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A summary of Volume XXII [Return to publications page]

The Impact of the First Civil War on Hertfordshire 1642-7 , edited with an introduction by Alan Thomson.

The last history of Hertfordshire in the Civil War period to be written was that by Alfred Kingston over 100 years ago, and that dealing with East Anglia by Clive Holmes over 30 years ago. This book is designed to fill the gap both locally and nationally in providing a range of sources that should appeal to local and national historians, military and family historians, and even those interested in the history of gentry fashion, revealed in the inventories of sequestered royalists. It will bring together documents, which have never before been published, from a number of deposited archives, around distinctive themes related to the impact of the war on a county in the southeast of England.

Following the introduction, which puts the sources in the national, local and historiographical context, the documents are divided into three sections: ‘fighting the war’, ‘paying for the war’ and ‘the impact of the war on communities and individuals’. The first section is then divided into sources relating to: the men involved, including officers, volunteers, the militia & impressed soldiers; the provision of uniforms, weapons, ammunition & supplies; the purchase, commandeering and use of horses; the committees and wartime administration; the secretariat and communications; and the fortification of Newport Pagnell, St Albans and Hertford. The second section is divided into sources relating to: the propositions, loans & contributions; assessment and local rating; the collection of rates, loans, taxes & contributions; allocation of, opposition to and repayment of monies raised; and payments to troops. The third section is divided into sources relating to: the effects on communities of free quarter; the effect on central-local relations; the effects on parishes; the effects on individuals; the victims of war; royalists and sequestration; the organization of sequestration; the effects of sequestration; the sale of sequestered and concealed goods; and the effect on sequestered clerics. Also included are a number of appendices relating to the local situation and some brief biographies of key people involved. There will be indexes of person, place and subject. The book will also be illustrated with maps, portraits and appropriate contemporary prints.

The majority of the documents in this volume are taken from papers deposited by a local sub-committee of the Committee for Taking the Accounts of the Kingdom, which had been set up to audit income and expenditure by local wartime committees in each county controlled by parliament. They include a mass of material, which has remained largely un-calendared, in a range of volumes and boxes, and are located in the National Archives in the State Papers 28 Series (TNA: PRO: SP/18). Some of the records are in booklet form while others are either bills, held together by pins or thongs, or loose individual documents and, in one case, a roll of inventories sewn together. A useful guide to these & other records for local historians was produced by Aylmer and Morrill. (G. E. Aylmer & J. S. Morrill, The Civil Wars and Interregnum, (1980).) In SP 18 they identified Volumes 1-119 as being orders and warrants by the Committee of the Army, commanders etc. (organized chronologically rather than geographically), which include a number relating to Hertfordshire, notably volumes 11 & 17. Volumes 126-139 they identified as military accounts arranged by county, volumes 129-30 including Hertfordshire material. Sources from later boxes in the SP28 150-250 plus series are also included, which provide later material relating to the First Civil War.

This volume will provide, both for the local historian and the general reader, transcripts of a selection of the original primary source manuscripts from a range of volumes and boxes in this series. In addition one document from SP23 series, relating to the charges against Sir John Boteler, has been included, as it shows the dividing line between the active and quiescent royalists. A number of relevant manuscripts from various collections held by Hertfordshire

Archives and Local Studies (HALS) have also been added. These include deposited official and family papers (HALS D/ELW/03) relating to Sir John Wittewronge, as a commander of a local volunteer regiment, & extracts from his diary and accounts (D/ELw/F18, f.17). Also from HALS are extracts from the Little Munden Account Book (HALS DP/71/52), which indicate how a local parish rated itself to pay for the costs of war, and the sequestration papers of Lord Capel and the minister of Hunsdon, Edward Jude. Also relevant letters from the Coxe Papers indicate the relationship between Colonel Alban Coxe of the St Albans Standing Committee and Silius Titus, a local militia captain, who later was to defect to the royalists. Individual documents from Quarter Sessions papers (QSR) show a number of effects of the war as do extracts from the St Albans Muniments (OFF Accession 1162).

One of the principles of selection is to provide a range of different historical voices. These involve voices from the self-important new gentleman, Sir John Wittewrong, dressing himself up in his finest to go into battle, to the wealthy merchant, former mayor of Hertford and property developer, Gabriel Barbor, chairman of the local Hertford Committees. Then there are the lesser gentry, either trying to avoid making commitments about their horses, or complaining about the range of exactions imposed upon them. There are also over-worked local officers, trying to get recompense and the alehouse-keeper solemnly listing the expenses of the committeemen’s dinners. In contrast to this are the semi-literate collectors struggling with various taxes and contributions, and the High Collector Toby Combes Esq. so concerned to get his sums right that he repeats the phrase “I say”, as if to emphasize that his arithmetic must be correct, whereas the Treasurer William Hickman, when questioned, would say no more than he had to. Also local constables reveal themselves reluctant to confirm evidence that would convict the local cleric, while the local landowner, Sir John Boteler, finds himself faced with damning evidence provided by villagers and tenants.

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