The Uses of Scribal Publication in the Making of a Royalist: Henry Townshend of Worcestershire, his ‘diary’ and Parliament, 1640-3

Abstract

The ‘diary’ of Henry Townshend, which has recently been re-edited for publication, is a key source for the civil war politics of Worcestershire. This article explores the composition of what is a complex text, and sets it in the context of reading and writing when transmission of news and other information content both by scribal publication and by the medium of print were effective and authoritative. It examines in particular Henry Townshend’s use of accounts of events in parliament, and suggests that he showed a greater interest in understanding the failure of the first parliament of 1640 (the Short Parliament) than in the reforming achievements of the second (the Long Parliament). It is argued that Townshend was likely to have been embedded in a scribal community focused on his home territory, which is likely to have included the Worcestershire gentry and the higher clergy of the see of Worcester.