Uvelule, Sir William, Knight (disab.). Petersfield. Vivian, Sir Richard, Knight (disab. '44) Tregony. Waller, Sir William, Knight (instead of Vernon; one of the 11) Rochester. Wallop, Sir Henry, Knight (dead '44). Hampshire. Watkins, William, Esq. (void in '44) Wenman, Thomas, Lord Viscount, in Huntingdonshire. Newcastle-on-Tyne. Beverley. (Romney, but preferred) Radnor. Malton. Monmouth. Rutlandshire. Stamford. Hereford. Romney. Ireland Oxfordshire. *Wylde, Edmund, Esq. (King's judge) Droitwich. Wylde, Sergeant John Wyndham, Edmund, Esq. (expelled '41, monopolist) Worcestershire. Bridgwater Bridgwater. THE Committee Lists of the Eastern Association are taken from Husband's Second Collection,1 where, in three successive general Acts, dated 1st April, 1643, 7th May (and 1st June), 1643, and 3d August, 1643, followed by a few partial amendments and enlargements for specific places, at different dates, - the Committees of all Parliamentary or Anti-Royalist Counties and principal Boroughs, as settled at that stage of the contest, are named. Earlier and earliest Committees are in Husband's First Collection 2 and elsewhere; but these, as transient and now abrogated combinations, do not concern us here. The Committee of April is named for managing the Sequestration of Delinquents' Estates; those of May and August for raising money by other methods, chiefly by Weekly Assessments; and each has its specific Act and instructions; but as the essential business of all these Committees was to carry on the War by furnishing the sinews of war, and as, with trifling variations, the same persons sat on all, it may well be imagined their functions, even to the members themselves, became gradually much blended; and for us they have become inextricably blended, or not worth the huge labor of attempting to extricate and distinguish. Committees, all, essentially of Finance and general Administration; appointed, we may say, to care generally that the Parliamentary Cause suffer no damage by lack of money or otherwise, — against whom, and their despotic procedure, rise loud complaints and denunciations in the old Pamphlets of a royalist or neutral stamp. An assiduous hand, searching on my behalf through every corner of 1 Collection of all the Public Orders, Ordinances, &c. of Parliament, from March, 1642-3 to December, 1646: Printed for Edward Husband (London, folio, 1646). 2 An exact Collection of all Remonstrances &c. &c. (London, small 4to, 1643): Printed for Edward Husbands (sic), p. 891 &c. these Lists and Supplementary Lists, as they lie in bewildering disorder, scattered over the vast surface of Husband, - has painfully added to each Name an exact note of the several Committees on which he sat but, not to encumber the Printer and the Reader with what would little if in any degree profit, I have omitted these specialties at present, all but the following two : Under date 10th August, 1643 (with Supplementary or subsequent Acts, in some cases) is a particular settling and assorting of the Asso ciation Committees as a distinct body; with instructions and directions; directing, for one thing, how they are to choose the Central Committee which sits at Cambridge; — indicating to us who they now are, and most probably who they were hitherto, that showed themselves most and took the chief management: these, as in some sort peculiar, I have found good to note: all that sit on this Committee are distinguished by an asterisk (*) ; those that sit on this only, or are new men at the passing of the Act, have their names printed in italics. And observe here: Among those of the asterisk the "Deputy Lieutenants," appointed long before and with superior powers, of whom there is sometimes mention in Oliver's Letters and elsewhere, will be found; but not in a distinguishable state their names as a body, though "read publicly " in 1642, and even ordered to be printed,1 do not occur in Husband. This is the first specialty of indication attempted here. Then secondly, under date 15th Feb. 1644-5, on Fairfax's appointment to be Commander-in-chief, there occurs a revision or new-model of Committees, in the Association as everywhere else, for raising assessments to support Fairfax: such men as were added for serving on this Committee, are designated by an (f.). Farther distinctions, as threatening rather to confuse than illuminate the reader, are not given at present. : Our only change from those Lists of Husband's is the arrangement, an important and indispensable one, in alphabetical order; and the correction of what mistakes were palpable, — the number and nature of which still testify how hurriedly that old Parliamentary operation, in all stages of it, was done. The spelling especially, with its incessant variations, has been an intricate business, not to be settled sometimes except partly by guess. Our "Esq.," "Gent.," and occasional omission of all Title, are correctly what we find in the old Book. Under the given circumstances, Husband's List may be taken as substantially correct; but of course those Committees, even for speci 1 Names "read before the House," 17th March, 1641-2 (Commons Journals, ii. 483); ordered "to be printed," 6th Oct. following (ib. 797): not given in either case. |