Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow General Monck to Lieutenant-General Fleetwood - The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4

Return to Title Page for The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

General Monck to Lieutenant-General Fleetwood - Sir William Clarke, The Clarke Papers. Selections from the Papers of William Clarke, vol. 4 [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 (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 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.


General Monck to Lieutenant-General Fleetwood

My Lord,

lii. f. 13.I have received from your Lordshipp by the hand of Captain Deane two letters: one from your Lordshipp, which pretends to answer a letter from the officers heere to theire brethren at White Hall; the other from the officers there to those heere.1 The latter I have communicated to the officers heere, who have heerewithall returned theire answer. The former, because it came not from them to whome the letter (it pretends to answer) was directed, but from your Lordshipp onely, I have thought fitt to take noe further notice of it, but onely to acquaint your Lordshipp that I have received it. Onely because your Lordshipp hath taken notice of a passage in the letter from the officers, wherein they say that in case the Parliament shall violate the soe often ingaged for liberties of the nations, they shall in theire stations beare theire testimonies against them, from which your Lordshipp makes inferences that might have been very well spared, I shall venture to acquaint your Lordshipp in theire behalfe, that as I doe not question but that they will continue stedfast in what they have declared, soe I doe not finde that they have declared that they will beare theire testimonies in such a manner as your Lordshipp may perhapps meane. And if your Lordshipp and those with yow shall beare noe other manner of testimony but what the officers heere would doe in such a case, I am confident there would bee noe difference amongst us. Further I shall not trouble your Lordshipp at present, because I have already sent commissioners to your Lordshipp, and the officers with yow, from whome I hope to heare a full end of all these unwelcome contraversies, and to have the opertunity once more to subscribe my selfe,

My Lord,
Your Lordshipp’s reale and
faithfull servant,

George Monck.

Edinburgh,
7th November, 1659.

[1 ]Here occur in the MS. (Clarke Papers, xxxii. ff. 75-80b) two letters: one from the officers of the English army to Monck and his subordinates, beginning, ‘Dear Brethren and Fellow Soldiers’; the other a reply from Monck and the officers in Scotland, beginning, ‘Dear Brethren and Fellow Soldiers in the Lord, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ In the MS. the answer is dated November 7. Both are printed in a pamphlet called A Letter from the Officers at Whitehall to the Officers under Generall Monck in Scotland, with the Answer of General Monck and his Officers thereunto, wherein with plainness and sinceritie they endeavour to set before them the evil of their doings.’ Printed at Edinburgh, by Christopher Higgins, in Hart’s Close, over against the Throne Church, and reprinted in London, 1659.

The letter of the English officers was sent by Captain Richard Deane. ‘The pretence of Deane’s coming to Scotland,’ says Phillips, ‘was to look after his charge, for he was one of the Treasurers at War; but he privately dispersed tickets as he travelled to seduce Monck’s soldiers from him, bringing him withal a letter from Fleetwood which contained an offer of what command in the army he should desire, upon the least private intimation of his inclining to take part with it’ (Baker, p. 690; cf. Price, p. 736.) Monck declined this offer, and felt obliged to send Deane away with a rebuke for his intrigues amongst the soldiers. This Deane was cousin of the Parliamentary admiral, and was a leading man amongst the Baptists. A letter from him concerning that sect, addressed to Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln, is printed in Neal’s History of the Puritans, iii. 379, ed. 1837.

In the postscript to their letter the English officers add, ‘We hope to hear in your answer to this that all our dear friends, now in bonds, are at liberty.’ Monck and the Scottish officers replied: ‘We intreat you not to put so hard a name upon the necessary and short restraint of our brethren as bonds; we still own them and use them as brethren; their pay is still continued to them, and the restraint put upon them, for their, and your, and our security, and the security of all God’s people, we hope will be very short—shorter than either you or we can expect. And take it no ill we acted anything without first sending to you. We acted nothing but what was necessary to our present safety, and immediately sent our letters to you, which, if they came not to your hand, it is not our faults. We have lately sent commissioners, men faithful and approved, whom we hope you will treat as brethren.’