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

Sir Hardress Waller to General Monck - 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.

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Sir Hardress Waller to General Monck

Sir,

lii. f. 43b.I hope our antient acquaintance and continued acts of friendshipp on your part, although but weakely returned on mine, may intitle mee this priviledge and freedome to lett yow know that I doe with much more willingnesse sett my hand to the presenting of yow with these lynes then I did lately in subscribeing my name to a letter that was written to yow from hence, which I did for some dayes dispute with and contend against, untill some sharper expressions weere expunged out of the letter, and yet not all, nor the letter running in that straigne that I desired, and prevailed with mee for the signeing of it, beeing noe otherwise free, either to the forme or the matter, then that I hoped that the tendancy thereof would affect an accord betweene such indeered friends as those of the army, which rather then not testifie my desire unto I was perswaded to tollerate that expression of bearing our witnesse against your undertakeing (although that expression was contrary to my declared sence at that time), or to bee singular in my judgement and want the oppertunity of manifesting my desire to interceede for a peace, findeing itt pressed uppon mee that the not signeing of that letter would prove an hinderance to the promoteing thereof, which I held more requisite to bee instrumentall in at such a season then to examine the justice of any proceeding that might hazard the whole cause, and of that I am soe highly sensible that I could offer my selfe a sacrafize to have that effect. If the Lord have yet a mercy left for such a provokeing people as to preserve us from such a sad stroke, which I looke uppon as the highest of judgements, and thus farr I have both borne upp my owne spirritt, and have indeavoured to satisfie others that I durst ingage my selfe for yow, uppon that knowledge and friendshipp which, I hope, is not abated on your part, noe more then it is on mine, that yow will neither deliver upp the English interest to the Scotche Nation nor betray this good old cause to the Cavaleere party; and that which keepes upp the same hopes in mee still is that those that contend for these good ends wilbee taught of the Lord to agree in the way. Your old faithfull servant, Captain John Campbell, is expressly imployed att this tyme to give yow an accompt of a late action heere at Dublin, which, though by men it must undergoe the hazard to bee judged much by your successe, yet I hope in the bottome of it there will bee found nothing but sincerity and a true desire to maintaine that interest wee have soe long contended for, and uppon this accompt and noe other I shall desire yow to judge the action of

Sir,
As much your obliged Friend and affectionate
Servant as ever,

Har. Waller.1

Dublin-Castle,
December the 16th,
1659.

[1 ]Monck’s answer to this letter, dated December 28, is printed later. Waller begins by apologising for his part in the joint letter of the Irish officers, dated November 4 (see ante, p. 95, note). The ‘late action’ mentioned towards the end of the letter was the seizure of Dublin Castle on December13 by Colonel John Bridges, Major Edward Warren, Captain Abel Warren, and others. These three officers published an account of their enterprise, entitled A perfect Narrative of the grounds and reasons moving some Officers of the Army in Ireland to the securing the Castle of Dublin for the Parliament, 4to, 1660. (See also Report on the Duke of Portland’s MSS. i. 688, and Thomason Tracts, E. 1013, 8.) In Mercurius Politicus for December 22-29, p. 987, the declaration of the officers, dated Dublin Castle, December 14, is printed at length. It begins ‘Whereas by divine permission a new interruption hath been put upon the Parliament.’ The seizure of Dublin Castle was followed by a similar movement in other parts. Munster was secured by Lord Broghil, Connaught by Sir Charles Coote, and Ulster by Colonel Gorges (Ludlow, ii. 185-189). Monck’s kinsman, Cornet Henry Monck, was one of the minor actors in the movement (Baker, p. 699). Sir Hardress Waller’s connection with it is defined in the Perfect Narrative. He was an accomplice after the event. After securing Dublin Castle, say the authors, ‘it now behoving those thus engaged to put themselves into that order whereby the work in their hands might be carried on (by the blessing of the Lord) more prosperously,’ and, considering the countenance ‘they might have in that matter by the Major-General, if he would own them in it, they thereupon desired his heading them, and that by his hand orders might press upon all occasions, he being the visible superior officer in Ireland, whereunto (they and that undertaking appearing for the Parliament) he assented, he having been some weeks before prepared by a general discourse concerning it’ (p. 9). Waller therefore became the nominal head of the movement. Two letters from Jones to Waller, upbraiding him for his part in it, and one to Colonel Thomlinson on the same subject, dated December 19, 20, and 22, are printed in the Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. i., New Series, part xiii. 1860-1, pp. 293-7. The three commissioners, Jones, Thomlinson, and Corbet, were all made prisoners by the revolting officers. Moreover, when Ludlow returned to Ireland to take up his command (December 30), Hardress Waller and the officers refused to allow him to land. Their correspondence on the subject is printed in Ludlow’s Memoirs, ii. 449, ed. 1894. In a letter of January 16, 1660, Monck joined in the attack on Ludlow (ib. ii. 471).