Major-General Hezekiah Haynes and the Failure of Oliver Cromwell's Godly Revolution, 1594–1704

David Farr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000078831
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de la Grande-Bretagne

Hezekiah Haynes was shaped by the Puritanism of his father's network and experienced emigration to New England as part of a community removing themselves from Charles I's Laudianism. Returning to fight in the British Civil Wars, Haynes rose to become Cromwell's ruler of the east of England, tasked with bringing about a godly revolution, and in rising to prominence he became the centre of his own developing political and religious network, which included a kin link to Cromwell himself. As one of Cromwell's Major-Generals Haynes was tasked with security and a reformation of manners, but he was hampered by the limits of the early modern state and Cromwell's own contradictory political and religious ideas. The Restoration saw Haynes imprisoned in the Tower before emerging to return to the community in which he had been raised, and continuing the links with some of those he had worked with for Cromwell and the kin he had left behind in New England in dealing with the norms of early modern life.

This book will appeal to specialists in the area and students taking courses on early modern English and American history, as well as those with a more general interest in the period.

Part 1

1594–1655

1 The Economic, Kinship and Religious Networks of Hezekiah Haynes and the Development of a Puritan Activist, 1594 to 1642

Hezekiah Haynes was the younger son of a gentry family in Essex that retained links to kin in nearby Hertfordshire and Norfolk. Hezekiah was born in Hingham, Norfolk, in 1621. His father, John Haynes, had probably moved from Essex to Hingham in 1616 for his marriage, before relocating back to Essex with Hezekiah and his five other children by 1627. Hingham was a notable Puritan stronghold and on their move back to Essex in the 1620s, the Haynes family re-joined or became part of a significant Essex Puritan network. John Haynes was a committed Puritan, and it would also seem likely that Hezekiah himself, subject to such influences, came to share a critical attitude to the Laudianism that Charles I imposed through the 1630s. Through an examination of this background and the network in which Hezekiah developed, we can not only recover more of the picture of East Anglian Puritans like his father but also illuminate the context which shaped Hezekiah himself to take up arms in 1642 as a parliamentary activist. New supporting information on the Haynes family, their landholding, business interests and interaction with their kin can be gleaned through the use of the records of the Court of Chancery.¹ In Hezekiah’s case, Chancery proceedings particularly provide more details on the record of his financial transactions and interaction with kin that survive in the Essex Record Office and in doing so develop our picture of him, his family, his Essex estate and the functioning of a broad Puritan network in Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Essex and New England to which the Haynes family belonged as part of ‘overlapping and interlocking’ communities.² This also allows us to see how the Haynes network and interests developed in the century after 1594 in response to the impact of emigration, civil war, revolution and Restoration.

I

John Haynes, Hezekiah’s father, was born on 1 May 1594, an Essex man of ‘Puritan principles with the courage of his convictions’.³ John Haynes was from Old Holt (now Birch Holt), Essex, inheriting the estate from his father, another John Haynes, in 1605. The 1605 will of Hezekiah’s grandfather indicates the extent of the Haynes family’s wealth. As John Haynes was only 11 when his father died, a trust, referenced in the will and a 1606 Inquisition, was set up granting Old Holt manor for nine years to four men until John Haynes turned 21. One of these four men was Thomas Michell of Tewin, Hertfordshire, presumably kin of Haynes’ mother Mary Michell. One of the others, Charles Chiborne of Lincoln’s Inn, was to become kin as Chiborne’s daughter, Winifred, was to marry Emmanuel Haynes, uncle of Hezekiah Haynes, in 1634.⁴ This marriage, and that John Haynes married immediately at the age of 21 in 1616, may suggest some arrangement as part of this guardianship as can be seen in the case of the man who constructed the Cromwell’s Protectorate, Lambert.⁵

It is likely that by 1605, the Haynes family wanted to regard themselves, and be viewed, as gentry. Hezekiah’s letters to Cromwell’s Secretary of State, John Thurloe, have seals with family arms.⁶ When Hezekiah made the 1664 Essex Visitation return, he did not include any arms; yet, when his son, Thomas, made the 1687 London Visitation return, he did include the family arms, a different approach probably a reflection of Hezekiah’s insecure position in 1664, having only recently being released from the Tower. It was noted on the 1687 Visitation return that the ‘Arms produced by Mr Haynes from a Seal on the top of a Silver Inkhorn, wch. he alledged to be his Father’s’.⁷ The Major-Generals were to be derided for their supposed low social status, and while not part of the traditional ruling elite, the Haynes family was relatively prosperous. A Chancery Inquisition post-mortem of 1606 listed Haynes’ grandfather as holding various Essex lands in a number of closely connected parishes, all no more than six miles south-west of Colchester and close to the main Colchester road, Little and Great Birch, Messing, Layer Marney, Copford and ‘Rowen Hall’, probably Rivenhall.⁸ This proximity made these inter-connected communities.

The influence of Puritans across these linked communities is clear. Robert Ram, the Puritan rector of Great Birch c.1588–1638, served both Great Birch and Copford.⁹ Ram gave a monthly lecture at Great Birch and Copford and while in 1632 he assured Laud of his conformity in 1633 the church needed the books of homilies and canons and common prayer. In 1639, Ram was followed by another Puritan presented as a rector by the patron of Essex Puritans, the Earl of Warwick, Robert Thompson.¹⁰ From 1641, Thompson established himself as a landholder in Copford and in 1641, Thompson, with Hezekiah’s elder brother, Robert Haynes (1618–57), was a new trustee for the Copford ‘Mountjoy Gift’.¹¹ This was a bequest from the Mountjoys as the previous owners of the Copford estate and, alongside Allen Mountjoy, the previous rector of Copford Robert Ram had been a trustee. Robert Haynes and Thompson, as new trustees, were responsible for maintaining lands for ‘the poorest inhabitants of Copford’ and distributing rents to support them.¹² The interlinked nature of communities in this area is also shown by Thompson meeting with the Puritan minister of nearby Earls Colne, Josselin, and agreeing to ‘keepe a solemne fast at Coggeshall’.¹³ Josselin and Thompson attended a lecture at Birch and met on numerous other occasions.¹⁴ Josselin noted his part in the attempts, eventually successful, of Thompson to marry the eldest daughter of one John Little, kin of Haynes, in late 1646.¹⁵ Josselin also borrowed money from Thompson to purchase books and preached at his funeral in 1665.¹⁶ The proximity of these lands, Copford and Great Birch, to Earls Colne, seven miles to the north-west, also helps to explain the links that developed between Hezekiah, and his kin from 1636, the notable Puritan gentry of Earls Colne, the Harlakendens, and their appointee minister, Josselin.¹⁷

Hezekiah’s father also inherited lands in Codicote, and a messauge called ‘Haynes at Mill’ in Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, where Hezekiah’s grandfather was buried.¹⁸ Much Haddam was 35 miles west of Copford on the Colchester road.¹⁹ Records suggest that some Haynes interest was retained in Much Haddam into the 1660s.²⁰ Hezekiah’s uncle, Emmanuel, who had been at Old Holt, Essex in 1634–7 at least, was established at Much Haddam, Hertfordshire, at some point. Emmanuel, having married Winifred, daughter of Charles Chiborne of Messing, Essex, on Christmas Day 1634, had a daughter, ‘Winefred’, baptised in Messing on 24 April 1636. Their son, John, was baptised at Messing, on 3 December 1637 but the parish register recorded ‘Em. Haines and Winifred his wife of Old Holt’.²¹ That there are no further entries listing Emmanuel as of Old Holt after 1637 may relate to Robert Haynes, Hezekiah’s elder brother, coming of age and taking on the estate on Hezekiah’s return from New England. Emmanuel died in Much Haddam in 1653.²²

Advantageous marriages had provided the Chibornes with the means to extend Messing Hall and it may well be that Emmanuel’s marriage was linked back to the 1605 will of his father.²³ Messing was only two miles from Old Holt and 30 from Much Haddam. The Haynes family held land in Messing.²⁴ In his will, Chiborne allocated a substantial £2,100 for Winifred’s dowry, Emmanuel’s future wife. Chiborne was described as ‘religious, honest and greatly learned’, an impression reinforced by his 1619 will.²⁵ The 1647 will of Charles’ son, Hanameel, indicat...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 1594–1655
• Part 2 1655–1704
• Conclusion: Hezekiah Haynes and the Failure of Oliver Cromwell’s Godly Revolution
• Bibliography
• Index