

                           NEWDIGATE NEWSLETTERS

                         NUMBERS  1 THROUGH  2100

                  (3 JANUARY 1673/4 THROUGH 11 JUNE 1692)


                         TRANSCRIBED AND EDITED BY

                              PHILIP HINES, JR.






                                    1994

                       THE NEWDIGATE N
in the Newdigate series.  The whole collection has 3950 such letters,
most of them addressed to Sir Richard Newdigate (d. 1710), Arbury,
Warwickshire; they date from 13 January 1673/4 to 29 September 1715 and
are now at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D. C.  They were
issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays by the Secretary of State's
office and were usually written on three sides of a bifolium--the first
recto, then first verso, then second recto.  The scribe next turned the
sheet sideways and filled the left margins of the three pages in inverse
order, ending on the first recto (except in the very few cases when
letters continued through the upper third or--rarely--upper half of the
second verso).  He then folded the letter in thirds and addressed it on
the (usually) blank second verso.  Letters in the present edition come
up through 11 June 1692.
     These letters are especially valuable as primary-document sources,
with much matter of intrinsic interest on the Stuart courts and those
of most of Europe; on social, diplomatic, and military history;
parliamentary news; commercial and maritime relations, particularly
those with the colonies in North America and the Indies, West and East.
They report on the whole history of the Popish Plot.  They have seventeen
items, from 29 December to 15 March, on activities on the River Thames
during the Great Frost of 1683-84.  They cast light on the early history
of the press in England.  Indeed, they cover nearly all the period from
the Restoration to the Hanoverian succession, when newsletters began in
Britain on a regular basis and then became the most important medium for
domestic news, their spread much stimulated by the coming of the penny
post in 1680.
     My intention has been to let the worth of these unedited letters
speak for itself, to change as little of the original spelling and
punctuation as possible so as to preserve content, style, tone, and
linguistic integrity.  In fact, this edition began as an aid to readers
of the handwritten letters.  The collection is readable and clear in
such a printed form.  I have thus made a good road through the often
difficult, crowded, and faded "terrain" of the several handwritings,
enabling a reader to examine not eight or ten letters per day but perhaps
seventy-five or more.  If the problem has been that until recently few
scholars could find a sufficient number of newsletters to study, this
edition makes such a collection both accessible and easy to read.
     Since sentences in the letters frequently lack terminal punctuation,
I have been very careful to observe an interval of two spaces between
sentences; I omit the address to Newdigate on the second verso, and from
the relatively few letters that have them I omit salutations (usually
"Sr" or "Sir," often elaborately written).  Others of my editorial rules
are:
    -I indent the first line of paragraphs as the scribes do--three
     spaces or five (usually five)--and regularize larger indentations
     at five spaces.

    -I use the plus sign (+) to show the start of a new paragraph
     when the scribes do not indent, as they frequently do not at
     the beginning of letters and at the start of a paragraph at
     the top of a verso or new folio.
    -I note, usually at the start of letters, changes in handwriting
     since most changes occur there.  In very few cases changes come
     within a letter, but almost never more than once.  Some evidence
     emerges that letters were at least slightly edited, for at times
     a word is added or an error corrected in another contemporary
     hand.
    -I omit catchwords and words clearly repeated in error.
    -When it is necessary to omit a blotted or illegible word or
     phrase, I note the size of the omission.  (An example is in
     the first paragraph of Letter 1.)
    -When a whole letter, a paragraph, or a sizable part (usually
     three or more lines) is identical with or very similar to an
     earlier part, I so note and omit the repetition.  (An example
     is in Letter 56.)
    -I omit hyphens often placed on each side of written numbers
     (e. g., "-2-," "-5-").
    -I regularize when in doubt that a letter is upper or lower case.
    -I put editorial notes in the text and then only when absolutely
     necessary.  In the notes the phrase "outside of letter" is
     interchangeable with "second verso."
    -I make three small concessions to modern technology:
       1. I regularize superior letters.
       2. I omit punctuation marks under such letters.
       3. I omit the few circumflexes over vowels (e. g.,
           "th," "thr,") and print dates in this form--
           "Sept. 12/22" or "Dec. 20/30"--that the scribe
                  __ __           __ __


           writes "Sept. 12" or "Dec. 20."

Dates on the letters are all old style.  The Folger Library's call
numbers for the letters start at L. c. 1 and end at L. c. 3950.  I use
this system to number the letters in this edition.
     These letters cover more years than does Narcissus Luttrell's
"Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs" (6 vols., Oxford, 1857,
reprinted Wilmington, Del., 1974), which extends from late September
1678 to 1 April 1714.  The works have many items that are similar but
never identical; Luttrell's are usually briefer, less specific, and
often of later date, at times appearing to be from the same source as
Newdigate's but edited.  Also, gaps occur in both series, Newdigate's
having fifteen of from a month to almost four years:
    -22 May--23 June 1674
    -11 December 1684--18 February 1685/6 except for one letter on
     9 January 1685/6
    -24 March 1687/8--23 October 1688
    -26 September 1689--10 November 1691 except for single letters
     on 16 and 30 January, 20 March 1689/90, and 7 February 1690/1
    -7 January 1691/2--4 June 1692
    -23 June--20 August 1692
    -23 March 1696/7--18 January 1700/1
    -20 March 1700/1--30 May 1704 except for an undated letter and
     other single letters on 5 July 1701, 14 May, 9 July, 20 August,
     and 13 and 20 October 1702
    -27 June--19 September 1704
    -2 February 1705/6--30 March 1706
    -8 May--1 July 1707
    -6 September 1707--10 February 1707/8 except for single letters
     on 8 October and 6 December 1707 and two letters on 1 January
     1707/8
    -30 July--17 September 1709
    -22 December 1709--2 April 1712 except for single letters on 16
     March 1709/10 and 8 June 1710 and an undated letter
    -11 August--15 October 1713
(See below, pp. 9-11, for a different presentation of these gaps.)
Luttrell's work has only two such gaps, 31 March 1711 to 1 January 1711/2
and 9 February 1711/2 to 25 March 1714.  But since he has entries for
only seventeen days in January and early February 1711/2 and four days
in late March 1714, his coverage in effect ends with 31 March 1711.
(Similarly, the two largest gaps in Newdigate, March 1696/7 to January
1700/1 and March 1700/1 to late May 1704, connected by only the twenty-
six letters of January, February, and March, 1700/1 and the seven others
until almost June 1704, make in effect a "crater" of more than seven
years in the coverage of this series.)  Of course, both works have dozens
of smaller gaps.
     Further as to two gaps in Newdigate cited above, the second one
shows that the collection is silent upon the last two months of Charles
II's reign, his final illness and death, and the first year of James II's
reign.  Even so, more than 340 letters are dated within the rest of
James's tenure, and the letters feature no one or nothing more than they
do the sovereign.  And a note in Newdigate's hand on the second verso of
Letter 230 shows that he knew of the first gap:
              R. H. Newes being a transcript of
              Sr Joseph Williamson from ye 13 of Jan: 73/4
              at wch time I began to have them untill the
              1st of Oct 75. but many are wanting viz
              all May June 74 & Mar. 75 and many others.
But this note raises confusion too: the collection has ten letters from
May 1674 (including two each on 2 and 9 May) and three from late June.
And from March 1674/5--to which the note must refer--the collection has
fourteen letters (including two on 18 March) with only one four-day gap;
from March 1675/6--which is later than the last date in the note--it has
eleven letters (including two on 4 March) and one six-day gap; even in
March 1673/4 it has eleven letters (including two on 14 March) and a
four-day and an eight-day gap.  So which March is meant?  Perhaps the
letters from "Mar. 75" were acquired later since it is very unlikely that
those from Williamson are just part of the collection.  Or perhaps the
note-writer has made an error.  (Williamson was Under-Secretary of State,
1660-74; Secretary of State, 1674-79; and Keeper of State Papers and of
the Royal Library, 1661-1701.)
     Other good points are made in the next five indented paragraphs and
list of letters per month, 1674-1715, quoted from the Folger Library's
brief "Key" to the series, although some points have to do with letters
later than June 1692.  The "Key" also uses the note just discussed
above:

   That these were at the beginning the official Newsletter of
   Sir Joseph Williamson is shown by the pencilled note in Sir
   Richard Newdigate's hand on the verso of L. c. 230, 28 Sep. 1675.
   That at least two other newsletters are included is suggested by
   the following evidence:
   a. Letters of Henry Muddiman: L. c. 1411, 2 Aug. 1683 gives proof
      through the note on its verso that Sir Richard also subscribed
      to the letters of his personal friend, Muddiman.  (The Whitehall
      heading is, in itself, sufficient identification.)  These letters
      ran regularly for a period of several months.  Now and then they
      appear at other times ... as may be seen in ... L. c. 2317, 28 Apr.
      1694....
      b. In 1708 and 1709 a second series of letters appears once again.
      Letters received during that period were dated and identified on
      the verso, one of the following codes being usual: nNl, oNL, WNL,
      DNL.  On L. c. 3271 and 3272, however, is found "6 nov 1708 News
      old" and "Nov 6: 1708 new N'let."  News old is equal to oNL which,
      in turn, is equal to W[for Williamson]NL.  The identification of
      the DNL is still in doubt, at least from the evidence of the
      letters alone.  Williamson's letters were franked, while those of
      "D" were paid.
   That the newsletters were usually sent out with a one page
   printed advice ("The Gazette"?--see L. c. 2360 which is the only
   printed matter in the collection) is easily seen by the frequency
   of faint fresh ink transfers on the first page.
   Ordinarily ... 12, 13, or 14 [letters were sent] each month.  In
   some periods two were occasionally sent on the same day, and for a
   time during 1708 and 1709 this became common practice (there being
   22 letters each for June and October 1708).  In all parts of the
   42-year span there were small irregularities in the spacing.  ...also,
   letters appear to have been lost, so that there are many gaps....  It
   is impossible to determine how many of these losses occurred after
   Newdigate received the letters and how many, if any, resulted from
   loss in transit.  It is possible also that for some periods, long or
   short, the letters were not sent.  There are indications, however,
   that losses did occur after receipt.  The total of the gaps may be
   appreciated by calculating that 13 letters per month would have
   amounted to 6500 letters over the whole period, while what we have
   are 3950, or approximately 60 percent.
   In the list below, for each month the date of the first letter is
   given, followed by the Folger serial number.  From these numbers it
   will be apparent how many letters will be found for any month.  ...
   for ... simplicity the dates are [here] modernized.  Undated letters
   (of which there are perhaps a score) remain in the positions in which
   they were found in the bound volumes.





    1674          1675           1676           1677          1678
  Jan 13 1      Jan 2  128     Jan 1  270     Jan 3  418     Jan 3  571


  Feb 3  11     Feb 2  141     Feb 2  283     Feb 3  430     Feb 2  585


  Mar 3  24     Mar 1  151     Mar 4  295     Mar 1  442     Mar 2  596


  Apr 2  35     Apr 1  165     Apr 1  306     Apr 1  456     Apr 4  610


  May 2  43     May 1  177     May 3  320     May 4  470     May 2  621


  Jun 23 53     Jun 1  189     Jun 2  330     Jun 1  481     Jun 1  635


  Jul 4  56     Jul 1  200     Jul 4  343     Jul 3  496     Jul 1  648


  Aug 1  67     Aug 5  209     Aug 1  356     Aug 4  509     Aug 1  662


  Sep 3  78     Sep 4  221     Sep 1  369     Sep 7  522     Sep 2  676


  Oct 1  88     Oct 2  232     Oct 3  383     Oct 3  534     Oct 3  689


  Nov 1  102    Nov 2  246     Nov 1  392     Nov 1  546     Nov 1  699


  Dec 1  114    Dec 2  259     Dec 1  405     Dec 1  559     Dec 2  713
    1679          1680           1681           1682           1683
  Jan 2  727    Jan 1  881     Jan 4  1028    Jan 3  1168    Jan 2  1319


  Feb 1  740    Feb 2  895     Feb 1  1036    Feb 2  1179    Feb 1  1332


  Mar 1  753    Mar 1  907     Mar 1  1048    Mar 2  1188    Mar 1  1344


  Apr 3  767    Apr 1  919     Apr 2  1060    Apr 1  1200    Apr 3  1358


  May 1  779    May 1  929     May 3  1071    May 4  1214    May 1  1370


  Jun 2  792    Jun 3  942     Jun 4  1083    Jun 1  1224    Jun 2  1384


  Jul 3  805    Jul 1  954     Jul 2  1095    Jul 1  1236    Jul 3  1397


  Aug 2  818    Aug 3  968     Aug 4  1108    Aug 1  1252    Aug 2  1410


  Sep 1  829    Sep 7  979     Sep 1  1119    Sep 2  1269    Sep 1  1427


  Oct 2  843    Oct 2  990     Oct 1  1132    Oct 3  1282    Oct 2  1444


  Nov 1  856    Nov 1  1002    Nov 5  1144    Nov 2  1295    Nov 1  1458


  Dec 1  868    Dec 1  1015    Dec 1  1155    Dec 2  1307    Dec 6  1464
    1684          1685          1686           1687           1688
  Jan 1  1472                 Jan 9  1626    Jan 1  1755    Jan 3  1903


  Feb 2  1491                 Feb 18 1627    Feb 1  1768    Feb 2  1916


  Mar 1  1504                 Mar 2  1631    Mar 1  1779    Mar 1  1922


  Apr 1  1517                 Apr 1  1642    Apr 2  1792


  May 1  1530                 May 1  1654    May 3  1804


  Jun 3  1544                 Jun 1  1665    Jun 2  1815


  Jul 1  1556                 Jul 1  1676    Jul 2  1828


  Aug 2  1570                 Aug 3  1690    Aug 2  1838


  Sep 2  1583                 Sep 2  1703    Sep 1  1851


  Oct 2  1596                 Oct 2  1715    Oct 1  1864    Oct 23 1932


  Nov 1  1609                 Nov 2  1728    Nov 1  1877    Nov 8  1933


  Dec 2  1621                 Dec 2  1742    Dec 1  1889    Dec 1  1942



    1689          1690           1691           1692           1693
  Jan 1  1955   Jan 16 2068                   Jan 2  2095    Jan 3  2123


  Feb 2  1967                  Feb 7  2071                   Feb 2  2134


  Mar 2  1983   Mar 20 2070                                  Mar 2  2146


  Apr 2  1997                                                Apr 1  2159


  May 2  2010                                                May 2  2172


  Jun 1  2023                                 Jun 4  2098    Jun 6  2182


  Jul 2  2035                                                Jul 1  2193


  Aug 1  2047                                 Aug 20 2105    Aug 1  2203


  Sep 3  2059                                 Sep 13 2106    Sep 2  2217


                                                   Oct 4  2111    Oct 3
2229

                                  Nov 10 2072    Nov 3  2115    Nov 2
2242

                                  Dec 1  2081    Dec 6  2119    Dec 2
2254
    1694          1695           1696           1697           1698
  Jan 2  2268   Jan 1  2415    Jan 2  2567    Jan 2  2716


  Feb 1  2281   Feb 2  2429    Feb 1  2579    Feb 2  2729


  Mar 1  2294   Mar 2  2441    Mar 3  2591    Mar 2  2745


  Apr 3  2308   Apr 2  2454    Apr 2  2604


  May 3  2318   May 2  2467    May 2  2617


  Jun 2  2330   Jun 1  2480    Jun 2  2631


  Jul 3  2342   Jul 2  2491    Jul 2  2644


  Aug 4  2355   Aug 1  2502    Aug 1  2652


  Sep 1  2366   Sep 3  2516    Sep 1  2663


  Oct 2  2378   Oct 1  2528    Oct 1  2676


  Nov 1  2392   Nov 2  2542    Nov 3  2690


  Dec 1  2404   Dec 3  2554    Dec 1  2702
    1699          1700           1701           1702           1703
                                  Jan 18 2755


                                  Feb 1  2761


                                  Mar 1  2772
                                                   May 14 2782
                                  Jul 5  2781    Jul 9  2783


                                                   Aug 20 2784
                                                   Oct 13 2785




    1704          1705           1706           1707           1708
                  Jan 2  2837    Jan 1  2963    Jan 2  3092    Jan 1  3157


                  Feb 1  2850    Feb 2  2977    Feb 1  3104    Feb 10 3159


                  Mar 1  2862    Mar 30 2978    Mar 1  3117    Mar 2  3166


                  Apr 3  2874    Apr 4  2979    Apr 5  3131    Apr 1  3171


  May 30 2787   May 1  2881    May 4  2986    May 3  3133    May 1  3173


  Jun 3  2788   Jun 2  2890    Jun 1  3000                   Jun 1  3185


                  Jul 5  2903    Jul 2  3014    Jul 1  3136    Jul 13 3208


                  Aug 2  2912    Aug 1  3027    Aug 5  3143    Aug 5  3216


  Sep 19 2794   Sep 1  2923    Sep 3  3041    Sep 6  3154    Sep 4  3232


  Oct 3  2800   Oct 2  2935    Oct 1  3053    Oct 18 3155    Oct 2  3247


  Nov 2  2812   Nov 1  2947    Nov 2  3066                   Nov 2  3269


  Dec 2  2824   Dec 6  2957    Dec 3  3079    Dec 6  3156    Dec 2  3286
    1709          1710           1711           1712           1713
  Jan 1  3297                                                Jan 1  3557


  Feb 1  3319                                                Feb 3  3571


  Mar 1  3335   Mar 16 3454                                  Mar 3  3583


  Apr 2  3357                                 Apr 2  3457    Apr 7  3598


  May 3  3376                                 May 1  3460    May 2  3609


  Jun 2  3399   Jun 8 3455                    Jun 3  3471    Jun 2  3622


  Jul 5  3415                                 Jul 1  3481    Jul 2  3635


                                                   Aug 5  3493    Aug 4
3648

  Sep 17 3435                                 Sep 2  3505


  Oct 11 3436                                 Oct 2  3518    Oct 15 3651


  Nov 5  3438                                 Nov 1  3531    Nov 3  3659


  Dec 1  3452                                 Dec 2  3544    Dec 1  3671
    1714          1715
  Jan 2  3685   Jan 1  3840         10 Oct 1745 is to be found as


  Feb 2  3698   Feb 1  3852         L. c. 749 -- it is not a newsletter.


  Mar 2  3710   Mar 1  3863


  Apr 1  3723   Apr 2  3875


  May 1  3736   May 3  3888


  Jun 1  3748   Jun 2  3901


  Jul 1  3762   Jul 2  3914


  Aug 3  3776   Aug 2  3927


  Sep 2  3789   Sep 1  3940


  Oct 2  3803


  Nov 2  3814


  Dec 2  3827
     I find few works that comment very much on newsletters: a biography
of Sir Richard with much matter from these newsletters and his other
papers; a biography of Henry Muddiman, perhaps the best writer of
newsletters from 1667 to 1689, when he ceased writing; a work on the
gathering of official intelligence by the two Secretaries of State and
their network of correspondents (especially Williamson's); an article on
John Dyer (d. 1713), "the best-known and most influential newswriter"
from the Revolution of 1688 to the Hanoverian Succession; and three notes
that record items on the theater, actors, playwrights, and entertainments
from the collection.  The first four of these works have good information
on the period, and the careers of Henry Muddiman and John Dyer cover all
but two years of the Newdigate series.  But newsletters of the time as a
genre need more studies with penetration and studies on the many other
aspects of the subject; newsletters are part of the history of
journalism.
1. Lady Newdigate-Newdegate's "Cavalier and Puritan in the Days of the
Stuarts" (London, 1901), the life of Sir Richard, also has information
from his diary and his account books.  For her the collection dates from
only 1675 to 1712.  After citing five "momentous events" from 1685, a
year of "overwhelming interest to Protestant England," she gives a
political explanation for the "ominous" second gap in the series:
"Charles II's sudden illness on ... February 2, ending in his death four
days later; James's accession to the throne; the subsequent risings in
Scotland and England, headed respectively by the Earl of Argyle and the
Duke of Monmouth; their speedy suppression; the capture of the two
leaders, followed by their death upon the scaffold....  It was probably
due to necessary precaution" that no newsletters were kept at this time.
"... with his pronounced opinions and well-known championship of ...
Monmouth, [Sir Richard] could hardly have escaped being a marked man....
Suspicion was rife on all sides, and ... warned by previous experience,"
he may have feared a raid on his papers.  "Otherwise we cannot suppose
that he voluntarily dispensed with ... intelligence which was afterwards
resumed and continued for many years...."  She also regrets the third gap
(of seven months in 1688): "In this last year of James II's reign we are
left in ignorance of the newsmen's version of the crisis ... impending.
They give us no subtle indications of the slumberous discontent which was
shortly to be roused" and which ended the Stuart kings' rule.  "Nor have
we any record of the ... advent of a Prince of Wales [and] ... disbelief
in the genuineness of the royal babe."  Not until October when Prince
William arrived "with a small following, to be rapidly increased in his
progress ... [do] the news-letters recommence...."  (x, 263-64, 264-65)
2. J. G. Muddiman's "The King's Journalist, 1659-1689: Studies in the
Reign of Charles II" (London, 1923; reprinted New York, 1971) is on Henry
Muddiman and his newsletters, which were "in a class apart" since he
wrote "with privilege" as the King's journalist, and which are easily
identified by the heading "Whitehall" that was reserved for him.  The
author discusses Muddiman's relations with Sir Joseph Williamson at
length.  Muddiman kept his monopoly of issuing the written news until the
end of 1687.  He kept drafts of all his newsletters with dates in a
"continuous journal from 1667 to 1689 ...."  The author says of the
journal that it "is the only complete record extant of the reigns of the
last two Stuart kings" and of Muddiman's newsletters that they "are one
of the most valuable records" of James II's reign.  Since practically no
state papers exist for that reign, the newsletters for those three years
"ought to be printed almost in their entirety."  Up to the Revolution of
1688 the "London Gazette" has little domestic news; "... Muddiman's
news-letters took its place."  Newsletters competed so well and so long
with printed news, particularly the "London Gazette," because the prints
could not carry without permission the votes and proceedings of the House
of Commons; newsletters had no such stricture.  To show Muddiman's
influence at Court, the author cites Sir Richard's asking Muddiman in
1677 for aid in declining a baronetcy that the King was to confer on him.
(vi, 125, 187n, 195, 204, 207, 245)
3. To Peter Fraser in "The Intelligence of the Secretaries of State,
1660-1688" (Cambridge, 1956) the great value of newsletters of the time
is that "they record the immediate reaction of the Secretaries or their
subordinates to the events of the day."  Until 1688 the two Secretaries
had a monopoly of licensed news, and up to 1676 only official newsletters
circulated, "each Secretary sending about a hundred of these per week to
a select list of domestic and foreign correspondents...."  In this medium
Henry Muddiman was famous as the most reliable source of news, many
people taking him in error as an independent journalist.  "... Williamson
repaid his correspondents in kind" by having a newsletter compiled that
took the best from the weekly letters of some fifty correspondents "from
all over the kingdom, added news of his own such as official appointments
and parliamentary proceedings, employed ... four or five clerks to
multiply the copy ... and sent out these newsletters every week as a
'quid pro quo' to all his correspondents and to ... 'country friends,'
who [paid] 5 p. a. for the privilege."  Money thus raised covered the
wages and upkeep of the office.  So no profit was made; the "chief
purpose was to get intelligence, not to sell it."  The best news usually
went to the newsletters to raise their value in exchange for other
(especially foreign) newsletters.  Abraham Casteleyn, who founded the
"Haarlem Gazette," put his best domestic news in his newsletters and sent
copies only to foreign newswriters who he thought could "send him a
newsletter of equal quality."  In fall 1674 Henry Ball, who managed
Williamson's "paper office," reported that he had four clerks who on post
days copied the letters.  Each man copied some with a week's news and
other short letters "with two days' news for ... correspondents who
[received] three newsletters weekly.  Late at night the letters were
sent, with a list of [addressees] to ... the Post Office."  Fraser
roughly analyzes the domestic correspondents of 1667-69:
  1. Lieutenants and titled persons in the counties who wrote only on


     extraordinary occasions and paid 5 p. a. for the newsletters....37
  2. Customs officers, naval storekeepers, and others in the ports....35
  3. Postmasters and others inland....................................23
  4. Governors of garrisons, commanders of fleets, etc................ 9
  5. Williamson's personal friends.................................... 9
  6. Privy Councillors and office-holders in London................... 6
  7. Unidentified persons............................................. 3After 1676 unlicensed newsletters grew in volume, sold by professional
newswriters, which the Secretaries tried to stop together with unlicensed
printed journals that spread with the Popish Plot.  Whig newsletters
(that sprang up at about that time) "were in general restricted to much
the same classes who paid for the Secretaries' newsletters, the nobility
and gentry in the counties, and the merchants, lawyers, and professional
men in the City.  The exception was that copies of Whig newsletters were
also by then bought by London coffeehouses and "reached a wide general
public."  (1-2, 8, 28, 30, 32-33, 34, 40, 44, 127)
4. Henry L. Snyder, "Newsletters in England, 1689-1715, with Special
Reference to John Dyer--A Byway in the History of England," in
"Newsletters to Newspapers: Eighteenth-Century Journalism," ed. Donovan
H. Bond and William R. McLeod (Morgantown, W. Va., 1977), 3-19.  Dyer, a
Tory who lived about sixty years, "seems to have begun ... his newsletter
soon after the Revolution" and was well known by 1693.  The Newdigate
series has more than 150 of his newsletters.  (4, 5, 7)
5. John Harold Wilson's two articles in "Theatre Notebook," "Theatre
Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters," 15, 3 (1961), 79-84, and "More
Theatre Notes from the Newdigate Newsletters," 16, 2 (1961-62), 59, have
a total of 59 references to the theater, actors, playwrights, and
entertainments of the time.
6. My "Theatre Items from the Newdigate Newsletters," "Theatre Notebook,"
39, 2 (1985), 76-83, has 76 such entries, including 23 from Luttrell.
     If the heading "Whitehall" safely identifies Henry Muddiman's
newsletters (see above, p. 13), then in this edition five early letters--
239 and 240, 19 and 21 October 1675; 331, 3 June 1676; 416, 30 December
1676; and 464, 17 April 1677--are his.  Other letters through 464 have
only a date at the top.  From that point through 751, 24 February
1678/9, more than two-thirds (about 195) of the letters are headed
"Whitehall."  Then "Whitehall" disappears, with no change in handwriting
at first, and is not used for four and a half years.  Nearly all letters
from 800 to 960 are headed "London"; handwritings then change, but
"London" heads nearly all letters through 2100.  However, from 1411, 2
August 1683, a Thursday, until the next 7 February Sir Richard received
on Thursdays letters headed "Whitehall" with the "W" written elaborately.
In fact, from 25 October to 20 December 1683 the series has only letters
so headed, including one--1460, 10 November, a Saturday.  These 29
letters, in my opinion, are the most likely of all to be Muddiman's.
(There are perhaps 20 to 24 different handwritings through 2100.  One--
"Ra: Hope"--prevails through 250; another clearer, easier-to-read hand
prevails from 548, 8 November 1677, to 962, 17 July 1680, and from 1467,
22 December 1683, to 2070, 20 March 1689/90, almost half the letters in
this edition.)
     Advice and help have come to me from many friends, colleagues, and
former students, all of which I gratefully acknowledge.  I wish especially
to thank Laetitia Yeandle, Manuscript Curator at the Folger Library;
Garland F. White III, former Director of the Computer-Based Laboratory
for Instruction and Analysis at Old Dominion University; and Henry L.
Snyder of the University of California, Riverside, Director of "The
Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue--North America," for much very
fundamental aid.  I thank the Research Foundation and the Research and
Publication Committees of the College of Arts and Letters and of the
Department of English (all of Old Dominion University) for grants-in-aid
in support of this project.  And for their faithful and effective help in
transcribing the letters I thank Eric Bing, Wayne E. Bowman, Kevin
Farley, Frances Johnson, Daniel Martin, Gwen McAlpine, Alison Rand, Nancy
Rector, and Mark Thorsen.
                                             Philip Hines, Jr.
                                             Norfolk, VA USA
June, 1994
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