the movement, and the
offer of rewards to any person who brought them in dead or alive
(pp. 149, 295, 303). At the same time, in order to relieve the
country of the unemployed fighting men, who might otherwise join the
royalists now in arms, he suggested that leave should be given to
well-affected persons to raise regiments for the service of foreign
princes in amity with England (pp. 227, 231, 295). In addition to
this, he advised that legal proceedings for the recovery of debts
should be moderated, or temporarily suspended, lest debtors should
be driven to take arms by desperation (pp. 267, 289, 295). Moreover,
the passing of the Act of Union, which was still under discussion,
was to be accompanied by a general Act of Oblivion for the past, and
a free pardon to all who laid down their arms and submitted.
Lilbume’s military measures were hampered by the want
of ships, of men, and of money. On the Earl of Seaforth’s
declaration for the king, Colonel Ralph Cobbett was ordered to
reduce Lewis, Mull, and the smaller western islands, and to
establish garrisons at Duart Castle, Eileandonan Castle, and
Stornoway (pp. 149, 186, 202, 221, 275). The English government
feared an attempt of the Dutch to obtain possession of Shetland,
Orkney, or Lewis, and ordered Lilburne to secure the islands by
fortifications and garrisons. This fear was by no means ungrounded,
for Glencairne and Middleton, with the full approval of the
ministers of Charles II., were seeking to win Dutch help by offers
of ports and fishing stations in any island they preferred (pp. 158,
236; cf. Clarendon State Papers, iii. 119). There was an English
fort already at Kirkwall, and Lilburne proposed to establish another
at Bressay Sound. But his difficulty was that he could not spare men
enough for strong garrisons in the islands, while weak ones were of
little use, and exposed to much danger (pp. 227, 231, 232). For the
safety and supply of such distant ports, he needed a squadron of
ships ; but he had not enough for his ordinary needs, and was quite
unable to prevent Middleton from sending supplies to the Scottish
royalists. In spite of repeated appeals, the ships he demanded never
came, no doubt because they were all employed by the necessities of
the war with the Dutch in the Channel (pp. 238, 290, 308).
As soon as the insurrection began, Lilburne found his
forces insufficient for the task of maintaining order over so large
a country, and amid such general disaffection. The most serious
weakness of his position was the deficiency in horse. Very many of
the superior officers of his five regiments of horse were in
England—of ten colonels and majors, only one was in Scotland (p.
241). From motives of economy the troops had been reduced to the
lowest possible strength ; and Lilburne asserted that there were not
in all Scotland ‘above 1200 or 1300 fighting horse ’ (p. 305). With
this small number he had to prevent plundering raids by parties of
royalists from the Highlands, to intercept the bands of horsemen who
set out from the Lowlands to join Glencairne, and to keep down the
mosstroopers, who began once more to infest the borders. His cavalry
were worn out by the constant service required from them, and until
the reinforcements which he urgently appealed for should arrive,
Lilburne’s only resource was to seize all the horses he could obtain
and mount a portion of his infantry (pp. 274, 299, 307).
So far as infantry were concerned, Lilburne’s eleven
regiments were enough to meet any force which could be brought into
the field against him, and his regiments were of excellent quality.
But he had a very large number of garrisons to maintain, and as soon
as the rising began he increased their numbers, and divided his
regiments still more by occupying different houses and castles on
the Highland frontier. These petty garrisons he held necessary, not
only to protect the well-disposed from attack, but to prevent the
ill-disposed from rising in arms (pp. 226, 240, 271). The result was
that when he wished to collect a force for service in the field, he
found himself obliged to choose between two alternatives : either he
must denude Edinburgh and the south of Scotland of troops, or else
by withdrawing his forces in the north, he must surrender that part
entirely to the enemy. Unless reinforcements arrived, he thought of
adopting the second alternative, and abandoning 4 all beyond Dundee
except Inverness1 (pp. 271, 273, 305).
In the few encounters which took place in the course
of 1653, the English had the advantage. A skirmish took place at
Aberfoyle, which was claimed by Glencaime’s partisans as a victory,
but Colonel Reade, who commanded the English, reported his loss as
only three men killed (p. 204; cf. Military Memoirs of John Gwynne,
pp. 160, 200). In December Captain Hart routed a party of a hundred
horse, under Sir Arthur Forbes, at Borthwick Brae, whilst Captain
Lisle, about the same date, beat up Lord Kinnoul’s quarters, and
took a number of prisoners (pp. 303, 305; Gwynne1 s Memoirs, pp.
218, 221). But the real difficulty was to find the enemy. Lilburne
made an attempt to pursue Lord Kenmore, and to force him to an
engagement, but it was totally unsuccessful, for he found the
ways 4impassable,1 and the places to which Kenmore
retreated 4 unaccessible (pp. 240-243, 256). As to the smaller
parties, who carried on a guerilla war in the Lowlands and on the
borders, Lilburne found it impossible to get any knowledge of their
movements, 4 they are soe subtle and cunning, and the country soe
true to them’ (pp. 270,273,287, 307). Though the royalist army was
small, and had no great success to boast of, yet, wrote Lilburne, 4 even
this small appearance of this unconsiderable enemy heightens the
spirit of the generality of people here, who have a deadly antipathy
against us ’ (p. 271). If the royalists gained any real success, he
expected that the rising would become general; 4 undoubtedly upon
the least advantage of this nature they would increase exceedingly,
and probably drive us into our garrisons, doe what we can with these
forces ’ (p. 283). Lilburne’s position was undoubtedly difficult,
and his difficulties were increased by the neglect with which his
appeals and his proposals were treated by the home government. He
complained that his letters were unanswered. The changes which
followed the expulsion of the Long Parliament in April 1653, and the
dissensions which led to the break up of the Little Parliament in
the following December, seem to have disorganised the
administration. With three different Councils of State in one year,
no continuity of policy could be expected. Lilburne lost heart, and
began to wish that some one else had the responsibility of a command
for which he felt unequal. ‘ Being jealous of my own weakness, I am
doubtful soe great affaires as are here to be managed may suffer for
the want of one more fit to wrastle with them ’ (p. 302). Hearing
that a commander-in-chief was to be sent to replace him, his only
wish was that it should be 4 such a one as may pay these people for
their knavery.’ 6 Monk’s spirit,’ he suggested, 'would doe well
amongst them,’ and before long the Protector arrived at the same
conclusion.
The papers printed in this volume are derived from
four different sources. The bulk of them are from the manuscript
collections of William Clarke, which are now in the library of
Worcester College, Oxford. William Clarke, who was born about 1623,
became in 1645 one of the assistants of John Rushworth, the
secretary to General Fairfax and the New Model Army. He accompanied
Cromwell to Scotland in 1650, and remained there as secretary to
Monk in 1651. From 1651 to 1660 he was secretary to the different
officers who succeeded each other in command of the English army in
Scotland. He accompanied Monk to England in 1660, was knighted soon
after the Restoration, was appointed Secretary at War on 28th
January 1661, and was mortally wounded in the battle with the Dutch
off Harwich on June 2, 1666. A life of Clarke is given in
the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. x. p. 448, by Mr. Gordon
Goodwin. Additional details respecting his career are contained in
the preface to the two volumes of his papers, printed by the Camden
Society in 1891-4. An account of his manuscript collections is given
in Mr. Coxe’s Catalogue of Manuscripts in the possession of Oxford
Halls and Colleges, 1852, vol. ii.
The papers from Clarke’s collection included in the
present volume are printed from copies sometimes entered into
letter-books, sometimes on loose sheets of paper. Many are derived
from draughts full of erasures, and in other cases the letters seem
to have been originally taken down in short-hand, and written out
later. It is not surprising that errors and omissions of all kinds
abound, and that mistakes about names are frequent. Most of the
papers relating to the years 1651 and 1652 have been lost. For the
years 1654 and 1655 the series is much more complete, but with the
later years of the Protectorate the number of documents again
diminishes.
To supplement the few papers relating to 1651 and
1652, and to supply the place of those missing, a few letters have
been added from the Tanner Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library. The
great collection of letters officially addressed to the Speaker of
the Long Parliament was borrowed by Dr. John Nalson about 1680 from
the office of the Clerk of the Parliament, and was never returned.
Part of it is now in the possession of the Duke of Portland, and is
calendared in the first volume of Mr. Blackburne Daniel’s report on
his manuscripts. Mr. Daniel traces the history of the collection in
his preface (Thirteenth Report of the Historical Manuscripts
Commission,, Appendix, part i.). Bishop Tanner borrowed in Nalson’s
own fashion from the papers Nalson had borrowed, and left his spoils
to the Bodleian Library. The Tanner Manuscripts in the Bodleian are
the second source drawn upon in this volume. They contain several
letters addressed by William Clarke to Speaker Lenthall during 1651
and 1652. Two of these were printed in 1842 by Mr. H. Cary in
his Memorials of the Civil War (ii. 327, 366), and are consequently
omitted here. Three letters of Clarke’s, some communications between
the Marquis of Argyll and the Commissioners of the Parliament, and
several miscellaneous documents, have been inserted.
Of many of the letters addressed to the Speaker, and
read in the House of Commons, the originals have not been preserved.
Fortunately they were often printed in the official newspapers of
the Parliament, and this third source has supplied five more letters
from Clarke to Lenthall. Some letters from Monk and other officers
have been also selected from the newspapers. To these there has been
added a few extracts from the unique copy of the Journal called Mercurius
Scoticus, which was published at Leith during the winter of 1651. It
was probably edited by William Clarke, and is amongst his books in
Worcester College Library. These previously printed letters have
been relegated to the Appendix.
To represent the royalist as well as the republican
view of events, and to furnish a more exact account of the movements
and the plans of the King’s party, a large number of papers have
been drawn from the correspondence of Clarendon in the Bodleian
Library. From the beginning of 1652, the management of the affairs
of Charles ii. was mainly in his hands, and the communications
between him and the royalist leaders in Scotland give a more exact
account of the origin and progress of the rising of 1653 than
anything hitherto published. The part played by individual royalist
leaders in that movement, and the reasons for its failure, are very
clearly explained in these letters and reports.
The Editor hopes to put together from the Clarke and
Clarendon Collections, a volume relating to the history of Scotland
during the Protectorate, which will continue and complete the
present one. He desires to express his sincere thanks to Mr. T. G.
Law and Mr. Alex. Mill for their assistance in the editing of the
present instalment of those papers. The Index is the work of Mr.
Mill.
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