Documents concerning the anti-enclosure riots at Gillingham. These papers, together with NP/73-74, constitute an important source for riots in the seventeenth century. The papers comprise:
- /1: 'A Relation of the Caryage of 700 souldiers that came to Shasbury to be billeted, sent from Portsmouth in Sept. Ano. 1642', 14 October 1642.
- /2: Letter from Thomas Brunker to Lady Margaret Bruce concerning the riots, 23 April 1643.
- /3: The state of the case concerning the Earl of Elgin touching a riot committed in the forest at Gillingham in contempt of an order of the Lords, June 1648.
- /4: List of rioters and abettors against whom witnesses are to testify, 1645; 2 sheets pinned together.
- /5: Affidavit of William Browne of Motcombe concerning the riots.
- /6: Letter from Thomas Brunker to Thomas Christie, attendant upon the Earl of Elgin at his lordship's house in Clerkenwell, sending witnesses against 'some of the prime and ablest offenders in the forrest business', particularly Richard Henbury, constable.
- /7: Mr Browne's copy of the order of the Lords and Commons to the deputy lieutenants and county committee to investigate the riots and to commit offenders to prison.
- /8: Note of information from Mr Brunker of the names and offences of the rioters at Gillingham, 6 May 1643.
- /9: Affidavit of John Reade naming the rioters, 8 June 1643.
- /10: Affidavit of Morgan Horder of Gillingham, yeo.
- /11: Letter from Sir James Fullerton setting out the proceedings in Star Chamber against the rioters in Gillingham forest, 18 October 1628.
- /12: Note of the names of the rioters of Gillingham and Mere.
- /13: Mr Whitacre's form of order for suppressing the riot at Gillingham and sending up the offenders, October 1645.
- /14: Copy of an order of the House of Lords for repressing riots in Hatfield Chase, having some affinities with the case at Gillingham, 10 December 1645.
- /15: Mr Bunker's note of the names of the 'ablest Rioters and Abettors in the Forrest of Gillingham that are fit to be proceeded against', January 1645/6.
- /16: Letter from Thomas Brunker to Thomas Christie, 'desiring to know if he shall enter on Topps ground, he being sequestered, sending hereby a note of the names of the cheife ryoters', 20 January 1645/6.
- /17: Letter from Thomas Brunker to Thomas Christie, requesting an order to apprehend some of the rioters and to bring them to Parliament, 13 September 1645.
- /18: Copy of an order for the keeper of Newgate Prison to appear before the House of Lords to explain the escape of Richard Butler, one of the Gillingham rioters.
On the Gillingham riots, see David Underdown, Revel, riot, and rebellion: popular politics and culture in England 1603-1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 161-2.