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The Mob and the Revolution of 1688

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

William L. Sachse
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Extract

Among the major political upheavals which have been called revolutions, the English Revolution of 1688 is generally recognized as extraordinary. Long accepted among moderate Englishmen as “glorious,” a revolution to end revolutions, in more radical quarters it has not been regarded as constituting a true revolution. Contemporary Russian opinion, for example, refuses to bestow upon it this accolade, regarding it as a mere coup d'état. Its conservatism, its legalism, its bloodlessness, the absence of zeal to be found among its protagonists: all contribute to this point of view. That these are characteristics of the Glorious Revolution cannot be denied. More precisely, they characterize the actions of the leaders of the Revolution — of the councillors and legislators and soldiers whose names are known. Of popular opinion and aspiration much less is known, and it is probable that little can be discovered in the surviving evidence. But they can be assessed, to some degree, by following the actions of the mob — or, more accurately, the mobs — as they erupted in London and other parts of the Kingdom.

Mob disturbances, like the plague, were more or less endemic in Stuart England. Roger North, in his Examen, asserts that “the Rabble first changed their Title, and were called the mob” in the gatherings of the Green Ribbon Club. Regardless of when the term was first used, seventeenth-century Englishmen were well acquainted with various manifestations of mob activity. England's growing urban population augmented the mob, and before Shaftesbury, Pym had demonstrated that he was aware of the existence of this popular force and of the uses to which it could be put.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , November 1964 , pp. 23 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1964

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References

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2. North, Roger, Examen: or an Enquiry into the Credit and Veracity of a Pretended Complete History. (London, 1740)Google Scholar. The New English Dictionary gives 1688 as the first instance of the use of the word “mob.” “Mobile,” shortened from mobile vulgus, was used as early as 1676.

3. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1684-85, pp. 307, 308.

4. Ibid., 1685, p. 181.

5. PRO, PC 2/71, Nov. 6, 1685.

6. PRO, SP 31/3, f. 64.

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9. Ibid., June [?], 1688.

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11. Ibid., f. 137v.

12. At least as early as Sep. 29; Turner, F. C., James II (London, 1948), p. 427Google Scholar.

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14. BM, Add. MSS, 34510, f. 165.

15. Ibid., ff. 169-69v.

16. Ibid., S. 177v, 178v. Bramston noted that a strong guard was set up “in Holborne, the Strand, about Somerset House, in Covent Garden, at the Mews, and in Seuerall parts within the citie.” SirBramston, John, Autobiography of Sir John Bramston [Camden Society] (London, 1845), p. 332Google Scholar.

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34. London Courant, Dec. 12-15.

35. London Mercury, Dec. 15-18.

36. PRO, SP 44/97, Nov. 13, 1688.

37. English Currant, Dec. 12-14.

38. Ibid. It is possible, of course, that Burdet was unpopular for reasons apart from his religion.

39. London Courant, Dec. 12-15.

40. BM, Egerton MSS, 2717 f. 416.

41. For these items see London Mercury, Dec. 22-24; Universal Intelligence, Dec. 15-18 and Dec. 22-26.

42. Particular local grudges and agrarian grievances must have determined mob reactions in some cases. The latter appear to have played some part in depredations upon the estates of the Duke of Ormonde and the Duke of Beaufort, where, in addition to felling trees and killing deer, rural folk demolished or damaged gates, inclosures, and farm buildings. See also BM, Add. MSS, 28876, f. 176.

43. The choir of Chester Cathedral.

44. Orange Gazette, Dec. 31-Jan. 3, 1689.

45. Universal Intelligence, Dec. 22-26.

46. Orange Gazette, Dec. 31-Jan. 3, 1689. This may have been James Peake, Vicar of Bowden, Cheshire, later deprived as a non-juror.

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49. Ibid., p. 233; Universal Intelligence, Dec. 11-15.

50. London Courant, Dec. 15-18. Moore had been Lord Mayor in 1681-82.

51. Ibid., Dec. 12-15. According to this account, others reported that as the mob descended upon the house “they were harangued by a Person from the House, and told, That the Lord Powis, tho a Papist, was so far a Friend to the Protestants, as to do them any good Office in his power, and was ever averse to any violent proceedings against them, whereupon they departed.” Luttrell says that the residence of Sir Richard Allibone would have been attacked, had not the trained bands intervened. Brief Historical Relation, I, 486Google Scholar. Allibone was dead, but the crowd remembered and resented the part he played in the trial of the seven bishops, as a Justice of the King's Bench.

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53. London Mercury, Dec. 15-18.

54. BM, Add. MSS, 32095, f. 303; H.M.C. Dartmouth MSS, p. 229.

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57. Despite fears of a disturbance upon James's return to London, he was greeted with considerable enthusiasm. See London Courant, Dec. 15-18.

58. PRO, SP 44/97, Nov. 8, 1688.

59. Universal Intelligence, Dec. 11-15; English Currant, Dec. 28-Jan. 2, 1689. The former newsbook notes that the castle was seized by inhabitants of Dover who feared that Irish forces were about to take possession of it, “all of them Declaring it for the service of the Prince of Orange and Protestant Religion.” There were also fears of a French landing.

60. London Mercury, Dec. 31-Jan. 3, 1689. Captain Goodmell, assuming command of a force to oppose the Bury St. Edmunds mob, declared that “the warm Transport of a Zealous Rabble, have carried them so far, as not to distinguish between Papists and Protestants.“

61. London Mercury, Dec. 18-22.

62. History of the Late Revolution in England (London, 1689), pp. 164–65Google Scholar; English Currant, Dec. 12-14.

63. London Courant, Dec. 18-22.

64. Referring to the sack of Wild House, Bramston notes that “some of the offenders were common theeues, and those set the boys to work first.” Autobiography of Sir. John Bramston, p. 340.

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70. English Currant, Dec. 14-19.

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72. London Courant, Dec. 12-15.

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76. Foxcroft, , Life and Letters of Sir George Savile, II, 58.Google Scholar

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78. English Currant, Dec. 12-14.

79. Sharpe, , London and the Kingdom, II, 534–35Google Scholar. Similar searches occurred in the country. See SirReresby, John, Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, ed. Browning, Andrew (Glasgow, 1936), p. 531Google Scholar.

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81. English Currant, Dec. 28-Jan. 2, 1689.

82. PRO, SP 44/97, Nov. 22, 1688.

83. London Mercury, Dec. 24-27.

84. English Currant, Dec. 12-14.

85. London Mercury, Dec. 22-24.

86. Beloff, , Public Order and Popular Disturbances, p. 43Google Scholar; and see Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1689–1690, p. 4Google Scholar.

87. Kirk, Robert, “London in 1689-90,” Pt. 1, ed. Maclean, Donald and Brett-James, Norman G., Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, new series, VI (1930), Pt. 2, p. 324Google Scholar.

88. H.M.C. Portland MSS, III, 420Google Scholar.