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

Cornet Henry Monck to Mr. William Clarke [?] - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4 [1901]

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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 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901). 4 vols.

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

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Cornet Henry Monck to Mr. William Clarke [?]

Dublin, November 3, 1659.

xxxii. f. 94.I acknowledge my self highly favoured by the advertisement you give mee of that honest and honourable resolution of Gen. Monck, and I doubt nott butt the prosecution of itt will bee successefull, and the event victorious, and although att present I can discover nothing butt a generall neutrality in the army heere, they for the present forbearing to declare, I hope they will speedily follow your example.

Since the writing heerof I am informed there is an addresse signed by 14 Feild officers and privately sent to the army in England; and I observe all that are inclinable to Anabaptisme doe declare against the Parliament.1

H. M.

[1 ]A copy of the address referred to in the above letter is amongst the Clarke Papers (xxxii. 121); it is of no great interest, and has been already printed, from a copy amongst the papers of Col. John Jones, in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for 1860-1, p. 265. The address is dated October 16, and contains a vague approval of the doings of the army in England and a promise not to be divided from their brethren there. The signers are Hardress Waller, Thomas Cooper, Peter Wallis, Alexander Brayfield, John Nelson, William Arnop, Joseph Deane, Richard Lawrence, Daniel Abbott, Henry Pritty, Thomas Sadler, Henry Jones, William Moore, Abel Warren, and Thomas Davies. With it is a letter of October 27 from Jones to Ludlow, announcing the despatch of Col. Barrow and Lieut.-Col. Dobson to England to represent the Irish officers. Monck had written to Ludlow, the Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, announcing his resolution of supporting the Parliament, and asking for his adhesion (October 28). The letter arrived during Ludlow’s absence, and was answered by Col. Jones and by the officers of the Irish army (Ludlow’s Memoirs, ed. 1894, ii. 147, 449). Jones’s letter was merely a civil acknowledgment, dated November 4. The letter of the officers in general, signed by Jones himself, Waller, Cooper, Lawrence, Robert Phaire, Nicholas Kempson, and Henry Jones, was a direct negative: ‘We cannot approve of any resolution of yours, or any other man, which may tend to the engaging of any part of the armies or forces of these nations against their brethren, or to the dividing of them in interest or affection, being well assured that such a practice will be found in the issue to be nothing else but the opening of a door for the common enemy to come in.’ This letter was sent by Major John Barrett, who was given by Jones general instructions to endeavour to prevent a breach. All three letters are printed in the Proceedings of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1860-1, pp. 271-274. The letter of the officers to Monck is also amongst the Clarke MSS. (xxxii. 119). On Barrett’s mission see Baker, pp. 690-1. At the same time that Barrett arrived Monck received information from Cornet Monck that Sir Charles Coote, Theophilus Jones, and a large portion of the Irish army would support him, and that it was hoped to gain over Hardress Waller. Monck wrote an answer to the Irish officers, which is dated November 21 (Clarke MSS. xxxii. 130-132). It was printed as a broadside. ‘A Letter from General Monck to the Commissioners of the Parliament in Ireland’ (British Museum, King’s Pamphlets, 669, f. 22, No. 39). Also in pamphlet form as ‘A Sober Letter of General Monck’s unto the Commander-in-Chief and Officers in Ireland,’ 4to, 1659. The pamphlet is dated Edinburgh, November 27, but the broadside copy of the letter is undated. In the postscript Monck says: ‘This messenger after some time being in this city, carried himself very indiscreetly, so that I thought fit to confine him to his chamber, which I hope you will not take ill.’