For Major Wade, Major Creed, and the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Gloucester Whitehall, 24th March 1654. GENTLEMEN,-We doubt not but you have heard before this time of the good hand of God going along with us in defeating the late rebellious Insurrection; so that, as we have certain intelligence from all parts, the Risings are everywhere suppressed and dissolved, and some hundreds of prisoners in custody, and daily more are discovered and secured. And we hope that, through the blessing of God upon our labours, an effectual course will be taken for the total disappointment of the whole Design. The readiness of the Honest People to appear hath been a great encouragement to us, and of no less discouragement to the Enemy; who, had he prevailed, would, without doubt, have made us the most miserable and harassed Nation in the world. And therefore we hold ourselves obliged to return you our hearty thanks for your zeal and forwardness in so readily appearing and contributing your assistance; wherein, although your Country and your own particular as to outward and inward happiness were concerned, yet we are fully persuaded that a more general Principle respecting the glory of God, and the good of all these Nations, hath been the motive to incite you and therefore your action goes upon the higher and more noble account. You have desired that we would consider of ways how to find money to carry-on this work. If the Business had not been allayed, we must have found out a way and means to allay that want. But otherwise indeed we make it, as we hope we ever shall, our design to ease this Nation, and not to burden it; and are tender, as we conceive yourselves have been,-of putting the good people thereof to any unnecessary charge. And therefore, as you shall have fitting opportunity, you may recommend our thankfulness to your honest willing Countrymen, as we hereby do to yourselves, for this their forwardness; and let them know That when any danger shall approach, as we shall be watchful to observe the Enemy's stirrings, we will give you timely notice thereof: and we trust those good hearts will be ready, "on" being called out by you, to appear upon all such occasions. In the mean time they may continue at their homes, blessing God for His mercy, and enjoying the fruit and comfort of this happy deliverance, and the other benefits of Peace. And I do hereby let you know that Letters are directed to the Justices of Peace of several Counties,1 That Watches be kept, such as the Law hath appointed for taking a strict account of all strangers, especially near the Coast. Which will not only be a means to suppress all loose and idle persons, but may probably cause some of those that come from abroad "in order" to kindle fires here, to be apprehended and seized,-especially if care be taken to secure all them that cannot give a good account; and may also break all dangerous meetings and assemblings together. And indeed if what by Law ought to be done were done with diligence in this respect, the continuance of such dangerous Designs as these would be frustrated in the birth, or kept from growing to maturity. Having said this,-with remembrance of my hearty love to you, I rest, your very affectionate friend, OLIVER P.* Of the same date, the same Letter (with insignificant variations), bearing the address, For Colonel Humphrey Brewster and the rest of the Commissioners for the Militia for the County of Suffolk, and dated as well as signed in Oliver's hand, is now in the possession of Charles Meadows, Esq., Great Bealings, Woodbridge, a kinsman or representative of this Humphrey Brewster. The one considerable variation is as follows. Paragraph second, of the Copy given here, and the first two sentences of paragraph third, are suppressed in Brewster's Copy, and there stands instead,—after 'Design': 'And now forasmuch as it hath pleased God thus to allay this Business; and making it, as we hope we soon (sic) shall, our design to ease this Nation': etc.-after and before which the two Copies almost exactly correspond. (Ms. penes me.) By the City Records just cited from, it appears that, on the eve of the Battle of Worcester, in 1651, 'Eighteen Gloucester Bakers had sent to Tewkesbury for the Lord General Cromwell's Army, Thirteen-hundred and odd Dozens of Bread at a Shilling the dozen, amounting to £66, 5s.; and that the Mayor and others, on the 1st September 1651, sent Forty 1 Foregoing Letter, To Wilde, for one. Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis (Gloucester, 1825;-see antea, vol. i. p. 165), p. 412;-from the ty Records of Gloucester. barrels of strong Beer to the Lord General, "praying your favourable acceptance thereof, as an argument of the good affection of this Corporation, who doth congratulate your seasonable coming into these parts, for the relief thereof against the violence of the common Enemy, and wish prosperous success to you and your Army."' Furthermore, that on the 11th October 1651, directly after the said Battle, Gloucester did itself the honour of appointing the Lord General Oliver Cromwell, 'in consideration of the singular favour and benevolence which his Excellency hath manifested to us and to this City,' High Steward of the same, 'with an annual rent of 100 shillings, issuing out of our Manors' ;-for at least one payment of which there exists the Lord General's receipt, in this form : 23 Novemb 1652 Recd of the Maior and Burgs of GloucTM by the hands` of Mr. Dorney Townclerke of the said City, the O. CROMWELL.* 7. The following brief Note to the Poet Waller, which has latterly turned up, has a certain peculiar interest, on two grounds: first, to all readers, as offering some momentary glimpse, momentary but unique and indisputable, of Oliver's feeling on reading the Poet's noble 'Panegyric to my Lord Protector'; and secondly, to antiquarian people, as fixing what was hitherto left vague, the approximate date of that celebrated Piece. 2 To an audacious guesser it might almost seem, these Verses had reached Oliver, by messenger, a day or two before; and the unhappy mistake' were Oliver's, in sending, on the morrow, to have an interview with Waller, and finding him to be at Northampton instead!— For my very loving Friend Edmund Waller, Esq., Northampton: Haste, haste "Whitehall," 13th June 1655. SIR,-Let it not trouble you that, by so unhappy a mistake, you are, as I hear, at Northampton. Indeed I am passionately affected with it. 1 Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, p. 406. * Ibid. p, 411. 2 Fenton, Works of Edmund Waller (London 1730), gives the Panegyric (pp. 113-121): and (ib. p. cix.) his Note upon it, in which all he can say as to date is, 'about the year 1654.' 3 Copy has 'Edward' as yet. I have no guilt upon me unless it be to be revenged for your so willingly mistaking me in your Verses. This action "of mine" will put you to redeem me from yourself, as you have already from the world. Ashamed, I am, your friend and servant, OLIVER P.* 8 and 9. Two poor American scraps, which our New-England friends ought to make more lucent for us; worth their paper and ink in this place. To Our trusty and well-beloved the President, Assistants and Inhabitants of Rhode Island, together with the rest of the Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay in New England "Whitehall," 29th March 1655. GENTLEMEN,-Your Agent here hath presented unto us some particulars concerning your Government, which you judge necessary to be settled by us here. But by reason of the other great and weighty affairs of this Commonwealth, we have been necessitated to defer the consideration of them to a farther opportunity. In the mean while we were willing to let you know, That you are to proceed in your Government according to the tenor of your Charter formerly granted on that behalf; taking care of the peace and safety of these Plantations, that neither through any intestine commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise any detriment or dishonour to this Commonwealth or yourselves, as far as you by your care and diligence can prevent. And as for the things which are before us, they shall, as soon as the other occasions will permit, receive a just and fitting determination. And so we bid you farewell; and rest, your very loving friend, OLIVER P.† Towards the end of the Dutch War, during that undefinable relation with France, 'hostile rather than neutral,' which did not end in Treaty till October 1655,2 Oliver's Major Sedgwick, whom we have since known 1 Fenton's Waller, pp. 113 and cix. * In the Waller Archives, Beaconsfield; copied by a 'Rev. L. B. Larking,' Cousin of the now Waller;-printed in Notes-and-Queries Newspaper, 2d Jan. 1858. (Note, of 1869.) ✦ Original in the Rhode-Island Archives: Printed in Hutchinson's Collection, and elsewhere. 2 Thurloe, iv. 75. in Jamaica, had laid hold of certain 'French Forts,' and indeed of a whole French region, the region now called Nova Scotia, then called Acadie; of which Forts and of the region they command, it is Oliver's purpose, for the behoof of his New-Englanders, to retain possession1;-as the following small document will testify: To Captain John Leverett, Commander of the Forts lately taken from the French in America We have received an account from Major Sedgwick of his taking several Forts from the French in America, and that he hath left you to command and secure them for Us and this Commonwealth And although We make no doubt of your fidelity and diligence in performance of your trust, yet We have thought it necessary to let you know of how great consequence it is, that you use your utmost care and circumspection, as well to defend and keep the Forts abovesaid, as also to improve the regaining of them into Our hands to the advantage of Us and this State, by such ways and means as you shall judge conducible thereunto. And as We shall understand from you the state and condition of those places, We shall from time to time give such directions as shall be necessary. Given at Whitehall, this 3d of April 1655. OLIVER P.* To which there are now, from this side of the Water, the following small Excerpts to be added: Grant of Privy Seal: 6th June 1655, to Major Robert Sedgwick, £1,793. 78. 8d., in full of his Account for service done against the French.' And Ditto, 28th July 1656, to Captain John Leverett, £4,482. 3s. 11 d., in full satisfaction of all sums of money due to him upon Account of his 1 In Bancroft's History of the United States (Boston, 1837), i. 445, is some faint and not very exact notice of the affair. * Original in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society: Printed in their Third Series, vii. 121.——In vol. ii. of the same Work (Boston, 1820), pp. 323-364, is an elaborate Notice of certain fragmentary мs. Records of the Long Parliament still extant at New York,which Notice ought to be cancelled in subsequent editions! The amazingly curious 'Records' at New York turn-out to be nothing but some odd volumes of the Commons Journals of that period; the entire Set of which, often enough copied in manuscript, was printed here about fifty years ago, and is very common indeed, in the Buttershops and elsewhere! |