¹ John Kenyon has written extensively on the efforts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to find an explanation for the Glorious Revolution that would satisfy political and constitutional needs. This uncertainty undermines what became the so-called Whig interpretation. See, e.g., Kenyon, J. P., “The Revolution of 1688: Resistance and Contract,” in Historical Perspectives: Studies in English Thought and Society, ed. McKendrick, Neil (London, 1974), pp. 43–69Google Scholar. and Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar.

² Macauluy, Thomas, The History of England from the Accession of James II, 6 vols., ed. Firth, C. H. (London, 1913–1915), 3:1308–10Google Scholar.

³ Somers, MS in Miscellaneous State Papers from 1501 to 1726, ed. Yorke, Philip, earl of Hardwicke, 2 vols. (London, 1778), 2:415Google Scholar; “Grey's debates,” in A Parliamentary History of the Glorious Revolution, ed. Jones, David Lewis (London, 1988), pp. 125–33Google Scholar. Gilbert Burnet wrote that members “thought necessary to frame this instrument [a declaration of rights] so, that it should be like a new Magna Charta.” See Burnet, Gilbert, History of His Own Time, with Notes by the Earls of Dartmouth and Hardwicke, Speaker Onslow, and Dean Swift, 2d ed. enlarged, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1833), 3:399–400Google Scholar.

⁴ See “The Declaration of Rights,” February 12, 1688/9. It is reprinted in many collections of documents and in Schwoerer, Lois G., The Declaration of Rights, 1689 (Baltimore, 1981), app. 1Google Scholar.

⁵ Western, J. R., Monarchy and Revolution: The English State in the 1680s (London, 1972), pp. 330–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶ Jones, J. R., Country and Court: England, 1658–1714 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), pp. 254–55Google Scholar.

⁷ Carter, Jennifer, “The Revolution and the Constitution,” in Britain after the Glorious Revolution, ed. Homes, Geoffrey (London, 1969), p. 43Google Scholar.

⁸ Schwoerer, Declaration of Rights.

⁹ Ibid., pp. 100, 283–84.

¹⁰ Miller, John, The Glorious Revolution (London, 1983), pp. 322–23Google Scholar; Nenner, Howard, “Constitutional Uncertainty and the Declaration of Rights,” in After the Reformation: Essays in Honor of J. H. Hexter, ed. Malament, Barbara (Philadelphia, 1980), pp. 304–5Google Scholar.

¹¹ Nenner, , “Constitutional Uncertainty and the Declaration of Rights,” p. 306Google Scholar.

¹² Stuart Prall, review of The Declaration of Rights, 1689, by Schwoerer, Lois G., American Historical Review 88 (February 1983): 109Google Scholar; Prall, Stuart, The Bloodless Revolution: England, 1688 (Madison, Wis., 1985), p. 281Google Scholar.

¹³ Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights, p. 100Google Scholar.

¹⁴ The requirement to raise a “hue and cry” dates from at least the thirteenth century. A writ of 1252 explained that on the raising of the cry neighbours were to turn out with weapons they were bound to keep. See Frederick Pollock and Frederic Maitland, The History of English Law, 2 vols., 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1968), 2:578–79Google Scholar. The quotation from Richard Burn's popular eighteenth-century guidebook for justices illustrates the longevity of this requirement. See Burn, Richard, The Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer, 2 vols. (London, 1755), 2:17–20Google Scholar.

¹⁵ The Statute of Winchester (1285) made a hundred liable for robberies committed within its borders in case the robbers were not apprehended. Statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. 1, and see Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1:558Google Scholar. During a debate in the House of Commons in 1667 on a bill for preventing thefts and robberies, an attempt was made to end the practice of charging a locality for thefts committed within it. It was argued that when that law was made “men had not the use of fire-arms, nothing but clubs and pitchforks: and the thieves might have been stopped.” See Grey, Anchitel, Debates in the House of Commons from the Year 1667 to the Year 1694, 10 vols. (London, 1763), 1:109Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Assizes of Arms, Hen. 2 (1181); Statute of Winchester, 13 Edw. 1, c. 1 (1285); 4 & 5 Phil, and Mary, c. 3 (1557). See Maitland, F. W., The Constitutional History of England (Cambridge, 1968: 1st ed. 1908), pp. 276–77Google Scholar; Burn, , Justice of the Peace, pp. 16–20Google Scholar.

¹⁷ A requirement for householders to stand watch can be traced back to an ordinance of 1233. The system was consolidated in the Statute of Winchester (1285). See Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1:565–66Google Scholar. For evidence of its enforcement beyond the seventeenth century, see Burn, , Justice of the Peace, 2:512Google Scholar.

¹⁸ A series of statutes culminating in the Statute of Winchester (1285) even spelled out the arms each household was required to keep. Maitland writes. “Every man is bound to have arms suitable to his degree, down to the man who need but have bow and arrows.” See Maitland, , Constitutional History of England, pp. 162, 276–77Google Scholar, and see Pollock, and Maitland, , History of English Law, 1:255–56, 421Google Scholar, and 421. n. 4. Two useful books on the militia of early modern England are Boynton, Lindsey, The Elizabethan Militia, 1558–1638 (London, 1967)Google Scholar. and Western, J. R., The English Militia in the Eighteenth Century: A Story of a Political Issue, 1660–1802 (London, 1965)Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Eighteenth-Century Militia).

¹⁹ Although the clergy contributed to the militia, they were not expected to fight, and after the Reformation, Catholics were in a similar position. Unlike their fellow subjects. Catholics were not allowed to keep their militia weapons at home.

²⁰ See. e.g., 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary. c. 3 (1557): Firth, C. H. and Rait, R. S., eds., Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660, 3 vols. (London, 1911)Google Scholar: “An Act for Setling the Militia of the Commonwealth of England” (London, 1650)Google Scholar.

²¹ 3 Hen. 8. c. 3. And see Sharp, Granville, Tracts, Concerning the Antient and Only True Legal Means of National Defence, by a Free Militia (London, 1782), p. 12Google Scholar; Cruickshank, C. G., Elizabeth's Army, 2d ed. (Oxford, 1966), pp. 103–4Google Scholar.

²² See 33 Hen. 8, c. 9 which reads in part “that butts be made … in every city, town, and place, according to the law of ancient time used, and that the said inhabitants, and dwellers in every of them, be compelled to make and continue such butts, upon pain to forfeit, for every 3 months so lacking, 20s. And that the said inhabitants shall exercise themselves with long-bows in shooting at the same, and elsewhere, in holy days and other times convenient.”

²³ For a detailed account of the English hostility to standing armies, see Schwoerer, Lois G.. “No Standing Armies!” The Antiarmy Ideology in Seventeenth-Century England (Baltimore, 1974)Google Scholar. Game acts that set an income requirement on hunting, for example, had as one motive the desire to keep weapons out of the hands of the lower classes. See Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England, 4 vols., 1st ed. (London, 1765–1769). 2:411–12Google Scholar. And see Holdsworth, William S., A History of English Law, 7 vols. (Boston, 1924), 4:505Google Scholar.

²⁴ See, e.g., Sharp, Buchanan, In Contempt of All Authority: Rural Artisans and Riot in the West of England, 1586–1660 (London, 1980), pp. 120–23Google Scholar; Malcolm, Joyce L., Caesar's Due: Loyalty and King Charles, 1642–1646 (London, 1983), p. 14Google Scholar; Hirst, Derek, Authority and Conflict: England, 1603–1658 (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), p. 46Google Scholar.

²⁵ See, e.g., Wake, Joan, ed., A Copy of Papers Relating to Musters, Beacons, Subsidies, &c. in … Northampton, A.D. 1586–1623, Northampton Record Society, vol. 3 (Peterborough, 1926), p. 6Google Scholar; Wake, Joan, ed., The Montagu Musters Books, 1602–1623, Northampton Record Society, vol. 7 (Peterborough, 1935), pp. xliii, xlvGoogle Scholar; Rye, Walter, ed., State Papers Relating to Musters, Beacons … 1626 to Civil War, Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society (Norwich, 1907), pp. viii–ixGoogle Scholar.

²⁶ On November II, 1640, Charles 1 issued a proclamation for disarming “popish recusants.” See Larkin, James F., ed., Stuart Royal Proclamations, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1983), 2:736–37Google Scholar. The Catholics affected by this proclamation were, however, permitted weapons “for the necessary defence of their houses and persons.”

²⁷ 33 Hen. 8, c.6 (1541).

²⁸ Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights (n. 4 above), p. 77Google Scholar. The ancient Statute of Northampton, 2 Edw. 3, c. 3 (1328), banned carrying weapons in certain places and appeared to allow riding armed “in no place elsewhere.” This broader reading was not enforced in the seventeenth century. See. n. 41 below.

²⁹ Ibid., pp. 77–78.

³⁰ Blackstone, , Commentaries, 2:412Google Scholar.

³¹ Ibid.

³² For a discussion of this issue, see Schwoerer, , “No Standing Armies!” (n. 23 above), chap. 3, pp. 33–50Google Scholar.

³³ Forster, John, The Debates on the Remonstrance, November and December, 1641 (London, 1861), p. 232nGoogle Scholar.

³⁴ See Ibid.; Hyde, Edward, earl of Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, ed. Macray, W. Dunn, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1888), 1:376–77Google Scholar.

³⁵ Gardiner, S. R. ed., The Constitutional Documents of the Puritan Revolution, 1625–1660, 3d ed. rev. (London, 1968), art. 24, p. 211Google Scholar.

³⁶ “An Act for the free making saltpetre and gunpowder within the kingdom,” August 1641, 16 Car. 1, c. 21.

³⁷ Malcolm, , Caesar's Due: Loyally and King Charles, 1642–1646 (n. 24 above), pp. 44–45Google Scholar.

³⁸ See e.g., Ibid., pp. 84–85.

³⁹ Hyde, Edward, The Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1827), 2:117Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ For further information about the manner of disbanding and disarming the republican army, see Malcolm, Joyce L., “Charles II and the Reconstruction of Royal Power,” Historical Journal 35, no. 2 (1992): 315–16Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Blackstone, , Commentaries (n. 23 above). 1:260–61Google Scholar.

⁴² The Statute of Northampton, “No Man shall come before the Justices or go or ride armed.” 2 Edw. 3. c. 3 (1328). This statute was passed during a period of great disorder.

⁴³ “A Proclamation For Suppressing of disorderly and unseasonable Meetings, in Taverns and Tipling Houses. And also forbidding Footmen to wear Swords, or other Weapons, within London. Westminster, and their Liberties.” September 29, 1660, British Library (BL). BM 669, fol. 26 (13).

⁴⁴ “A Proclamation commanding all cashiered Soldiers and other Persons that cannot give a good account of their being here to depart out of the Cities of London and Westminster,” December 17, 1660, BL. BM 669, fol. 26 (37).

⁴⁵ See BL. BM 1851. ch. 8 (133), (134). (135).

⁴⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁷ This proclamation was issued on June 22, 1662.

⁴⁸ There is no record of a proclamation for 1663, but on November 18, 1664, June 28, 1665. and June 10, 1670, the proclamation was reissued. See Steele, R., Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, 1485–1714, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1910), vol. 2Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ For details about Charles II's creation and extensive use of volunteer militia, see Malcolm, , “Charles II and the Reconstruction of Royal Power,” pp. 312–15, 327–28Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ See Public Record Office (PRO), Privy Council Register, P.C. 2, vol. 55, fol. 71 (December 1660)Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵² See Ibid., fol. 187 (September 4, 1661).

⁵³ Ibid., fol. 189 (March 29, 1661).

⁵⁴ Cobbett, William, ed., The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, 36 vols. (London, 1808–1820), 4:145Google Scholar. And see Dyer, Edward, “Politics and Ideology in the English Revolution, 1641–1663” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1979), p. 371Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers Domestic (CSPD), 1660–61, p. 12, John Mordaunt to Edward Hyde, May 4, 1660.

⁵⁵ The Northamptonshire militia had been ordered to disarm all persons “notoriously knowne to be of ill principles or [who] have lately … by words or actions shewn any disaffection to his Majestie or his Government, or in any kind disturbed the publique peace.” See “Earl of Westmorland Letter Book, 1660–1665,” BL, Add. MS 34, 222, fol. 15.

⁵⁶ 13 Car. 2, c. 6.

⁵⁷ 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 3 (1662).

⁵⁸ Thompson, Mark, A Constitutional History of England, 1642–1801 (London, 1938), p. 160Google Scholar. And see Tanner, Joseph R., English Constitutional Conflicts of the Seventeenth Century, 1603–1689 (Cambridge, 1928), p. 224Google Scholar; Western, , Eighteenth-Century Militia (n. 18 above), p. 16Google Scholar; Fletcher, Anthony, Reform in the Provinces: The Government of Stuart England (New Haven, Conn., 1986), esp. p. 321Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Western, , Eighteenth-Century Militia, p. 16Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Fletcher, , Reform in the Provinces, p. 321Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Smith, A. Hassell, “Militia Rates and Militia Statutes, 1558–1663,” in The English Commonwealth: 1547–1640, ed. Clark, Peteret al. (Leicester, 1979), p. 110Google Scholar.

⁶² Commons Journals (CJ), 9:181Google Scholar.

⁶³ The large number of members named to the committee may have been because the house was “thin” and it was important to ensure a reasonable number in attendance at the committee. A newsletter dated March 21, 1671. reported only thirty-eight members of the Commons attended the session that afternoon. See BL, Add. MS. 36, 916, fol. 215; CJ, 9:219–37.

⁶⁴ 22 & 23 Car. 2. c. 25 (1671). The Game Act of 1609, in effect until the act of 1671, provided that those who had personal property of £400 were entitled to hunt.

⁶⁵ 22 & 23 Car. 2. c. 25 (1671).

⁶⁶ Chitty, J., Observations of the Game Laws, with Proposed Alterations for the Protection and Increase of Game, and the Decrease of Crime (London, 1816), p. 180Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ For a more detailed discussion of the subject, see my forthcoming book, Arms for Their Defence: The Origins of an Anglo-American Right, chap. 4.

⁶⁸ Trevelyan, G. M., English Social History (New York, 1965; 1st ed., 1942). p. 279Google Scholar. While Trevelyan and others refer to the “game acts” of the Restoration, in fact only the act of 1671 made any real alteration.

⁶⁹ Munsche, P. B., Gentlemen and Poachers: The English Game Laws, 1671–1831 (Cambridge, 1981), p. 19Google Scholar. Also see pp. 16–19.

⁷⁰ This can be seen by examining cases surveyed in LeHardy, William, Hertfordshire Sessions Books (Hertford, 1930), vol. 6Google Scholar; Jeaffreson, John Cordy and LeHardy, William, Middlesex Sessions Rolls (London, 1892), vol. 4Google Scholar; Copnall, H. H., ed., Nottinghamshire County Records, Notes and Extracts … of the Seventeenth Century (Nottingham, 1915)Google Scholar; Peyton, S. A., ed., Minutes of the Proceedings in Quarter Sessions held for the Parts of Kesteven in the County of Lincoln, 1674–1695, 2 vols., Lincoln Record Society Publication, 25–26 (Lincoln, 1931)Google Scholar. P. B. Munsche also found that after passage of the Game Act of 1671 the statute of 33 Hen. 8 continued to be used against those charged with unlawful possession of a gun. The gun in these instances must have been a handgun. See Munsche, , Gentlemen and Poachers, p. 214, n. 45Google Scholar.

⁷¹ Munsche, P. B., “The Game Laws in Wiltshire, 1750–1800,” in Crime in England, 1550–1800, ed. Cockburn, J. S. (Cambridge, 1977), p. 218Google Scholar; Hay, Douglas, “Poaching and the Game Laws on Cannock Chase,” in Albion's Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England, ed. Hay, D. (London, 1975), p. 200Google Scholar.

⁷² See Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC), Fourteenth Report, pt. 9, pp. 484–85. Onslow MSS. See Glassey, Lionel K. J., Politics and the Appointment of Justices of the Peace, 1675–1720 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 42–57Google Scholar. And see Ogg, David, England in the Reign of Charles II, 2d ed. (Oxford, 1972), pp. 623–24Google Scholar; Miller, John, The Glorious Revolution (n. 10 above), p. 3Google Scholar; Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights (n. 4 above), p. 76Google Scholar.

⁷³ See, e.g., CSPD, 1685, pp. 103, 145, 191, 312, 316, 390, 398, 401–2, 417.

⁷⁴ CSPD, 1686–87, p. 164, June 10, 1686.

⁷⁵ Ibid., p. 94. Henry Somerset, duke of Beaufort to Robert Spencer, earl of Sunderland, April 5, 1686.

⁷⁶ Ibid., p. 118, Sunderland to Beaufort, May 1, 1686.

⁷⁷ Ibid., p. 164. June 10, 1686.

⁷⁸ See Ibid., pp. 308, 313, 349; Modern Reports; or, Select Cases Adjudged in the Courts of King's Bench, Chancery, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, since the Restoration of Charles II, 9 vols. (London, 1720–1733), 3:117Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ CSPD, 1686–87, p. 314, December 6, 1686.

⁸⁰ Letters were sent to the earl of Burlington, lord lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire; the earl of Derby, lord lieutenant of Cheshire, Lancashire, and Chester; Viscount Fauconberg, lord lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire; the duke of Somerset, lord lieutenant for Somerset and the East Riding of Yorkshire; the earl of Thanet, lord lieutenant of Westmorland and Cumberland; and the bishop of Durham, lord lieutenant for Durham. See Ibid., p. 314.

⁸¹ For example, a Roman Catholic had been appointed lord lieutenant of Cambridgeshire in October 1686.

⁸² Somers MS. in York, ed. (n. 3 above), 2:415.

⁸³ See Ibid.

⁸⁴ Grey, , Debates (n. 15 above), p. 128Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ “The Heads of Grievances” are reprinted in app. 2 of Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights, pp. 299–300Google Scholar. For the complaint against the militia acts, see p. 299. Also see Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights (n. 4 above), p. 76Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ CJ, 1688–93, 10:21–22.

⁸⁷ Ibid.

⁸⁸ Ibid., 10:29.

⁸⁹ Western insists the amendments in the Lords had “emasculated” the article: “The original wording implied that everyone had a duty to be ready to appear in arms whenever the state was threatened. The revised wording suggested only that it was lawful to keep a blunderbuss to repel Burglars.” See Western, , Monarchy and Revolution (n. 5 above), p. 339Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ Howard Nenner takes the drafters to task for this hesitancy. See Nenner, , “Constitutional Uncertainty and the Declaration of Rights” (n. 10 above), p. 297Google Scholar.

⁹¹ Sharp, , Tracts, Concerning the Anlient and Only True Legal Means of National Defence, by a Free Militia (n. 21 above), p. 18Google Scholar.

⁹² Schwoerer, , Declaration of Rights, p. 78Google Scholar.

⁹³ Cobbett, , Parliamentary History (n. 54 above), 5:344Google Scholar. This is the same Sir William Williams who argued that the laws must be preserved before the throne was filled. Apparently he was satisfied with the declaration of a right to have arms and was content to wait until a more secure time to revise the militia act.

⁹⁴ See CJ, 10:801, 805, 807, 824. The new game act was styled “An Act for the more easie Discovery and Conviction of such as shall Destroy the Game of this Kingdom,” 4 & 5 Will, & Mary, c. 23 (1692).

⁹⁵ See Rolle, Henry, Reports (London, 1675), 1:91Google Scholar. Indeed, the court followed this interpretation in deciding whether a defendant was qualified to hunt under the new law.

⁹⁶ See 5 Ann c. 14.

⁹⁷ Burn, , Justice of the Peace, 1:443Google Scholar.

⁹⁸ Strange, John, Reports of Adjudged Cases in the Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer, 2 vols. (London, 1755), 2:1096Google Scholar; Burn, , Justice of the Peace, 1:442–43Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ Plaintiff appealed his conviction and the confiscation of a gun and dog, the dog being a “setting dog,” the gun “an engine” for killing game. Sayer, Joseph, Reports of Cases Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench Beginning Michaelmas Term, 25 Geo.II, Ending Trinity Term, 29 & 30 Geo.II, 1751–1756 (London, 1775), pp. 15–17Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Blackstone, , Commentaries (n. 23 above), 1:136–39Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ Blackstone wrote, “But in vain would these rights be declared, ascertained, and protected by the dead letter of the laws, if the constitution had provided no other method to secure their actual enjoyment.” See Blackstone, , Commentaries, 1:139Google Scholar.

¹⁰² Blizard, W., Desultory Reflections on Police (London, 1785), pp. 59–60Google Scholar.

¹⁰³ Ibid. Emphasis is in the original.

¹⁰⁴ Clark, J. C. D., Revolution and Rebellion: State and Society in England in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Cambridge, 1986), p. 74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For his analysis, see pp. 74–76.