Report from Local History Hour: The English Civil War in the Localities
Published: 19th April 2021
Joe Saunders
BALH Joint Vice-Chair & Head of Outreach
@joe_saunders1
Joe is a familiar face as the host of BALH’s popular monthly webinar series Local History Hour. He is a Trustee of BALH, joint Vice-Chair and head of the Outreach team. Away from BALH, Joe is working towards is PhD, while as a family historian, he undertakes genealogical research and is an Associate of the professional genealogy body AGRA.
In March’s Local History Hour we were joined by Dr Charlotte Young and Tim Hasker. We loved welcoming them along to share some of their research with us and over 180 attendees. Their talks contained lots of information on the period ranging from how to find and use records to stories taking us across the county to settle last of all in Tim’s study of Northampton’s response to the Regicide of King Charles I.
Charlotte gave us a tour through some of the sources that we can (and should) be using to research the civil war era in our local research. The range of records on offer is significant and as well as giving practical advice on where to look and how to use them she shared some fascinating examples of the kind of things we can find (including several instances of stolen cows). The recovery of local experiences of this tumultuous time is well-worth the effort and hopefully some of our attendees have been inspired to dive in further. Charlotte is currently working with the Civil War Petitions project and in the first instance we recommend you all log on and have a look! https://www.civilwarpetitions.ac.uk/
From here the Hour moved to our local study by Tim who offered a close look into the responses in Northampton to the trial and execution of Charles I. This talk gave us a fascinating insight into how this momentous event was received in the locale and how this sat within the town’s activities throughout the period.
Bringing ourselves back to the present day we had some fantastic questions from our listeners ranging from the activities of puritans in New England to the ever-pressing question of the causes of the civil war to whether any of the petitions for awards were actually paid!
We had a great question on the feeling of the general population toward Charles I. This really comes to the heart of what a lot of historians have tried to discover, and we can find variation depending on location, faith and social position but also within families. Opinions also changed over time. There was a great deal of printed and written material at the time which can illuminate this and we hope the reading we have provided will give a good sense of what the range of feelings were and where you can go to research yourselves. Norah Carlin’s collection of petitions from 1648-9 is one especially great resource; (Norah Carlin, Regicide or Revolution?: What Petitioners Wanted, September 1648 – February 1649).
We also had some exciting questions from people who are doing their own work on local histories of the civil wars. We had one from someone researching Malmesbury’s garrison, and from two people volunteering on a project to transcribe the SP 28 'Loss Accounts' for Warwickshire. We put two questions we didn’t have time for on the night to Charlotte:
Q: ‘I have been involved in a project to transcribe the loss accounts in Warwickshire. Have you come across many petitiions from Warks?’
The Civil War Petitions project has just started to publish material from Warwickshire. The first batch of petitions were uploaded to the website in March and there are currently 14. However, there are also over 100 records of payments to maimed soldiers and war widows in that county through quarter sessions records, so there’s a lot of information there about the impact of the war on the residents of that county.
Q: ‘I have used the E317 survey docs, and think they’re wonderful. Do you know if anyone anywhere is doing a transcription project of them?’
I’m not aware of any transcription project involving E 317, but it would be a wonderful idea – perhaps something to pitch to the National Archives! It would be a great resource for local history research.
Another question regarded the fact that over a third of the 300 or so seventeenth-century wills for Portsmouth were proved in the 1650s but this is not the case for the surrounding parishes. Changes to the probate system meant wills were processed centrally in London during this time, rather than in the localised system of smaller ecclesiastical courts during the rest of the century. This leaves probate survival and searching for the 1650s an anomaly. If anyone has any specific Portsmouth-area insights though these would be greatly appreciated.
One attendee asked about the need for palaeography skills. We’ve attached some links for you all to look at below if you’re in need of some help learning to read seventeenth-century handwriting. It can seem daunting at first but you get your eye in sooner than you think!
http://rycote.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/Palaeography-Guide-abbreviations
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/
https://sway.office.com/2il2mOAQ3Dr1sZeP?ref=Link&loc=play
We especially recommend the practical guide by Mark Forrest, Reading Early Handwriting, 1500-1700 which you can buy here: https://www.balh.org.uk/shop/book-reading-early-handwriting-1500-1700
Lastly, we had a question about further reading. We’ve put at the end a list of some good general books and also some of the best local studies of the period. There has been a lot of ink spilled over the English civil wars from a local perspective. This cuts right to the heart of what the conflict was about and how it was experienced. In 1985 the great historian of the period Ann Hughes wrote of ‘the ongoing debate over localism and the causes of the English Revolution’. Our own session has perhaps given you some tools, and the inspiration, to enter the debate yourselves.
We at BALH continue to bring local history into your homes and we warmly welcome you all to join our next Local History Hour on April 29th. We will stay in the same period and using wills and account books Dr Imogene Dudley and Dr Sarah-Jayne Ainsworth will explore the lives of early modern women. We do hope to see many of you there.
General reading:
Blair Worden, The English Civil Wars 1640-1660.
Diane Purkiss, The English Civil War: A People’s History.
Michael Braddick, God’s Fury, England’s Fire: A New History of the English Civil Wars.
Charles Carlton, Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638-1651.
David Underdown, Revel, Riot and Rebellion.
Local studies:
R. C. Richardson, The English Civil Wars: Local Aspects.
Alan Everitt, The Community of Kent and the Great Rebellion.
Ann Hughes, Politics, Society and Civil War in Warwickshire, 1620-1660.
Anthony Fletcher, A County Community in Peace and War: Sussex, 1600-1660.
J. S. Morrill, Cheshire, 1630-1660: County Government and Society during the "English Revolution".
J. S. Morrill, The Revolt of the Provinces: Conservatives and Radicals in the English Civil War, 1630-1650.
David Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War and Interregnum.
William Hunt, The Puritan Moment: The Coming of Revolution in an English County.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.
