Scotland

The Nominated Assembly was the first early modern Parliament to include MPs from Scotland, and represents a staging-post between the limited tender union offered in 1652 and the rather more generous union ordinance of April 1654. There was no attempt to involve the Scots in the nomination of members in 1653, and the choice of MPs seems to have been made by Oliver Cromwell* himself, working on information from English officers serving in Scotland. Three of the five MPs had direct connections with Cromwell before 1653.1 Nicoll, Diary, 109, 111-12. John Swinton of Swinton had severed his links with the covenanters, for religious reasons, before 1651, and had come to the notice of Cromwell by September of that year, when, in the aftermath of the battle of Worcester, he was sent as the general’s personal envoy to the Protester faction in the Kirk.2 Wariston Diary, ii. 143. During 1652 he supported the tender of union and was appointed a commissioner for the administration of justice as confirmation of his usefulness to the government. The nomination of Alexander Jaffray, former provost of Aberdeen, also seems to have been at the behest of Cromwell, whose personal interviews had contributed to Jaffray’s rejection of the Kirk in favour of congregationalism in 1650-1, and who may have been behind his appointment as director of the Scottish chancery in 1652. Sir James Hope of Hopetoun’s opposition to Charles Stuart in the winter of 1650-1 had also impressed Cromwell, and Hope had worked with the English government in Scotland during 1652. His diary provides a glimpse of the process of nomination in May 1653. At first, Hope was approached by the commander-in-chief in Scotland, Robert Lilburne*, who ‘showed me a letter from my Lord General Cromwell … to sound my freedom to come up to London’, and shortly afterwards he received a formal ‘summons directed from the general to me to be at London [on] 4 July’.3 Scot. Hist. Soc. Misc. iii. 159.

The two remaining nominated MPs did not have a close connection with Cromwell, but they were attractive to the government for different reasons. Alexander Brodie of Brodie, a former lord of session, was an influential figure among the Protester faction, deemed the most likely to cooperate with the English government. The choice was not a happy one, however, as (perhaps getting wind of his likely nomination), in May 1653 Brodie had resolved ‘in the Lord’s strength, to eschew and avoid employments under Cromwell’ – a resolution that he kept, despite pressure from Jaffray and others.4 Brodie Diary, 41. Sir William Lockhart of Lee was ‘the odd man out in this company’, as a former royalist Engager and veteran of Preston, although his blend of ambition, ability and adaptability ensured that he quickly established himself after the English conquest, being appointed commissioner for the administration of justice alongside Swinton in 1652.5 Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 178. Despite his previous record, Lockhart was considered a ‘safe’ choice in 1653. This, rather than any ideals of factional or regional representation, seems to have been the guiding principle behind the Scottish nominations, although the refusal of Brodie to join in, and the trouble caused by Hope and Jaffray during the session, suggests that the English government (including Cromwell) had a lot to learn about the Scots.