The year 1649 was a momentous one in the history of early modern England. In December 1648, Parliament was rocked by the forced removal of over 100 of its MPs by the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride, the event known as ‘Pride's Purge’. Forty-five MPs were arrested while 186 MPs were prevented from taking their seats. Another eighty-six refused to attend Parliament in protest at this aggressive incident. The remaining MPs in this ‘Rump’ Parliament subsequently voted for the trial of the king, and in late January Charles I was condemned to death, with over fifty MPs (later known as ‘regicides’), signing his death warrant. On 30 January 1649, Charles I was beheaded outside Whitehall. Less than a week later, the Rump Parliament abolished both the House of Lords and the monarchy. On 13 February, a Council of State was appointed to enact the executive duties previously performed by the king, which was subject to annual elections by MPs. In March, an additional measure was passed, entitled the ‘Act for the abolishing the Kingly Office in England and Ireland, and the Dominions thereunto belonging’, which removed the rights of Charles's heirs from inheriting the crown, thus removing the people's allegiance to the exiled Stuarts.

The Rump Parliament faced a lot of obstacles. The execution of Charles I made their authority vulnerable to attacks domestically from Royalist supporters, and internationally from Stuart-sympathising nations, including Spain and the Low Countries. Partly, as a result, the Committees for Sequestrations and for Compounding, the county sequestration committees, as well as other administrative bodies were overhauled and centralised. Crucially, the Rump Parliament used its monopoly to decide which officials they wanted to run sequestration in the county communities. Alan Everitt argued that the Kent county sequestration commissioners in the 1650s were ‘little more than servants of the Committee of London’. Christopher Chalkin pointed out that the make-up of the Kent County Committee saw the dominance of the county gentry erode as many of the leading families there were Royalist sympathisers, with the minor gentry replacing them on the county committee.