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Dating Civil War Pamphlets, 1641–1644*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Stephen J. Greenberg
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Extract

The English Civil War and Interregnum produced an astounding number of political tracts, pamphlets, and broadsides that have long fascinated historians and bibliographers. The lack of any effective control over pamphlet content after the elimination of the Court of Star Chamber in the summer of 1641, coupled with the use of printed propaganda by both the king and Parliament, combined to create a body of free-speaking literature that is unmatched in scope and daring. Extensive microfilming and cataloguing projects have made the pamphlets widely accessible to study, but have failed to answer basic questions about the nature of the pamphlets themselves. Fbr example, how soon after an event could a pamphlet be available? How many pamphlets were actually being printed (and when) as opposed to what was being entered in the registers of the Stationers' Company of London? In other words, what could a concerned citizen find for sale at the bookstalls on a given morning?

It is probably impossible to answer these questions for more than a fraction of the pamphlets. Yet, by examining what records do remain, it is possible to gain at least a sense of what the pamphleteers were capable of in serving a public avid for news.

Type
Research Article
Information
Albion , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , Fall 1988 , pp. 387 - 401
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1988

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 13th Annual Meeting of the Western Conference on British Studies, meeting jointly with the North American Conference on British Studies in Denver, in October 1986. My thanks to the members of that panel, the audience, and also to Professors Caroline Hibbard, David Cressy, F. J. Levy, and Dr. Mervyn Jannetta for their suggestions concerning this project. Errors, of course, remain my own.

References

1 Unless otherwise noted, all dates are Old Style, but with the new year starting on 1 January. Pamphlets titles retain their original spelling and punctuation, but quotations have been modernized where this does not affect the sense of the passage. Catalogue numbers from Donald Wing's Short Title Catalogue … 1641–1700 (designated as “Wing”) and from G. K. Fortescue's Catalogue of the Pamphlets … Collected by George Thomason (designated as “TT”) are provided where available.

2 University Microfilms International has produced a complete edition of the collection on 256 reels of microfilm, along with cross-indexes to the Wing catalogue.

3 Fortescue, G. K., ed. Catalogue of the Pamphlets … Collected by George Thomason, 2 vols. (London, 1908: facs. ed. Nedeln, Liechtenstein, 1969), pp. iii–xxvGoogle Scholar. See also Spencer, Lois, “The Professional and Literary connexions of George Thomason,” in The Library, series 5, vol. 13, # 2 (June, 1958), pp. 102–118Google Scholar.

4 Thomason's entries are often inconsistent as well. At first, he was rather sloppy about dates, often omitting anything beyond month and year. He grew more careful later on, but there are many oddities. For example, he seems to have been much more methodical about dating small quartos (which make up the bulk of his collection) than octavos.

5 Blagden, Cyprian, The Stationers' Company (Cambridge, Mass.; 1960), pp. 117-125, 130–131Google Scholar.

6 Ibid., pp. 153–175.

7 These figures, and the figures in the first graph, are based upon counts taken from the Fortescue catalogue; Thomason's manuscript dating for these months is far too sketchy for use.

8 I have not been able to explain this phenomenon, but I expect that it is a function of the radically different indexing and counting techniques used by Fortescue.

9 An Order of the Lords and Commons … For the Regulating of Printing (London, 1643)Google Scholar, Wing E1711; TTE106(15), p. 1.

10 Civil War newsbooks are complex in themselves, raising issues that cannot be addressed here. The best recent discussion is Nelson, C. & Seccombe, M., Periodical Publications 1641–1700: A Survey with Illustrations, Occasional Papers of the Bibliographical Society, no. 2 (London, 1986)Google Scholar.

11 Wedgwood, C. V., The King's War (London, 1958), 55–62Google Scholar.

12 Greenberg, S. J., “Cavalier: Propaganda Stereotypes in Seventeenth-Century England,” (Ph.D. diss., Fordham University, 1983), pp. 112–144Google Scholar.

13 Wedgwood, pp. 256–257, 274–277.

14 There were also some “ghosts”: items believed to have been printed, but of which no copy is known to exist. Again, actual numbers are small: twenty-nine over the three years. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, there are a relatively large numbers of ghosts and unidentifiable items (thirty-six) registered in the three months preceding the abolition of Star Chamber. Clearly, some people were hedging their bets about the future of the Stationers.

15 See, for example, The Vindication of Sir James Ramsey (London, 1642), Wing R223Google Scholar; TT 669f6(88), a broadside that Thomason received on 9 November.

16 Norwood, Thomas, A Copy of a Letter … from Banbury (London, 1642), Wing N1385Google Scholar; TT E124(12). The letter was addressed to the Lord Mayor of London, who would have been the staunch Puritan, Isaac Pennington.

17 See Hyde, Edward, Earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion.…, 6 vols., ed. Macray, W. D. (Oxford, 1888), bk. vi, §82-83Google Scholar. Cf. Wedgwood, p. 136, and Peter Young & Holmes, Richard, The English Civil War: A Military History of the Three Civil Wars (London, 1974), pp. 72–80 for modern accounts of the battleGoogle Scholar.

18 Plomer, H. R., et al., Dictionaries of the Printers and Booksellers Who Were at Work … 1557–1775, Compact edition (Ilkley, Yorkshire, 1977), 2:16.Google Scholar

19 A True Copy of a Letter (London, 1642), Wing T262Google Scholar; TT E124(8), p. 4.

20 Plomer, 2:139.

21 A Letter from a Worthy Divine (London, 1642), Wing L1597Google Scholar; TT E124(21) which was also directed to the Lord Mayor, and An Exact and True Relation of the fight near Kyneton (London, 1642)Google Scholar, Wing E3617; TT E124(26). Four other editions of the latter exist, but they were not collected by Thomason and therefore cannot be precisely dated.

22 An Exact and True Relation, p. 3.

23 Three Speeches made by the King … immediately before the late Batell (London [?], 1642), Wing C2825Google Scholar; TT E200(67).

24 Greenberg, p. 142.

25 Prayer of Thanksgiving for His Majesties late Victory over the Rebells (Oxford, 1642), Wing P3193Google Scholar; TT 669f5(92). See also Madan, Falconer, Oxford Books, 3 vols., (Oxford, 1895–1931), 2:173–174Google Scholar.

26 His Majesties Declaration … After his late Victory (London, 1642), Wing C2223Google Scholar; TT E242(8), title page.

21 His Majesties declaration … after his late Victory (Oxford, 1642), Wing C2222Google Scholar. See Madan, 2:176.

28 See Madan, 2:xii for his idiosyncratic dating methods.

29 His Majesties declaration … After his late Victory (Oxford [London], 1642), Wing C2224Google Scholar.

30 A Declaration of Parliament, in Answer to His Majesties Declaration (London, 1642), Wing E1442Google Scholar; TT E244(23), p. 3.

31 A True Relation of the Late Fight (London, 1642), Wing T2980Google Scholar; TT E54(7).

32 The titles and dates are: T. M., A Particular List of Officers taken … (London, 9 July 1644), Wing M84Google Scholar; TT E54(8): W. H., A Relation of the successe … on Hesham-moore (Cambridge, 10 July 1644), Wing H161Google Scholar; TT E54(11): Stewart, William, A Full Relation of the late Victory (London, 11 July 1644), Wing S5530Google Scholar; TT E54( 19): and Watson, Lion & Grifen, Robert, A more exact Relation of the late Batell (London, 17 July 1644), Wing W1082Google Scholar; TT E2(14). Little information can be gleaned about the Cambridge attribution of W. H.'s pamphlet. The printer is identified only by his initials, W. F., and there is no printed place of origin; Thomason wrote “Cambridge” both on his copy of the pamphlet itself and in his list.

33 Young & Holmes, p. 193; Wedgwood, p. 333.

34 J. W., A Sermon preached … after the Batell. … (London, 1642), Wing W2049Google Scholar; TT E10(34): Henderson, Alexander, A Sermon preached before the Lords and Commons (London, 1642), Wing HI441Google Scholar; TT E3(2): and Vines, Richard, Magnolia Dei ab Aquilone: a sermon … (London, 1642), Wing V559Google Scholar; TT E3(1).

35 Greenberg, S. J., “‘The Bloudy Prince’: Rupert and the Pamphleteers, 1640-1660.” Paper presented at 16th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast chapter of the North American Conference on British Studies, San Luis Obispo, California, March 1985Google Scholar.

36 Ruperts Sumpter and Private Cabinet rifled (London, 1644), Wing R2311Google Scholar; TT E2(24).

37 The Kings Cabinet open'd (London, 1645), Wing K591Google Scholar; TT E292(27).

38 A Dog's Elegy; or, Rupert's Tears…. (London, 1644), Wing D1830Google Scholar; TT E2(24).

39 See, for example, T. B., Observations upon Prince Ruperts White Dogge, called Boye (n.p., 1643), Wing B195Google Scholar; TT E245(33): and The Parliaments Unspotted-Bitch (London, 1643), Wing P526Google Scholar; TT E92(13).

40 In the best of all possible scholarly worlds, a new catalogue of the Thomason Tracts, arranged solely according to acquisition date, would be complied to replace the fbrtescue catalogue. But this would be a massive and complex project, for all the reasons mentioned above, and it is well beyond the resources of a single independent researcher to attempt. I have therefore had no choice but to satisfy myself with a sounding from what I feel to be the most important period for the history of Civil War pamphlets.