Notes to Chapter 125 The ambassadors reaffirmed their position on September 21, and the council responded
curtly (October 5) that they had better return home to secure authority to treat. They
had already asked permission to depart.
26 This is a new letter discovered by Miller, Anglo-Dutch Negotiations, 276–7.
27 Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorials of the English Affairs, 4 vols (Oxford, 1853), vol. 3,
372–4, dates the meeting December 10; present from parliament were Speaker William
Lenthall, Whitelocke, Thomas Widdrington, and Chief Justice St John; the army
officers were Cromwell, Thomas Harrison, Charles Fleetwood, Edward Whalley,
and John Desborough. One suggestion was to bring back Charles I’s third son as
king.
28 In January, 1652 Lilburne was brought to trial and exiled on charges of promoting a
false, malicious, and scandalous petition against Arthur Haselrigg; see Declaration of the
Army concerning... Lilburne (London, 1652). Winstanley’s Law of Freedom in a Platform
appeared early in 1652. See chapter 8, pp. 249–50.
29 See Blair Worden, The Rump Parliament, 1648–1653 (Cambridge, 1974), 265–98.
30 Owen, dean of Christ Church, had been Cromwell’s chaplain in Ireland. The 29 signers
included four of the original five Independents of the Westminster Assembly, as well as
John Dury. See Journal of the House of Commons VII, 86 (February 10). The Racovian
Catechism was entered in the Stationers Register by Dugard on November 13, 1651 (with
no mention of the licenser’s name). Thomason dates his copy c. March, 1651 (i.e. 1652),
but it was available by January 27, 1652, when Dugard was arrested for the publication;
two days later the Stationers Register entry was cancelled at Dugard’s request.
31 See chapter 8, p. 253 and note 92.
32 The Humble Proposals of Mr. Owen, etc. (London, 1652, c. March 31). When they were
republished on December 2 as Proposals for the furtherance and propagation of the Gospell in
this Nation the 15 doctrinal fundamentals were appended (p. 12). Also see the news
sheets Several Proceedings in Parliament, no. 130 (March 18–25), p. 2,025, and no. 131
(March 25–April 1), pp. 2,037–9. Tracts supporting the proposals include Giles Firmin,
Separatism Examined (London, 1652, c. March 15) and Stephen Marshall, A Sermon
preached to the Lord Mayor (London, 1652, c. April 5). See Samuel R. Gardiner, History of
the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649–1660, 4 vols (London and New York, 1894–
1901), II, 31.
33 Journal of the House of Commons VII, 113–14. A broadside dated April 2 published the
resolutions and the order for burning. An English translation, The Racovian Catechisme,
was published in Amsterdam (c. June 8, 1652) and imported to England.
34 The Commons Journal entry for April 2, 1652 (VII, 114) simply refers to the examination
of Mr John Milton and a note under his hand.
35 Commons Journal VII, 128 (April 29).
36 For Williams see chapter 6, pp. 178–9.
37 See CPW IV.1, 174–6 and DNB. Vane (1613–62) emigrated to New England in 1635,
was elected Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636, and ousted from office in
- He returned to England, became in the 1640s a leading member of parliament
and a leading member of the Council of State under the republic. He devoted himself
for many years to the build-up of the navy and was also constantly called upon as a
skillful negotiator – with Charles after the civil wars, and with the Dutch ambassadors in - For Biddle, see chapter 10, p. 328.
Notes to Chapter 9