VASSALL, Samuel (1586-1667), of St Mary Axe, London.

Vassall was descended from a French Huguenot family which arrived in London from Normandy in the sixteenth century ‘by reason of the troubles then there’.29Calder, Vassall, 5; Vis. London, 308. His father became involved in trade, fitted out two vessels and commanded one himself against the Spanish Armada, for which he was granted arms by Elizabeth I.30Calder, Vassall, 5-6. In 1604 Vassall began his seven-year apprenticeship in the Drapers’ Company under Abraham Cartwright, a wealthy London merchant and one of the founders of the Virginia plantation.31A. Brown, The Genesis of the United States (1964), 846. It was on Cartwright’s recommendation that Vassall was admitted to the freedom of the company in 1611, and the following year the young man secured his future by marrying one of his employer’s daughters, although the settlement promised by his father was not honoured by his step-mother, leading to a case in chancery.32Calder, Vassall, 6; C2/Chas.I/V8/25, 30. Vassall was actively involved in trade throughout the 1620s. He was a director of the Levant Company from 1620, inherited over £4,000 in East India stock from his father-in-law in 1628, and soon afterwards began trading with the American colonies in ships which he owned or chartered from others.33T.K. Rabb, Enterprise and Empire (Cambridge, Mass. 1967), 392; Cal. SP Col. E.I. 1625-9, p. 601; English Adventurers and Emigrants 1609-1660, ed. P.W. Coldham (Baltimore, 1984), 19, 24, 45, 56. His partners in the American trade included his brother-in-law, Peter Andrews, Matthew Cradock* and the Virginia planter, George Menefie.34Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 135-6.

Opposition to the crown, 1627-40

During the late 1620s and early 1630s Vassall was involved in a series of confrontations with the Caroline regime. In July 1627 he was imprisoned for refusing the Forced Loan.35APC 1627, pp. 422, 217-8. He was released in January 1628 and in the following March he was one of the incorporators in the Massachusetts Bay Company; he and his brother, William, acquired a large estate in Massachusetts.36APC 1627-8, pp. 217-8. In September of the same year Vassall was imprisoned for his stand against tonnage and poundage, having refused to pay the money demanded by the custom house on a large consignment of currants from the Levant. During his trial, which took place in May 1629, his counsel protested that ‘the customers had seized ten times as much of his goods as the impost came to’, and when ordered to pay the duty, Vassall refused, saying that as ‘the order did not constrain him to fetch them [the currants] away, he would let them lie where they were’ – a reply that led to his imprisonment for contempt of court.37T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Charles I (2 vols. 1848), ii. 81-2; Gardiner, Hist. of Eng. vii. 167-8; APC 1629-30, pp. 6, 9, 10; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. i. 641. Vassall’s goods were also detained, and in November it was alleged that one of his servants had broken into the king’s warehouse to recover part of the consignment.38CSP Dom. 1629-30, p. 89. In June 1630 Vassall was again accused of defrauding the customs by shipping a quantity of Virginia tobacco directly to Holland ‘to avoid further contention of that pretended duty’.39APC 1630-1, p. 19; CSP Dom. 1629-30, pp. 283-4. Despite Vassall’s denials, the ship and goods were detained and he was again imprisoned.40CSP Dom. 1629-30, p. 284. In the same period he was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to establish a colony of Huguenot refugees in Carolina and a scheme to attract more settlers to Virginia.41CSP Col. 1574-1660, pp. 112-3, 190-1; C.M. Andrews, Colonial Period of American Hist. (New York, 1912), iii. 189. Five years later, Vassall found himself in prison again for his opposition to Ship Money. He was released from the Fleet Prison in February 1635.42APC Col. 1613-80, p. 206. In the same year he was called to account for his actions in the quo warranto proceedings taken against the Massachusetts Bay Company, but unlike Cradock he did not make a stand on this issue. By this time Vassall’s trading interests were substantial and it was claimed that many people, especially those involved in the manufacture of cloth, were dependent on him for their livelihood.43CSP Dom. 1629-30, p. 391; 1637-8, pp. 104-5. He was by this time a controversial figure in the mercantile community. He was repeatedly in trouble with the Levant Company for refusing to pay the duties he owed them.44Pearl, London, 90. His involvement in the exportation of fine cloths to the eastern Mediterranean, which caused some alarm to the Venetian resident in the mid-1630s, was brought to an end in 1636 when he was banned from trading by the rival port of Ragusa.45CSP Ven. 1632-6, p. 461; 1636-9, p. 329, 338, 345; Oxford DNB. From the end of the decade he was involved in the trade to West Africa, not least in exporting slaves to Barbados, and was accused of interloping by the Guinea Company.46Oxford DNB. Throughout this period, Vassall showed no interest in holding municipal office and when elected sheriff of London in July 1639 he fined off rather than serve.47CLRO, Jor. 38, f. 295. Nevertheless, the government was very suspicious of his activities, and in September when his house was searched. Among his papers was found a remonstrance against Ship Money and several documents concerning the Presbyterian church in Scotland.48CSP Dom. 1639, p. 525.

Vassall’s rough treatment at the hands of the authorities increased his popularity in London, and he was returned to Parliament as its MP in March 1640. Although Vassall was clearly opposed to Charles I’s policies, in the brief session that followed he confined himself to matters of trade, and especially the redress of his own personal grievances. On 17 April he supported John Pym’s* speech on the privileges of the House and the grievances of the commonwealth, and it was noted that ‘Mr Vassall cried to have all the patentees out of the House’.49Procs. Short Parl., 235. On 21 April Vassall was appointed to a committee to consider the three subsidies and fifteenths granted in 1617, and on the same day he moved that the Commons should consider a petition by a merchant, complaining that he had been imprisoned and forfeited goods worth £2,000.50CJ ii. 8a; Aston’s Diary, 24. On 24 April he made the first of many attempts to have his own grievances heard and satisfied by Parliament by moving that his particular complaint of having £600 in goods detained from him by order from the privy council should be inserted as one of the heads for a conference with the Lords on grievances. But it was eventually decided that his grievance should only serve as an example under the heading of propriety of goods, and no separate resolution was taken in the business.51CJ ii. 12a. His later contributions were equally personal, as he took the opportunity to attack Archbishop Laud – who had been involved in the tonnage and poundage case a decade before – and to defend his own interests in the cloth trade. On 29 April Vassall presented to the Commons a list of popish books seized by customs officials and requisitioned by the archbishop, and he was ordered to attend a committee to manage a conference with the Lords on the same matter.52Aston’s Diary, 85; CJ ii. 16a. A day later, he intervened in a debate on Spanish wool, arguing that any prohibition would back-fire, as ‘they will carry it into Holland and take away our trade’.53Aston’s Diary, 99. After the dissolution of the Short Parliament Vassall was again the focus of unwelcome attention from the authorities. In May he was one of the leading citizens who refused to pay a loan to the government and were subsequently imprisoned.54Pearl, London, 74. In June the privy council accused Vassall, with his fellow merchant, Richard Chambers, of being the chief promoter of the London citizens’ petition to the king and he was again arrested ‘for seducing the king’s people’.55CSP Dom. 1640, p. 491; Pearl, London, 108. In the autumn he was re-elected as MP for London.

The early months of the Long Parliament

From the outset of the Long Parliament Vassall criticised the crown for its commercial policies while seeking to put it financial affairs in order. On 10 November he was ordered to search the records in the case of another persecuted merchant, John Rolle*; on 19 November he was added to the committee on trade monopolies; and on the same day he was appointed to the committee to prepare a subsidy bill.56CJ ii. 31a, 31b; D’Ewes (N), 521, 541. When raising money from the City was discussed in mid-November, Vassall informed the House that the coffers of the chamber of London were empty. He pointed out that ‘the Lords were already engaged to the City for great sums of money’ and ‘the business of Londonderry in Ireland did much exhaust the City ... to £160,000’. He suggested that the best way to raise the money was on the aldermen’s personal credit with some of them acting as treasurers for security.57D’Ewes (N), 34, 37, 538. When this loan was levied, Vassall himself contributed £500.58Bremer, Merchants and Revolution, 81n. On 24 November Vassall again reported from the City that they were not satisfied with the security for a loan offered by the House.59D’Ewes (N), 59. During December Vassall was appointed to other committees on trade, including those to consider petitions from English captives held in North Africa (10 Dec.) and from the adventurers and planters of Virginia (18 Dec.).60CJ ii. 48b, 49b, 54a. He was added to those appointed treasurers in the subsidy bill on 24 December.61D’Ewes (N), 189.

Vassall was also eager to gain redress for his own grievances. On 2 December Parliament considered the petition of Richard Chambers, concerning his losses incurred as a result of his opposition to tonnage and poundage.62CJ ii. 43a. Vassall took the opportunity to inform the House that ‘his grievances and oppressions for tonnage and poundage were not much inferior to Mr Chambers’.63D’Ewes (N), 94. Sir John Northcote* summed up Vassall’s sufferings as ‘16 times committed. £5,000 damage. Loss of his trade, £10,000 more. His credit impaired. Total £20,000’.64Northcote Diary, 24. An attempt by Sir Hugh Cholmeley to interrupt Vassall failed and, on the motion of Denzil Holles and Sir Walter Erle, his grievances were referred to a special committee.65CJ ii. 43a; D’Ewes (N), 94. In January 1641 Vassall did, however, manage to secure the return of his plate which had been seized by the City authorities for non-payment of Ship Money.66CLRO, Rep. 55, f. 32v. His goods impounded in the custom house for non-payment of duty were by this time in danger of perishing, and on 2 February Vassall brought his plight to the attention of the House, securing an order for their immediate return.67CSP Dom. 1640-1, pp. 479-80; CJ ii. 77a; D’Ewes (N), 311.

From the early spring of 1641, Vassall’s role widened to include more overtly political issues. When it was debated whether or not to commit the London petition on 8 February, ‘Mr Vassall moved that many able men’s hands were to the petition’.68D’Ewes (N), 337. The following day, when the supply bill was under consideration, ‘Mr Vassall wished it might not be moved to the City’.69D’Ewes (N), 345. On 11 February Vassall was added to the committee for the king’s army when it considered the money raised by imposts on wine.70CJ ii. 83a. On 23 February he was added to the committee to consider the breaches of parliamentary privilege committed in 1628.71CJ ii. 91a. Vassall continued to be involved in commercial and financial matters in March. He was named to committees to prepare a bill for tonnage and poundage and the support of the navy (18 Mar.) and a further committee to raise and advance money to the king’s army (30 Mar.).72CJ ii. 107a, 114b. A particular problem was the absence of specie. On 30 March Vassall suggested a radical solution, to ‘let foreign monies go current in England’ and to ban the export of English coins.73Procs. LP iii. 239, 241. Vassall played no direct role in the trial of the 1st earl of Strafford (Thomas Wentworth†), but he did join Cradock and another London MP, Isaac Penington*, in presenting the City petition against the earl to Parliament on 21 April.74Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 337. The army plot alarmed Vassall. On 3 May he took the Protestation and the next day he and Cradock presented the Londoners’ petition expressing their ‘great joy and gladness’ at the move. The petitioners’ request to take the Protestation in the City provided the parliamentary leaders with the opportunity to prepare a bill for it throughout the country.75Pearl, London, 218. Vassall followed this, on 5 May, with a warning to the House about further plots, saying that the discovery of stockpiles of gunpowder indicated ‘there was some other design in hand, not yet discovered’.76Procs. LP iv. 218. On 8 May Vassall was appointed to two committees for the pressing of mariners for the navy, and on 17 June he was added to a committee to consider ways of raising more money.77CJ ii. 139b, 140b, 178a. On 19 June he was appointed to a committee to consider a bill to declare Ship Money unlawful.78CJ ii. 181b.

Later in the summer of 1641, moves were again made to address Vassall’s claims for compensation. On 1 July his losses were again considered by the House and referred to a committee to find some suitable means of reparation for his sufferings during the tonnage and poundage dispute.79CJ ii. 195a; Procs. LP v. 439. On 13 August, after a report on the customers and tobacco duties, Vassall moved that ‘the illegal order made against him at the council table might be read’, but the Speaker ruled ‘that it would ask a long debate, and so it was laid aside for the present’.80Procs. LP vi. 402; CJ ii. 255b. In the same period, Vassall continued to be involved in parliamentary business. On 23 July he was sent to the City to press for the speedy collection of money.81CJ ii. 222b. In August he was named to committees to prevent Catholics trading in London (16 Aug.); to consider the state of the navy (25 Aug.); and the petition of merchants hoping to found a company to control trade with Africa and America (30 Aug.).82CJ ii. 258a, 271b, 276a. He also moved for the abuses of the customers in forcing the payment of irregular duties on foreign goods and for a conference on the tobacco customs, and ‘preferred a paper in writing’ concerning money concealed by the former salt patentees.83Procs. LP vi. 521, 555, 613. On 9 September Vassall was named to the Recess Committee.84CJ ii. 288b. His involvement in its business is unclear, but in October the committee ordered that he would be paid £170 for arranging two ships for bringing away provisions and ammunition from Holy Island.85CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 136.

At the beginning of the second session, Vassall’s commercial interests took precedence. When the Levant trade was under discussion on 20 October, Vassall moved that some course should be taken on behalf of the merchants to secure their trade to Turkey and Venice; but nothing was resolved.86D’Ewes (C), 18; Add. 34485, f. 85. Two days later Vassall spoke on the Levant currant trade arguing that ‘excessive imposts’ made by the Venetians ‘exceeded the true value of the commodity at Zant’.87D’Ewes (C), 24. On 27 October Vassall was among those appointed to draft a bill prohibiting the importation of currants – in an attempt to put pressure on the Venetians to back down.88CJ ii. 295b. The Venetian resident believed that Vassall and his supporter, Thomas Soame*, were motivated purely by self-interest. It had been reported that both men were seeking letters of marque against Venetian shipping and wanted their case, pending in the Venetian courts, to be referred to the special care of particular judges.89CSP Ven. 1640-1, p. 233, 278. But ‘owing to the bad impression created by these interested persons in the Lower House, they were inclined to forbid currants for a certain time in hope of obtaining better conditions by means of fresh negotiations’.90CSP Ven. 1640-1, pp. 239.

The outbreak of rebellion in Ireland put such squabbles in perspective. On 9 November, when Pym moved that urgent action should be taken to raise money to put down the Irish rebellion, Vassall declared that the City was willing to lend the £50,000 desired, provided security was put forward.91CJ ii. 309b; D’Ewes (C), 109-10. Two days later Vassall reported obstructions in the City about the loan because

the Lords had promised a bill to be passed before they should lend a penny for their security. That the burden of protections disabled them. That some things that would have been acceptable to them passed in this House but laid by by the Lords. The £50,000 formerly paid not repaid.92D’Ewes (C), 149.

On 19 November Vassall was named to a committee to review the rates charged by victuallers to the navy.93CJ ii. 320a; D’Ewes (C), 69. On the same day he was named to a committee to consider the request of the victualler of the navy for greater proportions to furnish four ships bound for the Irish coast.94D’Ewes (C), 167. Vassall’s report criticised the request ‘in some particulars unreasonable’, nevertheless the House decided to allow it on grounds of ‘necessity’.95D’Ewes (C), 168. On 29 November Vassall moved that mariners on board merchant ships employed for the defence of Ireland should be paid at the lower rate of 28 days per month and not 30 days, but opposition from Sir Henry Vane II* and others brought delay while precedents were sought.96D’Ewes (C), 208. On 15 December Vassall presented a petition from the owners of nine merchant ships serving ‘upon the western coasts’ in support of his motion, but when the precedents were shown to the House, the higher rate was confirmed.97D’Ewes (C), 289-90. Later that month Vassall was ordered to arrange for suitable accommodation for the Scottish commissioners (18 Dec.) and he was named to the committee on a bill to provide relief for Irish Protestant refugees (20 Dec.).98CJ ii. 349a, 350a; D’Ewes (C), 311. On 23 December he was also appointed one of the managers of a conference with the Lords concerning the safety of the kingdom and the City of London.99CJ ii. 355a.

London and the civil war, 1642-3

Vassall was not directly involved in the crisis that followed the king’s attempt to arrest the Five Members in January 1642, although it was alleged that the controversial vote of the Commons to remove the right to call a common council from the lord mayor to Parliament was made ‘at the instance of Penington, [John] Venn* and Vassall’.100Somers Tracts iv. 592; Pearl, London, 146. Vassall’s main focus in this period remained trade and Ireland. On 14 January he was appointed to a new committee for naval affairs, the forerunner of the Committee of Navy and Customs (CNC).101Supra, ‘Committee of Navy and Customs’; CJ ii. 378b. In the same month he was go-between for the Levant Company in its attempts to have customs duties on silk, currants and other goods reduced.102SP105/143, f. 86v. He was named to two committees on the supply of provisions for the Ulster port of Carrickfergus (29 Jan., 24 Feb.), and when the Drapers’ Company donated wheat for Ireland, Vassall moved that they should be publicly thanked (31 Jan.).103CJ ii. 403b, 431b; D’Ewes (C), 233. In January and February he was involved in recruiting ships and armaments for Ireland, reporting to the Commons on individual cases on 27 January, 11, 12, 14 and 21 February.104D’Ewes (C), 192, 352, 360, 372, 425. Vassall also played a part in raising troops for Ireland, and he was one of the London MPs ordered to attend the common council with news of the progress of the Militia Ordinance on 10 March.105PJ ii. 23. He had already been involved in negotiations to procure gunpowder from merchants, and on 12 March he joined Venn in treating with the City for a supply of gunpowder, and he was later ordered to provide this at the best rates he could find.106CJ ii. 325b, 442b, 476a, 502a; D’Ewes (C), 445; PJ ii. 31. On 28 March he and William Spurstowe* persuaded the House to purchase imported gunpowder after a ‘long debate’, and on 12 April Vassall told the Commons that there were 400 barrels in the hands of merchants who ‘desire to know whether this House would have them or not’.107PJ ii. 98, 156. In the meantime, Vassall had been appointed to the committee on the bill for the reduction of Ireland (23 Mar.) and to the committee on additional clauses for the same (11 Apr.), and he invested £300 in the Irish Adventure.108CJ ii. 493b, 521a; Bottigheimer, Eng. Money and Irish Land, 193. He was also involved in the supply of grain to the beleaguered garrison at Londonderry, and his ship, Mayflower of London, was hired to Parliament from around this time.109CSP Dom. 1641-3, pp. 305, 431; CJ ii. 514b; LJ iv. 703a. The newly-appointed Commissioners for Irish Affairs ordered him to inspect powder and match before it was shipped in April and the beginning of May.110PJ ii. 423, 431. Vassall was also using his influence in the House to procure more help for Ireland. On 9 May he delivered to the Commons letters concerning the landing of Scottish troops at Carrickfergus.111PJ ii. 294. On 14 May he was one of the MPs ordered to consider propositions by merchants for supplying Ireland, and he and Venn also negotiated with the Merchant Adventurers for a loan.112CJ ii. 571b, 572b, 578b.

Alongside his involvement in Ireland, Vassall maintained his interests in foreign trade. On 17 March he was given charge of the printing of a new book of customs rates, and on 22 March he was named to a committee to consider a petition of the Merchant Strangers (which met a committee of the Lords four days later).113CJ ii. 483a, 491a, 499a. On 21 April he delivered to the House a letter from Hamburg complaining at the excessive tolls levied by the king of Denmark for ships passing through the Sound. He argued that this was not only ‘a great hindrance to trade’ but also a sign of Danish support for Charles I, and he warned of ‘preparation by sea and land which is said to be for England’.114PJ ii. 195, 200. He was added to the committee on the bill to relieve Turkish prisoners on 28 April.115CJ ii. 545b. Vassall and Soame, in conjunction with the Levant Company, were again lobbying for a bill to prevent the import of currants.116CSP Ven. 1642-3, pp. 15, 32, 87. Politics played only a secondary role in this such business, but there are signs that Vassall’s opposition to the king had hardened: on 28 May he was one of the MPs ordered to draft an order preventing the transportation of army or ammunition to York, and on 1 June he was among those sent to inspect the ammunition sent from Hull and to oversee its delivery to the Tower of London.117CJ ii. 590b, 597b.

In the summer of 1642 Vassall frequently acted as one of Parliament’s representatives to the City and to the merchant groups, particularly to raise loans. On 4 June he was named to a committee on the ordinance for providing security for a £100,000 loan from the City; on 7 June he was appointed to the committee to consider a City petition concerning a weekly contribution; and the next day he was added to a committee sent to London to discuss the loan.118CJ ii. 604b, 610b, 612b. He remained involved in Irish affairs, reporting on the transport of corn to Londonderry on 13 June and two days later informing the Commissioners for Irish Affairs that the shipment ‘was a free gift from the City of London’.119PJ iii. 65, 382. Vassall was also busy raising money to equip cavalry units, being appointed to a committee to negotiate this on 18 June, and he himself pledged to maintain one horse and ‘if occasion be, two more’ for the defence of Parliament.120CJ ii. 632b; PJ iii. 470. In the same period he was involved in moves to purchase gunpowder from various merchants.121CJ ii. 621a, 633b, 647a, 653b. Control of the City government was becoming more of an issue as the country drew closer to civil war. On 1 July Vassall signed a letter from the common council to Parliament complaining of the refusal of the lord mayor, Sir Richard Gurney, to assist with the storing of ammunition from Hull.122LJ v. 197b. On 3 July Vassall was among those sent to the lieutenant of the Tower of London to discuss its safety; on 11 July he and Penington visited the lord mayor, now a prisoner in the Tower, to demand that he appoint a locum tenens; and on 21 July Vassall was chosen to consider a certificate from the London aldermen concerning the lawful appointment of this locum.123CJ ii. 654b, 665b, 684b; PJ iii. 200. Vassall was among those appointed on 22 July to encourage those City companies which had not yet contributed to the £100,000 loan to Parliament, and, on 23 July, to encourage individual citizens to contribute to the subscriptions.124CJ ii. 685b, 689a. One benefit of this may have been to reduce the burden on the trading companies, and on 1 August Vassall pressed Parliament, on behalf of the Merchant Adventurers, to repay their £50,000 loan.125CJ ii. 698b.

Vassall was not just concerned with London, however. In July he was named to committees on the magazine at Hull, news from Plymouth, and negotiations concerning Ireland.126CJ ii. 672a, 683b. On 4 August he was appointed to the committee for the defence of the kingdom.127CJ ii. 703a. Later the same month the mayor of Newport (Isle of Wight) asked Vassall to present their request for gunpowder to the House of Commons.128HMC Portland i. 49; CJ ii. 719b. On 13 August he and Venn were ordered to go to the king’s printer to seize copies of the petition of the Kent royalists, and to forbid the printing of anything concerning Parliament without consent.129CJ ii. 719a, 722a. At the end of the month Vassall was once again involved in money-raising schemes. On 26 August he was messenger to the Lords with propositions for borrowing more money from the London citizens, and on 29 August he was ordered to prepare an order for securing the money lent by the Merchant Strangers.130CJ ii. 738a-b, 743a. On 3 September he was included on Parliament’s executive for Ireland, the Committee for Irish Affairs, although his attendance at its meetings was very infrequent.131CJ ii. 750b; Add. 4771, f. 3; Add. 4782, f. 214.

On the outbreak of civil war, Vassall became even busier in the Commons. On 12 September he was named to committees to consider the king’s revenue and to draw up proposals for raising money from towns and cities, and he was added to Parliament’s new executive, the Committee of Safety.132CJ ii. 762b, 763a. He was also appointed to committees to consider how to dispose of prisoners.133CJ ii. 766a, 807b. On 15 September he was appointed a commissioner for the navy.134A. and O. Vassall’s concern for Ireland necessarily involved him in Scottish affairs. On 22 September he was ordered to consider propositions for sending arms to the Scots in Ulster; the following day he was named to a committee to consider the accounts of the commissioners sent to treat with the Scots; and on 10 October he was appointed a commissioner to negotiate an agreement concerning commerce and trade.135CJ ii. 777b, 780a, 802b; Add. 18777, f. 25v. On 14 October he was named to a committee to consider the case of a French merchant caught supplying ammunition to the rebels in Limerick.136CJ ii. 807b. On 22 October Vassall was messenger to the Lords with admiralty orders to prevent ships from leaving London and on 29 October he was again sent to the Merchant Strangers to demand the payment of money promised.137CJ ii. 819a, 826b; LJ v. 415b.

The threat to London in the weeks after the indecisive battle of Edgehill brought a frenzy of activity. On 2 November Vassall was ordered to prepare an ordinance indemnifying the City for building fortifications and raising troops.138CJ ii. 831b; Add. 18777, f. 48v. On 7 November he was appointed to a committee to attend the 2nd earl of Warwick concerning the recruitment of apprentices.139CJ ii. 838a; Add. 18777, f. 51v. On the same day he was sent to the City to request a meeting of common hall.140CJ ii. 839a. On 9 November he was named to a committee to consider recruiting horses in London, and he was also sent to the City to report on a recent conference with the Lords, and he was one of the MPs put in charge of executing orders on horses on 10 November.141CJ ii. 841a, 842a, 843b. On 12 November Vassall was sent to the lord mayor and the militia committee with a formal account of the fighting at Brentford and to ask for supplies for the army.142CJ ii. 846b; Add. 31116, p. 17. He was also required to treat with the City concerning propositions from the citizens, and the following day he was added to the committee for the safety of the Tower.143CJ ii. 845b, 847a. On 14 November he took an order to the Lords concerning the City’s agreement to advance money, and on 16 November he was ordered to acquaint the lord general, the 3rd earl of Essex, with the London citizens’ proposal to raise a City force of 4,000 cavalry.144CJ ii. 849b, 852b. The enthusiasm of the citizens soon cooled. Later on the same day, Vassall reported to the Commons that the Londoners had ‘fallen off’ from their earlier offer, as Essex had refused to commission Philip Skippon* as commander of the new forces. Vassall then joined Pym and others as a delegation ‘to go to the City to treat with them and endeavour to bring them over again’.145Add. 31116, p. 18. Vassall seems to have shared the City’s anger at the way the defence of London had been organised. On 17 November he joined the recorder, John Glynne*, and Sir Henry Mildmay* in voicing complaints that supplies had been hurried to the army ‘but no care taken for that but was sold away to strangers’ and ‘no care for victuals or anything for the subsistence of the army’.146Add. 18777, f. 60.

The withdrawal of the king’s army to Oxford removed the immediate threat to London, and by the end of November Vassall could devote himself to more humdrum administrative business. On 24 November he was again ordered to examine shipments of gunpowder.147Add. 18777, f. 69. On 26 November he went to the Guildhall as part of a committee to inform the City of Parliament’s resolution to levy an assessment in London to maintain the army.148CJ ii. 866a. The same day, he was appointed to the Committee for Advance of Money that would administer the assessment.149CCAM, 1. On 5 December he reported to the Commons that the weapons manufacturers in London ‘could make 1,500 muskets weekly’.150Add. 18777, f. 82. The next day he was a member of the committee to bring in the arrears of money promised to pay the Scottish army in Ulster.151CSP Ire. 1633-47, p. 372; CJ ii. 878b On 9 December Vassall’s irritation at the inefficiencies of the war effort resurfaced, when he argued that ‘the committee of the militia appointed for London might have that power to issue out money’ on its own authority.152Add. 18777, f. 87v. He had no time for those among the corporation who now petitioned for peace. On 10 December he ‘delivered in a note of information’ concerning a riot at Haberdashers’ Hall, ‘in which it was showed that they had threatened the lord mayor’ and that some of the petitioners had been ‘in arms under colours of exercising themselves’ and had ‘already nominated captains and officers amongst themselves’.153Harl. 164, ff. 245v, 246v-7.

Vassall’s concern for London and for trade came together in the winter of 1642-3, when the shortage of coal became critical. He was given responsibility for implementing an admiralty order to appoint ships to guard the north east on 16 December.154Add. 18777, f. 95v. On 5 January he was appointed to a committee to consider how ships prevented from bringing coal from royalist Newcastle might be employed in the public service; on 12 January he prepared the heads for a conference concerning the ways of preventing ships trading with Newcastle, and he managed the conference on this issue two days later.155CJ ii. 916a, 923a-b, 927a. On 16 January Vassall was added to Sir Henry Vane I’s trade committee.156CJ ii. 928b. In the next few weeks he used his position to defend the East India Company. On 19 January he argued that they were not guilty of conniving with royalists such as Sir Francis Cottington, and on 3 February he insisted that the export of money by the Company was entirely legal, ‘else they could not trade’ with foreign potentates.157Add. 18777, ff. 130, 142; Harl. 164, f. 286v. Vassall was also named to committees on the requisitioning of three East India Company ships and a dispute involving Spanish merchants.158CJ ii. 954b, 968b. He was a stout defender of the Levant Company, delivering their petitions to the Commons in January concerning an interloping expedition to Madagascar, and in February protesting that a ship laden with currants had come into London against the ordinance.159SP105/143, ff. 91, 92-v; Harl. 164, f. 305.

Vassall’s concern for London can be seen in two committee appointments on 27 January, to investigate a ‘scandalous creed’ circulating among the apprentices and to enquire into the money collected under former agreements on pay and supplies for the army.160CJ ii. 945a-b. On 25 February he attended the treasurers at the Guildhall to persuade them to provide a loan for Hull and on 28 February he was appointed to a committee to consider the City’s charter.161CJ ii. 980a, 983b. Vassall’s concern for London’s rights and privileges led him, on the same day, to move that the sheriffs who had been ‘denied their place next the London mayor’ must be allowed their precedency, even though their royalist enemies ‘questioned whether they were truly sheriffs of London’.162Harl. 164, f. 309. He renewed this ‘idle motion’ (as Sir Simonds D’Ewes* called it) on 2 March.163Harl. 164, f. 310. By then Vassall was also concerned for the security of the City, moving, on the request of the lord mayor, ‘that they might have leave to associate themselves and with such counties as they see fit’; and on 3 March he was sent to the militia committee to ask them to strengthen the ‘outguards’ around the City.164Add. 18777, f. 169; CJ ii. 988b. Vassall’s workload may have led to his replacement on the Committee for Advance of Money by Miles Corbett* on 11 February, but the demotion had a positive effect, as it freed him to protest against the financial burdens placed on the capital by the new levy.165CCAM 14. On 28 February he and Venn presented a petition against the assessment and ‘did openly declare that the City of London were not possibly able to pay this weekly taxation’.166Harl. 164, f. 310.

During the spring and summer of 1643, Vassall was concerned principally with City affairs. On 16 March Vassall and John Ashe* were sent to request the lord mayor to arrange a public thanksgiving after the failure of Prince Rupert’s attack on Bristol, and on the same day he spoke against restoring the magazine to the king in the event of peace, ‘showing that before this Parliament almost all the powder in the kingdom was laid up in the Tower of London’.167CJ iii. 4a; Harl. 165, f. 335. In April he was appointed to committees to meet the City authorities to discuss the supply of coal and the raising of an excise tax and he was ordered to bring in a bill concerning the government of Londonderry.168CJ iii. 26b, 41a, 37a. On 25 April he was ordered to deliver a letter to the lord mayor, aldermen and militia committee concerning supplies for the army, and the next day he raised the matter at the common council.169CJ iii. 59b, 62a. On 11 May Vassall was one of those sent to the militia committee with a letter from the earl of Essex requiring extra forces to strengthen the garrison at Reading.170CJ iii. 80a. The following day he and Venn were instructed to bring in an ordinance to allow the lord mayor to appoint preachers for charity sermons in the capital.171CJ iii. 82b. When the Lords confirmed the commissioners to treat with the Scots on 20 May, Vassall was included in their number.172LJ vi. 55a. Later in the month he was named to a committee to consider the pressing of horses in London and its environs and he was again involved in talks concerning Newcastle coal supplies.173CJ iii. 89a, 104b. Vassall’s activities may have been encouraged by a fear of conspiracy within the capital. In June he was among those MPs sent to the Portuguese ambassador and the visiting duke of Gelderland ‘to desire them they would protect no English papists nor goods in their houses’.174Harl. 165, f. 109; CJ iii. 120b. Later in the year he was sent to the Spanish ambassador to make a similar protest.175CJ iii. 318a. Vassall was equally keen to prevent dissent among the Protestant inhabitants. He took the oath and covenant on 6 June and on 24 June he was made responsible for ensuring that the lord mayor executed Parliament’s order for taking the covenant throughout London and Westminster.176CJ iii. 118b, 143b.

With the royalist successes during the summer of 1643, Vassall began to question the conduct of the parliamentarian war effort. On 13 July he was put in charge of the committee appointed in response to Essex’s plea for the improvement of supplies to his army.177CJ iii. 165a-b. But instead of giving the lord general his unequivocal support, he questioned his suitability to command, demanding that he ‘speak more plainly: and that if after the expense of £2 million of treasure without any effect he had a mind to lay down army … there wanted not as good soldiers which would take them up’ – by which he seemed to lend his support to those who wanted Sir William Waller* to take charge of field operations.178Merc. Aulicus 13 July 1643; Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 456-7. Vassall’s parliamentary activity in the next few weeks suggests that his solution to the immediate crisis was to put the security of London and its hinterland into the hands of the City authorities. On 19 July he was among those appointed to attend the militia committee to encourage them to hasten the supply of horses and to support moves to suppress an insurrection in Kent; three days later he was again sent to request the militia committee to take charge of Woolwich and Chatham and other strongholds south of the Thames.179CJ iii. 174a, 178a. On 28 July he was ordered to attend the lord mayor to ask for the common hall to be summoned to consider the London petition.180CJ iii. 185b. A few days later Vassall was sent to search a Danish ship detained in the Thames en route for Newcastle, and when arms and armour were discovered he was put in charge of distributing them to the army.181CJ iii. 186a, 188a-b. On 5 August he was one of the committee appointed to see that possession of the Tower of London was transferred to the lord mayor and sheriffs to guarantee its safety.182CJ iii. 195b. On 16 August he was among those sent to encourage the City urgently to supply provisions and recruits for Essex’s army as it marched towards Gloucester, and on the same day he was named to committees on ordinances for securing London and for implementing the sequestration of royalist estates and the imposition of the excise tax to fund the armed forces.183CJ iii. 206b, 207b. Again, there were limits. On 6 September, Vassall and the other London MPs opposed the order giving the militia committee extensive new powers of raising and despatching forces for the west. Vassall was particularly outspoken, ‘saying he scarce knew who could be secure if this passed, and feared it might occasion a very great oppression upon the City of London’. He was immediately attacked by Robert Jenner, ‘who fell upon reproving Mr Vassall somewhat bitterly’ until others intervened, reminding him that ‘every man ought to speak his conscience freely’.184Harl. 165, f. 169.

In the autumn of 1643, Vassall’s activity in the Commons was more muted. On 18 September he was instructed to visit the lord mayor to secure money promised for the relief of Plymouth and on 23 September he was named to a committee to attend the militia committee to encourage them to send London troops to Reading.185CJ iii. 245a, 247b, 252b. After a long period of absence, in September he twice attended the Committee for Irish Affairs.186Add. 4782, ff. 252, 262v. Vassall took the Covenant on 3 October.187CJ iii. 262a. At the beginning of November he was concerned with supplying funds for the garrison at Windsor, where his colleague John Venn was governor.188CJ iii. 298a, 302b On 11 November he was named to a committee to consider how to prevent trade with enemy towns, and two days later he was appointed to a committee to consider regulating the excise.189CJ iii. 308a, 310a. On 18 December he was sent to pacify the City after their demand that the London regiments should be recalled from the west, pointing out that Waller was in a dangerous position, with the king’s forces concentrating against him.190CJ iii. 344a. Even at this time of renewed crisis, Vassall was jealous of the City’s rights. On 20 December, when restrictions on the common council were proposed, Vassall ‘did oppose the instant passing of the said ordinance and desired that the lord mayor and the court of aldermen might be first advised withal before we passed it’.191Harl. 165, f. 250.

Trade and finance, 1643-4

Vassall’s cautious approach to the war may have been conditioned by concerns that London, and especially its trading community, did not command endless financial resources. Throughout 1643, Vassall had tried to use his trading connections to Parliament’s advantage. On 14 April he was named to a committee on a petition from the Merchant Adventurers.192CJ iii. 44a. On 1 May he was appointed to a committee to negotiate with merchants prepared to lend money from Hamburg.193CJ iii. 65b. On 29 August he was appointed to a committee to treat with the Merchant Adventurers and others who might advance credit on the customs revenue.194CJ iii. 222a. On 5 October he was named to the committee on the price of wine, on 7 October he was manager of a conference on the Merchant Adventurers’ ordinance and on 20 October he was nominated for the committee on plantations – a post confirmed by ordinance on 2 November.195CJ iii. 263b, 266a, 283a; A. and O. Trade matters dominated Vassall’s parliamentary career in the new year of 1644. In January he was named to committees on lighthouses, a petition of the Levant Company and an order to prevent the export of corn, dairy products and wool.196CJ iii. 356a, 357a, 359b. He was also named to the committee that oversaw the accounts of the excise commissioners, and in February was appointed to committees on the excise on tobacco pipes and the excessive rates set on tobacco itself – perhaps reflecting his involvement in the trade.197CJ iii. 360a, 391a, 399b. As a member of the Committee of Navy and Customs, Vassall had been lobbied by the Levant Company, concerned to enforce the ban on importing currants, and in February he was ordered by the Commons to consider parcels of currants landed at London.198SP105/150, ff. 100, 103-4; CJ iii. 391a. Vassall’s closeness to the Company can be seen in the same month, when he was narrowly defeated in the election to be its deputy.199SP105/150, f. 53. In March he reported to the Company that Parliament was preparing an ordinance to strengthen their privileges, and advised them to agree to the limited import of currants to be sold for the benefit of Gloucester; and in the same month he acted as intermediary when the Committee of Both Kingdoms admonished the Company for not advancing £8,000 as promised.200SP105/150, pp. 111, 114. A few weeks later he joined Rolle in liaising between the Company and the CNC, the beneficiary of the money owed.201Bodl. Rawl. A.222, ff. 15-15v. Vassall’s connections with the East India Company were weaker, but he was ordered to attend the CNC when it considered the ordinance for upholding trade with the Indies in February 1644.202CJ iii. 395b. In March he was appointed to a committee to consider extending the Solemn League and Covenant to English subjects living abroad.203CJ iii. 415a.

In March 1644, Vassall was named to a committee to take evidence from Sir Henry Mildmay in the trial of Archbishop Laud.204CJ iii. 422a. Vassall was also a witness for the prosecution, telling the court that during the tonnage and poundage affair the archbishop had warned ‘that if he were in another country he would be hanged for it’.205Laud’s Works iv. 102; Oxford DNB. During the spring Vassall became more active in his support for the parliamentarian war effort. He was appointed to the committee to consider officers and commanders for the summer fleet on 19 March.206CJ iii. 431b. On 6 April he was sent to inform the London militia committee that the king was marching against Waller, who urgently needed reinforcements.207CJ iii. 451a. Two days later he was sent to the lord mayor to ask for the calling of the Common Hall to hear a message of ‘great importance’.208CJ iii. 454a. On 15 May he returned, with directions to the City to remove ‘suspicious’ persons, suspected royalists and the wives of Catholics, from London.209CJ iii. 493b. Two days later he and Soame were sent to the lord mayor and aldermen to urge them to ensure the assessments for the army were collected promptly and in full.210CJ iii. 497a. On 25 May, Vassall was appointed to consider an ordinance for maintaining the garrison at Windsor, and on 6 June he was again sent to the lord mayor to request that the common council meet.211CJ iii. 507b, 519b. On 13 June he was named to the committee to prepare a bill to strengthen the London militia committee’s authority to raise forces.212CJ iii. 527b. Vassall’s zeal may have prompted the Commons to revisit his own grievances, and on 14 June his complaints ‘in respect of his great sufferings and long imprisonment for not paying the pretended duties of tonnage and poundage’ were referred to the CNC.213CJ iii. 529a.

During the summer of 1644 Vassall was named to committees on raising money from the soap and wine trades, to consider the complaints of the Dutch about the seizure of their ships and to review propositions from the Protestant regiments in Ulster.214Supra, ‘Committee for Foreign Affairs’; CJ iii. 536b, 539a, 568a, 574a; LJ vi. 675a. On 7 August he reported the conditions under which the Merchant Adventurers were willing to defer repayment of their loan and he was put in charge of bringing in the resulting ordinance.215CJ iii. 582b. Vassall’s attitude to the earl of Essex seems to have softened in this period, and he was ordered to ensure that necessary provisions reached the Essex and his army in the south west in mid-August.216CSP Dom. 1644, p. 415; CJ iii. 592a. After the defeat of Essex at Lostwithiel, Vassall was involved in the supply of new clothing, arms and equipment as his army was brought back to strength.217CSP Dom. 1644, p. 537; 1644-5, pp. 29, 49; CJ iii. 620b, 626a. On 6 September he was sent to the common council concerning the exchange of farthing tokens and on 14 September he and Soame were messengers with the Commons’ resolution to the Lords.218CJ iii. 619a, 627a. Vassall was also involved in preparations to get the new City troops ready. On 1 October he asked the militia committee to hasten the departure of their regiments and ten days later he was among those sent to tell the new commanders to march out of the capital, with reassurances that they would be paid.219CJ iii. 647a, 659a. He was named to the committee to consider the City propositions on 15 October and on 25 October he reported (with others) the Commons’ resolutions concerning the propositions; on the same day he was sent to the lord mayor to ask for a common council to be called and to the excise commissioners for £2,000 for the army.220CJ iii. 665a, 676b, 677a. On 18 November Vassall was appointed to a committee to consider raising £3,000 for garrisons and on 6 December he was sent to the excise commissioners to secure an advance of this money.221CJ iii. 699a, 716a. Vassall was also able to advance his own interests somewhat, as on 12 December, when he was included in a committee to receive petitions from the owners and captains of ships hired for parliamentary service.222CJ iii. 722a.

Finance and politics, 1645-7

For much of 1645, Vassall was heavily involved in financing Parliament’s field armies. He was included in the committee to raise money for the New Model in London on 17 February; the following day he was appointed to the parliamentary committee to raise money on security to establish the new army; and he was involved in committees to borrow £80,000 for the army in June and £40,000 in October.223A. and O.; CJ iv. 52a, 164a, 299a. Not that Vassall worked exclusively on the behalf of the New Model. On 13 June he named to a committee to raise money in the City to pay the Scottish army and on 26 June he was sent to the common council to press them to provide a month’s pay for the Scots.224CJ iv. 173b, 186a. Vassall was also appointed to committees for loans on the excise (12 Apr.), to provide ammunition for the ordnance office (18 and 30 June) and to borrow money from the City for the siege of Chester (4 Nov.).225CJ iv. 109a, 178b, 334a; LJ vii. 468a. He was sent to the London militia committee to encourage them to muster their regiments (29 Apr.), raise more cavalry (10 July), respond to the strengthening of the royalist garrison at Newark (13 Aug.), search for concealed weapons (29 Aug.) and press recruits for the New Model (14 Oct.).226CJ iv. 126b, 203a, 240b, 257a, 307b. When the Commons appointed a day of thanksgiving the New Model’s victories in the south west on 18 August, Vassall was sent to the lord mayor to ensure it was proclaimed in all the London parishes.227CJ iv. 245b. As his dealings with the militia committee and the lord mayor suggest, Vassall was an increasingly important figure in London affairs, and this can be seen in his other activity during 1645. On 17 March he brought in a petition concerning Londonderry and this was referred to the Committee of Both Kingdoms and Vassall was ordered to attend the subsequent meeting.228CJ iv. 81b; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 360. On 25 July he was appointed to the committee to consider the choice of elders in the London churches, and on 8 October he was sent to the lord mayor with notice of the parliamentary order concerning the same – suggesting that his sympathies lay with the religious Presbyterians in the House, considered by some to be ‘more lordly than the bishops’.229CJ iv. 218a, 300b; Bodl. Ashmole 421, f. 200v. Vassall also made some progress in securing repayment of the money he had provided to supply the Ulster garrisons in 1642. He obtained an order from the Commons that he should be paid from the tenths of the admiralty on 18 June, and his case was referred to the committee to consider the sufferings of MPs faithful to Parliament when it was revived on 30 June.230CJ iv. 177b, 189b. Vassall’s case was referred to the joint Committee for Irish affairs on 5 August.231CJ iv. 231a. Curiously, his influence on trade matters in the House appears to have declined sharply during 1645, although he acted as go-between with the East India Company in October, and he was named to a committee to prepare a bill to prohibit the importation and sale of adulterated wines on 15 December.232Cal. Ct. Mins. E.I. Co. 1644-9, p. 102; CJ iv. 377a.

During 1646 Vassall’s role in civilian and military administration became more diffuse, and his committee appointments correspondingly fewer. On 7 February he was appointed to a committee to consult with the common council on the future defence of the City.233LJ viii. 150b. He was made responsible for supplying the garrison at Reading with gunpowder on 17 February and on the same day he was appointed to the committee to consider the powers of the treasury at Haberdashers’ Hall.234CJ iv. 445b. On 3 June he was appointed to the committee of both Houses to consider scandalous offences that would bar people from receiving communion.235CJ iv. 562b. His claims for supplying Ireland came up again in April and were referred to the Irish committee.236CJ iv. 517b. It was perhaps in connection with this claim that on 30 July he was one of those seconded to the new Star Chamber Committee of Irish Affairs to encourage the committee at Weavers’ Hall to continue payments advanced on the credit of the excise.237CJ iv. 629b. Despite his poor showing on the committee-lists, Vassall was not idle. From the beginning of 1646 he attended meetings of the CNC and signed its warrants, working closely with Giles Grene* and his old associated, John Rolle.238Add. 4196, ff. 11-14; Add. 22546, f. 11; Bodl. Autogr. c.19, f. 121. He was also active within the Levant Company, and at the end of the year, he reappeared on parliamentary trade committees, including those on petitions of the Levant merchants (17 Sept.) and clothiers and manufacturers of woollen goods (14 Nov.).239SP105/150, f. 205; CJ iv. 671a, 722a. Vassall continued to serve as a messenger between Parliament and the City. On 6 January he was one of the MPs sent to assure the London militia committee that Parliament would give urgent consideration to the request for greater powers.240CJ iv. 398a. On 21 January he was named to a committee to consider incorporating Whitefriars and other areas of the City previously exempted, into the Presbyterian system.241CJ iv. 413b. On 13 February he was one of a delegation sent to the lord mayor to ask that the common council convene to receive a letter from the Scottish Parliament.242CJ iv. 439b.

As factionalism became more intense from the spring of 1646, Vassall struggled to remain uncommitted. On 2 March he was one of those appointed to consult with the common council concerning the safety of ‘king, Parliament and kingdom’.243CJ iv. 458b. He was opposed to the attempts by the political Presbyterians to make their own private overtures to the king in the summer of 1646. On 11 July he was included in the committee to discover the authors of the City remonstrance ‘and such as labour to disaffect the people and City from Parliament’; and on 15 July he and Soame appeared before the common council to tell them of the Commons’ disapproval of the City petition to the king.244CJ iv. 616a; Sharpe, London and Kingdom, 237; Juxon Jnl. 130; CLRO, Jor. 40, f. 189. He was ordered on 21 August to advise the Committee for Compounding on the raising of £100,000 to pay off the Scottish army.245CJ iv. 650b. There are also signs that he was willing to mollify the New Model at the end of 1646: on 4 December he was among those sent to Common Hall to arrange a meeting for Parliament to urge the payment of the London assessment arrears for Sir Thomas Fairfax’s* army.246CJ iv. 738a.

From the new year of 1647, Vassall found it increasingly difficult to remain aloof. He seems to have been courted by the Presbyterians. On 18 January, John Glynne at last reported Vassall’s case to the Commons, which resolved to pay him £10,445 in compensation for his losses in the tonnage and poundage dispute. He was assured that compensation for his imprisonment and personal suffering would be considered at a later date.247CJ v. 54b, 56a. Vassall played no recorded part in business for the next few weeks (although he continued to attend the CNC), but by the early spring he was clearly siding with the Presbyterian interest.248Add. 22546, f. 13. On 1 March, when the Commons considered the apprentices’ petition, Vassall and others were ordered to thank the petitioners for their ‘good affections’ and assure them their concerns would be considered.249CJ v. 102b. On 2 April he was appointed to the committee stage of the ordinance to give more powers to the London militia committee and was one of the parliamentarians sent to raise £200,000 in the City ‘for the service of England and Ireland’: the money needed to ship the New Model across the Irish Sea.250CJ v. 132b, 133a. In May he was sent to the common council to inform them that the ordinance for the loan had been passed by both Houses.251CJ v. 172b. In the same month he succeeded in obtaining a promise that the money owed to him for supplies to Ireland, amounting to £2,591, would be charged on the excise with interest paid twice yearly in the meantime.252CJ v. 164b; E351/1295. On 14 July Vassall and Soame were appointed to reply to the London apprentices’ provocative petition calling for an accommodation with the king and the disbanding of the army.253CJ v. 243b. On 30 July, the day Speaker Lenthall absented himself from the House following rioting, Vassall presented a petition from the City justifying the action taken to secure their safety and that of Parliament. The same day he returned the Commons’ thanks to the apprentices for their petition.254CJ v. 259a, 260a. Vassall did not join his colleagues in seeking refuge with the New Model; rather he publicly embraced the new order. On 2 August he was appointed to a committee to receive information about the ‘forcing of the Houses’ and added to the Presbyterian-dominated ‘committee of safety’ for mobilising London against the army.255CJ v. 265a; LJ ix. 370b. On the same day, Vassall and Thomas Atkin acted as Parliament’s messengers to the City to inform them of the resolution to bring the king to London, and to encourage the citizens to stand to their own defence.256CJ v. 264b.

Presbyterians and peace initiatives, 1647-8

The failure of the Presbyterian coup made Vassall’s position vulnerable, but he did not suffer any immediate penalty. He was present in the Commons by 1 September, when he was appointed to a committee to consider ways of raising and advancing money for the service of Ireland.257CJ v. 287a. He and the other London Members were sent to the City on 3 September to tell them that Parliament held them responsible for the presence of the army in London and demanded ‘their positive answer’ to the request for a £50,000 loan.258CJ v. 290b. The Commons were not satisfied with the answer they received and on 9 September Vassall and Soame were again sent to the City to report that Parliament demanded payment of the arrears of the city assessments (which amounted to £64,000) as well as the £50,000 loan by 18 September.259CJ v. 298b. The City petitioned against this decision, but to no avail. On 14 September Vassall was sent to the common council to inform them that the House had resolved to bring in an ordinance to help the City raise the arrears but the loan would still have to be paid.260CJ v. 301a. With Fairfax and the general council of the army making threatening noises from Putney, on 18 September Vassall was again sent to try to persuade the City to pay up, reporting a few days later the common council’s protest that it could not advance the money.261CJ v. 307b, 311b. Vassal did not play any further part in this stand-off, and during the autumn he was involved only in routine business. On 20 October he acted as teller in favour of agreeing with the Lords in a division on granting a pass to the French ambassador.262CJ v. 338a. He was appointed to another committee to raise money for Ireland on 1 November, sent to the excise commissioners to arrange a new loan for the army on 16 November, and named to a committee for poor relief on 23 November.263CJ v. 347b, 360b, 366b.

From the end of November 1647 until the beginning of March 1648 Vassall appears to have taken no part in parliamentary business, although he was made a commissioner for London in the ordinance for an Irish assessment on 16 February.264A. and O. He re-emerged in the spring, and on 4 March was added to the Committee for the Admiralty and Cinque Ports*.265CJ v. 476b. On 20 March he was named to the committee on an ordinance for settling the jurisdiction of the court of admiralty.266CJ v. 505b. With the outbreak of the second civil war, Vassall devoted himself to military matters, and in particular the role of the London militia committee. In May he was chosen to attend the City authorities with news of the army’s successes in Wales.267CJ v. 558a. In the same month he carried the bill to reform the London militia, as desired by the City, to the Lords; and he and Venn then went to the City to inform them that it had successfully passed.268CJ v. 563a-564b. On 5 July he also acted as a messenger to the Lords, to tell them that the Commons had resolved to join the militias at Westminster, Tower Hamlets and Southwark to the London militia, and he was ordered to prepare and introduce the bill with John Rolle.269CJ v. 624a; LJ x. 364b. On the same day he and Venn were ordered to attend the City authorities to ensure that all the London parishes observed the day of thanksgiving for recent success in the north.270CJ v. 625a. On 11 August Vassall was teller in favour of presenting details of obstructions put up by the Lords to disrupt the business of both Houses, but the proposal was not passed.271CJ v. 667b. On 15 August Vassall was ordered to bring in the ordinance to transfer the power to raise forces in London to the London militia committee, with Philip Skippon as commander.272CJ v. 671b. On 17 August he was named to a committee to attend the militia committee to discuss a recent plot.273CJ v. 673b. On 22 August he was named to the committee on an ordinance for enlisting and raising horse in London and its suburbs.274CJ v. 678a. After the defeat of the Scots at Preston, Vassall’s trading activities increases. He was involved in trading to the Canary Island, Brazil and West Africa by September; in October he was messenger to the Lords with an ordinance concerning French merchants; and in November he was again signing warrants of the CNC.275HCA24/109/154, 345; CJ vi. 54a-b; Add. 22546, f. 17. Vassall’s main task during this period was in raising money for the new negotiations with the king. On 8 September he was named to a committee to go to the City to ask for a loan of £2,000 for the negotiators, and he and Venn then attended the lord mayor, asking him to call a common council.276CJ vi. 9b, 10b. On 21 September he carried to the Lords the ordinance appointing treasurers for a further £10,000 for the treaty, and shortly afterwards Vassall and John Doddridge were ordered by the Commons to take care of the money issued out, and Vassall was told to liaise with the common council.277CJ vi. 26b, 29b; LJ x. 503b. On 13 October he was named to a committee on a letter from the Isle of Wight concerning the funding of the negotiations and he was given especial care of the business.278CJ vi. 51a. He was appointed to a committee to receive a petition from the City on 16 October, and on 10 November he carried to the Lords the ordinance to repay the City loan for the treaty.279CJ vi. 53a, 73a; LJ x. 584a. The army’s opposition to the Newport Treaty was growing, and on 4 November Vassall was one of a committee sent to request the City to reinforce Parliament’s guard.280CJ vi. 69b.

Political and financial crisis, 1649-60

As a result of his support for peace negotiations with the king, Vassall was secluded at Pride’s Purge in December 1648.281A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62); A Vindication (1649), 29 (irregular pagination) (E.539.5). In a further sign of official disapproval, in April 1649 the £2,591 he had lent for provisioning Ireland was removed from the security of the excise.282CJ vi. 191b. He continued to be involved with trade, however. From the winter of 1649-50 was engaged in a dispute with the Guinea Company, adjudicated by the council of state, and in October 1651 he joined Rowland Wilson and others in fitting out an expedition to the Gambia.283CSP Col. 1574-1660, pp. 331, 338, 339-40; HMC Portland ii. 29; HCA24/110/35. Vassall fell on hard times during the protectorate. He repeatedly petitioned Oliver Cromwell* for the money due to him. In April 1654 he complained to the protector that despite the votes of the Long Parliament he ‘could never get a penny of this money nor the sums lent to Parliament in Ireland’, nor any recompense for the three ships hired during the 1640s. He added that he was now owed over £20,000, and in desperation he suggested various remedies, including leave to ship French wines, coal or lead, or to be given forest lands, if his dues could not be met from public funds. In response the protectoral council simply referred his petition to the forthcoming Parliament.284CSP Dom. 1654, p. 81. Vassall petitioned the protector or his council four times during 1655. In June he lamented his sad condition: ‘I daily expect to be cast into prison; if I am undone by the hand wherein was all my hope, it will aggravate my misery, and it would be a dishonour to this commonwealth of which I have so often been a public minister’. He again begged to be allowed to import French wines, customs-free, until his debt was repaid.285CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 213-4. His plight was referred to the treasury commissioners, but progress was slow. In October Vassall claimed that unless he received his money he would ‘be overwhelmed with such ignominy, which is insupportable to a man who has lived in such esteem’.286CSP Dom. 1655, pp. 317, 376-7. Although the treasury commissioners accepted that he was owed the money, he was awarded only £1,000 in compensation.287CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 384. On the marriage of his elder son, John, in 1656, Vassall settled on him his remaining lands in Yorkshire and some houses in London, and moved to humbler lodgings in Southwark.288Calder, Vassall, 6. In December 1656 Vassall petitioned the second protectorate Parliament, and although it was resolved that his case would be considered, and a committee was appointed, the report was not made until 15 May. Even then the House voted not to take action itself but instead recommended the case to the protector and his council.289Address from Samuel Vassall to the members of Parliament (1657, E.934.5); Burton’s Diary i. 202; CJ vii. 472b, 485a, 495a, 515a, 532b, 534b. In September 1657 the council replied to yet another petition by telling Vassall to submit any further claims to Parliament ‘as no revenue remains at his highness’s disposal to satisfy the said debt’.290CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 88. A payment of £1,000 had been made by the autumn of 1657, and small amounts of interest were paid to him by the treasury commissioners at regular intervals.291Add. 32471, ff. 3v, 11; Add. 4196, ff. 12, 185. By the time his next petition was read in June 1658 Vassall's debts had caught up with him and he was a prisoner in the Upper Bench.292CSP Dom. 1657-8, p. 334; 1658-9, p. 48. On 1 April 1659 the third protectorate Parliament considered the case, and resolved to recommend to the protector that Vassall be paid £500. A committee attended Richard Cromwell* and reported back to the Commons on 5 April that express orders had been issued for the payment.293CJ vii. 623a, 625b.

Restoration but no recovery

Vassall returned to his seat when the secluded Members were re-admitted in February 1660 and he was appointed to two committees, one concerning a bill for the continuation of customs and excise (22 Feb.), the other for relief of distressed mariners and their families (1 Mar.).294CJ vii. 848a, 857b. He was again employed as the House’s messenger to London, being one of those sent to deliver the Commons’ votes concerning the City gates to the lord mayor on 21 February, and on 25 February he replaced Harrington as a customs commissioner.295CJ vii. 847b, 853a. During the 1660s Vassall became dependent on his younger son, Henry, who complained that his father demanded money from him so often that he had too little for his own support and was not at liberty to go overseas to advance his fortunes. In 1663 Vassall was involved in a dispute over Carolina between George Monck*, 1st duke of Albemarle and the duke of Norfolk, when Vassall claimed he had been granted an assignment there which had not yet expired.296CSP Col. (America and W. Indies) 1661-8, p. 139. In the winter of 1666-7, at the age of 80, Vassall set out with his son, Henry, his widowed daughter, Mary, and a grandchild on board the Marygold ‘to settle himself in America or some remote place’.297C7/494/43. During or immediately after the voyage Vassall and his two children died. His eldest surviving son, Francis, obtained letters of administration in September but according to witnesses Vassall had left a written will which another passenger had proved in a court in Jamestown, Virginia, in April 1667. Francis Vassall disputed this, claiming that all three had died intestate and the dispute dragged on until 1669 when the case was heard in the court of delegates.298PROB6/42, f. 120; Calder, Vassall, 6.

In 1766 Vassall’s great-nephew, Florentius Vassall, erected a memorial to him in King’s Chapel, Boston, outlining his sufferings and praising him as ‘a steady and undaunted assertor of the liberties of England’.299Calder, Vassall, 7. This was only partly true, and then only for a minority of his long career. Vassall’s numerous conflicts with the Caroline regime were motivated by his own interests as a merchant rather than a patriotic desire to further the rights of his oppressed countrymen. Trade remained his priority in the 1640s, although he was involved in public finance, and appears to have had a genuine concern for the fate of Ireland. He was a stout defender of the rights of the City of London, but refused to hold civic office, rather relying for support on his links with the mercantile community and the trading companies. Politically, Vassall sided with Waller against Essex in the mid-1640s and was prepared to support the New Model from the spring of 1645. He was unwilling to become involved in factionalism in 1646 and appears to have been a reluctant ally of the Presbyterian interest in the spring and summer of 1647 and again in the autumn of 1648. His support for the Newport Treaty led to seclusion at Pride’s Purge. During the 1650s, it was bankruptcy rather than principled opposition to the commonwealth and protectorate that brought Vassall’s career to an ignominious end.