10 News and the personal letter, or the news education of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 1660–71
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Lindsay O’Neill
Abstract
When scholars investigate the spreading of news, print plays a dominant role and if manuscript comes into play at all it is usually in the form of the newsletter. Letters usually take a back seat. This begs the question, what kind of news did people send by the post and what kind of ties did it create between centre and locality? This chapter uses the letters sent to Theophilus Hastings, the 7th Earl of Huntingdon, to answer this question. An inspection of these letters reveals two kinds of news correspondents and two kinds of news that circulated through letters. Hastings received his news from official correspondents, individuals from whom he solicited news and only news, and from family dependants during their travels. However, this conduit for news worked both ways. News from the locality mattered as much as ‘Citie News’. When Hastings travelled to London dependants sent him ‘Countrie News’ or ‘home news’. This type of news is often left unexamined. However, it was just as important for Hastings to be up to date on the politics of the parish as it was for him to know the politics of the nation.
Abstract
When scholars investigate the spreading of news, print plays a dominant role and if manuscript comes into play at all it is usually in the form of the newsletter. Letters usually take a back seat. This begs the question, what kind of news did people send by the post and what kind of ties did it create between centre and locality? This chapter uses the letters sent to Theophilus Hastings, the 7th Earl of Huntingdon, to answer this question. An inspection of these letters reveals two kinds of news correspondents and two kinds of news that circulated through letters. Hastings received his news from official correspondents, individuals from whom he solicited news and only news, and from family dependants during their travels. However, this conduit for news worked both ways. News from the locality mattered as much as ‘Citie News’. When Hastings travelled to London dependants sent him ‘Countrie News’ or ‘home news’. This type of news is often left unexamined. However, it was just as important for Hastings to be up to date on the politics of the parish as it was for him to know the politics of the nation.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Notes on contributors x
- Abbreviations and conventions xii
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 ‘A dog, a butcher, and a puritan’ 22
- 3 The Lord Admiral, the Parliament-men and the narrow seas, 1625–27 44
- 4 Space, place and Laudianism in early Stuart Ipswich 66
- 5 ‘Written according to my usual way’ 94
- 6 Diligent enquiries and perfect accounts 116
- 7 Provincial ‘Levellers’ and the coming of the regicide in the south-west 133
- 8 Sovereignty by the book 157
- 9 Local expertise in hostile territory 174
- 10 News and the personal letter, or the news education of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 1660–71 193
- 11 The news out of Newgate after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion 209
- Index 229
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Notes on contributors x
- Abbreviations and conventions xii
- 1 Introduction 1
- 2 ‘A dog, a butcher, and a puritan’ 22
- 3 The Lord Admiral, the Parliament-men and the narrow seas, 1625–27 44
- 4 Space, place and Laudianism in early Stuart Ipswich 66
- 5 ‘Written according to my usual way’ 94
- 6 Diligent enquiries and perfect accounts 116
- 7 Provincial ‘Levellers’ and the coming of the regicide in the south-west 133
- 8 Sovereignty by the book 157
- 9 Local expertise in hostile territory 174
- 10 News and the personal letter, or the news education of Theophilus Hastings, 7th Earl of Huntingdon, 1660–71 193
- 11 The news out of Newgate after the 1715 Jacobite rebellion 209
- Index 229
