Synopses & Reviews
Since their publication in the Camden Series over 100 years ago, Sir Charles Firth's editions of the papers and New Model Army secretary William Clarke, Clarke Papers I-IV (1891-1901), have formed a fundamental source for students of the English Civil War and Interregnum, 1642-1660. This volume offers a further selection, deciphered for the first time since they were written by Frances Henderson, from the many documents which Clarke disguised in one of the rudimentary shorthand systems of his day. The new material consists mainly of the political intelligence which was being passed at every level from informed sources in London and elsewhere to English army headquarters in Scotland, where Clarke was based during the 1650s. The text is fully annotated. Appendices include a list of correspondents identified by Clarke in shorthand letters otherwise written en clair, and a survey of the use of shorthand in early seventeenth-century England.
Synopsis
This volume offers a selection from the many documents which army secretary William Clarke recorded in one of the rudimentary shorthand systems of his day. Clarke was secretary to successive commanders-in-chief, most notably George Monck. It is a fundamental source for students of the English Civil War and Interregnum.
Synopsis
Fundamental primary source for students of the English Civil War and Interregnum.
About the Author
Frances Henderson was born in Edinburgh and received her Doctorate from Oxford University. She is a former research associate of Worcester College, Oxford, and of Cambridge University, and writes and lectures principally on early shorthands and their place in seventeenth-century English history.
Table of Contents
Introduction; Extracts from William Clarke's Notebooks; Appendices; Select Bibliography; Index of Correspondents; General index.