Ireland

The Nominated Assembly was the first interregnum Parliament to include Members from Ireland, in an attempt to represent the ‘commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland’ as a whole.1 Ludlow, Mems. i. 359. The MPs were not elected locally, but chosen by the council of state at Whitehall on the advice of Charles Fleetwood* and the parliamentary commissioners in Dublin, and direct evidence of the way such nominations were made does not survive.2 Austin Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 134-141. Clues can, however, be gleaned indirectly from two sources. First, the identity of the six MPs suggests that the Dublin government had considerable influence over the nomination process. Three were English soldiers: the governor of Dublin, John Hewson, the Ulster commander, John Clerke II, and Henry Cromwell, the lord general’s younger son, who had served in Ireland between 1650 and 1652. The three civilian MPs had long-standing Irish connections, but, more importantly, had all co-operated with the Dublin government. Vincent Gookin, a native of Munster, had come into the commonwealth service soon after 1649; Daniel Hutchinson, a Dublin alderman, had worked closely with the parliamentary commissioners in the early 1650s; Sir Robert King, from Connaught, had joined Hewson and Hutchinson in the army administration after the Cromwellian invasion. All six were thus considered supporters not just of the commonwealth, but of Fleetwood’s government in Dublin. Under Fleetwood’s direction, there may also have been a deliberate attempt to spread the seats geographically – two for Dublin, one each for Connaught, Ulster and Munster, and one for Oliver Cromwell’s* son – and to ensure that the nomination of three army officers was balanced by the return of three trustworthy ‘Old Protestants’ of Ireland.

Secondly, some insight into the nominations of 1653 can be gained from a comparison with the elections to the first protectorate Parliament in August 1654. In the latter case, the English council decided to create 20 constituencies, returning 30 Members, once again arranged by province, with elections to be held under military supervision in garrison towns; but the Irish council, still led by Fleetwood, was again given considerable influence over the electoral process.3 CSP Ire. 1647-60, p. 800; Ludlow, Mems. i. 387. Instead of advocating free elections, Fleetwood and his allies argued in favour of continuing the nomination of Irish MPs, ostensibly because of ‘the present condition of this desolate country’.4 Ludlow, Mems. i. 388n. Edmund Ludlowe II* later revealed the politics which lay behind the decision, for

some of the commissioners in Ireland were of opinion, that if the proprietors should choose, they would return such as were enemies to the English [ie. army] interest, and therefore proposed that for this time Cromwell and his council should nominate the 30 who were to be chosen for that nation.5 Ludlow, Mems. i. 387.

This situation was also hinted at by one Old Protestant, John Percivalle, who reported in July 1654 that ‘Lord Fleetwood ... thinks Ireland not yet in a fit posture to elect their own members’.6 HMC Egmont, i. 546. In the end, the Dublin government’s support for nomination was ignored by the protector and his council, and in late July 1654 writs of election were issued to the Irish boroughs and counties.7 TSP ii. 445. But Fleetwood’s scheme in 1654 seems to have been based on the nominations of the previous year. Thus it can be argued that the choice of Irish members in 1653 was carefully crafted by Fleetwood and his allies to create a model representative, covering the whole country and including the ‘loyal’ civilians alongside the army officers. But with the advent of the protectorate, Fleetwood’s controlled system soon found itself under pressure from the protector and his council in Whitehall, who were already coming under the influence of the resurgent Old Protestant community, and in particular the forceful figure of Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle*). With the rule of Henry Cromwell* as de facto governor of Ireland from 1655, such restrictive measures were abandoned in favour of co-operation between the administration and the Old Protestants – a partnership which set the pattern for the parliamentary elections held in 1656 and 1659.