Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow [ A Letter from York. ] - The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 1

Return to Title Page for The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 1

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Topic: The English Revolution

[ A Letter from York. ] - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 1 [1901]

Edition used:

The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, Secretary to the Council of the Army, 1647-1649, and to General Monck and the Commanders of the Army in Scotland, 1651-1660, ed. C.H. Firth (Camden Society, 1901). 4 vols.

Part of: The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, 4 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


[A Letter from York.]

Sir,

Wee heare you have trustees engaging Souldiers heere, and not without successe, Collonel Pointza beginnes to be much troubled, and writes to the Parliament this weeke of Colonell Boynton’sb turning a Presbiterian out of Scarborow Castle. Hee hath desired of the Major and Aldermen that he may have an addition of men for the Tower; they answered they have a Company of Cittizens which shall be ready for the publique service but will admitt noe strangers, according to your Order given them, which is to keepe the disposall of this place as much in their owne power as they can and out of the hands of one who will, it may be, be too forward to engage. Then I wish you Justice and us peace, for if wee beginne againe the second woe will be worse then the first. I wish your Army a repairation in point of honour, but, were there not w[e]ightier causes, that will be look’d upon as unequall to the hazard of new trouble, and they slack (?) doe well to dispence with it as much as they cann — this very advice that the Generall be not engaged against the Parliament, and that it be not expected from him by the Army. For, in case an agreement come after a little busling, his joyning with them will robb the Kingdome of that employment of his from which wee expect much benefitt. And I hope the Army will be content that he carry faire to the Parliament.

J. B.

June 4th 1647.

[a ]A life of Poyntz is given in Sir John Maclean’s Historical and Genealogical Memoir of the Family of Poyntz. Sydenham Poyntz, b. 1607, was the fourth son of John Poyntz of Reigate. Originally a London apprentice he took service in Germany and rose to high rank in the imperial army. On his return to England he entered the parliamentary service, and on May 27, 1645, was voted by the House of Commons the command of a regiment of horse and a regiment of foot in the north, and shortly after was nominated commander-in chief of the seven associated northern counties. Commons’ Journals, iv., 248, 250. On September 24, 1645, he defeated the King’s forces at Rowton Heath, near Chester. On March 13, 1647, he was confirmed by the Commons in the post of Governor of York, and Clifford’s Tower was also placed under his command. He had some difficulty in getting control of Clifford’s Tower. A news-letter written about this time says, “The northern general struts and looks big, and instead of true blue hath got a bundle of orange ribbon in his hat, much like a plume of feathers behind.” The adherents of Fairfax wore blue ribbons in their hats, the Levellers adopted sea-green as their colour, and the Clubmen in 1645 chose white ribbons. Lilburne, An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwell, p. 41; Whitelock, Memorials, iii., 23, ed. 1854; Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, p. 61, ed. 1854.

[b ]Matthew Boynton, confirmed as governor of Scarborough, March 13, 1647. In the second civil war he sided with the royalists. Rushworth, vii., 1370.