A critical edition of the letters of the Reverend Joseph Mead, 1626-1627, contained in British Library Harleian MS 390

Abstract

This thesis is a critical edition of the newsletters of Joseph Mead, Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge, contained in Harleian MS 390 in the British Library: these were written to a friend, Sir Martin Stuteville of Dalham in Suffolk, between January 1625/26 and May 1631. For the purposes of annotation I have concentrated on the letters for 1626 and 1627, which represent two-thirds of the manuscript (approximately 150,000 words); my Introduction, however, discusses the entire correspondence from 1621 to 1631, the first part of which is in Harleian MS 389. The thesis is in three parts. The Introduction begins with the manuscript itself: a discussion of its provenance and physical state followed by a detailed examination of its foliation. The last is crucial to an understanding of the manuscript. Not only are some of the contents of Harleian MS 390 placed in the wrong year: due to a misunderstanding of the contents by the librarian responsible for the current foliation the present arrangement of the leaves totally disrupts the order in which the letters were written and sent to Dalham. Only by reconstructing the correct order can we appreciate the means by which Mead prepared his newsletters, and hence the significance of his activities as a newsgatherer. After the establishment of the correct sequence of the correspondence the Introduction considers other aspects, beginning with an examination of the local society within which Mead and Stuteville lived: this includes biographical details of the two men and a study of the interrelation between Cambridge, Dalham and members of the local gentry community which both provided Mead with outlets for his news and many of his pupils. The Introduction then examines and analyses Mead's sources: from chance encounters in Cambridge to detailed (and sometimes highly senstive) information provided by his friend William Boswell, one of the clerks of the Privy Council. Based on my reordering of the foliation, the Introduction studies in detail the ways in which Mead prepared his newsletters: how, how often and when news reached him, how he used it, and how he was able to have it carried to Dalham (the last topic with particular reference to the difficulties he encountered). Through an analysis of Mead's marginalia and other comments his attitude to the news he received is examined, both with reference to events in the wider world and in Cambridge. This section also considers the influence of Mead's extensive studies in chronological and prophetic literature on his treatment of his material. His classification of his sources by subtle lexical differences is analysed, and related to the impact the emergence of widespread news reporting was having on the English language in the decades around 1600. A survey of the use of the letters in Harleian MSS 389/390 from c. 1720 to the present is also included. Mead's correspondence has been annotated with a wide range of manuscript and printed sources not only to corroborate his reports but also where necessary to demonstrate (and suggest reasons for) his mistakes; separate Textual Notes are provided. The Appendic~s contain a list and identification of the book purchases made for Sir Martin Stuteville in 1626 and 1627, the publication details of newsbooks for those years, and a conjectural attribution of the news material provided by two of Mead's major sources, John Pory and Dr. James Meddus.