Conspiracy, Congregation, Company, and Commerce in England, 1680–1688: The Narratives of Edward Massey of Braintree

In 1683, Edward Massey, an obscure office-holder in Braintree, Essex, provided the state with one of the most explosive accounts of conspiratorial activities in England during the so-called ‘Exclusion Crisis’. Massey, a prisoner in the King's Bench, named dozens of individuals in his native Essex, as well as the West Country and London, who apparently aired seditious grievances with King Charles II and his Roman Catholic brother and heir, James, Duke of York, and compassed participation in a national plot to ensure the succession of a Protestant in the form of Charles's illegitimate son, James, Duke of Monmouth. The colourful details of the alleged conspiracy bear reproduction in this article. Nevertheless, the difficulty of crediting the most radical implications of Massey's narratives calls for a cautious assessment of their reliability and value to historians. Fortunately, additional evidence enables us to treat Massey's account as a detailed testimony of how those marginalised by the Stuarts’ post-Restoration settlements were able to mobilise behind and sustain their discontents, and the anxious secrecy and cautious trust which, amid heightened state surveillance, defined their encounters. Moreover, the article demonstrates how necessarily secretive political and religious networks mapped onto, and drew strength from, bonds which were forged in experiences of parochial administration and business, particularly the production of and trade in cloth. The result is an account of the Restoration's ‘politics of religion’ which highlights the communicative and ideological importance of the politics of local office and (inter)national trade.