No More Learning

334 (#350) ############################################

334
English Grammar Schools
Of Williams himself, his biographer tells us that
he was assiduous in the school, and miss'd not sometimes every week, if he
were resident in the College, both to dictate lectures to the several classes,
and to take account of them. The choicest wits had never such encourage-
ment for praise, and reward 1.
Under Williams's successor Laud, further regulations were intro-
duced, among which the most noteworthy was that whereby
the best scholars in the seventh forme were appointed as Tutors to reade and
expound places of Homer, Virgil, Horace, and Euripides, etc. . . . at those times
wherein the scholars were in the schole, in expectation of the Master
The Merchant Taylors' school, founded in 1561, was a no less
conspicuous example of civic liberality and generosity of spirit
than was St Paul's—its statutes, indeed, being little more than a
transcript of those given by Colet to the earlier foundation, and its
scholars, in like manner, being admissible from 'all nations and
countries. ' Within five years of the time when the school was
first opened, on a site between Cannon street and the Thames, it
had already acquired additional importance by the fact that Sir
Thomas White, a member of the company's court, having recently
founded the college of St John the Baptist at Oxford, proceeded,
on drawing up certain additional statutes for the society, to enact
that forty-three scholarships on the foundation should be restricted
to scholars from Merchant Taylors', such scholars to be 'assigned
and named by continual succession,' while, at the same time, he
retained the nominations in his own hands. This measure
suggested, obviously, by the example of the founders of Winchester
and Eton—was at once productive of a considerable increase in
the numbers. In certain additional statutes for his college, the
founder had also directed that, in elections to scholarships, poverty
should weigh in favour of a candidate, and 'Tobie Matthew,' the
president of St John's, had, consequently, sought to evade the
obligation to elect forty-three scholars entirely from a school
in which a lower class element was, at first, undoubtedly large.
He grounded his defence on the plea that the college itself was
depressed by straitened resources. Fortunately, however, sundry
bequests for the specified purpose of aiding poor students after-
6
1 Hacket, Life of Williams, 1, 45.
2 See the account of the daily routine of a Westminster schoolboy's life
(c. 1610—20), printed, from a transcript preserved in the State Paper office, in G. F
Russell Barker's Memoir of Richard Busby (1895), pp. 77–82. The transcript is said
to be in the handwriting of Laud, who was a prebendary of Westminster from 1621
to 1628.


## p. 335 (#351) ############################################

Merchant Taylors'
335
wards fell in, and served, to some extent, to alleviate the pressure;
while the institution of examinations, to be held three times in the
course of the year, did much to raise the school in public estima-
tion; and the company itself, assembled in court, was able to
declare that Merchant Taylors' was 'a schoole for liberty most free,
being open expressly for poore men's children, as well of all
nations as for the merchaunt tailors themselves? ' In 1607, a
banquet, honoured by the presence of the king, when prince Charles
was admitted a freeman of the company and Ben Jonson composed
an interlude for the occasion, seems to have ushered in a period of
growing prosperity, which lasted unbroken until the destruction of
the school buildings in the great fire of 1666. It was not all
parents, however, who could contemplate with equanimity the
prospect of their offspring being educated along with those of the
poor; and when, within a few years after the above banquet,
Thomas Farnaby, a former postmaster of Merton college, well
acquainted with the educational system of the Jesuits, opened a
school in Goldsmiths' alley, it was soon sufficiently obvious that he
had ministered to a genuine want. He had boarders as well as
day scholars; his class-rooms formed an imposing structure and his
whole premises were palatial; his ushers were well drilled in their
special work. His numbers, consequently,soon rose to three hundred,
of whom the great majority were the sons of titled families. He
was himself an excellent classical scholar with a European reputa-
tion. At the royal request, he compiled a new Latin grammar
avowedly designed to supersede the labours of Lily, and also brought
out, in 1612, an annotated text of Juvenal and Persius which went
through numerous editions, and was followed by other classical
authors. It was about the same time, that John Brinsley, at
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, propounded, in his Ludus Literarius, a new
mode of translation, and invested the teaching of grammar with
unprecedented importance by his elaboration of methods. His
austere, though not harsh, discipline inspired parents with more
than usual confidence; but, unfortunately, his puritan sympathies
brought his flourishing school under the episcopal ban, and he was
fain to retire to London.
The majority of the grammar schools throughout the country
1 Staunton, Great Schools of England (ed. 1869), p. 177.
• See Autobiography of Sir John Bramston, the younger (himself one of Farnaby's
pupils), Camden Soc. Pub. (1845), p. 101.
• Foster Watson, in his English Grammar Schools (pp. 262—7), has supplied us
with a detailed comparison of Brinsley's method with that of Roger Ascham.


## p. 336 (#352) ############################################

336
English Grammar Schools
continued to recruit their numbers from a certain definite area,
represented by the parish or the county in which they had been
founded, according to the conditions prescribed in their respective
charters. Generally speaking, the free school-by which we must
understand 'a school in which learning is given without pay'L
was open to the sons of all freemen within the specified limits. A
public school, on the other hand, was open to the whole kingdom,
and, in some cases, to scholars of other nationalities, and thus,
almost necessarily, involved payment, at least for maintenance or
board. Of the gradual change of the former into the latter, the
foundation of John Lyon, a yeoman of Harrow, affords a remark-
able illustration. In the year 1571, he had procured a charter for
a free grammar school in the village of Harrow-upon-the-Hill, at
which children of the village were to receive gratuitous instruction.
In 1590, having duly endowed the same, he appointed six governors
and created four exhibitions, two at Oxford and two at Cambridge,
of the value of five pounds each. But it was not until the middle
of the seventeenth century that this modest beginning expanded
into a project for attracting the sons of well-to-do parents to a
centre which, by virtue of its healthiness, proximity to the capital
and excellent system of instruction, offered an unprecedented
combination of advantages; while its unrestricted extension was
facilitated by the full discretion originally conferred on the
governors to modify the statutes as they thought fit.
The free school founded at Rugby, in 1567, by Laurence Sheriff,
'citizen and grocer of London,' remained, for a long time, in like
manner, comparatively obscure, being much hampered by the
founder's revocation of a money grant, and deriving, for many years,
but a slender revenue from that 'Conduit Close,' on the outskirts
of London, which afterwards developed into an El Dorado.
1. It has been denied that this was the meaning of “free (grammar) school,” Lat.
libera schola grammaticalis, as the official designation of many schools founded under
Edward VI,' but see Murray's Dictionary, s. v. ' Free,' 32 b, for the evidence in favour
of the affirmative. We have also to bear in mind how largely, in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, teachers, even at the universities, taught gratis, and, more
especially, the Jesuits. A passage cited by Leach, A. F. , in his English Schools at the
Reformation, p. 82, shows clearly, however, the sense in which the term was accepted
in the year 1548, a chantry priest being there described as licensed 'to kepe & gramer
scoole half-free, that ys to saye, taking of scolers lerning gramer 8d. the quarter, and
of others lerning to rede 4d. the quarter,' that is to say, receiving payment of only &
moiety.
? See Letter from Samuel Butler, D. D. , to Henry Brougham, Esq. , M. P. , 1821, in
which the writer, himself master of Shrewsbury, assumes the correctness of the above
definition. Printed in Baker's History of St John's College (ed. Mayor), 11, 933—4.


## p. 337 (#353) ############################################

Shrewsbury and Christ's Hospital 337
6
The annals of Shrewsbury present us with a complete contrast.
Endowed by Edward VI, at the joint petition of the burgesses of
the town and the gentlemen of the county, its charter remained
in abeyance throughout the reign of Mary; and it first rose into
repute under the rule of Thomas Ashton, fellow of St John's
college, Cambridge, in the reign of Elizabeth. Ashton was himself
entrusted with the compilation of the statutes, wherein it was
enjoined that, in all admissions, the 'godliest, poorest, and best
learned' should be preferred. Shrewsbury, moreover, had the
whole of Shropshire at its back, and the first register of admissions
(1562), containing two hundred and eighty-nine names, among them
sons of knights and esquires, showed the proportion of 'strangers'
to 'townsmen’ to be unusually large. In 1564, Philip Sidney
and Fulke Greville were admitted on the same day; and, under
John Meighen, a layman, who filled the office of headmaster more
than half a century (1583—1635), the numbers rose rapidly, so
that Camden, in 1586, could venture to declare that Shrewsbury
was 'the best filled school of all England. ' The relations main-
tained by Shrewsbury school with St John's college help us to follow
its subsequent history; and, from the correspondence that went on
between the two foundations, we learn that the fortunes of the
school, in the reign of James I, passed through a period of decline:
so much so, indeed, that, in 1627, the bailiffs report that the masters
are resigning, “to the generall grief of the Towne,' and that the
school is 'in very great decay. '
Of the five schools which rose within the city walls of the
capital, none appealed more strongly to civic sympathy than that
of Christ's Hospital, especially designed for ‘young fatherless
children,' who were to be admitted to receive both maintenance
and education in the ancient buildings which had formerly given
shelter to the suppressed community of the Grey Friars. The
foundation, along with the other royal hospitals, had been
marked out for endowment both by Henry VIII and by his son,
and it was only eleven days before the death of the latter
that the young king signed the charter whereby the governors
were to be allowed to receive land in mortmain or to acquire it
to the value of 'foure thousand marks by the yeare. But, to
quote the words of its historian, Christ's Hospital owed its
start, as it has owed its steady continuance in well-doing, to
the generosity of the citizens of London'; and the pressing
needs of the poorer London population may be discerned in the
1 Annals of Christ's Hospital (ed. 1908), p. 31.
22
E. L. VII.
CH, XIV.


## p. 338 (#354) ############################################

338
English Grammar Schools
fact, that all that was requisite for admission was a certificate, that
'the child was above four years of age and born in wedlock,' and
that its father was a freeman. Unfortunately, there had been no
definite apportionment of the original endowment among the
ent hospitals, and, amid the conflicting claims of these institu-
tions, those of the school were passed over. Had it not been for
the liberality of its own governors, indeed, the new foundation
would, probably, have been either dissolved, or compelled to send
adrift a large proportion of the four hundred children to which,
towards the close of the sixteenth century, it gave shelter and
instruction. At the critical juncture, however, permanent relief
was afforded by dame Ramsey (widow of a former lord mayor),
through whose munificence the school came into possession of
estates then producing four hundred pounds a year, together with
a fund for the maintenance of four scholars at the university, as
well as the advowsons of five livings. In the time of William
Camden, the historian-himself an alumnus of the school, and,
subsequently, headmaster (1593) of Westminster school - the
numbers had reached six hundred.
In the fabric which had been the house of another sup-
pressed religious order, the same that traced back its origin to
the Grande Chartreuse in southern France, Charterhouse began
its existence in 1611. Its founder, Thomas Sutton, a native of
Lincoln, was a successful government official, whose views had
been enlarged by travel, who was conversant with several modern
languages and who had also gained considerable military experience
as an officer in the regular forces under Elizabeth. But his chief
aim, throughout life, was the acquisition of wealth; and, at the age
of fifty, he further augmented what was already a large fortune by
marriage with a wealthy widow. His wife, however, bore him no
children; and, having settled in London, he formed the resolve
of devoting his vast means (he was supposed to be the wealthiest
commoner in England) to the foundation of a hospital and free
school within the precincts of an ancient mansion, which, since the
dissolution of the Carthusian order, had been the residence of
successive members of the nobility, and was now purchased by
Sutton from Thomas, earl of Suffolk, for £13,000. The premises of
Howard house, as it had before been designated, included, not
only divers courts, a wilderness, orchards, walks and gardens,' but,
also, certain 'mesuages' adjoining, and, consequently, afforded ample
accommodation for both hospital and school. The orders relating
to the latter-first promulgated in 1627—are noteworthy as marking


## p. 339 (#355) ############################################

Charterhouse
339
6
6
>
a distinctive advance in the conception of the public school. It
was required, with respect to each of the forty scholars on the
foundation, that he should come 'sufficiently provided with good
apparel,' that he should be of 'modest and mannerly behaviour,'
'be orderly and seasonably dieted, cleanly and wholesomely lodged. '
None was to be admitted under the age of ten or above fourteen.
The masters were not only enjoined to be moderate in correction,'
but, also, “to observe the nature and ingeny [sic] of their scholars
and instruct them accordingly. ' Latin prayers and collects were
to usher in, and to end, the studies of each day; while the upper
form were to be provided with Greek Testaments for their use in
chapel.
Other foundations, standing in close connection with the capital,
were those of St Saviour's in Southwark (1562) and St Olave's
(1570), both of which represented the voluntary principle, as
originating in the spontaneous action of the inhabitants and being
designed for the free education of sons of parishioners exclusively.
That of Stratford-le-Bow (1617) was founded for the parishes of
Stratford, Bow and Bromley-St-Leonard, by Sir John Jolles, to
afford instruction in 'grammar and Latin. ' ‘Alleyn's College of
God's Gift in Dulwich' (1619), instituted along with certain
almshouses, was opened with a formal ceremony, at which lord
chancellor Bacon presided. Few similar foundations, however,
have offered a more melancholy example of the frustration of
the designs of the founder. It was not until 1858 that the existing
college was established by act of parliament, and put in possession
of ample revenues which, for more than two centuries, had been
misappropriated.
We may here mention that, within the period covered by the
present chapter, was born in Southwark, near by London Bridge,
John Harvard (1607), who, after graduating at Cambridge, where
he was a member of Emmanuel college, set sail for New
England, and left half his estate in endowment of a school or
college devoted to the education of the English and Indian
youth of this country in knowledge and godlynes,' a school which
has developed into the Cambridge of the New world.
With the advance of the seventeenth century, and the growing
influence of puritanism, the position and relations of provincial
grammar schools became, for a time, considerably modified.
Hitherto, the close connection with the universities of most of those
which possessed any endowment—the necessary result of their
scholars being eligible to scholarships or exhibitions at one or
22_2


## p. 340 (#356) ############################################

340
English Grammar Schools
other of the colleges, while the master was generally a graduate
of Oxford or of Cambridge—had led to the education they imparted
being strictly classical in character and modelled on the require-
ments of a university curriculum. In Rutland, for example, the
statutes and ordinances given by Robert Johnson (archdeacon of
Leicester, 1599-1625), for the free grammar schools which he
founded at Oakham and Uppingbam, and drawn up in the first
year of the reign of Charles I, were strictly on the traditional
lines—the twenty-four governors being required to be chiefly
'parsons, including the bishop, dean and archdeacon of the diocese,
a‘knight, esquire, or gentleman' being only occasionally admissible;
the master was to be a ‘master of arts, and diligent in his place,
painful in the educating of children in good learning and religion,
such as can make a Greek and Latin verse,'—the usher 'a godly,
learned, and discreet man, one that can make true Latin, both in
prose and verse,' and bound ‘not to disgrace the Schoolmaster or
animate the scholars in undutifulness towards him. ' Such were
the conditions prescribed even by one who was the close friend of
Laurence Chaderton, master of Emmanuel college, Cambridge
(under whom that society assumed its especially puritan character),
and who sent his son, Abraham Johnson, to be educated there, with
the express sanction of the founder, Sir Walter Mildmay. In fact,
the influence of the local clergy, in the earlier part of the century,
made it difficult for a founder, desirous of introducing any innova-
tions with respect either to subjects taught or methods of in-
struction, to open a school, that claimed to be preparatory to the
universities, with reasonable prospect of success.
In the course of another ten years, however, the ascendency
gained by presbyterians and independents, first in the West-
minster assembly and, subsequently, in parliament, began to
operate, eventually culminating in the expulsion of the Anglican
clergy from both Oxford and Cambridge; and, however much such
a revolution in the character and composition of those bodies might
be deprecated, it could hardly be maintained that their condition
during the reigns of James I and his son was on a level with the
requirements of the times. In each, the course of studies was too
narrow, the discipline lax and the cost of living, for the ordinary
student, holding neither scholarship nor exhibition, a serious
obstacle. Among puritans and members of the church of England
alike, accordingly, those parents who attached importance to the
religious element in the education of their sons, and who could
afford to retain the services of a private tutor, often preferred to


## p. 341 (#357) ############################################

Summary
341
cam
keep them at home; but, if unable to do this, they would send
them to a 'private grammar school,' where Latin, Greek and,
sometimes, Hebrew, would be taught, although rather with reference
to Scriptural studies than the acquirement of a classical knowledge
of those languages. With families of the upper class, again, it was
a common practice for the eldest son, as soon as he reached the
age when he would otherwise have gone to the university, to be
sent to travel abroad with his tutor; and, with that experience,
the period of tutelage was supposed to reach its consummation. At
the larger public schools, however, it now became not uncommon
for pupils to remain until they had reached the age of nineteen,
or even twenty-at Eton and Westminster this was especially the
case and the maintenance of discipline became somewhat mor
complicated. It is with reference to such conditions as these that
John Locke, who, educated at Westminster under Busby and,
afterwards, as senior student and lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford
had had ample opportunities for forming an opinion, summed up
the comparative advantages of home and public school education
in the following words:
Being abroad [i. e. at a public school], 'tis true, will make your son bolder
and better able to bustle and shift among boys of his own age; and the
emulation of school fellows often puts life and industry into young lads. But
till you can find a school, wherein it is possible for the master to look after
the manners of his scholars, and can show as great effects of his care of
forming their minds to virtue, and their carriage to good breeding, as of
forming their tongues to the learned languages, you must confess that you
have a strange value for words, when, preferring the languages of the ancient
Greeks and Romans to that which made 'em such brave men,-you think it
worth while to hazard your son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and
Latini,
In other words, it was the aim of John Locke to place the
emphasis on education rather than on instruction ; and, throughout
the period with which we are concerned, there appears to have
been a desire on the part of founders to give the schoolmaster
a somewhat larger discretion. At Ashford in Kent, it is true,
Sir Norton Knatchbull and his nephew, although both of them
distinguished as scholars and patrons of learning, had retained
the limitation of the school which the former had founded (1632),
allowing it to remain as that of 'a free school for the instruction
of children of the inhabitants in Latin and Greek’; but, at Audlem
in Cheshire, founded by two citizens of London some ten years
later, their design is described as being the free instruction of the
youth of the parish, ‘in such authors of the English, Latin, and
ht
>
rating
1 Locke, Thoughts concerning Education (ed. Quick, R. H. ), p. 46.
>


## p. 342 (#358) ############################################

342
English Grammar Schools
Greek tongues as are usually read in such schools'; while Robert
Lever, in 1641, founded his school at Bolton-le-Moors in Lancashire,
for like instruction, not only in grammar and classical learning, but,
also, 'in writing, arithmetic, geography, navigation, mathematics,
and modern languages. ' Other founders preferred to use less
definite terms; and, in Huntingdonshire, the new school at Ramsey
(recently redeemed from the fenland) was, by mutual agreement
(1656), designated as 'for the education of the youth in the best
ways of religion and learning'-for which a precedent had been
set at Kidderminster, where, in 1634 (long prior to the association
of the school with Worcester college, Oxford), the words used were,
‘in good literature and learning'; while, at Bradford, incorporated
in 1662, we find ‘for the better bringing up of children and youth
in grammar and other good learning and literature. '
Generally speaking, the profession of a schoolmaster, at this
period, was only too truly described by a high authority, namely
archdeacon Plume (fellow of Christ's college, Cambridge, and
founder of the Plumian professorship in that university), as being
'in most places’ ‘so slightly provided for, that it was undertaken
out of necessity, and only as a step to other preferment''; while, in
1654, we find the preacher of the funeral sermon for Thomas Comber,
master of Trinity college in the same university, describing him,
when an usher at Horsham, as 'not like those now a days who
make their scholars to hate the Muses by presenting them in the
shapes of fiends and furies? ' This severity, not to say brutality,
in enforcing discipline, appears to have increased, rather than
diminished, subsequently to the restoration, and Plume insists
on the superiority, in this respect, of the schools attached to
cathedral and collegiate churches' over other grammar schools
throughout the country, where, he goes on to say,
schoolmasters are of late years so fanciful, inducing new methods and com-
pendiums of teaching which tend to nothing but loss of time and ignorance 3.
1 Account of Hacket, prefixed to his Century of Sermons, by Thomas Plume, D. D.
(1675), p. iv.
* Sermon at the Funerall of Dr Comber, by R[obert] B[oreman), B. D. (1654), p. 4.
3 Account of Hacket (u. s. ), p. xix.


## p. 343 (#359) ############################################

CHAPTER XV
THE BEGINNINGS OF ENGLISH JOURNALISM
In its origin, journalism was not the child of the printing press.
The germ of it is to be found in the circular letters sent round
after Agincourt and other medieval battles; and the profession of
a writer of 'letters of news' or 'of intelligence' dates from the
establishment of regular postal services.
Long before this, however, statesmen had found it necessary to
have a constant supply of news. In the days of queen Elizabeth,
Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, founded a staff of clerks in order
to provide himself with news. His establishment for this purpose
vied with that of the government itself. His clerks, Anthony
Bacon, Sir Henry Wotton, Cuffe, Reynolds and Temple, so plentifully
supplied him with intelligence that they were one of the sources
of his power. But these were not journalists writing for the public;
they were simply retainers of a great noble, members of a class of
whom the cultured and intelligent John Chamberlain, corre-
spondent of James I's ambassador, Dudley Carleton, is the chief.
Chamberlain's letters are numerous, and give graphic pictures of
life in London at the court of James I 1.
A long time elapsed before English journalism could call the
printing press to its aid. The royal prerogative in the circulation
of news, the vexatious licensing system, the regulations of the Star
,
chamber, together with the religious strife of the times, all com-
bined to prevent the publication of any sort of periodical until
1622, and all journals of domestic news until 1641, when the great
rebellion was about to begin.
of ,
[Printing] bath been a pestilent midwife to those accursed brats, Error in
the Church and Sedition in the State. Nor indeed, if a man may dare to
speak it, are the governors themselves wholly blameless for such incon-
veniences. For Printing being ever accounted among the Regalia of every
1 As to 'intelligencers,' cf. ante, chap. vin.


## p. 344 (#360) ############################################

344 The Beginnings of English Journalism
>
government, as well as coining etc. , it should be looked on with such a jealous
and strict eye, there should be such a circumspect care of prevention, and
such painful pursuance of misdemeanours as would be required against the
most dangerous crimes 1.
Thus wrote a pamphleteer, in defence of Oliver Cromwell
during the great press persecution of 1653, and the statement may
be taken as fairly representing the mind of all parties throughout
the seventeenth century.
The first traces of journalism in the printing press were in the
broadside ballads about battles and tragical events of the day. To
these were soon added isolated pamphlets usually termed Relations
of news; but pamphlets of this nature, describing domestic events,
were rare before 1640. In the meantime, periodical pamphlets had
sprung into existence on the continent; and these constituted the
bulk of the sources from which the English Relations were taken.
One of these books of news,'a chronicle of the wars in Germany, pub-
lished half yearly at Cologne', was written in Latin and had a large
circulation in England. This was the model upon which subsequent
English periodicals based themselves. Nevertheless, it evidently
dealt too much with affairs of state to allow it to be regularly
translated.
After the marriage in 1613 of princess Elizabeth with the
elector palatine, and the subsequent German wars, an English
periodical could not long be delayed. In May 1622, Thomas
Archer and Nicholas Bourne were authorised to issue periodically
pamphlets dealing with foreign wars. These periodicals usually
appeared at intervals of five days or a week, were not at first
numbered and never at any time had a regular running title.
This last device, properly characterised as a 'catchword,' did not
come into being until the year 1642, when it was occasioned by
competition. Other stationers, of whom Nathaniel Butter was
chief, joined Archer and Bourne as publishers, and, in 1625, Archer
alone appears to have published a periodical in competition with
Butter and Bourne. He made the first attempt at a 'catchword'
on the title of his periodical by styling himself (not the pamphlet)
'Mercurius Britannicus'-evidently modelling himself in this on
‘Mercurius Gallobelgicus. ' The headings of these pamphlets
usually varied according to their themes; but they were generally
* Sedition Scourg'd, or a View of that Rascally and Venemous Paper entituled; a
charge of High Treason exhibited against Oliver Cromwell Esq. , etc. , printed 20 October
1653, and probably written by John Hall.
2 The first number appeared in March 1594 and was written by Michael Jansen, of
Doccum in West Friesland, under the pseudonym Mercurius Gallobelgicus'; other
writers succeeded him.
6
- : ;
.
i 1! ona


## p. 345 (#361) ############################################

Gainsford and the Corantos
345
6
spoken of as the Coranto or current' of news that is, a
'relation' which ran on, instead of being confined to one pamphlet.
Sometimes, another Italian word, Novella, was also applied to the
Relations. For example, Joseph Mead wrote to a friend on
8 November 1623, 'I send you to-day besides the Corranto, a
double novella to the ordinary intelligence'—the Relation, in that
case, being the story of the fall of a building in which a number of
Catholics were listening to a sermon. Nevertheless, all Corantos
dealt exclusively with foreign news, down to the year 1641.
These Corantos were the subject of much ridicule, particularly
at the hands of Ben Jonson. Indeed, so strong a vein of personal
animosity towards captain Francis Gainsford, who, probably, wrote
the earlier Corantos, and towards Chamberlain, his probable pro-
tector, is to be noticed in Jonson’s masques and in his Staple of
Newes, that it may be surmised that, at some time or other, Jonson's
conduct in the wars in the Low Countries had been unfavourably
described by Gainsford. Be that as it may, the ill repute which
Jonson contrived to fasten upon the profession of the author of a
newsbook survived, and survived unjustly, for many years.
On 17 October 1632, the Star chamber finally prohibited the
printing of all Gazettes and news from foreign parts, as well
Butter and Bournes as others,' and, thenceforward, until 20
December 1638, no Corantos appeared. On the last date,
Butter and Bourne, by royal letters patent, were granted the
monopoly of printing foreign news: ‘they paying yearly towards
the repair of St. Pauls the sum of £10. ' No. 1 of the new 'news-
book’ was dated the same day, with the title An abstract of some
speciall forreigne occurrences brought down to the weekly newes of
the 20 of December. Anthony à Wood tells us that William Watts of
Caius college, who was also an Oxford doctor of divinity, wrote more
than 40 of these newsbooks,"containing the occurrences done in the
wars between the King of Sweden and the Germans. There was a
total absence of considered editorial comment in these newsbooks,
nothing but bare translations being permitted. The preface to the
first number is a very good example of the terminology in use :
6
The Currantiers to the Readers. Gentle Reader. This intelligencer, the
Curranto, having been long silenced and now permitted by authority to
speake again, presents you here at first with such things as passed some
months since; not because we conceive that they are absolutely Novels unto
you; but first, because there is fraud in generalities, we thought fit to
acquaint you with each particular: and, secondly, that by these antecedente
you may better understand the consequents which we shall now publish weekly
as heretofore.


## p.
346 (#362) ############################################

346 The Beginnings of English Journalism
Difficulties with the licenser soon followed; the Corantos were
again suppressed, reappeared and, finally, vanished altogether
among the shoals of pamphlets pouring from the press in 1641
and 1642. With the passing of the Coranto, came the 'news-
book' or Diurnall of domestic news,
In abolishing the Star chamber (5 July 1641), the last thing
which the Long parliament had in view was to grant liberty
to the press. Preparations for a censorship were at once
taken in hand, the delay until June 1643 in carrying them into
effect being occasioned solely by the struggle with the king. In
November 1641, parliament encroached upon the royal prerogative
by permitting Diurnalls of its proceedings (to which other news
was added) to be published under the imprimatur of its clerks.
There was but one post a week from London at this time, on
Tuesday, and the result of the permission was that, in a week or
two, as many as fifteen Diurnalls, undistinguishable save by their
contents and (occasionally) by the printers' or booksellers' names
attached, appeared every Monday, to the ruin of the scriveners,
who had been in the habit of sending out letters of news every
week. Copyright (at the time not supposed to exist at common
law) had been endangered by the abolition of the Star chamber's
licensers; and, if we bear in mind the scurrility which had previously
characterised political and religious pamphleteers and broadside
writers, it is not surprising to find that the crowd of counterfeit
Diurnalls and even more numerous Relations were dishonest pro-
ductions. Throughout the year 1642, both Houses were extremely
busy in punishing writers and printers, particularly of Relations;
a process only terminated in 1643 by the appointment of a
licenser-Henry Walley, clerk to the company of stationers
recognition of the 'catchword' or newspaper title, protection
of copyright and the wholesale stamping out of the forging,
counterfeiting and, occasionally, blasphemous writers of Relations.
Henceforward, journalists were a recognised body, their periodicals
became easily distinguishable and the Relations accompanying
them can be marked off and identified.
Of the vast, unique and practically complete Thomason
collection of tracts of the times, extending over the period
from 1641 to 1660, at least one third consists of newsbooks, and,
when to this are added the Relations and other tracts allied to
* A catalogue of this, in chronological order (each piece having been dated by
Thomason on the day he purchased it), was printed in 1908. The dates are nearly
always the days of publication and have been accepted in the text.


## p. 347 (#363) ############################################

wale
347
Huth
Pecke's Perfect Diurnall
bai
Det
12
the newsbooks, more than one half the total collection of over
22,000 pieces is to be ascribed directly or indirectly to journalists
of the day and to their associates.
To identify the writers and describe their work critically is, to
a great extent, the task of the student of history rather than that
of the student of literature ; for it is in their political and religious
significance that the greatest interest lies. Nevertheless, all the
main features of the modern newspaper were attained for a time;
the work of the descriptive reporter, the war correspondent and
considered editorial comment continually cropped up in the most
unexpected manner, and, occasionally, from the most unexpected
persons. These newsbooks were usually sold at a penny (about
four times the value of our modern penny) and, when there was
any repression of their number or their news, they were largely
supplemented by the uncensored letters of news posted with
them. Quantities of these newsletters are to be found among
the Clarke papers at Worcester college, Oxford. At their best,
the newsbooks, as they were called, consisted of two sheets, i. e.
16 pages quarto, and, whatever their size, were invariably called
books. ' A sheet was a pamphlet and nothing else. Throughout
the Stationers' registers, the term 'table’ is uniformly used for a
'broadside': 'news-sheet' and 'newspaper' were never used.
The first of the patriarchs of English journalism—the man who
first wrote purely English news—was Samuel Pecke, a scrivener
with a little stall in Westminster hall. A presbyterian enemy,
while attacking his moral character, admits that he did at
first labour for the best intelligence. Since he did not excite
'
much animosity in his opponents, the remark may be taken to be
correct. Even Sheppard says that Pecke tried to be impartial.
His Diurnall Occurrences of 1641 and 1642, printed first for
William Cook and, afterwards, for John Okes, Francis Leach and
Francis Coles, were soon followed by A Perfect Diurnall. Pre-
vious to June 1643, there were many counterfeits of this journal,
which lasted to October 1649, and was followed by another
Perfect Diurnall. This last began in December 1649 and ended
in 1655, and, at first, Pecke was only 'sub-author' of it. His
career then ended, and nothing more is known of him. Other
periodicals written by him are A Continuation of Certain Speciall
and Remarkable Passages, published by Leach and Coles in 1642,
and, again, in 1644–5; and a Mercurius Candidus in 1647. He
was twice imprisoned by parliament; once in 1642, for some error in
his intelligence, and, again, in 1646, for publishing the Scots papers.
28
ste
T
6
to
elite


## p. 348 (#364) ############################################

348 The Beginnings of English Journalism
Pecke was a somewhat illiterate writer, and, in his reply to
Cleiveland's Character of a London Diurnall, quotes Hebrew
under the impression that he is citing Greek. Except that he was
the first in the field, and that his news is more reliable than that
of others, there is very little to be said of his work; none of the
later developments, such as the leading article, advertisements
and so forth, originated with him.
Sir John Berkenhead began his Mercurius Aulicus at Oxford
in January 1643, and the appearance of this, the only royalist
periodical for some years, with its contemptuous ridicule of the
dishonest and illiterate parliamentary press, was an important
factor in deciding the two Houses to set on foot their wholly
beneficial licensing regulations in June. Sir John Denham's
Western Wonder has recorded the untruthful manner in which
Hopton's victorious hunting of Chudleigh from Launceston was
described in the Relations, and how an ambuscade on Sourton
down, on 25 April 1643, was magnified into a special intervention
of the Almighty by fire from heaven:
Do you not know not a fortnight ago
How they bragg‘d of a Western Wonder
When a hundred and ten slew five thousand men
With the help of lightning and thunder?
There Hopton was slain again and again
Or else my author did lye
With a new Thanksgiving for the dead who are living
To God and His servant Chidleigh.
A few months later, Mercurius Aulicus was secretly reprinted
in London. The Oxford and the London edition do not invariably
.
contain the same matter; but, apart from this, and from a differ-
ence in size of the two editions (the Oxford one being the smaller),
there is little to mark one from the other.
As a general rule, it may be stated that this periodical,
throughout the year 1643, and, indeed, until the royal fortunes
turned, is trustworthy, and markedly superior in every way to all
its opponents. Mockery was one of Berkenhead's most effective
weapons against his enemies; but (as will be shown) he was not
long to remain unopposed in the exercise of this weapon.
Mercurius Aulicus ended in September 1645; it was succeeded
in the same year by Mercurius Academicus, which lasted until
1646 ; and, until the autumn of 1647, these were the only royalist
periodicals which appeared. It will thus be seen that, save chiefly
in the years 1647 to 1650, there was practically no royalist press


## p. 349 (#365) ############################################

John Dillingham
349
Red
at all. Sir John Berkenhead was, also, the writer of the royalist
Mercurius Bellicus, which appeared for a short time in 1647 and,
again, in 1648. He became licenser of all books under the royal
prerogative at the restoration, before the passing of the licensing
act of 1662, but, except as licenser and friend of Henry Muddiman,
the privileged journalist of the restoration, he had nothing further
to do with journalism.
In spite of the vast number of titles of journals which
appeared between 1643 and the second and final suppression of
the press by Cromwell in 1655, the journalists of the rebellion
were but a small band.
John Dillingham, a tailor living in Whitefriars, was the writer
of The Parliament Scout, and, for a time, leader of the parlia-
mentary press. He was a presbyterian, opposed to independency
and, unfortunately for him, unorthodox in his views. This, together
with an attack on the parliament's general in a leading article, was
the cause of his newsbook being suppressed in January 1645. He
was permitted to continue writing The Moderate Intelligencer
in the same year (chiefly concerned with foreign news) until the
first suppression of the newsbooks in October 1649; but he then
drops out of view and no more is known of im.
Dillingham was so disgusted with his own side that he dared
to put in his newsbook, in 1648, the sentence Dieu nous donne
les Parlyaments briefe, Rois de vie longue. He was a bitter
enemy of Laud. A presbyterian critic wrote of him that he had
a snip at all men that stand firm to the covenant. The man is so prag-
maticall, that he thinks he can teach the Parliament how to order state
affairs, the Ministry how to frame their prayers and begin their sermons. . . .
He would be thought not only a deep politician, and divine, but a mathema-
tician too [i. e. an astrologer]. . . . God send us a speedy conclusion of Peace,
that we may have no further use of an army. And that the Moderate
Intelligencer may return to his trade, which I fear he hath almost forgotten 1.
As a matter of fact, Dillingham got into trouble because of his
leading articles, of which species of journalism he was one of the
first originators. In being persecuted, he was not singular; the
author of Mercurius Civicus (May 1643—December 1646) and
The Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer (January 1643—October
1649) shared the like fate. Mercurius Civicus was suppressed
for its too outspoken loyalty to its king. The writer of these
periodicals is known only by his initials R. C. He was a strong
presbyterian, a soldier and the journalist of Sir William Waller.
ใน
W
that
1 The copy of a Letter written from Northampton, 6 February 1646.


## p. 350 (#366) ############################################

350 The Beginnings of English Journalism
In Denham's Second Western Wonder (concerning the battle of
Roundway down), Mercurius Civicus is the 'book' referred to,
lady Waller the preaching lady and the Conqueror' Sir William
Waller himself.
When out came the book which the newsmonger took
From the preaching ladies letter
Where in the first place, stood the Conqueror's face
Which made it show much the better
But now without lying, you may paint him flying
At Bristol they say you may find him
Great William the Con, so fast he did run
That he left half his name behind him.
Mercurius Civicus was the first illustrated journal, and usually
appeared with some political or military leader's portrait on its
title-page. The woodcuts were nearly as bad as the rimes which
sometimes accompanied them. R. C. also wrote The Weekly
Intelligencer of the Commonwealth from 23 July 1650 to 25
September 1655, reviving it in 1659 (May to December). Shep-
pard says that R. C. was a scholar, and poor, owing to his loyalty
and to his presbyterian views. William Ingler, who is but a
name, wrote Certaine Informations in 1643 and 1644. Henry
Walley, the licenser, another strong presbyterian, was the writer
of The True Informer (1643—5) and Heads of Chiefe Passages
in Parliament (continued as The Kingdomes Weekly Account
of Heads) and other items, in 1648.
George Smith began his Scotish Dove in 1643. This was a
periodical remarkable for its fanatical opposition to any observ-
ance of the Christian festivals, particularly Christmas day. Smith
preached so many sermons on the subject in his journal that his
periodical is almost valueless for intelligence; and, at the last, in
1646, it was suppressed by parliament and ordered to be burnt by
the hangman for insulting the French. Smith modified his presby-
terianism in later years and became a somewhat hypocritical
advocate of Cromwell and his policy; his change of sides, however,
does not seem to have benefited him.
John Rushworth superseded Walley as licenser on 11 April
1644, and wrote The London Post, which appeared from 6 August
1644 to 4 March 1645, and, again, from 31 December 1646 to
February 1647. The sources of his Collections are thus in-
dicated.
At the end of August 1643, captain Thomas Audley appeared
with his Mercurius Britanicus as an openly scurrilous opponent


## p. 351 (#367) ############################################

Audley and Nedham
351
of Mercurius Aulicus. The two soon fell into a tiresome and
continuous wrangle which few, nowadays, will care to follow,
Audley was but a carpet knight, did not go to the wars and,
when Rushworth obtained leave to appoint a deputy licenser in
September 1644, acted as licenser in his stead. He was succeeded
in his "author's' chair of Mercurius Britanicus by Marchamont
Nedham, who carried his scurrility to such an extent that, in the
number for 4 August 1645, he published a Hue and Cry after the
king, couched in offensive terms. For this, Audley, his licenser,
was imprisoned and forbidden to license again, and Rushworth’s
clerk Mabbott was installed in his place. Nedham's scurrility,
nevertheless, continued to increase, and, on 18 May 1646, he
reached the climax, even attempting to make mischief between
the two Houses. He was sent to prison and was only released
on condition of not writing any more pamphlets. Britanicus
thus came to an end. Audley wrote Mercurius Diutinus (not
Britanicus) at the end of the year.
Daniel Border, another scrivener, and an anabaptist, was
the writer of A Weekly Accompt (1643); The Weekly Account
(1643–7); The Perfect Weekly Account (1647—a counterfeit
of the true journal of the same name); The Kingdoms
Weekly Post (1648); The Kingdoms Faithfull Scout (1649);
Englands Moderate Messenger (1649); The Impartial Scout
(1650); and, probably, other periodicals later. Walker was his
enemy, and his intelligence was defective; Sheppard calls his
principal newsbook the Scout an Augean stable. Simeon Ashe
and William Goode, the earl of Manchester's chaplains, were the
writers of Intelligence from his army in 1644. Durant Hotham,
son of Sir John Hotham and translator of the writings of Jacob
Boehme, wrote The Spie in 1644 (30 January-25 June).
Richard Little was probably the author of Mercurius Acade-
micus, Bruno Ryves wrote Mercurius Rusticus (a solitary
counterfeit, dated 26 October 1643, was issued by the poet
Wither) and Daniel Featly probably wrote Britanicus Vapulans
and Mercurius Urbanus. All these last were ephemeral.
In 1647, Henry Walker, the red-haired ironmonger nicknamed Beven
'Judas' by the royalists, first dared to make his appearance as a
journalist, writing under the pseudonym (an anagram of his real
name) 'Luke Harruney. ' Walker's output of books and pamphlets
as politician, as journalist, as religious reformer, as Cromwell's
preacher, as the apostle of Drogheda and Dunbar and, it must
be added, as forger and literary pirate, exceeds in number that
6


## p. 352 (#368) ############################################

352 The Beginnings of English Journalism
of any other writer between 1647 and 1655; not only was the
historical significance of some of them of great importance, but
his relations with Cromwell were so intimate, that any estimate
of the protector's character and career which fails to take into
account his connection with Henry Walker must be called in-
complete. George Fox, the quaker, in his Journal, has summed
up Walker's character. Charged by Walker with immorality and
sorcery, Fox has recorded in his diary that Walker was 'Olivers
priest,' always about him, and a liar,' a ‘forger of lies. '
These statements were strictly accurate. Walker began his
literary career in 1641 by being imprisoned by the House of
Lords for writing two libels in verse entitled, respectively, The
Wren and the Finch and The Prelates Pride. In consequence
of this, he fraudulently printed the name of William Prynne as
writer to his next libel-A Terrible outcry against the loytering
exalted Prelats. The forgery did not pass undiscovered ; and, on
20 December 1641, he was for the second time sent to prison-
on this occasion, by the House of Commons.
The title of his pamphlet, To your tents 0 Israel, which he
threw into the king's coach-into the king's face the day after
Charles's unsuccessful attempt to arrest the five members, is better
known. This sent his printer, Thomas Paine, to prison', while Walker
himself was put in the pillory, and he then vanished altogether
from the public eye, taking service in the army. When he
reappeared as ‘Luke Harruney,' writer of Perfect Occurrences of
Every Dayes Journall, it was in succession to John Saltmarsh
the army preacher, to whose memory, after his death at the end
of the same year, he paid the tribute of a pamphlet of forged
prophecies? . Another forgery, in 1647, was The bloudy Almanac
for 1648, by John Booker, with an illustration of the king kneeling
at the bar of the House of Commons on the title-pages. Yet one
more fraud was perpetrated by him on 3 February 1648, entitled
Severall Speeches at a Conference concerning the power of Par-
liament to proceed against the King for misgovernment-a theft
and adaptation of the Conference about the Next Succession to
the Crown of England attributed to father Robert Persons, the
1 Paine received a gratuity of £20 for this from the council of state on
19 September 1650. See Calendar of State Papers Domestic.
? A farcically silly pamphlet generally ascribed to Saltmarsh, printed by Ibbitson.
See Mercurius Melancholicus, 1–8 January 1648, p. 112.
3 December 1647, The bloudy Almanac for the present jubilee. By Mr John Booker.
Printed by John Clowes. See Mercurius Melancholicus, 18—25 December 1647, p. 98,
and Martin Parker's When the King shall Enjoy his Own Again (second edition).


## p. 353 (#369) ############################################

Walker, the Ironmonger 353
Jesuit, but really written by Verstegan. A much bulkier and
more pretentious volume, a translation of Hubert Languet's
Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, was issued from the press by
Walker on 1 March 1648 ; but it may be doubted whether he was
the actual translator? . When king Charles interceded for him with
parliament in 1642, stipulating that he was not to suffer either in
life or limb, Walker addressed his sovereign in terms of the most
extravagant praise, calling heaven to witness that he would lay down
his life for him, and eulogising his piety and goodness. If all this
be borne in mind and compared with Walker's The King's Last
Farewell to the World (30 January 1649), and his History of the
Life Reigne and Death of the late King Charles collected out of
Choyce Record, begun as a supplement to his newsbook in 1652,
and evidently suppressed by the licenser on account of its shameful
statements, it will be manifest that Oliver's 'priest' was also a
hypocrite.
After the death of the king, Walker became the principal
journalist of the day, was given living after living and was made a
preacher at Somerset house. To such a reputation did he attain,
that the man whose Hebrew anagrams in his Perfect Occur-
rences were the laughing stock of London was appointed Hebrew
lecturer in Sir Balthazar Gerbier's academy and delivered 'four
orations in exposition of the Hebrew . . . upon the first days
work of the Creation of the WorldNedham, at the same time,
applied for the post of lecturer in rhetoric but failed to obtain it.
Walker was the 'loving and affectionate friend' of Cromwell's
other and better known chaplain Hugh Peters. This religious
teacher was colonel of a regiment of foot at the taking of
Drogheda on 12 September 16495; and a letter from him, which
Walker received on 28 September 1649 and at once took to the
House of Commons, was the first authoritative news published of
Cromwell's proceedings at Drogheda.
1 William Walker, of Darnal, Sheffield, secretary to major-general Lambert,
was Henry Walker's brother (Add. MSS. 21,424, f. 203). The translation has
erroneously been attributed to him. See Gatty, A. , Hallamshire, p. 424.
? In Severall Proceedings, no. 143, 17—24 June 1652.
3 Severall Proceedings, Deo. (sic) 4–11 January 1650, p. 195.
+ The Second Charaeter of Mercurius Politicus. By Cleiveland, 23 October 1650.
B Master Hugh Peters, who is now to fight with the sword as well as the word is
made a Collonel of foote' (The Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer, 29 October 1649).
* The business of Mr. Peters regiment referred to the Irish Committee,' etc. , etc.
(Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 19 October 1649). *Your father Peters is a Collonell
and governor of Milford Haven,' Emanuel Downing to J. Winthrop, 29 February 1650
(Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 4th series, vol. vi, p. 76).
E. L. VII. CH. XV.
23


## p. 354 (#370) ############################################

354 The Beginnings of English Journalism
This letter explicitly said ‘none spared,' and, notwithstanding
the fact that the garrison consisted of only 2552 foot, put the total
slain (exclusive of Cromwell's men) at 3552. Walker could not
be prosecuted for making this disclosure, as the letter had been
read in the House, so he was prosecuted for publishing his news-
book on the same day without a licence'. In addition to this, the
extreme step was taken by the council of state of suppressing the
whole licensed press in order to prevent further disclosures. For
the seven weekly licensed newsbooks in existence on 28 September,
two weekly official journals were substituted, of which the first
numbers appeared on Tuesdays, 2 and 9 October respectively.
Of these periodicals, the first, A Briefe Relation, was written
by the council of state's own secretary Walter Frost, ex-manciple
of Emmanuel college. Frost, on the 21st, had been authorised to
write a newsbook on Thursdays, but now had to hurry his pro-
jected journal and publish it on Tuesday, 2 October, three days
earlier. To hide its real character, he marked the second and
succeeding numbers 'Licensed by Gualter Frost Esquire, etc. The
second official periodical was Severall Proceedings in Parliament,
written by the clerk to the parliament, Henry Scobell, and started
in such haste that it, also, at first came out on Tuesday.
A new licenser, the secretary of the army, had been appointed
by the act of 20 September 1649. This was Richard Hatter, and
he had licensed the newsbooks for the week beginning Monday,
1 October. The council of state, therefore, wrote, on 2 October, to
alderman Sir John Wollaston, that they did not know 'Hatter to be
secretary, and gave him instructions to fine the writers and printers.
Irritated at this denial of his office, Hatter continued to license for
another week; and, thus, further details of the massacres leaked out.
“None spared' referred to the inhabitants, and not to the garrison
of the town? ; there was treachery in obtaining the garrison's
surrender; and 1000 people had been butchered in St Peter's
church, the remark being added that mass had been said there
6
is
Perfect Occurrences, 21–28 September 1649, has a postscript stating that it was un-
licensed. A memorandum was made by Frost on the fly-leaf of an order book of the
proceedings to be taken against Walker. This appears calendared on p. 16 of the
Calendar of State Papers Domestic for 1650, is undated and is separated by fourteen
blank pages from the entries with which it is wrongly calendared.
? The comment on these two words of The Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer,
25 September-2 October, p. 1518, renders this clear. See, also, p. 1513.
8 The Perfect Diurnall, 1–8 October, p. 2695, glossed over as 'persuasion.